Chapter 4
[A week later]
Things had settled down within the Tower finally. Terra had come to terms with Slade being alive after several days. The talk with Edward had helped her immensely, but, she hadn't told Beast Boy that she slept with Slade.
The team had decided to check out that building where Slade's logo was found. Or more precisely, Robin tasked Cyborg, Raven and Edward with the task. Cyborg drove the T-Car to the location with Edward in the passenger side and Raven behind Edward. Edward offered the seat to his girl, but, she said she felt more comfortable in the back with the extra room.
They arrived at the location in the news reports and Cyborg scanned it.
"Yeah, this is fresh paint," he said, "It's been here since, well, before that news report. Question is: Who put it here and why?"
A deep voice said, "Well, I wanted to draw you out, Titans."
"Slade," Cyborg said.
"What do you want?" Raven snarled.
"What, no friendly greeting? Not after I helped get rid of Trigon?" he said.
"Like Robin said," Cyborg said, "That changed nothing between the team and you."
Edward was listening to the exchange and narrowed down where the voice was coming from.
"Oh, and you have a new friend?" Slade said.
"You mean a new team mate?" Edward said.
"From what I hear, you have another member. One who swore her loyalty to serve me," he said, "One who I intend to pay back for her disloyalty."
"Over our dead bodies!" Cyborg yelled.
"My dear Cyborg," Slade taunted, "There's only three of you and, well, my robots outnumber you 30 to 1."
Edward rolled his eyes, "Sure."
As Edward watched, at least 50 Slade-bots emerged from the building.
Edward smiled ferally as the robots charged. He was itching for a good fight and he didn't have to worry about holding back. Then again, neither did Raven and Cyborg.
[Ready, dear?] He asked through the link.
[Of course,] Raven replied.
[Back-to-back,] he suggested.
She moved to cover his back.
He moved to cover hers.
Cyborg saw that and raised his human eyebrow and joined them. His sonic cannon was active, Raven's powers were active and Edward was ready to tear some Slade-bots apart.
The Slade-bots moved in.
"Let's rock," Edward said.
"Titans, GO!" Cyborg shouted. His sonic cannon fired, taking down several bots for a moment.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven said. Her powers flew forth and slammed into the closest ones, blasting them apart.
"Come get some," Edward said as several bots got close. Edward's fist connected with one, sending it flying backwards. It landed in the midst of several others, knocking them down. They got up, not the worse for wear.
Edward grabbed the nearest one and with a hard yank, pulled the arm off. There was a shower of sparks from the socket. Edward then hit the bot with a hard uppercut, ripping the machine's head off. It collapsed and smoked heavily.
Cyborg's sonic cannon was doling out heavy damage as well. So was Raven's powers.
"There's plenty more for each of us," Cyborg said, "Split up."
Edward changed into a gorilla and let his now ham sized fists fly. More bots went down. But, Edward was concerned. They seemed to be replaced as others went down.
[This could be a distraction move,] he told Raven.
[You think?] she said, [We can't even get a second to warn the Tower.]
[I can't leave you and Cy alone. There's too many,] Edward replied.
Raven blasted another five bots before replying, [I'll go. You and Cyborg can handle these things for a few minutes, right?]
[This is one of my toughest fights, but, yeah. We can handle them. Warn the others,] he said.
Raven went to her soul self and teleported away.
"Yo! Where's she going?" Cyborg called out.
"To warn the rest of the team!" Edward said after a quick change to mini-dragon, "I have a feeling that this is meant to distract us from protecting Terra. She'll be back."
"I hope you're right about that, dawg!" Cyborg hollered back.
The fight continued on. Edward didn't want to waste his breath weapons, yet. He cleared a path with his tail and crushed several more in his teeth, absorbing the electric shocks in the process. One of Edward's abilities was to absorb electricity, or better yet, lightning. It would give an extra wallop to his lightning breath.
"Blech!" Edward said.
"Leaves a bad taste in your mouth?" Cyborg quipped.
Edward chuckled, "You can say that."
Edward had finished off several others when Raven returned to the fight, this time bringing the rest of the team, including Terra.
Beast Boy immediately formed a rhino and charged, knocking down or crushing several Slade-bots in the process.
Starfire, already in the air, let loose with her eyebeams and Starbolts, hitting as many as she could.
Robin was packing serious firepower as several explosive disks landed in the midst of other robots, blasting them apart.
Terra, eyes glowing fiercely as well as her hands, levitated a huge slab of concrete and dirt over the heads of several Slade-bots before crushing them flat.
Edward quit holding back and without bothering to light his ridges, spewed out a blast of lightning on the Slade-bots. Those went down, wiring fried beyond repair.
Other bots were superheated with Edward's flame breath. Those shorted out and exploded.
Then Edward returned to human form for some hand-to-hand combat. The Slade-bots obliged Edward. He wasn't overly surprised to have to use more strength to fight the machines, the problem was that they tried charging en masse and came close to triggering Edward's temper. But, then, Edward realized that getting angry would not serve any purpose. So, he stayed calm as he causally tossed Slade-bots into each other.
The fight lasted a while, though. There were a lot of Slade-bots to destroy, but, after another 30 minutes, the final Slade-bot was sparking after being hit by Starfire's eyebeams.
"Boo Yeah!" Cyborg yelled.
"We kicked the butt!" Starfire agreed.
"Sweet!" Edward said, "Good workout!"
That earned him a playful smack from Raven. Edward laughed about it.
"Good work, Titans," Robin said.
"Yes, good work," Slade said. Everyone looked for the man.
Edward took Raven's hand, "Focus," he suggested.
Their combined abilities determined the direction Slade's voice was coming from.
"Come out, Slade!" Terra yelled, "I'm NOT AFRAID OF YOU!"
"Dear child," Slade silkily said, "You're more afraid of what the Titans will do if they knew the truth about you."
Edward raised an eyebrow.
[I'll be back. Keep Slade distracted if you can,] Edward said.
Edward looked at Robin and silently communicated the same thing. Robin, guessing Edward's intention nodded.
Edward slowly retreated from the scene and headed for an ally while the team traded taunts with Slade.
He ducked besides the building where Slade's symbol was and shapeshifted to a bird and took to the air.
Sure enough…Slade was watching from the rooftop of one of the nearby buildings. Edward would have smiled, but, as he landed, Slade called down, "Where's your other new friend?"
Edward shapeshifted back to human and gliding close to Slade said, "Right here, asswipe."
Slade said, "There you are. Protecting my apprentice, I see."
"Gee," Edward replied, "According to Terra, she quit after you decided to beat the crap out of her. She can obviously protect herself very well, but, if you think you're going to reclaim her, you have to get through me and the other Titans first."
"The other Titans don't know where to find me," Slade said.
"Slade, I don't have to say a word," Edward said.
"Prefer to do your talking another way?" Slade said.
"You could say that," Edward said, "Considering your little machines gave me a nice workout, sure.
"Just remember though. I'm not the one you have to worry about. It's a blond geomancer I consider my little sister who you hurt badly."
Slade said, "She promised to serve me, and, as I told her, I intend to make her keep that promise."
"Not happening, Slade," Edward said, "While I applaud you helping the Titans with Trigon a few years ago, and, I will offer sincere thanks for helping allow Raven to be open with her emotions…It doesn't change anything between you and the rest of the team. You're a criminal, and, you will be taken down…or taken out. Terra would rather see you gone for good, and, I agree with her. Conversation's over."
"As you wish," Slade said. He charged Edward, who dodged the roundhouse kick easily and struck back, hitting Slade in the back of the knee, knocking him down.
Slade attempted to do a leg sweep to see Edward jump over it. Slade jumped up and threw a punch that was blocked. Edward countered with an attack of his own, that Slade blocked.
They traded blows for several minutes, equally matched, it seemed.
"You are quite good," Slade complimented.
Edward nodded, "As are you."
[Rae…Get the team to the top of the two toned brown building, please. I think they will like the results. Keep Terra calm, though, if possible. Thanks, love!] Edward said via the link.
"Why the face, Edward?" Slade said.
"You'll see in a moment, Slade," Edward said.
Sure enough, Raven's soul-self arrived with the team.
The black energy dropped and Robin said, "Slade. I see you've met the newest member of the team."
"Where did you find him, Robin?" Slade said.
"Never mind that, you rat bastard!" Terra snarled, "How did you survive the steaming hot bath I gave you?"
"Ask Robin," Slade said, "He knows the whole story. Or maybe Raven would enlighten you? But, apprentice, don't for…"
"I'M NOT YOU DAMN APPRENTICE! NOT AFTER YOU TREATED ME LIKE CRAP!" Terra yelled, eyes blazing yellow.
"Terra," Raven said gently, "Calm down a little bit."
"You don't know what he did to me!" Terra snarled at Raven, "You don't know how bad he treated me. What he STOLE!"
"Terra," Slade said silkily, "You forget that you did everything of your own free will, including swearing to serve me!"
"Only because YOU led me in those directions," Terra growled, "And you turned me against my friends. You made me believe that Beast Boy would tell the team. He never told them a thing. Getting beaten by you was never part of the deal!"
"Keep telling yourself that, Terra," Slade said.
"That's a lie!" Beast Boy said, "I kept my promises to Terra. And, you're a dead man for manhandling Terra!"
He shapeshifted to a green cheetah and charged Slade. Slade barely managed to get back, only to be blasted by Edward and knocked on the roof.
Slade got up and said, "Impressive."
"Save your compliments, pal," Edward said, "No one's buying them."
Starfire's eyes were glowing a nice bright green but, didn't fire them as they were still on the rooftop.
Slade charged for Terra only to be stopped by Raven's powers.
"The black bird protecting the traitor," Slade noted, "How quaint, but, you see, I will have her back. And, when I do …"
Slade yelped in pain as Edward had heard all he wanted to hear and had shapeshifted to Dragon. Next thing Slade knew he was feeling the sting of his lightning.
Slade's suit protected him for the most part. But, Edward also knew the others wanted their turns, so, Edward said, "I've taken my turn. Who's next?" He was also remembering that he did promise Raven he'd back down and let the team pull their weight as well.
He went to his bird form and flew to the ledge as Robin said, "You heard him…Titans, GO!"
Edward returned to human form to watch the resulting fight. Slade was barely outmatched despite the 6 on 1 odds.
Terra was so close to getting her payback, though, she was tasting it. She levitated a lot of rocks, gravel and dirt and was bombarding him with it.
Robin waited till Terra was done and landed a staggering roundhouse kick to Slade's mask, but, Slade was able to shrug the blow off easily and returned the move. They traded blows for a while before Beast Boy got a hit in as a bull, then switching to a T-Rex and swatted Slade towards Starfire who pounded him into the roof.
As the building wasn't all that high, and seeing that Beast Boy knocked him into the ledge, he said, "Until next time."
He jumped over the ledge and rolled off the awning. Slade was lucky as Cyborg fired his sonic cannon again, just missing by inches
Edward and Beast Boy shapeshifted to locate him. Edward opted for an owl and seeing the advantages, Beast Boy also went to an owl.
But, as luck would have it, Slade disappeared down a manhole.
Neither Edward nor Beast Boy saw where he disappeared to and headed back to where the other Titans had been teleported by Raven to street level.
Terra was fuming, "Did you guys find him?"
"No," Edward said, returning to human form.
"We'll find him, Terra," Robin said.
"I hope so," Terra sighed, "You guys did well."
She did give Edward a hug, but, Beast Boy got the hug and kiss treatment.
"Can you sense him?" Edward asked Raven.
"No," she said sadly (meaning monotone), "His mask interferes with my empathic senses."
Edward sighed, "It was worth a shot?"
"I can't find him on my scanners, either?" Cyborg said.
"Are there any underground tunnels here?" Edward said.
"My scanners are unable to find them. There's a lot of interference for some reason," Cyborg said with a shrug.
"Well, we've won round 1 anyway," Robin said, "We can head home, I'm sure that he'll be back. He's determined to get Terra back.
"But, we're just as determined to get him first."
They headed home to see if there might be any place for such a snake to hide.
[90 minutes later]
Edward had baked three large pizzas for the gang to enjoy. He opted for a meat lovers, supreme and a vegetable supreme, giving everyone a choice (well, the vegetable supreme was more for Beast Boy due to the soy based cheese on it.)
As everyone was eating and drinking various drinks with the pizza, it was obvious that there was a sense of defeat, despite beating Slade.
"Guys," Edward said gently, "No sense in beating yourselves up. We'll get Slade. It might not be today or tomorrow, but, we'll get him."
Terra sighed, "I just want this to end. I know in my heart that until he's gone, he won't stop."
"Worrying about it isn't healthy," Raven said, "I should know."
"How's that, Raven?" Edward asked, curious.
"I had to worry daily about my emotions. Before Trigon, I couldn't allow myself to feel anything," she explained, "No love, no anger, no happiness. That's why I felt creepy a lot of times. I still do."
"So," Edward said, "If we had met before Trigon, we couldn't have had this relationship?"
"No," she said, "We would have been friends, I think. You're the most mature person here…No offense."
Edward chuckled, "None taken, Rae."
Beast Boy pouted, "I'm mature, most of the time."
"BB," Edward said, "The reason Raven doesn't like your jokes is, well, they are more geared for kids. Raven was forced to mature much faster, so, she's not going to want your jokes as much as the others. And, I hate to be this blunt, I'm not that fond of them either. I heard of the pun regarding the Brain from others. I think I might have cringed as well."
His ears drooped hearing that, but, Terra said, "For your information, I still think he's hilarious."
Edward replied, "I know he can be very funny at times. Heck, we all use humor to cover up some stuff that's painful. It's his delivery that needs work. I know part of his attempts here is to get a smile out of my girlfriend. Heck, I rarely see her smile visibly. Via the link, though, Raven's got a great sense of humor. I can sense her mirth a lot of times."
"How does the link of the mind work?" Starfire asked, "Does it hurt?"
"Good question, Star," Robin said, "I've been wondering that as well." The others agreed.
Edward replied, "No, it doesn't hurt most of the time. The only times it is painful is when one of us is in distress and that carries through to the other person. Say if Raven were badly hurt, I might feel it through the link. If I'm hurt, she might feel it, but, my pain tolerance is pretty high, so, I can block the signals that might reach Raven. Then again, if either of us is that badly hurt, the other should show the same symptoms."
"Can you feel the other's emotions?" Cyborg asked.
"Definitely," Raven groused, "I can feel when Edward's feeling happy, sad, angry, etc."
"Raven's emotions are different than most everyone else's. They have evolved to represent a person. There's been several times when Raven's guard is down and her emotions borrow the link to talk. It doesn't happen very often, though," Edward said.
The team continued eating as Edward said, "I'm pondering ways to draw Slade out and lead him into a trap."
"How?" Terra said, "He's pretty slick when it comes to traps."
"We know," Robin said wistfully.
Edward shapeshifted to make a copy of Terra.
"What's shaking, Terra?" he asked in her voice.
Terra's mouth dropped as she saw "herself" sitting there talking in her own voice.
"Rock on!" she said a moment later, "I love it."
Edward went back to his male form.
"Only one problem," Raven said, "You can look and sound like Terra. You don't have her powers, though. Slade wouldn't be fooled for an instant."
Edward said, "Not unless there's a way to mimic her powers or even have her powers available to me for a short time."
"I can make a holographic ring to allow the real Terra to hide in plain sight and all Edward would have to do is let Terra know what is going on," Cyborg said.
"Well," Robin said, "Terra would have to stay calm if this is what we're going to do. Edward's cover depends on that."
"If my staying calm gets me to my goal, I can do that," she said, "I still need closure, and I can't throw it away over getting angry."
Edward smiled, "I'm holding you to that, my dear."
They talked over possible plans and how to carry them out. By the time Robin called a halt to the planning for the evening, it was close to 11 PM and time for the late news.
They went over to the huge TV and turned it on.
The anchor said, "Tonight's top story: At about 9 PM this evening, a video tape was delivered to the station via messenger. The video is of Slade Wilson and we've decided that in the public interest that this needs to be aired.
"We will advise you that this video may be very disturbing to watch."
At that, the view was replaced with a video tape, made that afternoon.
"Good evening, citizens of Jump City," he said, "Earlier this afternoon, my Slade-bots planted several large and powerful bombs in vital buildings within the city itself. This was done while the Teen Titans were dismantling a sizable amount of my robots.
"My demands are simple: Deliver to me the living body of Terra Markov by noon tomorrow or those devices will be detonated. Attempting to find them will result in detonation.
"If Terra is handed over to me, I will divulge to the Titans the location of the bombs as well as this." He held up the detonation switch.
"Titans: I will tell you where to meet me tomorrow morning." The tape ended.
"Police have been placed on high alert," the announcer said, "And workers are asked to stay home tomorrow. As we have no clue where the bombs are located, the authorities will be closing all inbound roads into Jump City effective at 6 AM tomorrow morning. No one will be allowed into the downtown area."
"Looks like no rest for the weary," Edward sighed.
"Cyborg," Robin said.
"Already on it, Rob," he said, getting up and heading for his lab.
"What are we going to do?" Terra asked, face already pale.
"What we always do," Starfire said, "Find Slade and proceed to do the kicking of the butt."
"How do we know Slade will even keep his word?" Raven asked.
"We act as if he's not willing to keep his promise," Robin said, "He's obviously bent on getting Terra back. But, why?"
"Revenge," Edward surmised.
"Explain, please," Starfire said.
"It's relatively easy," Edward said, "He isn't really interested in getting Terra here back under his control.
"I'm sorry, Terra, I do not mean to talk as if you are not here. It's kind of needed.
"Slade's willing to cause billions of dollars in getting Terra back and if anyone else dies, he's seeing them as collateral damage. This means he's declared war on the team. Today's fight was, indeed, a distraction as well. He has to avenge his own death, actually. I'm immortal, but, dump me into a lava bath and it might take decades to recover from the damage, if at all. Yes, even immortality has limits and, well, 2,000 degree molten rock is probably enough to end my existence. But, assuming that it didn't and I came back. It wouldn't matter HOW I returned, I'd be looking for the person who turned me into overcooked tofu.
"Combine that with being betrayed by the same person and, well, all bets are off. I know I'm capable of destroying a city and in a draconic stage of rage, I might end up killing thousands in the process. Luckily, even in 3,000 years, I've not reached that particular point of no return."
The team paled, even Raven who definitely didn't look good paled.
Robin said, "Slade's personality and 'code of honor' would demand revenge on Terra and by extension the Titans, then."
Edward nodded, "You got it."
"Would Slade know that you can shapeshift into any of us?" Beast Boy asked.
"Possibly," Edward said, "It's common knowledge that I can do that. Since at least 1889, I've been 'out of the closet'. But, I know there's folklore, especially in upper New York State that mentions me."
"Come to think of it," Raven said, "I've seen some of that folklore. It made for an interesting read."
"I bet, Rae," Edward said with a chuckle.
"But, we can't dwell on that. We have to assume that Slade has done his homework on me," he continued.
"We have to use that to our advantage somehow," Robin said, deep in thought, "But, how?"
That, gentle readers, is coming up next! It will be a few days in coming, so, bear with me. I've got a few houseguests for the foreseeable future and I have to give them priority. So, please accept my apologies in advance for making you wait.
Please don't forget to R/R when you have a moment. Who knows, one of your ideas might be adopted OR you could find yourself written in as a walk-on character :)
There's one other note that I thought I'd pass along: According to Greg Cipes Twitter page for the first time, if you have Cartoon Network in HD, the show is now broadcast in HD at 9:30 AM ET/PT.
*Shameless plug time*: Speaking of Greg Cipes and Twitter, If you have Twitter and follow him, you might get a surprise: He tends to return the follow! He truly appreciates his fans by returning follows. But, if you folks want to see Raven's polar opposite, you have to follow Tara Strong. She's way funny!
Hynden is also on Twitter...rarely posts though. Same with Khary Payton. And Robin fans...Sorry, while Scott Menville is also on Twitter, he's not posting at all :(
"Yo, Rob! You gotta try out this Twitter thing!"
"Sorry, Cyborg, I gotta help Edward and Terra catch that ^()&(%$&^ Slade!"