Disclaimer: DC Comics owns all rights to the characters within. They are used without permission and not meant to infringe on copyrights or meant to generate income.
Also, if you have not read my other stories, it would be helpful to do so before reading this one. The chronology goes: Brothers in Arms, Where Do We Go From Here, Tragedies of the Past, Betrayal From Within, Future Sins, Reestablishing Bonds, Parents and Children, New Allies, Rivals or Friends, Public Enemy Number One, Double Date, Mind Games, Solar Complications, Mentors and Pupils, and Brother Against Brother.
Calm Before the Storm—Separate Paths
Location: Titan's Tower
Kon woke up Saturday morning at Titan's Tower. He knew there was something different about the day because the aroma of a fresh baked breakfast wasn't there. Max continued to cook for everyone on the weekend, much to the Titan's delight.
He splashed some water on his face and went down to the conference room. A variety of fresh fruits were there, along with some rolls and pitchers of juice. Also on the table was a note.
Conner poured himself a drink and grabbed a roll to eat while he read the note. Sure enough, it was from Max saying that he had something he needed to deal with and that he'd be back by noon on Sunday.
Since he was the first one awake, Conner read the newspaper. It was not a regular occurrence for him to be the only one active in the tower, but since he was used to getting up early on the farm, he usually woke up a couple of hours before most of the Titans. Robin was a late-riser because of his nocturnal lifestyle; Cassie liked sleeping in; Bart and Gar usually goofed around late and got up late; and Raven might be up, but she spent time meditating in her room before joining the others.
Kon missed the laid back atmosphere that they had when they were Young Justice but had to admit that they were much more focused and better heroes as the Titans.
Location: a deserted warehouse
He looked over the troops he had gathered and smiled under his mask. He normally worked alone, but he admitted that he couldn't deal with the Titans by himself. That was why he had gathered them.
"Prepare yourselves," he said. "In three hours, we strike."
Location: Titan's Tower, top level
Robin and Cyborg both looked a bit peeved when they learned of Match's absence. They were both annoyed at the fact that he managed to conceal everything from the Tower's systems than him not being there.
Alarms went off in the Tower. The Titans ran to the computer room to see what was wrong. An incoming object was headed towards the Tower at incredible speeds. It was moving too fast for anyone to recognize it, except Kid Flash.
"It's Inertia," he said, clenching his fists.
"Who's that?" Wonder Girl asked.
"He's my version of Match, except he's still bad and is kind of a psychopath."
"So, you have a bombastic clone?" Kon asked. "I'm shocked, shocked."
"Maybe he's turning over a new leaf," Robin offered. "He can't be a match for all of us. Maybe he wants to redeem himself."
Kid Flash looked skeptical. "We'll see how he enters."
The cameras showed Inertia planting something at the doors and then retreating a distance away. The reason became apparent when the item exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the Tower. A cloaked ship then landed and several familiar faces entered the Tower. Conner recognized Devastation, Deathstroke, and Knockout among them.
"Looks like they're not here for redemption," Kon said. "This is going to be messy."
Location: Titan's Tower, lower level
Slade Wilson kept his body tense and ready for action. He had organized this group to deal with the Titans. He didn't really trust any of them, but they all had their own reasons for wanting to fight them.
"Where are you, pup?" Knockout called out. "I'm here to take you back!"
Slade resisted the urge to shake his head in disgust. Knockout wanted to deal with Superboy, Inertia wanted revenge on Kid Flash, and Devastation wanted to kill Wonder Girl. Kukri, a young member of the League of Assassins, wanted to test his skills against Robin. Rose wanted revenge on Raven since she had messed with Joseph's soul, and he killed Wintergreen using Slade's body. That left Beast Boy and Speedy for Slade to deal with.
Slade frowned. Rose was acting irrationally, and he hoped that this assault would get it out of her system. This was mostly to get her issues dealt with, though the others of his impromptu team did not know that.
He sighed. He was getting too old for this.
Location: Titan's Tower, top level
Kon winced at hearing Knockout's voice. Her betrayal had really hurt him, and hearing her voice brought back all sorts of memories that he wished he could forget. It also didn't help that Wonder Girl was giving him a look.
"She's mine," Cassie said in no uncertain terms.
"Got it," he said. "I'll take Devastation then."
The villains had split up to search for their individual opponents, so the Titans had a good idea of where they'd be. Cassie went to intercept Knockout, and Conner went after Devastation.
"What are you doing here?" demanded Devastation. "You're not the one that I want!"
"Sorry, this is how we decided to deal with it," he said as he knocked her back with a blast of heat vision.
Secretly, he was glad things had turned out the way they did. Devastation had powers on par with Wonder Woman, and Conner wasn't sure that Cassie could take her. While he was the underdog in this fight, he had a few tricks that he could use.
He heard the other Titans engage their opponents, but he trusted them to take care of them while he fought his opponent. She lunged after him a couple times, but he dodged. He could tell that she had a lot of natural ability, but she hadn't really trained. Silently, he thanked his brother for insisting on training; it was going to be handy.
Kon took advantage of an opening to throw her through a wall. She barely noticed it and lashed out with her lasso of thorns. He had guessed this was coming and ducked under it.
"I like to stay away from thorns, thank you," he quipped.
She charged him, and, in a move that would do Robin proud, he flipped over her and swept out with a kick, bringing her crashing to the floor.
"You'll pay for that!" she snarled as she got up.
On one hand, Conner knew that he should feel guilty about hurting a girl. On the other hand, Devastation was a vicious supervillain who could break him in two if she got her hands on him. He decided to delay any feelings of guilt until after the fight.
She charged him again, expecting him to try the same move and ready with a counter. This time, Conner ducked under her arms and landed a blow on her stomach. She lashed out and connected. This time it was Superboy who went crashing through a wall.
Kon shook his head to clear it of any fuzziness as he rolled to his feet and leapt back. It turned out to be a good move since Devastation's foot came down hard where his head was a moment ago. He berated himself for getting sloppy.
He heard a familiar sound of electrical discharge in the distance. He half-smiled; Cassie had probably just taken care of her opponent.
"You won't be smiling when I get my hands on you," Devastation hissed.
"Just try it."
She sprang forward with her hands outstretched and then came to a sudden halt. Superboy had wrapped her in his telekinetic field.
"I'll break this grip and then you!" she screamed.
"I don't think so. I had to get you in a position where you couldn't muster enough resistance to do that. You finally complied."
Wonder Girl came over. "I see you've got her frozen."
By this time, Devastation was cursing loudly in Greek.
"Time for you to go to sleep," Cassie said as she zapper her with her lasso.
Location: Titan's Tower, top level
Slade frowned. Most of his team was down. He had kept Speedy and Beast Boy off balance and then used a smoke grenade to lose them. He found Rose trying to stab Raven.
"Bring Joey back so I can kill him!" she screamed.
"I'm not going to do that, Rose," Raven replied. "He's imprisoned and never going to get out."
"Will you swear to that?" Slade asked as he caught his daughter's arm before she made another futile attempt at hitting Raven with her sword.
"I will," Raven said simply, sensing the emotions in him.
"Rose, honey, he's not going to get out."
"How can you be satisfied with that?" Rose demanded. "Wintergreen was more important to you than he was to me!"
"He was, but the one who killed him is never coming back. I know Raven, and I know she keeps her promises. We have to go."
"I guess the rest of our team is down?"
"Kukri's still having fun with Robin, but the rest are done. If we don't go now, we're in trouble."
Rose nodded, and Slade pushed a button, teleporting them away.
Raven stood up. "Do you disagree with my choice, Conner?"
Superboy stepped into the room. "Nah. Deathstroke was more worried about his daughter than anything else. You know him better than I do, and if you decided to let him go, I'm okay with it. I just wish that he found a less destructive form of therapy for Rose."
"Thank you. How are the others?"
"They're all fine. Cassie went to help Robin, but I don't know if he really needed it. It sounded like his opponent just wanted to get a sense of him."
Location: Titan's Tower, conference room
Match came back to Titan's Tower exactly when he said he would. He looked around at the gaping holes in the building from the fight. There was rubble scattered almost everywhere.
"I take it that you were busy in my absence," he said.
Conner looked at him and did a double-take. Instead of his normal outfit, Match was wearing black leather and had mussed hair. He also smelled like smoke.
"Did you go out partying all weekend?" Conner asked his brother.
In response, Match turned on the television and clicked to a news channel. It was reporting on how a fire at an office building revealed that it was really a H.I.V.E. base and that authorities were able to arrest the members of that cell.
"I was busy too," he said.
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A character who had a brief appearance here will play a much larger role in the third chapter.
Any and all comments welcome!