Chapter VII: The Cleaners

December 4th, 2018

Day 5, Status: Outbreak

Infected: 2,895

Death Toll: 1,395

Division Base of Operations, Jump City Docks

9:00AM

Faye Lau stood in concern about a foe that's very familiar to her, but not to the Titans at all. When Robin and his team walked into the situation room, she immediately turned her attention to them. "Ah, Titans. Perfect timing." She greeted the Titans. "Miss Lau, Chief Johnson said there is something concerning you but he said you would only tell us." Starfire said with concern. "Actually, Starfire, you guys are going to want to hear this. I didn't tell Johnson because this recent threat in Jump City is even worse for his men to handle than the rioters." Lau began to brief the Titans on the situation. "What could be worse than rioters?" Asked Beast Boy. "Whatever it is, it doesn't scare us!" "Actually, Beast Boy, you are not going to believe what this new enemy call themselves and what their intentions are." Lau pulled up an image of a guy in a yellow hazmat suit carrying a rifle with a flamethrower attached as an underbarrel. "These guys are called Cleaners, They intend to stop the virus from spreading across the city by scorching everything and everyone in site, infected or not." The Titans gasped in shock in what Lau explained to them. "That is so messed up!" Cyborg spoke up. "Rioters killing and taking from innocent people is one thing, but burning them alive is even worse!" "Agreed. Just imaging these "cleaners" lighting these innocents up and watching them suffer as they slowly burn to death!" Robin was outraged by the cleaners' actions. "And all because they just want to stop the spread of the dollar flu!" Raven as furious at their intentions. "There is actually a vaccine for this virus, right?" Starfire had her hopes us there is a vaccine. "There is a vaccine, but it's all the way in New York City." Lau answered in bitter disappoint in the situation she is about to explain. "You see, this vaccine originated in New York where the dollar flu first hit. The only way to get the vaccine from there to Jump City is to have them delivered, but that will be an issue because Jump City is on lockdown." The Titans groaned in hopelessnes, but Lau wasn't finished yet. "However, I can arrange a helicopter to fly to New York, pick up the needed amount of vaccinations there, and have it flown to the base of operations. It might take time for that to go through, but it will happen." The Titans all responded with an "oh", their hopes restored. "If that's not to happen, we can always gather blood samples from the innocent people of Jump City. We can have Dr. Kandel create new vaccines for them. Healthy ones, sick ones, you name it." Robin spoke up in relief. "Worst case scenario, I take it. Where can we get blood samples?" Lau then pulled up a holographic map of Jump City. "There are people kicked out of shelters that are sick with the dollar flu. They live in shantytowns, scattered across the city. If you can find one, you might be able to draw blood for the residents, if there willing." Beast boy knew this was going to be easy. "This is going to be—" "Easy? You might wanna check this out." Lau pulled up a recording of a call between two cleaners.

"We found more of them in the slums." A male voice can be heard on one end of the call. "More of those infected fuckers? Those shantytowns sure are scattered as shit." A female voice can be heard on the other. "We torched another one. That should be reassurance." "Nice job on that, but watch yourself out there, I heard the Division has been activated again and are on the scene, and this time, they have the Teen Titans on their side." "Aw, shit. Looks like the lying government managed to get superheroes on their side on this one." "It's not like in New York City, where they killed Joe. They had even crazier help. Some of them can fly, some of them can use something called magic, and some of them are even giant robots!" "Jesus H. Christ, I do not need a reminder on that." "Gotcha. Over and Out." The call ended.

"The Titans were shocked to hear there really is another group terrorizing innocents in Jump City. "Were those guys cleaners?" Beast Boy asked. "They were talking about burning shantytowns around the city." Raven said. "I located another shantytown in the city. There's people there, clean ones, sick ones, even ones who were sick, but are now healthy. However, the cleaners are producing napalm near those people." Lau informed the Titans on the situation. Robin knew what she was talking about, what the cleaners are producing. "Isn't napalm a stick and explosive substance?" Fau answered his question. "You got that right, and the cleaners are making lots of it right there. For your mission today, not only are you to gather blood samples from the people there, but you are also to destroy the napalm production facility near them." "Yes, ma'am!" The Titans said in unison. "Be careful you guys don't get scorched yourself." Lau gave them a heads up.

12:00PM

Jump City Slums

The Titans were walking on the train tracks near the slums of Jump City, looking for the shantytown Lau Said was in. Robin was looking out for an ambush by more rioters, or worse, cleaners. The Titans stopped upon murmured chatter nearby. "Everyone quiet. There's the shantytown, but there's two cleaners here." Robin told his subordinates in a quiet tone. The Titans got as close as they can to be able to hear what is going on without being noticed.

The Titans can also see the cleaners dragging a married couple out of a tent. One of them said something. "These guys are infected? You sure about this?" The other one then spoke. "Shame there's no way to tell if they are sick right now. No use in waiting and seeing what happens, though." "Scorch these guys right now?" "You read my mind." The woman begged for mercy from the cleaners. "No, please, don't kill us!" The cleaners laughed at her pitiful attempt at mercy. "Sorry, lady, not taking any chances with you!" "Please, NO!"

Just then, the cleaners' weapons were snatched away and thrown to the side by a dark tendril summoned by Raven. "Holy fuck, did you see that just now?" "You're not the only one who saw that!" The cleaners were shocked to see what just happened. "Hey!" Raven's voice echoed throughout the area. The Titans then came out of hiding and revealed themselves to the cleaners tormenting the couple. Robin then said something to the cleaners. "We know what you're going to do to those innocent people, and we won't allow it, even if they are sick!" The cleaners gasped in shock. "Fuck... it's those Teen Titans we heard about!" Beast Boy spoke in intimidation. "Yeah, and we know your intentions are to burn down those who are sick with the dollar flu. We won't allow that!" "The cleaners were agitated with the Titans getting in the way. "You may be real life superheroes, but do you kids really think you can scare us that easily? We'll burn you down, then those guys right there!"

The cleaners tried to reach for their weapons, but Robin threw smoke bombs at them, clouding their vision. Raven then summoned two dark tendrils to detatch the weapons from their tanks, leaving them unarmed. "Shit, to think we would be easily overpowered by a bunch of kids!" "Let's get out— Hungh?!?" The cleaners were then knocked unconscious by Starfire. Moments later, they were tied up without their tanks strapped to their backs. Cyborg was hyped at this victory. "Booyah! We showed them!" The couple were surprised to be saved by a bunch of kids. Then again, the two of the, know who they are. "Thank you, Teen Titans. If it weren't for you five, those guys would burn us to a crisp." The man said. The woman then spoke up. "Say, are you teaming up with the Division to save this city right now?" The titans nodded their heads in agreement. "You got that right." Said Beast Boy. "Thank Goodness, There is hope for this city after all, even though half of the police were brutally killed by rioters." "We hoped for outside help, but the quarantine makes it impossible for anyone to get in or out of the city. It's not even easy on the streets with rioters and more of these cleaners everywhere." "Come, the center of this refuge is not far. We can take you there." Robin agreed. "Alright, we got to warn your people about a danger near your home anyway."

A large crowd of clean and infected people gathered around the center of the shantytown. Robin is ready to make a speech to them. "Attention, everyone, my name is Robin, and these are my subordinates, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven." The other four Titans said a simple hello to the crowd. "We are the Teen Titans, and we come to warn you of a threat to your refuge. There are cleaners in the area around it, burning everyone they see to a crisp, no matter if they are infected or clean. They have a napalm facility near your home, and they intend to use the napalm they produce there to turn your home into ash. We will deal with the facility. In the meantime, this refuge has been marked for arrival by Division agents to protect you in case any more cleaners show up in our absence. You will be safe and so will your home. I also want to let you know they will be taking blood samples from you to develop a vaccine for the disease terrorizing Jump City. Thank you for your time." As Robin finished his speech, Faye Lau and a moderately-sized team of agents came in. "Wonderful speech, Robin. Heard every single word on our comm." "It's nothing Lau. Most heroes make speeches like this to innocents to really bring their hopes up." "Anyway, we got the refugees covered, you five deal with the cleaners and their napalm factory nearby." "You can count on us to do this, Miss Lau!" Starfire said in confidence. "That is the attitude that will have us succeed in taking back Jump City! Good luck, Titans. You're going to need it."