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Anything, Anytime, Anywhere 06

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Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, For You

Chapter Six
“The Assassin Strikes and the Curtain Falls”


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The mood aboard the spaceship was at an all time-low; and that was rather understandable given the circumstances of their flight. In reality it had not been very long since they had left earth; merely a single night’s travel. However, with everything from constant shoe-worm attacks, odd radio transmissions, and the entire ordeal with Shady from their initial investigation to his eventual suicide no one could blame the Teen Titans for being worn to their limit. However, the task at hand was probably the single most important one they had undertaken since the beginning, and now was when they needed to be at the top of their game.

Raven was still the worst off; and no one could blame her. No one, save Beast Boy, knew the entire story. The combination of her father’s relentless recent attempts on her mind, the kiss in the kitchen, and the final showdown with Shadarias was enough to bring anyone to a breaking point – and Raven hovered dangerously close to that breaking point most days anyway. Regardless of all of that, she was still trudging along, walking ahead of Cyborg and Beast Boy as they continued their task.

It had been almost an hour since Batman’s plan had been formed and agreed upon and progress was moving at an acceptable pace. In truth, everyone wished that it were going faster, but even in their own separate and worn down conditions they all knew it best not to rush through something so important. Knowing for sure who or what else was aboard this ship could not wait – and complaining would not change that.

Out of all the rooms, passages and corridors on their end of the ship; only three remained. A fact that was not wasted the group. They knew the others had found no one or contact would have been made; and assuming they were having progress at around the same pace it meant that something would happen soon. Either the idea that someone else had been aboard would turn out to be false; which they all hoped for but privately doubted. Alternatively, the other option – they would find whoever it was that let the shoe-worms in and they would fight them. Well, there always existed a chance they could avoid a conflict; but none of them could remember the last time that had happened.

Beast Boy was on edge through the whole thing. Instead of his normally casual, laid-back stride whenever he walked down a hallway, he was moving at a slow and cautious pace. His eyes moved to the walls and shadows and various hiding places from time to time; but it was not the possibility of another assassin that had him bothered right now. Between Raven’s telepathy and Cyborg’s technology, he was sure they would pick up any booby-trap or life form they could encounter well before it became a serious danger. His main concern was the lavender-haired young woman who had recently caused him so much joy and even more confusion.

What were they, anyway? They had kissed before in the kitchen and by Raven’s choice no less. However, due to the obvious circumstances they would found no time to talk about what impact this had on their relationship. Beast Boy knew it would have a dramatic change – and he knew what he hoped that change would be. Did a single night of bold confessions; crazy promises and a short but genuine kiss make them a couple? Were they the next “Starfire and Robin” in progress? Beast Boy grinned at himself; no, no matter what he doubted any romance between himself and Raven would be anything close to what was going on with Robin and Starfire. The boy wonder and the girl from Tamaran were both very open about their feelings – whether they realized it or not – and Beast Boy doubted he and Raven would ever be like that. ‘That isn’t exactly a bad thing.’ Beast Boy thought to himself. ‘Then nosy people won’t be in our business all the time like I am with Star and Robin.’

However, their newfound relationship, whatever it may actually be, was not as much of a secret as they both thought. Cyborg’s mind had been focused on the task at hand in the beginning – his eyes constantly checking the scanner and his hand ready to become a powerful cannon and blast away at a moment’s need – but not anymore. The hints were subtle, but he had caught them. It came from working with machines – you had to follow a blueprint when you built something. Moreover, you had to pay attention to every detail on that blueprint. Even a single missed screw or a mistake as simple as misreading a step on the paper could cause you to have to start over again. This gave him and edge in catching the small stuff.

Cyborg had already suspected for a long time that his best bud had a thing for Raven. The events with Melchior, and the time Beast Boy’s “inner beast” had been unleashed had provided Cyborg many opportunities to realize his friend had a crush on their gothic roommate. In addition, there had been a few – far less in this case, but still enough – tiny signs that she could have the potential to one day develop something for him. However, he had never before now seriously considered the idea of Beast Boy and Raven. Who would? Most of their time spent together ended with Raven leaving the room annoyed, and Beast Boy sticking out his tongue after her. Now however he was sure that something had happened between them, and it was preoccupying his mind a lot more than he would have liked given their situation.

At first, it was just more of the small things. He had been the only one to notice Raven and Beast Boy holding hands when they had burst into the kitchen to make their announcement just before Shady’s big scene. Moreover, while everyone had seen Raven collapse into Beast Boy’s arms, not everyone seemed to notice the comforted look that flash across her face when he caught her. Maybe it was just the fact that she did not end up on the floor – but the way she looked up at him when she had tilted her head back; it just gave Cyborg a funny feeling that there had been something he missed. Moreover, while one could argue that this was neither the time nor place to bring such things up – Cyborg would have argued right back that it was the perfect time. Raven was dead tired, Beast Boy was distracted, and Cyborg was spending more time thinking about them than he was scanning for would-be assassins. Distraction was deadly in the superhero business.

Finally after sweeping another room and coming up just as empty as before, and then proceeding down the hallway a tad further they reached their destination; the final room. All of the hallways, nooks, shadowy-places, and rooms on their side of the ship had been checked and cleared. If there were an assassin on the rear of the spacecraft, they would find him or her behind this next-door. Raven decided now was a good time to check in on the others and she pressed the communication device encased inside the red pendant of her cloak.

“Robin? You there?” Her voice seemed normal although there was a definite lethargic undertone.

A pause followed the call and for a moment, Raven began to doubt whether he would return it. She was relieved when his voice finally did answer. He sounded slightly out of breath but otherwise the same as always.

“Sorry we ran into a few leftover shoe-worms. Yeah, what’s up Raven?”

“We found some of those too a while back, but other than that nothing. And we’re outside the last door now; what about you guys?” Raven responded.

Robin’s voice returned quickly. “Besides the shoe-worms, nothing. No sign of anyone else. We’ve still got a few places to check though.”

“Well, we’re going to wrap up here and then we’ll join you.” Raven announced.

“Right. Be careful.” Robin’s reply was short; the sound of a door opening followed and Raven realized it was because he had just entered a new room and new danger.

“You too. Out.” Raven responded as she clicked off the radio line. Once she had finished she turned around to the boys behind her; who had so far been very good at leaving her alone through this latest event.

“Well, guess this is it.” Beast Boy’s voice seemed a little nervous. “What happens if we don’t find anyone?”

“I’d be more worried about what happens if we do, if I were you.” Raven joked weakly; and Beast Boy grinned at her. This however was too much for Cyborg, who could no longer hold his tongue.

“Alright, I don’t know what’s going on between you two but I can’t hold it in any longer. You’ve been acting weirder than usual around each other, so what’s the deal?”

Raven and Beast Boy exchanged quick glances before turning their heads to Cyborg, who was watching them with a mixture of amusement, confusion, and impatience. He really had noticed the change quicker than either of them had expected. They probably could have put off telling him – unfortunately, they both answered his question at once with different answers.

“What the heck are you talking about dude?”
“We kissed in the kitchen and we’re just as confused about it as you; can we get back to the assassin hunt now?”

Raven and Beast Boy both turned to one another; Raven looking tired and annoyed while Beast Boy seemed flabbergasted that she had so willing and openly admitted all of that. However nobody’s shock compared to Cyborg’s. His human eye was as wide as it could be, his mouth had curved into a large open smile, and all thoughts of would-be killers vanished from his mind.

“You two? Kissed? Oh man, I knew this was going to happen one of these days! Ha! BB you old stud!” Cyborg playfully jabbed his friend in the ribs with his robotic elbow, which caused Beast Boy to stumble backwards a bit from surprise.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re all happy about it; can we get back to hunting the assassin now?” Raven’s sarcasm was thinner than usual; but lurking just beneath the fatigue and sarcastic wit was a deep annoyance at all of this – and irritation often led to anger. Beast Boy and Cyborg were two of only a few people to every actually see the world inside Raven’s mind. They had met her emotions once. They had seen first hand what anger could cause her to do – both in and out of her mind.

“Yeah, okay Rae. But I want details later.” Cyborg agreed, not bothering to wipe the oversized grin off his face.

That seemed to satisfy Raven. She turned on her heels and continued floating towards the end of the hallway and the final unchecked room. As she did, Cyborg began to whisper to Beast Boy; though they both followed along as quickly as they dare for fear of risking Raven’s wrath. “Dude, it’s pretty obvious whose in charge of you’re relationship, isn’t it?” Cyborg grinned and held back laughter at his joke.

“Yeah, well at least I got a kiss. All I’ve seen you get since we got on this ship was a chance to watch Batman hack into somebody’s computer.”

“Ouch, good one BB.” Cyborg had to admit, that one had stung his pride a little. Still they were only joking around in good fun. “You know B, I may only have a computer; but a computer never says no when you try to use the keyboard.”

The two of them quickly turned their heads away from each other for fear that they would begin laughing. They were teenage superheroes; but they were also teenage boys and that meant things like this were going to happen and no one, not even the incredibly tired Raven and the possibility of her loosing her temper, could completely stamp that out.

“I can still hear you.” Raven’s voice suddenly announced as they arrived at the final door.

“Sorry Raven.” They echoed in unison.

Raven turned back to them. “Okay, this is the last door. Same plan as before; I’ll circle the room on the left, Cyborg you take the right and Beast Boy you watch the door. If you see, sense or scan anything besides the three of us in that room; make sure we all know.”

“Not a problem Rae.” Cyborg said, already itching to use both his arm scanner and the attached cannon if the need presented itself.

“Why do I always have to guard the door?” Beast Boy asked, though he knew the answer.

“Because you’re the only one who can become a three-hundred-pound grizzly bear and block the doorway completely. Because you’re nose isn’t as accurate as my telepathy or Cyborg’s scanners. And because I said so.” Raven responded, half-kidding, and half deadly serious.

“Okay.” Beast Boy replied trying his best not to show his annoyance or disappoint that he was on guard duty again.

However before they could enter the room, Robin was back on the communicator. “Raven we’re outside our last door now. So far, we haven’t found anything but leftover shoe-worms. What about on your end?”

Raven pressed the respond button and spoke quickly. “Pretty much the same. We’re outside our last room too.”

“If there is someone else on the ship one of us is about to find them.” Robin noted, pointing out the obvious with a grim edge to his voice.

“And whoever does may need help. We should leave this channel open just in case.” The Goth concluded wisely.

“Right. We’re going in.”

“Us too.”

There was nothing else that needed to be said; on the other end of the radio, the sounds of Robin, Starfire, and Batman bursting through their door could be heard. At this time, though, that was not Raven’s concern. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and blasted the door before her own group clear off its hinges and into the middle of the room. When nothing came rushing out into view, she slowly led the way inside.

Raven began to focus her mind on the room around her. Every shadowy-corner, every nook and cranny, every closet, heating vent and everywhere else that something or someone could be hiding in. She moved slowly around the left side of the room, staying with her back to the wall and her feet levitating off the ground a few inches. Cyborg had already entered the room; his robotic eye was moving around the room while its human equivalent was focused on the scanner on his wrist.

“Something’s in this room besides the three of us.” Cyborg announced. “But I can’t get a lock on where.”

“Yeah, I can sense a life form too.” Raven responded. “Try to pinpoint it, Beast Boy –”

“I know.” Beast Boy sighed in irritation. He stepped into the doorway and then quickly went from short green superhero to seven-foot North American grizzly bear. With his new claws, brute strength and powerful teeth in place Beast Boy settled himself down in the doorway; the sheer size of his new animal form made getting in or out of the room impossible without taking him down. He did have the easiest part of this job – waiting for the others to find the villain. However, the fact that both his best friend and his romantic interest were putting themselves in real danger was not wasted on him and that made waiting a real hassle.

None of them spoke. Cyborg’s computer screen was showing signs of life, but it would still take another minute and a half, according to his systems, to pinpoint exactly where. Raven was not having much luck either; being so tired made locating things in such a tiny radius extremely difficult if, she could not actually see them. Beast Boy was sniffing the air; but it was not doing much more than causing his nose to itch.

“Rae.” Cyborg suddenly whispered, breaking the silence but not by much. Raven darted her eyes to meet his, and when his human eye moved to the right, she followed it. Both of them returned their focus to their own ways of checking. And both of them reached the same conclusion – be it the ability to sense his presence or simply seeing the blinking white dot on flash on the green scanner - it was now clear that they were not alone in this room. The assassin was hiding inside a large metallic closet near the farthest wall. From the way, the Titan’s were facing each other this meant their target was on Cyborg’s right and Raven’s left.

“One.” Raven whispered so quietly it would have taken Cyborg’s technological side to hear her.

“Two.” Cyborg responded right on cue, though he doubted Raven heard him at all.

Three never came. The closet doors burst open and the assassin proved that he was doing more than just hiding. He had been formulating a cold and calculating strategy for taking down the Titans. Cyborg and Raven both spun around on their heels as fast as they could; a blast from an arm cannon flashed into the villain’s vacated hiding spot and destroyed it. Nonetheless, it was too late. The assassin had the upper hand.

The assassin himself was moving too fast to be seen; but there was not much to see anyway. His was very tall, very thin, and completely sleek. His body did not seem to follow nature’s rules on how a living body should be. He had one head, two arms, and two legs just like a humanoid – however that was as far as it went. His entire body seemed to be made of some kind of glassy, smooth, black substance that was like nothing the Titans had ever seen on earth. His face looked like a human’s; except that it looked like someone had pulled a mask over it as tightly as possible and only the outlines of a nose and mouth could be seen through it. However, it was no mask. His eyes were pure white slits with no pupils and they were very thin. In his hands, he clutched a pair of slender white daggers that looked sharp enough to slice through skin or metal like a knife through butter.

In the few seconds since he had narrowly escaped from the closet the assassin had already closed the gap between himself and his attackers. With a flick of his wrist, he sliced one of his daggers across Cyborg’s arm and chest sending the Titan stumbling backwards. A second blast from the cannon that had been on the verge of being fired at the fiend went instead into the ceiling above and caused a thunderous explosion. It was a good thing Raven and Robin had concluded to leave the radios on because no one would have had time to call for backup otherwise – and backup was certainly needed.

As quickly, as he had disabled Cyborg the assassin was after Raven. The battle was still proceeding too quickly for her and she had barley gotten the first syllable of “Azarath” out of her mouth when the glassy-villain was upon her. Unlike his assault on Cyborg, the fiend disabled Raven by kicking his knee directly into the center of her chest and sending her slamming into the metal haul of the ship and eventually to the floor in a painful thud.

Cyborg tried to return to his feet but the unnaturally quick enemy had foreseen this and hastily abandoned the fallen Raven to instead bring the back of his ankle down against the back of Cyborg’s neck. With a painful cry, the robotic Titan was down for the count. He would rise again of course; but not in time for this battle. As for Raven, her combination of extreme drowsiness and the beating she had just received ensured that this fight had ended for her.

The assassin now turned his attention on the only thing left in his way. Beast Boy knew he needed to stay in the doorway. He knew that no matter what, no matter what this creature did to him, he had to stay blocking the only exit. However he had just seen his best friend and the woman he was currently infatuated with be beaten to the ground – and he didn’t give a damn about what he needed to do. Instead, he roared and charged slashing the long claws of his bear form at the assassin.

While the kind of anger and intensity that was built up inside him was a powerful ally in a battle against an enemy who was far stronger under normal circumstances; it was not enough this time. Before Beast Boy could bring his massive arms down in what would have been a crushing blow; the assassin leapt forward and jump kicked him straight in his gut. Beast Boy learned an invaluable lesson then that stayed with him. Just because someone is smaller than you are and looks like they are made of glass, does not mean they cannot still bring you down.

Beast Boy stumbled backwards his face contorted in pain. He was fighting for Cyborg and Raven – as well as himself and everyone else on the ship – and he wasn’t going to be a pushover. That was his determination. Yet the assassin didn’t let up; before the bear could even open his eyes and recover from the pain the glassy fiend did a back-flip, connected his foot with Beast Boy’s chin in mid-air and landed gracefully on his feet just in time to watch Beast Boy fall backwards and revert to his true form; now sprawled out on the floor completely unconscious.

In addition, the entire battle had lasted no more than a minute and a half.

The assassin ran to the door and leapt over the body of defeated Beast Boy but as he did he found his path cut off by another pair of annoyances; Batman and Robin. All three narrowed their eyes and that was the only pause before the combat resumed.

The Dark Knight and the Teen Titan’s Leader ran forward in perfect unison, and they threw their own respected boomerangs at the fiend. However, the enemy proved that he was every bit as dangerous as the dynamic duo and cut both the bird-a-rang and the bat-a-rang clear in two with one swing of his ivory knives. That was followed immediately by pushing weight down on his feet and launching himself forward like a spring. Batman flattened himself out against one wall while Robin ducked down. Robin had made the better choice it seemed. The knife aimed for the boy wonder went sailing through his hair; while the one meant for his mentor sailed gracefully across his chest.

Batman dropped to his knees and clutched a hand across the wound, applying pressure; he had received enough hits like that to know the wound had not gone deep enough to actually open his chest but the blood loss could cause him unconsciousness if not stopped right away.

The assassin had not wasted a second longer on the fallen Titans and he seemed to feel that his escape was assured. The three inside the room were beaten far too badly to resume this battle and the two he had just dealt with were behind him so far they would never catch up. However, he was unaware of what was in front of him.

The sound of things whirling through the air brought the assassins attention to his front but for once, his speed was not enough. Starbolts smashed the ground around him in every direction exploding on the floor, walls and ceiling above. He was quick enough to dodge each one that tried to singe his own body but everything around him was quickly becoming engulfed in the searing flames of multiple explosions. It was impossible for someone, even someone as quick as the assassin to avoid it completely. Starfire hadn’t stopped since she saw the fiend appear; Robin’s radio had triumphed over the assassin’s legs.

When Starfire finally did stop hurling the bolts, the entire hallway before her was consumed in one raging cloud of smoke, debris, and flames and the furiously fast-paced fighting ended briefly for the cloud to disperse. When it did, the assassin was still on his feet – though no longer at full strength. His shoulders were hunched and though there was still no visible mouth, the sounds of heavy breathing were as unmistakable as the many singe marks and scratches that had collected over his once flawless body. The ivory daggers were now singed black and covered in soot, though still in place and ready to draw further life-blood from whomever their master dictated was next.

Starfire floating on one side of the hallway, her eyes filled with a rage that burnt like emerald flames while the assassin was standing his ground on the other waiting for a chance to unleash his own anger on the floating princess.

Then there was a noise.

The assassin heard it first but he could not react in his usual grace. Robin had been on his way and now he had arrived using the bo-staff as a prop he had launched himself forward and smashed his foot into the assassin’s back square between his shoulder blades.

The assassin was sent forward and Robin did not need to shout her name for Starfire to know it was her turn; although he did anyway. The Tamaranian princess flew upward and then hurtled herself like a living bullet into the assassin’s back fist-first with every ounce of strength she had. The assassin had lost his edge; in fact, he was now down and out. Starfire flew back quickly and her hands and eyes filled with the familiar green glow. Robin held his staff at the ready and was cautious in approaching the fallen fiend. However, the assassin did not even attempt to move again, the only sign that he had even survived was the sound of his raspy deep breathes.

The sound of hurried footsteps could be heard once again, and the young lovers who truly were the center of this entire mess turned with all haste to see their friends on the way. Batman was leading the group; the bleeding now stopped and one of his bat-a-rangs poised and ready in his hand. Behind him was Cyborg who had recovered at last and looked disappointed when he realized the fight was over; payback having clearly been on his mind. Beast Boy was last, this time in the form of a large green tiger with Raven riding on his back. She was too tired to walk but her commitment had given her the strength to ride on the other Titan and keep her eyes and hands glowing with black light.

“We caught our assassin.” Robin announced as the group arrived, and each of them relaxed their weapons and breathed sighs of relief. Raven’s hands and eyes reverted to normal and she allowed herself to collapse down on Beast Boy’s back. Cyborg leaned against a nearby wall now interested in inspecting the damage to his body and praying he would find what he needed on Tamaran to repair the injury. Batman too took to supporting his weight against the side of the ship as he began to inspect his injury in detail to see just how much this fight was going to cost him.

“That is not all we have just done!” Starfire suddenly squeaked up excitedly.

“Yeah, we finally cleared this ship. Now maybe we can get some rest before we arrive on Tamaran.” Raven mumbled sleepily.

“But Raven.” Starfire said as she turned to the others grinning as broadly as she possibly could and shaking with excitement as she had been known to do. “We have arrived on Tamaran! Look!”

They all did look; Starfire’s fingertip made a direct line out one of the spaceport windows on the wall and straight at a planet in the distance that was closing in fast. She was right they would be in Tamaran’s orbit in mere minutes and they would be landing soon after that.

The journey had been hard and seemed to have lasted a lifetime. Traitors and assassin had been revealed and defeated. Moreover, many had made romantic confessions. Yes, a lot had happened since the night they had been woken up by the strange alien and boarded the stranger spacecraft.

They were only just now arriving on Tamaran. It had to be good news. They were planning on a trip of about one month, all together including the trials and the return home. After all of this, it seemed impossible that anything else could go wrong.

That was not the case of course. Shady’s bosses – Slade and Trigon especially – were not the type to give up so easily when they had goals in mind; many hard learned lessons made that clear. Moreover, this assassin was working for someone as well; they would have to find out if he had been sent by one of Shady’s employers or a new unseen face in all of this. The Trials of Love still stood towering over it all, their original reason for all of this -- with the age-old threat of the sheer unknown clinging to everything like a black cloud.

No, the end of the trip to Tamaran did indeed signal the falling of a curtain – the end of Act One.

In most cases the stage had three acts. A first act that was usually used to introduce the important characters, a second that was usually when things reached the darkest and most dangerous, and a third, where it all came to and end. None of the Titans denied the feeling of being mere actors on a stage; however, it did raise an important question.

Shakespeare was said to have believed that all plays end, essentially, in one of two ways. Happy or Sad. Comedy or Tragedy. Which raised an important question; when the final curtain does fall what kind of performance will this turn out to be?
First chapter originally posted on 2-14-05, final chapter posted on 4-14-06.

Sorry for the delay in uploading -- I meant to do so sooner, but I've been sidetracked.
© 2009 - 2024 GoldenSama
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