The Music Box and the Singing Androids.

[jenga]

Characters: open- cyborg, kardiak and robin
Setting: just after sundown in the streets of Jump city. It's kinda cold.
Previous Threads: none
Plot Summary: Jenga gets his com, but can the titans convince Jenga's father to finally let him join?

[jenga]

The night was relatively chilly and burned Dr. Hawthorn’s cheeks, but Jenga was fine! He walked alongside his ‘dad’, carrying the bulk of their small load of groceries in his arms. The white haired android’s boots clacked the ground as he noticed his father was shivering, with a frown he set down the sack of groceries removed his black peacoat and cloaked it around the older man’s shoulder.
“Oh, don’t you worry about me boy. I’ll be alright.” Dr. Hawthorn tried to protest, swinging his cane around as he spoke.
“It’s okay, I don’t get cold.” Jenga picked up the bag again to continue walking, humming along the way some upbeat Disney sound track.
Jenga’s path home from the store was usually pretty quick, but Dr. Hawthorn was 48 years old, had two bummed knees, a bad back and had to have a cane to walk. The trip was significantly slower than usual… but hey, Jenga didn’t mind. Time doing anything with dad was time well spent.
They walked past a pawn shop and something caught eye; a music box with a dragon etched on the outside of the brass. It looked so beautiful, but he was with his dad right now. He’d have to come back later. Jena went to continue walking only to find his father staring at him. He was confused until they wound up going in the store and buying the music box that caught his attentions.
“Boy, I swear. If you want something like that just ask. Don’t do without something you like just to not burden me.” Dr. Hawthorn crooned as they continued their walk home.
Silv Elenaphant
(atleast I think that's how you do post things)

[Silv]

Guys night out was an unstoppable force of nature. Okay, maybe it wasn't, but the cold hadn't stopped them. Not the chill in the air, unusual for this part of California, but also the sickness that was going around the tower. Beast Boy was it's latest victim, even though the changeling had tried to convince them he was well enough for their monthly no-girls outing. He wasn't very convincing, which was why he was still back at the tower, probably being force fed some sort of terrible home-made soup by Starfire who had a knack for "taking care of people" in a way that was vaguely reminiscent of the mafia.

"Quiet night," Robin remarked, his masked gaze narrowing as he stared out the window of the T-Car. There'd been no crime yet that evening, rare for a city like this, It was also quiet in another way too, as usually the car itself contained a much rowdier crowd, but Robin didn't mind the quiet. "Let's finish checking uptown, and stop at that place with the crazy fries if we don't run into any trouble." the Titan leader suggested with a half smile. The strangely shaped fried potatoes had fascinated the guys when they'd first discovered the location, and it had instantly become a favorite. Maybe it would bring some life back into an otherwise cold and colorless evening.

The alarm in the T-Car and on Robin's communicator went off almost simultaneously. The Boy Wonder flicked open his comm, studying the text, as Cy's GPS rerouted the fastest way towards trouble. "Kardiak's back," Robin informed Cyborg, scowling. The giant robotic heart was all levels of creepy. "Looks like he's taking kids from the ice rink."

Jump City's downtown ice rink was only open-air a handful of times every year. Today was, unfortunately, one of those days. This left the perfect opportunity for the giant robotic heart to suck up the skating children into the sky where it hovered. When they pulled into view of it Robin was already trying to come up with a way to disable the thing without harming the children already contained inside.

Tag: Elenaphant

[Elenaphant]

"Hm," was Cyborg's monosyllabic reply to Robin's statement as he drove them through the city on a lacklustre boys night out. It wasn't the same without B-man, who he did not envy getting stuck at the tower for cold remedies. Boredom was its own torture, sure, but Robin's company wasn't so unpleasant that he'd prefer a bowl of Star's home-made soup. That would be an insult to save for a more deserving time. The leader's next suggestion had Cyborg's mouth pulling in a grin, as he threw an approving glance to the side.

"I'm always down for some crazy fries," he said, and just as they had something to look forward to, the alarm in his car said otherwise.

"Trouble," Cyborg grumbled, and Robin informed him just what type. His expression went from disgruntled to serious when his friend explained what type. Kardiak, aside from being creepy looking, went after kids. Any time civilians were threatened it was a hairy situation, but when children got involved it put even a seasoned hero like Cyborg on edge. The GPS automatically had rerouted to the source, and Cyborg took a sharp turn to make it on the right street.

It took them no time at all to reach the rink, and Cyborg parked on the street without a worry about any tickets when no officer in their right mind would be focused on traffic laws with kidnapped children about. He stepped out and took a moment to observe the situation. "What's the plan?" he asked, because while they had trained for many situations, a lot of their usual tag-team manoeuvres were explosive... not really child friendly. "If I can get in close enough I think I could dismantle some parts, but it's not gunna be easy." 

[jenga]

Jenga and Dr.Hawthorn’s route home was a long one, but was usually peaceful. He cranked up the new music box, enjoying the sweet peaceful melody it chimed out from his pocket. They went through a nice park with an ice skating rink that was open today and there were usually tons of people. People in general made the android feel truly human. However, the expression of joy and merriment was void from these people; instead they ran in terror in the opposite direction. Jenga frowned, checking himself for a moment. Perhaps his metal endoskeleton had shown through? They might have seen that he was inhuman and be running in terror from him! But, this thought was wiped from his mind as he saw what he recognized as the human pulmonary organ. Just much bigger… and it seemed to be eating kids.


Jenga blinked before turning to his dad a light smile crossing his face. “Hey, dad. Look. A heart attack.” Jenga giggled for a moment, but locking into what little bit of a ‘battle mode’ he had the second his father unsheathed the short sword he concealed in his cane. Sure Dr. Hawthorn was old and wasn’t much of a fighter, but if someone came close to him, he’d give em’ what for with that incredibly sharp cane-sword. Jenga was more of the brawler.

“I’ll stay here. You go get a better look at that thing.” Dr.Hawthorn ordered and the android boy obeyed. He lept, grabbing onto a window stil and then climbing his way to the rooftops, hot air making steam in the air around him as his artificial lungs emptied themselves. It looked as if his breath was smoke itself, but it was just a bit hotter than a human’s breath. He then began calmly walking Kardiak thinking of things to do. Sadly, it seemed pretty bleak for the moment. He lept up onto the roof of the skating rink, boots clacking the ground as he landed for a split second, only to give him enough altitude to get level with the robotic heart. He was immediately peeved, this was why androids had a bad rep. Sick, twisted abominations like this was why people didn’t like machines to be sapient. He wanted to knock the thing into next week, but he remembered there were kids inside of that thing! He let gravity take him and he maneuvered to slam a titanium fist into one of the ‘legs’ of the monster out of shear rage.


Dr.Hawthorn saw the car pull up and recognized it from his son’s constant following of titan media and blogs… heck the boy wanted his dad to redesign his charging apparatus to look like the car itself. Explaining how that was impossible was so difficult it took two days. He sat back on a park bench, all this excitement had drained the old man, even though he hadn’t moved much. He just had to trust that he’d prepared his son for this day.

[Silv]

The Titan Leader nodded at Cyborg's suggestion. "You do that, I'll try to keep it's attention," Robin replied. "If you can dismantle Kardiak enough to free the kids, then we can hit it with a sonic boom." and with a final smirk, the Boy Wonder was out. He hopped out of the car and went straight for the giant floating heart with tentacles. Not that it was hard to miss. He threw a birdarang as he ran, skidding to a stop behind it. The thing's attention seemed to be focused on the kids in the skating rink it was sucking up like a demonic vacuum cleaner. "HEY!" Robin shouted, his green gloved hands cupping around his mouth. "VALENTINE'S DAY WAS LAST MONTH!"

A birdarang dinged off Kardiak and caught the robot's attention for perhaps a moment. It had no face to really look but it's sensors studied Robin and one of the giant sucking tentacle tubes turned from the rink in the Boy Wonder's direction.

Child Detected.

The tentacle that wasn't chasing Robin was busy sucking up more children from the rink. It had picked up a particularly heavy-set kid, but found that it couldn't suck the child up, and so had dropped him back on the ice. The sensor's went for the next closest child, but a threat detection paused the tentacle, and suddenly there was-

ALERT! STRUCTURAL INSTABILITY

Jenga's metal fist had punched through the nanites comprising Kardiak's tube like so much butter. The damaged tentacle flailed at Jenga trying to attack but finding it's systems uncooperative. Electricity crackled in the breech as the tentacle that had been trying to vacuum up Robin, who had been running around dodging it with his cape amusingly defying gravity thanks to the suction, turned instead to attack the other machine by reversing the polarity of it's vacuum and blasting air, and a few children, at Jenga. So for it had not noticed Cyborg's attempt at dismantling it.

TAG:Elenaphant

[Elenaphant]

The heart-bot was tough. The parts it was made with were built to be difficult to penetrate, and he recognized some of the material from his own selection when working on parts for the tower. Even so, Cyborg was tougher. While Robin played the role of the distraction and the heart had a clogged artery to deal with in the form of one lucky..? child, the half man half robot sprung into action. He climbed up toward the back, or at least what looked like it. The darn heart didn't exactly have a face for reference. It was opposite to the rink where its attention was in any case, and Cyborg's arm collapsed into a drill to begin hacking through layers.

There was the sound of tearing metal and Kardiak's voice ringing like an alarm. His head popped up from his work for a second, thinking it was his security breach that had been detected, when he saw the new guy on the scene. Then, his gaze snapped to the dismembered tentacle on the ground. That didn't seem like something Robin could do--at least, not on his own. Unless his leader was holding out on him with some awesome new sword... they've just received some unexpected help.

Cyborg wasn't complaining. It made his job easier, and he couldn't look up long enough to really inspect their new ally because of said job. Parts were falling off stealthily in the back, until he felt confident that he could get through the protective glass holding the kids. They were terrified, and it was his big relief when a window of opportunity opened to get them out. "Grab onto me," he told them, and they started to crawl his way. He took as many of them into his big arms as he could, but Kardiak had finally taken notice. Before he could get them all, the monster began to retaliate, and Cyborg had no choice but to fall back lest the kids get hurt.

"There's still some inside!" he yelled out toward Robin as he landed on the ground. Tearful parents and guardians were rushing toward him to relinquish their kids. Realizing it had been compromised, Kardiak was trying to make a break for it with the few kids it did have still trapped.

[jenga]

Jenga smirked at first when his fist punched right through the robotic monsters tentacle… but the smile faded as the sparks and bustling electricity shocked the heck out of him! Luckily it wasn’t a big shock but he still screamed and thought it still might have done some damage. The force from the compressed air blew him off the beast and sent him into the pavement back-first at a speed that would have at least sent a normal person to the hospital if not killed them. Then a kid shot out and landed right on top of him! Landing on a titanium alloy android with very little cushy tissue to take the brunt of the fall probably didn’t feel to nice, but it was better than hitting concrete face first.







He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as data scrolled by his vision, didn’t seem like any error notices were flashing so nothing was severely damaged, just jarred. He quickly got up, thinking. Then mentally fanboying at the fact he was actually working with two titan members!!! He had to push down his excitement and think for a moment. Jenga’s systems went to work analyzing what he had to deal with in the environment he did notice the powerlines and decided to sneak away from the battle for a second, hoping robin and cyborg can keep his attention for a few seconds.







Jenga sauntered over to the nearest telephone pole and grabbed hold of it, shaking it back and forth to try and pry it loses from the dirt. He got it somewhat unstable and held it, waiting for just the right moment. The second Kardiak took off in the only clear direction (the path right in front of the pole) he pushed as hard as he could on the wooden post, pushing it over and hopefully right into the base of the robotic creature. He silently prayed the force of impact wouldn’t hurt the kids inside too badly, but he had to stop that thing before it got too far. He intentionally tried to time the massive pole’s fall so it’d hit the side of the creature’s bulk rather than dead on or even to just clothesline him. Looking back on it that might have been just a tick too aggressive.







“Think that stopped him?” Jenga asked to anyone who wanted to awnser, afraid of the beast getting back up!

[Silv]

Robin's masked eyes widened as Cyborg informed him that all the kids hadn't been rescued. He ran forward, chasing after the giant heart, even as it moved to get away with the children it still possessed. He hadn't actually seen Jenga when he was attempting to distract the mechanical heart. So when the pole fell, and practically impaled the left ventricle, the Boy Wonder skidded to an abrupt stop with his masked eyes bugged cartoonishly.

"Cyborg!" Robin turned to his friend, shouting. "See if you can disorient it with a low-grade sonic pulse!" It wasn't much of a plan, but keeping the robotic heart on the spike was probably the best way to keep it from flying away with it's kidnapped victims. The Boy Wonder had his grappling hook out, and shot it up at the giant floating heart that was spazzing electricity.

He landed on the pulsing metal, making a slight face at how freaky it was, as he climbed his way towards the last of the trapped children. They were encased in what looked like glass pods, and looked only slightly less terrified at the arrival of the very familiar hero coming to save them. Problem: Robin didn't know how to get them out. He tried his bostaff first, shoving the composite material into what looked like a seam and trying to pry it open. The boy pushed with all his strength, his limbs shaking at the strain, but all he managed was snapping the weapon in half.

Robin discarded his broken staff and pulled out a birdarang, crouching down to see if he could slip the sharpened edge under and pry it up that way. Except he was out of time. The giant mechanical heart was still issuing warnings as it tried to back off of the pole impaling it. With so many things to focus on: Cyborg, Jenga, Robin, the pole, the mechanical monster was sort of flailing to dislodge them all. Then the Boy Wonder breached the child containment pod.

The mechanical arm that hadn't been damaged came up then, moving from trying to blast Cyborg with air, to vacuuming Robin up into the tube. The Boy Wonder's masked eyes widened before he was sucked cartoonishly into the tube by his cape. He reappeared, seconds later, squished into one of the glass pods and looking very peeved.

TAG: Elenaphant

[Elenaphant]

At the command to send a low-wave sonic pulse, Cyborg's arm collapsed and did just that. The unseen waves transmitted out toward the giant robotic heart and like a weakening pulse, it began to slow its ascent and head toward the ground. That didn't stop it from flailing out of control once it landed, and then--

Cyborg let out a short 'bwah-hah' of a laugh when he saw Robin sucked into the pod. It was mostly the leader's expression that made it so comedic, and the way he was hunched in like a grumpy kid who was given a time out for scolding. It was the reminder of kids that instantly sobered him, as they were still inside and not any closer to being freed now that they were one man down. "Dang it," Cyborg muttered to himself as he pushed forward, but speaking of one man down--

His optic eye darted over the guy that had thrown a wooden pole like he was staking a giant vampire heart. "You seem pretty strong. Think you can rip some of its appendages off while I get the kids--and Robin--out?" he asked, but didn't have much time to wait around as the thing tried dragging itself away. Cyborg dashed after it, bounding into a leap as he clung to the side. Thankfully his metal hide was too large to suck into a pod. The kids didn't need to see two of their heroes made fools of, not when they were so scared. The tip of his finger pulled back into a mechanic's torch, and with a quick PSA about not attempting the same without safety gear, he began to draw a line to strip away some metal. There had to be some wiring connected to the pod release. Now if only it would stop playing whack-a-Cy with him.

[jenga]

Jenga sucked his teeth for a moment, thinking before suddenly cyborg spoke to him… actually spoke to him! His inner fanbot screamed at him and he swore he was going to flip out right there in a fan spasm. It took every ounce of effort not to get sidetracked with the promise of a possible autograph later! He shoved down his instincts and nodded. “On it!”

Jenga backed up for a running start and made a dash toward one of the flailing tentacles and lept, both feet planting firmly into the base and putting through it like a can opener with a loud metal “thunk”. The tenecle went flying off and twisted on its own like a beheaded snake and jenga managed to avoid the live wires this time. He kept working on each of the tentacles until all were torn off flailing by the monstrous beast with no body to anchor themselves.

Then he thought for a moment… he’d punched through the metal of the tentacles with relative ease. Perhaps slamming through the bodice of the beast would register the same effect? “Think that’s shatter proof? If I get a running start I bet I could cannon ball right through it!” He asked. He really didn’t want to give away he was an android (if they hadn’t already figured out he wasn’t exactly human yet), He wanted to be seen as a real human! He hadn’t mentioned that shattered glass and skin abrasions wouldn’t hurt him at all, but then again he remembered there was people in that thing.

[Silv]

It was surprisingly quiet inside the pod. Robin didn't have any room to beat on the glass like the actual children did but his face did turn a fabulous shade of red. At least, the parts that weren't pressed white against the glass, anyway. His masked eyes narrowed as he waited uselessly inside the pod. There really wasn't much to do other than watch Cyborg try to free the kids, and eventually him, by using his built-in mechanic's torch.

TAG: Elenaphant
Ooc: Don't mind me~ doing nothing useful xD

[Elenaphant]

The tentacles were gone, which meant that he was free to work on getting to the release mechanism without potentially getting knocked off. He grinned and was prepared to give a good job compliment to their new ally, when he suggested shattering the thing. Cy's eye got wide and he lifted lifted the torch hand (the other holding on) to wave wildly. "Easy there! Kids inside!" he yelled out. "You've done enough, thanks!"

Then, after glancing a bit nervously back to Jenga to make sure he wasn't about to do anything reckless, Cyborg returned to freeing the kids. It took some time, but he managed it, and there was a satisfying click as the glass around the pods were released. He crawled over to try and scoop as many up as he could before they decided the monster was a slide and hurt themselves. "C'mere," he said as he propped one up on his shoulder as he took three more into his large armspan.

He made sure that ladsel in distress Robin was getting with the program and grabbing the rest of the kids too, before sliding down the side. It felt good to land his feet on something he knew wasn't going to move around beneath him. He slowly bent over to let the munchkins scramble back to their terrified parents, while allowing for hugs from those who wanted it. "That was pretty scary, huh? But we got you out. You're okay now."

[jenga]

Jenga held up, waiting on Cyborg to free everyone. His silver eyes watched him work intently when the class just popped off. He curiously watched as Cyborg and Robin carried kids out and most of them stayed for hugs from those two. He wanted a hug too. He opened up for a hug but… all the little kids just walked right by him, having no idea who he was.

“Aw… what’d I do bad?” He pouted. Dr.Hawthorn stood from his bench setting his cane on the ground.

“Nothing wrong Jenga. They just don’t know you. Stranger danger, remember?”

Jenga gasped, afraid for a moment. A stranger? Did that mean he looked strange!? “Oh no! I don’t want to be a stranger! I want to be normal!” He panicked until Dr.Hawthorn raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not strange.” Lie.”They just don’t know who you are. Don’t take it so personally.” Dr.Hawthorn hugged his android son and took his hand.

“Ohh, do you have a sharpie by any chance?”

““What? Why!?” 
I want and autograph.” Jenga chimed. Dr.Hawthorn just stared before shaking his head. “I’m not letting you mark up your skin again. You know how hard it is to fix th-“

“No-no. don’t say nothin’! I’m a normal human kid.” Jenga whimpered. Dr.Hawthorn was conflicted, His son wanted to meet and join the titans… but he also wanted to seem human. No doubt he would tell them he was a normal flesh and blood human.

“Fine, fine…”

Jenga laughed like a giddy school kid and sauntered vaugly back to the two heros. “Hi Mr.Robin and Mr.Cyborg! Can you sign me!”

“No!” Dr. Hawthorn called fro the background having heard Jenga’s request.

[Silv]

It was good to be out of that tube. Robin fought the urge to do a cartwheel and stretch because they had better things to do. Getting these kids off the giant mechanical heart, for instance. He couldn't hold on to as many kids as Cyborg, the problem with a small arm-span, but he had no trouble shepherding them in front of him, and helping along one particularly nervous little boy.

Robin, being an acrobat, had no problem with unstable surfaces but it still felt good to be on the ground again with the kids. There were lots of hugs, and some of the kids were excitedly telling their parents about how they got to meet Cyborg and Robin. His cheeks turned red again when one of them mentioned how Robin had gotten stuck in a tube too, but good omens smiled on him and distracted from the embarrassment, when the other teenager who'd helped them fight the mechanical heart came over.

"Just Robin," the Boy Wonder said with a grin, Mr. made him feel old. Being asked to sign a person was nothing new, but the adult with the other teenager didn't seem terribly keen on the idea, so Robin didn't act on that request. "You did a great job out there," he said to Jenga, "Ever thought about joining a team?"

TAG: Elenaphant