"Titans: Legacies"
Featuring
"Guyver: Dark Hero"
in
"Land Of Confusion"
Act One: "Darker Legacies"
Chapter Two: "Pre-Emptive Strike"
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, nor am I making a profit off of this. The characters belong to their respective copyright and trademark holders (Warner Brothers, DC Comics, LA Hero, New Line Cinema, Yoshiki Takaya, and Viz Media, amongst others), as well as some belonging to a good friend of mine, Rider Paladin, and some of my own to boot.
Author's Note: This happens after Legacies' first arc, but before the second.
"So, what do we know about this mystery man?" Lian glanced over at Mar'i, who sighed and crossed her legs, raising her arms back and stretching out in the seat she was currently parked in. "Can you describe him again, Mar'i?"
"Well, as much as I could see, a lot like a less-nice Blue Beetle, minus a lot of the built-in weapons..." the hybrid finally said, after several moments of contemplation, before groaning and looking over at Damian. The Titans were currently seated in the dining room/kitchen of Iris and Jai's house, all looking at one another and trying to puzzle out this new mystery, while their parents and mentors tried to keep them out of it as best they could.
"So does it have something to do with the Reach?" Iris asked, which prompted a negative-sounding grunt from the Wayne scion.
"Batman has already been talking with Beetle, and there's nothing to indicate it is the Reach...from what I could glean when he wasn't paying attention to me during his late dinner, anyway." The dark haired young man had his hands in front of his mouth, clasped together, a look on concentration on his face. "Besides, from what Mar'i and the police reports described - mostly on the probable cause of the wounds inflincted on whoever it was that attacked Mar'i were caused by high frequency weapons...not exactly the Beetle's fare."
Chris gave Damian a look, then chuckled softly. "That was a lot to say at one time, Damian. I'm impressed."
"Don't get used to it," the dark haired teenager shot back.
"If you two could keep it down for a minute..." Lian said, giving them an amused look, leaning back in the chair she was in, before laughing a bit, which earned her a quite accurate imitation of the famed 'Batman glare'. "Ooooh, scary."
It was now Cerdian's time to cut in, clearing his throat and, motioning for his friends to calm down, began speaking. "However you look at this, something serious is clearly going on. Ignoring the guy in blue armor, an attack was made on Mar'i's life last night. I say we concentrate on solving that little mystery before we do anything else, and leave this...character...to Batman and the others. Don't you agree...Damian?" The Wayne heir glanced over to Cerdian, an almost-emotionless look on his face, before nodding curtly. For her part, Mar'i glanced over to him, and smiled, nodding a bit, before looking at everyone at the table.
"This could have something to do with Deathstroke's recent defeat, or the Reverse-Titans..."
A considerable distance away, a shadowy figure was watching these events unfold from a darkened office, the images and sound playing before him on a specially crafted display screen. As the figure...most likely male, with dark hair and a darker business suit...reclined in his chair, he turned slightly to look at his employees...those employees being some of the members of the Reverse-Titans, including Lyta,, Clayface and as well, another figure, also in shadows, with the only features visible being tattered blue jeans, black boots, the fringed bottom of a black shirt, and hair that was somewhere between short and medium length. If one squinted enough, they would see this shadowed figure had whitened skin...unnaturally white skin. The first shadowed man spoke, in a tone that carried authority, and was also clinically detached from any negative emotional feelings in this situation.
"I want you all to go to the West family house...and tear it down. Bring it down around the Titans' heads. If they begin looking into this attack, it will be very bad for all of us. I expect you all to kill them, not toy around with them as you have before." Almost livid in appearance, Lyta began to speak, before a motion from the first figure prompted the second figure to begin punching its right hand into its left, threateningly, with enough force that the room shook. "I don't care how you do it. You know the rules. You can kill them, but you are not to do anything beyond that. Why? Because you'll bring attention to ME. And I don't care what you bring down on your own heads, but if I have super heroes coming down on MY offices, coming after ME...then know that I will personally rip your arms and legs off, and leave you bleeding on the ground to die in the most painful ways I can imagine...and I can imagine quite a deal of pain..."
Lyta snorted, and finally spoke. "And you're sure your little 'pet' can handle this? It has no idea what we're going up against here."
"HE knows very well what to expect for failure. You may not care if you lose, but he will. And if I say so, he will punish you in horrific ways that I order him to. He is that loyal to me. A loyalty you somewhat lacked in dealing with your previous employer. This is not about mere revenge. This is not about money. This is about changing the very world itself. In ridding it of chaos and strife, and if you want to live to be a part of that world, you will NOT fail me!" The first figure slammed his hands down on the desk before him, rattling the objects on the surface, a rare hint of anger being shown from this cold, impassive figure.
At that moment, two more teenagers entered the room, closing the door quietly behind them. One, the female, wore a blue and red bodysuit that had a red top with a yellow lightening bolt along the chest, red cuffed boots, and blue pants and gloves, and a pair of goggles on over her eyes with lightning bolts coming off the rims of said goggles, and the other, a male, wearing a fully red bodyuit with a yellow bolt on the chest, yellow arm and leg bracers, and a face-less cowl with yellow lightening bolts coming off the ears. Lyta regarded them with scorn.
"And the two puppets show up at last."
"Silence, Lyta, or you'll find that you're as easily replaced as your friends," the first figure said. "Dash...what is your report?" The female, a brunette with her hair in a ponytail, spoke.
"Ultrawoman is in the field already, after learning of where the Titans were. We were unable to convince her to return to the strategy meeting." The suit cursed.
"Damn her...she has no concept of planning or tactics." He then stood up, slamming his hands into his table. "Go now! All of you! If need be, I will get you reinforcements from your old teammates and my own creations. But get there before Ultrawoman ruins the entire plan!"
"Yes, boss," Clayface said, a hint of sarcasm to the shapeshifter's voice, the man in the suit frowning deeply at the lack of respect. However, it occurred to him that these whelps would require a show of force on his part to engender such respect. And that would be coming all too soon.
"So it's agreed, then?" Chris asked, clasping his hands together, smiling to his friends and teammates, everyone nodding in response. "Then we should get out there, and work on getting some leads."
"We could look into the possible Luthor connection," Damian suggested, as helpful as he normally would be, still not showing much emotion at the moment.
"And considering this could be family-related, I'll look into that." Chris said, standing. Then he could hear the sound of something speeding through the air, and moments after the front door to the West house buckled and shattered, something as hard as himself rammed into his face, sending him flying.
"Ha! Miss me, baby?" the attacker sneered - it was Ultrawoman, clad in her usual outfit of short shorts, bikini top, jacket, boots, and gloves, and wearing a look of manic glee as she kicked her foot out, lifting up the table and knocking it over onto Mar'i and Lian, the former throwing it back at the antimatter criminal, who responded by using her heat vision to shear the table in two, letting the burning halves hit the walls behind her. "Oooh, that was nice. A bit pathetic, but nice."
"I'll show you nice!" Mar'i growled, lunging forward and slamming into Ultrawoman, knocking the Reverse-Titan back a few feet, though she dug her heels in and came to a halt fairly fast, grabbing the alien hybrid around the waist, flipping the two of them over in the air, and slamming Mar'i down on her head and upper back, knocking the wind out of her.
"Was that really all you could do, babe? Honestly. That was just sad." Ultrawoman sneered, before kicking Mar'i in the side and propelling her through the side of the house. "But that's what I get for showing up unannounced, I suppose. I passed over the thrill of the hunt for a sneak attack. Well, whatever. I'll just have my fun now, before I get chewed out by the boss."
"Still working for Slade?" Chris recovered, and began throwing punches at Ultrawoman, who blocked them with relative ease, the force of the impacts shattering all the glass in the house, while the Boy of Steel's eyes began to glow red. As he pushed her away, he fired a blast of heat vision at the antimatter villainess, only for her to respond in kind.
"Nah, I don't work for him anymore. We've all got a new boss now. Way harsher than Slade. And the way he looks at us...mrowr...it reminds me of home." she laughed, eyes glowing brighter as she increased the intensity of her heat vision, while slowly walking forward, until she was close enough to grab him by the shirt, and heave him into the air, causing his heat vision to burn through a third wall and start a fire in the house, which began to burn rather quickly, while Lian scurried about, grabbing a fire extinguisher to put out said fire. Meanwhile, Ultrawoman's heat vision seared through the air, and nearly struck Cerdian, blowing open yet another hole in the house, making it teeter and sway dangerously, while the raven-haired woman laughed evilly. "Wow, you guys really suck without your toys."
"Lucky for me I always have my toys," Olivia replied, bringing out her techno-organic mesh, and bringing the bladed part on her arm down along Ultrawoman's back, cutting through her jacket and biting into her skin.
"GAH! You whore! I'll skin you with my fingernails for that!!" She roared, throwing Chris at Olivia with considerable strength, while Cerdian rushed forward, grabbing the woman's arms and locking them behind her back with his own strength, which prompted her to grin in a sultry manner. "Ooooh, that feels good, baby...but you're not twisting hard enough..." she easily broke free, and punched him in the stomach, following up with a knee to his face as he doubled over. "See? If you were doing it right, I wouldn't have been able to do that..."
As the antimatter woman spoke, two blurs filled the room, and grabbed Jai and Iris, flinging them into one of the still standing walls, revealing themselves to be the two teenagers from the office (though they wouldn't know this at this moment), clearly speedsters themselves. The female began to run again, and rammed into Iris, dragging her outside of the house and flinging her through the air into a pile of garbage, while the male began throwing punches at Jai at superspeed, neither one showing any sign of emotion.
"Look at those two go..." Lyta whistled with some admiration for the rather cold and ruthless attacks being carried out by Inertia and Savitrix's replacements, while the figure that had been in the office before, the second revealed, blurred through the air, and grabbed Chris and Olivia as they stood, slamming them together and tossing them out of the house. As Mar'i helped Jai by grabbing his attacker and slamming him into the damaged roof of the house, the black and blue clad white figure flew forward, and latched its hands around the hybrid's neck. As she struggled to breathe, she got a good look at her attacker, her eyes widening with a the shock of recognition. Damian threw a plate at the figure's head, and another, and another, attempting to gets its attention. As the Titans began to hurry outside, the house collapsing around them, Mar'i was flung at them, Chris catching her in his arms and setting her down on the ground as the teenagers gathered in the parking lot, all regarding with various degrees of surprise and shock at the figure before them - calcified skin, a black tattered t-shirt with a reversed Superman logo, jeans, boots, dark hair, solid green eyes, and a smirk on his face.
"It can't be...can it?" Lian whispered, while the look on Chris' face tightened into one of anger.
"It is..."
"That's right, boys and girls!" The creature said, with a clarity and lucidity none of them were expecting, before laughing, smugly. "Match is back and ready to kick ass!"
End Notes: And so ends this chapter. Sorry if it doesn't make much sense yet; I promise it will in later chapters. Just be patient with me, and allow the story to unfold as it will. It was a thrill to write this last part, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Or even half as much. Or enjoyed it at all. As for the mystery speedsters, their identities will become clear in later chapters as well. And yes, this is the Match seen recently in the Titans East storyline of Teen Titans, and in issues of the Titans comic of recent months.