Chapter 3 — Ferocity
After reading his father's last words, Canyon went and found Mystic.
"Mystic!" he called for her.
She looked to him. "Yes?"
"Quick question... the Phoenix—your Phoenix, how do you keep it on lockdown?"
"I train... but the truth is that I'm constantly fighting it. I can never be too sure that the Phoenix has called it quits on trying to destroy me."
Canyon paused for a moment, thinking on his crisis. "What if I told you that there was something like the Phoenix... but in me?"
"I would laugh, but you don't have a bad spirit or anything."
"Oh yeah? Read this." Canyon hands her the will of his father. After reading the page, Mystic stopped the joke.
"You can't be serious..." Mystic murmured in shock.
"I am. What do I do?"
"Go to the Danger Room, stat."
"What?" he questioned.
"Just go!"
Canyon rushes off, while Mystic uses her telepathy to tell the rest of the Legendary 12 meet her at the Danger Room.
Once they were all gathered, Mystic explained about Canyon's problem that could grow into a disaster.
"What do you propose we do?" Dotty asked Mystic.
"Run Simulation C.H.A.O.S." she replied, before hearing much of the group gasp at the mention of the program. The simulation was made in which the participating Titans would have to face and survive an unlimited amount of Wrinkle replicas that have the destructive, apocalyptic power that they had actually experienced in the big battle, weeks ago. Dotty used the Trace (memory) program to find the video it made when the Bean Titans fought in San Francisco and found a way to "trace and scan" Wrinkle's power before Sweet showed up.
"Fine," Sweet answered, "but on one condition: we all help Canyon. C.H.A.O.S. is going to need serious focus... and when and if the power within him wakes up, we need to look and see just what we're dealing with. Besides, the 12 of us are really the only ones who can handle this simulation; plus, it's easier because we all have Legendary Power."
Canyon walked to the door that led to the elevator to go down into the training chamber. "Guys, if I'm still conscious while the spirit within me is trying to fight its way out, leave the chamber and leave it to me."
It was the most unlikely thing for Canyon to say; his team was shocked to hear it.
"But—what if you lose your control?" Fancy asked, in worry of Canyon's safety.
"I'll be fine, Fancy."
The twelve of them entered the chamber and began the simulation. Immediately, five replicas of Wrinkle attacked. Then, once the twelve of them defeated them, the number of replicas spawned doubled. Ten Wrinkles spawned, then twenty, and forty. At this point, Canyon felt like half of his mind went blank, so he collasped in mid-battle.
Witnessing, Fancy stopped fighting to tend to him. She tried to call for him a few times, but there was no answer. It was until Fancy felt Canyon's body suddenly jerk as if he felt a giant heartbeat. Fancy then looked at Canyon to see him with full, glowing red eyes. Canyon also emitted a strong energy force that pushed Fancy against the chamber's wall. Seeing this, the rest of the Legendary 12 and the Wrinkle replicas turned to Canyon. He was now black-skinned, with many raging static sparks around him that were crimson, gold and purple.
"That must be it..." Mystic presumed.
Sweet walked a little closer to what may be taking over Canyon. "Who or what are you?" he asked.
"Levinctinus: cougar spirit of malice." it answered in a dark voice.
"Why are you inside of Canyon?"
"None of your business!" it backtalked, emitting many bolts of lightning around the Danger Room. "I'm in control now!"
Mac was heading for the exit.
"Where are you going?" Mystic yelled.
"Canyon said to leave Levinctinus to him... you should honor his request." Mac stated. The other ten went to follow Mac, but when Mystic, Fancy and Spunky looked back, it felt like Canyon did not exist anymore; they wanted to bring them back. They stayed in the chamber.
"Hey, get out of there!" Sweet said to the three of them from the intercom.
Mystic was about to turn back, until Spunky stopped her by the shoulder. "Ignore him; we can't let Canyon lose himself to this guy." Spunky said.
"How are we gonna do that?" Mystic asked him.
"Maybe... the same thing that Aurora did to save you back when we were young could work now—minus the kiss."
"Let's just do something!" Fancy cried, rushing in to bring Canyon back. The other two followed. Their attempts failed when Levinctinus unleashed a great shockwave upon them.
"Pitiful..." the apparition murmured, walking towards Fancy's body. Mystic and Spunky tried to stop him, but they were knocked down by Levinctinus's static that raged around him. Getting to Fancy, he lifted her up by her white crop top shirt. "Just pitiful..."
On impluse, Fancy yelled out and used a trap—the Lithium Capsule—on Levinctinus. She paralyzed him with her own static shock, while creating a circle of blue lightning around and underneath him. When she closed her eyes, the circle swallowed Levinctinus up in a surging current of blue electricity. After this, he still held on to her, but could not act from paralysis.
"Damn you..." he muttered.
"I'm not done yet..." Fancy said, charging a ball of electrity in her right hand. It was a Chidori, in which she used to hit Levinctinus on the head, without plunging the orb through. In reaction to this, Canyon's body returned back to its original state, except for the burns from battle. He released Fancy and stood, dazed.
"Fancy... I'm sorry. I couldn't—" Canyon was interrupted when he saw her tears.
"Don't make me do that again, Canyon... please." She kneeled down and hugged him by the legs. He felt her pain.
Soon, everything was back to normal again, but Canyon still stood in the middle of the Danger Room's training chamber. Dotty went down to check on him, after finishing repairs.
"Canyon?" Hello...?" she said to him. He did not answer, as he was still in a trance after the crisis that had happened moments ago. "It's like he doesn't even know I'm here..." Dotty wondered.
What she did not know was that Canyon was really searching through his own mind, trying to find Levinctinus to lay down some ground rules with him. He had no luck, but when he thought about Mystic and what she did about the Phoenix, it was clear to him then. He came back to reality.
"Dotty... whatever measures you took with Mystic and the Phoenix, I'm gonna need them for Levinctinus." Canyon said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. It's bad enough that you guys are worried about me, but if the rest of the Titans were, I wouldn't know what to do. Especially with Fancy and my son... Levinctinus is not gonna steal, sabotage, and at the worst, kill my family. So like I said before, leave him to me."
Dotty had never heard Canyon sound so determined; this was a real obstacle to him. Because of this, Dotty went back into the control center and let Canyon begin to strengthen his control over the evil spirit within him.
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Chapter 4 may be the best chapter in this story.
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