[FFML] [Fanfic][X-COM][Teen Titans][Ranma 1/2] Reflections Lost on a Dark Road (ch2)
Justin Wagner
jbraveboy at gmail.com
Fri Feb 25 13:01:50 PST 2011
Author Notes
I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but Fridays are expected to be
our update days. If it isn't up on Fri, that's probably because of some
complication delaying it till Monday. We should be good for Fridays
though.
I'll also note my annoyance as FFN's formatting rules. It doesn't help
that here in the FFML, all the italics and stuff which is often quite
important for word emphasis gets filtered out. It'll be a relief when I
get the "pure" versions of these up on my personal site as html.
To: 'Tora'
I'm sorry to hear your dislike of the crossover. Obviously, both Lathis
and myself try hard to write something for everyone. It just doesn't
work out sometimes. Maybe future chapters, once things shift more
towards scifi and mil-combat, will be more to your liking if you're still
reading by then.
- - -
Pre-crossover Chapters: Pre-crossover chapters of Lathis' "Teen Titans
and the Lost Boy" and the sequel "Dark Titans" can be found on his FFN
author site. Cap'n Chryssalid's "The Road to Cydonia" can be found,
likewise, on his FFN site or his TRTC Ufopedia archive.
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/992366/Lathis
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/235984/Capn_Chryssalid
Crossover Chapters: Chapters of this specific fanfic are to be hosted on
Cap'n Chryssalid's archive and on FFN
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2754251/
- - -
- - -
Nigh on two months have passed since Ryouga freed Terra from her stone
prison, restoring the Titans to their full number after long last. The
reunion has been anything but quiet, though, with deception and disaster
tearing the team apart just as quickly as it came back together. With
Robin and the original Titans drawn to Tamaran for Starfire's 'wedding',
it fell to Ryouga, Terra - as well as some unexpected help from
unexpected friends - to avert disaster in the underwater city of
Atlantis. Everyone is back together again, now, and taking a well
deserved breather from their adventures. But as unseen forces
manipulate from the shadows, and disaster looms from both without and
within, their tenuous peace is doomed to be shattered... and sooner than
they expect.
It has been five months since the inclusion of the Nerima Crew into
UNETCO as the war between X-Com and the alien visitors enters its
seventh year. Despite the destruction of Earth's last alien refuge and
the annihilation of the conspiratorial Sirius Group, the organization
has been hit hard by Cydonian reprisals, and stretched thin by
increasing commitments in the Far East to counter abductions of martial
artists and the psionically gifted. Even as the buildup culminates for
the last great push against Mars itself, distractions and complications
continue to arise within the ever present specter of alien terror.
- - -
Reflections Lost on a Dark Road
First Contact
Chapter II
- - -
Cap'n Chryssalid
Lathis - "Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't."
- - -
> > Initiating System Check
> Please Wait...
> Power Systems: Nominal
> Computer Systems: Nominal
> Life Support Systems: Nominal
> Combat Systems: Nominal
> Mechanical Support: Nominal
> System Check Complete: No Errors Found
> > Initiating System Reboot
> Please Wait...
> > SysOp Reboot... 10%...40%... 60%... 80%... Done
Cyborg's eyes shot open and the large teen sat up with a start. For a
moment he was deluged by a cascade of minor systems checks, and his body
jerked about annoyingly as his motor control systems cycled ... but
other than that, he seemed to be okay.
'Oh Lord. Did anyone get the license plate of that alien dreadnaught?'
Clutching his head, he slowly staggered to his feet. What the heck had
happened? It felt like Robin had booted him in the head a few dozen
times too many.
'Last thing I remember was setting up the Dimensional Containment Device
...and then Ryo came flyin' outta nowhere and body slammed me.' The
cybernetic teen slammed fist to palm with a metallic clank. 'And then
we hit the DCD and it starting going haywire! It started to react to
Raven's power somehow and then ...'
And then nothing.
"Well, that can't be good." A combination of DCD, Raven's bad mojo and
Ryouga's worse luck? He was lucky had made it here in one piece...
Speaking of which, just where the heck was he, anyway?
He took a quick moment to scan his surroundings.
"Oh. Har de har har."
The City Dump.
He swore, if those jokers had let him get tossed out with the trash
again, there'd be hell to ... pay? Hmm, something told him that he
didn't exactly arrive here via garbage truck, like last time. That
'something' being the fifty foot long trench his body had apparently
carved into the ground. He was pretty sure it was his; anyway, what
with the crater he was standing in and all. He let out a low whistle at
the rough trajectory.
"Rough landing... bet I'll be feeling that in the morning."
Something didn't quite add up, though. Had he been thrown this entire
distance? He was pretty sure the lab was a few kilometers away from the
dump. Not to mention they'd been fighting in a crazy underground lab.
Any explosion intense enough to not only unearth the lab, but to send
him flying this distance? There's no way he would have survived that,
let alone unscathed.
Heck, he'd still be seeing the mushroom cloud on the skyline.
So, it was a mystery then. More important than what happened to him,
though, was what had happened to everyone else. Ryo and Raven had been
right at the epicenter, last he'd seen, and everyone else had been out
of sight completely.
Lifting an arm, he hit a button and the small view screen embedded in
his forearm flashed to life; immediately, he punched up Robin's line.
"Yo, Robbie! Where are you? You alright?"
Nothing. Not even a picture of the little guy popped up.
'Hmm, that's weird.'
He quickly cycled through the rest of his friends, but the results were
the same.
"What the heck is up with this?" he growled, growing a bit concerned.
A quick diagnostic confirmed that his systems were working fine; he just
wasn't getting a ... signal? He began typing away madly at his arm,
bringing up the desired diagram. On the bottom of the screen was a tiny
depiction of himself. On the top was a little picture of a satellite
with a 'T' on it. Between the two were a series of arcs, growing wider
as they went up from MiniCy to the satellite. Currently, there was a big
red X flashing over the signal bars, and the outline of the satellite
had become a flashing, dotted line, indicating that his system not only
wasn't receiving a signal from the satellite, but that it couldn't
locate the darn thing at all.
"Ohhh man, please tell me this is just a glitch," he muttered. "It cost
a fortune to put all those satellites up there! If they're all broken,
Robin's gonna recycle me!"
Unfortunately, he didn't bring the T-elescope with him, so he couldn't
actually confirm whether the nearest satellite was still where it was
supposed to be, and not currently a flaming wreck sitting in some guy's
living room.
Not a pleasant thought, that.
Without the satellite network, communications would be cut down to fifty
kilometers, and the GPS system would be non-existent. He wouldn't be
able to find out where he was with just a push of the button, nor could
he get a hold of a single Titan.
Wait a minute! Even without the network up and running, he should still
be more than close enough to reach anyone everyone else via
communicator. How the heck could everyone be out of range? Even if the
communicators of everyone at the lab had been damaged, BB back at the
tower would still be well within range.
Something odd was afoot, that much was for sure.
Still, it was a beautiful, clear night, and GPS wasn't the only way to
figure out where he was. Astronavigation wasn't limited to Voyager,
after all. All he had to do was retrieve the most recent memories he
had of the night sky and compare it to the current sky above him. Using
a few embarrassingly outdated techniques, he could then narrow it down
to a rough latitude and longitude at the very least.
It didn't take him long to bring up the proper application - 'Lost
somewhere in the world, with nothing but a compass and map of the stars?
Cyborg has an App for that!'-and start it running. Looking upwards, he
turned his head slowly, making sure to get a complete a scan as possible
for a better comparison. It took a few minutes (sooo much less
efficient than just using the GPS) but finally he finished the scan and
his arm began to calculate the necessary variables.
'Hello, what have we here?'
A display on his other arm was blinking now. Turning his attention to
the blinking light, his eyes widened the second he read it.
Current Date: 02/18/2007
... What?
He double checked the chronometer. It was working fine, too... So why
the heck was - 'Oh', that explained it. According to the current stars,
compared to the ones he'd seen last night, there was over a years worth
of drift... The realization hit him a second later like Raven with a
fridge.
"Great Caesar's Ghost! I've been thrown through time!" Clutching his
skull, the metallic Titan began to panic at the implications. "Oh man,
oh man, oh man! First Star, now me? This is getting way too common for
comfort!"
Now, what the heck did he remember about time travel? Oh, right!
"Don't do anything, don't touch anything! Scifi rule number One: You
start messin' with the past, you end up with monkeys ruling the future."
Spinning around, paranoid about stepping on anything that might destroy
the timeline, he -
...wait just another second.
He double checked the clock. "Hold on just a minute! I'm not in the
past, I'm in the future!"
In an instant, he went from tiptoeing through the trash cans, to
wringing his hand, cackling evilly. "Oh yeah, baby. That means all
bets are off! Time to find me some badass future technology to take
home-"
He paused, looking at the date again.
"... Crap! I'm only one year in the future? That's barely far enough
ahead to pick up the next Game Station! Oh, man, this is, like, the
worst time traveling trip, ever!" Another thought occurred to him.
"And, seriously, none of that Rekmas stuff had better be goin' on! If I
find out that it took everyone else less than a year to completely fall
apart without me, I'm gonna be so ticked off!"
Well, sure, they probably wouldn't be able to get along without him for
very long ... but one year? Come on!
Looking back to his other arm, he finally got a set of coordinates.
Bringing up a static map of the States, he overlaid the latitude and
longitude. Considering he was using freakin' Astrogation, he was working
with gross generalizations, but he was fairly certain he could at least
narrow it down a bit. And - and, it looked like he was... on the east
coast? Damn, he was closer to Metropolis and Gotham than he was to Jump
City! He'd been thrown clear across the entire dang country! Well,
that'd certainly explain why he couldn't contact anyone. Without the
satellite network, there was no way he was in range of anyone else.
So, lost in time and possibly lost on Batman's turf? He didn't know
which was worst, honestly. Still, on the bright side, scary or not, if
he could find Batman, or any other Justice Leaguer, then they'd probably
be able to help him out with this whole chorological conundrum. Heck,
those guys traveled through time like it was a revolving door. Or worse,
like it was like Arkham.
Still, stranger in a strange land and all that, there no need to draw
any attention to himself if he could avoid it. There might be a reason
his satellite network was down, after all. Maybe the Titans had made
some serious enemies while he'd been gone? He chuckled to himself; when
he got back, he'd totally have to tell BB that he was starting to lose
his hair, even only a year in the future.
It didn't take him too long to scrounge up some tossed clothing. Sure,
they smelt about as good as they looked, but the sweater had a hood, so
he could cover up most of his cybernetics pretty easily. As long as
nobody got right in his face, he should be able to get by without too
much trouble.
That in mind, he made his way out into the city.
He needed some information, badly.
- - -
Starfire stared pensively out of the alley for the third time in as many
minutes. Once she was satisfied that no uniformed police officers were
in her vicinity, she ducked back into the alley and took out her
communicator again. It had been several hours since her arrival, and it
still refused to return to functionality.
She had garnered no luck in acquiring information from the local
citizenry. The few people she had attempted to converse with in her
aimless floating had either stuttered madly with fear, fled in the other
direction, or used their cameras to take pictures... before running away
anyway. And not long after that, rescue teams had begun to arrive on
the scene, which while understandable, had confused her with the
staggering number of armed police which accompanied the paramedics and
firefighters.
The Tamaranian was growing more confused with the situation. Certainly,
her ... minor... act of property destruction was not one of her finer
moments, but she had made quite sure that no one had been injured in the
incident. And yet, even as the rescue teams continued to comb through
the wreckage, the police had made it blatantly obvious that they were
systematically searching the area for the one responsible. The skill
and organization with which they performed their search gave the Okaaran
trained warrior no doubt that this was a seasoned and professional law
enforcement group.
One would imagine that people would be used to alien encounters and
random occurrences in this day and age. Considering the unusual
reactions of the civilians to her presence, she did not wish to see the
reaction of people currently carrying firearms.
Other things had only served to compound her confusion. Even after
studying the situation for some time, she had yet to find more than a
sprinkling of English on any signs in sight. The uniforms of the
patrolmen, though recognizable as police uniforms, were notably
different from those of the lawmen from Jump City. She had already
begun to doubt that she had appeared anywhere close to where she had
thought, however, with the GPS function of her communicator out of order
and her inability to ask anyone for information, she could not be
certain where she was.
Which brought her to where she now was: standing in a dank alley,
staring intently at the newspaper stand across the street from her. It
did raise a moral quandary in the young alien. She possessed no
currency at all, let alone whatever currency might be proper for her
current locale. Did her need to learn more about her situation
necessitate her to steal from an innocent vender? Dare she risk
exposing herself long enough to cross the street?
The Tamaranian chewed on her lower lip uncertainly for several long
seconds as she stared at the news stand. Finally, she let out a
determined huff and nodded to herself. Once she rejoined her team
mates, she would be able to repay the proprietor for the paper. Ducking
down, she took another quick peek around the corner, then floated out
rapidly, skimming just above the street which she crossed in a matter of
seconds.
The instant she made her presence known, shocked shouts sprang up from
all around, but Starfire managed to snag a newspaper and flew up and
over a building before anyone so much as had a chance to do anything
else. She landed a few moments later, and quickly unfurled the paper
and began to scan the top of the front page.
Briefly, as she read, she gave silent thanks to the Joketsuzoku Elder,
Perfume for teaching her the Chinese languages, and many others, so ...
fluently.
Her eyes widened in shock at what she discovered.
'Hong Kong Commercial Daily?!'
Granted, her grasp of Earth geography was not one of her strong suits,
but even she knew that, if this news paper was correct, she was far more
displaced than she had thought. She had been sent to the far side of
the planet in a matter of seconds?
Anxiously, the Tamaranian began to float back and forth in the alley.
Another, disturbing thought occurred to her. What of her companions?
If she had been transported across the globe, what of everyone else ...
For that matter, who else had been sucked into the portal? She knew
that Cyborg had, but the last she had seen, Robin and Jinx had appeared
safe. She did not even have any recollection of seeing where Raven and
Ryouga had been after she had awoken.
Had anyone else aside from her and Cyborg been transported away by the
void?
Although it would be relatively little trouble for her to return to Jump
City ... what if Cyborg had been transported in relative proximity to
herself? She had only been a scant few seconds behind him in that black
expanse, so if it had deposited her here, it seemed likely he could not
be too far. Though it could potentially be dangerous for her, she needed
to search for her friend first. Whether Cyborg was in the vicinity or
not, she had to make certain first before returning Home.
Satisfied with her decision, Starfire squared her shoulders and began to
fold up the newspaper -
"Stand where you are and place your hands above your head!"
Starfire looked up, surprised by the sudden command. Standing at the
mouth of the alley was a uniformed woman, a simple looking revolver held
tightly in her grip and trained on the Tamaranian quite expertly. The
emerald eyed alien stared at the human's gun, then down to the news
paper in her hand, then back up again, before quickly holding out the
news paper.
"I apologize! I intend to pay for the news paper, truly I do!"
The police woman stared at her incredulously. "I repeat, drop the news
paper and place your hands above your head!"
Moving quickly, Starfire complied with the command, dropping the paper
and lifting her hands up. She had no idea that the police were so
strict in the part of the world! Still, at least this particular police
woman appeared to be level headed.
Proving the flame haired girl correct, the police woman nodded sharply
as soon as she raised her hands, and reached behind her back to pull out
a pair of hand cuffs. Then, moving slowly, the officer began to
approach, gun trained on Starfire with one hand cautiously -
"Look, look! They found the alien!"
Instantly, a mob of excited citizens began to crowd into the alley,
obviously emboldened by the sight of a firearm; too emboldened, in fact,
as they crushed into the alley frantically to see the arrest of the
alien.
"No! Everyone! Stay back!" The policewoman cried out sharply, doing her
best to gesture the crowd back with one hand and keep her gun aimed with
the other. But her cries went unheeded as the small mob was unable to
stop their own movement, being pushed in by people further outside the
alley trying to force their way in.
Starfire saw the danger immediately, and began to duck to the side -
And then one of the people was knocked forward and slammed into the
officer's back. A crack of thunder split the alley. Starfire barked in
pain as she felt the bullet slam into her shoulder. The small caliber
projectile hit home with enough force to give the Tamaranian a nasty
welt and she reacted on pure instinct, partly reducing the police
woman's firearm to molten metal with a burst of her optic blasts.
The second that the unfortunate woman let out a pained scream at the
melting metal dropping over her hands, Starfire realized that she had
made a grievous error. The smell of burned flesh filled the alley and
the policewoman fell to her knees, clutching her hand. Guilt wracked the
alien girl, and she was momentarily torn between offering aid and
turning to flee...
"Did you see that?!" "The alien is attacking!" "Someone do something!"
"Get it! Stop it!"
Her decision was made for her quickly, then. In a blur, Starfire spun
and flew out the back of the alley as fast as possible. She had seen
enough of Beast Boy's movies to know how quickly a misunderstanding like
this could spin out of control when an angry mob was involved. She
needed to get away before her very presence endangered the very people
she had so recently been trying to protect.
- - -
Agent Tong scratched the nails of his thumb and index finger together -
a simple nervous tick that helped him focus - while he watched the
situation unfold. As the UNETCO liaison for the situation (now
officially the "China-56-890 incident") by virtue of being the closest
man with experience in the area, he had quickly integrated himself into
the Hong Kong Crisis Response Center. It was a solid operation, and just
the sort of counter terrorism commitment one would expect from a major
city in the twenty first century.
Data streamed into the CRC from ongoing operations in real time, and
analysts worked at a feverish pace to meet the sudden and dramatic
demands of the situation. No one here knew the truth like he did: that
there was a god damned alien loose in the city. To the officers and
analysts here, it was a potential terrorist attack that everyone was
working hard to contain. The subject's unusual abilities were due to
stolen military hardware... he had the clearance and "documentation"
from the PRC to prove it.
It was a tough spot to be in.
There had been very little time to commit his new cover completely to
memory. Luckily, he could lean on the Assistant Commissioner present for
compliance. Unfortunately, the boots on the ground weren't trained
UNETCO personnel. They were just jumpy civilians who couldn't even
imagine the sort of horrors that forced themselves on Earth almost every
day. It was better that way, for now, but it also made the situation on
the ground less reliable.
This injured officer was just an example.
They had standing orders not to engage the subject. They were supposed
to wait until "trained professionals" arrived to deal with it. Now they
had lost China-56-890 again, and the alien had gone right back to
ground. On large screens set up against the wall overlooking the
Response Center, Agent Tong could see ongoing ops across the city, from
the initial site to the latest dust up. Hong Kong's CRC (unlike UNETCO
itself) didn't have UAVs in the air or real time satellite imaging, so
they had to make do with digital overlays and real time traffic maps.
Luckily, their facial recognition software and citywide surveillance was
up to par.
"We've got something," one of the analysts declared, and brought up a
quick snap shot on one of the screens. It was a series of blurry
pictures, but it was definitely China-56-890. She - it - had come out of
hiding to fly up along the shaded side of a building.
Tong patiently listened as the CRC director ordered helicopters rerouted
to cover the new position. He already knew they'd be too late. China-56-
890 was moving quickly now, popping up only briefly before going back
into cover near ground level. They already had the entire force on the
move combing the city, but China-56-890 was not limited to running. If
at risk of confrontation, she - it, he reminded himself, the alien was
an 'it' - would vault or fly over some obstacle and get lost in the
tangle of buildings and backstreets.
"She isn't really trying to hide," he reasoned. If China-56-890 was
attempting an infiltration, it was one of the most sloppily executed on
UNETCO record. Even after a crash landing, a real infiltrator would have
kept out of sight. This one kept sticking her head out of the water to
peek around.
Maybe that was it.
She - it - wasn't infiltrating the city. Maybe this was an abduction or
assassination? Maybe it was looking for something, but couldn't find it.
A botched entry could have thrown it off, or perhaps whatever it was
after was likely to move or hide if something like the initial incident
occurred. The fact that China-56-890 also kept appearing, even briefly,
indicated it was in a rush. It felt like it didn't have much time, so it
kept taking risks, even after that run-in with the police officer.
"You're looking for something," he mused, and retreated back to confer
with the CRC director.
Yes: Agent Tong was certain of it. China-56-890 was in Hong Kong to find
something... or someone. That left them with some possibilities. First:
he would need to have Operations & Support draw up lists of all the
sensitive people and objects on record as being within the city limits.
Second: he could cross reference that with UNETCO lists of materials
flagged as being likely targets for alien intervention. Third: if China-
56-890 was looking for something, there had to be a pattern to its
movements. A chronological map of appearances should be fairly easy to
draw up.
Approaching the busy CRC director with his suggestions, agent Tong
paused. If he was right, what then?
Seiran wanted the situation "contained" but they didn't want the alien
subject "actively engaged" unless absolutely necessary. However, at the
rate things were going, and at the rate China-56-890 was moving,
something drastic would have to be done and quickly. There were already
pockets of panicked people (some would call them mobs) that were posing
a danger to operations and to secrecy. What to do then?
China-56-890 had to either be lured out of the city or they would have
to do something quickly to tie her down. Neither option gave the
impression of being easy. They had choppers out constantly trying to
track China-56-890. Tong was less than confident that some bright lights
and loud noises would be enough to corral this beast.
It wasn't ideal, but there were two possibilities that presented
themselves.
The first was to use a ruse to draw China-56-890 out of the city. If she
was after someone or something, and if she ("it" he reminded himself
again) suspected there was a limited time frame in which to find it...
then perhaps a visible show of force in a different direction could draw
China-56-890 out. Ordering the helicopters withdrawn en masse over the
city where it could see them, perhaps China-56-890 could be convinced
that what it wanted was somewhere outside the city... or at least in a
more isolated area.
There were some more isolation-friendly areas on Tsing-Yi Island, for
example. It was also quite close by to where China-56-890 was searching,
but far enough away that she - it - wouldn't have been able to
investigate already. Ngong Shuen Chau Naval Base was also quite close
by, and it would be easy enough to call in for additional manpower and
resources from the garrison if needed. A plan began to form in Agent
Tong's mind, even as he resumed his pace towards the CRC director.
There would need to be a fall back option, too.
If China-56-890 didn't take the bait, they'd lose their air cover, but
the local police could still put men in position. If there was a pattern
to China-56-890's movements, and Tong was certain now that there was,
then he could have the Special Duties Unit (SDU) and some supporting
forces lay an ambush. At this point, China-56-890 could not be allowed
to run helter-skelter all over Hong Kong. She - it! - needed to be
isolated or clamped down. They would find a good-enough spot in the city
proper (a harbor for example), set up some snipers, and force China-56-
890 to a defensive footing.
It could work, at least until UNETCO special operations arrived on the
scene. It was probably the best they could realistically make of the
situation; the alternative was a drawn out battle over or in a highly
populated area. China-56-890 would just have to be nipped in the bud.
One way or another.
- - -
Cyborg couldn't help but stare as he wandered downtown.
He'd known Gotham was a bigger city than his hometown, but he never
imagined it would be so bright and crowded. Flashing lights, flashing
signs, flashing screens, people flashing him the bird when he bumped
into them. It was all pretty dazzling. Made him wonder how it got a
reputation for being such a dreary gothic city. He was kind of curious
what this "I Heart NYC" thing was that he saw everywhere, too, but it
wasn't exactly a priority.
Speaking of priorities, he wasn't even sure where to begin now that he
was wrapped up in civvies and apparently blending in (the effort brought
back some memories of his pre -Titans days even). Nonetheless, the
question was: what to do first? Try to find Batman or some other
convenient hero? Sneak a peek at the current tech? At the very least
he might be able to come back with a few new games that wouldn't see the
light of day for another year or so. Or, did he try to find that
telescope and check on his satellites?
Oh ho! That's what he needed to do!
He totally needed to find one of those Sports Almanacs! Or at least a
listing of winning lottery numbers. Sultan Cyborg had a nice ring to
it, and it had worked out reasonably well for Biff. He already had one
foot in the nearest bookstore before he managed to stop himself.
"No, Cyborg. No abusing time travel for fun and profit..."
Besides, it wasn't like Robin would let him use it, anyway.
Cursing his fine moral fiber, he stepped back onto the sidewalk and
began to wander aimlessly again. Without temporal fraud to keep him
occupied, his options were starting to dwindle. He had no idea how to
contact the League people in the future, and although starting a bank
robbery seemed like a good idea, he had the feeling it would cause more
problems than it solved.
Then again, since he couldn't think of any great 'get home straight
away' plans off the top of his head, there really wasn't a reason that
he couldn't indulge himself a bit. After all, just a quick sneak peek
into the secrets of tomorrow couldn't hurt too much, now could it?
It didn't take him too long to find an electronics store in the bustling
city. Cyborg wrung his hands in anticipation as he entered the
building. Just as he'd hoped, the place was loaded with computers and
computer accessories. Cables, adaptors, fans, power sources, monitors,
all hung from the walls forming Cyborg's favorite kind of jungle. It
seemed to be geared less towards selling stuff and more towards computer
repair and self-assembly types.
With practiced ease, he moved from bin to bin, display to display.
Excitement glowed on his face as he looked at every component ... only
to dissolve into confusion as he looked at some of the parts and unusual
adaptors - USB? What on Earth was "USB 4.0"?
It must have been a pretty recent development...
Then his confusion transformed into disappointment when he checked the
specs on the computers. Turning to the man behind the desk, he gestured
towards the computers. "Hey, dude, where's your top of the line gear?
Did I walk into a computer museum, or something?"
The guy, not really much older than Cyborg himself, looked up from his
magazine to give him the evil eye. "That stuff is pretty top of the
line. I deal pretty much exclusively with the type of people that
assemble their own machines. I'd be outta business if I didn't have the
stuff anyone can order on the internet."
"Are you joking me?" Cyborg stepped over and dropped a hand on one of
the displays. "Gigabytes of RAM? This thing barely has enough
processing power to run my waffle maker." He then pointed to one of the
narrow slots on the front. "And what's with these 'USB' interfaces?
Why would you try to introduce a new concept like that when most
everyone has already standardized to the WTI?"
"WTI?" the shop keep repeated incredulously. "I don't even know what
you're talking about. And basically everyone uses USB. Or Firewire, I
guess. It's been around for years." Leaning forward, the guy looked at
him with narrowed eyes. "Look, buddy, are you just trying to mess with
me? Cuz unless you magically traveled here from the future, or you're
rich enough to wipe your ass with Benjamins, this is as good as you'll
get."
Okay, that cinched it.
Now Cyborg knew that something was seriously wrong here. This wasn't
Star Wars; technology shouldn't get worse as time progressed. And if
this USB thing had been around for years, then he sure as heck would
have known about it. Even when it was the street-tech plebs used, this
much difference in technology, and having such unusual differences
supposedly stretching back to before he'd left... a sneaking suspicion
was growing in the back of Cyborg's mind.
"Alright then," he replied easily. "You got me, I was just playin,
dude." Looking around, he grabbed a few technical manuals and some
magazines, not to mention a few of the USB adaptors, just out of
curiosity. As he offered the items to get rung up, he absently leaned
forward to ask, "By the way, you ever hear of the Justice League?"
"Justice League? What's that? A new movie?"
"Ah, no ... just a new game over in Japan. For the, uh, 'x-box.' Yeah,
was just wondering if you knew when it was coming over."
The guy looked at him oddly again, before shrugging and ringing up the
items. "Whatever, man, I don't keep up too much on what's goin' on
overseas. Check out a Gamestop for that kind of stuff. If it's here,
it's here, if it ain't, I'm not gonna worry about it. That'll be $41.50,
by the way."
A little nervously, Cyborg reached into his wallet and handed the man
two twenties and a ten. There was a very good chance his money wouldn't
even work ... but, he needn't have even worried. The guy barely even
looked at the bills before tossing them in the register and handing him
his change.
"Alright, have a good night, man. Heh, that was a pretty good one,
though. Using an AMD 940 to operate a waffle maker. What, would it
butter them and serve up a glass of juice at the same time? Maybe while
it read your paper to you and booted up Call of Duty?"
Cyborg chuckled to himself, a bit self-consciously. "Heh, heh ... yeah,
something like that! Maybe shoot 'em through the air to land on a plate
all neatly stacked to boot..."
Not waiting for a response, he quickly made his exit, leaving the shop
with his bagged purchases. As soon as he was out the door, he quickly
found the next closest alley and ducked in, finding a convenient shadow
to hide in. Looking around a few times to make sure no one was paying
attention, he pulled out the handful of change he'd just received.
"Okay, something weird is going on here, and I got a sinking feeling
what it might be."
Pulling up the left sleeve of his newly acquired sweater, he brought up
the display embedded in his forearm and cycled through the systems
quickly. It only took him a few moments to find the rarely used
application, and he started it up with a touch of a button. A small
beam of light shot out of his wrist; a moment later it spread into a
wide line which crossed over the coins several times before finally
dying out.
He waited several incredibly long seconds as the processors housed in
his left arm, more powerful than pretty much all the computers in that
entire store combined, analyzed the data. A loud 'ping' finally
signaled when it was finished.
> > SCAN COMPLETE: DIMENSIONAL VARIANCE DETECTED - FREQUENCY ??-0.1021
> WARNING I/O ERRORS DETECTED
The cybernetic teen grunted in frustration. Dimensional variance?
That could only mean one thing. He'd been thrown through a lot more
than just time by whatever had happened down in the lab. No Justice
League, no Wayne Tech, and computers a decade obsolete...? Even if it
was just the commercial stuff for regular peeps? What else was different
about this world, and how many of his friends were trapped here with
him?
First thing first, he needed to learn more about this world so he could
blend in more easily. That in mind, he stepped back out into the street
and approached the first person he saw. Making sure not to get to close
to the lady, he ducked his head and gestured to her.
"Hey, Miss. Do you know where the nearest library is?"
- - -
Starfire's breath came in ragged gasps as she swung around another
building and dropped down to the pavement yet again. It was not even
that the alien girl was exhausted, as it was the constant tension
wearing at her nerves. Being pursued by the police had been one thing,
but the numerous helicopters now sharing her sky were making evasion
more difficult.
She could feel the desperation begin to creep in; her search for her
companions had been fruitless thus far, and the longer she continued her
investigation, the more danger she placed herself in. Her training with
the Warlords of Okaara had prepared her for the rigors of guerilla
warfare, albeit with an emphasis on the jungle fighting of that world,
but she was only one here and they were an entire city. She had done
her best to avoid any form of pattern in her search, but it was only a
matter of time before the humans' net closed in around her.
Unfortunately, by not following a set search pattern, it made it all the
less likely that she would stumble upon Cyborg as well, providing he was
in the city ...
Hovering in the shadow of a taller building, she watched a squadron of
uniformed officers march past her even as another helicopter flew
overhead. Once she was certain she had not been spotted, the Tamaranian
floated to the top of the building and peeked over the ledge.
Numerous aircraft flitted through the air, she easily spotted five just
in sight of her position, and could only guess how many others might be
hiding behind some of the taller buildings in the distance. How much
longer did she have before they were able to concentrate their search
enough to pin her down? She began to plot a course to travel which
would allow her to avoid as many of the vehicles' flight paths as
possible-
When, suddenly and in unison, the entire fleet of helicopters spun about
and began to fly to the south east at top speed. Starfire's eyes widened
at the sudden departure of the vehicles, her curiosity instantly
aroused. What ... what was happening? Had the police suddenly lost
interest in her? Considering how fervently they had been chasing her,
she doubted it, which meant ... which meant that they had ... they had
found something of more interest to them than her?
The Tamaranian let out a gasp of understanding. There was only one
thing in this city which could draw their attention away from her. Was
it possible that they had located Cyborg before her, and were now moving
to capture him? If that was the case, she had to assist him. Her
friend, while powerful, was not nearly as mobile as herself, and would
not be able to escape without causing more damage than either of them
would be willing to.
Just as she was about to shoot out from her hiding spot, though, a
sudden thought stopped her in her tracks: What if this was a ruse? She
had made little effort to hide the fact that she was searching for her
comrade. Had they caught on to the nature of her movements, and were
trying to draw her out?
It only took Starfire a second of thought before she came to her
conclusion. Trap or not, it did not matter. If there was even a chance
that her friend was in peril, she had to investigate. Steeling her
resolve, the alien super hero nodded to herself confidently and floated
forward quickly, sticking tightly to rooftops and building faces to
avoid detection as she began to tail the airborne vehicles. Though she
was compelled to investigate the unusual actions of the helicopters, it
did not mean she needed to take undue risks.
- - -
Patting his belly, Cyborg let out a satisfied belch. Leaning back into
the booth seat, he had to commend these New Yorkers; Lord Almighty! They
sure knew how to make a pizza! He'd needed it, too. After a whole
morning in the library, comparing parallel dimensional histories, it was
just what the doctor (or engineer) had ordered.
It had been doubly delicious, since he hadn't actually eaten since
before they had all left to answer the call at S.T.A.R. labs. He'd been
too late to hit the library the night before, and then too busy looking
for a motel cheap enough to stay at to bother getting a bite to eat.
About the only saving grace of the entire night was finding out that the
electricity here was still electricity, and not some crazy anti-backward
Qwardian energy. He'd just straight up plugged himself into the wall
socket of his room. It had only put his battery up a few percent over
the entire night, but as long as he didn't overdo it, he'd be back to
full in a few days time.
So at least that was one worry of his put to rest.
He wouldn't run out of juice and turn into Tin Man 2.0 ... though he
sure didn't want to see the motel's electricity bill at the end of the
month. As it was, he was still trying to digest all of the information
he'd skimmed through that morning. Well, that and his pizza.
Different presidents, different companies, outdated technology that
seemed to have diverged around World War Two, no alien contacts, and, of
course, the most notable difference of all:
No super heroes.
Beyond just that, no metahumans at all!
At least there were no reported metahumans, anyway. Heck, they didn't
even seem to have any super genius types at all. Anyone considered
truly brilliant here was pretty much limited to theoretical sciences, at
least in terms of physics people. Of course, no one handed out Nobels to
the crime fighting super geniuses back home ...for political reasons...
but it was still a good gauge for where things were in the world. The
pronounced lack of super scientists actually kind of left Cyborg in a
bit of a lurch.
He doubted there was a person on the planet that was beyond a 6th level
intellect. That meant even if he did go look for help on how to get
home, all he would get would be theories. There didn't seem to be any
publicly renowned think tanks, like Star labs, that he could go to that
would help him manufacture and assemble the hardware for a functioning
dimensional portal.
So, it looked like he was stuck doing all the grunt work himself. He
smirked at the thought of it. It'd be just like that Stargate episode,
where that ascended guy made a stargate out of a microwave in the
basement (an episode oddly mirrored in the same SG1 program they had on
this Earth, but a season ahead of his own, going by this handy
'wikipedia' thing he had discovered).
He'd just have to salvage enough existing tech, and hope there was
enough moderately advanced stuff for him to cobble something together.
Thankfully, he'd already had a bit of experience with parallel
dimensions, but that had been his parents' work, not his own, so he had
little more than a few dated copies of their research notes. That, and
a world of bad memories...
No point in getting ahead of himself, though.
He was confident that at the very least, Ryo and Rae were here too, just
not within fifty klicks of him. He really needed a way to find them.
Unfortunately, he was again coming up blank. He could try to scan for
Raven's energy signature, but without the satellites, his scanner
wouldn't reach any further than his communicator.
He supposed he could try to hijack someone else's satellite to boost the
signal, but compatibility problems aside, that seemed pretty likely to
draw some pretty negative attention. He'd leave the option on the
table, but only once he'd had more of a chance to study this world's
tech. It was undoubtedly kinda primitive, but there were enough subtle
differences in application to make it tricky to reverse engineer. He
held up the severed cord, tipped with the USB adaptor. It was certainly
cute, but it definitely wasn't familiar.
Hmmm ... familiar.
'Now, if I were lost in a strange world, what would be the first thing
I'd do?' he asked himself.
"Look for something familiar. Or somewhere, or someone."
It was, after all, what he was doing here in the first place: hoping to
find some Justice League types to help him out. Of course, now he knew
that this world was far more different than his own than he'd
anticipated. Entire cities were gone, replaced with - admittedly
glitzier - completely different ones. A lot of the places he grew up
with weren't just gone, they'd never been in the first place. But what
about Raven and Ryouga? Did they have any places they might go?
Depending on where in the world they ended up, anyway.
Ducking his arm under the table, he brought up the display screen and
brought up his address book. Right at the top of the list was Titan
Tower. Not there. Pizzeria ... Arcade ... Mall ... He quickly
scrolled through all of the Jump City locations that they frequented.
Their emergency meeting sites were equally meaningless, as he was
already in Gotham, but Gotham wasn't there. Metropolis was out as well.
Most of their emergency meeting places had tended to be in cities with
strong League presence, in case they were ever that badly in need of
back up. Too bad those back up plans didn't make the transition to
different realities.
He was about to put his arm away ... when he reached the end of his
address book, and read the last, and latest entry.
The Tendo Dojo.
'...Nawww, what would be the odds?'
Still, as far as he knew, Tokyo was present in both worlds. There was a
slight chance, and even if he just left a tiny sign post, someone might
stumble across it and start to follow it back to him. He could probably
do that elsewhere as well; try to figure out some kind of message that
could be sent out that his friends would understand. He wasn't exactly
too mobile at the moment, so he couldn't fly around the world to find
them, so maybe he could bring them to him?
First thing was first, though, before going through the arduous process
of tinkering together a message and a delivery system, he had a phone
number right here. With his first actual plan of the night, he rose up
from his seat, paid for his meal and left the pizzeria. It didn't take
him long to find a phone booth ... though the thing had certainly seen
its better days. It was pretty much painted solid with graffiti, but it
still gave a signal. It would serve his purpose.
Not exactly holding onto a mountain of change, Cyborg was forced to -
feeling really terrible about it, too - crack open the case and start
rooting through the wires. At the very least, this outdated mode of
communication was pretty much identical between both worlds, and
unchanged over the decades. It was a simple matter for him to find the
necessary wires to bypass the phone itself, and hook right into the
network. Removing a small transceiver from his skull, he then hooked it
up to the wires and closed the case back up, applying a bit of heat with
his cutting torch to melt it back closed. The last thing he needed to
do was stand around in a phone booth for god knew how long.
He then left the abused phone booth and found another convenient
alleyway to hide in while he got underway. Once he was sure he was out
of sight again, he sent a signal via the transmitter, and initiated the
call. Without the phone, he couldn't input the number himself, but he
had enough control to get the operator.
Said operator answered moments later, sounding very much like an
automated system.
Even better, really.
"How may I direct your call?"
Smiling, Cyborg spoke directly to the air before him.
"Could you connect me to the Tendo residence, please? It's in Tokyo,
Japan, the Nerima ward ..."
- - -
Seiran
It wasn't often that one got a routed call to an operative on-base. Most
were permanently out of touch, and rightly so. However, there were
certain protocols for switching lines from on base to off base. The
ongoing hunt to register and safeguard wandering martial artists was
part of this program.
As a result, when Kasumi Tendo heard that she was getting a call 'from
the outside' she knew exactly what it meant and what she had to do.
Someone with an unidentified voice print was contacting the dojo and had
followed up by receiving and dialing her automated extension. The last
time a call of this sort had gotten through security thanks to the words
'Ranma' and 'that damned Saotome' being uttered, it had been an obscure
martial artist calling to schedule a challenge and built up his
reputation as a 'dojo destroyer.' He had quickly been traced, identified
and detained.
Kasumi had been in the middle of checking in on some growing skin graft
scaffolds - tissue burns being the most common survivable injury
encountered by field ops - when she got the news via the medical wing
comm system. Finishing her review of one of the samples and putting the
rest back into incubation, the eldest Tendo sister quickly removed her
nitrile medical gloves and passed out through the lab sanitation filter.
A flash of light sterilized anyone passing in or out, and she blinked a
few times as she made her way to one of the restricted line phones.
"Miss Tendo," a male voice spoke, a second after she picked up. "We have
a Six-Seven from the outside line. Intel does not have voice match, and
we are intercepting via landline and Echelon. Your conversation will be
monitored at all times."
"Yes, I know. Thank you."
"Connecting now."
There was an audible click, and Kasumi spoke up again, this time in
Japanese. "Moshi moshi?"
"Um, ah, hello there?" came the somewhat tentative response,
unexpectedly in English. "This is Kasumi Tendo, right?"
"Oh, yes, this is Kasumi," she also switched, easily, to English. "May I
ask who is calling?"
"Ah, right! This is ... um - Dan Hibiki! That's it. I'm Dan Hibiki.
I've heard through the rumor mill that you know my long lost cousin,
Ryouga? Is that right? I'm kind of looking for him, and I was
wondering if he's stopped by the dojo lately?"
"Dan Hibiki?" Kasumi asked, her mouth making a small 'o.' That couldn't
be right. As far as she knew, Tetsuya was an only son; Ryouga had no
surviving uncles on his father's side of the family, and none on
Mitsuko's. Then again, there were supposedly more distant branches of
the family... still, this didn't seem to be one of them.
Her mind raced: should she confront this man with that fact or play
along?
"Ryouga is a friend of mine, yes," she smoothly continued. "I believe he
is out at the moment playing with his friends. May I ask what this is
about? Is there some sort of family emergency?"
"Well, it might be. So, you have seen him then, right? Umm ... can you
tell me, if you've seen him recently, has he been acting ... odd in
anyway? Y'know, confused, or maybe hanging out with strange girls?"
Now that was an interesting question.
"I'm afraid he runs into many strange people during his little trips,
and he often appears a bit lost. Could you please be more specific?" she
asked, politely. "What would these strange girls look like?"
The mysterious speaker paused for a moment. "Well, one of them would be
... pale. Or maybe a redhead? Possibly even a... hmm, a rave party
girl? I dunno if he's actually with any of them or not, just that he
might be ... so, um ... have you?"
"I'm sorry, none of those sounds like the kind of girls he and his
friends spend time with," Kasumi replied. Of course, the 'kind of girl'
Ryouga and the other boys spent most of their time with were best
described by: 'exuberant Chinese Amazon' and 'cross dressing warrior
chef.' The very idea of any of them spending time with a 'rave party
girl' was well worth the price of admission.
"Perhaps," she suggested. "You could contact his parents, Gendo and
Yui?"
"Um, y'know ..." Suddenly, the caller paused again. "Gendo and Yui, you
say? I - ah - actually, I'm sorry for bothering you. I must have the
wrong number." The deep voiced speaker laughed nervously. "Heh, what a
crazy coincidence, eh? What are the odds of my cousin having the same
name as your friend!"
"A very strange coincidence," Kasumi cheerfully agreed, but inwardly
cringed. She really should have picked a more obscure anime to get a
couple's names from! This was all because of that new Eva Rebuild! How
many more good conversations would it ruin? How many?!
"Please take care," she added, sensing he was about to hang up. "I'm
sorry I couldn't be of more help."
"Yeah, I'm sorry for wasting your time, too. I really need to be going
now ... Actually, before I go, could I ask you a quick question? I was
just wondering, off the top of my head, do you happen to like long,
moonlit walks along the beach, and other cliche junk like that?
Y'know... just out of curiosity?"
"Actually..." On a lark, she answered the strange question. "I've sort
of always wanted to go to one of those eighties night clubs."
Bizarrely, she could have sworn she heard someone writing something
down. "Eighties night clubs, eh? So, you like the not quite classic
rock? That's pretty awesome, I wouldn't have thought of that. You like
dancin' too?"
"With the right man, maybe... Mister Hibiki."
"Oh, oh! I, ah, I'm not talking about me! I'm ... um ... asking for a
friend?" The strange 'Mr. Hibiki' began to chuckle nervously again. "I
mean, I'm a Hibiki after all, so I could be in, oh, Australia or
something. Lord knows I'd never make it to Tokyo!"
"Or you could be in Tokyo right now and not even know it!"
"Heh heh heh, that's right! I could be bashing through some poor guy's
wall even as we speak! ... Well, obviously I'm not, since you'd
probably hear that, but still, you know us Hibikis!" Another pause.
"Umm, quick, before I go, though, any other likes slash dislikes that
any other prospective guys might want to know about if, hypothetically,
they were to meet you?"
"One would be that I prefer to meet people face to face." Only Kasumi's
ever-warm tone kept the phrase from being frosty, as it would coming
from most any other woman's mouth. As it was, it ended up sounding just
a bit reprimanding. "I'll let Ryouga know that his cousin Dan called.
I'm sure you'll run into each other sooner than you think."
'Mr. Hibiki' chuckled to himself. "Can't blame a guy for tryin!
Pleasure talkin' to ya, Kasumi. Have a good one."
And with that, he hung up and the call was ended.
Immediately, the line switched back to GenIntel's HUMInt division.
"Thank you Miss Tendo. I take it this man seemed suspicious to you?"
"I'm afraid so. Ryouga may know something... but if not," she said with
a sad sigh. "When you find him, please don't be too rough."
"We'll be in contact."
The call disconnected completely this time.
Kasumi shook her head. Hopefully this man pretending to be 'Dan Hibiki'
wasn't a bad person. It could be nice to meet him some day and find out
what all those strange questions were really about.
- - -
Canines.
Why was it mandatory for Earthers to employ such vicious canines?
Overhead, more helicopters circled, like vultures. More worrisome still
were a pair of high flying military aircraft. It had been a sobering
revelation when she had witnessed the arrival of the first military
helicopter ... Before, she had been dealing with police, with law
enforcement officers, good men and women charged with protecting the
same citizens which she did.
Soldiers, though ... soldiers were different. She knew soldiers; she
had been raised as a warrior herself. Soldiers were not charged with
the capture of enemies, they were trained to kill. Trained to destroy.
She knew what Vegan soldiers did with their prisoners back home ... if
they bothered to take prisoners at all.
Her time with the Gordanians had not been forgotten, would never be
forgotten. In her mind, the seriousness of the situation had sky
rocketed. No longer was it a game of evasion with officers of the law,
it was now a battle between warriors and with the life of Cyborg
possibly hanging in the balance.
Oh, how she wished Robin was present. He would know how to deal with
this situation. Even if he didn't, his very presence would provide her
with limitless comfort. As it was, with all of the aerial activity,
Starfire was understandably reluctant to leave the tree line. The
further the aircraft had pulled back to the edge of a warehouse district
by the sea, it had become increasingly difficult to stay out of sight.
The loud barking of one of the Earth canines made her freeze as she
considered her next move. Starfire was certain she hadn't been seen, but
her comrade, Beast Boy had demonstrated how easily they could track by
scent alone. It was likely she stood out simply by virtue of not being a
native to the planet. If the attack dogs were close, though, it meant
that ground troops were likely closing in as well. She had no desire to
enter battle with the soldiers, she did not want to contemplate what
would be required of her if she was forced to fight people intent on her
death.
The whole situation was... terribly worrying.
It seemed likely that she was in China ... but that country possessed
its share metahumans, as well. Earth politics was not something she was
particularly fluent in, but Starfire had never heard of China cracking
down on metas (or humanoid aliens in her case). She knew that her
unintended property destruction had been ... embarrassing... but there
was no reason for them to be pursuing her like this. Property
destruction happened all the time! And if the officer had not fired upon
her, causing her to react hastily and flee, this likely could have been
settled peaceably. This escalation of force was beyond all reason.
It left her painfully confused ... Why were they after her like this?
Did they have Cyborg, and if so, why all of this security? Just what,
in X'hal's name was going on here?
The barking died down as the unseen canine that had gotten her scent
paused in its pursuit. Starfire flew up along the underside of one of
the warehouse railings, trying to blend in with the shadows and stitched
iron latticework. The animals would not be able to track her like this,
up here, and it would hopefully confuse them to an extent. Long enough
for her to get a better grasp on what she was heading into.
Peeking over the railing, she could see where the helicopters had headed
before: it was another nondescript warehouse, or rather, just outside
it. The humans here had set up some kind of barricade with parked
vehicles. A very large truck was also parked nearby, and a similarly
large helicopter - a transport version of the smaller ones, Star could
guess - was idling on an open area near the pier. She could also see two
more military-looking vehicles with weapons attached to their tops, and
one heavily armored machine that reminded her of something she had seen
some "swat" policemen use once.
This latest revelation was the final nail in the burial container for
the Tamaranian warrior. The military helicopters had been threatening,
but distant. A danger removed by distance, and one that she felt
comfortable dealing with, the air being her domain. The sight of a
significant military force such as this, carrying such overtly lethal
weapons filled her with apprehension, but ... but also with a nigh
forgotten tingle of excitement. She had been trained as a warrior, but
had rarely had to fall back on the darker aspects of her training while
in the presence of her powerful friends.
Her friends had never, to her knowledge, seen a real battlefield, and
she hoped that they never would. She had, since her arrival, derived
that there were differences in the codes of conduct concerning the
combat of criminals than there was in fighting on the battlefield. It
was just one of Earth's many peculiarities.
The Tamaranian shook her head fiercely. She was getting too far ahead
of herself; the possibility for combat was still not a certainty.
Still, if they did have Cyborg here - and they were treating him like
they seemed inclined to treat her - then he was in trouble. The level of
security present would be problematic, though. Deciding to be a little
conservative, Starfire remained hidden. It looked like the humans were
going to be moving whatever they had into either the truck or the big
helicopter. If she waited until the moment they made the move, she could
make a more informed decision as to whether to get involved or not.
So she waited.
Time, of course, passed slowly when you wanted it to move quickly. What
had Kasumi said before? "Constant observation of heated water prevents
the phase transition from liquid to gas state?" Earther sayings were
always so vexing to remember right; their languages seemed to be
designed to confuse. Why did they have words with multiple meanings? It
was frustrating. A klorbag was a klorbag, no matter the context. So why
was a "chick" sometimes a young chicken and sometimes a person? There
were too many meanings and double-meanings and puns and "plays regarding
words" and other nonsense. It was the same with their written languages,
too.
It just was not very alien-friendly; she could pick up the languages
easy enough, but the nuances still caused some problems. And waiting in
the shadows while nothing happened only heightened the tension she felt.
How long was that helicopter going to just stay there, wasting aviation
fuel? How long were they going to keep that truck parked there with its
engine running? Why was no one doing anything except standing around or
walking back and forth pointlessly?
Maybe they were...
Was it possible they were waiting for someone? Her? Or was Cyborg hurt?
Were they afraid to move him? Maybe they were waiting for a doctor or
someone? The waiting, and the questions and scenarios her fertile
imagination began to conjure up, were all quickly getting to her. Still,
she held back, putting aide her initial anxiety. She watched the
helicopters overhead very carefully, counting down their movements as
they came and went.
She could zip in, take a look, and zip out.
She would have to; she could not afford to delay indefinitely.
Finally decided on the course of action, Starfire focused her emotions,
made sure of her timing, and bolted out of cover. The men guarding the
center area immediately pointed at her and started yelling. Unhappy with
her lack of alternatives, Starfire shot a few harmless bolts at the
ground to kick up dust and encourage them to find cover. She heard
cursing and yelling as a cloud of dust rose up. The men would be unable
to see her well, but her target was a static enclosure. She could
carefully zip in even with her own vision obscured.
Rushing past the stunned men, Starfire landed to the side of one of the
four parked vehicles. Pushing aside the heavy plastic that closed off
the back of the large parked truck in the middle of the police cars she
half expected - after all this - to see Cyborg strapped to a table or
something. Instead, she came face to face with a dozen more of the armed
humans in mottled blue uniforms. Surprised, and yet somehow not, she
hesitated.
"Don't move," one of them spoke, then repeated it in English, "Do not
move."
Hearing English spoken, finally, and for the first time, she twitched.
But she did not move.
One of the men inside was dressed differently and not armed. He wore the
sort of black professional uniform she had seen older human men wearing
back home. She had dealt with federal agents on several occasions, and
this man, with his well serious, professional look seemed to fit that
bill more so than the rest did.
"You can understand me, can't you?" the black suited man asked, holding
out his empty hands from where he stood among the armed soldiers. "I
order you to surrender. You are now our prisoner."
"Prisoner?" she asked, green eyes narrowing.
Instinctively, light flared up around her hands.
It was not like she had even thought about firing at the man. It had
simply been an emotional response to a particularly charged word.
Prisoner. Starfire had sworn years ago that she would never be taken
prisoner again. The atrocities she had suffered at the hands of the
Gordanians: submission - Capture - just the idea of it was abhorrent. So
her emotions flared up, and the light around her hands followed a
heartbeat later, blazing a vivid green.
It was then that one of the armed men panicked, seeing what he no doubt
thought to be an attack, especially given what had happened outside.
Starfire felt it really, before the sound even sunk in.
They were shooting at her.
The first few rounds hit in her torso, and they stung fiercely. Aside
from the police woman earlier, she had never been subjected to a human
projectile weapon fire before, and that had been a notably smaller and
weaker firearm. Usually her enemies used energy, or beam weapons of
some sort or another, as most advanced races tended to. Who used
chemicals to propel bits of hurtful metal at other sentient beings? It
was cruel and barbaric! Why not just mutilate your enemies, too, while
you were at it?
Her Tamaranian physiology saved her life for the second time that day.
Like all of her race, she was blessed with strength and durability far
beyond that of humans, the power to survive even the harsh conditions of
space itself. The tensile strength of her bones, the high density of
her musculature, and the toughness of her skin were enough to protect
her ... for the most part. The bullets that hit her chest didn't
penetrate, mushrooming and flattening against the exotic material of her
top in a painful manner.
Without thinking, Starfire covered her face and chest and stumbled back
a step. The man from before shouted something, but a second later -
seeing her still standing despite taking three rounds to her center of
mass - the nerves of the other men snapped and they opened fire as well.
Incensed by the unprovoked attack, she gritted her teeth. A second
later, the emerald light around her fists swelled several times in size,
growing into beach ball sized spheres of roiling meta-plasma. The sound
of gunfire continued, nearly deafening at this range, but the sharp pain
of the projectiles slamming into her dropped markedly. Though she had
hoped to hear the distinctive 'pfft!' of bullets being melted,
unexpectedly it was the concussive force of her signature attacks that
provided most of the protection, slowing or deflecting most of the
projectiles enough so that they were no longer a serious threat when
they hit home.
Her thighs, woefully less protected than her upper body, still suffered
as stray rounds continued to crash into them. Unfortunately, tough as it
was, her skin was still as sensitive as any human's. She felt the
bullets as they broke on her legs, some even managing to pierce her skin
enough to draw out rivulets of green blood.
'Why?!'
Why were they shooting her? She was a Teen Titan! She was a hero! The
government was not supposed to attack heroes, not like this! The
occasional mistaken-identity melee or use of stun blasters aside, this
did not happen! Robin had promised that her days on battlefields were
over!
"Enough! Cease your attack!" Starfire yelled, releasing her pent-up fury
and confusion in a blast of green energy. The back of the truck blew
apart from the force unleashed, and the half dozen armed men who had
ambushed her inside it were all blown back. Bullets continued to fly,
and soon one or two pained cries merged with her own.
Instinctively, she flew up to get away.
On Earth, her enemies were land bound more often than not. Flying was
something her mind had come to correlate with safety. But one or two of
them were still shooting at her. Again, starbolts began to emit from
her fists and she did her best to block the incoming projectiles,
unfortunately, a bullet bounced clean off her temple, dazing her vision
for a moment. It felt like Slade had elbowed her in between the eyes.
She was bleeding and hurt and ... and they were still firing at her!
Fury, fury the likes of which she had not felt since her arrival on
Earth bubbled up from a very dark place within her.
"Hnh ... hnh ... Zengtha ru maka! Kek zengtha ror!"
A dozen bolts of green rained down. One of the armed men took a hit and
was blasted backwards through the air. A few others crashed into a
nearby parked jeep, shearing off a door, blowing off a wheel and
flipping the vehicle over. She did not want to hurt anyone, but... but
she would not abide this! It was -
A loud thunk-thunk sound cut off her thoughts as something exploded in
the air nearby. Some kind of explosive shell, fired by one of the more
heavily armored human vehicles. She resisted the urge to batter away at
it with Starbolts, trying to balance her fury with her compassion. She
did not wish to risk killing those in the back of the vehicle with
unrestrained violence, but nor did she wish to ignore such a dangerous
threat.
Intense power built up in her eyes -
Seconds later, two large, molten holes were burned through the nose of
the APC, where she imagined the combustion engine might be located.
Unfortunately, killing the vehicle's engine still left the turret
functional. Not wanting to engage the helicopters above, she quickly
dove down. The turret of the crippled vehicle tried to track her, and a
man on one of the armed jeeps opened fire with a larger caliber
projectile weapon. It was firing incredibly quickly, and Star only
avoided getting tagged by sweeping around another parked jeep. Then she
was beneath the arc of the APC's turret.
Flying into the side of the personnel carrier, she slammed her hands
into the heavy armor of the underbelly - the metal sheets twisting
mercilessly under her grasp - and began to lift. The APC rose into the
air, the alien warrior lifting it above her head. Glancing in the
direction of the jeep, she prepared to use the armored vehicle as a
shield...
When two more APCs rolled out of the warehouse.
Starfire's eyes narrowed as she regarded the incoming vehicles. Fury
starting to get the better of caution, she hurled her captured APC, but
aimed down at the docks. The bulky vehicle bounced once before rolling
over several times, tearing up much of the metal framing, but doing
little apparent damage to the main structure. The shooting and the
advancing APCs and jeeps stopped, and some tried to quickly reverse. One
flipped over onto its side as it tried to execute too sharp a turn.
A moment later, something fast - too fast - exploded nearby. More metal,
this time burning hot, nicked off her skin. It was like a dozen burning
cuts, and she hissed even as the force of it tossed her to the ground.
Another bullet, or something, bigger, faster, hit hard enough to knock
the wind from her lungs.
"Mesnef!" Starfire swore loudly.
Glaring upwards at the airborne vehicle which had just tried to destroy
her, her rage boiled over again. Even as the pair of military
helicopters began to reorient on her new position, she launched herself
into the air again, straight up and so fast that the missiles and
projectiles they fired did little more than disrupt the emerald trail of
light following in her wake.
She managed to regain control of herself as she rose up level with the
helicopters and restrained from simply blasting away at them. Rather,
she zipped around behind the closest aircraft, moving far too fast for
it to maneuver with her, and grabbed onto the tail of the helicopter.
Plasma flared up around her hands, and a second later, the rear rotor
ceased spinning from the damage she caused to the mechanism within.
Even as the vehicle began to spin around - the pilot would be forced to
land quickly - she took off in a straight line away from it, using its
listing bulk to block the aim of the second helicopter long enough to
get out of its range. Then, once she was clear, she poured on the speed.
Green light trailed her like a glorious comet tail as she soared through
the sky. There was no way that any of the helicopters would be able to
keep pace with her, not with the speeds and heights she could attain ...
Oddly, that was not nearly as comforting a thought as it should have
been, though. She had escaped the military here ... but in doing so,
she had possibly abandoned her dear friend in the clutches of those ...
of those barbarians.
The Tamaranian shook her head slowly as she soared aimlessly; one phrase
summed up all of her feelings at the moment, and Starfire muttered
sadly:
"Heska vo ..."
- - -
"Damn it."
Beast Boy winced at the outburst. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw
Robin standing at the center of the lab, very nearly on top of the
epicenter of the... incident. The metal plating of the floor was warped
and twisted in an oddly familiar pattern, like crested waves of water
radiating out from a central point in a series of rings. Directly at
the center was a perfectly circular depression, kind of like the one
that happened when those Terminator guys traveled through time in those
movies... whatever they were called. The rest of the lab was pretty
much trashed as well, but in the more mundane 'epic battle with insane
monsters' kind of way, then with the accident itself.
A number of lab coat wearing types populating the chamber also noticed
the outburst, and started giving the masked hero a slightly wider berth.
One of the investigators from the Police Force looked ready to say
something, but the ranking officer on the scene, Lieutenant Santiago if
Beast Boy remembered her name correctly, gave the man a quick shake of
her head and he went back to his work. In turn, Beast Boy shot her a
thankful nod and received a quick one in return.
It was hard for Beast Boy to see their leader so out of sorts. Sure,
he'd seen Robin angry before: whenever he lost a card game, whenever
Beast Boy tried to borrow his crime fighting gear, pretty much anything
even tangentially related to Slade... But this was something else.
This wasn't just anger; there was desperation, recrimination, and a half
a dozen other negative emotions that the changeling couldn't quickly
identify. It was also causing problems. The cops were usually good
enough to let them help out with investigations like this but they were
by no means obligated to. It was a matter of mutual good will that let
them work in this way, and if the Lieutenant started to get worried they
were too close to this problem to stay objective, she might ask them to
leave.
Waving down the Boy Wonder, Beast Boy called out. "Yo, Robin, ya gotta
chill out, man."
He then gestured to Kasumi. The eldest member of their team - not
exactly a 'field' operative, to say the least - was examining a large
machine that looked like a cross between a pinball machine and a pizza
oven to the inexperienced shape shifter; she was still wearing the same
blouse and skirt combination that she had been wearing in the tower -
though they'd managed to remind her to take off her apron - and looked
excruciatingly out of place in the middle of a disaster investigation.
As soon as she heard him, she turned to see what he wanted.
He quickly waved her over. As soon as she was close enough, he leaned
in and whispered to her, "Can you keep an eye on Robin, please? I know
this isn't easy for any of us to deal with, but we gotta keep our heads,
ya'know?"
Kasumi didn't respond immediately, instead, she appeared to study him
for a moment, as if appraising him in some way. The tall brunette then
nodded, offering him a brilliant smile. "Of course, Garfield. You are
absolutely right."
Then, unexpectedly, she leaned forward and dropped a hand on his
shoulder, giving it a supportive squeeze. Whispering conspiratorially,
she added, "Also, you're doing an excellent job."
Immediately, his cheeks began to burn, and he did his best to hide his
embarrassment as the graceful woman turned and glided away. He hadn't
even had time to insert a standard indignant huff to her using his real
name on a mission! It was, of course, utterly impossible to stay mad at
Kasumi, though, so he just watched her go, and waited until she stopped
at their Leader's side and started speaking to him in hushed tones.
Letting out a low sigh of relief, he then turned back to the other issue
at hand. Behind him, Terra - goddess in human form that she was - was
talking to some nerd wearing giant glasses that took up most of his
face. Dr. Xenophon Quincy, if Beast Boy recalled. It was a remarkably
difficult name to forget, in retrospect. The blonde Titan, wearing her
standard black and yellow attire, was standing in front of a table, one
littered with numerous labeled and tagged objects of various
descriptions.
"So, is there anything else you can tell us about the accident, Doctor?"
Terra asked, her brow scrunching up adorably as she examined all of the
pieces of 'evidence' that had been collected from around the lab in the
aftermath. The researchers had not only picked up the twisted remains
of the 'DQD,' as they'd called it, they'd also collected every piece of
material that was related to the experiments involving the 'Hyper
Griffin'.
For a brief moment, Beast Boy let his imagination run wild. He knew he
could change into alien animals now, after his stint at Starfire's
'wedding', so did that mean he could turn into transdimensional beasties
as well? How awesome would that be? Of course, any actual notion of
trying to make such a change had been nipped in the bud the second he'd
been shown video of the 'creature' in question. The sight of that
monstrosity had been enough to set even his stomach into knots.
"I'm afraid not, my dear," Dr Quincy replied, sounding somewhat
embarrassed, "It's only been a scant few hours since the accident. We
haven't even had time to clean up the mess properly, let alone start
going through all of the data. You have no idea just the kind of
computations are involved in transdimensional events such as this. Not
to mention that we have an entire set of unknowns in the form of your
one companion's... unusual... powers."
"Oh, you must mean Raven, right?" Terra asked inquisitively.
The doctor nodded, turning back to pick up a scorched and twisted piece
of metal from the table, looking it over with an analytical eye. "Quite
so. If I weren't watching it unfold with my own eyes, I scarcely would
have believed it. The interaction between her powers, the Dimensional
Quarantine Device and the entity itself, were completely unprecedented.
We don't have enough data to even begin to postulate as to what
occurred."
Beast Boy stepped in at that, trying hard to hide the trepidation in his
voice. "Do... do you at least know if they're... alright, or not? I
mean... do you know anything?"
Dr. Quincy turned to regard him, carefully controlling his expression.
Despite that, the mousy scientist still wore a grave expression. "We
are... hopeful," he finally stated.
Pointing to the event epicenter, he gestured around with his hand.
"While we do not know what did happen, our preliminary investigation has
found no... no organic traces anywhere around ground zero. At the very
least we believe that excludes the scenario of... violent exothermic
reactions being involved."
"Uhhhh..." Beast Boy lifted a finger, his jaw going slack.
"Um, I think it means that he's pretty sure they didn't explode," Terra
offered helpfully.
"Oh - oh, well, that's good news then! Umm... but what does it mean,
then?"
At that, the good doctor paused. "Well... we're not exactly certain.
Personally, I theorize that the event that occurred was a dimensional
anomaly. In the best case scenario, it is possible that they were
simply thrown through the dimensional barrier."
Beast Boy stared at the man weakly. "And the worst case scenario?"
"You, uh, likely don't want to know the worst case scenario."
The changeling's face fell at that. "So, there's nothing you can do,
then?"
"Oh my, no," Xenophon replied, suddenly quite upbeat. "This is one of
the most advanced facilities on the planet. While we have no knowledge
of what has happened yet, I am very confident that we will be able to
unravel this mystery and determine the ultimate fate of your friends.
We just need time to go over all of our data, both from prior
experiments on the entity, and the information garnered from the combat
between your friends and the entity."
That seemed to garner Terra's interest, the slim blonde was currently
holding a large metal cylinder. Tilting it from side to side, a
sloshing sound could be heard from inside it. "What kind of experiments
did you do to that - that whatever it was?"
"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary," Dr Quincy replied, off handedly.
Reaching over, he picked up another cylinder similar to, but smaller
than, the one Terra held. "We began by taking numerous tissue samples.
The entity possessed a most incredible physical make up, being a
transdimensional being. Did you know that the material of its feathers-"
He held up the container in his hand for emphasis- "Is not functionally
any different than samples taken from its brain?"
He nodded to the container in her hands, quite pointedly.
It took Terra a long second before realization finally set it. As soon
as it did, she let out a startled gasp and nearly dropped the cylinder.
Only a quick dive from Beast Boy caught it and returned it to the table
safely. Still, he did not like what he had heard. Turning to glare at
the doctor, he growled in a low voice.
"You were dissecting it? While it was still alive!?"
"What? Well, yes, but - you see - it is not really alive, not in any
way that we can understand it, at any rate. But, still, isn't that for
the best? If your friends are still alive, the data we can extract from
these samples may well hold the key to eventually saving them."
That gave Beast Boy pause. 'If they are still alive?' Instantly, his
outrage was mollified. He hated to admit it, but in this case, he found
it hard to place the welfare of an extradimensional space monster above
that of his friends-
Wait, no, actually it wasn't that hard at all.
Swallowing his disgust with the researcher, he nodded. "They're
definitely alive, don't you doubt it," he stated confidently. "You just
make sure that you do everything you can to find them!"
"Of course, of course," the doctor replied quickly. "In fact, if you'll
excuse me, I have work to do this very minute."
Beast Boy just watched as the diminutive scientist scurried off to busy
himself with something far across the ruined lab. Frowning as he
watched the man leave, he was caught by surprise when he felt a pair of
arms wrap around his neck. Looking down in surprise, he saw Terra
looking up at him. Her eyes were shimmering, and she pressed her head
to his chest.
"You - you're sure that they're all okay?" she asked tentatively.
"You know it," he replied more firmly than he actually felt.
"They're all alright."
Looking up, both young heroes started when they noticed that Robin and
Kasumi were standing right beside them. The Boy Wonder's face was
tight, but he still gave the changeling a sharp nod of recognition.
Words weren't even necessary for the shape changer to feel a swell of
pride in his chest.
"They're alright," Robin reiterated. "And they will be found, no matter
how long it takes."
Kasumi nodded brightly. "Of course they will. Ryouga and the others
are far too tenacious to let something like being shifted into an
alternate dimension keep them down for long."
"Yeah!" Terra cheered, pumping her fist into the air. "I bet Cyborg
will figure out how to get them home before any of these eggheads even
get the chance to."
Robin nodded, though his face remained grim. "Wherever they are, our
friends will be alright. We, however, have a serious matter of our own
to deal with, now."
"Huh? What's that?" Beast Boy asked, confused.
"We just lost the majority of our team, and we have no idea how long it
will take to get them back. Even staying optimistic, that is a major
problem for us. If word gets out that the Teen Titans have been reduced
from eight fighters to three in the blink of an eye, I have no doubt
that that will garner us all of the wrong kinds of attention."
Terra's eyes grew wide as she considered the implications of that.
"Oh... man."
Robin nodded again. "We'll let Dr Quincy and his team get to work here.
We need to get back to the tower and start making our own preparations.
First thing first, is going to be trying to keep this under wraps as
long as possible. We'll figure things out as we go from there."
With that, their leader ushered them out of the laboratory and to the
elevator that led back to the surface. Letting the ladies go on ahead,
the Boy Wonder and Beast Boy followed a few steps behind. Before they
stepped into the elevator, the two boys shared one last look. Despite
all of their brave talk, and all of their assurances to Kasumi and
Terra, one unspoken phrase continued to echo through their minds.
'If they still are alive...'
No, they definitely had to be. Beast Boy wasn't sure he'd be able to
live with himself if he actually let himself believe otherwise. And if
Robin was even half right - and when was he ever less than 90% right? -
then they were going to need all of their wits about them when word of
this disaster got out.
'Damnit, Cy, you better use that stupidly big brain of yours to get
everyone back here soon. I don't want to know how bad things could get
here without you guys...'
Sighing sadly, the changeling wrapped an arm around Terra's shoulder and
pulled her close to him. Taking one last look at the interior of the
ruined laboratory, he silently wished his missing friends luck.
"You guys are on your own now... wherever you are. Take care of
yourselves."
And then the elevator doors slid closed.
- - -
It was the strangest thing.
Not just the battered phone - though seeing what looked like finger
gouges in the case was odd - but that downtown wanted them to stay in
the area and keep on the lookout for any suspicious activity. After
9/11, the city had upped its alertness when it came to unusual activity
in public places, but it didn't seem like this was a bomb scare.
Officer Fielding reflected on that, while his partner finished herding
people away form the area. If this had been a bomb threat, then there
were dedicated units to handle it. Why send just two officers to clear
the area and a city electrician to examine the suspicious phone booth?
It seemed either to be a gross underestimation of the danger, or an
overestimation of a malfunctioning machine. He could understand the
desire not to cause a panic... the idea of some wacko packing phone
booths with C4 or something was pretty nasty... but even if it was a
false alarm, it seemed best to err on the side of caution.
With the area secured, his partner meandered over, glancing over at the
booth.
"Vicky," Fielding called, waving her over. "What do'ya think? If this is
what I think it may be... we'd have been better off clearing the whole
street."
Officer Christianson, despite being a petite five foot five, was an
intelligent and highly regarded addition to the precinct, though a bit
wet behind the ears. Her size and short, dirty blonde hair belied a
surprising athleticism; few on the force dared to take up her offer of
competitive racquetball for fear of being mercilessly trounced. Fielding
himself was an older man in his forties, with more than ten years on the
force after leaving the fire department.
"It may not be an explosive, really," Christianson mused, as the two
watched the electrician go to work. They'd both seen the obvious and
unusual tampering (and on site welding) done to the phone.
"Howso?"
"Could be some cyber-terrorism thing," she speculated. "Maybe someone
put a listening device in the phone or something that can flood the
phone lines with static?"
Fielding hadn't thought of that - there were plenty of devious ways to
cause confusion and panic, after all. It didn't have to be a bomb. Some
bastard could bug the phones to steal personal information for
blackmail, or tap directly into the city landlines. If it really was
something more covert than overt, then there was a definite benefit to
not making a huge scene. For better or worse, he and Christianson had
been put on this case, by 'special order.' If it turned out something
was amiss, it wouldn't be long before the Feds stuck their noses in,
too.
Maybe they already had.
The New Yorkers seemed to take the disturbance in stride. A busy subway
entrance nearby bustled with people coming and going, and two food carts
jockeyed for customers down the street. Few paid much more than passing
attention to the yellow tape and phone booth, clearly being fixed or
replaced, except possibly to mutter (or curse) about the inconvenience
of closing one lane of traffic. This was New York. Inconvenient
construction and maintenance was part of life and hardly worth worrying
about or thinking too deeply over.
After a while, the city electrician walked over, one hand buried in a
pocket, the other hanging onto a bag of tools.
"What'cha got, Frank?" Fielding asked, facing the civil servant. The man
looked to be in his thirties, and his face was lit up by the prospect of
finding something exciting, for once.
"Looks like a bug," the electrician replied, tilting his head as a few
pedestrians walked by, outside the marked yellow tape border. "Someone
did a quick job, rewiring the phone so he could tap into the line
remotely."
"Listening device?" Christianson asked.
"Don't think so." Frank shook his head. "Purely send/receive."
"What about the casing?"
"Got tore up pretty bad. Ripped it right open. Must've used a jaws of
life or something exotic to do the job. The weld was sloppy, too. Guy
must've been in a rush to do it without being seen."
The two police nodded.
"So," Frank asked, "Should I remove it? Or what?"
"Probably not," Officer Fielding answered, though not before he and
Christianson gave it some thought. "Let's call it in and bring in some
other professionals. See if we can trace it back to this guy."
"I don't have the equipment with me for anything like that," Frank
admitted. "He's gotta be tapping into it remotely, though, and there's
no big transmitter or nothin'. If he's using it, I'd say he's probably
close by..."
- - -
Cyborg sat on the bed, staring at the pile of junk he'd managed to
scrounge up from scrap yards and dumpsters behind computer shops and so
on, over the course of the past few hours. He'd decided to use the
motel for his base of operations for as long as he could afford it, in
hopes of getting a hold of any other Titans that were likely dragged
here with him.
Unfortunately, this 'jury rigging junk into advanced tech' scenario
wasn't panning out nearly as easily as the Coneheads had led him to
believe. It wasn't like he was trying to do anything complicated; just
cobble together a transmitter powerful enough to let him hitchhike onto
an existing satellite network so that he could extend the range of his
communicator from local to Global.
However, this relatively simple plan was running into a laundry list of
problems.
Most notable of which was the fact that a lot of the components he'd
managed to find were either damaged, or unusually dedicated to a single
purpose. Sure, the capacitors and the power sources and the like worked
fine, but he was starting to wonder if he was going to have to start
cannibalizing his own systems to actually rig up something to actually
send the signal itself.
Of course, he wasn't a huge fan of that idea, since he was kind of fond
of his own systems and all that. Still, he could afford to look for
alternatives for a few more days, at least, before he'd have to look for
other housing. He was pretty sure he could get it to work...
eventually. He might just need to get more selective on the scrap he
scrounged up. In fact, scrounging might not work at all; he might be
forced to find existing transmitters and hijack them as well...
It seemed that he was on the fast track to making himself really
unpopular on this world. He'd already ticked off Kasumi, and now he was
considering breaking into private, or possibly government facilities. He
wasn't sure he could stomach all of this 'shadowy morality.'
The sudden growling of his stomach reminded him of something else he
couldn't stomach. Having an empty stomach. Sure, he was plugged into
the wall socket, bringing his battery back up nicely, but that didn't
help him at all from more conventional tastes. Well, that was what he
had free phone service for! Thank goodness for complimentary phonebooks
in these places. Pulling it out, he began to flip through the pages.
"Now," he wondered, smiling at all the choices. "...what's a good pizza
joint around here?"
- - -
"We've got something!"
The excited exclamation woke Officer Fielding from his half asleep
state. Rather than a room at headquarters, he awoke to see the inside of
the special electronic counter-terrorism and surveillance van. Being
pulled to babysit techs for a double shift was starting to look less and
less attractive. God only knew what most of the stuff in the van
actually did.
Luckily, Officer Christianson was up and about, and far more comfortable
with waiting around surrounded by screens and controls and other junk.
They'd brought in the van about an hour after confirming the presence of
third party hardware in the public phone, and a small group of EW types
had quickly taken the phone and tapped into it with their own machines.
Whatever it had entailed, Officer Fielding couldn't say for sure, but
they'd then spend the rest of the day waiting for someone to make a
call.
"Hello, Corner Street Pizza. May I take your order?"
"Hmm, yeah, can I get a large meat lovers, double pepperoni? A bottle of
soda, and some bread sticks? Send it to Castle Motel, room 108?"
"We have an address?" Fielding asked, surprised by the gimme.
"Maybe," Christianson said. "HQ will want this guy tailed and ID'd
before we make a move."
"We don't have a lot on him besides the damage to the phone and the
illegal tap."
"The orders came from up top, remember?" Officer Christianson asked, on
the ball as always. "Get a positive ID and observe from a distance. They
must think he's involved in something bigger than just this."
"He sounds like some kid," fielding observed, though 'kid' was a
relative term in his case. "What if all this is just some egghead's
practical joke?"
His partner shrugged, reaching for the phone to HQ.
"We'll find out soon enough."
- - -
The knock at the door caught Cyborg's attention quickly. Excited, he
jumped up and moved to the door. As expected, it was the pizza dude,
heavenly smelling offering all prepared for Cyborg to enjoy. Taking the
grub and the drink, he eagerly forked over the money.
He prepared to close the door as the delivery man turned to walk away
... but something caught his attention. It wasn't anything major,
probably totally inconsequential, but his sensors picked up a man
sitting in a parked car, just across the road. There easily could have
been a hundred reasons that a person would be sitting in their car:
waiting for a friend, stopping for a snack, whatever. Slowly, Cyborg
closed the door and moved to put the pizza on a nightstand. Moving back
behind the door, he lifted his arm before him and brought up the sonic
controls.
Back before it had become his primary weapon, the Sonic Cannon had
merely been a sonic scanner, and it could still serve that purpose. He
was probably being paranoid, but he just wanted to make sure. It didn't
take him long to set up the volume gain and focus it in on the vehicle
across the way...
"-ubject just paid for the pizza. Didn't get a good look, though. He's
wearing a hooded sweater, looks to be a big guy, though, over six feet."
Cyborg cut the feed immediately.
"Well ... Crap."
For a moment, Cyborg felt a flash of panic. The cops were on to him
already? How the heck had they tracked him here so quickly?! ...Wait a
second - why had they tracked him here, like, at all? What the heck had
he done to get their attention? He wasn't even sure he'd done anything
to break the law yet.
Heck, if it hadn't been for his own paranoia and love of cop movies, he
wouldn't have even considered the possibility of a stake out. So, what
the heck did they want? Frankly, he didn't really want to find out.
What to do, though? Blast a back door? No, that was stupid, not to
mention noisy. Make a hole into the basement? No, that was even worse,
not to mention he didn't know if they had a basement here.
Hmm, or maybe, he didn't need to do anything too crazy at all.
'I'll take this pizza... and I'll EAT it.'
Moving calmly, he picked up the pizza and made his way to the bed.
Sitting down, easily in sight of the window, he opened up the box and
grabbed a slice. He ate his fill fairly quickly, but made sure not to
look like he was rushing, washing it down with as much of the soda as he
could drink, straight from the bottle.
Next, he leaned forward and went through his pile of scrap parts. It
didn't take him too long to sort out all of the components that he
thought might actually be useful, such as a few of the better power
sources, and tucked them into the pouch on his sweater. He then tinkered
around for another few minutes, before standing up and stretching
lazily. Doing his best to remain calm, and his breathing even, he then,
brazenly, walked right out of his motel room - leaving the light on -
closed the door behind him, locked it, and proceeded to walk down the
sidewalk, not even once looking at the parked car.
It would be a long wait for his return.
- - -
Colonel Butler was the regional UNETCO commanding officer for China and
most of Southeast Asia, based out of the secluded Chengdu Facility. A
New Zealander by birth, he had served in special forces before being
advanced to XCOM service in 2001. One of the most powerful psionics on
the planet, he had trained for three months in the elite Fry Canyon Psi-
Gym and saw service in three terror sites before being promoted to lead
a squad in Asia. That had been almost half a decade ago. When his former
CO died of a brain aneurism in a psionic duel with an Ethereal
Commander, Butler's power and excellent combat record had merited an
ascension to regional command and the rank of Colonel.
Now, he was answerable only to Commander Yasuda at Seiran and Senior
Commander Dennis at Supreme Command. Butler was a soldier with a
soldier's subtlety, and a fairly typical XCOM Colonel's mentality. While
Commanders had to deal with a wide range of regional issues, Colonels
were in charge of smaller bases with much more narrow agendas. Chengdu -
like Irkutsk or White Hill or Duiwelskloof - was a military base with
very limited research and manufacturing facilities. It existed first and
foremost to extend the UNETCO Global Surveillance Network and to provide
rapid response combat units.
The base was basically built around a hanger, a mind shield, and a
hyperwave decoder.
Practically speaking, this meant that Colonel Butler rarely had to deal
with infiltration or Section Seven-sensitive matters. Seiran told
Chengdu to intercept UFOs and contribute manpower. It was like that for
all the smaller Colonel-run bases, and it was one of the reasons why
Colonels were expected to be much more combat capable than Commanders.
The latter rarely left the desk or the Pit that was their CIC (command
information center). Instead, more often than not, Colonels were in the
field with their men, putting boots on the ground and contributing
psionic firepower to the mission.
Today was one of the rare days when the call came for an "investigative
response action" instead of a simply assault. Normally Seiran and
Commander Yasuda handled these sorts of things, regardless of where they
occurred in the greater Far East Theater. This was a unique case: there
was something unusual - already flagged as a likely alien or hybrid -
either attempting a sloppy infiltration in southeast Asia or just
wreaking havoc. Given their proximity and the ever increasing difficulty
of containing the incident, Chengdu had gotten the call.
"Investigative Response Action."
Everyone knew what that meant. IRA was code for "bag it; tag it; and try
not to make a mess for once." It was that last directive that caused
problems. Subduing aliens and alien infiltrators was often quite messy.
Regional bases had squads set up for just such an action. Seiran had
Juliet and India squads, and not coincidentally, Chengdu had begun
cultivating Romeo based on the success of Juliet and India over in
Japan. Technically, they had a squad that was ideal for an IRA... the
problem was that Romeo Squad was a bit...
Lacking in subtlety.
'Yasuda will expect me to send them,' Butler mused, filing away the
report on his desk. It was only a page long, and forwarded from the
Commander herself. He could guess that she wanted Romeo to cut its teeth
on this to see if they could reign themselves in when out in the field
and not given a green light to act without restraint.
Scratching underside of his chin, the middle aged Kiwi keyed up the
information on China-56-890 on his desk's computer screen. Recent Intel
had confirmed some interesting new information. Aerial recon and
satellite imaging of China-56-890 had been spotty at best while it had
remained in the city, but captured eyewitness testimony and other
reports were indicating that it was likely not an Ethereal in the
typical sense, but that it still possessed some rather unusual
abilities. High speed sustained flight being just the most immediately
obvious.
It had already covered a great deal of ground, or air as it were, since
it had escaped their ambush in Hong Kong. Though 'escaped' hardly did
it justice. This alien girl hadn't just evaded them, it had single
handedly battled a platoon and won. It had demonstrated powers unlike
any other alien they had seen before.
So: a hybrid then.
Either way, it would have to be taken care of, and Romeo was well suited
to the task. If worst came to worst, though, he'd probably have to
detail one of his Interceptors or Firestorms to conduct air-to-ground
operations. That would be an absolute last resort however. It'd be a
shame to have to burn good Elerium-115 just to take out a single alien,
no matter how much trouble it was causing. He had a budget to operate
under, after all.
"Shame about that famous clock tower, though..."
Tapping a key, he approved the use of the base's MkII Skyranger; there
was no need to send an Avenger on something like this.
Romeo would intercept China-56-890 in forty minutes.
- - -
Starfire dashed the tears from her eyes, finally slowing to a stop in
midair. The Tamaranian warrior despised herself: her failure to control
herself, her failure to locate Cyborg and ... worst of all, her failure
to live up to the teachings of her dearest friend, Robin. As all of
these failings weighed heavily upon her spirit, it was a wonder that the
alien girl could remain aloft at all.
She had been too weak, too naive, too foolish to deal with this
situation on her own. She had blundered directly into an ambush, had
doubtlessly injured humans, innocent or not, and had failed to even
discern if Cyborg had even been present at all. Taking a deep breath,
Starfire focused on that last point, pushing aside the others. It was
possible that Cyborg was in the custody of those terribly violent
soldiers, at the whim of whatever terrifying experiments they could
imagine!
As much as she wished she could, Starfire could not simply flee and
leave her friend in the clutches of those humans. Unfortunately, she
had already proven that she was woefully unable to deal with the human
military on her own. She lacked the stealth and detective skills of
Robin, there was no way that she would be able to infiltrate the city
once more without bringing the full weight of the government down on her
once more.
Not alone, at any rate.
The thought struck Starfire as frustrating. She was floating, aimless,
in the heart of the People's Republic of China, half a world away from
her home. Her communicator was malfunctioning, she had no idea how many
of her other friends had been similarly displaced and it felt like she
didn't have a single friend within a thousand ... miles ...
The Tamaranian warrior gasped loudly, inspiration striking like
lightning. She did have friends nearby! Friends that she did not have
to fly half a world to find, friends that would doubtlessly be able to
assist her in locating and rescuing Cyborg.
Dear friends whom she had not seen in far too long.
Starfire nearly slapped a hand to her head, unable to comprehend how she
had not considered it before. The Amazon village was located near the
Bayankala mountain range, and she had spent no small amount of time
flying over the village during her precious time there, familiarizing
herself with the region. Pulling out her communicator quickly, the alien
girl flipped it open and quickly began to check the functions she
required. As she suspected, the GPS function was still inoperable, but
she was able to access the map database which the system used. The
compass function of the device was also operating fully.
Taking into account that her point of origin was the city of Hong Kong,
and that she had been traveling in a Northern direction at high speeds
for a relatively short amount of time, it did not take Starfire long to
determine the general direction that she needed to travel in to reach
the village. It was a best guess, based on numerous assumptions, but it
was the only real option that she had. Taking heart in the idea that
the situation would quickly begin to improve, the Tamaranian chose her
direction and took off at top speed, the air cracking in her wake.
As the wind whipped past her, time flowed by in a blur. Distant
memories of the rustic village filled her mind, the pleasant thoughts
making her flight all the quicker. The most cathartic training of
Ryouga, her many long hours of conversation with the Elder Perfume...
that most anomalous morning which had found Robin in her bed with her...
For a moment, her cheeks began to flush, then, an instant later, the
weight of the situation struck her again and she pushed the ignoble
thought from her mind.
She had to stay focused, there was too much at stake for her to be
distracted. Cyborg might very well be relying on her for his very
survival. As pleasant as her past memories were, the only thing she
could allow herself to think on now was how Perfume could assist her in
locating her friend and recovering him. Starfire lost track of how long
she flew through the continually darkening night sky, doubt beginning to
creep into her mind whether she was actually in China at all -
The sight of a distant village renewed her determination in an instant.
As the alien hero closed in on the village, she quickly realized it was
not the Amazon village itself, though the style of the architecture was
strongly reminiscent of it. That, in and of itself, was quite
heartening. Perfume had explained that their village rested at the
center of numerous other villages, offering protection and aid to them
in exchange for goods and services rendered.
If this was one of those outlying villages, than it meant that Starfire
was on the right track.
Within minutes, flying excitedly onward, the Tamaranian began to take
note of familiar landmarks, most notably of all, the majestic mountain
range rising up on the horizon. She could scarcely contain herself as
she flew past village after village, each one growing more familiar than
the last. A unique mountain peak in the distance became an arrow, a
twisting dirt road, a line leading the way. Starfire was almost certain
that, were she to fly straight north from here, she would cross over the
dreaded valley of Jyusenkyou itself.
Of course, not wanting to do that, she quickly turned and followed the
very same trail that she and her friends had walked so many months ago.
And there it was! In the darkness of the night, she could just make out
the structures of the Amazon village. With a last burst of speed,
Starfire cut through the air and arced down to land in the center of the
very training circle that she and Ryouga had performed their most visual
demonstration of the Hiryu Shoten Ha for the entire village.
Arms held out wide, Starfire spun about, bursting with joy, preparing to
call out to her dear friends, heedless of the time of night...
Excitement gave way to confusion as disparate facts made themselves
known to her. Though her memories of the village were still vivid, the
beautiful architecture, rich with culture and the passion of those that
built them. Reality, however, offered a very different vision of the
village.
What Starfire saw now was... was a war zone, left to the elements.
Devastation stretched out around her in every direction. Buildings were
in ruins, many of them looking as if they had been kicked over by an
angry Kryptonian. Craters littered the terrain and the signs of battle
were evident everywhere she looked.
What had happened here?
Slowly, taking uncertain steps, Starfire began to walk towards the
closest building. The entire second story of the home was gone, shorn
off as if by a swipe of a capricious Tornbral. Black scorch marks
covered the remaining wooden planks still standing, and even the stone
foundation looked to have been melted by whatever tremendous heat had
wracked this poor structure. Starfire ran her hand along a blackened
beam, dark carbon clinging to her fingers when she pulled them away.
The destruction was so complete, so vicious...
And old.
Dust and tiny weeds had collected in the interior of the shattered
building, and if the Tamaranian had to put forward guess, she would
wager it must have been weeks, if not months since this... this disaster
occurred. But that did not make any sense. She had personally been in
contact with the village several times over the past several months.
Ever since she had proclaimed the Amazon village an ally of Tamaran, she
had numerous debates with the Tamaranian diplomats and ambassadors on
her friends' behalf. Apparently she had somewhat overstepped her
authority in making such a broad sweeping declaration, but once she had
explained the situation, her people had quickly come around to her point
of view.
A painfully disturbing scenario began to form in Starfire's mind. The
inexplicable and forceful attack on her by the Chinese military. The
fear and resentment of the general populace at her very presence, and
now this, the utter annihilation of a village of martial artists of
super human ability?
Lost in thought, Starfire began to wander aimlessly around the remains
of the village.
For the common populace to be so shocked by the appearance of a meta-
human, for the military to be so rapid and practiced in their response
to any such appearances ... For the devastation to have reached so far,
even to the most remote corners of the globe such as this village? Had
she been displaced in more than just space, but in time as well? How
long had she been gone? What could have possibly happened to result in -
in all this? Even more terrifying, what did this mean for all of her
friends? Everyone she knew and cared about, both those sent here with
her, and those left behind?
Where was Robin in all of this?
This was not the first time she had been flung through time, but even
that dystopian future, that dark nightmare time, paled in comparison to
the soul numbing horror that was only now beginning to wash over the
Tamaranian. To imagine that such a bright, seemingly normal world could
be built on top of graveyards such as this one, mausoleums filled
exclusively with those that she had considered the dearest of friends
and comrades...?
It was obscene in a way that the Tamaranian's mind could scarcely
comprehend.
Mindless wonder dazed Starfire for a moment, leaving her wavering for a
moment, until the weight of all of the implications finally settled down
on her narrow shoulders. Even her alien might was not enough, her legs
failed her, dropping her onto her knees in the dirt.
She prayed to X'hal that she would just wake up. There was no way that
this nightmare could possibly be the future, her future. She was still
unconscious on the floor of the underground laboratory, Robin already
holding her sleeping form and urging her to wake up. That was what it
had to be -
A prickly, warning sensation warmed the back of her mind.
It was a feeling almost like...
Starfire turned to look over her shoulder, half expecting to see Perfume
or Cologne emerging from behind the ruins and the rubble. That feeling
of a confident and powerful presence was one she had experienced before
in this same village. It was a light almost like her own, powered as it
was by the intensity of her emotions. In turmoil as she was, she could
still faintly feel that alien - human, Earther - presence nearby.
It wasn't Perfume.
Or Cologne.
A man sat on an upturned slab of stone before one of the half destroyed
buildings. Starfire assumed it was a man anyway; unlike the soldiers and
agents she had seen and encountered before, this one wore a sort of
black and white tinted armor. Metal over some sort of body glove, and
some larger plates over the chest, arms and legs, covered enough of the
suit that Starfire could guess it wasn't casual attire. This was
undoubtedly another soldier, but one more well equipped.
A helmet covered the man's (or woman's) face: a dark blue visor set into
more tinted metal and plastic from the crown of the head to the tip of
the chin. Seemingly out of place, the armor had a few embellishments
around the shoulders and arms in the form of what looked almost like
green scales. The man continued to sit, one leg crossed over the other,
and one arm propped casually over the right knee.
He watched her for a moment, as if sensing that she was about to pounce.
"I'm... surprised. I hadn't expected to see those sorts of emotions
coming from one of your kind," he spoke in a haughty, unworried tone.
The English was plain, but slightly accented and definitely male. "We
all thought you'd be heading to the cursed springs. What did you hope to
find here, in this place?"
Starfire shot to her feet in an instant, green fire springing up from
her fists and eyes.
"What would one such as you know of emotions?"
The alien warrior's fists curled more tightly as the implications of
what the man had said became clear. If this soldier knew of the springs,
knew the region well enough to have anticipated her travels, it was
doubtless that he had already been here before. The arrogant tone in his
voice as he spoke down to her, even as he sat, perched upon the scorched
remains of her friend's homes, very much like a royalty, only infuriated
her further.
Righteous fury built up in the Tamaranian's heart as she glared heatedly
at the seated warrior.
"I would have questioned how you were capable of locating me so quickly,
but your familiarity - and your disdain for the tragedy which has
occurred here is all too obvious."
"Tragedy?" the man replied, tilting his head slightly in visible
amusement. "That's amusing, coming from you. I've been watching you for
a little while now. Who were you expecting to find here? Was it your
Master, Cologne?"
Starfire bristled at the bemusement in the villain's voice. "You know of
Elder Cologne? So you were involved in the massacre! The Elder was a
beloved comrade to me, and I swear that if you have harmed her-" The
Tamaranian lifted her fist, intensifying the jade energy around it until
the air began to ripple menacingly. "- Then I will never forgive you!"
The man uncrossed his legs and stared at her for a moment.
"So, you are one of Cologne's little pets?" he asked, but only
rhetorically. "But..."
A disdainful snort translated through the helmet's speakers.
"Hm. Another experiment of some sort, I suppose. A perversion of the
Art. And that glow - is that supposed to be some alien version of the
lion's roar shot? Well... you won't find your master here. I was told to
bring you in alive if possible but I'm guessing you'll prefer to be
subdued, won't you?"
Starfire's glare faltered for a moment at the stranger's bizarre words,
but only for a second. Then, a moment later, as the man's words truly
sunk in, the fury in her chest boiled over to new heights. If this
person knew of the Lion Roar Shot ... She had not seen Ryouga
transported through the void with her and Cyborg. Had he been left
behind on this world - left to fall at the hands of this monster?
The alien warrior floated several inches off the ground, her burning
glare returning in full force.
"Face me at your own risk, villain. Greater warriors than you have
attempted to subdue me, and your treacherous actions do not incline me
to mercy. Attack me now, and I will make you pay for those you have
harmed!"
The seated man tapped the side of his helmet at the display.
"My, my, you sound like that swordsman in India Squad," he mused. "Shall
we see what else Cologne jammed into that alien brain of yours?"
Starfire spun as something loomed behind her, reflexively unleashing a
wave of green energy that had built up to uncomfortable levels. Another
man, larger than the one before but wearing similar matte black and
white armor, ended up pushed back by the blast. A trio of orange tiger
stripes decorated the segmented metal plates over his shoulders. He hit
the ground with a crash, feet digging into the dirt as the star bolt
washed over and past him. Smoke rose from the roasted armor, but the man
within hardly seemed to mind the discomfort - if anything, he seemed
overjoyed.
"Hah!" the large man barked happily. "It doesn't feel quite like the
real version of the technique! Not as heavy, but pretty damn hot!"
"She's using more anger than depression," the seated man explained, but
made no move to help or interfere. "You have permission to break her
arms if it'll make subduing her easier. We can always fix them back at
the base."
Starfire spun to stare at the arrogant fool behind her. "You think it
will be so easy? I will show you the error of underestimating a
Tamaranian warrior!"
Did these people think they could just speak back and forth about her as
if she were not even there? To drive her lesson in manners home before
turning back to the massive soldier behind her, she flung a heated
Starbolt at the overconfident villain.
-
'A Tamaranian warrior, eh? What a strange thing to say.'
Herb blurred out of the way of the strange green attack to another
vantage point. It seemed the alien wouldn't just let him sit and watch.
He approved. The girl - or the thing that looked like a girl - had some
pride. That was interesting. This thing was not acting like a normal
alien infiltrator or one of Cologne's alien-human Trenchard experiments.
She had also called herself a "Tamaranian." That wasn't an English word.
Or was it?
"Command," he spoke softly, not bothering to swap audio settings for the
armor's HUD. "Contextual check on the word 'Tamaranian' and its
derivatives. It isn't one I've heard before."
"Running it now," a female voice replied from the other end. "Sir, are
you going to just sit and watch while that thing fights Lime?"
"I was," Herb replied, and glanced down at the stone where had just been
- it was too charred to be worth using now. "I suppose I'll just have to
stand instead. Contact me if you find anything interesting."
Herb alighted on the tip of a broken house support, turning his
attention back to the goings-on below. It was important to understand
this creature, not just capture it, and especially not kill it. It was a
unique being, possibly once human, and UNETCO did not want a corpse
unless absolutely necessary. Initially, Herb had seen the mission as
nothing terribly unusual; they weren't called in often to deal with
rogues or strange occurrences, just regular missions. Herb had assumed
it would be no different than hunting down that bratty Pantyhose fool.
This girl, though...
Why had she come to the ruins of the village here? If she was one of
Cologne's, she had to know her master wouldn't be here anymore. Was she
an abandoned experiment of some sort, unaware of what had happened over
the last few months? Why had she glowed with palpable grief and a
literal cocktail of emotions foreign to the alien menace. She should
have identified that the village was a dead end and efficiently moved
on.
A failed experiment, then? Too emotional?
It was a possibility.
Her unusual actions had piqued his curiosity, and her response to him
had also been unexpected and unusual. There was something different
about this creature in the guise of a girl. Herb's honed martial arts
senses could feel it, and his instinct was all but screaming that this
alien wasn't like Cologne. She was too... confused, too hurt, too
afraid. Aliens knew fear, and Herb had shown it to them personally
several times, but it wasn't a basic animal survival-fear. This was a
fear for oneself, but also for others.
Even if this creature was a discarded experiment - too human for Cologne
to keep, perhaps - she would have to be contained and brought in. The
PRC was up in arms over that business in Hong Kong and treating it like
it was a prelude to a terror site. Seiran wanted the situation
"handled." In the meantime, he, Herb, would watch and observe.
-
Starfire felt Lime's first solid blow connect.
She'd sparred with Ryouga and Cyborg many times, not to mention her off
world training and her fellow Tamaranians back home, and she knew what
it was like to take a punch. That didn't mean it didn't hurt. X'hal, it
hurt. Especially since, unlike most super powered bruisers, this man had
the skill to make every blow count. What form of person was this? He
was very nearly as strong as Cyborg; perhaps the government of this
planet had kept a select number of dull, obedient metahumans alive as
slaves?
Starfire felt the jagged cut in the inside of her mouth with her tongue,
even as she jinked out of the way of another of the armored man's blows.
He was large, but still quite quick, and when she started to try and fly
upwards he always made for a grapple. That was the problem with flight -
when toe to toe with another warrior on the ground, areas of attack and
defense were defined by reach. When trying to take off vertically, more
of her lower body was exposed to her opponent's upper body, and she was
not terribly keen on letting him get a good grip on her.
She needed space to maneuver.
Zipping back and away as the other warrior swiped at her with his palm,
Starfire held out her hands and unleashed a quick flurry of starbolts.
She was already furious enough at the situation that the heat of them
came easily to her, plus since that armor seemed unusually resilient,
she didn't feel much need to hold back. The bolts saturated the area,
and Starfire tried to take the opportunity to get airborne. Her flight
was cut short as she leaned back, allowing a large chunk of masonry to
pass overhead, just inches from her nose.
"Got you!" a voice called, and a vice like grip found her ankle.
Starfire tried to angle a quick shot down while pushing her flight up,
but her body was already in motion and the brute had somehow rooted
himself in place. She flew off to the side, a green blast going wild and
missing, a moment before she met a wall face first. The brick shattered
like a house of cards as she swung through it, around in the air at a
blurry dizzy pace, and then back down. Her brief but brutal trip ended
with a thunderous crash as her back met paved stone, smashing a crater
into the former floor of someone's doorstep. A spider web of cracks shot
out from the impact point.
There was no time to hesitate.
She rolled to the side as the other warrior's boot came down, first to
the left, avoiding a stomp that could well have broken a bone, and then
to the right. Each footfall shook the ground beneath her. A third blow
nearly connected when inspiration struck: grabbing onto the massive leg,
she pushed herself up with her abs and nailed the brutish soldier in the
face with both feet. The blow barely fazed him, but it gave her the
chance to try something new.
Kicking him one more time for good measure, Starfire locked her ankles
behind the larger warrior's neck and pulled herself up. One of the
brute's hands tried to pry her off, but he had little in the way of
leverage, and she had her entire body coiled up against it. Forcefully
pushing one of his arms out of the way, and locking the other to her
side with her left arm, Starfire landed a telling blow to the man's
helmet. First one, then another, then another.
Whatever it was made of, though, it was tough.
Her fists couldn't dent it, but the man beneath was starting to feel the
blows. One of his arms finally snaked through, and the inside of his
forearm pressed against her midsection, trying to force her away.
Starfire responded by grabbing onto the helmet itself to find a switch
or latch that would unlock it. It was made of tough stuff, to be sure,
but beneath the metal was softer: plastic or rubber maybe. Heating up
her hands as if to fire a starbolt, she began to worm her fingers deeper
into it.
"Ra-ha-ha!" The man beneath the armor suddenly laughed, and threw
himself forward. "You're not bad!"
The two of them crashed into the ground with a bone jarring crunch. Now
she was on her back again, and he was right above her. The psychotic
warrior then slammed his face right into her torso, and still chuckling,
aimed higher and hit her lower lip with the rim of his helmet.
Still, he had neglected to brace himself.
Pushing up with her own formidable strength, she quickly reversed their
position. His head was still caught in the vice of her legs, and this
time, finally having him on his back, she took no chances. Her right
hand reared back and glowed like a green star before coming down. The
ground shuddered, and a shockwave of green force savaged the earth.
Paved stonework shot straight up into the air, hung for a half second
like multi-colored rain, and then fell back down.
Starfire studied the downed man below her for several precious seconds.
The behemoth's head lolled around for a bit, though the tinted visor
made it impossible to see his face, she was certain that she had dazed
him with her last attack. Satisfied with that, she turned to glare over
her shoulder at the man standing on the building behind her. He was the
one giving orders, the one most responsible for whatever terrors may
have been inflicted upon her friends.
As far as she could tell, this big lug could not fly, either, so he was
not so much of a worry to her once airborne. That in mind, she instantly
abandoned her perch on the soldier's chest and launched herself at the
haughty commander with full speed. The wind cracked at her passage, and
a furrow of dirt was lifted into the air in her wake as she sped towards
her opponent, powerful Starbolts building up around her fists as she
flew -
She barely even registered the blur of motion moving parallel to her
until it was too late!
The vague figure resolved itself into the shape of a smaller person,
wearing similar armor to the other two, though with different
embellishments, yet again. Somehow, though she was flying as fast as she
dared this close to the ground, this person was keeping pace with her.
Not that she had not met speedsters before, but she had never heard of
one that wore personal armor.
With a flash, the smaller soldier's arm flashed out at her - only the
glint of light from her Starbolts gave any warning that something had
left his hand, and she raised her arm to block whatever the projectile
was. Her forearm swept into the narrow, weighted wire which he had
thrown, and it wrapped tightly around her armored glove.
For just a fraction of a second, the Tamaranian and the Soldier stared
at each other, though the alien could not see the warrior's eyes in
return. Then, with an impressive tug, the smaller man pulled away from
her, wrenching on the wire with his entire upper body ...
It was a sound plan, and had she been anyone else, it likely would have
worked, but this smaller warrior possessed not even a fraction of his
larger companion's strength. The wire pulled taut nearly instantly, but
Starfire's trajectory swung the opposite direction that her enemy had
intended, and she pulled back with all of her own great strength.
A wicked smirk cracked her lip as the diminutive figure was torn from
his feet and sent flying away from her. To her amazement, the wire did
not snap at the sudden and intense forces it was subjected to, but the
flailing warrior was forced to release his hold on it as he skillfully
oriented himself in midair before crashing to the ground. Hovering to a
stop, Starfire regarded this new opponent as she untangled the strange
wire from her wrist.
The nimble figure landed gracefully on his feet, not pausing for an
instant before pulling out an unusual pair of batons from behind his
back. Though not familiar with the exact model, Starfire knew a stun
weapon when she saw one. An unusual choice, considering the lethal
accoutrements that everyone else in league with them had used so far.
Giving the weapons an expert twirl, the warrior then crouched down,
obviously preparing to charge her with his impressive speed. Starfire
quickly considered her options. She could likely get up and out of his
range before he closed in, but there was no guarantee, and even a
glancing blow to her foot could be enough to daze her. Smiling
confidently, Starfire set herself back into a most fitting combat
stance, considering the hallowed ground upon which she stood. Perfume
herself, youngest Elder of the Amazon Council, had taught her the basics
of this style personally, and the Tamaranian had done her best to honor
her mentor's training.
Holding out her hand, she quickly flipped her palm up and gestured for
the armored figure to come at her with a flick of her fingers. The small
warrior's head tilted curiously for a moment as he regarded her, but he
eagerly obliged less than a second later. Moving forward with startling
linear motion, her opponent was threatening to overwhelm her with pure
speed -
He was not prepared when, unpredictably, Starfire suddenly leaned
forward and fired off a small Starbolt directly into the path of her
rapidly charging opponent. A spray of dirt and sod flew up into the air,
and the warrior was forced to quickly readjust his course as his footing
suddenly failed him.
At the same time, Starfire launched herself forward as well. She lashed
out with a powerful snap kick, but the nimble figure quickly dodged to
the side. A fraction of a second later, she pulled her leg back as a
baton shot out at blinding speed, just missing her knee by a fraction of
an inch. Starfire's eyes widened then, when the soldier's arms nearly
vanished into a blur of slashes and jabs. Her own arms began to windmill
as she desperately tried to deflect as many of the attacks as she could.
She called upon every ounce of skill she had gleaned from her training
with Perfume, with Ryouga, with Robin, but still, the combined speed and
skill of her opponent was beyond anything she had trained against
before.
A tingle ran up her forearm as a stun baton glanced across her glove.
Another sent a minor jolt down her leg, then another grazed her exposed
mid-riff as she was steadily forced back. Only her own resilience to
energy prevented her from dropping to the ground in convulsions -
A sudden thought struck the Tamaranian, and it was all she could do to
hide her smile. In a blur of raw velocity, the small warrior stabbed one
of the batons directly at her chest ... and Starfire took the hit fully.
Energy arced through her body, and like a sack of potatoes, she
collapsed dead onto her back, small twitches running down her limbs.
Less than a second later, her gratifyingly thorough enemy was on top of
her, both stun batons crossed over her neck, crackling electricity
tingling the skin of her throat with its proximity.
"Lord Herb! Lord Herb!" the warrior yelled excitedly. "I got her! Look
at this! I did it!"
The second the warrior looked away, Starfire's convulsions stopped and a
vicious smile spread across her lips.
"You should be more attentive in battle, little one."
She could just imagine the shocked look on his face through his visor as
he turned back to stare at her. Not even the super human speed of his
hands was enough to react in time as her eyes lit up with emerald fury.
The sound of crackling plasma filled the air as twin pillars of raw
power slammed directly into the small warrior's chest. Within a second,
he was already a dozen feet into the air, then two, then three as the
punishing emerald lances lifted him ever higher with freight train
force.
Several agonizingly long seconds, as Starfire rose to her knees, the
small soldier finally crashed to the ground. Then she heard a rumble as
the large fighter from before angrily advanced from her side and turned
to face the superhumanly strong soldier a second time. His formerly
playful (viciously playful may have been more accurate) demeanor seemed
to have given way to an indignant anger. Smoke rolled off the large
fighter's body as he stalked closer, fists clenched.
With a swish, she saw a fourth solider appear, this time on her other
side.
This one was, unlike the others, armed with both ranged and melee
weapons. It was difficult to tell for sure with the armor, but this
soldier also appeared to be a woman judging by her posture and build.
She - Starfire guessed at the gender - had some sort of staff behind her
back, another of those stun rods strapped to her thigh, and a strange
looking rifle of some sort in her hands. She also seemed to be inching
less towards Starfire's flank and more towards where the speedy soldier
from before had fallen.
Starfire glanced from one side to the next, charging another volley of
bolts in her hands.
"Now, now, that's enough," their leader announced, motioning with his
hand. "Both of you attend to Mint."
"But Lord Herb!" the strongman growled openly. "She--!"
"Lime." The man's cold tone brooked no argument.
Starfire dared to turn her back on the other two soldiers to face the
source of all this trouble. The group's leader hadn't moved from his
post overlooking the battlefield, perched up there like a bird. He
didn't seem to be armed with any weapons at all, but that prickly
feeling from before was as strong as ever. Starfire's fighting instincts
were all telling her that this man, their leader, was more powerful than
either of his subordinates. Probably by a good degree. Her blood was
already pumping hard through her veins, and at that moment, the prospect
of a no-holds-barred fight with this villain was about the most
appealing thing she could imagine.
"Are you very much finished hiding behind your minions, coward?" she
floated towards him, toes gliding over crushed rocks and upended
masonry.
"For one of Cologne's little lab rats, your killing intent and battle
aura are weak... and easy to read," the man stated, helmet leaning
forward slightly. "I knew from the start that neither of my men were in
danger, even if they got careless and lost."
"I am no person's rodent, regardless of the setting! And unlike you, I
have no desire to kill my opponents needlessly!"
"And yet you came here seeking Cologne?"
Starfire's eyes narrowed at the pointed question. "My goals are no
concern of yours, soldier. If you consider yourself wise, leave me be!"
The leader drifted off his perch, floating down at a leisurely pace.
"That's impossible," he declared. "No matter what your so called goals
are, and no matter your lack of killer intent, you are not to be allowed
to roam free doing as you please. I have been told to bring you in. So:
you will be brought in."
Starfire watched warily as the man absently defied gravity in a manner
not so different from herself. Her own feet left the ground and she rose
to meet him in the air.
"I have done nothing to warrant the blatant hostility which you and your
vicious comrades have leveled against me! You have done nothing but
attack me ever since my arrival in this country with ever escalating
force! I warn you now, my patience is at an end and if you do not stand
aside, I will not show the same mercy that I showed on your minions. I
will never again be a prisoner to anyone!"
"That's where you are wrong. Your existence on this planet, and the
atrocities your kind have committed, will not go unpunished. I, Herb,
have sworn it." He paused for only a moment add, "Prepare yourself."
He moved with less speed than the smaller fighter, but Starfire still
felt sluggish. The prickling along her skin was stronger now, and as he
began to move, it spiked to an almost painful degree. It took a second
to finally place it. It was like Ryouga's battle aura, but... that meant
she had been in it even when fighting the other two soldiers. Could it
be? Had she been within this man's aura - like Ryouga's - but not even
noticed it?
She blocked his left arm with her right, but instead of pulling back,
their bodies seemed to stick. It was like some kind of static charge
momentarily locked them together. His fingers swept around, almost in
slow motion, and his entire arm made a half circle movement. Then his
hand found the inside of her arm, clenched, and twisted. Starfire spun
in midair, her entire body spinning like a top before crashing to the
ground.
She quickly replayed the moment in her mind: 'How had he -- ?!'
Nearly transparent energy coiled around Herb's left arm, flexing and
flaring briefly before receding. He swept down on her without another
moments delay, but veered off at the last second. Starfire was back on
her feet when the blows came, seemingly out of nowhere. The throat, the
lumbar vertebra, the solar plexus, the back of the head: it felt like
hammer blows to each one. The combined effect was nearly as powerful as
one of the tiger striped soldier's blows, but hitting from every
conceivable angle. She could barely even stagger under the assault.
Much to her distress, Starfire tasted blood in her mouth.
"I see you are unfamiliar with Xing Yi Quan," Herb said, landing to her
side. "A properly placed blow to the spine of a human being can
instantly paralyze or kill, but you're not human are you, alien? Perhaps
I should have used more force."
The Tamaranian warrior managed to swing her arm enough to launch a
starbolt at the arrogant human. He drifted to the right and right into
the arc of her arm, avoiding the blast entirely. Her body was still only
starting to recover when he pressed the palm of his hand against the
flat of her back. A sudden force erupted from the gentle touch, sending
her flying across the ground, bouncing twice, before slamming into an
abandoned shop. Starfire's violent entrance finished the work started by
time and neglect, causing it to collapse in on her.
"Is hand to hand combat all you're capable of? Where are your psionics?
Where are the stolen techniques Cologne gave you?" Herb walked towards
the rubble. "Where's that righteous fury I felt before?"
"It..." Starfire rose to her feet, overturning a collapsed side of
mortar and stone. "Is..."
Her eyes glowed a viridian green with escaping energy.
"HERE!" Plasma fire escaped her hands as a beam rather than a bolt,
bathing the area where the human had been moments before. The
cobblestone street tore apart completely, most of the force being angled
downward, but enough propagated across the street to level another empty
home. Wooden planks and supports burned and flew through the air like
matchsticks.
"I... missed?" Starfire knew it, felt it, and floated backwards, eyes
searching for her opponent.
The prickling she had been feeling spiked again, but it was deeper this
time. Something bore down on her from within, causing a chill to run
down her spine. She remembered Ryouga, and his perfect shishi hokoudan,
and she realized this other man had to be concentrating his aura on her.
It wasn't heavy, like Ryouga's had been, but it was oppressive: cold and
merciless and dripping in blood without uttering a single word. She
bathed herself in her fury, a faint green hue engulfing her and
shielding the worst of the aura.
"You have a lot of power, and some skill. But..."
Starfire spun, launching another starbolt at the source of the voice.
A loud clap filled the air as it found its target. Herb stood, one hand
in front of him, the last flickering visages of the ball of green fire
writhing and flaking away. Then the light of the starbolt died, leaving
only a smattering of ash to drift in the wind. She glared at the human,
stunned. Had he just... caught her starbolt?
"An unusual ki technique," Herb stated, glancing down at his palm. "Your
emotions are easy to read, as is the fact that they are the source of
your power. It was simple enough to negate the force and heat, but...
still, this is... strange."
Starfire felt a tingle of apprehension, but pushed it back and out of
her mind. This human, he was like Ranma or Ryouga or Perfume. He knew
some of their moves, too, and as strange as it was... he was a bit
scary. Ranma and Ryouga were strong, but they still seemed very human.
This arrogant man standing opposite her felt... inhuman. He was too cold
inside. For a moment, she saw Slade standing there, face hidden behind a
mask, making them all dance in the palm of his hand.
Green fire engulfed her hands.
Herb held out his arms and nearly transparent ki warped and solidified
into flat blades that ran up and along his forearms. He spread his arms
wide and blocks of stone and wood a dozen feet away were neatly
bisected, snipped off as easily as one would remove the head of a
flower. He started to move, and the instant he did, Starfire dove wildly
to the side.
Something hard hit her arm and chest and the back of her left leg, but
nowhere too soft or vulnerable. It was that technique. The one he had
used before to hit her despite not being near her. Whatever it was, she
had managed to avoid the worst of it by moving just when he did. She
would just have to never stand still. Herb drifted off to the side and
Starfire flew up and to the side before twisting savagely to the left.
Again the invisible blows came, but this time only two of them nicked
her.
"Clever!" Herb congratulated, this time sweeping in personally. The ki
blades on his arm narrowed and extended as he swept his hands, and
Starfire pulsed bright green bolts in his path as she dove to the side,
rolled, and jumped. A chunk of earth beneath her uprooted, like an
invisible shovel had slammed into it and dug it right up. It then broke
into three neat pieces.
She knew, then, that she couldn't let herself be hit by that.
Herb's other hand made a motion, and a barely visible whip of
transparent energy rose into the air. Longer and longer, until it was
nearly a dozen body lengths. Starfire flew in a wildly evasive pattern
as she dodged the whip and the invisible blows. One caught her in the
back of the head unexpectedly and for a moment, the world turned dark.
She hit the ground and dove for cover, and turning back the way she
came, saw that a wide trench has been cut into the ground, right through
a reinforced concrete wall. The material had simply been erased, leaving
a groove in the ground wide enough for Beast Boy to skateboard in.
"That was close," Herb noted, drifting down to the ground. "You almost
died."
Starfire clenched her teeth, not at what he said, but at how he said it.
He was calm, methodical, self assured, and utterly in control. For the
second time, she saw Slade reflected in that featureless helmet visor.
Roaring, Starfire charged right at him. As she'd hoped, it was the last
thing he expected her to do. She poured on the speed, jinked to the side
as he trust one palm forward, felt something cut just over the base of
her shoulder, and kept going. Before she got too close, she unleashed a
blast from her eyes, drowning him in emerald fire. He emerged through
the flame, semi-transparent ki constructs rippling around his arms and
helmet.
Star twisted at the last second before impact, blocking her side against
one of the invisible blows with her arm, and instead kneeing up. The
blow had all the power of her flight in it, plus her momentum from
before, but it slammed into a wall as one of his arms lowered and
intercepted the strike before it could find purchase in his midriff. An
audible 'foom' of displaced air blew away the cloud of dust kicked up by
his techniques.
Even the air seemed to have gotten hotter.
As expected, he made another sweeping strike with his forearm. The ki
construct around it - she could see it just a little more clearly now -
twisted and spiked up. Blocking it would be like nailing her hands and
arm to a wall with railroad spikes. Ducking under the attack, taking
advantage of her more nimble and slender frame, she leapt up in the
opening created by his miss. His other hand moved with practiced ease to
block her uppercut, but Starfire followed up instantly with a rising
snap kick that split her legs almost one hundred and eighty degrees.
Elder Perfume would have been proud of the attempt.
But that blow, too, was blocked, this time by Herb's rising elbow.
Starfire, not totally bound by gravity, grabbed hold of her opponent and
brought her knee up to try and drive it into the man's groin, but it too
became intercepted, this time by his leg rising to preemptively prevent
the strike. Something hard slammed into her stomach, and she briefly saw
stars. A merciless blow to the face finished the job, sending her to the
ground with green blood streaming from a nearly broken nose.
"That was the Earth Seeking Moon style," Herb stated. "You used your
flight to cheat a bit, but I recognize it. Why did Cologne teach you
that move? She prefers her version of Ba Gua Zhang."
"Your assumption is erroneous, villain," Starfire hissed, wiping the
blood from her lips. "It was Elder Perfume who saw fit to teach me the
Earth Seeking Moon Style. Elder Cologne taught me ... something else
entirely."
Doing her best to ignore the pain, Starfire lifted into the air,
straightening her back admirably and staring down her opponent.
"For all of your boasts, Barbarian, you could not have been the one to
fell such an honorable warrior as her ... at least not face to face.
Though, considering your cowardly and indirect attacks, that is hardly a
surprise," she spat out with a grim smirk on her lips.
"Elder Perfume...?" The man inclined his head slightly, stressing that
first word with surprise. Then her other comments sunk in. "That's
impossible. Are you making some kind of joke?" Herb scowled behind his
helmet.
"Surrender now," he hissed. "Before I beat you like the dog you are,
alien."
Through the pain, Starfire tilted her head to the side and graced this
'Lord Herb' with a haughty smirk of her own. "Indeed, you seem like the
type of man whom enjoys inflicting pain on those that cannot defend
themselves. Tell me, were there any men and children here as well when
you laid waste to this beautiful village? What forms of torture did you
devise for your prisoners? Did you take any prisoners at all?"
Her opponent's defense was all but perfect. No. It was not unlike
fighting Slade... if Slade had been trained by Cologne herself for his
entire life. His attacks were deadly, his ki-shields flawless...
Almost flawless.
She had noticed the strange discomfort that her Starbolts had had on him
when he had attempted to so casually dissipate them. Still, he was far
too clever for her to fool easily. Luckily, in her weeks of training
with Ryouga and Cologne, she had learned much more than simple combat.
"Well, then? Unless you wish to have your minions attack in your place
once more, what is it that you are delaying for?"
"Delusional girl," Herb casually reached for her, apparently unconcerned
by anything she could do to him at this point. She was haggard and
beaten and seemed hardly able to stand, or float for that matter. "If
you want to be treated roughly, then I will oblige you."
Starfire frowned at his lackadaisical response, glancing around herself
quickly. She quickly spotted what she needed behind her and zipped
backwards rapidly away from the floating warrior. Several seconds later
she passed between two large, scorched stone pillars which had once been
part of a larger, now destroyed structure.
"I have no doubt you would enjoy inflicting harm upon me." She
continued her retreat, calling out loudly as she vanished into the
labyrinth of collapsed masonry. "Tell me, do you enjoy damaging females
especially, as our weak, unfortunate gender is all that you can handle?
Or does your sadism know no bounds?"
Herb didn't immediately reply as he calmly walked after her.
"Are you trying to goad me into letting down my guard? Or do you simply
wish me to kill you? You were strong enough to match Lime and Mint, men
trained to kill even an Amazon Elder. This running away of yours is
unseemly." He ducked under a piece of broken woodwork, searching for her
still significant ki amid the ruins. "Show yourself, alien! My patience
for you is not endless!"
Starfire quickly made her way through the wreckage of the building,
finding a sturdy looking hallway to suit her purpose. Within seconds,
she flew to the end, effectively trapping herself completely. There, the
Tamaranian frowned, noting the gamble she was taking, but took heart at
the sound of her pursuer's voice closing in inevitably. Once she had
taken her place, she slowly turned around and took a deep breath,
slowing her breathing and trying to recover a small measure of her
power.
A moment later, Herb rounded the corner and found her. Starfire took a
moment to look around her frantically, a look of panic etched on her
face as she apparently noticed the lack of exits in the narrow hallway.
Watching her, the armored man held something in his hands. Up until now,
he had fought bare handed. That he had something unusual now, something
she hadn't seen before, was not a good sign.
"I never expected you'd scurry into a corner, girl," he dryly observed.
"Is this where you want to make your last stand?"
Starfire glared at the arrogant warrior as he began to walk towards her
in a sedate manner, unusual spherical object held carelessly in his
hand. She could not be certain, but it appeared to be an explosive
device of some sort.
All the better, the Tamaranian thought grimly to herself.
She waited for her predator to take several more steps before sneering.
"My 'last stand'? You misunderstand my intent. I did not come here to
die, rather, I simply wished to alter the battle field. After all,
considering our current condition, it makes it very unlikely for you to
evade - this!"
In a flash, Starfire lifted her hands and clasped her fists tightly
together, emerald energy springing to life around her clenched hands
like a bonfire.
A second after that - just as the physical limitations of the narrow
corridor they were housed in became apparent to her overconfident foe -
a stream of over a dozen fierce Starbolts tore down the hallway in the
stretch of a second. The next second saw even more of the energetic
blobs of emerald fire fill the air, a literal machinegun spray of
Starbolts which filled the entire hallway and pelting the martial artist
from head to toe.
Wood exploded, stone shattered and great gouts of dust shot out from
every direction as the hail of star bolts tore into the roof, walls,
floor and martial artist with merciless abandon. One of the stray bolts
even hit the sphere in his hand, and it burst open in a spray of noxious
looking gas. A second later, a strange wave of nausea overcame
Starfire, but thanks to her distance she was able to shrug it off and
continued her rapid fire bombardment for another several seconds.
At the center of the conflagration, Herb snarled in undisguised rage as
the psionic disruption from the alien stun bomb played havoc with his
carefully maintained ki shields. Initially, the unexpected, and
unexpectedly furious assault did little more than sting annoyingly
through his protective barrier - but when the bomb went off, his ki
constructs collapsed in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the
irritating attack became an agonizing pummeling as the green blasts
slammed into him with full force, knocking him backwards, very nearly
driving him to his knees! The only thing that had saved him from being
blasted into complete unconsciousness was the highly resistant and
environmentally sealed personal armor he wore.
The unexpected pain, as unpleasant as it was, was not the worst of the
alien's transgression. Maintaining ki constructs was an ability unique
to the royal dragon family of the Musk, who had an innate mastery of
their internal energies. Losing control, losing focus, was unforgivable.
Having a meager flare of white noise scramble that control - it was
disorienting ... infuriating. He cursed even bringing the stun bomb out
before his opponent had been properly beaten into the ground.
If it had not been for his armor NBC filters...
That thought brought his boiling fury to new heights. To even infer
that he needed any form of advantage over such a pathetic, unskilled
female! To even imagine that she had the ability to harm his person?
Needless to say, the Lord of the Musk was not amused.
His voice barely rose in volume from a whispered hiss, but rippling
shapes of ki solidified around him, pulsing and breaking apart and
reforming. The ki blades on his arms widened and shrunk as his aura
raged in response to his anger and the lingering effects of the stun
bomb. With a focused effort, he blew the obscuring cloud of purple gas
away, smashing part of a nearby wall in the process.
Only to stare incredulously to the end of the hallway.
The vacant hallway. The only evidence that the alien had been present at
all was the shattered hole in the roof of at the end of the corridor.
After all of that, the pain and humiliation she had inflicted on him...
She thought he would simply let her escape?
-
Already above the building and quickly rising over the village itself,
Starfire laughed joyously and waved down at the impotently shouting
humans on the ground. The large man and the small warrior shook their
fists furiously, but there was nothing they could do to her as she
soared into the night sky. The woman was more troubling, as she was
clearing lining up her weapon, but the alien girl didn't plan to leave
herself an easy target.
Turning quickly, Starfire then began to fly away from the remains of the
once glorious Amazon village... Unfortunately, her last, desperate
attack had left her drained. It was difficult to build up any real speed
in her flight. And, even worse, she still had no idea what her next
course of action should be.
About to make her escape, Starfire abruptly came up short, as something
faint passed right by her side, intercepting her flight path. Turning,
she saw the villain rising higher and higher into the air, transparent
ki blade retracting back to meet with his body.
A red hot pulse of ki washed over her, even as far away as she was, and
beneath the man, the wooden remains of the building instantly lit up
like a dry timber box finding a match. There was no roar of outrage or
indignant howl. She couldn't even see the man's face, but she could feel
his palpable anger saturating the air.
"Well now ... it appears I may have aggravated him," she muttered to
herself.
Were she in top form, she had no doubt that she could escape, but after
the extended combat, turning her back on her enraged opponent would be a
foolish mistake. So, rather than flee, she held her ground (though not
literally in this case) and calmly awaited his approach. The intense
heat in the air began to play havoc on the natural climate, setting the
Tamaranian's long, flame-colored hair blowing in the wind.
As she floated, an instant of serenity cascaded over Starfire; the sweet
sensation of the breeze on her aching skin, the picturesque panorama of
Earth's natural splendor spread out below her ... marred only by the
black taint which rose to meet her. For just a moment, she was able to
forget all of the fear, the frustration, the guilt over her friend,
Cyborg.
At that thought, Starfire's jade eyes narrowed and she studied the
approaching warrior with new eyes. She had not given it much thought
earlier, but now that she watched him glide through the air, she
realized just how unwieldy his flight was. While quick enough in close
combat, his flight was sluggish by Tamaranian standards. Though to human
eyes, his flight was likely majestic, to her, his movements were
cumbersome, graceless. He had obviously not been born to flight as she
had been.
For the first time since her arrival in this dark time, Starfire felt
the familiar tingle of unbridled joy rising up within her, renewing her
powers of flight in a way that her fury never could. Smiling pleasantly
now, the Tamaranian began to glide gracefully to the side, not making
any sudden moves that would indicate escape. Within moments, her
opponent closed the distance, floating to a stop several dozen yards
away from her. She then made an obvious show of looking down to the
ground so far below them.
"Perhaps you are not the coward I thought you to be. We are, after all,
quite far removed from the planet's surface."
Herb gave a derisive snort. "All that you have done by fleeing to this
height is to force upon me the distasteful task of catching your body
when you fall."
Rolling her eyes, Starfire shook her head in amusement. "I also grow
tired of your constant stream of idle threats." She could hardly
believe what she was saying herself, considering the pain she was in,
but continued regardless. "For all of your vaunted skills, you have yet
to prove more capable than your subordinates. Are you... certain that
you should be on the battlefield? Many generals serve honorably removed
from combat." She paused to offer him a teasing wink. "Far, far removed
in some cases."
He didn't move a muscle, but in an instant, the air around her heated up
to levels uncomfortable even for her, she could actually see the air
shimmer around her opponent's angrily writhing ki blades. She was
actually thankful for the helmet he wore, as she could scarcely imagine
the murderous scowl that was adorning his face at that precise moment.
Herb surged forward like a bullet, air rippling in his wake as his ki
propelled him towards her. Rearing back an arm, the deadly master swung
forward savagely, the bladed construct above his wrist extending to
several times its length -
To his shock, the alien dipped below the attack, diving into a tight
spiral evasion which carried her behind him. With lightning speed, he
spun about, extending both arms and forming a near literal windmill of
ki blades.
He then watched, nearly mesmerized, as his quarry wove between his
swings as gracefully as a dolphin at sea. The impertinent alien even
had the audacity to hurl a salvo of energy blasts in his direction. He
didn't bother to dodge, simply negated the force and heat of each one
with his ki shields and shrugging off the mild discomfort that came like
an unpleasant aftertaste. Oddly enough, these latest attacks lacked
most of the heat of her earlier shots.
And then she was flying away again, at startling speed. Frustration
rising to heights he hadn't felt since dealing with Saotome, Herb took
off after her at full speed ... only to find himself steadily falling
behind. Thinking quickly, he slashed forward several times, crescent
blades of shaped ki arcing through the air to intercept the girl's
flight path. At this rate, it would be difficult to capture the girl
intact, and he found himself mentally weighting the options of just
going for a killing stroke. Both the PRC and the higher ups would be
enraged if she escaped again whereas only his CO would be enraged if the
alien girl were killed. It was a matter of which option would anger the
least people.
To his frustration, the alien banked sharply, neatly avoiding the
blades. It did allow him to close some of the distance between, them,
though. His hands twitched, unwilling to admit failure by allowing
either option. He was Herb. He had brought his clan willingly into
UNETCO, and he would not fail a mission given to him!
Starfire glanced back over her shoulder at the approaching warrior. As
she had suspected, his deadly ranged abilities would make escape
dangerous, at best. It was beginning to appear that it was going to
come down to who grew exhausted first. She did not appear to possess
any ability powerful enough to harm him through his impressive set of
armor, yet, here, in her element, she could literally fly ... circles
... around him?
A wide smile suddenly bloomed on the Tamaranian's lips.
It was time to demonstrate to this earthling what true flight entailed.
Spinning on a fractional denomination of earth currency, Star tore
through the air at full speed - straight back at Herb. The darkly clad
warrior actually appeared to balk for a moment, before attempting to
lash out once more.
Several near invisible bolts of ki fired out at her, with a sweep of her
arm she fired out a series of star bolts to intercept them. Most
missed, and she was forced to dodge the rest, but to her dismay, the
sharp bolts lanced straight through those plasma blasts that did connect
- only to destabilize and dissipate harmlessly seconds later. Then
Starfire was past him, flying so fast that only the green contrail of
energy following in her wake remained.
Herb spun about as quickly as he could, but the alien's maneuverability
at this altitude was problematic. He almost considered contacting the
fourth member of Romeo Squad, but if this creature was giving him such
trouble, he doubted she would be able to fare that well, especially
without the full protection of her armor.
There was nothing else for it, so he gave chase. He was fairly certain
he could prevent her from escaping by strategically blocking her flight
path, however there were limits even to his great power, and he had no
way of knowing whether the same was true for the alien or not.
Rearing back his arm, he prepared to launch another -
Suddenly the alien veered to the side, nearly a ninety degree turn
without any effort at all. The Dragon Prince was forced to take a
longer, arcing course to continue his pursuit. Then, as if to insult
him, the self dubbed 'Tamaranian' (why had he not heard back from
command about that yet?) spun about and began to fly backwards, casually
hurling more of those odd energy blasts of hers at him.
It was a small effort for him to defeat her attacks as before, the
projectiles little more than concussive bursts at this point, lacking
all of their former heat, but doing so while pushing the speed of his
flight further than he had ever been forced to before was becoming ...
troublesome.
Herb finally found an opening to attack, and prepared to fire again -
and again, the alien suddenly veered to the side. Not so sharply, this
time, rather a shallow arc that he was more easily able to follow. A
vicious smirk crossed his lips as he did, though, as it seemed that her
pride would soon cost her. Flying backwards, as she was, his enemy had
lost a good portion of her speed, and he was gradually beginning to
catch up once more.
Soon enough, he would be close enough that there would be no way for her
to evade, and then she would pay for her disrespect. What was her plan,
anyway? Did she actually think her half hearted bombardment would
defeat him? Was she hoping that he would exhaust himself, chasing her
round and round ... like ... this ...
Instantly, realization crystallized in his mind. As impossible as it
was, as utterly inconceivable, it all made perfect sense. And this was
one of Cologne's little creations.
In a burst of speed that would have made her Amazonian mentor proud,
Starfire pirouetted midair, utterly incapable of hiding the broad smile
that covered half her face. Even as 'Lord Herb', apparently shocked at
her sudden reversal, attempted to pull back, she swung upwards in a
massive uppercut, the wild swing coming not even close to the armored
warrior.
In an instant, all of the hot energy saturating the environment,
provided so generously by her furious enemy, and stirred so liberally by
her own comparatively cool power, was drawn in down to a single point,
the shimmering bluish sphere limning her fist. A familiar roar began to
fill the air as the air began to collapse in around her, the winds
beginning to twist violently -
"Flying Dragon Ascends to the Heavens B - ooaaaahhhhhh!!"
A flash of arctic cold was all the warning she received before, against
all reason, she was being sucked up into the very tornado which she had
created! Starfire managed a brief glance down as she was dragged
helplessly upwards, tumbling madly through the air. Floating in the eye
of the cyclone, of her cyclone, was the armor clad soldier, his fist
raised upwards in an uppercut of his own.
How - how had he known how to do that?! Even as the winds pummeled her,
and the familiar sickening sensation of the funnel feeding upon her
power descended on her, all she could focus on was how he could have
possibly turned her attack back on her in such away. Cologne had never
mentioned this! This was inconceivable! This was ... this was
hauntingly familiar!
This was exactly like the tale Ranma had told of his own prior exploits
with the technique!
The Tamaranian warrior's memory kicked into overdrive as she called up
her discussions with the pigtailed martial artist with desperate
clarity. It had not been long after they had combined their powers to
save Jump City from Ryouga's self destructive rage, in the days they had
spent in recovery before the Lost Boy finally awoke. The Saotome heir
had drilled her endlessly on her knowledge of the technique, and had
explained, in excruciating detail, his numerous 'awe inspiring
victories' with the Hiryu Shoten Ha.
Starfire knew exactly what to do! Regaining control of her wild flight,
the alien girl smiled, then flew up, straight into the heart of the
storm itself.
Herb stared up into his commandeered tornado triumphantly. It appeared
that Cologne had indeed taught this amazing creature - taught her more
than he had imagined the treacherous Amazon would pass on to a discarded
experiment. He had been so utterly surprised that such an unlikely
enemy would use such a powerful technique, that he almost hadn't had the
time to alter his aura from boiling hot to freezing cold. As it was,
the systems in his armor were screaming in protest at the sudden shock,
but he didn't need them anymore, anyway.
It was only a matter of seconds now, and the battle would be over. He
also noticed, then, that it was getting bright out. Yet it couldn't be
sunrise already? And ... since when had sunlight been tinted green?
Herb's eyes widened into saucers as he looked up, staring in complete
incomprehension at the massive emerald sphere that was descending down
on him, blasting the winds of the cyclone apart with its passage. For a
moment, his mind flashed back to another sphere of burning ki, unleashed
upon his person under nearly identical circumstances. He had never
expected, not here certainly, to face this attack again, but there was
no doubt.
This was the Hiryu Korin Dan!
This was Saotome's damned counter-technique!
It was insane. It was impossible. Simply impossible. There was no way
Ranma would have shared this technique with the enemy. There was no way
they could have deduced the intricacies of it outside of his experience.
Even Cologne, cursed master that she was, couldn't duplicate it. In his
own fight with her, Ranma had confirmed that fact when the formerly
ancient Amazon had countered the move and others like it in different
ways. How the HELL was this girl pulling off a move only Saotome himself
- a man who had surpassed anyone before him in the use of the Hiryu
Shoten Ha - could do?
"Damnit," Herb cursed.
He didn't do so lightly, either. The Prince of the Musk spread his arms,
let out a soft breath, and raised his hands. He'd been crushed by the
Korin Dan before, surprised by the counter to his own counterattack.
That one oversight, that one loss, was something Saotome hadn't
neglected to bring up in every bit of correspondence or interaction
between the two ever since. The Japanese martial artist no doubt
expected Herb to be in possession of a counter move, and Herb fully
expected Ranma to be working on a counter-counter. It also served keep
both men one step ahead of Cologne, their mutual enemy and another
master of the Hiryu Shoten Ha.
Feeling the Korin Dan's outer shell envelop his fingers, Herb nodded to
himself.
Starfire descended from above, maintaining enough speed to plow into her
target and enough maneuverability to ensure a hit. The burning angry ki
in her hands seethed and roiled, commingling with her own energy under
protest. She could feel the emotions within it: the anger, the
humiliation, the indignation, the lust for revenge. It was a different
fire than her own righteous fury: dirtier and meaner and completely at
ease with that fact. There was nothing righteous about it, and it was
still angry at her specifically.
The human seemed resigned to the attack, and made no move to dodge. In
fact, as he reached up to take the blow, he accelerated briefly upwards.
Starfire refused to allow herself to hesitate at the gesture; it was too
late anyway. The burning energy bomb made contact with and engulfed its
victim. Her view of the man disappeared entirely within it. Starfire had
a moment to wonder about that. Ranma had said that this move flattened
its opponent --
Then, her fingers slipped, as the ball of energy slipped and pinched in.
"W-what...!?"
What was a perfect sphere dimpled and started to suck her in.
'You clearly understand the principles behind the dragon wave,' Herb
thought, on his end of the attack. It was impossible to see what was
going on, on the other side, but he could guess. 'The fact that you
could mimic Saotome's move is proof of that. But you've overlooked the
weakness of spiral based techniques.'
The Korin Dan was formed from the use of a smaller vortex of cold energy
forcefully drawing in the nearby hot energy. It then trapped and shaped
that energy into a ball and hit the enemy with it. However, it still
required a spiral motion to maintain form. The crater Herb had found
himself in before had been a twisted spiral itself, and such spiraling
techniques were Chinese in origin.
By introducing a counter rotation, one could negate the trapping spiral,
through the creation of a countercurrent of opposite orientation and
similar amplitude and angular velocity. However...
One could also match the spiral and introduce an identical rotation.
This had the potential of amplifying the initial attack, but properly
offset and oriented, the moving, interlaced spirals produced a three
dimensional scroll compressor, or vacuum pump. Using one hand now, with
the orb stalled between users, Herb continued the orientation rotation,
moving his hand in a quick circle. Right now, the vacuum would be
forming on the other side of the ball, warping it into a long, deep
crater, more like a funnel, to suck its victim in.
This was his:
"Hiryu Mouko Wasa."
(Rising Dragon Fierce Tiger Trap)
Herb's palm became a fist, and the spirals aligned.
The Korin Dan hadn't been quite as massive as Saotome's, but it imploded
with a personally satisfying crack of thunder. A toroidal pulse of heat
and charged air expanded from the impact event as crackles of lightning
from charged bits of debris lit up the air with acetic fire. The Dragon
of the Musk half expected to see a blackened, shredded body fall from
the dispersing cloud of burning ki.
He was pleased to see the alien girl intact, though pulverized.
The two hung briefly in midair, and then Herb pulled up. A black glove
shot out to try and catch the falling alien, just barely seizing hold of
a ruined, shredded shirt. There was no escape now. One hand drew back to
deliver a merciless coup de gras.
Only for the Musk Prince to stutter, momentarily losing control of his
ki entirely and falling like a clipped brick.
'B-B-breasts! ...Damnit!'
Blinking and trying to clear her own head, Starfire tumbled instead of
falling cleanly, the world becoming a dizzying and rapidly descending
cacophony of images and rushing air. As the ruins of the Amazon village
resolved, her tumble becoming a spin, there was an onrushing flash of
white. Against reason, a dozen feathers seemed to be scattered across
her front, somehow slowing her fall.
The last conscious thought she had was just what in X'hal's name a
Thanagarian was going here. Then Kiima's matte black elbow crashed into
the side of her skull and everything went black again. A gloveless hand,
clawed like a bird's instead of bearing normal fingers, reached out and
seized her by the fabric around her collar and left shoulder.
The Phoenix woman still held onto her, as Starfire finally, mercifully,
went limp.
"Honestly, Lord Herb, you still have that problem?"
"... t-they were orange. I was unprepared."
- - -
The disturbance had first been felt in the depths of T'leth.
Four kilometers beneath the surface of the Ocean, half buried in the
great rift on the sea floor known as the Sigsbee Deep, an alien
metropolis slept. No light from above reached this place, where blind
fish and eyeless crabs hunted among oblique curves and alien geometry
unknown to man. It snowed here year around: detritus from the light-fed
world above slowly drifting down over the course of months to reach the
very bottom of the world.
No light, man made or otherwise, broke the endless night here. The
spires and concave domes were silent. The ones who maintained the place
at any one time could be counted on two hands. They were pale things,
moving purposefully within the darkness, following paths in the decaying
snow. They slipped down corridors that had not seen even the briefest
radiance in millennia - following routes burned into their minds, duties
carved into their very being.
Further down, past the broken and forgotten surface levels, lay T'leth
proper. Here, alien colors remained unfaded on walls and floors, despite
the eons underwater, eternally hidden by the darkness and the sea.
Within one great chamber, large enough to accommodate a stadium, a
hundred thousand creatures slept in dimly lit tubes, recessed in the
walls. They waited, dreaming, for their time to come. For their long
promised time.
Deeper still, within the heart of T'leth, their dreams took physical
form.
It was known as The Dreamer.
Its cousin, on Cydonia, knew it as the T'leth Mind.
Yet within that sightless tomb, confined within a dead ship, left only
to dwell in dream, it had become so much more. The Cydonia Mind had
found it long ago, re-enabled many otherwise un-repairable functions,
but soon became wary. It did not want those who dwelled and dreamed to
be a part of it. The Dreamer knew it feared what its ancient predecessor
had become: a race, a Mind, collectively gone mad. The Dreamer had
feared, once, but dark and deathless ages had given it time to fully
appreciate the situation. In time, it would have an entire world to
mould in its image.
The Promise.
The Promise would soon be fulfilled.
The Dreamer slept, half alive, half dead; half consciousness, half
nightmare.
Thus, it was first felt - they were first felt - in T'leth.
The Dreamer felt it come into being - INVADER DISRUPTION POISON - far
above, on an island far away. The molecular control network was
incomplete, but it extended The Dreamer's senses far and wide, across
the world's seas and lands. In time, it would make The Dream real. This
new interruption was... not right - SAMPLE UNKNOWN DEVOUR SENSES -
tasted wrong. They did not belong here; coming in an ugly twist - TRAVEL
ARRIVAL ESCAPE EXPAND - of space and time.
A TRAVELER HAS COME
Yes. Not from beyond the stars, but from beyond the beyond. They came
from that warped realm of the Faster Than Light. It tasted of one but
smelt of many. The Dreamer knew of this sort, from ancient times, back
when it had first taken flight among the solar winds. In that time, it
had been a colony ship, send to a bright, young new world. The Cydonia
Mind would know more. It had come here more recently, and knew far more
about the beyond that was beyond.
The Dreamer felt out its kin. The Mind would not detect it for some time
yet by itself, but it accepted The Dreamer's conclusions. Visitors have
come. Beasts from beyond the beyond. This was a rare opportunity.
Certain barriers that could not otherwise be crossed were now
vulnerable. A strand of the spiderweb had been found, and plucked.
The Dreamer hungered - CONSUME RAPE ABSORB BECOME - to bring the Dream
into the light and, now, to have the beyond bend to it as well. The
Martian Mind cared only for its mission and for that which could serve.
It did not Dream, but it was Curious. TAKE FLESH REND THOUGHT - The
Dreamer knew there was much to gain. So long as the Promise was not
forgotten in pursuit of some new goal. With the beyond in its maw, The
Dream could become even more... vivid.
The Mind accepted the information. It had protocols of its own in this
situation.
The Dreamer closed its blind eyes.
And Dreamed of a world - a perfect nightmare world, like a million
shards of broken glass.
- - -
Consensus.
The Mind had chosen one to carry out its will. Within The Mind, this
Ethereal accepted the charge. Given the data from the Molecular Control
Network, it was closest to the anomaly, with the most mobile and
expendable assets. It was already conducting Earth-based research. The
humans would soon be alerted. Speed was necessary, but not entirely at
the expense of caution. It was imperative.
They would need to be found.
And Harvested.
- - -
- - -
Abstract -- Nabiki Tendo Rank: Operator
One of three daughters of S. Tendo (profile available), inc K. Tendo
(Seiran Medical div.); A. Tendo (Seiran: CT Golf). Minimal psionic
potential. Practices some of family martial arts style. Graduated within
top five percent of outgoing class, Furinkan, Nerima. Multiple
unofficial disciplinary and ethics violations; none pursued. Unusual
circumstances at school (see: R. Saotome, Furinkan). Enrolled in Meiji
University at time of abduction (see: Nerima Abduction Event) (see:
university records).
Brought in after the UFO crash in South America, she was stated to be
instrumental in reorienting the ship and allowing for its descent.
Transferred to Far East Branch. Originally applied and accepted to
internship in Revenue and Logistics Division. Brought in during
Operation Trojan to coordinate for India Squad. Transfer approved to
Operations CIC pending psionic training and evaluation. Permanent
Operator Status approved (Dec, 2006). Monthly evaluations show
acceptable and developing skills in multi-tasking, information
retrieval, non-linear thinking. Emotional attachment to team rated as:
HIGH(4E).
Operator Tendo has performed her job to expectations as of the time of
this correspondence. IntSec has catalogued a dozen minor behavioral
infractions, mostly related to the selling of goods and services on-
base, and to participation in sanctioned gambling events among combat
personnel. No disciplinary action deemed necessary. Personal morale is
high and key to maintaining her productivity. As of Jan, 2006, no
efforts have been made to replace her with a Senior Operator.
Commitment is considered high due to first hand exposure to alien
activities. Minimal psionic imprinting undertaken (see: psi-gym usage).
PsyOps profile attached. High aversion to failure; noted as hard working
when properly motivated. Known relationship with Lt. R. Hibiki (Seiran:
CT India) has not interfered with performance as of previous reviews
(see: Service Record, attached) (see: Psionic Profile, attached). Tendo
is currently being evaluated in-field to demonstrate possible candidacy
for inclusion in CLEANSLATE. Exclusion of Tendo can be expected to
negatively affect efficiency of India; push her hard to make sure she's
ready.
[signature redacted]
##
BROTHER EYE PROTOCOLS TOP CLEARANCE REQUIRED
SUBJECT: 3845 CODENAME: Cyborg REAL NAME: Victor Stone
SPECIES: Human HEIGHT: 6'3" WEIGHT: 420lbs HAIR COLOR: N/A EYE COLOR:
Brown
KNOWN ABILITIES: Subject has undergone extensive cybernetic replacement
and enhancement as a result of an accident. Cybernetic augmentation has
given the subject superhuman strength (Full limits not yet determined).
Subject is highly armed and armoured. Main weapon system is a sonic
device, while secondary weapons include micro missile launchers. The
bulk of the subject's cybernetic frame is composed of a titanium-
promethium alloy, granting extremely high resistance to most forms of
damage, and internal systems are heavily shielded against remote access,
and EMP bursts. Subject also possesses super human intelligence,
rumoured to be part of a human augmentation experiment conducted by the
subject's parents. Subject is highly skilled in numerous technical and
medical fields, ranging from machine design, security setups and
computer hacking.
EXPLOITABLE WEAKNESSES: Subject's main weakness is reliance on external
energy sources to maintain power levels. Highest probability of
incapacitating subject is to place him in a scenario where he is unable
to recharge - Please Note: This strategy could result in subject's death
if precautions are not taken.
KNOWN HISTORY: Son of noted S.T.A.R. Lab scientists: Silas and Elinore
Stone. Most of the subject's childhood is recorded (files taken from
S.T.A.R. Lab dataframe) but not relevant. Cybernetic augmentation of
subject occurred shortly after the death of Elinore Stone. The incident
involved an experimental dimensional portal developed by Silas Stone, in
which an unidentified life form invaded the laboratory, killing Elinore
and mortally wounding the Subject. Subject's father applied cybernetics
to save the Subject's life. Unknown at the time, Silas Stone suffered
from radiation poisoning in conjunction with the incident.
Several months later, Subject assisted in the formation of the team
designate: Teen Titans. After defeating the Gordanian invasion
resulting from the arrival of Subject: 5231: Codename: Starfire,
Subject's father constructed structure designated: Titan Tower. Shortly
after, Subject's father succumbed to radiation poisoning. Since that
time, Subject has performed as the Titan's second in command.
CURRENT THREAT LEVEL: D
PERSONAL NOTE: It's easy to see why Dick wants Cyborg on his team. Not
only is he highly capable, bringing a wide range of skills to the table,
it is also impossible to miss the thread of loss which is shared not
just between them, but through all of the Titans. It appears that Dick
isn't just forming a team of disparate heroes, forced together by
circumstance, but a surrogate family which actually shares bonds of
understanding and sympathy with one another. My only hope that these
bonds don't weaken Dick. It's much easier to give orders to comrades
than it is to family.
##
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