Wrong Conclusions
Chapter Nine: The East Arrives
"How long ago did they call?!"
"Almost ten minutes. I had to spend that long getting Raven out of her mirror-"
"If you would've just called my name, I would have left faster!"
"Did they sound hurt!? Were they getting winded!? What was going ON, Cyborg?!"
"Look, man, I dunno! The communication went fuzzy and neither one would pick up after that! You know as much as I do, okay!?"
All three Titans' nerves were on edge as they sped towards the hospital, Cyborg in his car, Robin on his motorcycle, and Raven deciding to go by air. They were still half a city away because Raven's powers weren't working as well as she would have hoped. The time in her mirror did the opposite of help calm her down, and leaving abruptly had left her more unstable than ever. She felt less safe teleporting them than taking the ten minutes to arrive on the scene, otherwise. So all Robin could do was ask Cyborg for details that the metal man simply didn't have while Raven kept on the lookout for signs of danger.
Finally, after almost ten minutes of non-stop driving and flying, the hospital came into view. The three Titans were relieved to find Starfire flying through the air, throwing star-bolt after star-bolt at a small group of pale men wearing the same type of clothing they had seen the 'Vampire-Guy' wear the week before - tight, black body-suits with thigh-high boots and belts just about everywhere. All four pale mans had the same golden eyes as the previous villain, as well as the same shade of black for their hair. Only none of these individuals decided to slick it back like the original had, which would have taken away from the 'Vampire' effect, had all their fangs not been long enough to almost reach their chins.
One had short hair; he was the largest, basically just a wall of muscle. The second had medium-long hair and bangs in his eyes; he seemed built for speed, with a thin just muscular body and an almost gangly appearance. The third had hair down to his shoulders that curled up ever so slightly, and he appeared to be almost identical to Robin's size and shape. And the last had a low ponytail going down to his waist, and was tall but strong, holding himself in an almost regal manner - the obvious ringleader of these jerks.
Starfire threw her green, fiery bolts at the four of them, her expression strained with obvious panic. Though almost every star-bolt connected, causing cinders to fly in every direction, the four pale men remained unharmed. In fact, it only seemed to tickle them; they cackled louder as more green clumps of energy attempted to harm them. They couldn't even singe their clothes.
"Hey, Urres'l?" The one with the short hair called out. "Is it me, or does that Tamaranian look familiar?"
The question caused Starfire to pause, too shocked to focus on continuing hr attack. Familiar...?
"She should," Urres'l, the ringleader with the long hair, replied calmly, flicking his pony-tail behind him.
"Seriously? From where?" The fast, gangly one asked, earning himself a light smack over the head from the one with slightly-curled hair.
"Ker'rk, Gerood, are you two idiots or what? That's the princess! Don't you remember her? The five of us had some fun during our war with them," He grinned widely, giving Starfire a spin-crawlingly hungry look.
"Really, Wer'nel?" The muscled one with the shortest hair - Gerood - asked, scrunching his face as though he was trying to get a better look at Starfire. "What do you think, Ker'rk? She does look almost the same, just kinda stupid without the royal armor...But they all kinda look the same, all kinda orange..."
"I agree," Ker'rk, the fast, gangly one, replied. "We should give her a proper greeting, though, regardless, while Or'lesp is running around inside."
"Ooh, I DO so enjoy proper greetings," Gerood snickered, stepping in front of his companions, overshadowing them easily with his excess mass. Before Starfire could fly further up towards safety, the pale man gave a loud, ear-splitting shriek. The vibrations emanating from his vocal cords actually managed to shatter window after window of the hospital until the vibrations reached Starfire. Once the soundwave hit her, she let out a loud cry of pain and began to fall to the ground, powerless and flickering in and out of consciousness.
"STARFIRE!" Without thinking, Robin sped right towards the girl. He saw her, falling like an angel whose wings had been lopped off, going faster and faster towards the earth. But his motorcycle was going faster and faster as well. He was right under her, and she was no more than a few feet away...!
Just as he was about to catch her in his outstretched arms, safe and sound, there was a black and white blur of color, and rather than her being in Robin's arms, she was a few feet away from where Robin should have caughter her, in Ker'rk the speedster's arms, instead.
"Too slow!" the pale man teased. Robin eyes widened in shock before gritting his teeth in rage, wanting nothing more than to hit this guy until his fangs broke off, but instead, Robin had to swerve his motorcycle to the side, narrowly avoiding a violent crash with a wall.
"Let. Her, GO!" Raven appeared from the shadows beside Robin, her eyes, both pairs, glowing a bright red beneath her hood. "Or you're going to *sorely* regret it."
"Ooh, brothers, is it me, or do I smell the foul scent of Azarath?" Wer'nel cocked an eyebrow, waving his hand under his nose like he smelled something fowl, as his kin began circling around Ker'rk to form a living barrier.
"My, I do as well! The stench of the land now dead! Now, brothers, is it me, or is that the odor of Trigon the Great upon her as well, of all things?" Ker'rk snickered, tossing Starfire's limp form lazily onto his shoulder, her backside to the Titans.
"Trigon...?" Raven was surprised, not having expected to hear that name again for years to come, much less with the title 'the Great' attached to it, and so soon. It was enough for her extra pair of eyes to vanish and the redness to fade.
"Yes, I see the resemblance now," Urres'l muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. "The dark aura is difficult not to recognize. This must be his daughter! How odd, I expected her to be...larger."
"Who cares about larger? She's the right shape and size for ME," Ker'rk licked his lips with a purple tongue, careful not to cut himself on his own fangs.
"Eu-eugh... Tell me he isn't hitting on me," Raven looked down at Robin with a look of pure disgust. It was usually Starfire who got all the cheap lines, and Raven preferred it that way. She didn't need villains like Red X staring at her body parts inappropriately as she threw them into walls.
"Worry about that later," the Boy Wonder hissed through his teeth, not tearing his eyes away from the group of Vampire-like villains for a moment. They had Starfire... Right as he decided to tell Starfire how he felt, something like THIS had to happen. It always happened like this...It was inevitable.
"Aww, he looks so worried!" Wer'nel barked a laugh at Robin. The vampire-look alike scanned the ground around him, looking through the rubble left behind from Starfire's attacks and Gerood's shriek. The pale man soon found a pole and kicked it into into the air, and then caught it in his palm. He twirled it several times in his hand to get the feel of it, and then pointed it with a hint of challenge at Robin. "What? You scared for the Tamaranian? Think we'll hurt her?" he taunted, before giving a much darker smile. "Wow, it sounds like this masked-dork's known us all his life..."
"Tch, I could take him out with one hit," Gerood snorted, unimpressed, cracking his knuckles. But before Robin could pull his extendable pole out from the thresholds of his belt, Gerood was on the ground via a large beam of bright-blue light produced by sonic waves.
"Boo-yah!" Cyborg cheered as he watched Gerood fly back, his arm still in its sonic-beam mode. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size, huh, beef-cake?!"
"Nrrgh...At least I'm actually made of beef, tin-man," Gerood growled, clearly embarrassed as he clumsily pulled himself back to his feet. He then tilted his head to the side, cracking his neck.
"'Tin man'? Oh, I KNOW you just didn't-!" Cyborg was instantly riled up. "I'll let you know I'm made of steel and iron with some titanium reinforcements!" He screamed before charging.
While the largest two men fought one another, both of their sound attacks canceling each other out mid-air, Robin clashed metal with Wer'nel, his staff now out of his toolbelt. Out of the four, Wer'nel was the most aggressive fighter; he wasn't interested in what was going on inside of the hospital - all Wer'nel was after was a good fight, and Robin was an almost worthy opponent. Both of them were equally fast, equally good at dodging, and had similar ideas strategically. If Robin got a hit in, Wer'nel returned it within two or three blows.
In fact, their battle was so well-matched and so enthralling that neither one noticed how Ker'rk began to run circles around Raven, merely to annoy her. He was far too fast for her to be able to get a solid grip on him, and anything she tried to trip him with, he merely ran around. No matter how many things she tried over-shadowing, she couldn't keep up...
"Looks like your friends are all busy, Princess," Urres'l muttered to Starfire's body as he held it in his arms. He had taken it off of his quick brother's shoulder when Ker'rk had begun running. Starfire did nothing more than groan and slightly turn over, as the victims of his brother's screech usually did. Urrse'l chuckled, watching the various battles, seeing his brothers doing nothing more than toying with these Titans. Good. they were all distracted.
Just as Urse'l began to float up from the ground to enter the hospital, he felt something small hit his ankles.
"Hm?" His golden eyes slowly drifted to down to his feet, where he saw two small humans in odd white-and-red uniforms. One had a tooth missing, and they were holding hands, sending identical, enraged looks up at him.
"Suelte a la señorita Starfire!" They shouted in together. The very sight of them caused a wave of laugher to burst through Urres'l's mouth, floating down slightly due to the weight of the two kids. His laughter didn't seem to make Mas and Menos any happier.
"Vayamos!" Mas said, and with his brother's nod, the two began to run at their top speed, stopping every few moments to send kicks or hits to the pale man's face. Their speed caused their hits to have twice the power, and the training Bumblebee had made them go through had caused them to begin gaining some muscle of their own.
"Augh! What an annoyance...!" Urres'l tried to catch the two as they attacked, but their speed was too much for him. He was used to Ker'rk taking care of such annoyances. Urrse'l turned, trying to get the attention of his fastest brother, but his eyes widened in shock at what he saw.
Ker'rk had both of his arms held behind him in a painful manner and was drenched thoroughly with water as an slightly feminine Atlantian boy held his brother's down. A bright-yellow arrow had frozen Wer'nel from the waist down, while leaning against the block of ice was a boy with slicked-down orange hair and the same type mask as Robin's. Gerood was grunting, walking backwards as something tiny with the wings of a bee was shocking him from all sides, causing him pain, and because of his large size, leaving him incapable of fighting such a small annoyance off. Just as Gerood was about to finally knock the small fly away, it grew to the size of a normal person, and a dark-skinned woman in yellow and black stripes, and knocked him to the ground with a very forceful kick right to the nose.
"Figured you guys could use some help," Bumblebee said with a wide grin, buzzing above Gerood. "Good thing we showed up. You're losing your touch, Sparky."
"I was just puttin' on a show," Cyborg muttered, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout. "I didn't want the others to feel bad 'cause I finished my guy off first, you know how it goes..."
"Yeah, just like Robin here didn't have any problems with this guy," Speedy muttered, tapping Wer'nel's nose with another arrow just as the pale man attempted to bite him, causing the upper half of the pale man's body to freeze, as well.
"Raven, are you alright?" Aqualad looked up at Raven, still holding Ker'rk's arms behind his back. All he got in response was a rather shy nod from the gothic girl, but that was enough for him, and he put his attention back to keeping the gangly boy from escaping.
"Augh-!" While Urres'l had been watching his brothers' defeat, he had completely forgotten that Mas and Menos had been preparing to attack him. While the pale man's attentions were elsewhere, the two had finally gotten together and bitten his hand at the same time. The sudden shock of the pain forced Urres'l to jerk and let go of Starfire, causing her body to fly into the air.
"STARFIRE!" Robin made an attempt to reach her, but he was too far away. Thankfully, Mas and Menos were prepared for this.
"Tenemos nuestra Señorita Starfire!" They said as they caught the purple-clad girl in their four arms. Once she had landed safely, the twins let out identical sighs of bliss, but then looked at Urres'l with hatred in their eyes. They set the Tamaranian down with the utmost care, and then sped off to team-kick the enemy.
Their feet connecting with the midriff of the pale man. He gave out a choked gasp, which let the speedy boysknow they had done what they had wanted -- knocked the wind out of him. They flipped back to their feet, releasing their grip on one another. The two were about to take hands again, when three small, sharp boomerangs flew out from behind them and hit Urres'l in the each shoulder and right under the left arm. The third one wasn't aimed as carefully as the last two, and caused the shirt of the pale man to rip slightly, and allow a small amount of blackened blood to drip to the ground, whereas the first two merely pinned the man against the nearest wall of the hospital.
Mas and Menos turned around to see Robin glaring daggers at the ringleader of the Vampire-like gang. In his hands was his metal pole, and he held it in a highly threatening manner. The twins cowered slightly as Robin walked past them, but then the two ran towards Starfire to try and awaken her as Robin held his pole to Uress'l's throat.
"What, Do. You. Want?" The leader of the Titans demanded with a snarl. Cyborg and Raven exchanged mildly-worried glances. Robin hadn't been this angry since their last encounter with Slade.
"Me?" Urres'l asked coyly. "My ruler -- which your people so greedily keep in this prison, as though he is nothing more than one of you lowly humans, or a Troq like that girl there. We will be taking him back and proving again to the universe that we, the Chiserran, are the mightiest of all races! Your planet will become nothing more than prey for us to feast upon!"
He began to laugh maniacally, but stopped as Robin pressed the pole more firmly against the ringleader's Adam's apple. turning the laugh into a strangled choke.
"You're looking for someone in the hospital?" Robin asked, this time more to himself than anyone else. He thought on it a moment, eyebrows furrowing in thought. "But...if you're looking for someone inside, why are you out here?"
Just as Robin said those words, he got the answer.
Inside the hospital there was a loud crashing sound and part of a wall above them came crashing down. Bumblebee quickly used her Stingers to shoot at the smaller parts of it out of harm's way, and Aqualad forced some pipes beneath the ground to rise, open, and send rushing water at the largest part to slow its fall.
"Beast Boy's still inside!" Raven called to Robin in a panic, but Robin had already understood what had happened. The group outside was nothing more than a distraction. Starfire had taken them on so the civilians inside wouldn't have gotten harmed. She had left Beast Boy to the one trying to kidnap whoever this 'Ruler' was. And Robin hadn't understood this. The Boy Wonder had completely lost his head when he had seen Starfire falling.
And now, it may have cost them Beast Boy, as well as the innocent people within the hospital.
Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Robin, Cyborg, Silkie, and pretty much everything but the plot at hand and the Chiserran belong to © D. C. Comics/Cartoon Network/Kids WB
Still working on this! I started a new job this week and I'm adjusting. Everyone in my family is, lol, especially my little muffin with daycare. But we're making it. Just exhausted in between.
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