33. Stone Golem part 5
SCREEEECH
Robin's R-Cycle came to a stop at a reservoir just below the prison Some sewage water sprayed from the tires as the vehicle halted with a jerk.
Raven clung onto the Boy Wonder from behind. She hesitantly opened a tembling, blue eye.
"Are we there yet?"
Robing glared at her, took off his helmet, and whipped out a communicator. "Starfire……Beast Boy, we're at the pipes leading to the sewage system. We'll be sneaking into the prison from below. Hopefully from there we can get a jump on Slug and Reload."
"This is going to be fun…," Raven muttered as she limped off the cycle and padded towards one of the huge pipes of the reservoir.
"Where are you two guys?" Robin asked.
"Approaching the rooftops," Starfire replied through the tiny speaker. "Beast Boy is higher above, getting a look at the surrounding area to make sure the two villains are not escaping at the last second. We should be able to provide backup whenever you are needing of it, Robin."
"Good," the Boy Wonder said. "Raven and I will take them on first. I want to see how long we can go without them knowing our presence, though. It's quite possible they may be after something else entirely than just a rematch with us."
"Whatever it is, it'd better be worth it," Raven said as she trudged over sewer puddles inside the giant pipe. "These are new boots…"
"Are Cyborg and Noir on route?"
"Good idea, lemme check," Robin changed frequencies and spoke into the communicator. "Cyborg! Are you closing in on the prison at a safe distance?" A pause. "Cyborg???"
Raven glanced over.
Robin gritted his teeth. "Cyborg, please respond!"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Noir?!" Robin's voice exclaimed over computer speakers throughout the Tower. "Noir?! Cyborg?! Is anyone there?!"
Simon Stone sat at the head monitor in the Main Room. He took a deep breath of melancholy as the cry went on unanswered.
Slowly—ignorant of the call—he pulled over a keyboard and typed a quick string of letters and numbers.
On the monitor, the schematics of the T-Car popped up…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
We were dead still on the sidewalk. The tires were still steaming from its blazing swerve off the main road. The smell of burnt rubber and charred electrical sparks filled the air.
I winced, my teeth grinning. I tested every limb in my body, feeling for pain or something broken.
I was allright.
I stretched my neck around and glanced to my left.
Cyborg lay in his seat. The blue gone to black. He was unconscious.
I winced, reached a hand over, and shook him.
No response.
"Someone respond! Noir?! Cyborg?! Where are you two?! What's wrong?!"
I reached achingly for my communicator. I tried tapping in a morse code response….but suddenly, the speakers crackled. The T-Car lit up from the inside. I froze as the engine started magically on its own and the steering wheel jolted to artificial light.
What the hell?!
SNkkkkKKTt---chhhh---"I'm sorry, young Titan."
I gasped. The voice coming through the speakers….
Simon Stone……
"I can't explain my actions. I can only perform them. Cyborg and his T-Car are going where I want them too. Since you are my dear nephew's friend, I'll spare you the expense of coming along."
The roof to the car suddenly whirred open.
I stared up at the evening sky through my shades.
My chair shook…and got warm.
I gasped.
POMPH-SWOOOOOSH!!!!
The ejector seat went off. Blood danced down my brain as I found myself soaring high into the city streets, a virtual rocket going off just a foot and a half below my pelvis. The chair that I was in unleashed a parachute with a jerk, and I slowly started floating back towards the ground—restrained in the drifting object by my seatbelt.
Below me, I watched at the T-Car revved its engines, squealed its tires, and soared down the street on its own with an unconscious Cyborg trapped inside.
I gritted my teeth and struggled to reach my hand to where my sheathe was stuck between my back and the seat.
I drifted further to the ground.
The T-Car rocketed towards the horizon.
I grabbed the handle to Myrkblade.
The automobile disappeared over a hill of asphalt.
I exhaled.
My chest thinned.
I squeezed my blade out, spun it in my grasp, and sliced it over my chest.
The seatbelts snapped apart.
I acrobatically got onto my knees, jumped up off the seat, ripped through the parachute, and landed on a telephone wire. Summoning murk, I slid two feet down the wire like ice against a metal rail, jumped off, landed on the street in a crouch, and blurred forward like a human missile.
I gritted my teeth, ignoring the ache in my limbs from the recent near-crash, and concentrated all the power I could in making a mad dash towards the distant T-Car.
That man is NOT TAKING HIM! Not after all he's been through!
The implications of the situation mattered very little to me. All I knew was the desperation of my sudden hunt. My quest to stop that car at all costs.
I rounded a hill in the road….and came upon a traffic jam.
I gasped and leapt—barely clearing a van in front of me. My powers lifted me off the ground and landed me hard. I struggled desperately to keep the balance of my sprint in tact, and I proceeded to weave in and out of stuck cars. Stopped cars. Collapsed cars. Apparently—in controlling the T-Car—Simon Stone wasn't wasting any time. Traffic was either forced or plowed out of the way.
This could be very dangerous…
As soon as I spotted the T-Car ahead of me in the distance, a citizen's automobile or two meandered back onto the road.
I desperately leapt to the side, ran off the surface of an SUV, hopped over a sports car that honked in protest, and dove forward, flipping, and resuming my lightning fast streak after the unconscious Cyborg.
The Car swerved to the right into an alleyway of sorts.
I jumped onto the building face on my right, soared up the wall, leapt onto the rooftop, and hopped from building to building in a direct line for the T-Car. When I reached the alley, I jumped down—found myself in a paper-thin, bricklined street, and landed barely a hair's width behind the T-Car.
It rocketed ahead of me.
I struggled to keep on my feet.
Damn!!
The walls of the alley zoomed past us like some masonry's version of the Death Star Trench. The wheel-span of the T-Car nearly occupied the entire alley ahead of me. It screeched left and right, its blue lights blazing in the darkening evening and extra darkening alley. It struck a garbage can that flew up, ricocheted off the wall, and spun leakingly at me.
I whipped out Myrkblade and slashed it in half…along with a wooden crate also knocked back by the T-Car…and a metal barrel.
SWIIIIPPPE!! SMASH!! CRACK! BASH!!
The T-Car swerved out into the open street, screeched to the side, and forced a semi-truck to halt suddenly with burning rubber.
As the T-Car attempted to zoom off, I ran out into the street, jumped, bounced off the grill-front of the semi truck engine, and landed on the back of Cyborg's Baby and rode it off over the asphalt. I clung onto it for my life and prepared to use Myrkblade…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"No response?" Raven asked.
Robin slowly shook his head. "No…and until we get into contact with Cyborg, there's no telling where the two felons may be."
"Then I suppose we must utilize the old fashion technique," Raven stepped down the sewer pipe and stood beneath a dimly lit grate leading up into the prison yards. "Search for them ourselves."
"We're in no position to spring upon them!" Robin said.
Raven looked up through the grate. Her eyes momentarily widened…then returned to normal. "They, on the other hand…."
SMASH!!!!
The grate exploded downward.
Raven and Robin jumped out of the way at the last second as Slug landed before them, a revolver in each hand.
He smirked, lifted the magnums, and uttered: "Hello, children. Permit me to teach you about life. I lock. I load. You die."
"DUCK!!" Robin shouted.
Slug's metallic arms charged up blue…flew into the guns…and--
BLAM!!!!
BLAM!!!!!
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Sounds of explosions and gunfire sounded off through Starfire's communicator.
At the sound of it, Beast Boy dropped down into elf mode on the rooftop besides the Tamaranian girl.
"Robin!!!" she gasped. She spun to face the changeling. "We must help them!!"
"Sister….you have the knack for the obvious!"
They were about to fly towards the sewers when the rooftop beneath them crumbled apart and a string of hot lead soared up from under.
SMASH!!
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!
"WHOAH!!"
"AIIIEEE!!"
The two Titans collasped two floors down into a tiled hallway of the prison. They rubbed their skulls and looked up—gasping—at Reload.
The cybernetic gunslinger puffed a cigarette in her mouth and winked at them. "Don't fly the coop just yet, mis avitos." She swung her wrist machine guns back into position and aimed directly at them.
Beast Boy gulped. "Good thing I used the bathroom before we came here."
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!
"Run!! Flee!! Retreat yourself!!" Starfire commanded as the two scampered off from the bulletfire.
Tile flew into shards and wall panels crumbled under Reload's punishment. She kept firing—marching after the two and laughing her psychotic head off.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Robin and Raven dove forward with a grunt.
A blue-charged hyperbullet sailed overhead and slammed into the concrete sides of the pipe, forming a shattered crater.
Simultaneously, the sounds of gunfire and chaos emanated from his communicator.
"Starfire and Beast Boy! They're in trouble!" he hobbled to his feet and hoisted Raven up. "This is all a big trap!"
"You think?!" she snapped.
"There you are!" Slug grinned.
BLAM!!!
The two leapt out of the way.
The pipe shook.
Debris fell and formed tiny splashes all over the sewage puddles.
Robin spun around and tossed a birdarang at the half-robot villain.
He merely lifted his metal arm, letting the object clank off the skin.
Once deflected, he chuckled and took aim again.
Raven summoned telekinesis and pulled the two out of danger.
BLAM!!!
A hole formed beneath them.
Raven flew them over Slug.
"You got 'em?" Raven asked, eyes glowing.
Robin saluted. "I got 'em!"
She let go of her onyx hold of his limbs.
Robin dropped down, whipped out his staff in mid air, and struck down hard on Slug's aiming wrist.
SMACK!!
"AUGH!!" Slug's arm threw to the side and he pulled the trigger.
BANG!!!
CRASH!!!
The concrete side of the pipe gave way completely and sewage water started rushing in like a torrent.
Slug and Robin dueled close combat in front of the torrent. The Boy Wonder kept the villain at bay with his rod constantly making contact with the villain's forearms. Slug couldn't even pull off a point blanc shot.
"Go upstairs and help the others!" Robin grunted without looking to Raven. "I've got him under control!!"
"You're….positive?" a floating Raven lifted an eyebrow.
"Yes! Now go!"
Raven sighed and levitated up through the smashed grate and onto the prison courtyard.
"Rather smug…wouldn't you say?" Slug sneered down at Robin.
"I suggest you put your mouth where your gun is," Robin glared. He shouted: "HAAAA!!" jumped back, twirled, and swept Slug's feet out from under him.
"OOF!!!" Slug fell with a splash into the rising river of sewage water. He gritted his teeth and aimed a magnum directly upward as Robin sailed down at his prone figure with a kick.
BLAM!!!
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
CRACK!!!
I inwardly winced, but kept on stabbing with Myrkblade regardless. Struggling to keep my balance on the madly speeding T-Car, I managed to dig in enough with my weapon to charge it with smoke energy and start peeling open a hole in the surface.
The T-Car suddenly swerved right.
I grunted and held tightly to the hilt of my sword, keeping myself on the back of the remotely piloted vehicle.
The car then swerved to the left.
My body literally flipped over the back. Just by clinging to the hilt, I stayed on…though my lower body was banged around like a rag doll.
I winced.
The car lit up and its radio speakers suddenly crackled at full blast.
"I assure you, Mr. Noir…," Simon Stone's voice spoke to me through the vehicle. "You will only hurt yourself if you try to intervene."
The car swerved again. I nearly slipped. I hugged the side of the vehicle, blurred my feet, and kicked myself back onto the top and grabbed onto the hilt of my weapon embedded in the car.
"What assurance do you have that my business with Victor is that of harm?"
The car swerved again.
I held on steadily this time.
"Your kindred friendship to the kid is twice as honorable as my familial relationship with him. Please understand…I do not consider you my enemy. But you are getting in the way of the Family."
With that spoken, the engines flared dramatically. The tires squealed, and the T-Car I was 'riding' turned into a rocket as it took a last second exit off the present road and towards the back of a underground subway entrance. The overhang to the entrance looked suspiciously like a ramp.
I gritted my teeth.
WHAM!!!!
The T-Car smashed through the metal railing around the entrance.
I shook, keeping my grip.
People scattered.
The car honked.
Its demonic lights flashed.
We hit the 'ramp' at eighty miles per hour and….
CL-CLANK-WOOOOSH!!!
The force of the takeoff tossed me off the top of the vehicle in an instant.
Time slowed down.
The revving of the T-Car's airborne engine grumbled low and solemn as the seconds oozed by.
I flew up ten feet from the flying car, twirling sideways and upside down. I clenched my flailing fists. Smoke poured out from under my shades as I shot murk out into the currents of heated air around me. Wings of destructive smoke ate at the air while invisible beams of construction evened my body out and flipped me back over so that I was sailing back down at the vehicle at the same time that it landed in the middle of the street.
CLANK!!
Time resumed to normal.
SWOOSH—My hand grabbed ahold of a side mirror. My arm tightened. I swung my whole body around like a chain lock and landed with my lower body perched on the T-Car's bumper. I winced as the headlights stabbed my eyes.
"Quite risky of you, mute one…," Simon's electronic voice said. The T-Car ran onto the sidewalk of the Town's Civic Center as he added: "But your bravery has forced me to take even more desperate measures."
I looked over my shoulder at where we were headed.
I gasped.
A series of thick, metal bicycle racks jutted up out of concrete in a straight line. I was so low to the bumper that I could see beneath the myriad of 'bridges'. I could see them sailing at me.
I held my breath, grabbed the hilt of my sword, and pulled with all my might.
YANK!!!
Metal and glass shards flew as I ripped Myrkblade from the T-Car's body, leaned backwards, and faced the impending metal bars upside down.
My let out a long, silent scream as I twirled my blade back and forth ahead of the car in my out-stretched position.
CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!!!
Smoke warbling, I sliced each thick bar to shreds and tossed them to the wayside. My black eyes widened as one last obstacle—an oak tree—shot out of the concrete sidewalk ahead of us and screamed at my skull.
I swung Myrkblade once…hard.
SLUNK!!!
I took out most of the lower half explosively, but there was plenty of trunk left for us to ramp over.
CH-CHUNK!!!
The jolt sent me up bouncing over the streamline body of the car and towards the rear.
I gritted my teeth and dragged Mykblade into the butt of the vehicle.
SKKKKKTT!!!
I stopped myself from tumbling off just in time for my feet to dangle off and make contact with the blurring asphalt.
Smoke blurred down my legs.
I kicked off the speeding ground just quickly enough to gain momentum, leap back, and land securely back on the back of the T-Car.
I let out a breath. Then panted.
"You do not know when to quit…," Simon's voice said from the speakers. "It is very well. For neither do I."
The engine revved as we returned to the road.
I looked off and gasped.
The highway was getting closer.
"Soon…it will get too dangerous even for YOU to stay on board."
I gritted my teeth and resumed the desperate task of ripping through the body of the vehicle.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the prison…
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!
Reload laughed at the top of her lungs and unleashed bullet stream after bullet stream. She walked slowly…tortuously down the hallway while her victims were forced to scamper and hide behind flimsy structure after flimsy structure in a vain attempt to avoid her lead carnage.
Starfire flew down in front of a metal desk of a warden's office room and covered her head. A green bat flew between the barrage of bullets, landed beside her, and turned into a cowering Beast Boy.
"W-Well…," he gulped. "So much for the 'sneaky interest' part."
"We must regroup with the others!" Starfire shouted over the bullets. "With Robin and Raven together, we could overcome this foe!!"
"Alli estan, idiotas!!"
PING!! CLANG!! POW!!!
Reload—and the bullets in turn—found Starfire's and Beast Boy's hiding place. The desk started falling apart in mere seconds.
"Save the thinking for later!!" Beast Boy cackled. He was about to morph into something with wings and skedaddle when a series of desperate voices lit his and Starfire's ears above the firefight.
"Look!" Starfire pointed towards the far side of the office. In a lone cubicle, a dozen or so pairs of limbs waved at the two heroes. Office workers and guards—frightened and cornered by Reload's violence—were begging for help.
"The poor workers!" Starfire exclaimed. "They have no way out!"
"Not unless we make one…," Beast Boy uttered. "Starfire. You go. I'll distract Miss Buffalo Bill!"
"Affirmative!"
Beast Boy leaped over behind another desk, popped his head up, and waved his arms.
"Hey!! Hawkeye!!"
Reload glanced over.
"Hit the bird, win a prize!" he proceeded to turn into a green duck and quack his way across the office.
"Madre de Dios…," Reload rolled her eyes and took aim.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!
Desks flew into splinters, chairs exploded, and lights shattered as green birds, green gophers, and green fish dashed to and fro between the desks and furniture, drawing the evil cyborg's desperate gunfire.
Reload gritted her teeth in frustration and tightened her grip over the trigger…if that was even possible.
Her gunfire was so intense and explosive that it blinded her from her own actions and immediate surroundings.
A green penguin slid belly-first on the tile between Reload's legs, hopped up as a squirrel, scampered up the villainess' side, and grabbed her face in the form of an emerald octopus that immediately shot a jet of blinding ink into her eyes.
"Mmmmmmmffff!" Reload struggled. She fired bullets everywhere—especially above her. A hulking ceiling fan took a bullet or two, creaked, and fell down.
The octopus turned into a bullfrog and leapt off in time for the apparatus to slam down over the half-human and pin her helplessly to the floor.
The green elf morphed to normal, looked over at Starfire, and gave a thumb's up.
"Help is here!" the Tamaranian flew over and shouted to the people. "Stand back!"
She aimed at a wall and unleashed wave after wave of Starbolt. The structure collapsed and led to a metal gantry over a prisoners' wing. Awakened voices of convicts shouted out from their cells at hearing the ruckus throughout the entire building.
"Go! Make haste!" Starfire motioned the guards and workers along. They scampered out gladly. Finally, Beast Boy ran her way, saluted, and jumped through the wall. Before Reload had a chance to get up, Starfire flew through the hole, aimed at the ceiling, and unloaded more starbolts…collapsing the passageway closed behind them.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"HIYAAAA!!" Robin screamed and jump kicked Slug across the face.
The half robot man grunted, glared at the Boy Wonder, and dove back at him over the rushing sewage water with an outstretched fist.
SMACK!!
Robin's cheek turned red from the impact and he was sent spinning.
Slug chuckled and aimed a magnum at Robin's torso.
But the Titan ended his 'vulnerable' spin with a jumping bird kick that knocked the magnum out of the villain's grasp.
But Slug still had one gun left. He aimed it and fired with his power.
BLAM!!!
Sewage water and concrete flew up in a fountain. The Boy Wonder was lost from view. When the debris fell, he was nowhere to be found.
Slug squinted. Looked around. Lifted an eyebrow, then turned around--
SMACK!!!
Robin uppercutted him from behind, grabbed his reeling leg, and sent an elbow deep into Slug's crotch.
WHUMP!!
The villain stumbled back.
Robin grinned…..then stopped grinning.
A seemingly unaffected Slug smirked at the boy. "You'd be surprised how much of me is machine," he smiled and raised his gun.
Suddenly, a grappling hook and cord wrapped around Slug's wrist and yanked---slamming him into the sewer water.
Robin held onto his end of the cord and frowned, "You'd be surprised how much of me cares…"
Slug jumped out of the water, sputtering. He looked at his hands.
Empty.
"Even terms, eh boy?" he smiled up at Robin.
Robin got into a kung fu pose and motioned his opponent to charge. "I don't like guns."
Charge, Slug did. His arm glowed as he slung a fist at the boy with a growl.
Robin ducked, side-stepped, and swung a boot up towards Slug's face.
Slug grabbed the shoe with a palm, gripped it, and pulled upwards with a jolt.
Robin's body spun a few times before landing hard on the ground.
Slug shouted and slammed both fists down over the boy.
Robin rolled out of the way, spun his legs like a break dancer, and shot a grappling hook up towards the ceiling of the pipe.
PFFT-CLANK!!
He retracted the cord, lifting him up swiftly, and bringing one of his upside-down, swinging legs twice against Slug's cheek.
SMACK!! WHAM!!!
The villain reeled backwards as Robin swung up over him, spun on the cord, impacted his feet against the ceiling, and sprung directly downward, staff outstretched.
WHAM!!!
Slug was struck hard across the back.
Robin landed on his knees, dug his rod into the concrete, and vaulted his legs up to kick the bad guy mightily in the rear.
The impact sent Slug toppling over—neck first—through the stream of sewage water like a blue hedgehog. He landed in a sitting position with his back against the side of the concrete pipe.
"…..owch."
"You better believe it," Robin gritted his teeth and charged across the growing river of sewage. "Here's your medicine, bastard!!"
Slug smirked. "Wash that mouth out." He slammed two blue-charged elbows into the concrete wall on either side of him. Huge holes were formed in the structure, and sewage water poured in with solid streams.
SPLASH!!!!
Robin cried out and was sent flying back with his rod.
"RAAAAUGH!!!" Slug was suddenly up and sailing at Robin between the water streams. He sent a blue charged fist across the boy's cheek, a second deep into his stomach, and an elbow into Robin's side.
Soaked and bruised, Robin tumbled up the wall of the pipe and came to a stop at a dry spot. He coughed and wheezed as Slug walked menacingly towards him—his knees deep in the sewage.
"Fleshlings are so pathetic…," Slug smirked. "So unclean and imperfect. Everything you do goes full circle for no logical reason at all. Heh…I'm standing knee deep in you as we speak," he motioned to the crud water below him.
Robin wiped some blood off his lip and gritted his teeth. "You've got one thing right. You're deep in it." The Boy Wonder whipped out a blinking birdarang.
Slug's eyes widened.
"HAAA!!" Robin flung the projectile into the sewage water.
The birdarang nestled itself deep into the liquid…blinked one last time…and exploded in a burst of electrical energy.
Slug's half human eyes turned white.
Blue light soared up from the sewage water and fried the air as sparks flew everywhere.
"AAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!"
Robin draped his cape protectively over his figure as the sparks flew.
Slug screamed at the top of his unnatural lungs as lighting filled the interior of the waterlogged, concrete pipe and shook his figure to the breaking point.
BZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!!
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
SNKKKKKKKKTTT!!!!
I gritted my teeth, cutting the last of the lines into the T-Car's roof.
Air pressured vomited back and forth as I forced the chamber open. I cut one last slit and a fresh panel of aluminum flew out from the metallic wound—nearly decapitating me as it got caught in the rushing air over the zooming vehicle.
I reached a desperate hand down and gripped Cyborg's shoulder. I grunted and pulled…pulled…pulled…to get him out.
"I do not know how many times I must tell you, Titan…" Simon's voice said. "There is nothing to save him from. Cease your efforts now."
God……will you just…SHUT UP?!
I yanked some more, sweated, and looked at my handiwork. I wanted to hit myself. Cyborg was still buckled in.
I reached deep into the T-Car's compartment, grabbed his leather belt, and yanked. As soon as I finally clicked it free…Simon swerved the vehicle by remote.
"!!!!"
I fell over the right side….and dangled by my grip to the inner seat belt. The belt was short, so my arm was forcibly stretched over the side and top of the vehicle towards the inside to which I was tethered.
"I warned you……"
The speeding T-Car veered into the right lane….and directly against the side of a pickup truck going the same route.
I was about to be sandwiched—
I took a breath, planted my feet into the car door, blurred, and jolted my lower body up in a flip.
CLANG!!!!
Our vehicle struck the truck with a shower of sparks.
HONK!! HONK!!
SCREEECH!!!
The truck swerved away.
My throat gulped…for I was still in mid flip.
I 'landed' on the other side. The seatbelt slacked this time. My feet were touching the ground…and we were going over eighty miles per hour.
My feet blurred with my murk power. For a second or two, I was literally running on the street alongside the T-Car—tethered to it by a leather strap. We zoomed over the crest of a bridge together. My face strained as I 'ran' as fast as I could. I kept trying to leap back onto the car's body. Suddenly, the asphalt beneath me grew thin. I realized Simon was veering the car to the left this time. I had suddenly less and less space between the T-Car to the right and the blurring-by guardrail on the left.
In desperation, I jumped, leapt my feet off the mudguards of the T-Car, and planted my blurred feet into the guardrail. I ran sideways through my momentum for a few seconds. Huffing. Puffing. With a grunt, I blurred off the passing guardrail and flipped back onto the square top of the vehicle.
I had to gasp again…for we were taking an exit ramp off the bridge and a huge, green sign stretched out dangerously low in clearance ahead of us.
I grabbed Myrkblade and looked at the upcoming sign at mach five. At the last second, I realized there was no way in hell I could cut through it that fast.
I let go of the strap completely, clutched onto Myrkblade, and side-jumped off of the T-Car.
I flew over the guardrail, spun my body, and stabbed my blade to the right.
CHUNK!!!
It imbedded hard into a concrete support of the bridge and slid down in a deep cut.
SNKKKKKTT!!
I came to a stop halfway down the pillar, hanging onto the concrete color by my biting myrkblade.
I exhaled and surveyed the scene ahead of me. My heart skipped a beat as I realized the exiting offramp was curving off the bridge, winding around, and stretching down directly beneath me. In less than a second, a familiar set of headlights zoomed down the ramp.
I planted a foot into the pillar, yanked upwards with Myrkblade to pull the sword out, and blurred off with my lower limbs.
I flipped, fell, and landed back on the T-Car. We sped off in the opposite direction than before and at a lower elevation…but at no less a speed.
"Gloriously annoying…," Simon's voice crackled. "I'd salute you…but I'm rather busy at the moment."
The car's brakes abruptly pressure down.
I gasped and was yanked to a loose grip of the front of the car.
The tires swerved.
The car fishtailed and spun across two lanes of opposing traffic. Cars swerved or stopped to miss the vehicle and ended up crashing loudly into each other instead. I gritted my teeth, my world spinning dizzily, my black hair flying in the night air.
CLUNK!!!
We hit a guard rail to another overpass.
…and I lost my grip.
I fell, gasping, over the edge of the bridge.
"Fairwell, hero……"
"!!!!"
…..
A story and a half below—in front of a video rental store sandwiched beneath the overpass with a few other old structures—two guys sat in a convertible.
"Okay…for this double-date," the driver said, "..we'll treat the chicks to 'Wicked Scary!'"
"Awww…dude!" the young man in the passenger's seat slouched and sulked. "But you know Wendy doesn't get scared much! She ain't a normal chick, so what's the point!"
"Who's Wendy?"
"My chick."
"No way, Ben, she's mine. Remember our agreement—"
"Just get the damn DVD!"
"Sheesh! Wait here, okay?"
"Like I have a choice," 'Ben' sulked.
The driver left his keys into the ignition and rushed in through the store doors.
Ben sighed. "She likes to hold me when *I'm* scared," he smirked.
WHUMP!!!
I blinked…having landed upright in the driver's seat.
"AAAH!!" Ben jumped, nearly wetting himself. "What the hell?!"
I looked up at the bridge directly above us. The blue glow of the T-Car sped off towards the edge of the City.
"Where'd you come from?!" the teenage boy exclaimed. A pause. He squinted and then pointed at me, "Say…aren't you that new Titan—?"
CLICK.
He looked down.
I had just buckled him up.
"Um….what's that for—"
I turned the ignition. Pressed the clutch. Shifted gears. And hit it.
VROOOOOOOM!!!!
"WHOAH!!!" Ben flew back in his seat as the convertible suddenly rushed from zero to seventy in six seconds.
I gritted my teeth, concentrated, and shifted gears as we meandered through traffic wildly and soared off towards where the bridge exited into ground-level roads.
"Hey!! HEY HEY HEY HEY!!" Ben raised a finger. "Y-You can't be doing this! This is my best friend's car and if I so much as mark it he'll kill me—WHOAH!!!"
I swerved to the side, causing the car to spin and fishtail before I shifted gears down, reapplied the gas and clutch, and angled us even with an offramp just in the nick of time to pursue the T-Car's speeding bumper. I shifted into higher gear and pressed down hard.
The skin on Ben's face warbled as he was pressed deep into his seat. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"
Simon must have known we were catching up, for soon the T-Car was swerving left and right in front of us.
I swerved to follow it…and soon was swerving to miss it.
Simon purposefully slowed the remote vehicle down and started wielding its rear tires and bumper as a wrecking ball…threatening to crush me and the innocent passenger if I got too close.
I wasn't in the mood for collateral damage.
I swerved aside, carefully handling the stickshift and gritting my teeth.
Ben panted.
The T-Car revved its engines, shot forward, and cut off the front of a minivan. The van spun out of control and swerved towards us.
I yanked the wheel to the left suddenly.
Ben flew into his door. "OOF!!"
We screeched around and past the halting van and gained the distance to the T-Car's rear.
Suddenly, mechanical flaps in back of the wild automobile opened and squirted black oil all over the asphalt.
"Say…that's the Cyborg's car, isn't it?!" Ben remarked. "WHOAH!!"
I swerved to the side, barely skirting the oil, barely missing the scratching contact between the guard rail and the immaculate aluminum of the convertible.
Ben sweated bullets.
The oil ran out.
I swerved back directly behind the T-Car.
Two sets of pipes shot out from hidden compartments in the runaway vehicle.
"Um….," Ben glanced at me. "Is that legal?"
I reached a free hand over and covered his mouth and nostrils.
"Mmmmmffff!!!"
PFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT!!!!
I held my breath as we entered a cloud of smog from the T-Car's defenses. Through my shades, I summoned smoke energy and used construction to part the smog----only to find out that the T-Car was decelerating towards us.
Like tin foil to iron…
I slammed onto the breaks.
Ben leaned forward as I released his mouth. He coughed and wheezed.
I bit my lip and swerved the wheel to the side.
The car spun around a total of three times into oncoming traffic.
Cars around us screeched to a halt. Burning rubber was everywhere.
I shifted down and reapplied the breaks.
The convertible jerked to a stop.
Ben gasped.
I gritted my teeth and stared ahead past the dashboard as the T-Car took an onramp….up and onto the highway.
"Oh no….," Ben whimpered and looked at me. "No man…no no no no no no NO NO!!!"
I shifted up.
I slammed down on the gas.
"MOMMY!!!!!!!!" Ben squealed.
We sped directly into the moonlight, then evened out onto the elevated highway. We soared through the acceleration lane, screwed the yield sign, and zoomed after the rocket-on-wheels that was the T-Car down the four lanes of nightly traffic.
Headlights traced past us along with maniacal honkings as we played our deadly cat and mouse game at ninety-plus miles an hour. The T-Car was an exceptionally fast vehicle…built to be lightning in blue form. It rocketed ahead of us, veering in and around trucks and sports cars and other citizens' automobiles.
I wasn't about to let Cyborg be taken away. I swerved desperately in and around traffic. A string of semis blocked my course to the left at one point, so I went offroad—bumping once or twice from asphalt to grass and back to asphalt.
"Look out!!!" Ben pointed.
A broken down car and a tow-truck zoomed up at us.
I swerved to the left.
Ben covered his eyes.
SWOOOSH!!!
The crane of the tow truck nearly clipped our heads off.
I gulped and pressed harder on the gas.
Still not fast enough.
I concentrated.
Smoke danced off my shoulders, murked down my arms, coursed through my fingers, danced off the steering wheel, poured into the ignition, swam through the alternator, giggled along wires, jumped into the engine, and exploded in a bulb of dark energy at the tip of the spark plug….again…again…and again.
VroooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
"Sweet jebus!" Ben whimpered and held tightly to an emergency bar on the doorframe as we rocketed at an unnatural speed past cars in adjacent lanes and gradually caught up with the T-Car. The tires screamed and burned. The engine wailed. Ben was afraid to even look at the speedometer.
I glanced—sweating—through my vibrating shades and saw an offramp up ahead, just in front of where the highway overpass swerved left. I looked back at the T-Car. I had a plan.
I poured more murk into the engine.
We accelerated.
The car would have caught fire…
We zoomed past the T-Car.
It swerved to hit us.
We pulled out ahead at the nick of time.
The T-Car struck the front of a semi-truck engine, forcing the trailer to jackknife and halt all traffic behind us to a screeching end.
Now it was just us and the T-Car.
I took a deep breath. I gripped hard to the wheel and clutch.
"Um….."
3….
"Sir?"
2…
"Wh-What are you doing?"
1…
"S-Sir?!"
0.
"Don't you ever talk—AAAAAH!!"
I hit the clutch, shifted all the way down, and spun madly at the wheel.
The car screeched a one hundred and eighty degree spin on its wheels.
I hit the clutch, shifted in reverse, and reapplied the gas.
VRUUUUUUUM!!!!
The convertible sped backwards—speeding in reverse—with us facing the front of the T-Car's glaring headlights over the dashboard.
"Holy crap….holy crap holy crap holy crap!" Ben shuddered. "We are NOT going backwards at ninety miles an hour on a highway!!"
We were.
I gripped the wheel tightly with one hand, driving backwards. With the free hand, I lifted Myrkblade overhead. Ben cowered as I twirled the weapon in one hand like a baton, charging it with black energy.
The T-Car revved its engines and zoomed straight down on us.
I squinted one black eye.
Smoke warbled through Myrkblade.
HONK!! HONK!!
I gasped and launched it over the dashboard like a javelin.
SWOOOOOSH-CHUNK!!!
It embedded itself deep inside the metal bumper of the T-Car. It vibrated with smoking energy…but didn't discharge. Waiting….....
Similar smoke drifted out from under my shades. I gritted my teeth, swerved right on the steering wheel, and hit the breaks.
SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!
"OH SH--!!!" Ben almost vomited.
The convertible spun wildly.
I steered at the last second, making us spin down the offramp and out of the T-Car's zooming way.
We screeched to a stop about ten feet below the curve of the overpass.
I took a breath, meditated, and flicked a wrist.
A stream of smoke shot forward.
The dark energy channeled into Myrkblade released.
SWOOSH!!!
Smoke and murk blurred out from the T-Car's bumper, forming a ramp that sent the vehicle sailing up off the asphalt, losing control, and smashing through the guard rail of the highway's turn.
CRASH!!!!
In slow motion, the T-Car zoomed out into the open air and directly over us. Pieces of the guard rail slammed into the ground on either side.
I jumped up, planted my feet on the back of the driver's seat, and shot murk out of my lower limbs. I zoomed directly upwards like a black comet, grabbed ahold of the wooden blade sticking out of the airborne T-Car's bumper, tightened my wrists, and swung myself up and back onto the hood of the remotely controlled vehicle in time for us to land with a shower of sparks and go careening down the streets leading out of the City.
Time resumed.
Ben watched as I rode the wild vehicle off into the distance.
The convertible hummed to silence…not a single dint on it.
He took a deep breath and slumped back into his seat.
"Whew….."
Just then, a distracted bicyclist pedaled straight into the convertible.
CLANG!!!
Scraaaaaatch!
"ACK! Look what you did!! My best friend's car! You son of a---"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The sparks died down.
Robin flung the cape off him, stood up, and looked down from the dry side of the concrete pipe.
An electric bolt or two jumped up from the river of sludge and sewage water. Then everything was silent. Empty.
Slug was nowhere to be seen.
"Bon voyage…," Robin saluted. He whipped out a grappling hook, aimed through the open grate above, and lifted himself out of the pipe.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Starfire and Beast Boy led the pack of panicked workers downstairs to an abandoned prison corridor. A long, dark-lit hall stretched before them—laden with bricks—and with rusted jail cells emptily lining the sides and ends. At the far side was a touch of moonlight and—thus—an exit.
"Through there!" Starfire pointed. "Get as far away from the prison as you can! You will be safe!"
BANG!
PING!
A single bullet landed against the brick besides the Tamaranian.
"EEP!" she flinched.
The workers gasped.
Beast Boy looked over, mouth agape.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Reload beamed from the far end of the old corridor. "I've got a lot to catch up on my community service," and she aimed at the throng of innocent people.
Starfire growled, eyes glowing green, and she launched a fiery starbolt down the hallway. It lit up the abandoned cells like an emerald comet.
Reload retracted her guns, glowed red-orange eyes, and produced a scimitar out of mid-air that spun and batted the starbolt away.
CLANG!!
Starfire threw another energy projectile.
Reload spun the scimitar and slashed forward, knocking it back towards Starfire.
FLASH!!
Bricks flew. The workers cried out.
"Get out of here!" Beast Boy shouted at them.
Everyone made a mad dash towards the exit.
Reload giggled evilly, pivoted her wrist guns into position, and took aim. "Like shooting pescado en un barril…."
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!
Everyone flinched…including the heroes.
The bulletstream sailed through the air and exploded…a few feet before they could hit the victims.
Reload's eyes twitched.
A black curtain of energy had stretched out between her and the targets.
Reload growled and spun around.
A huge onyx fist materialized in the air and struck her across the head.
SMACK!!
"UGH!!" the half human fell back.
Raven lowered to the ground and stood before her at a long distance.
Starfire and Beast Boy beamed.
Reload got up—wincing--and spat. "Bruja!!"
"Speak English," Raven scowled.
"I think I'll plug a bullet into each of your eyesockets and set off the blasting caps from a distance," she grinned. "Then maybe I'll remove your kidneys with a bayonet and feed them to you while your face is bleeding too much to shed tears." The woman cackled, cocked her guns, and struck a pose. "Sounds painful, verdad?"
Raven frowned. "You don't know pain." Her eyes glowed. She lifted her arms. Her cape billowed.
The corridor shook and turned doubly dark. An invisible wind kicked up.
Starfire blinked.
Beast Boy gulped and forced the workers out finally.
Raven walked forward slowly—one boot placed gracefully in front of the other. Her arms raised like skeletal, blue wings. Eyes glowed a bright gray.
Reload grit her teeth and aimed both arm guns at the dark Titan.
Raven's wrists pivoted.
A set of rusted jail bars rattled in its brick foundation, snapped out of the hold, and sailed out into the corridor, striking Reload.
WHANG!!
"AUGH!!" the woman toppled back, wincing.
Raven twisted her wrists again.
Another set of bars shook to life. Covered in black energy.
Reload growled and aimed again.
The bars ripped out of wall, dragging brick with them in mid air, and struck Reload against her back.
SMACK!!
"OOF!!" Reload stumbled forward, dizzily regained her footing, and shouted: "No vas a vencer mi!!!"
Raven's glowing eyes thinned. "Let's test your metal."
The winded picked up.
She floated into the air.
Every cell along the corridor rattled.
In an instant, all the bars ripped out of the walls, congealed into one cyclonical mass of floating metal in the center of the hallway, and rushed towards Reload like a giant snake of rust.
"AAAAAAAUGH!!" Reload raised her hands and fired madly at the stream of metal.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!
The gunfire ate its way into the wall of spinning, flying bars, but eventually the bullets were all either deflected or shattered as the invading, metallic monster slithered its way in mid air into Reload.
CLANG!!
"OOF!!" she was tossed back, shoved over the dirty floor, and thrown—screaming—into an open cell beyond Starfire and Beast Boy.
Raven gritted her teeth and crossed her arms.
On command, the telekinetically charged metal squashed itself over the entrance to the one cell housing Reload. Thunder echoed throughout the prison as the metal slammed to a stop, crumpled under Raven's forces, and compacted itself into one, huge, rusted prison door.
Then…silence. Not even Reload's loud mouth.
Raven landed to the ground. Her eyes returned to normal as she dusted her hands off and walked away. "No parole…"
Beast Boy ran up. "Yeah! Raven!" he hopped with a cheer. "You can be our warden any day!"
"Most glorious intervention!" Starfire added.
Raven looked at the two. "Have either of you heard from Cyborg or Noir?"
"No," Starfire shook her head. "The last we heard of them, Robin was trying to make contact."
"Oh man….are they missing or something??" Beast Boy uttered.
"Looks that way…," Raven said.
"I'd have to agree," spoke a voice behind them.
The three Titans turned to see Robin land down from a stairwell into a crouch, stand up, and walk over to them. "I've lost track of Slug, though I think I put him into pretty bad shape. Looks like you three have taken care of Reload here."
"Yes…," Raven droned. "'Us three'."
Beast Boy glared.
"Then…we are victorious?" Starfire uttered.
Raven sniffed the air, made a face, and muttered: "Hardly."
Robin looked at her funny.
SMASH!!!!
Slug landed down through the brick ceiling.
The four Titans jumped back.
Slug stood up, slowly. He had burn marks all over from the electrical shock. What's worse, his metal and human skin was dripping with sewage. He was still wet. "That….," he uttered and shook a few droplets off. "…smelled like crap."
Beast Boy gulped. "So does this."
Slug growled and charged at the four, his blue limbs blazing.
"Titans!" Robin pointed. "GO!"
And the four met the charge.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!
I took a deep breath, leaned over atop the speeding T-Car, and tried again.
CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!
After two consecutive tries, I just couldn't puncture the tire with Myrkblade. The vehicle's tires were simply constructed beyond the normal constraints of durability.
I took a deep breath, charged up murk, summoned it through the length of my sword, and stabbed down hard.
POP!!!-FFFFFF!!!
The T-Car thu-thumped down to a speed twenty miles per hour less than before after I successfully ripped apart its front left tire.
I smiled in conquest momentarily before---
SHLUMP!!!
The tire magically reinflated.
VROOOOOM!!
The T-Car regained its maddening speed.
I gasped.
"My nephew has created the most remarkable feat of engineering," Simon's voice said. "Not even you can undermine his prowess."
I frowned. I had had enough. I re-gripped Myrkblade, held it up over my head, and prepared to stab deep into the vehicle's engine compartment.
Simon must have sensed what I was up to—however he was monitoring me during this wild wide.
"One last measure, Titan," he said. "I've been saving it for a rainy day."
He swerved to the right, cutting off three lanes of traffic. Cars swerved and honked as I struggled desperately to cling onto my position atop the hood. We sailed through the air for a split second as we zoomed downhill then regained our momentum on the asphalt.
"Plug your ears…"
I looked ahead. My black eyes widened under the shades.
Ahead of us was a tunnel set underneath a hill on the outskirts of town. It was only two lanes.
A peculiar smell filled the air.
I sniffed, and realized it was coming from the rear of the T-Car.
And I remembered…the nitro!
Aw crap……aw crap aw crap aw crap!
I looked desperately around me.
We were passing cars, swerving in front of others, and generally causing a huge ruckus amongst the tunnel-bound traffic.
Then I saw a red pickup truck ahead to the right. I craned my neck and gasped to see what was in the bed of the truck. Lumber and loose chains.
I poised myself on the back of the T-Car, and at the right moment, I pounced off—landed atop a sports car—and agilely leapt into the back of the pickup truck with a THUMP!
I grabbed a handful of chains, wrapped them around my right arm, and—quick as lightning—jumped off the truck onto a jeep, leapt onto a minivan, slid down to the hood and jumped back onto the rear of the T-Car, barely making it onto the trunk.
"You're playing a dangerous game, Titan…"
The nitro thrusted yawned open in front of my face. It started glowing orange.
I gasped and scrambled to the top of the T-Car.
We approached the mouth of the tunnel.
I loosened the chain in my grasp and held Myrkblade out.
We zoomed towards the entrance. I could already hear the echoes of honks around us.
I wrapped the chain around the middle of my wooden sword and formed a 'knot'.
SWOOSH!!!
The tunnel's ceiling rushed over us.
I sat up straight. My heart skipped a beat.
"It's been a nice drive, Noir. Fairwell."
FWOOOOOOOM!!!
The nitro lit.
The thin air inside the tunnel heated up.
The T-Car passed the one hundred and eighty mile per hour mark and streaked like a blue kamikaze towards the vehicles ahead.
I was literally flailing at the end of rear bumpers, gripping on for dear life as the nitro burned just a foot or two over my head and we approached a semi-truck trailer.
I gritted my teeth and prepared myself, keeping a tight hold to the chain and Myrkblade.
As I expected, Simon swerved T-Car to the right. The accelerated vehicle literally ran up the wall with its monumental speed, angled over, and zoomed over the ceiling.
Two hundred and thirty miles an hour…
When I could no longer hold onto the burning metal, I dropped down and landed with my back against the semi-truck trailer. Upside down, I let momentum slide me along the white metal roof of the trailer, during which time slowed down for me to spin the myrkblade by the chain over my head, aim, and fling the smoke-charged object at the rocketing T-Car overhead.
SWOOOOOSH-SMASH!!!
Myrkblade smashed through the rear window and into the nitro-ing vehicle's interior.
I yanked back.
CLANK!!!
The length of the blade acted as an anchor and held firm against the thin hole it had formed in the window.
My whole body was pulled like a rag doll off the semi truck.
I twirled about in mid air as I came off the trailer. My feet planted down onto the hood of the engine and snapped off the clear, plastic bug guard.
The T-Car veered left and angled itself back onto earth.
CRAAACK!!
I landed on the ground, my feet planted firmly against the plastic bug guard sheet which--due to the speed of the asphalt passing beneath me—acted as waveboard of sorts that kept my blurred feet from grinding into the ground. I held myself tethered at a distance of twenty feet with the chain wrapped around my right arm and with my left hand gripping hold.
The T-Car swerved in and out of traffic. I slid directly behind it, pivoting my legs and letting sparks and gravel fly as I 'surfed' between cars and motorists along the length of my chain.
As the nitro began to die out, the T-Car swerved around and in front of a commercial bus.
I was careening towards the length of the transport vehicle.
I gritted my teeth, blurred smoke beneath me, and leapt myself and the plastic board up—grinding vertically against the side of the bus. Passengers inside shrieked and ducked as I surfed over the windows, cracking them into a million fractures. I winced and formed a shield of smoke around me just as I smashed through the side mirror, which went flying against the wall of the tunnel with a CLANK!
I leapt off the edge of the bus and landed back on the asphalt with the plastic board. I pulled myself forward on the chain to gain distance.
The T-Car swerved again, forcing me to head directly towards a sports car.
Desperate, I took a breath and leapt off the plastic sheet. I flew over the car. The sheet slid under the car. We both met on the other side. SCRAAAAPE!! I continued sliding after the T-Car.
It swerved again, and the momentum forced me up towards the tunnel's right wall. I gasped, blurred my left foot, and tossed the sheet up into my grasp in time for me to contact the wall with my legs. My feet dashed a mile a minute against the blurring wall while the hot plastic sheet burned in my left grasp, causing me to wince. As the T-Car angled out towards the exit, I leapt off the wall, flipped, tossed the sheet beneath me, and resumed sliding on my tether over asphalt.
WOOOSH!!!
We exited the tunnel and the road took a sharp right turn along a hillside. I flew right into a thick guardrail.
I leapt in the nick of time and grinded the plastic sheet along the length of the guardrail, curving around to match the T-Car's turn. Miraculously, my grinding helped me catch up with the T-Car's slowed speed from the turn. When there was no guardrail left, I leapt forward with a charge of smoke, let out a silent yell, and managed to land back on the rear of the T-Car.
I took a deep breath, yanked at the chain hard, and managed to snap the shattered window out from its frame. I regripped Myrkblade, shook the chain off it, and snaked into the rear seat of the T-Car. For the first time since this crazy chase began, I was back inside the interior of the automobile. I immediately reached for Cyborg's shoulder to drag him out.
"No you don't."
The seat beneath me shook.
The ceiling opened up.
I gasped and dashed aside.
FWOOOMP!!!
The left rear ejector seat went off, nearly searing my leg.
The seat I was on started to shake.
I jumped off immediately.
FWOOOOMP!!!
The right rear seat ejected.
I gritted my teeth and dove madly towards the front of the car, Myrkblade first.
I jabbed it hard into the dashboard, stabbing closer and closer into the alternator. Sparks flew. The lights flickered.
"Enough…"
The T-Car swerved to the side.
I tumbled.
The right passenger door yanked open and I flew out.
I rolled on the asphalt, jumped up, and landed directly in front of the T-Car in a ready position as if nothing happened.
I panted…panted…panted.
The T-Car faced me with glaring headlights.
I panted.
Its engine revved.
I glared.
"I lied, Titan…" Simon said. "I do have another last measure. One I was hoping you wouldn't force me to use."
With a mechanical whur, a panel in the top of the T-Car opened up and Cyborg's patented photon cannon appeared, glowing at me.
"The force of this gun's blast is sufficient enough to match my nephew's laser rifle," Simon's voice said over the speakers. "It would be a shame to see what it could do. Not necessarily to you, Noir, but to those around you."
I gasped.
I looked around at my surroundings for the first time.
We were in an intersection at the border of City limits. To my left was a gas station where I could see a few patrons. Behind me was a huge plaza with a Wal-Mart and one or two fast food restaurants. To my right was an entrance to a retirement home. To top it all off, each road of the intersection was full of stopped cars. Drivers and passengers looked out with a mixture of curiosity and fear at the unfolding situation before me.
"What's it going to be, Titan?" Simon's voice said. "Let's not end this day with an unnecessary massacre."
I glared angrily at the car through my shades…as if I could see the man's face.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"RAAAAUGH!!" Slug punched Robin hard, sending the Boy Wonder flying.
Starfire flew over him in the corridor, launching Starbolts.
Slug blocked with his metallic forearms.
Just then, his right arm was covered in black obsidian and lifted him into the air.
Slug gasped and glared over at a floating Raven with glowing eyes.
The villain looked down and saw a metal bar on the floor. Before he was out of reached, he kicked the object up with his boot, grabbed it in his hand, charged it with blue energy and tossed it at Raven.
The girl's eyes widened.
On the ground, Robin stood up, shouted, and tossed a birdarang.
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!!
The object barely deflected the metal bar from striking Raven's face. A shower of sparks from the impact struck her eyes and forced her to drop Slug with a cry.
No sooner was the villain on the ground that a green T-rex bore down on him.
Slug lifted his blue-charged limbs and gripped the T-rex's mouth. The two struggled as Beast Boy tried to bite down on him and Slug tried to force him back.
Raven rubbed her eyes.
Starfire circled ahead.
Robin stood up, painfully.
In the background—unknown to them—the metal door formed by Raven's manipulation of the metal bars started to shake. They suddenly exploded outward from the pressure of constant bulletfire.
Growling, Reload emerged from her 'cell' and glared over at the four Titans battling her partner.
She looked over and saw a circuit breaker against the wall.
She hobbled over, punched the thing open with a grunt, and shoved her hand into the mess of old, rotting wires.
They were still live.
BZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!
Sparks flew. Her end of the corridor lit up.
Reload gritted her teeth as she channeled wave after wave of electrical energy through her fingers and into her body. Her eyes glowed a hot red/orange.
She brought her hands out—sparking—and yelled as she summoned a huge wave of transfer. Soon, she had a huge metal object in her grasp. A rocket launcher.
"SLUG!!!" she howled.
The villain and the T-Rex looked over.
"BARBECUE TIME!!! AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"
Starfire gasped and pointed. "Look out!!"
POW!!!!
Slug took advantage of the Beast Boy's shock by shoving the T-Rex's snout into the ground. He made a mad dash for the far side of the corridor.
The rocket flew.
SHOOOOOOM!!!
"Titans! Move!" Robin shouted.
Raven had her eyes shut.
Beast Boy was stuck on the ground between animal modes.
Robin was limping.
And Starfire…rushed into the fray to help one of them.
FWOOOOOM!!!
A fireball exploded above them, and huge pieces of brick and concrete fell down on the Titans' prone figures.
Bathing them…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Time to choose, Titan…," Simon's voice said through the speakers. "You can have my nephew…but you can have the lives of innocent dozens—even hundreds on your head."
I glared at the T-Car, my body heaving.
The vehicle squared off against me. Its photon cannon charged.
Silence.
The bystanders looked on fearfully.
I took a deep breath.
I sheathed Myrkblade.
"Smart boy…," Simon's voice said. The photon cannon retracted and the engine revved again. "Your heroics will go down in the annals of……something. Though, you can't trust me to tell you which. I hope you and Cyborg will meet again someday. I truly hope you do. So long."
The T-Car spun about, screeched its tires, and sped down the road and out of the City.
I clenched my fists. I watched the vehicle and its headlights zoom towards the horizon.
I sighed and looked down between my feet.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Shouts and pounding.
Robin groaned. He slowly opened his eyes.
He was lying on his back in the center of the main prison corridor of the place. The other Titans were lying unconscious beside him.
On either side of him, convicts banged against the cell bars and shouted at the Titans and their captors.
Before he had a chance to struggle, Reload finished forging metal handcuffs around his arms from out of thin air.
He glared at her.
She blew him a kiss, smiled, and walked over towards a cell where Slug stood, holding Robin's utility belt.
"What….are you here for?" Robin wheezed.
"Well, for you Titans, naturally," Slug spoke. "It was a marvelous trap…not without its fair share of challenges, I must say. You should be commended."
"Cyborg….Noir….," Robin coughed and managed to say. "You two must know where they are. What have you done to them?"
"Exactly what must be done…," said a familiar voice. Simon Stone walked up from the background and sighed down at Robin. "I'm really sorry things had to happen this way, young leader. I really am."
"You betrayed us…," Robin gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I bet you're sorry."
Simon's face was melancholy. "If only you knew the truth." He looked over at Reload and Slug and spoke with a nod, "Let's get this over with…"
"Like I said, Titan," Slug smiled and reached into the Boy Wonder's utility belt. He pulled out a fancy, universal key which the young Titan used for covert operations. "We got exactly what we came here for." He handed it to Reload.
Reload smiled, took the key, and opened up a nearby cell.
The convicts shouted vulgarities and utterances of confusion.
The inmates inside the cell stood up as the metal door opened.
Robin watched, squinting through his eyemask.
Slug stepped into the dark cell.
An inmate stretched his arms out before him, grinning: "Take me, honey, I'm yours!"
The others laughed.
Slug effortlessly shrugged the one into the wall. "Settle down, Junior. You're not worth this trip." He sauntered over to a frail, sleeping figure in the far cot. "Mr. Anderson…your ride is here."
Slowly, the old man turned over. Sleepy eyes graced Slug from under a bald head. He slowly smiled. "It's about time…," he wheezed.
He stood up as Slug guided him out. A convict ran up, protesting. Slug merely elbowed his face in, quieting all the others in the cell.
Robin watched them emerge. He saw Mr. Anderson's face.
"The man from Westhaven…," Robin gasped. "The opera house…"
"The rule of the game, kid," Anderson smirked, "…is to always have a backup plan."
Robin's face twisted. "The heck is going on here?"
WHUMP!!
Slug kicked the Boy Wonder in the stomach and leaned down over his wheezing figure. "Refit, Titan. Refit."
Robin coughed. "R-Refit?!"
Simon lowered his head. "Exactly…," he looked over at Anderson. "Sir…my nephew is waiting for us at your laboratory."
"Cyborg….right?"
"Victor…," Simon glared.
Mr. Anderson walked up and firmly pointed to Simon's chest. "Watch. It."
Simon didn't stop frowning.
Anderson looked at Reload.
Reload smiled and closed the cell door.
"Let's get going…," the balding man muttered. "And take the Titans with us!"
"Gladly," Slug smirked and hoisted Robin and Raven over his shoulders.
Reload took the rest while Simon followed the exiting party close behind.
The footsteps and the shoutings rocked their way into Robin's head.
And the Boy Wonder went unconscious again.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
WHURRRRRRRR!!
The huge entrance doors to the Tower slowly opened.
I limped in, wincing all over. I tried for the umpteenth time to contact Robin through morse code on my communicator.
No response.
I sighed and looked up the length of the Tower's Interior.
I froze.
No Simon.
No Titans.
No lights.
What's going on here?
I limped my way into the elevator and took it to the Main Room.
The monitors inside were still on. That brought me some relief. But the lights overhead were dim and flashing read for some reason.
Hmmmm…
I shuffled slowly into the room, looking around.
Nobody was there.
Are they still at the prison?
I looked at the main computer screen and its monitor. The image of a word processing program was up. Three words were splayed across the screen.
I walked up slowly, took off my shades, and squinted with black eyes.
'I AM SORRY'
The words were in a gentlemanly font.
Simon…
I hesitantly pressed the ESC key on the keyboard.
The screen brightened as the window of an important program flashed before my eyes and stabbed deep into my optics with the glaring digital confirmation:
'TITAN TOWER MAIN POWER CORE'
'SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE IN EFFECT'
'COUNTDOWN TIMER: 00 Hours 00 Minutes 07 Seconds'