Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Teen Titans.
Chapter 2: A Friendly Reunion
In a similar Tower in the east, five Titans, who'd only just recently begun breakfast, were already up to their usual antics.
Más, sitting on top of Menos's shoulders, grabbed the three banana nut pancakes from Aqualad's plate as Aqualad went searching for maple syrup. Then, swiftly scooting across the room (as was their power), they snatched the six strips of bacon from Speedy's plate and zipped over to the other side of the room to place the bacon on Aqualad's plate. The Spanish twins then retreated to a corner, pancakes in hand, to watch everything play out and eat their breakfast in peace.
"Hey, where's my bacon?" Speedy asked the room at large, showing them his empty plate.
"Maybe you already ate it," Bumblebee suggested with a shrug.
"If I ate it already, then why am I still hungry?" asked Speedy, practically daring her to insult him.
"Well, you are a pig," Bumblebee said, smirking at the bad joke.
Más y Menos chuckled in the corner, but just as they'd hoped, no one paid any mind to them.
"I'll show you who's a pig!" Speedy yelled. He took an apple from the counter, pierced it with one of the arrows from his quiver, and fired the apple straight into Bumblebee's mouth.
Fuming, the team leader tore the apple from her mouth. "That's it; you're dead!" she thundered. Then she minimized herself and started stinging Speedy.
Between grimaces of pain, he caught a glimpse of Aqualad's plate. "My bacon!" he shouted. Speedy ran over to the counter where the plate was left unattended, swatting Bumblebee with the back of his hand absentmindedly.
Aqualad turned to face the advancing Titan, maple syrup in hand. Confusion was evident on his face as he looked first at Speedy and then at his plate. "Where are my pancakes?" he asked, mostly to himself.
"Oh, my bacon isn't enough for you?" Speedy sneered, preparing to pounce on Aqualad.
Almost powerless outside of water, Aqualad ran to the pool in the center of the living room and dove in.
"That's right, run from me, bacon thief!" Speedy continued following his teammate.
"Don't you walk away from me!" Bumblebee squeaked, straightening herself out.
As the three Titans fought and Más y Menos laughed at them from the corner, the Teen Titans from the west entered the Tower. Noticing the bacon sitting unprotected on the plate, Cyborg scarfed it down.
"That is some mighty fine bacon!" he grinned, rubbing his stomach happily.
Más y Menos laughed even harder as Speedy gave Cyborg the darkest look he could, but before either of them could say a word, Bumblebee resumed her actual size and walked over.
"Hey Sparky, what took you so long? We expected you her yesterday," she questioned him with her hands on her hips.
"It was a little harder to get past the cops than we thought," Cyborg replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.
"What?!" Speedy and Aqualad said together.
"¿¡Qué!" Más y Menos repeated in unison.
"I think you guys should explain what happened," said Bumblebee giving each of the newcomers a look that meant this was more of an order than a suggestion. When her eyes fell on Amber, she specified, "Starting from the beginning."
When the western Titans had finished their explanation, Bumblebee gave Amber a once-over. "Maybe we should train you in self-defence if a guy as bad as Slade is after you," she said as she observed her thin body.
Suddenly, an alarm went off and Aqualad, who was closest to the computer, checked to see who their enemy was. When an image of his oldest foe appeared on the screen, he was astonished.
"Dude, Trident's back?" asked Beast Boy, peeking over Aqualad's shoulder. He remembered the day like it was yesterday. The two heroes had been rivals, both trying to appear superior to the other, but in the end, the two of them had saved the day by working together.
"This shouldn't be too hard. I can take care of this myself," said Aqualad, already halfway out the door.
"Um, hello? Do you not remember anything from the last time? You could only defeat him when we were working together," Beast Boy reminded him.
"And you're on a team now. That means we're coming whether you like it or not," Speedy told him with his arms crossed against his chest and a smirk at his lips.
"Got that right!" Bumblebee agreed.
"¡Todos para uno y uno para todos!" Más y Menos cheered.
"We shall help also!" Starfire volunteered excitedly.
"Actually, we should probably stay here this time. The Titans East can handle it," Robin declined.
All of the Titans were shocked to hear the eternally helpful leader of the western Titans actually volunteer to stay back.
"What have you done with Robin? Leave here at once!" Starfire ordered her boyfriend. She stood in her attack position and her eyes glowed green.
"Easy, Star," Robin soothed. He looked at the rest of his team and said, "He was frozen. There's no way he could've gotten out of that by himself. Slade must've unfrozen him and the rest of the villains. If we help Titans East now, he'll know where we are and he'll take Amber."
The Titans all looked at each other and decided the plan made a lot of sense.
"We'll train Amber while you're gone," Robin added.
All in agreement (except an annoyed Aqualad who still believed he could take Trident single-handedly), the Titans East left the Tower to stop the treat. Then the western Titans all turned to Amber.
"Raven, I think you should help her meditate before I teach her some hand-to-hand combat," Robin told her.
Raven looked at Amber for a long moment. A short strand of purple hair fell into her eyes and still, she continued to look. The resemblance between Amber and Terra was positively frightening. Raven had never been Terra's biggest fan. She was starting to doubt that Amber and Terra were so unrelated. What if Beast Boy had been right about them being the same person? Terra had proven herself as a true friend in the end. Maybe Amber deserved a little trust as well.
"Follow me," Raven told Amber and with that, the two of them left the room.
Meanwhile, the Titans East followed Aqualad's directions to where Trident was wreaking havoc. Like the western Titans, the team had their own submarine to use for transportation. Unlike Aqualad, the others couldn't breathe underwater.
Aqualad swam around a rock formation and found himself eye to eye with Trident. Telepathically, he called a pair of dolphins to his side.
The villain laughed at the animals his foe decided to call. He'd expected sharks, a giant squid, or even electric eels. Dolphins were playful and friendly. There was no way anyone could beat him with something so weak.
With Trident distracted, Aqualad signalled the others to expose themselves. As soon as they came into view, they stabbed him with a spear which jutted out from the submarine.
Weakened, yet even angrier than before, the Atlantean righted himself. He searched for Aqualad so he could take out his frustration on him, but the Titan was nowhere to be seen. Deciding that Aqualad was a coward for fleeing, he set his eyes on the submarine. Trident knew that he had an advantage. All he had to do to win was cut off their air supply. With super speed and a powerful trident, this would be a cinch – now that he wasn't distracted.
Meanwhile, Aqualad was swimming through a labyrinth of grottoes searching for an indication of clones being created, but he saw nothing. Maybe he actually learned from his mistakes since the clones had been the key to his defeat before. He couldn't assume that though. If there were clones hiding somewhere and he didn't find them, the entire mission would fail because of him.
Aqualad asked the dolphins to help him search for anything unusual. Unfortunately, he realized his mistake after he made it. Dolphins were intelligent creatures, but if they sent out a message to other creatures of the sea to be absolutely sure that everything was okay, Trident would hear and come swimming back to stop him. He could only stay where he was and hope nothing would happen. Hopefully, his teammates were weakening him even more as he swam there worrying.
Back at the submarine, the rest of the team wasn't doing so well. Since Trident was right on top of the submarine and too strong to be knocked off, none of their weapons would work. The Titans even tried to knock him off by separating into four pods, but that didn't even work.
Speedy noted that the oxygen in the overall submarine was dropping at an alarminf rate and radioed the others: We're losing oxygen. Fast. We have to get to the surface.
The Titans responded in the affirmative and separated. The three pods rose to the surface and strangely, Trident swam away.
"¿Sr. Trident tiene miedo de aire seco?" Más asked Menos.
"No se," Menos replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Any idea what they're saying? Speedy radioed Bumblebee alone.
No clue. Bumblebee responded, shrugging.
Below the surface, Trident's advancing silhouette alerted Aqualad to the battle. He knew it would be all up to him now.
This should be a fair battle. Atlantean vs. Atlantean. No weapons but our own wits. Aqualad proposed. Perhaps it would be easier to finish him off with the help of a shark, but there was something in the way Trident looked at him that piqued his curiosity.
As I recall, you didn't play fair last time we met. Trident responded. The proposal for a true Atlantean battle confused him greatly. He'd been banished from Atlantis long ago. Why would he care to follow the ways of his native city now?
As I recall, neither did you. Aqualad reminded him.
Very well, I'll accept your offer. Trident replied, throwing down his trident.
Normally, Aqualad would've gone and snapped up the weapon before his enemy could catch him, but he'd promised a fair battle and he would follow through. The Atlanteans fought for a good long while before Aqualad finally realized why Trident looked so familiar.
You're Darius, the strongest in Atlantis. He said, They told stories about you to inspire us all. Why would they banish you?
Eager to tell his story, Trident said: A deep sea diver 'discovered' me and was impressed by my power. All the same, she said she was working on some kind of project. If it was successful, I would become invincible. Of course, I agreed to try it. Now you can see that I am Perfection, I am Excellence, I am Perfect Warrior! The others were jealous of my power and tried to cut me down to size so I punished them and they banished me.
You were my hero as a child, Darius, but I'm afraid your days are at an end. Aqualad said. As Trident had been speaking, Aqualad had been pushing him back and now he was on the edge of a great wall. Before his enemy could make an attempt to escape, he pushed him into a dark, seemingly endless pit. If he was lucky, the predators would swallow him whole. If not, he could be falling forever. The pit was at the center of all Atlantean horror stories so the fear in Trident's eyes was expected. The last words he screamed as he fell into the pit were, however, very surprising:
Slade will destroy you and your friends hiding at your Tower!
Aqualad's eyes widened. If Trident knew and Slade knew, who else knew? More importantly, what were their plans?