Disclaimer: By this means, I rightfully claim ownership to this FanFiction story and my original character within it, by my trademark signature T.M.O at the conclusion of every update. Any other characters that may appear in this work and are new, these are the rightful properties by their creators as well and cannot be reproduced, or duplicated without their individual consent. I do not own anything within the DC Universe, from Warner Brothers, or on Cartoon Network. The only original character and the name that I created for him; that I accept half ownership on is Falcon from this telling. Scififanfreak222 owns the second half of him as well, for drawing him upon a collaboration of various new designs and sketches within the year of 2010; and cannot be knowingly placed into another literary document, writing community, comic book series, and or televised broadcast without either of our written or verbal consent in front of legal consultants. TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne, Scififanfreak222, xSaffire55x, Novus Ordo Seclorum, and RavenxIsxAxBlackxRose; each of these fellow writers have helped me to press onwards with this story, every-time I have come across writers block. Without their outstanding guidance, the updates would have taken me even longer to complete.
Chapter 23 is now posted! The consequences of many actions are given, Beast Boy finds an awakening of hope, while The Titan's Technological Expert is confronted with a new threat. "Our fears always outnumber our dangers." -Latin phrase-
Chapter 23 - Darkness Of The Void
"What are you in for this time? Um . . . miss . . . ?" The secretary at the front desk asked, in a somewhat sneering tone of voice.
"Spears." The blue haired girl answered. "My name is Elizabeth Saffire Spears, and I'm coming from Mr. Lumus's history class."
"Okay then. Miss Spears."
The attractive woman began to type on her keyboard, her fingers were causing the clicking sound to reverberate. It brought about the unanticipated effect upon the teenager, to cringe a little as she stood by the entrance. It was done in a clearly abundantly aggressive manner.
"State your reason for being sent here."
The student held her left elbow with her right hand, while glancing to the window behind the receptionist."Self-Defense."
The clicking stopped immediately. The woman behind the counter tilted her blue eyes up from the computer screen, and she revealed an unamused look.
Elizabeth held a firm grip onto her pack, while she bit her lower lip. The teenager was certain that she had grabbed everything, and she exited her classroom so quickly, that she never took a second to double check her belongings.
The attractive woman was wearing glasses and her hair was in a bun. "Self-defense huh? Now where have I heard that excuse before?"
She slowly shifted her blue eyes back onto the computer. The frames to her glasses were giving her an even more alluring appeal, while a single strand of hair slowly dangled in front of her left eye.
Elizabeth wanted to say something witty, but she refrained herself.
"Well there it is. It says you are on record, that this is the fourth time in two weeks that you have been called in here. And for self-defense . . . it seems that was the exact same excuse you used the previous four times. This makes-"
"Number five. Yeah, yeah, I know."
The woman in her twenties shook her head, making the student feel like she was being scolded by a grandparent, or her father.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "It's been a really, really long week."
"Hmmm."
"What was that?"
The secretary then nodded her head, motioning for the fourteen-year-old to sit down. "You can take a seat over there."
"Thanks." Elizabeth rasped back softly, her throat was a little dry and she wanted a drink of water.
The scuffle that had taken place was in fact carried out, as the act of self-defense but to prove her side of the story, that would be an entirely different matter. She had no real friends at the school which she could seek out for comfort, and anybody in the classes where the incidents had taken place, none were there to corroborate the line of aggression from the three most noticeable bullies in their grade.
It was like a popularity contest for so many of her peers, and everybody knew that to make enemies with these three that went after Elizabeth, they too would be marked and picked on.
The short girl chuckled to herself, as she sat patiently in the comfy chair inside the principle's office. She did put up a good show, and it was not something that anybody wanted to deal with, let alone what she would want to hear from her overly protective father.
She had to get the story straight, and as much as she did not want to ponder over the debacle that she was in fact evading the attackers, Elizabeth understood that she would need to get as many of the facts correct the first time.
So many of her fellow peers at her age, would trip over their own words. Many would not fully understand the reasoning for the way people looked at them, with inquisitiveness, but it was all done as a mental test. In a way the lectures were intended to prove if she was growing from an adolescent and a rebellious teenage girl, into a more responsible, reasonable and understanding young woman.
The high school years were always the most difficult for anybody to ponder over. Elizabeth was in one of her first classes for the day, she went to take her seat. She got out her notebook and pens, where Amber Rey, Kimberly Nox, and Sasha Bee all swarmed around her like the hungry wolves they were fresh out of their den.
It made her feel like the old and sick deer, being pursued aggressively by three salivating canines in the cold winter snow. To finally have run out of room to evade the struggle, and the stalking beasts would inch closer, waiting ever so patiently for the final blow. Something that she enjoyed to watch were the documentaries about nature and animals of the wild.
While tragic it was a way of life for the weak to be hunted by the strong. Yet Elizabeth was not weak, she was misunderstood and she still had much to learn about the world. She had been through a lot of trials, and her zealous nature to prove herself, it made her appear that she was overly cocky and an adrenaline junkie.
For a person to be confident is a good trait, yet overconfidence and stubborn rebellion to authority, the ambition to constantly prove herself and trying to beat all sorts of records, these things made her a bit of a loose cannon.
There was no real reason with why they picked on her, it was never fully known. She believed it was because she did have a very busy schedule outside of school, and the way she took care of herself rather than relying on others, it only made her fellow peers rather envious when they compared themselves to her sense of purpose, and freedom.
Whatever the reason, the young teenager would not play by their rules.
A thing to understand about the high-school layers of the social hierarchy, was that there were codes that the student body set for themselves. Unspoken but understood and ingrained facts, that certain people would not mingle within clubs or specific after-school committees, and sports programs.
Elizabeth did not really care to partake in much of anything, where getting her credits to graduate was all that she focused on. The medical field and hands-on training she was learning outside of this environment, it was what she spent any hours that she could in the hospital. For anybody to navigate their way around the obstructions and labyrinth-like games that certain students put against their fellow classmates, it was indeed a challenge.
The pressure could become too much for some, and there were always those that decided to keep to themselves.
When it came to Elizabeth, she excelled at charging into the obstacles head-on like a bull in a china shop, but she was considered an outcast. Her dark blue hair, her work ethic and the fact that she was striving for other grander goals outside of school, beyond that of the average college applicant and her quiet nature were the defining traits, that she was on some other level.
I really don't want to deal with any of this. The fourteen-year-old released a gentle sigh, to ease herself out of the burden that was tightly clinging to her, constricting the air like her shadow along the wall. Yet here I am . . . again.
To have gotten through one of the toughest challenges in her aspiring field during the incident at the train station, she had preformed as well as she could have hoped to, and she did save the stranger's life.
Who in the heck was he anyway? Her voice rattled in her mind. What was he doing there, and furthermore why am I thinking about him now, after all the other strangers I've come across?
A bemused expression formed across her face, while she concentrated on coming across the strange young man within the ruins. The blood gushing out from his broken and mangled body, he was lifeless, pale, where the wounds across his body were terrible.
"Who are you?" She whispered out-loud, just enough to be heard from the receptionist at the desk, but not fully understood.
(~)
The two teenagers within the tiny hospital recovery room of Jump City Central, both were heard laughing. It was boisterous, and their voices became louder over the other.
Beast Boy continued to talk with a shocking amount of speed, while Terra sat there listening, hanging upon his every word. Then she would interrupt him with a string of questions, and then after answering them, he would prattle off his own questions for her to answer.
For Terra, it was so strange to be finding herself glued to him, after all that had happened, from everything that she did. She noticed that whenever he burst out into a chuckle, she could not help herself but to giggle, right along with him.
She did not know why, but when there were serious moments in his stories, her face would blush. These moments that did occur, Beast Boy noticed the discomfort and so, he would pivot the matter to something else. It was all so unexpected, confusing and difficult to find anything she could say to him now. All she wanted to do was to listen, to hear his rasping voice, to find the comfort in all of the places he had gone to. From the various adventures and heroic deeds he and his teammates had done.
When it came her turn to talk about what had happened, after they bumped into each other at the Murakami High School early in the month, of her two best friends Amber Eileen Mckenney the red head, and Dionne Rochelle Murray, the African American girl, Terra would become stupefied and shrink under the sheets.
Beast Boy would again change the subject, bringing up other topics.
From the countless criminals he and his teammates had thwarted, to the way he told his tales which she had all but forgotten, and yet it was comforting to be with him again. The sorrow and anguish she felt about everything she had done, that she did not remember or want to, the pleasantries that the changeling made did soothe the awkwardness.
And now that she was back, in the middle of a mess that she had no idea as to how she got there or for what purpose, none of it mattered to her. She was safe, and so was he.
The bruises across his cheek, the swollen mark under his right eye, his right arm was in a cast as was his left leg. The green shapeshifter had endured an extremely violent thrashing, but he had preformed admirably and stood his ground against impossible odds. The previous sixth Teen Titan could not remember much of anything, it felt like a blank void of darkness had blindfolded her.
Like the pit of a well she had fallen into, a sensation that Alice In Wonderland must have felt. The girl was unable to stop herself from sliding down the rabbit hole. Tumbling further, and deeper into the greater mystery of the unknown.
She shook her head quickly, she was focused on the changeling, and she smiled when he did, but it was almost hollow. There was an emptiness within her, she wanted to know what had happened, about how she ended up where she had.
Her chest throbbed, as her head ached and she winced.
"Are you alright?" Beast Boy asked as he moved forwards.
"Yeah." Terra slowly leaned back a little while clutching her forehead. "I'm just . . . yeah, it was just a little spasm of the injury. I-I'll be alright."
Beast Boy felt his lips puff up, and he scratched the back of his neck. He was generally concerned about her safety and well being, and in noticing the pain she was in, of the unsettling notion of everything, of waking up in a hospital room and the people you least expect to find in the entire world, The Tamaranean Princess and the changeling were the very ones who welcomed her back.
"Listen." Beast Boy inched himself a bit closer, and he placed his hand onto hers. "I don't want you to feel like . . . well . . . you know. None of this was your fault."
"No, Beast Boy. Please, I . . . the things that I did in the past, from what happened not that long ago and when I told you things change, I know that I hurt you. I am sorry, and I want you to know that I never wanted to hurt you, or anybody."
She slowly pulled her hand back.
"You had your reasons, and . . . and it doesn't matter." He sat up a bit higher in the wheelchair as he tried to rebuild something that was shattered to oblivion between them. Crushed, but the fragments were not lost, and things felt like they were slowly healing.
Beast Boy continued speaking, while the two remembered the dark times. "Things were so complicated, so bitter and unfair. Then the new battle against Slade took place for Jump City, where everything just got out of hand."
She reached her fingers out, and she shut her eyes. This caught him by a deeper sense of conflict, and confusion.
"It may be in the past, but I still hurt you."
"Terra-"
She reached out and stroked his face, causing him to lose his train of thought. The words he wanted to speak became tangled and unmanageable, within in his throat.
"It was a falling out." Terra spoke in her calm and attractive voice. "But it was not the end, nor is this. It was just another part, another chapter of our lives. Another trial and test."
The last word echoed in his skull for a moment. He was dazed and trying to control any emotions, when he just wanted to pull her close for a hug. Yet that very word brought about a strange lingering pause, and a disjointed expression to form across his face.
The Geomancer noticed this look, and it made her fearful that the apology was of little value at all. She did feel awful about her actions, of the things she had done, and the constant struggle to control her powers. For anybody to go through the plights as she had, it would not be an easy thing to live with.
Of those to judge her based on actions alone, without the pain and suffering she had to deal with every single day, it can be quite easy to misplace reasoning with vehement anger. She was confused and insecure, only wishing to be a heroine and a friend of the Teen Titans. However, she was led astray by Slade, who tempted her with false promises that he could teach her, train her to control her incredible powers.
In return for her unwavering loyalty and devoted apprenticeship to him, the grander scale of everything was that she would be led into ruin by her powers anyway.
The balance on the tight-rope she walked was very easy to be pushed asunder. Her friends came to her aid, in her most desperate hour when all the hope had faded, and yet Beast Boy refused to quit on her. She had given up on herself, lost everything including his trust, and still he did not abandon her.
It was only when she told him to leave, to save himself and the others that her sacrifice was given and she was redeemed. Through everything that happened, Beast Boy was always right there by her side, trying to bring a real value in their friendship as he found something in her, something that she did not see.
That feeling was genuine and pure, and while things splintered so far apart as they had, to realize that even now, after all this time that he was still here for her, still waiting by her side and caring for her. It was incredibly touching.
"I know that I hurt you Beast Boy. And . . . for what it may be worth, I am sorry."
He was beginning to get rather tired of all the apologies in one day, so many people were offering condolences and of everybody that made any impact for some reason, hers was the most comforting.
Terra allowed her hand to slip back onto the bed-sheets. She was tired from everything, sore from her wounds, but more over she felt a rising anger at her own actions, suddenly it all boiled over within her heart.
Beast Boy pursed his lips together. "The things that happened, I know . . . I knew that it was never an easy decision for you. But you chose to stop Slade in the end. You saved the city. You have done more than what anybody else could have."
As he glanced to the window by her bed, the phantom image of Falcon appeared, or at least his likeness from memory. This caused his eyes to bulge, and his heart to suddenly race. The sight of The Pyromancer, dressed in his iconic crimson cloak, fluttering about him like flames as his long sharp hood covered his ashen face and his two discolored eyes.
It was a mirage, just as the day he first crossed paths with the lone drifter from out of town.
As the shadows played tricks with his mind, the discussion of events while he was out of commission at the Jump City Dam, with the knowledge that Falcon had perished, it caused the hero to tremble, and his hands to shake.
The cloaked figure gradually dissipated like a cloud or a mist, as the darkness revealed more sunlight peering through the sky from above. This clearly bothered the shapeshifter, and he was finding another strange element about his friends, that he had blocked out.
Robin had wanted to use him as a pawn, as a maneuverable piece on some game to get intelligence about Falcon. The worst part of this truth to digest, it was not that he was angry with the concept of why his leader had gone through with this, but that the others of his team, Cyborg, Starfire, and even Raven were just as complacent and on board with the idea.
Who could Beast Boy fully trust now, when his friends that he had lived with and called family for many years, after all this time and dealing with everything they had, the value they placed with the green skinned changeling appeared to be of something low, a disgrace that he did not want to accept. It reminded him of his final days with his previous family, The Doom Patrol.
"So, you too Raven?" Beast Boy muttered to himself, where the memory of her standing by his bedside, as he awoke in the hospital made him ponder what her motives could be.
"It is gone now, isn't it?" Terra asked.
Wait, did she hear what I said?
"What?" the changeling questioned.
Terra smiled, and his immediate bewilderment caught them each off guard.
"The invitation?"
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be zoning in and out."
"It's alright. I know it must have been a long week for you." She tilted her head and breathed in gently. "What I was wondering, was if it would be alright to celebrate your birthday with you? I mean, I don't want to impose or . . . well, do I make you feel uncomfortable?"
"Wha . . . no. Oh no!" He blushed. What does it matter to those guys anyway? "Of course you can come!" Beast Boy chuckled his usual comedic laughter. It sounded like he was starting to get back to his old self. "I mean, everybody else pretty much just took off, to deal with some dull crime alert."
"They just took off?"
"Yeah."
"Everybody?"
Beast Boy tapped his chin. "Well . . . Starfire is also out-of-commission from what happened to her, and she is roaming around my room I think?"
"Oh, right. I almost forgot about Starfire." Terra blushed, and she felt her hands clasp over one another. "I didn't mean it like that you know, I mean, I'm still trying to grasp everything that happened."
Beast Boy giggled.
"What's so funny?"
He reached over and stroked a stand of her golden blonde hair away from her face. "Things seem to have changed, and well they have, sure."
"But?"
"A lot is still the same too." Beast Boy felt her eyes pierce into his, and the affection from their last night together, the date at the park, and the kiss that almost happened warmed his downtrodden mood.
"Today marks my sixteenth birthday Terra. And while you are not feeling comfortable, and we both have gone through the ringer, well I-I would still like for you to celebrate the party with me, and the others whenever they get back."
Just then her stomach grumbled and churned, as his did too. They both gave each other funny glances and smiled.
"Well, that settles it then." Beast Boy spoke up.
"I am a bit hungry." Terra sensed that her cheeks were turning a vibrant red hue. "And I don't know how bad the hospital chow is?"
"Good thing Starfire and Raven baked their hearts out." He beamed a wide smirk, and a new plan was forming.
The unsettling fear about the actions of her past, towards Beast Boy felt to have finally been overcome. The new struggle that was encroaching on her thoughts, weighing heavily upon her now was what the others would think? How would Robin, or Raven handle this unexpected turn of events?
"I don't think I'll be getting out of this bed anytime soon though." Terra said as she frantically saw the issue becoming too big, and too frightening to confront her old allies.
"Hmmm." Beast Boy thought, and then he snapped his fingers. "Well then, if you can't leave this room, then I guess we'll just have the party in here!"
"Oh, I don't want to make a mess of things more than I already have."
"Nonsense!" Beast Boy waved his hand. "And hey, think of the looks on their faces when they get back!"
"I had almost forgotten how much you liked to play pranks on the others."
"Still do, and it never gets old." He belted a louder laugh than the previous times.
Through all of the pain, misunderstandings, confusion and regret, the two teenagers had found a calm moment, and they could rest easy. For once in her life, Terra felt like she did not have to run off all of a sudden. As for Beast Boy, after so long of a time that he had not finally learned yet, there was a warmth of a new peace with the world, which he had not fully embraced.
(~)
Cyborg continued on his journey, through the cold dark of the tunnel. There were any number of possibilities, as to what could await him at the end of his path.
A bombardment of more sladebots, with their weapons primed at the ready? Cinderblock perhaps was just around the bend? Maybe Slade himself was waiting for him, just goading the lone Teen Titan into an even more elaborate snare, as the illusive game of cat and mouse had no clear objective. Except for the Master Deceiver to know, just how high the stakes would be raised.
The flashlight glow from his shoulder helped to guide him, yet it was still both dark and cold.
His communicator was not receiving any calls, and he could not transmit any message back. Cyborg could either wait for his teammates to get to the bottom, which was the standard move or he could press forwards alone. His curiosity overtook his caution, as something still unnerving about the tracks, this trail spurned an interest within him, to explore.
He had to find where this was going, and any clues could be destroyed by Cinderblock, as the blundering mountain-like criminal, would do everything he could to end the pursuit.
"Hmmm. My scanner is jammed, and my radar can't pick up any sings of life anywhere." Cyborg's powerful voice bounced around him. "I must be really deep under the city, if I can't even pick up life on the surface."
Something jamming his optics and equipment, came into his thinking. A new fear that did have merit to believe in, as there were places across Jump City that distorted things. Then there were the gadgets and devices that Slade had at his disposal, which were simply too vast too count.
"This is some tunnel alright, a shaft that was meticulously drilled for the intent purposes, of getting into the gold depository vault." He tapped his jaw with his right index finger. "Slade really does have an army at his back, and I for one would like to put a stop to it all!"
His slow walk gradually became slower, when he looked at the screen across his right wrist, and the image of static was still blurred into oblivion. He was walking blind, into the abyss where even his sense of smell was turning against him.
The air felt more metallic than cold wet dirt. The sides along the curved walls were very hard, and the floor carried a ricochet, as his boots stomped forwards over metal plating.
"Huh, I don't remember when the floor changed?" Cyborg studied the dank surroundings for a moment, then he shrugged his shoulders. "I must be getting close to a new path."
It was strange, exhilarating almost to be on a mission of his own. To be disobeying orders from Robin was now his primary form of action for the Second-In-Command to do. He was older than The Boy Wonder, he had dealt with far more dangerous situations and critical problems than what any of them had come across.
The frightening aspect about all of this, was that he would not have others to call in to support him, for now, he was completely alone. He had to press forwards, he wanted to prove more than anything that he was a capable leader, and he could take over the reigns on his team. But, would he really want to lead? Robin would constantly be at the opposing end against him, and he would never submit. Still, there was a minor chance that bringing an olive branch, to allow their commander to take a break from this whole leadership role, it might be a new start in their friendship.
Starfire was always going to be the loyal and devoted love interest for the current Team Captain, where she would vote against the gear-head. Conflicts are a natural part of growth, yet the most steady and reassuring element in her life, it was in fact her beau.
Raven was a voice of reason, but even she had her own doubts about critical decisions like this one at such perilous times, where she could potentially be a swing vote. Her displeasure was being more observant from the recent weeks, and this could be her opportunity to change the tide, in how the team could run more effectively. But she seemed like she wanted to keep things as they were, where to upset the balance within their ranks would only complicate matters.
Beast Boy had already been through more than enough. His recent injuries and the discomfort of how he was going to be used, these would be the propelling fuel, to give Cyborg the support of his best friend. Or perhaps he would leave the shapeshifter out of this all together?
With all of these factors to consider, the easiest and a steadily growing sentiment that was gaining more and more traction, would be for him to resign from the team. To go out on his own terms, to form his own path and take on a new adventure. He would always have a place with The Teen Titans, but he could not be their leader, to the extent that he was striving to be.
"If only . . . Falcon were still with us." Cyborg stopped walking and he took a deep breath. "Its always the recent additions to the team, when everything becomes unhinged."
The Team Mechanic frowned, he squeezed his fingers and continued on his way. The lighting in the tunnel was gradually becoming brighter, where a strange and soft humming noise began to churn beneath his feet. The pulsating echo, it sounded to be that of a motor engine having been turned on, and it was steadily becoming louder and more intense. It soon got to the point, that the place wherever he was, felt like it might collapse on him any second!
"What the heck is going on?!"
His feet began to shake, and then the rapid vibrations worked their way up his knees, past his pelvis and towards his spine. A whirling and spinning glow of lights appeared to envelop him, as a strange and alien-like ring of a gigantic size, was rotating around the walls within another even larger ring, and Cyborg was transfixed within the very middle of the device.
As he tried to step forwards, his right foot suddenly became frozen to the metal plating! The full weight of his armor and the metallic components that he only noticed when he first awoke in the hospital, after his father had saved his life, the clunkiness and uneven gaps that his suit formed and bonded against his flesh came back to him. This undesired feeling had returned, and he was suddenly confounded with what was going on?
It was something he thought was gone, never to be felt again. It was of panic! Cyborg frantically tried to move, but he was unable to.
"This is . . . no! No! No! NO!"
"Go on." A menacing voice chided him.
Cyborg gulped as he suddenly realized, that somebody was with him. "It's a . . . a magnet of some kind!" The team's technological expert gasped. "I. Can't. Move!"
"Very good Cyborg. You always were very intelligent, when it came to the more crafty of ploys that were to befall you and your friends." The rasping deadpan of the sinister voice lightly chuckled.
"Show yourself!" The hero shouted.
The blinding lights of the massive ring caused as much of a startling disorientation to Cyborg, as the electric hum that overtook his ears had done at the beginning. Then, just as quickly and as softly that the trap had been sprung, the noise gradually faded, where the inner ring continued to spin in its rotor, spinning so quickly that it generated some form of magnetic current that pulled him in two opposite directions at once.
The fractured lighting within the rotor bounced across the walls, and it had a ripple effect that expanded down the long dark hole, from both ends of the tunnel.
Cyborg squinted his eye, while the disorienting blur of spots, they blinded him. He had been taken off his guard, and there was nothing he could do. He was entirely at the mercy of the trapper.
Directly ahead of him, the footsteps clanked against the same metal platform that he had been walking across. The black teenager strained his neck while he tried to wiggle for his arms and legs to budge, yet the magnet was still active and he could only look directly ahead of him.
The terrible villain had emerged fully. His hands were clasped behind his back, while the powerful stance he would typically stand in, it was always done to instill a boasting and menacing manner against any of his opponents.
"No." The brave hero whispered.
(~)
The gray skinned seventeen-year-old male was laying in his bed, his left eye was wide open, as for his right, he could not see out of it due to the medical patch over the deep wound. He stared at the ceiling aimlessly, unsure of what his next course of action was going to be.
His dark brown hair was still partially spiked, and he noticed that he was not wearing his familiar attire or the long crimson cloak. These things were gone, and the communicator had been destroyed.
As he glanced down, he noticed that he was wearing a light blue hospital gown, and his right lower leg was wrapped in multiple white bandages. In fact, large sections of his body were covered, and he felt like he was being prepped to become a mummy.
His throat was extremely dry, while his vision was dizzying and unsettling. The colors would shift and blur, almost like the tiny room and walls were shrinking and then expanding.
The way things looked to him, it was like some strange narcotic trip, and the effects were very potent. His head would roll side to side, and his neck felt a little stiff, where he pressed the remote that controlled the bed settings, and he slowly felt his back being raised.
"Ugh . . . what pain medication do they have me on?" Falcon quietly rasped, while the thick pillows behind his head, partially muffled what his voice actually sounded like. "It must be morphine, and something else. Something . . . potent."
He stroked the upper left side of his chest, and a very large pad was taped over his upper body. As he blinked, a severe headache pounded against the back of his right eye, behind his temple and it forced him to squint. The force of slamming his skull against the hard floor, it came back to him in sporadic flashes. He cringed, as the unsettling agony was very discomforting.
Everything was out of place, he was somewhere far away and the last thing he could recall, was looking up at the massive hole in a ceiling somewhere. The dawn of the new day that crept into the train station roof, of the strange blue haired girl who descended into the depths to meet him.
The pieces were slowly trickling back into his memory.
"Wh . . . what happened to me?" The wounded teenager rasped. "Where am I, and how did I get here? Where is everybody?"
The young man felt lost, in more ways than he could count. He tried to recenter and focus his efforts and mind, on what had occurred. The annoying jack-hammering within his skull did ease up a little, and the unsettling of his stomach subsided. The lights within the room were on a dim setting, and as he strained his neck to learn where he was, the machines and devices he was hooked up to, the steady beeping and flashing electrical bulbs revealed that he was in a hospital. That the equipment monitoring him were all normal.
Falcon wanted to get up, to find some way to get out of this place, and to return to his teammates. He never liked hospitals to begin with, and this was all discombobulating to his senses. While he resumed his focus back onto his body for a third time, the disbelief was overwhelming, in the countless new battle wounds he had gained.
There was also another deep scar across his right eye, and the long cut was felt behind the eyepatch that blocked him from irritating it any further.
"First things first. I need to find out what hospital I am in exactly."
He looked over to the window, and noticed the blinds were pulled down blocking the view outside. With the slow motion of his wrist, Falcon reached out and felt the cold of the darkness, and it worked up his fingertips and through his arm.
He breathed in very slowly, to concentrate and to hone into the elemental side of his abilities. Using the shadows to his advantage, he felt the surge of a chill, like a person would get after dipping their fingers into a pot of ice water. This sensation ran up his arm. As he raised his left index finger, a tiny black tendril wrapped about the pulling mechanism, and the shade was hoisted upwards.
The sky-scrapers and the high-rises of steel, iron, and concrete stretched far across the horizon. The distant sounds of vehicles, of a bustling and noisy place finally reached his ears, and the teenager was uncertain if he was still in Jump City.
It was in this moment, that the door swung open. In walked a member of the hospital staff.
"Oh, you're awake?" The older man standing in the doorway spoke. "This is unexpected!"
Falcon raised an eyebrow. "How long was I-"
"Well I'm sure you have lots of questions about, well just about everything. I was just coming in to check up on you and-"
"Tell me, where am I?" Falcon interrupted aggressively. "What happened?"
The man had hazel brown hair, he also had eyes like those of a weathered old sailor with crows feet, caused from the lack of sleep. The strain of countless tasks had taken their toll. His brown eyes were fierce, and his stature was rather tall. To hear the teenager jumping at the bit, it was a good sign. For most patients, it was not at all uncommon for the discomfort and grogginess to make their first words, seem crude or unkind to the untrained ears, yet for people in the medical field this was just part of the job.
"You are in Saint Mary's Critical, a very big and important hospital." The twenty-six-year-old male nurse walked forwards a bit. "You had a near death experience back in Jump City, but luckily you were found, and brought here."
"So I'm not in Jump City?" Falcon's left eye darted back and forth very rapidly, as the information continued to pour in. "You mean, this is not . . . that I was . . ."
The orderly felt the grip over his collar loosen. "You were airlifted here, to Los Angeles. Jump City Central and any of the other hospitals in the vicinity were closer, but the extent of injuries that you sustained . . . well, you required a great deal more medical care."
"Crap!"
The male nurse chuckled for a brief moment, and this caused the teenager to feel like he had answered in a brutishly crude manner. He felt like he was making a bad first impression, and the remembrance of the first encounter with The Teen Titans caused him to blush a little.
"I . . . I'm sorry." Falcon continued as he rubbed his forehead. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I have just gone through a lot."
"Its alright." The medical worker stepped closer, and he began to write things down on the clipboard attached to the end of the bed-frame. "Working this job has its ups and downs, where the delicate balance for patients such as yourself, it's all part of it."
Falcon was unable to respond right away, as he looked at the man's name badge. The letters were firm and ingrained into the thin shining piece across his right breast pocket. "Jefferson . . . is it?" Falcon asked in a crackling voice.
The hospital orderly finished jotting down some of his notes. "Yeah, that's my name. Jefferson Stims, but everybody just calls me Jeff for short."
"Well, Jeff it is nice to finally be awake." The Shadow Manipulator leaned his head back into the comfort of the pillows. "I'm curious, as to how long I was out for, and how long am I going to be in the hospital?"
The brown eyed man smirked. "Already awake, and trying to bust out of this place eh?"
"I mean, there are people I need to see, friends . . . and I have some important business to attend to." Did I just say that? Falcon asked within his mind next.
"The injuries you sustained were pretty severe kid. You're very lucky to be alive, your right ankle suffered a minor fracture, the piece of rebar that was pulled from your upper chest almost pierced your heart, while there are countless stitches and other wounds across your wrists, back, and forehead. You also suffered a rather potent contusion to the back of your head, which might explain the pain in your noggin."
Some of these words were heard, and the drifter slowly tried to prop himself up out of the bed, only to be met by the strong and powerful hands over his chest from the unexpected visiter.
"Easy kid! Take it easy." Jefferson pleaded. "You aren't going anywhere, not yet anyway. You have been in a sleep state for a number of days, and you waking up now, it's a bit surprising as most people having suffered from what you did, it typically would be a week or longer before they wake up."
"I'm not like most people."
"So says everybody that comes into this place."
"But my friends, I need to see them. They . . . they need to be warned of-"
"Sit down!"
The commanding and disturbingly aggressive tone of voice from this member of the hospital staff, this caused the wounded patient to gradually sink back into the bed. His brown eye appeared to become wider, yet with the understanding that he had been so badly hurt, there would be no sense about running off too quickly.
"I know that you want to get out of here, so do a lot of patients. But kid, you are in no condition to even get out of that bed. Your body needs time to heal, you only just woke up!"
The Necromancer remained silent, he had received some answers and he did not want to make matters worse, in some frantic attempt to flee. He would get back to his allies, the battle had taken him out of the fight for now, but not the war.
"I . . . I understand." Falcon replied while nodding. "But what am I supposed to do while my injuries heal?"
"You need your rest." The twenty-six-year-old replied. "There is nothing more that can be done, unless you want to tear apart your stitches and bleed out all over the place. You are going to have to sit in that bed and wait."
"How long?"
"Depends." The male nurse finished checking a few of the instruments, and the gauge to add a little more morphine into the boy's vein from his right wrist, through the I.V. Line. "Everybody is different, some folks heal up faster than others."
There was a lingering silence that gripped the battered and beaten drifter's heart. He was in a race against time, and now this was another setback. The lives of countless people were at risk, and there was no greater urgency in his very bones, than right in this moment. One of the worst parts of his life and nightmares, had revealed himself at long last, and as much as he wanted to complete his mission that he had originally set out from so long ago, Falcon would have to wait.
The teenager had tracked the Master Villain all the way from Gotham, and now that he understood where his journey was supposed to take him, he was stuck in a bed, in a city far away. He was unable to stand or walk, when he just wanted to bring a total vengeance that the monster of his past deserved.
"For somebody in your case, it could be around two weeks before you are out of this place."
"Two-Weeks!?"
"Rehabilitation, therapy, the training and workouts." He sighed. "There is a lot, but, some people decide to push themselves when they get the opportunity, and I have seen some patents who manage to leave within a decent amount of time."
"That's still a long time."
"You sure are in a hurry to get up and leave, I understand that. But what kind of a medical professional would I be, if I let all my patents just get up and leave at the first chance they got?"
A potent hush fell between these two, and Falcon felt his jaw drop.
"At least you know that you will be getting better." Jefferson responded with a slick smile.
Falcon turned his head, and he squeezed the bed-sheets. His injuries were very severe, and while he knew what he had to do, there was no grasp for the countless horrors and untold levels of destruction that Slade could unleash. The Fire Wielder had to get out, he needed to see his friends and he would push himself as anybody so driven would.
"While it is going to be difficult. Know that you almost died, yet you survived." Jefferson partially turned to the door. "Some people don't even get a second chance."
"Thanks for the pep-talk." Falcon rasped with sarcasm, revealing that he wanted to be left alone.
Jefferson Stims walked back to the exit. "One of my buddies will check up on you later today. You just sit back, relax and watch some television."
Falcon quietly sighed, as he turned his head to look at the skyline.
"You can press that little button on your remote for the bed, and me or another member of the hospital staff will be in to assist you with whatever you require." The medical orderly continued speaking as he opened the door.
Falcon did not say anything, and soon he felt that the young man's presence had at last left the room. The injured seventeen-year-old was once again in a foreign city, with no allies or solid grasp on where he could go. As the silence gripped him, he felt a strange sensation of curiosity overpower the soreness and disorientation.
Out of the corner of his eye, a folded up wheelchair was near the bathroom. The pain suppressants did ease the soreness he was in, and he was determined to get back to Jump City.
His attention then noticed the mirror on the back of the bathroom door. His reflection quickly brought a truth to him, that while he wanted to get up, the male nurse was correct. He was going to need time to heal, and rushing back to his friends at less than half strength, he was in no condition to travel.
(~)
The Criminal Mastermind began to inch closer with every step, yet he was careful not to stand or approach in the middle of the magnet.
"You are the smartest of your team, however, you are very overconfident in thinking too far ahead. Now look at where all of that prowess and grasping for purpose has landed you?" The middle aged man slowly shook his head as he leaned in. "You should have waited for Robin and Raven to accompany you down here, but now you are making this all too easy."
"Can-it!"
"Ooh! Still on with that defiant and ever boastful attitude I see. It's a spunk in you Cyborg, something that always brought out that real, rough and tough go-getting attitude that your friends, lacked so dearly."
"If I could move my arms, I would pulverize your face!" Cyborg snapped back.
"You always were one, to make such profound threats. Pity that they almost always became hollow."
"What do you want?"
The deadly masked criminal, he began to pace around the Teen Titan.
"What do I want?" Slade chuckled. "Interesting for that, to be your first question. But it is not so much about what I want. You already know what I want."
"The annihilation of me and my friends?"
Slade partially turned. "Cyborg, your instincts disappoint me. What would be the enjoyment, in just wiping out you and your little band, off from the face of history so quickly?"
Cyborg's expression had transformed from shock and a deep hatred, into a look of disgust. He scowled where wrinkles formed across his forehead. "So then if it's not about just finishing us off now, then what? What are you plotting?"
The footsteps were heard again, and Slade stepped around the outermost corners of the rig, avoiding the platform that the young man was stuck within. The Titan's computer expert felt like a bear or a hungry wolf, with its paw in a bear-trap and it could not escape.
"My dear and foolish hero, come now. You out of the others should have put the pieces together long ago. Don't disappoint me." Slade had walked clear around to the other side, and he pointed in the air as he made this statement.
Cyborg could only move his eyes. Perhaps if he waited long enough his friends would be able to catch up? It was his best option, to delay things a little longer.
"You want to leave your mark, and to take out the only real threat that has ever caused a thorn in your side. It could only lead to one inevitable outcome."
Slade released a deep and crestfallen sigh. "Here I stand, after all this time that you have been searching and plotting to capture me, and with everything I have done, from all of the monumental battles and trials I stacked against you, that, was your best guess?"
Silence lingered for a moment between these two. A cold and deafening lull that brought a chill up the team mechanic's backside.
Cyborg shut his eye for a moment. To concentrate and to find his center once more. "You want what so many strive for . . . to be remembered, and it is important about the way it is done."
"Go on."
"To prove that not only did you defeat the greatest team of young superheroes that has ever lived, but to do it in a way, that will make you last through-out the ages."
"Good Cyborg! Very good." Slade's left eye appeared to curl. "I do admit, that my desire was for a more deserving purpose, and there were times, countless that I could have just destroyed you, but it was not the time then."
"Why wait?"
The only visible feature through his orange and black helmet being his fearsome eye, squinted tighter than earlier. "Now, now. My deeds will bear the fruits of my labor. And the world will forever know the truth, that I single handedly dealt the death-blow to the Teen Titans. The entire country shall witness your downfall, then it will be complete."
Cyborg was squirming, and sweat began to form across his face.
"You won't succeed!" The teenage superhero shouted in defiance. "If anything happens to me, the others will stop you!"
"These things you know to be true my sad friend, and whether you realize it now or later, the truth always prevails."
"Don't call me that!" Cyborg quipped back. "I never took you to be one of that sort! To make that quote, you disgust me."
"Never-the-less. You realize that you are alone. Trapped in this place, and while the battle is going to be an uphill struggle, while you may overcome what I push against you, that in the end, nothing you do, none of it will matter."
"You will never win!" Cyborg hissed back. "In every fiber and through my last breath of life, I will gladly give it, to see you eradicated forever!"
"Defiant to the very end." Slade lightly chuckled. "That intense passion in your soul, through you that your friends also carry so proudly, it is indeed a remarkable trait." He partially turned and he squeezed his right fist. "You will break, and there will be no going back after my plans are complete."
"We've stopped you before!"
"No. You were only delaying the inevitable. Slowed my progress perhaps, but the end result will ultimately be the same." He spun around fully where the darkness cast over his shoulders, concealing him in shadow and mist. "The truth is that you know that things are getting harder, that your teammates are worn down, and that you want to do things your way, but Robin is holding you back."
Cyborg's head slightly perked up. He said not a single word.
"It is of no real surprise to me." Slade continued his monologue. "To see the oldest, and the most driven wanting to lead, that you are constantly butting-heads with the current commander. That the others do not see you in the position as Robin is in." He bent his torso forwards, and his voice dropped to a gentler whisper. "What's more, is that you yourself know this. Why else would you have come this far into this place that my commando's drilled, if not for proving yourself?"
The black teenager was deeply enraged by now. His scowl deepened and the lines across his neck expanded. Everything was weighing heavily against his conscience, and the choices that he had made leading to this confrontation. It was so distasteful to hear the unfriendly gravelly tone of the team's most despised and loathed enemy, exploiting this to his own advantage.
"The overconfidence thing, that's something I will admit to having." Cyborg replied while he peered intently as he could, into the eyehole of the mask that the villain was wearing. "The thing that makes everything so troubling for you to grasp is why, why I still do what I do?"
The fierce and determined crime fighter twitched, there was something unnerving about him being held into place by the giant magnet. He was going to fight, despite being alone, the inability to move or use his gadgets and toys, but it was the willpower within that guided him in his most desperate hours. The intense pressure of polarity, of being pulled against the opposing ends through his very body, the force was truly impressive to experience.
Anybody else in this same predicament would be incapable of budging, yet this Teen Titan was something far out of the ordinary.
"There is a great and dormant power within you Cyborg." Slade pestered him still, while the curiosity expanded. "You, like your friends are admirable opponents. Pity that you and I are enemies . . . when so much between us is really the difference of nothing more, than a simple misunderstanding."
"You are a monster!" Cyborg grunted as he fought even harder to free himself. "There is absolutely nothing about you, that I see in myself! You hear me, not a damn thing!"
"Quit your struggling. You can be so stubborn."
Following a brief bout of grunting and grinding his teeth, squirming to free his limbs and move, the Titan's Mechanic expelled a deep sigh of exhaustion. It was all pointless, and no matter how much he tried or fought, he was not going anywhere so long as the great magnetic rings were turned on.
"What is it about me that you see Slade?" Cyborg responded, with the last act of defiance he could muster would be to delay his most deadly foe. He slowly raised his eyes from the floor.
"Surely you see it." Slade scoffed right back at him. "The drive to succeed, to excel beyond the limits that you put against yourself, to always prove your muscle, through the greatest attribute you have, like me Cyborg." He leaned in close, and the light breathing through the vents of his mask was easily heard. "You are more machine, rather than man. It is from the mind that we achieve our greatest strengths."
Silence.
"You have come to that . . . but . . . how?" Cyborg asked.
"You should give yourself more credit." Slade answered while he turned to show his backside. "Playing the fool, even now does not suit you and it does not dislodge me from the truth."
"We are nothing alike!"
"Strike true, and hard my young friend. There is no doubt in these actions we take." The legendary Deathstroke glanced behind the platform. "Do not think I am unaware of your game this time, for your fleeting hope to buy your friends time to reach you."
"Wha . . . no! I'm just trying to get to the bottom of things!"
"And indeed we have. Here, after all that has occurred, from the journey you have taken with your friends. Now we come to the long awaited conclusion of this story. In this pit that you so brazenly and half-hardily fell into, hoping to achieve the goal that you set out from so long ago. Now, things will reveal themselves for what they are, now we will learn how this battle ends."
"You just keep on forgetting one little problem."
Slade leaned in. "What is that?"
"That me and my friends never give up!"
Just then two Bird-A-Rangs spun towards the far corner of the room, causing Slade to slither to the side like the expert martial artist he was. He watched them barely miss him by a few meters. Another three 'swooshed' by Cyborg, and they crashed into the inner ring that was spinning, causing sparks to fly.
"Right on time!" Slade spoke in a delighted manner. It was as though he knew that this was all going to transpire.
"Slade!" Robin's voice blasted through the tunnel.
"Hang on Cyborg!" Raven's gravelly voice was next to be heard. "We're here with you!"
"Touching. To know that your friends have come to your aid. You all continue to show great strides, and still . . . you each have much to learn." Slade mocked his now three arch enemies.
The Master Deceiver took a few slow paces backwards while maintaining his cold stare at his three fierce opponents. He was outnumbered, but this was not something to cause any panic.
He raised his left hand, and a device that looked like a pen with a red cap became visible through the clutches of his steel gloved gauntlet. Cyborg understood that things were rapidly unfolding much too quickly to be halted. He could see what was about to occur, his heart thumped loudly in his eardrums that all other noises became mute, while the precarious seconds ticked away.
His allies were racing at a rapid sprint down the same long dark chasm, that he had traveled. The two bird named Titans were still a good distance out of range, yet the outlines of their bodies, of their capes whipping behind them was becoming easier to see.
"It is in these final moments, when now you realize the greater trap to be sprung. It was never about just you Cyborg." Slade's eye peered down the hallway, he raised his thumb that was hovering over the detonator. "To know that I have bested your entire team, and the greatest part about this entire plot, is that you all helped me, in your own defiant ways to defeat me."
"NO!" Cyborg cried out.
{{End Of Scene}}
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Reviews From The Previous Chapter:
The undead dead: "Hey i Just read the 22 chapters and i think you did a really good job and a hope to see more of this because i love bbrae and i have been waiting to see how they become a couple. keep up with the good work."
~~You having read through twenty-two chapters is a commendable effort! (I will be honest here, the first ten are the longest and after that, the updates get a lot easier to make it through in one sitting.) Thank you for taking the time to look into my story, and for giving me the continued support by writing a review, that was an extra bonus to my day. :-D Every a little bit on behalf of the fans and readers goes a very long way, so I sincerely and humbly say thank you.~~
Authors Note:
My laptop has been acting very strange lately, and the kicker is that it's going to be in the shop for a number of days. Basically, my opportunities to check on the site will be a bit sporadic for a time. No need to feel panic on your end, I had the reoccurring thought to save a whole bunch my upcoming chapters early, often, and in more than one place. I will be keeping things on schedule by uploading chapter twenty-four next month. (Take it from my current computer problem, and for anybody reading this . . . to constantly save your work and in more than one place.) Currently, I am uploading this from an entirely different computer, where hopefully I get mine back soon. Technology can be so difficult, and at the worst times.
~~T.M.O~~