AN: woot another update, this one aslo comes from my mobile. Lack of internet, ha, take that computers. Anyways not my best work but you might like it, who knows? Read and review as allways.
aliensvspredator5-That would be an interesting fight. Glad you enjoyed teh fic.
Shorty after breakfast was settled, six teens found their way to beach on the north side of the island. The sun was just barely peaking over the the cityscape in the distance, and the barely illuminated beach was already scarred with burns and craters.
The Titans "playground" as Jake had dubbed it was currently being repaired from Star's recent run. The entire course was designed to have interchagable parts for versatility and easy repairs. So in about fifteen minutes there was a fully repaired course lying ahead of Jake.
"Course is set, begining timer on your mark." Said a voice vaguely resembling Robin over a loud speaker system.
Jake stood in his old swat gear, jet black combat armor, and urban camo BDUs under it. An Ultra Force Tactical S.W.A.T vest topped it off. His equipement consisted of two collapsing staffs, three concussion grenades, and a USMC KA-BAR fighting knife, Sadly his loadout was to remain mostly (grenades excluded) non-lethal as a condition of his parole, a terrible loss in his eyes but one doesn't just give a convicted murderer his guns back.
The course started off with a run through what was named "the gauntlet" essentially its a sand pit 100 feet long linded with gun turrets, non-lethal ammunition of course. Then a 20 foot vertical cliff face witch one was to scale. On thop of that was a pit of water, poles stuck out of the water a various heights that you were to use to cross, finally it ended in an arena type aera where he was to fight off some reporposed slade-bots. This was Jake's version designed to test his specific combat prowess.
He looked it over and took a deep breath to steady himself. Fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. It was the guns that were getting to him, in each of the three foot domed housings there were two M134 gatling guns with 360° of fire. Though stun rounds were used, he was no meta and would most likely be severely injured if not killed by them.
In the blink of on eye he took off like a bat out of hell. He was darting back and forth around the gun emplacements, trying to confuse the targeting sensors. He jumped on top of a gun that was still tracking him. Using his endless supply of luck he bounded from one blackened dome to another. After three leaps of faith his trading precision for speed caught up with him. His foot landed too far forward causing him to stumble forward off his perch. His training kicked in and he landed in a roll. Unfortunately his roll ended with him face to muzzle with a gun turret.
He froze in fear, the whine of the barrel spooling up gave him the kick in the ass he needed. From his kneeling position shot off his left foot, his head just clearing its barrels before twin streams of bullets shot out. That little near death experience filling him full of adrenaline, he shot toward the cliff face with speed not seen since the Flash.
With bullets nipping at his heels he bounded onto the turret closest to the wall and launched himself as far as humanly possible. He flew through to air as graceful as a chicken with its head cut off, and impacted the wall with barely one hand clinging to the top for dear life. As quickly as he could manage he scurried the rest of the way up and flopped over on his back.
It took a full second before he remembered this wasn't the end, so with a very annoyed grunt he hoisted himself to his feet and took in the next obstacle.
The poles were about the diameter of of a baseball and varying in height ranging from six inches above the water level to near four feet tall. This being the exact opposite of the previous challenge, precision over speed, Jake took a few seconds to plan his route. The fastest way seemed to involve several jumps ascending several feet at a time, it was straight forward and easy to follow. The easiest route was a winding path that gradually stepped you up but was long and easy to lose your way.
Jake having no reason to start making good decisions this early in his life chose the "fun lookin one" as he knew it. So he got a running start and jumped for the first pole. Momentum carrying him through he launched himself onto the next one, some three feet ahead. Once he landed he took some time to steady himself and release the breath he had been holding. The next launch was a picture perfect flight staight up, about three feet, and landing on the tower he previously stood beside. That done he hopped forward planting a single foot on each before bounding off to the next.
The tricky part was the end, all the poles stopped just over five feet from the other side of the pit. Jake being as brilliant as he was devised an extremely clever plan. Or clever to him at least. The plan, "climb that big pole there and jump." This seemed simple enough but once he reached the summit he learned two very important things. One that pole was made of a much more flexible material than the others. And two things get less stable the taller they get.
The result him wobbling around on top trying to regain any measure of control and failing horribly as he was thrown down, but in the direction of the shore at least.
He landed with a thud on his back and rolled over. "These kids will be the death of me." He muttered to himself as he stood up and jumped into the concrete pit that had had opened up.
He walked to the center and awaited for the next round of punishment. He didn't wait long at all as three doors slid open. and poured eight foot tall grey robots. Their steel clamps they used for hands opened up to reveal something very unexpected. Jake was your standard S.W.A.T officer not from the meta response division. Therefore he'd never before seen a directed energy weapon. So he didn't know what to do when it lit up with a dull red glow.
That was until a lance of red light shot forth and burnt a hole through his chest armor. He dropped to the floor in pain as the beam had in a second flat cut through his ceramic armor and made contact with flesh. He rolled right and jumped up as the bot adjusted its aim. He drew his combat knife and charged the metal feind.
He reached the robot while it brought its weapon back around. In the seconds that followed Jake had another learning experience. Robots were armored. So much so in fact that when Jake stabbed his knife into its "head" the blade penetrated just two inches before snapping off.
"SHIT" He yelled partly because he had now lost his favorite knife but also because the bot brought its arm around and knocked Jake off of him with extreme prejudice.
His next course of action, draw his staff and settle into a defensive position. So staff in hand he did his best to find a position that defended him from all sides.
His next task, size up his opponent just as they seemed to be doing. His ass was getting kicked and he needed a plan ' Think damn it think. Ok robots have armor, armor deflects shitty weapons, I have only shit weapons. Armor has weakness? No robot has weakness. Robot needs power. Internal power source gets hot, needs heat sink outside robot. Find heat sink, kill robot.'
Jake's thoughts, done for today, left him with thirty robots surrounding him, all charging weapons. So Jake trying his luck once more today waited until when he though was the last second before rolling out of the way. He was a second early but it didn't matter, the lasers fired and hitting no Jake that should have been there continued forward and each one stuck a robot opposite the one that fired it.
All said and done five bots were criticaly hit and out of the fight seven more were at less than fifty percent combat effective due to crippled limbs. Jake however was fine and looking over the bot that had been downed in front of him. 'None what so ever? Wait a minute.' He thought as he rolled it onto its back to reveal a shining s emblem on the front. Shure enough as soon as he hit it it cracked open to show a very advanced heat sink within.
He put on his best shit eating grin and faced the hoard of now fifteen robots. He brought his staff up and charged, the second his target was in reach he ducked under to claw sent to capture him, and lunged the staff foward to strike the machine dead center of the chest.
The robot stumbled backward a few steps before regaining its balance. The emblem was sparking and spewing smoke but other than that it was fine.
Jake knew nothing would happen immediately but was still disappointed that it did nothing to slow it. That bot now a few feet farther from him was not a big a threat as the one shooting its claw toward Jake at that moment. So new threat sighted Jake batted the claw away with his weapon before brining the other end up and stabbing the new bot in the chest. This like the other was sparking and smoking.
Jake, his back turned, missed the claw aimed for his neck. Therefore when it made contact and litfed him up he was at a loss for what to do. Until an idea emerged, taking a grenade from his vest he pulked the pin and thew it over his shoulder.
The robot took the blast wave for him sparing his life, but aslo propelled them both forward, and ultimately landed them both on the ground.
Jake looked up from his new spot on the floor and saw the first robot he attacked, the unit itself had frozen in place and was smoking profusely. If anyone would have bothered checking a maintenance access panel they would have seen the words "Core cooling systems malfunction, backup cooling systems malfunction. Core overload imminent."
For Jake time seemed to slow to a crawl. First the bot fell to the ground and then in a bright flash of light it disappeared. Then th shock wave hit and threw him across the pit, where his flight ended in a crumpled heap next to the wall.
Ears ringing, eyes damn near blinded, and every nerve in his body screaming in pain Jake elected to simply lie there and wait for a while. So lie there he did, suddenly finding cracks in the wall to be very interesting. Becoming so interested in it he missed the team rushing to ascertain their new teammates' health.
"Jake. Jake?" The voice was accompanied by him being forcefully rolled on his back and fingers pressed into his throat. Most likely they were there to take his pulse, Jake, being in extreme pain though, was not in the mood for CPR. So to the surprise of the black gloved hand at his throat batted it away, and unsteadily sat up. He slid over to the wall so he could lean on it.
On the way there he placed his hand on the ground in an attempt to keep his balance. Once pressure was applied sharp pain shot up his arm and it subsequently collapsed.
His reaction was that of, " Sun-of-a-god-damn-bitch that HURTS." That was when he became aware of the rest of the team looking on at his struggle to reach the safety of the wall. Beastboy and Cyborg hoisted him up on to his feet. While Raven looked his arm over.
Without warning a loud snap was heard as she set the bone. Jake's only response was a glare that even her demon recoiled from. She however continued with the first aid. She hovered her hand over the wound and white energy sparked between her hand and his arm.
Within seconds the pain started to dull and thoughts about severing heads from shoulders ceased. "Thanks." He murmured. Suddenly feeling very sleepy he alerted the team, "Ima tak a nap." Shortly thereafter his consciousness faded and he was out cold.
Several hours later Jake was still napping away. Cyborg was in the infirmary monitoring the machines currently wired to Jake. His third inspection of the IV revealed no problems and so he continued checking everything else in an attempt to keep busy. That was when the door opened and a determined Robin marched over to speak with him.
"Cyborg, those robots were captured Slade-bots, Correct?" He asked to witch Cyborg nodded. "They were each inspected for explosives, Right?"
"Yeah, I checked each one personally." Seeing the shit storm a brewin he defended himself, "It wasn't a bomb, those bots run off experimental power cells, if they overheat they go critical."
"Cyborg never has one of those exploded like that." Robin shot back annoyed that Slade had hospitalized a member of his team without leaving his hiding place.
"Normally they dont, there is a backup system that isolates the reactor and puts it in stasis. That system failed, like all do, nothing works all the time. It was probably nothin."
Robin calmed slightly now he knew slade wasn't behind it, but was still pissed off mind you. "Keep an eye out for anything unusual. Let me know when he wakes up" he ordered.
"Will do" cyborg called out.