Part 39: Interrogations

"Ah, Hell, no," Mortuary said.

"You think I'm an idiot, Morty? The Titans had a new member who called himself Mortuary for the past few months and you'd think I'd write it off as just a coincidence? Fat chance!" Louie laughed. Renia smacked him on the back of his head.

"Shut up!" she yelled.

"I knew you should've changed your codename," Terra said, getting into a fighting stance.

"I like my codename," Mortuary retorted childishly, "Besides, you still go by Terra and you used to work for Slade."

"The people got over what I did," she replied back.

"I'd hate to ruin this Hallmark moment, guys," Draco began, "But I think we have bigger problems right now!" One guy came towards them with a charge and swung it down only for Draco to swing his arm to smash it to pieces before kicking the guy away in the gut.

"Time to kick some ass!" Renia shouted excitedly, grinning. A guy took a swing at her with some brass knuckles and she blocked it before punching him in the stomach. Another guy came over with a knife and she knocked it out of his hand with a chop before giving him a heel kick in the chin.

Mortuary let go of Louie to defend himself from a baseball bat coming to his head. Louie decided to make a run for it through the chaos as every one of the patrons started fighting with one another while attacking the Titans.

"He's getting away!" Terra yelled as she ducked under a chain headed for her head before she swept her assailant off his feet. She then used her right arm to block a pool cue that broke in half. Hidden under her sleeve was her Cutter Glove and it was pretty solid and could take a lot of damage from these thugs.

"I think we have bigger things to worry about!" She smashed a chair over some guy's back and used what was left of it to hit a guy in the face.

Draco ordered, "Brimstone! Get him! Hayaku!" the little hellhound barked in affirmative and went after Louie. "Good luck, boy," he muttered before he caught an arm and flipped him over on his back.

Mortuary and Renia were fighting off thugs left and right. Their fists met faces…and then each other's faces with a sickening thud.

"OW! YOU HIT ME!" Renia shouted, holding a bloody nose.

"YOU HIT ME! YOUR HAND IS FRIGGIN CRYSTAL!" Mortuary shouted, hand on his eye, "JUST STAY OUT OF MY WAY, SHORT STUFF!"

All Hell then broke loose.

"WHAT?" Renia screeched. She grabbed a guy who made a grab for her shoulder and flipped him over her own shoulder. She then grabbed another guy and smashed him onto the pool table. She grabbed a pool cue and made her way towards Mortuary. "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT, MISTER!" she threatened.

"BRING IT ON, SHORTY!" Mortuary goaded her on.

"Mort, for God's sake, don't antagonize her!" Terra shouted as she grabbed a pool cue and swung it about like Robin had shown her with his Bo-staff and knocked out some people

Suddenly, the door burst open and two policemen came in with their guns trained on everyone. "EVERYBODY, FREEZE!" Well, trained on everyone who was conscious, which just so happened to be the Titans. The rest of the people were on the floor either unconscious or too much in pain to move.

Draco was not known to be sarcastic. That was usually either Raven or Shadow's thing. However, since neither of them was here, he thought he should be the sarcastic one, "This night just keeps getting better and better," he grumbled with his hands up.

"TAKE IT BACK!" Renia had Mortuary in a headlock, not even acknowledging the cop.

" NO WAY MISS SHORTY PANTS!" Mortuary shouted back.

"I SAID FREEZE!" repeated one of the cops only to be knocked out when Renia hit him.

"SHUT UP!" Renia shouted.

"YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!" his partner yelled.

POW!

He was knocked out too.

Terra blinked. "Okay…?"

Soon, sirens blared outside of the bar.

"Dear Kami…" Draco groaned.

Shadow was in his office doing his work. Being CEO of a branch of one of the most prominent technologies companies meant that he would always be busy. He didn't have time for any missions as of late since he had to use all his time to read over his files, file his reports and sign document after document. For the longest time the Vampangel had always hated paperwork. There was a large stack of papers sitting by him and another stack on the other side of him. One stack had already been signed and stamped while the other stack was still waiting for his signature and stamp. Eyes narrowed, he hissed, "I hate paperwork…" his forehead had a throbbing vein on it. He looked like if he got any sort of bad news, he would blow a gasket.

His SNK-Phone rang and he flipped it open before putting it to his ear. "Hello?" he greeted. "Draco? Was the mission a success?" he listened to Draco's explanation and his eyes widened considerably.

"YOU'RE WHERE?"

Terra, Mortuary, Draco and Renia were in a jail cell together. Both necroplasmic and alchemical teens were giving each other a dirty look.

Draco was standing near the bars, gripping them nervously. He had to go through getting his fingerprints and mug-shots taken and put into the police records. He had a criminal record now. It wasn't too serious, but if this leaked out to his mother…well, I think you can guess what might happen. On a plus side, at least this couldn't get any worse.

He looked over his shoulder at his friends. Renia and Mort were giving each other the evil eye on a bench while Terra sat between them to act as a barricade. It was unfair to her since Mort was her friend for a very long time and Renia was like a little sister to her. Draco could almost smell the tension, so to speak, and he was not liking it at all.

The bar fight had not been part of the plan and under normal circumstances he wouldn't have enjoyed it. But the rush of knowing he was doing something wrong and not caring was, well, both delicious and frightening. If he didn't get it under control, he might become addicted and do something bad.

Draco looked at his SB-Watch. Since the incident with the Behemoth Orphenoch and probably before even that, Shadow had put in a lot of time and money on research about Draco's Orphenoch gene and a way to suppress it so that he wouldn't change and go out of control. Draco had appreciated the effort, knowing fully well that Shadow cared for him. But would it be worth it if it didn't work? Finally, by studying mutant power inhibitors (which Draco disliked for obvious reasons) and uncovering how they were able to suppress the powers of mutants by dampening the energy field around the X-Gene, Pluto, as well as Fixit and Gizmo, (Jinx had asked for his help and explained the situation. The minute genius was glad to help) were able to modify the technology to work on his Orphenoch Gene. Draco remembered all the blood work they had to do and using the results from the tests on his blood sample taken back when he was in Japan those many months ago. Finally, they were able to fit it into his watch and it was now acting as an Orphenoch inhibitor. They did have Draco test it out, in which he feared he would change and rip them apart, but he couldn't change. He joyously hugged them all and cheered, "YATTA!" as loud as he could. He smiled at the memory and promised to get something for them when the time was right. Shadow helped too by providing the funds for the research and the resources. Of course, did they really have to put the needle in him so many times to draw blood?

Shadow walked over to their cell, dressed in his civilian clothes. He was standing with an officer.

"These are your friends?' the officer asked.

Shadow admitted, a little shamefully, "Unfortunately…"

"Ichijyo!" Draco walked over to Shadow joyfully. "Thank Kami you're here!"

"You've come to bail us out!" Terra said hopefully as she stood next to Draco and gripped the bars.

Being half vampire gave Shadow empathic abilities much like Raven and he could just feel the thick tension pouring out of the bars. He looked at Renia and Mortuary glaring daggers at one another. He could only guess what had happened since he knew what both of them were like as well as their tempers. He decided not to comment.

The officer unlocked the cell door and opened it up. "You're free to go." The Titans walked out of the cell and thanked Shadow in their own way. Shadow was not going to let them off without a lecture, "This was supposed to be simple information gathering mission, not an excuse to get into some pointless brawl!"

"He/She started it!" Mortuary and Renia pointed to one another accusingly and then glared at one another. Shadow just ignored them and went on.

"I don't care who started it!" he retorted, angrily and annoyed. "Disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, assaulting an officer…" he listed. "I would've expected this kind of behavior from Mammoth or even Blackfire, but you?"

"We're sorry, Shadow," Terra apologized.

"Gomenasai, Ichijyo-san," Draco apologized dejectedly. Shadow smiled and placed his hands on both teens' shoulders. Shadow had to admit that his life had become much more interesting since he joined the Titans. Despite them all driving him nuts in their own way and giving him a migraine every now and then, they were his friends and nothing could change it no matter how much he tried. They were his friends and he would never abandon them…No matter how tempting it was.

"That's okay," he said, giving each of them a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. He then looked at Renia and Mortuary. "You two have anything to say?" Renia and Mortuary turned to look at each other, glared, and then turned away with a scoff/snort with their arms crossed. Shadow sighed but he knew that sooner or later they would have to make up. "Come on," he said. "Let's go home."

"But what about Brimstone?" Draco asked, worried for his pet, "I sent him to chase after Louie Chambers."

"You don't have to worry about Brimstone, Leo," Shadow said reassuringly. "And as for Chambers..." he let that trail off. "Come on, Pluto's waiting for us in his car. I took my ZX-Rider here so I didn't ride with him." He offered, "Anyone want to ride in my sidecar?"

Renia didn't want to be in the same space with Mort so she said, "I do."

"What about our bikes?" Terra asked.

"The auto-drivers kicked in and they went straight back to the Tower," Shadow informed her. They're back in the garage all safe and sound."

"Oh, OK," Terra said.

After picking up their personal belongings that had been confiscated (They didn't bring their communicators, just SB-Cell Phones. It would be hard to explain why they had Teen Titans communicators and not blow their cover), including answering some questions about Mort's gun, the 5 teammates walked out of the station and towards Pluto's car. The Dog Knight was in civilian mode too. Mortuary rode shot gun as Terra and Draco rode in the back.

"Brimstone-chan!" Draco yelled out happily as the demon pup had been waiting for him in Pluto's car. The little Kaiser pup jumped into his arms and licked his face.

"I sent Pluto after I got your call and he tracked down Brimstone through the collar. Also, since Brimstone is still a dog, Pluto was able to find him thanks to his connection to the Dog Zodiac. When he did he also found Mr. Chambers with Brimstone stuck to his leg and looking ready to rip it off. Pluto caught him so now he's waiting at the Tower, in the interrogation room actually," Shadow told Draco.

"Good boy!" Draco said to his dog and Brimstone barked. "You're getting a treat when we get back, yes you are!"

"Good job, Brimstone," Terra petted the little hellhound who then licked her hand.

"What about me?" Pluto asked.

"You're getting a treat too!" Terra said.

"Sweet!" he grinned.

Shadow got on his ZX-Shadow Basher as Renia hopped into the sidecar after putting on a helmet.

"Let's roll," Shadow said. Both vehicles drove off towards Titans Tower. There, they would get all the info they needed, if of course Louie survived his interrogation.

The Titans and Knights made it back to the Tower without incident. As Shadow had said, Draco, Terra and Mort's bikes were safely back in the garage. Everyone got out of the vehicles and went in, Renia in the front and Mortuary in the back as nobody wanted another fight to break out.

"I'm going to head up to the interrogation room. Anyone want to come with?" Shadow asked.

There were a few "not really's" that were issued, but Terra and Mortuary had both said yes to his proposal. As they took the elevator up to the floor where the interrogation room was, Terra grew curious about something.

"So Shadow, how are you going to get this guy to talk? We threatened him with everything under the sun and he still wouldn't squeal," said Terra.

"Got that right. Instead, he squealed on us, which ended up in us getting arrested," said Mortuary ruefully.

"Don't worry. I have a method that will make him cave," said Shadow, as he grinned evilly. The elevator bell dinged and the trio made their way to the interrogation room.

"I'm going in. You two, stay out here; if you want, you can listen in," said Shadow, as he indicated to the wall and to the button that could be pressed in order to hear the conversation inside the interrogation room and to the two-way mirror that was used to see into the room. Terra and Mortuary looked at each other silently, speaking with their eyes, asking if they really wanted to listen in. Without another second's hesitation, they both flew forward and pushed down on the button at the same time.

Shadow entered the room and swiftly shut the door behind him. Louie had been pacing the room, anxiously trying to figure a way out of the room. As he had no powers, he couldn't get out; not that he could have gotten out if he had tried to. As soon as Shadow entered the room, he sat down in a chair and gestured to the chair across the table from him. "Please take a seat, Mr. Chambers," he said in a commanding tone.

The Snake Knight's tone told Louie that this was one Titan that was currently VERY angry. He sat down as he had been told. "So what am I here for? Oh, wait, wait, wait. You want information on the fights right?" Shadow merely nodded and locked his fingers together, waiting for an answer.

"Well, you ain't getting anything out of me! I'm not stupid! You Titans'll go in there and screw up all my hard work, and that ain't gonna happen!" said Louie menacingly.

Shadow pursed his lips and shook his head demurely, as if to say 'You have no idea who you're dealing with.' "Mr. Chambers, just give me the information that I want, and you can be on your merry little way out of here. What do you say?"

Louie sat silently, thinking for a way to change the topic. A light bulb went off in his head as he thought of one. "How do you do it, man?"

Shadow knew what Louie was trying to do, but decided to humor the man, just this one time. "What do you mean, Mr. Chambers?"

Louie snorted. This guy was definitely not as smart as he looked. "I mean, you got all these babes around here, and yet, all of you Titan guys might as well be eunuchs. Hah, I know if I could, I'd be doing any and all of them if they wanted me to."

At this, Shadow grew enraged. There were currently six ladies who, at one time or another, had lived in the Tower and been on the team. One of them was currently his girlfriend, another was one of his closest friends, and the rest either annoyed the living daylights out of him or they were dating his friends and were like little sisters. That's not to mention that said comment was being disparaging toward most of his friends, no matter how crazy they drove him. Other than Raven, he considered all of them to be like sisters to him. He strode forward and grabbed Louie by the front of his shirt, yanking Louie's face towards his own. Louie let out a yelp like a dog, to Shadow's satisfaction. "If you EVER so much as THINK about ANY of them in that way EVER AGAIN, I WILL know, and believe me, it WILL NOT be pretty!" Shadow hissed. "Am I in any way, shape, or form misunderstood?" Shadowcobra's eyes turned briefly into their red on black demonic appearance.

Louie shook his head no sharply. Apparently, he had misread this guy. He was not one to be trifled with. Shadow's eyes were glowing red as he stared menacingly down at Louie. Shadow remembered what he was supposed to be doing: getting the information. He took a deep breath to calm himself and relax. He turned his back to Louie and grinned evilly. "Mr. Chambers, I have a few things to take care of, would you care to watch a movie while I'm gone?" he asked sweetly.

"Uhhhhh……..sure, I guess," Louie said, who was shocked by Shadow's sudden hospitality. He had thought he was going to get his butt kicked. Shadow walked over to one of the walls and grabbed a remote off of it, but not before grinning maniacally into the two-way mirror.

Terra and Mort, who had now been joined by Draco, Jinx, and Renia (Renia was standing at the opposite end of the mirror, as far away from Mortuary as possible), were unsure of what to expect, but they knew that whatever it was that Shadow was going to do, it would not be good.

"What do you think he's gonna do to him?" asked Jinx, who had wrapped her arms around Draco.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think it's gonna be good, whatever it is," said Mort.

"I say he'll beat the crap out of him till he squeals. I hope he does, anyway," said Renia.

"No, Shadow won't do that, Ren. He'll do something a lot better than that. Besides, that's what we did and it didn't work, so I don't think it's going to work now," said Terra.

Inside the interrogation room, Shadow pointed the remote at a point in the ceiling and hit a button. Once he did so, a big screen TV, a DVD/VCR combo player and a surround sound system were lowered from the ceiling. Shadow walked over to the DVD player and opened it to see what movie was in it. When he saw that the movie he wanted was in the player, his face held a wicked grin which was missed by Louie, but not his fellow Titans. 'This'll have him singing in no time flat,' thought Shadow. "Here we are, Mr. Chambers, one of my absolute favorites. I'll be back soon and you had better be ready to talk then!" Shadow hissed.

Louie cringed and shrank back into his seat, trying to get as far away from the Snake Knight as possible. He watched Shadow exit the room hastily and only then did he regain his "tough guy" composure. He relaxed a bit in the chair that he was sitting in. "Might as well get comfortable, I got a movie to watch. I hope it's a good one." Little did Louie know that this movie would be the last one that he would ever want to watch. Shadow had added a bit of his magic into the movie to make it a little more realistic.

30 minutes later…

The hallway outside of the interrogation room was empty. The only noise that could be heard in the hallway were the screams that were being issued from one Louie Chambers. As a matter of fact, the only noise that could be heard at all were the screams. Everyone had gone off to somewhere else in the Tower to try and be be rid the screams that were filling their heads. After Shadow had left the interrogation room, it was only then did he let even a fraction of his emotions show. He went to the training room and proceeded to beat up a punching bag for the next 15 minutes, as he couldn't beat up Louie for what Louie had said. He then went to the living room and sat quietly, reading a book, the screams not bothering him in the least. After another ten minutes, he got on the elevator to attend to their "guest", only to be joined by Draco, Jinx, Renia, Terra, Blackfire and Mortuary, all of whom seemed to be in dire pain.

"Are you all right?" asked Shadow.

"Make them stop already, someone please!" begged Renia.

There was a chorus of agreement from the other Titans. Shadow grinned evilly. His plan was most definitely working. The Titans were now going out of their minds as well. The elevator bell dinged and everyone stepped into the hallway, where the screams got louder as they approached the source. Pluto came rushing up the stairs, ticked off to no end, Blackfire right behind him.

"Would someone PLEASE make those screams STOP already? It's bad enough when you can hear them, but it's even worse when you have very sensitive hearing, like I DO!" complained Pluto.

"It's only been 30 minutes, and he's been screaming the entire time. Talk about weak nerves. I might turn the movie off, in another ten minutes or so," he grinned sadistically.

"Couldn't you have just read his mind? That would have been a lot easier than all of us having to listen to him scream like a banshee," said Draco.

"Now where would the fun be in that?" retorted Shadow.

Terra reminded, "Shadow, what's fun for you usually gives us nightmares."

Shadow retorted, "You just don't know what fun is."

Pluto decided to butt in, "Excuse me, but fun is hanging out with your friends. Fun is going to the mall, or playing sports or making something or even fixing your car or something." He then paused, "Okay, so that's just fun for me. But watching scary movies that give me nightmares when I'm both asleep and awake is NOT my IDEA of FUN!"

Shadow quirked an eyebrow and said, "We've faced Trigon and probably Hell itself and the movies I watch still scare you?"

All the Titans present, except for Renia and Mortuary, shouted, "YES!!"

Mortuary then asked, not having any experiences with watching any of Shadow's movies, "Come on, guys, they can't be that bad, right?"

"You've never seen his movies, right?" Terra questioned back. He shook his head. "Lucky you."

Draco answered, "That's because we voted not to let Shadow make us watch any of his movies a few months ago. They were causing us to lose sleep. We banned him from suggesting movies for movie night so he watches them in his room with Raven."

Mortuary nodded in understanding. If the Titans banned Shadow from suggesting anymore movies they must've been bad enough to cause trauma. He would have to ask them from Shadow later so he could watch them in his own room.

Mortuary then said, "Eh, you're all just a bunch of sissies."

Terra ignored him and said to Shadow, "Are you gonna ever go back in there and see what he'll tell you, Shadow?"

Shadow said, "After his screaming dies down. I'm enjoying it too much."

Draco then said worriedly, "Look, I don't like the guy at all, but he sounds like he's suffering. Don't you think that's just a little much? It's like cruel and unusual punishment."

Renia muttered, "After getting us in trouble I think he deserves it."

Shadow said, "Maybe…I think he's had enough. I'll go in and turn off the TV."

"Now?" Draco questioned. He needed to sleep and he didn't want their informant to go catatonic on them or become traumatized.

"How about 5 more minutes?" Shadow said with a creepy grin.

Terra said firmly in a commanding tone despite knowing that Shadow was in charge, "Go in there, turn off the TV and see what he says, NOW!"

Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, how about 2 more minutes?"

"I don't think she stuttered," said Blackfire as she backed up Terra. "I'm starting to agree with her. My ears are ringing and I need to sleep. Go in there and do what she says, or I can tell Raven what you've been doing." This was an apparent threat to tattle on Shadow to Raven. Raven was a half-demon but she was also still somewhat humane even towards their enemies. What Shadow was doing right now would be considered both cruel and unusual punishment even for a snitch like Louie Chambers.

Shadow lamented. "Fine...I'll go in and turn it off. My ears are starting to ring anyway. Even I have my limits at causing people psychological pain."

Pluto spoke quizzically, "You do?" It didn't seem like Shadow to just give up like that.

Shadow shrugged. "Not really, but I'm not going to let her," he looked at Blackfire pointedly before continuing, "Tell Raven about this."

Pluto snickered, "Whipped."

Shadow shot back, "And you're not? You let your girlfriend call you 'doggy boy' and lead you around on a leash, and I'm the one that's whipped?" Shadow laughed, "That's rich!"

Pluto snapped, "She calls me puppy!" He then realized what he just said before adding to defend himself, "Wait, that didn't come out right."

Renia and Mortuary laughed.

Shadow reentered the interrogation room to see Louie Chambers, stuck to his seat with his eyes wide, skin pale and frozen with fear. He turned off the TV and leaned over the opposite side so that he was looking Louie in the eyes.

"So, ready to talk?" he said. "Or would you like to have another viewing?"

"I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK! JUST, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, DON'T MAKE ME WATCH THAT ANYMORE!" Louie cried like a little girl. Shadow almost felt sorry for him, almost.

"Calm down and tell me what we need to know and we'll let you go." The spell he'd cast on the movie made Louie feel like he was inside and suffering the same fate as the characters. Louie also couldn't close his eyes or look away due to the same spell. It was one of his favorite interogation tactics and it made movie night more fun for him. Unfortunately, that'd been the cause for the ban.

Louie nodded and said, "This new ring is being run by these two guys. I don't know who they are really. They just showed up out of nowhere but they already got a strong hold on the business."

"Names," Shadow said. "I want names."

"But they'll kill me!" Louie saw Shadow ready to turn the TV back on. "Okay! Okay!" Louie took in a deep breath of air and said, "They call themselves Mr. J and Danuth."

Shadow smiled. At least they were getting somewhere. The names could've been fabricated but he could sense that Louie was being truthful. He would do a search on the names later. He then asked, "Now, tell me where the fighting ring is?"

Louie then gave Shadow all the information he needed, not wanting to be traumatized any longer.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Both Zombi138 and Angel17712 helped me out with this chap. They've been helping me out a lot lately. A shout out to them.