7. Alien Network News part 3

I froze.

Before me stretched a cold, long hallway bathed in darkness, save for the faint glow against reflective walls far off at the distant end of the path. A rustling shadow could be witnessed chuckling its way out of sight and into oblivion.

Control Freak could only be in one direction.

I slithered down the dark hallway in soft pursuit. I blurred my feet so as to sound as light as a feather. As I approached the opening into a larger room, I sneaked against the cold wall and peered outward, fingering the hilt of Myrkblade the whole time. I saw a mesh of metal racks holding all sorts of partially dismantled electronic equipment. At first glance, this place seemed like a storage room of sorts. But I reminded myself of the 'Limited Access' label on the doorway and the coded entry that Control Freak hacked to enter this very same place I was in.

Mr. Kobayashi must have more goodies than what appears on the surface…

I heard a rustling sound…an inexpert rustling sound. Control Freak had to be ahead.

I crawled out from the hallway and into the supply room. I sneaked around, under, and beyond various metal racks towards a pale blue light on the far side of the interior. As soon as I caught glimpse of a corner of Control Freaks' figure, I stood still. I concentrated hard, producing murk and smog from my inner being. Blackness poured out from my eyes underneath the shades and out from my boots. The murk crawled upwards and downwards, meeting at my torso and spreading throughout my body surface. After a second or two, the murk blended in with the light filtering through my figure and I turned virtually invisible. In such a stealthy fashion, I crept forward till I was a good ten feet behind the villain and silently observed what he was doing.

Sometimes reconnaissance is your greatest act of courage. Robin taught me that.

Control Freak stood in front of a big glass display built into the wall. A bright fixture of lights molded itself around the structure's shape, making it appear far more immaculate than the metallic and wiry chaos surrounding it. True, it was smooth-looking. Futuristic, almost. No wonder Control Freak took such an apparent liking to it.

The obese villain hummed to himself as he hacked into the object with his remote. There was a snap, then a hiss, and the glass dome opened up like a clamshell. He chuckled, reached in a hand, and produced a cylindrical device.

He looked it over with greedy eyes. After a breath, he twirled it about in his fingers and spoke without looking: "You can come out of hiding now, ya know."

I did a double take. A second or two later, my heartbeat returned to normal.

"Oh come now…don't play like you're not really there," the fellow spun around and pressed a button on his remote. A red pulsing light burned through my murkish covering and revealed me to the dim lighting of the supply room. "Not a bad look," he smirked at me. "Very Jedi…with a slight touch of Solid Snake."

I sweatdropped.

"What's with the smoke and mirrors bit? Ha ha! Trying to be Nightcrawler?!"

I grit my teeth and whipped out Myrkblade full force.

"Whoah-ho! Cool!" Control Freak's eyes turned to saucers. "It's even niftier up close!"

I looked surprised by that statement.

"Why, of course I've seen you before," the obese fiend said. "A person who watches t.v. as much as me, it's only natural. The testimonial character sketches. The scant photos at the scene of a Teen Titans bust. All of the City is in a buzz about the latest Teen Titan, and here he stands before me. I at first expected something elemental…like some water manipulating reptile person or something….but a---er---'smoke ninja' works just fine in my book."

I took a threatening stance forward.

"Oh…by all means, do tear me to pieces or throw me in prison or something. Look at me. I'm as cheap as it gets. Smash me all you like."

I held my ground.

"A-HA!" Control Freak winked. "You saw something just about as potentially valuable on me as those priceless icons your friends are entangled with!" He flipped the cylinder in his hand and grinned coyly. "This here device is what grants Kobayashi the buying power for all that memorabilia to begin with. Not JCN Broadcasting. Not this skyscraper. Nothing but this. This very thing that I only read rumors on the Net of being here but had to see it with my own eyes. This very thing that the U.S. Government itself doesn't want either you or me know exists."

I looked at him, puzzled. It was quite obvious he was gonna go on. Or maybe I was just letting him go on?

For God's sakes, go on…

"Kobayashi may not show it in the Stock Market, but he's absolutely top dollar baby!" Control Freak flipped the device again and spoke. "Scientific advantages in transmission signals is his game! He's got the most expert team of technopunks in the world working around the clock in both Japan and the States in creating advanced forms of data distribution the likes of which the waking civilization has never seen. When his men got so bold as to craft this sucker here—," he pointed at the cylinder, "---the U.S. stepped in and told him to keep the technology under wraps for a good decade or two before the international scene was ready for it! Now why would sweet 'ol Kobayashi ruffle the government's feathers so?"

I sighed impatiently.

He had a devilish grin on his face as he reached his own conclusion. "Cuz the Government already uses a similar technology to relay top secret information! Technology that no conventional system of society can trace! And along these frequencies one can find the truth to global warning, alien lifeforms in Area 51, the blueprints for genetically engineered viruses, footage from the space shuttle of mysterious objects in orbit of Earth, enough information to crack every conspiracy theory from Project Bluebook to the Kenneth Star Report!! Mwa ha ha ha---well, not like I care about the last one, but—"

I jumped forward and grabbed for the device. He swiftly leapt back and shook a finger.

"Temper….Temper…….as I bet you followed me in here for, you realize that my Hollywood charade in Kobayashi's office was just a distraction. I have the means to use this here transistor to uncover the filthiest secrets imaginable! And I do intend to walk out with it, whether you like it or not. Forgive me if I use forces—equally as dark as yours—to accomplish such a meager goal as escape."

With that said, he pocketed the transistor and grabbed for something in his pant's pocket.

I watched, uncertain.

WHOOSH! Control Freak whipped out a plastic tube of sorts. It looked for a second like a flashlight with the bulbs at two ends. But when he held it dramatically forward in the light, it became clear as a toy double-sided lightsaber..a la Darth Maul.

"All right, so it's not mint condition," he rolled his eyes. "I confess I opened the package. Pfft…only bought the thing for four bucks at a Kaybee Toys. However, thanks to this remote here, you can just buy the farm. HA!" With that, he spun the toy lightsaber around, flipped it upwards, and zapped the item in mid-air with his remote control.

FLASH!

The plastic turned into metal.

It landed firmly into the villain's grip. He got into a dangerous pose for a fat person, grinned, and flipped a switch on the object. Two bright red beams of energy shot out on both sides. They hummed as they ate oxygen molecules from the very air and illuminated the dark supply room in crimson.

My eyes widened under my shades. I know I mouthed something. I forget what…

"Have at thee, tall dark and DEAD! HiYAA!"

With that said, I was charged at by a fat Star Wars assassin, expert in all the dark arts available to acrobatic obese men with beam swords.

The 'training' session with Robin that morning almost dehydrated me by that moment. Maybe such was a good thing…

I stepped back and raised Myrkblade in an instant. FLASH!! It deflected one side of CF's light saber, but he immediately countered with the other half. I ducked and rolled backwards. When I jumped up, he was advancing again with a spinning strike. I slinked to the side, forcing him to cut through the support structure of a metal wrack of electronic innards. Metal and wires spilled everywhere. I blurred into a backflip to avoid a forward jab. Suddenly we were separated by a tall rack. He peered at me through the various equipment, waved, and hacked his way through. FLASH!! FLASH!! CRACK!! At his last swing, the tip of one beam trailed dangerously close to my nose. I could smell the burning air as I backed up and swallowed myself up in a stream of invisible smoke.

"That won't do you any good," he grinned and paced about in an aisle between metal racks. "Something wicked this way comes…and it's ME! HYAAAAUGH!" He started spinning, rotating, swinging the blade for all it was worth. The room rotated with the spirit of a crimson disco ball as the red beams splashed through the air, taking metal racks, wires, bolts, and computer chips with them. Finally, amidst all the chaos, CF struck a ventilation pipe along the wall. Steam gusted out that contact with my concealed form. A ghostly figure of a head—mine—craned up suddenly in a far corner.

"I spy…with my little eye….something DEAD!" the fat Sith cackled and leapt at me with his light saber out stretched and twisting.

I dove out of the way, stood on one knee, and deflected with Myrkblade upon a second attack. FLASH! The Control Freak lifted his saber over the head and laughed maniacally. I took advantage of the diabolical moment to roll under his legs, stretch to the floor behind him, and reverse kick him in the rear with two feet at once.

"WHOAH!!"

The launch sent him piling through an empty shell of a discarded mainframe. Dust and saber smoke filled the air where he fell. In a blink, he stood—slightly singed—and altogether pissed off.

"Nobody….and I mean nobody—except maybe my Mom—pushes me over while I'm unleashing a can of Star Wars." He then growled and threw his whole weight into me. As you all know, that had to suck.

WHAM!! I sailed through a metal wrack and somehow squeezed through to the other side, tumbling a dozen feet across the cold floor along with some bouncing, experimental microwaves and an HD T.V. in pieces. When I got up—wincing—I was surprised to see a pair of dark blue boots and a dangling cape.

"…..what….are you doing?" Raven asked monotonously.

I pointed frantically behind her.

"We need help taking out those remote controls to stop the monsters. What did you find in here? Is Control Freak nearby?"

FLASH!!!

My finger wilted.

Raven turned around. A bright beam of red illuminated her face.

Control Freak grinned and raised the saber over Raven's head. "Hmmm…the force is stuck-up with this one."

Raven blinked. "Excuse me?" she droned.

I yanked her down from below.

FLASH!!!

Lightsaber energy stroked by and severed a rack of metal right where her blue head would have been.

I grabbed her and blurred over to relative safety.

CF practically rotated towards us, his saber dancing everywhere.

"Now this is amusing," Raven said without a hint of emotion.

I frantically raised Myrkstaff and blocked before the cyclonic villain could hack us to pieces. As I blocked CF's numerous advances, Raven floated to the side, lifted a few fingers gracefully, and tossed several pieces of computer hardware and entertainment systems at the homicidal entity. With a distraction provided by my companion, I dove into the fray and started attacking Control Freak on his own grounds. What proceeded was a chaotic ballet of two light saber beams, a Myrkstaff, kicking feet, dodging motions, and random dozens of metallic equipment floating in and out like asteroids which CF eventually shattered and smacked to remission with the aggravated swing of his stolen, icon of a weapon. At some points between the electronic meteor shower, the fat fiend would strike too close for comfort. So in a flash I extended murk beneath and behind him and ported out from under the black carpet to attack him from the rear. But he'd simply bring the lightsabre behind his back to block blindly, then he'd swing around with a warrior cry while aiming down low to spill my bowels out. I sidestepped, overblurred, and outported him every chance I could get. His versatility surprised both Raven and I. I wonder if his remote control had the ability to create steroids out of Tic Tacs.

At one point, Control Freak found an opening in the cylindrical wall of Raven's telekinetic assault. He leapt backwards and grinned with the lightsaber at ready.

Raven narrowed her glowing eyes and launched a throng of floating equipment straight at him.

I sweated.

Somehow I had a feeling he expected that.

He did. He slashed the first two meteors of metal with both ends of his saber—thereupon breaking Raven's hold on them—and kicked the shards directly at us.

I managed to duck, but one struck Raven in the shoulder; grounding her and all the objects as well. I rushed over and helped her back up, pointing frantically down the hallway from which we both came.

She nodded, "I'll get the others!" and floated off.

"Awwwww," CF posed with the saber. "Running away so soon?"

I frowned at him and spun Myrkblade to ready.

He spun his weapon too and approached. "Cowardice gets you nowhere….it's a lot like Camping…"

I channeled a sudden burst of murk energy into my blade, lifted it high, and brought it down with a thunderous force of smoke and Destruction. A wave of darkness warbled threateningly through the villain's flinching form.

Invisible wind kicked his hair to a lull as he gasped. "Whoah….cool! Thriller, won't you do that again?!" He ducked and charged suddenly at me.

I prepared to swing again—when suddenly the fat individual slid into my legs, tripping me. He jumped up and stabbed down with one edge of the saber. I rolled to the wall, leapt to it, blurred my feet, and soared over his head with Myrkblade aimed directly downward: on a cutting path.

He twirled to the side—losing a shred of cloth from his vest from my blade, and kicked a metal cart on wheels at me as I landed.

WHUMP!

I fell to the ground in front of the hallway and winced.

"Once around the park, Thames!" CF ran, jumped, and landed pot-belly first on the metal cart. It was suddenly rolling towards me at full speed, and the propeller of the careening craft was formed by Control Freak with an outstretched hand spinning his double-sided light saber.

I gasped and ran directly down the long hallway—which seemed a heck of a lot longer this time. The path before me was bathed in spinning red as he approached, burning at my heels. Laughing. In mid-sprint, I aimed Myrkblade backwards and deflected every flick of the wrist he made to slice my legs off while on his wild ride.

Outside—in the lounge—Starfire faithfully flew after and destroyed the last remaining, floating remote with a well-aimed starbolt. The rubber suits, the costumes, the samurai armor, the mantises….Alf…they all fell dormant to the ground as the animated chaos ceased.

Cyborg kicked at the rubber Gamera suit with a grunt and looked over at Robin. "Now what?!"

"Where's Control Freak?!"

Raven levitated into view from the hallway door. "We found him. He's not too far off."

Robin blinked. "And where's Noir?"

Here I am.

CRASH!!!

I collapsed painfully through the hallway door and tumbled to the ground. The cart Control Freak was riding slammed into me with a jolt. CF flipped off the stopped 'vehicle' and landed directly in the middle of the circle of Teen Titans with his lightsabre glaring. "Ha!!"

Beast Boy did a double-take. "Dude! That is………er……not cool?"

"Sorry the party ended so soon," he winked at the heroes. "But it's curfew time."

Wincing from my collapse, I frantically gestured to my companions to look at Control Freak's front pocket.

Robin was the first to glance through his white eye-mask and spot a piece of the cylindrical transistor stolen from the supply room.

"Titans! The thing in his pocket! Grab it!"

Beast Boy turned into a rhino and charged CF full force. The obese man slid to the side and slice off the green charger's horn. The rhino's eye bulged, and soon Beast Boy was squatting in the corner rubbing his burnt nose. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!!"

"RAAAUGH!!" Cyborg leaped from a great height and slammed hard into the carpet besides Control Freak. The villain dug his light saber into the ground and formed a cut in the structure before the shockwave could reach him.

A flurry of magical sounds filled the air as Starfire orbited the villain and tossed starbolt after starbolt with a cry. He merely spun the lightsabre and deflected each shot back at her. FLASH!! POW!! "EEK!!"

Robin growled and charged straight at the offender. Control Freak spun to the side and sliced down Robin's back. The boy gasped, but only the entirety of his cape was cut clean off.

"Hope you don't catch cold!" Control Freak kicked Robin in the back, forcing the boy to the ground. He then ruthlessly stepped over and on top of him and dashed towards the stairwell on the far side of the lounge, flanked by potted plants. "I'll send you a postcard from the Denver International Airport….after I find secret footage of the concentration camps built underneath it! HA HA!"

"What is he babbling about?" Beast Boy moaned, rubbing a red nose.

Robin clinched his teeth and sprinted in full pursuit of the enemy.

"Robin! Wait up!!" Cyborg called out.

I looked up from my painful position.

Raven chanted: "Azzarath Metrion Zinthos!" Tables and chairs flew straight at Control Freak's body. He merely chopped through with his saber and kicked the door to the stairwell open.

Robin was quickly on his heels—that is until CF's heels turned and the maniac whipped out a remote control with a free hand. "Why…Robin…so good of you to join me." He clicked at the two plants. They flashed brightly for a second before turning into giant, drooling, tentacle monsters.

Robin looked up at the writhing beasts and sweatdropped. "Um….that's just plain wrong."

"How right you are…," CF winked and clicked his remote again. Vines shot out from the two plants and circled around Robin's every limb. He struggled for a second or two before being forced into a full-spread position by the taunt tentacles. The plants then oozed out a thick green liquid which encased Robin into a cocoon-sack of sorts which Control Freak promptly slung over his shoulder. "Look's like I've gotten all I needed from this little robin's nest. Pay the mother hen my respects…cuz he may just end up hard boiled…" he motioned towards the entombed Robin and spun around with a cackle.

"N-No…," Starfire suddenly gasped. "Robin!!"

I got up to my knees, wincing.

The vines and foliage of the 'monster' plants started to cluster around the stairwell.

I grabbed Myrkblade, coiled into action, and blurred at full force towards the exit.

Nothing but green covered the doorway.

WOOOOOOSH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!!!!!

I forced a smoking hole in the dead vegetable matter, but all I could see on the other side was emptiness.

Control Freak was gone…and so was Kobayashi's technology…

And our leader.

Cyborg dashed over and looked down the passageway. "Robin?! ROBIN!!"

Raven floated over. "It's no use, they're gone."

"And just who says?!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Give me some room. I'll jump in and search!" He was about to flash into a green bloodhound, but Cyborg haulted him with a titanium arm.

"Raven's right. Control Freak obviously planned this all from the beginning. Did you see how he just….invited Robin into that trap?!"

"Then all the expensive memorabilia come alive…," Raven droned. "It was all….a distraction?"

"But for what? For what reason? What does Control Freak want with Robin?" Cyborg asked the air. A pause. He looked at me, "And just what was that thing in his pocket?"

I was still breathing heavily from the whole ordeal. I turned around slowly and looked at Cyborg. I knew I had some explaining to do. But as I walked towards him, I glanced over across the Lounge.

I spotted Starfire, forlorn and blue. She knelt down and gathered up Robin's severed, yellow cape in her hands and hugged it to her chest. "Robin…," she sighed towards the floor with downcast eyes. "We….failed him…."

Beast Boy was about to retort…but soon he too was melancholy.

Cyborg looked off through the windows of the lounge, clinching his fists.

Raven said nothing.

My eyes trailed on the wilted Starfire for a minute or two before I summoned a breath and sheathed Myrkstaff.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Police and the usual cleanup crew flocked upon the scene of battle. Control Freak's shattered remotes—thanks to Starfire—were all gathered for evidence. Mr. Kobayashi himself arrived via escort and saw to the safe retrieval of his priceless treasures. Save for a few scuff marks, they were still in immaculate condition. His nod of approval brought relief to us all…but it was hardly enough consolation.

Not the police…not the eyewitness news…not the local townsfolk…nobody saw any sign of Control Freak's escape route. And where there's Control Freak, there's Robin. And where there's no Control Freak, there's no Robin. And where there's no Robin….there was us.

We huddled about in a corner of the lounge as the sun began to set outside through the tall-windows. Police and workers examined the rest of the area while we vigilantes discussed somberly the situation at hand.

"So….like….does Control Freak even have a base? 'Cept for the butt groove in his favorite couch, I'm sure," Beast Boy remarked.

"Not funny, man," Cyborg moaned. "We're in it big this time. Who knows what that obsessive punk is gonna do to Robin."

I saw Starfire flinch at those words. She had been strangely quiet the whole time. Robin's cape was still in her meek grasp.

"The only clue we had was the transistor he ran off with," Raven spoke. She looked at Cyborg, "Just how did Noir describe it to you."

"It's really all up in the air," Cyborg said and glanced at me. "Something about some sort of 'secret technology' that the government wouldn't let Mr. Kobayashi release to the public."

I nodded.

"You think the old guy knows anything about this?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes…we should question Mr. Kobayashi as soon as possible," Raven insisted.

Suddenly, and electronic voice spouted out from among us. "Oh, I don't believe that will be necessary."

Beast Boy jumped with a shriek as something vibrated in his pants. Then he simpered. "Oh…heheh….just my communicator." A pause. "Control Freak's voice?!?!" He whipped the compact communicator out and flipped the lid open with a Star Trek sound effect. "What the—how'd you get on this signal?!"

"That's a very good question. But it seems like your buddies Noir and Cyborg are on the right track!"

All the Titans crowded around Beast Boy's communicator. Starfire watched from afar with worried green eyes.

"Answer the question straight-forward, pal!" Cyborg spat. "Just what gives?!"

Control Freak's fat face took up the entire communicator's holo-screen with a grin. "Thanks to that special transistor, I now have access to every form of audio-visual communication in the Northern Hemisphere!! No station…no broadcast…no transfer of digital information is beyond my sight!!"

"Dude…," Beast Boy slurred. "If you wanted that bad to get Cinemax, you could have just called one of their toll free numbers and—"

"That's not what this is about!!!" CF fattily retorted. His holo-image frowned and leaned forward as he added, "On the outside, I am just a couch potato. But on the inside, I am a journalist and conspiracy theorist at heart! Both professions shall now merge as one as I exploit the hidden databases of NASA and the U.S. Military for every soul-sucking secret they've got!! And then once I've made an ample review of alien autopsies, UFO sightings, and proof of Yukon Mountain Men which I just *know* is out there—I'll share it all with the public via unfiltered stream!!"

Cyborg pointed angrily at the holo-image. "And just what makes you think we're gonna let you get away with that so eas—WHOAH!!"

Starfire shoved him out of the way and burned a hole in Control Freak's digital face with her eyes. "Where is Robin?!?! Just what have you done to our friend?!?!"

"And now to answer both questions in one fatal swoop," Control Freak's image grinned and clicked on a remote.

Suddenly, monitors upon monitors upon monitors of T.V. feed switched on all throughout the Lounge. Some of them we hadn't even noticed there before. The Titans and the workers and the police all looked up as the image of a bound-and-gagged Robin struggling on a gurney being aimed at by a red laser appeared before us….appeared all throughout the Kobayashi Tower….appeared all throughout the city…appeared all throughout Internet websties…appeared all throughout satellite feed…appeared all throughout all the TVs. and all the computer monitors and all the output devices wired so as to broadcast anything in that part of the globe period.

"Er…..ouch?" Beast Boy sweat.

"Not quite ouch yet…," Control Freak's holo image paced over to the struggling Robin's side. "If you Titans so much as try and interfere with my global plan of Truth……I'll reveal the epitome of painful Truth." He teasingly tugged on a precarious edge of Robin's mask. "Try and stop me…and I'll rip off this lousy disguise and show your leader's true face to half the civilized world. Believe you me, in the archives of Earth history to come…not even the Mayan Empire would have half the Identity Crisis as your mortal friend here."

Starfire gasped, a hand over her mouth.

Beast Boy and Cyborg's eyes bulged.

Raven reflected on the threat in silence.

As everyone around us looked in shock and perplexity at our prone hero on all the screens, I knew one thing was for certain.

The world had turned a lot more naked in the span of a few hours.