CH. 6: BATTLE OF THE TOWER
Raven brought them back to the Tower. It was the morning following the battle at the carnival. Damian immediately scanned for threats. If Trigon found her at the fair, he'd almost certainly would expect her here. From now on, the Titans should expect a supernatural siege from Trigon. And Damian already had his mind on a war footing. It's what he'd been trained for. He had always saw himself as a warrior first and foremost.
But, it was Raven's next words that would begin his return to his humanity. "Don't worry, I'm not staying," she states matter-of-factly. "I've got to keep moving to keep Trigon off my path."
"Where will you go?" Kori asked the younger girl. Her concern for her still strong.
"It's better you not know," Raven replied with equal concern. "He's going to try to use you." She turned back to the younger Titans. Damian could sense her reluctance to leave them. She didn't want to, but she didn't see any other way to protect them. "But don't worry. I put a protective spell on you, just in case." Damian recalled the night he spoke to her. That's what she was doing, casting a spell to protect them from Trigon's influence.
"And I thought I had a bad burrito," Garfield was never short for a dumb comment.
"Dude," thankfully, Jaime was there to keep him under control.
"Guess I should've gotten permission, or whatever," Raven apologized. More and more, Damian could sense her emotions rising as the moment of her departure neared. He couldn't understand how he felt them, or why. He just did. He also knew he didn't like it. "But I couldn't stand for him to corrupt you," she said looking to Damian. "You're the only friends I've ever really had…" It wasn't right. Why should she suffer because of her father? "I'll…" She paused, fighting back tears. "…miss you," she said looking up to Kori before turning to leave.
Damian quickly saw that neither Kori, nor Jaime, nor Garfield moved to stop her. Inside, Damian was seething with rage. They were her friends and they were just going to let her make a mistake? He wasn't going to stand for it. He would not let her make the mistake. He owed her no less.
Ever since he came to the Tower, Damian had felt lost, almost unwanted. He didn't view himself as a Titan and even picked a fight with one. He insulted their leader, insulted their purpose, insulted them personally. And yet, Raven held fast to her desire to help him. She healed him when he was wounded. She included him in her protective spell.
She showed him kindness, offered friendship and encouragement. All this without asking anything in return. And all this despite his all-around asshole nature. Never had he met someone so selfless, nor someone who saw him as someone who had a place in this world. On this team.
Most of all, her words echoed in his head: "You may be insufferable. But, in your heart, you're a kind and generous soul."
He was not about to let all that be for nothing. He was not going to prove her wrong. He couldn't. His father told they must do the "right thing to do because it is right". Words to live by. Words to 'find your center'.
As she moved to open a portal to a random world, Raven expected someone to try and stop her. But, despite her psychic bond to him, Damian was the last she expected to speak up. His voice stopped her in her tracks. "Wait," his voice sounded like a shout in the morose silence. She lowered her hand and turned to see the last person she expected to be her hero. "Leave now and you'll always be running." His words were simple but poignant.
"You have no idea what he's like, Damian," she tried to warn him off this course of action. "You've never met a monster like Trigon." She was right and Damian knew it. But he didn't care. And neither did the rest of her friends.
"You beat him once," Jaime spoke up alongside Damian, taking a cue from his former-rival's example.
"I was lucky," she retorted as she turned back, almost surprised to see Damian in so close proximity. And yet, she felt encouraged and strengthened by his presence. And, equally surprising, it was not because of the psychic bridge between them that only she knew about. It was his new, proto-heroic demeanor. The almost direct result of her words to him at the fair.
"Now you'll be four times as lucky," he explained to her, reminding her that she was not in this fight alone. "If we can't save one of our own, who can we save?"
This surprised everyone. Especially, Jaime. "I thought you hated us?" He spoke up, barely avoiding fainting. Raven senses something mischievous stir inside the insipient leader in front of her.
"I'm not wishing you dead anymore," his voice dripped with sarcasm as did his smirk. Raven had to fight back a chuckle. Hearing him defiantly speak up for her, encourage her to stay and fight, she began to believe she had a chance.
"Robin's right," Kori said, once more feeling hope for her little sister. "We're your best hope."
Yes. With her friends at her side, they stood a chance.
Without warning, a flash of light erupted between the Titans and the Tower. They looked fifteen yards past Raven to see a Boom-Tube open, depositing Cyborg, Wonder Woman and Batman onto the concrete. Flash arrived just as the tube closed. Damian did not like the timing of their arrival, nor the position they took between them and their stronghold.
"Down boy," Jaime said to his Scarab as it readied a shoulder cannon. Apparently, the alien cyber-bug wasn't fond of the situation either. Damian immediately moved to Raven's side, knowing there was only one reason why the Justice League was here.
"We heard about the attack," Batman got right to it. He knew his son had already deduced they were not there for a social call. "Was she at the center?"
"Her father's an interdimensional demon," Starfire explained, trying to divert any blame from her charge. "He was after her."
"She's coming with us," the Dark Knight stepped forward.
'Bullshit, she is,' Damian said to himself. "No," as he stepped protectively in front of his comrade, sheathed sword in hand. "We can handle this." Raven started sensing conflicting emotions emanating from Robin regarding Batman. She had difficulty making sense of them.
"If she's part of this, we need to know," Batman responded.
"We can protect her," Robin was adamant and firm in his resolve. The two squared off, giving each other their own glares. Seeing him stand up to Batman, Raven couldn't help but think of her dreams about the two swordsmen. Here was a dark, towering figure, Batman, and a red clad protector, almost coming to blows over her.
'Is this what my dreams were trying to warn me about?' She asked herself as Cyborg nervously shifted among the League members.
"I'm sorry, Raven," Wonder Woman spoke next. "We've had two magic attacks and Superman is still missing." Before any of the Titans could retort, Raven let out a gasp as she grasped at her head.
"No," she recoiled back into Starfire. Damian felt a pulse of terror wash over her. Something was coming, he didn't know how, but he knew Trigon was about to make his next move.
"What's the matter?" The Titan leader asked her.
"He knows they're here!" She cried out in panic. She could hear a group of Trigon's 'corruptors' approaching fast. They had seemingly been waiting and when the Justice League arrived, they moved. "He wants them here!"
"Who?" Batman asked next, unsure of what was going on.
"If they stay everything will be lost!" She tried to warn Starfire.
"This is our job, father!" Damian shouted at Batman, trying to convince him to leave this to them. "You have to leave!"
"FATHER!?" Blue Beetle and Beast Boy did a simultaneous double take when they head him say that. Apparently, that was one bit of information about Robin that was not passed down to them.
"She's coming with us," Batman ordered once more.
"She stays here," his son remained defiant. Sensing that things were about to come to a head, Beetle stepped forward and readied a cannon while Garfield shifted into a lion and both joined Damian at the front of the group. Wonder Woman, Flash and Cyborg reciprocated the move.
"Maybe," Starfire held her hand up as she moved closer to Raven, trying to keep the two allied teams from coming to blows, "we should all take a breath."
"Too late," Raven quivered. She knew she'd be almost useless in this fight, she was still drained from the battle at the fair and transporting the Titans had taken too much out of her. "They're here…"
Damian barely spotted several shadows 'move' from the sidelines and snake towards the League members. Cyborg and Wonder Woman were attacked first. "Great Hera!" The Amazonian warrior cried out as shadows latched onto Flash and Batman like demonic spider webbing.
"We're being compromised," Batman said as Flash fell to the ground, the corruption taking him over faster than the others. The Dark Knight reached into a pouch and withdrew a hypodermic gun. Damian instantly recognized it and knew that the vial contained a mix of Tetrodotoxin, from a species of puffer fish, and box jellyfish venom.
"Father!" Cried out, know exactly what he was thinking.
"Get back!" He shouted to keep his son away, lest he get compromised, too. He didn't know about Raven's spell and he would not want his son to suffer his own fate. He plunged the needle into his leg and injected all the deadly cocktail into his system. Immediately, he felt the entity fighting to purge the toxins. He fell to his knees and rolled on his back as his body was racked with unspeakable pain.
"What the hell?" Jaime spoke up, confused by what Batman just did.
"It's a nerve toxin," Robin explained. "For Bane…" Its original purpose was to overwhelm Bane's venom, weaken him enough to be subdued. But Batman was using it to shock his own system and purge the corruption demon. It worked. A few seconds later, the demon fled and dissipated back to the realm from whence it came. The rest of the League however…
The Titans watched as their skin turned dark red and they obtained four, glowing red eyes, much like the demons they had fought last night. Flash was constantly arcing electricity and his form was twitching and flickering, the demon struggling to contain the Speedster's power.
"The Kryptonian has unearthed the Infernal Shrine, Raven," the demon possessing Wonder Woman declared as Demon-Cyborg joined his possessed comrades.
"The 'who' did the 'what'?" Beetle was confused. He wasn't the only one.
"An ancient shrine built by Satanists," Raven explained quickly. "It has magical properties."
"You," Demon-Flash spoke, "are the shrine's final piece."
"She stays here," Damian shot back. Morally unwilling and unable to give in.
"You dare challenge us?" Demon-Wonder Woman smirked as she strode forward and drew her sword. Demon-Flash and Demon-Cyborg launched into the attack.
Damian got a lucky hit when he tripped Demon-Flash by striking him in the legs with his sheathed sword. He rose up, drew his blade barely in time to block a strike from Demon-Wonder Woman who then kicked him to the side. Beetle engaged Demon-Cyborg, stunning him and then blasting him away with a shoulder cannon. He too was barely able to block a sword strike with his shield. But, he soon found himself hurled through the air and crashing through one of the fountains when Demon-Wonder Woman launched him.
Beast Boy tackled her to the ground but was thrown off. He leapt at her, shifting into an elephant mid-air and tried to crush her when he landed. He reared back to charge her only to be KO'd by a rapid uppercut, his unconscious body reverting to human form. Recognizing that the demon-possessed Amazon was the bigger threat, Starfire launched into the attack. She first stunned her with energy blasts then flew into her, bringing the fight inside where, hopefully, she could use her familiarity of the grounds, to her advantage.
As Beetle battled Demon-Cyborg, Robin moved back to Raven's side, taking on the role of bodyguard. When Demon-Flash regained his feet, Robin threw the last of his shurikens. They missed as he expected, he was hoping they'd disorient his opponent, leaving him exposed to attack. But, Demon-Flash was too fast and Damian was sent sprawling to the deck from a left hook, blood spurting from his nose.
Inside, Demon-Wonder Woman was just too much for Starfire. The Amazonian was the League's greatest close quarters fighter and, when the alien princess brought the fight in doors she inadvertently took the fight onto ground where her opponent reigned. Inside, her energy bolts were almost useless, the possessed-warrior easily dodged the attacks and got in too close for them to be effective.
Robin got to his feet only to see Beetle, his wings burned off by Demon-Cyborg, crash to the ground. "Beetle!" He called out only to be body slammed by Demon-Flash. Before he could recover he felt a strong had around his throat soon followed by a very painful and paralyzing vibration within his chest. "AHHH!" He cried out in pain as he saw Demon-Flash's hand, moving rapidly between the molecules, buried in his chest. So long as that hand was moving he'd live, it'd be painful, but he'd live.
Kori was then thrown from the twelfth floor of the Tower and crashed onto the ground. Demon-Wonder Woman landed on Kori's back and drew her lasso around the woman's neck. Raven tried to move forward but was stopped by the clear threat to her friends. "I will break her, Raven," Demon Wonder-Woman stated to clarify the matter.
'No…' Raven looked to her surrogate sister in fear.
"I stop my hand for an instant," Demon-Flash added his threat to Damian, "this one dies, too."
'Damian!' She couldn't let him die. He was becoming one of her best friends and was willing to fight his own father to protect her. She also knew that, if the Titans were to stand a chance, they'd need him. He was the only one whose intellect could rival Batman's. "Wait!" She shouted at the demons. "I'll go," she said softly as she lowered her hood. "As the daughter of your Lord Trigon," she summoned her demon powers, her skin changing pigment, and her eyes, now numbering four, began to glow, "I order you to release these feeble humans."
Damian felt his lungs reform and his heart resume normal rhythms. As Raven opened a portal to the desert the demon possessed Leaguers joined her. The battered Titans, who had just gotten their asses kicked despite their bravery, regrouped. Damian, holding his flank as he struggled to control his breathing, looked on as Raven turned to meet his gaze. Both could feel the other's heartbreak at the reluctant parting. "Goodbye," she said too softly for any of them to hear it.
As Raven drew her hood back up, Jaime saw Demon-Cyborg's exposed back. At first, he thought to get in a parting shot, for honor's sake. But then he saw Batman's unconscious body off to the side. 'He injected himself with toxins to shock the demon out of his body,' the Blue Beetle realized. He quickly took aim and had Scarab fire a taser bolt at his target.
The bolt imbedded itself right into the base of Cyborg's skull. Instantly, three hundred-thousand volts raced into Cyborg's systems. The effect was immediate: the demon was expelled and returned to its own realm. A second later, Raven and her 'escorts' had slipped through the portal.
XXXXX
The Titan's brought both Batman and Cyborg into the wrecked Tower. Of the two, Batman was the most immediate concern. While Cyborg's systems would be able to repair him, the toxin in Batman's blood system was still potentially lethal. Thankfully, Robin knew the cure. A mix of antihistamines, adrenaline and copious amounts of intravenous fluids. It wasn't much, but it was something.
As he was seeing to his father, the other Titans were getting their injuries tended to. The Scarab was quickly re-growing its wings and Kori was examining Garfield's head to make sure the hit he took didn't do anything permanent. As he set his father on one of the couches, oxygen mask on his face, IV in his arm, the sun was setting. He knew he wouldn't wake for another day at least. If Trigon arrived before that, they'd be in trouble.
'Focus,' he said to himself as he took a deep breath. Folding his arms behind his back he walked to the windows to contemplate. 'First order: take stock. What do we have? What does the enemy have?'
The armory was still intact, but what use their weapons would have against the devil was unknown. On top of that, the enemy had under his control three of the most powerful members of the Justice League: Wonder Woman, Flash and the Superman. On their own, each would be an almost impossible fight. Together, it would be impossible. And even if Cyborg regained consciousness in time, he would not be enough against Superman.
"Superman," Damian said out loud. That was the key. He was the first of the League to be possessed. It must've been why the first corruptor was in Metropolis that night. The Weather Wizard was an accident. It was after Superman. Damian looked back to his father and noted his belt. 'If Superman was compromised, he'd keep it close…' He walked over and checked the pouch. A green light emanated from the lead lined container. 'We may still have a chance…'
