Chapter Eight

The four young operatives were working their way toward the dungeons when they were stopped by an army…of robocrabs.

"Well, well well; Nigel and his little friends have come to play." A set of voices said.

"So….you're the last line of defense huh?" Numbuh 5 remarked.

"You all will be in chains like your stupid friend, then the entire KND will fall." The voices said.

"You'll never destroy us; Delightful Children." Numbuh 1 said.

"Let Numbuh 4 go." Numbuh 3 said with tears in her eyes.

"Sorry, but Father's new friend is having some fun with him." The Delightful Children remarked; smiling at the operatives.

Numbuh 3's expression went from sad to angry and she didn't wait as she went right after the robocrabs with her T.H.U.M.P.A.H.J.U.M.P.P.A.H.

Kids Next Door T.H.U.M.P.A.J.U.M.P.P.U.H.

Teddy Hurling Upgraded Mega-Pazooka And Jumper

Upper Mightily Propels People Up High

"Oh great….she's on the war path again." Numbuh 2 said as Numbuh 3 used her weapon to launch herself up high so she could hit more crabs with her teddy bear ammo.

"She has the right idea though….ATTACK." Numbuh 1 shouted and they went to work on barreling through the robocrabs as the Delightful Children walked away…..laughing.

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Five Minutes Later

Father was trying everything to get through Raven's shield around Numbuh 4 but it was no use. The empath had not regained consciousness either, so the KND operative was Father's only chance at the information he wanted. It was just then that groaning was heard coming from the cell on the other side of Raven.

Father felt the other fire controller's body temperature rise, but he wanted to get at the young operative. He kept throwing fireballs at the shield but nothing was happening, in fact, the fireballs never hit…..they were redirected.

"Fight me, Father…..you coward." A familiar and defiant voice said.

"Very well." Father remarked, and he walked over to the other cell that was occupied.

Cardinal was indeed awake, and glaring at the villain. He walked in and undid her shackles, but she didn't wait to start fighting.

TtKNDTtKNDTtKND

Robin and Slade were having their usual 'dance' and the boy wonder was showing the marks from it as they had been fighting with anything and everything they could find lying around the mansion.

"Still as skilled as ever I see." Slade remarked as he dodged a swing from Robin's bo staff.

"When it comes to fighting scum like you, I'm always up for a challenge." Robin stated as he too dodged an attack. "Where's my sister?"

"She's safe…..for now, but I must say that the way fire controllers interact is interesting." Slade answered.

This made Robin fight harder than ever so Slade upped his game as well. The two didn't realize that they had made their way down into the basement of the mansion and Robin soon stopped near an opening as he heard more fighting going on. Slade took the opportunity to grab Robin in a bear hug; the boy wonder was facing the room.

"NOOO." Robin shouted as he saw who was fighting.

"She's a persistent brat, just like her brother. I'm sure Father can take her out….he did have her unconscious, but I guess she woke up." Slade remarked, a smile was on his hidden face.

Robin struggled to get out of Slade's grip, but his position in the bear hug was well enough that the boy wonder couldn't get any leverage or movement to head butt the villain….all he could do was continue to struggle.

Father didn't turn away from the fight, but Cardinal's attention was turned at the sound of her brother's voice. The girl wonder started fighting harder, and it wasn't long before she kicked Father in the head and took off after the man that had her brother captured. She jumped over the pair and before landing kicked Slade in the back. Robin was released and he ran to the cells to check on the others.

"You really think you can fight on my level, brat." Slade said as he dodged a leg swipe from Cardinal.

"I don't have to for long. My friends and my new allies are on their way, and we'll ALL defeat you and Father. We're also getting Cyborg back." Cardinal said as Slade punched at her after landing on his feet from his previous attack dodge.

The punch hit its mark, but Cardinal didn't give up. She continued to fight as the KND and the rest of the Titans came into the room and saw the fight. Robin was still trying to free Raven, but what he didn't know was that Cyborg had come up behind him. Raven's soul self came back to her body and her eyes flew open.

"Behind you!" Raven semi shouted to her teammate.

Robin didn't turn from Raven but he was able to dodge a punch and get Cyborg away from the cells so Raven and Numbuh 4 were safe. Starfire and Beast Boy joined the fight with their reprogrammed friend, and the KND went to free the captives while the Slade was busy fighting Cardinal and Father was out cold.

"This will end, Cardinal. I will defeat the Titans and your brother WILL be my apprentice…again." Slade remarked as Cardinal dodged a kick then back flipped a little ways away.

"NONE OF MY FRIENDS WILL BE YOUR APPRENTICE WHILE I'M ALIVE." Cardinal shouted as she started fighting at a higher level, even more advanced that Robin's.

Slade couldn't keep up and soon was knocked across the room into the stone wall. It was then that Father started to come to and he was closing in on Raven to burn her. Cardinal went over and pulled him away. As she did, the 17 year old fire controller created a couple of fireballs and sent them at Raven's shackles and the fireballs melted the metal, causing Raven to drop to the floor.

"Is Numbuh 4 okay?" Raven asked the people in the young operative's cell as she sat up.

"He's unharmed; thank you Raven." Numbuh 1 answered.

She was soon standing in the cell with the KND and had regained her full strength. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Black energy covered the chains and shackles and they soon released Numbuh 4.

"Are you alright?" Raven asked as Numbuh 4 was rubbing his wrists.

"Yea, thanks…ummmm, sorry I followed you and Cardinal. You wouldn't have given up in so easily if they didn't have me."

"It's alright; we Titans protect the innocent AND our friends. We wouldn't have let you get hurt any more than you had been." Raven said.

"So what was that crazy shield around Numbuh 4." Numbuh 2 asked.

"It was something I call my soul self. I didn't want Wally hurt by Slade, so I used it to protect him." Raven said.

"Raven, I am glad to see that you are safe." Starfire said as she flew over to the gathered heroes.

"Oh man, this is not going to be good." Beast Boy said as he saw the twins fighting different enemies.

As the KND and three titans continued talking, Robin was really getting hurt by Cyborg, and Father was already getting some burns in on Cardinal. The two fire controllers were going at it in a hard core and either was gaining the upper hand. What no one saw was Slade getting up from where he had landed after Cardinal kicked him into the wall. He went over and was going to end the Titans and KND….he didn't matter about principles of messing around in a different. Plasmus had also appeared and was about to go after Robin.

It was just as Slade pulled out several throwing stars that Cardinal heard the metal clink and she turned around, taking a fireball to the back from Father.

"I've had ENOUGH." Cardinal said and this got everyone's attention.

Cardinal's eyes were in a perfect glare and suddenly her mask fell off, as if whatever was holding it on had burned off. When her eyes were seen, there was nothing but fire in them; they couldn't even see the color of her eyes.

"Oh crap." Father remarked, knowing that Cardinal was now more powerful than he was.

Raven stood in front of her friends and quickly put up a shield, she didn't want any injuries to befall anyone incase Cardinal was no longer in control of her powers. Slade turned around and saw a fire tornado coming right at him….not giving him enough time to dodge it. The mercenary was sucked into the center of the tornado and it never stopped moving.

Cardinal then turned her attention to Plasmus who already had Robin and was starting to suffocate him. She created a wall around the gooey villain and he was starting to dry up, she then kicked in the exact dried out spot where Robin had been fighting for freedom and Plasmus broke apart. Robin fell out and Cardinal was helping him up when Cyborg came up behind them and was about to attack with his sonic cannon when a black energy encased the spot on his chest and pulled the CD drive out. The CD-ROM then flew up surrounded by the black energy and was destroyed.

It didn't take long for Cyborg's purple circuitry to return to its normal blue color. "Thanks Rav." Cyborg said as he looked over to the black shield.

Raven only nodded, and that's when Father was ready to finish this.

"Not this time Father…." Cardinal said as she turned back to Father and all of a sudden pulled all the fire that had been building up around him into herself.

"What…..how?" Father remarked.

"NO ONE MESSES WITH MY FAMILY." Cardinal said, and she then punched Father.

He tried to fire up again, but he couldn't, his power was being suppressed. It was then that Cardinal really unleashed her full skillset and took the KND's main villain down after five good attacks. The 17 year old heroine then walked up to the fire tornado and saw that Slade was unconscious. Cardinal let the fire tornado die down and Slade fell to the floor. As she turned to her friends, they saw her eyes, a beautiful blue color. They started to roll back in her head and she almost hit the floor hard, had it not been for her brother's fast reflexes and he caught her.

"Will she be alright?" Numbuh 3 asked as Raven lowered her shield and the young operatives ran to check on one of their new friends.

"She just overdid it with her powers, I've seen that one other time, and she was fine after a good rest." Robin said as he reached into his utility belt and pulled out an extra domino mask and placed it over Cardinal's closed eyes.

"I'll take care of containing Slade and Plasmus; but we do have to figure out a way home." Raven said and with that she used her energy one more time and it placed the two villains from the Titans' dimension and held them within a sphere.

"I am glad that we are all safe now." Starfire said as she was spinning around while flying.

"Guys, before we go any further, I'm sorry." Cyborg said, not knowing how else to apologize.

"It's alright Cy; you weren't yourself." Beast Boy said.

"I guess Cardinal's the fighter with you guys…..like I am with Sector V." Numbuh 4 said.

"She and I trained with the same person, so we both can really let go when we have to." Robin remarked, keeping a close eye on his sister's breathing.

"Let's return to the Treehouse so Cardinal can rest, and I'm sure our technology could be used to check Cyborg out as well." Numbuh 1 said.

The Titans all nodded and the KND led the way back out of the mansion. Father was the only one left in the dungeon area….still unconscious.