DECEPTION
AN: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, I will endeavor to continue providing you all with quality entertainment, which will probably translate to more pointless fight scenes and fan service but eh...
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Starfire had been very understanding.
After Raven finally deduced why her emotions didn't get out of control when she was near Frost, she decided to spend every available moment with her. The magician no longer attempted to evade the kunoichi as she had done before, there was no more hesitation or doubt in her actions as she knew that being with Frost was the right thing to do. In order to accomplish this without rising any suspicion, the sorceress would need Starfire's assistance. It was fortunate that Robin was still letting them go patrol in pairs; it benefited Raven greatly as she would hand over her communicator to her alien girl teammate and go off into the docks whilst Starfire flew about pretending that Raven was with her.
The Tamarenean princess never complained or asked for anything in return, though she often poked Raven about how Frost was doing, or if she had made friends with the other Otherworlders. Her most pressing question was when she would be allowed to go and meet them all, seeing as she was so excited to get to know people from another dimension, she could just imagine all the wonderful and exotic things that they would say! Raven had to politely decline though, the time wasn't right just yet for all of them to meet, for now she just asked her to be patient and thanked her for all her support. Of course Starfire was only too glad to help, she had never seen Raven so happy before, she could almost swear the sorceress hummed to herself when they were out pretending to patrol and she even saw her doing a twirl in mid-air once as she headed towards the docks.
Truly the powers of love were great.
As for the Konquerors, they were growing quite restless. They couldn't say they were very surprised when Frost locked herself with Raven in her room for a full day. They were both hormone riddled, curious, teenage girls after all. It was obvious they were going to explore each other's bodies to their fullest until they finally tired themselves out. Their only hope was that Frost wouldn't get incredibly side tracked and forget of her promises of power to instead fornicate endlessly with her sorceress lover. The two had returned from their date flushed and headed directly for their room without saying a word to anyone, it appeared that they had cemented their relationship rather well and their 'celebrations' could take quite some time.
Eventually, the two girls did come out and after that day Raven became a staple figure in the Konqueror lair. It was a little disconcerting for the Mortal Kombat veterans at first, the few times they had met the sorceress she had been distant, keeping herself mostly close to Frost. Now, after whatever discussion Raven and Frost had after their encounter with Red X, the Titan magician was far more…subservient. She fawned over Frost a lot of course, more so than she did before, but she also did menial tasks around their lair and interacted greatly with everyone else. She prepared tea for them, cleaned the main area where they practiced and mopped it when they were done, prepared dinner, helped Sektor with maintenance, helped Nightwolf and Jade with the garden they were cultivating, she even taught Noob Saibot a few spells. They didn't know what Frost had told Raven, but it had definitely worked, she was incredibly willing to assist them in any way they needed despite her previous hesitation due to their conflicting morals. The Konquerors even caught Raven kissing Frost's hand a few times, it would have disturb them if they hadn't found it so comical.
The wraith and the android started jokingly referring to her as their new maid after a while.
"It looks like you are out of a job, Jade." The Lin Kuei cyborg ninja cackled evilly
Jade looked at him with irritation at his chauvinistic comments. "Swine," she answered angrily and left in a huff.
The two ex-Lin Kuei laughed at her reaction.
"At least she is better than Frost; I keep forgetting that she is even a woman with the way she acts."
"HEY!" The ice kunoichi caught wind of Sektor's comment and ran at him.
"I AM A DELICATE FLOWER!" Frost shouted as she cold clocked Sektor in the jaw, denting his helmet and sending him tumbling over the sofa which promptly flipped over. The irony of her actions was probably what hurt Sektor the most.
A mirthful giggle was heard from the once morbid mystic girl, a strange melodically titter of laughter to follow the loud wrathful actions of the Otherworlders.
Raven was surprised how much she was enjoying herself watching the antics of these so called Konquerors. For them, jaw shattering blows like the one Frost had given Sektor were naught but simple love taps and all of them laughed it off, minus Sektor of course who was trying to fix the dent in his helmet.
For the sorceress, it reminded her too much of the interactions between Cyborg and Beast Boy, though the main difference then was that at the Tower she had to guard her emotions at all times. Here, with these strangely flawed Demi-Deities she could finally relax and be at ease. How amusing it was for her to know that the only place where she could really be at peace was in the company of super human serial killers.
Perhaps this had been her true self all along. Perhaps she really did find the antics of the Titans funny and she merely did not act on it because of her powers. Curiously, Raven found that she enjoyed her peaceful role of placidly helping others more than her previous brooding self, there was no darkness to hold back now and she could take joy in the little things that she always denied herself. Frost thought that Raven's sudden submissive attitude was unnerving, but for Raven this was paradise, even such a simple thing as handing Nightwolf a cup of tea and him thanking her for it sent waves of joy through her, sensations she had never allowed herself to experience before, before she had met Frost all her actions were more like a chore instead of being out of her own volition.
Harsh realxiation struck Raven when she remember that her safe haven was only with Frost and the others. She slowly began to grow too comfortable and forget that her feelings of peace did not extend outside the company of Frost and her Otherworlders. This started having disastrous results in the tower.
Her fellow Titans had noticed her being far more cherry than..well...ever. She tried to help around the tower more in an attempt to mimic her behavior in Frost's lair, and in a cruel reminder of her cursed existance, when she did so things exploded at random. Cyborg and Beast Boy were now actually conditioned to rapidly decline Raven's offers for tea, because when the sorceress poured them both a cup, their glasses promptly blew up on their faces scalding them with the hot liquid. They were starting to think she was doing it on purpose.
Raven had always lived in a desert and with Frost she had found an oasis. Now that she had tasted joy she couldn't live without it, she could not possibly go back to being the way she once was, not when there was such a simple solution right in front of her. She was trying to drink too deeply from her newfound pool of emotions and in doing so she was suffocating herself.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that the one person that could help her control her emotions fully was an enemy of the Titans. Raven had attempted numerous times to convince Frost to renounce her ways, bring her Otherworlders to the tower and make them all honorary Titans so that they could all live together. Her efforts were met with much resistance from the kunoichi, she wasn't going to play by the rules, she felt that this dimension would fare much better under their dominion and there was absolutely no way she would ever accept Robin's leadership.
Raven was no longer in a position where she could argue, she half heartedly pleaded and even attempted to pull a Starfire by giving Frost a puppy eye look but in the end, even if that almost had worked, Frost still believed her idea was better and called Raven on her cheap shot act.
The sorceress was in a Catch 22 situation. She could either bottle all her emotions and return to the tower where she could pretend nothing ever happened, or she could completely and willingly join Frost in her mad quest of world domination.
Searching through her emotions, Raven honestly thought that she was far more willing to go with the later at this point, even betraying the Titans was a far better fate than return to her permanent self confinment. She would not be seduced so easily however, she knew that such a selfish solution was wrong and went against everything she believed in, forcing her to desperately seek a compromise between the two. She needed to find something that would help her not rely on Frost so much for support and perhaps even the playing fields a bit.
And so she got quite a radical idea.
"Could you teach me?" asked the magician to Frost a scant three days after her declaration of love.
"Teach you what? Martial arts? Are you kidding me?"
"Why? Don't think I can handle it?" Raven gave Frost /the/ stare, even with her newfound submissive attitude she still could make the ninja girl do anything she wanted by just looking at her the right way.
Frost promptly spat the tea Raven had brewed for her making a mess of her shirt and coughed. "No! Aheh..that's not what I meant." She wiped her shirt with a napkin "I just like spoiling ya. Now that you mention it though, it could be pretty fun. Hey, I'll even let you call me sifu. Oooh, especially in bed, that'd be hot..."
Raven cleared her throat so Frost's mind didn't wander too much
"So can you teach me or not?"
"Sure!" Frost jumped off the couch gingerly, always elated at the prospect of good old fashioned fighting. The where or the why didn't matter to her, only that fights happened. "We'll have to see on what level you are first before we do anything official. I don't think I've seen you fight for real. Even if you're some kind of realm defender, the fact that you admitted to not having a fighting style raises all kind of warning flags for me."
Raven understood and gave what could possibly be taken for a smile, the corners of her lips arched up in the slightest form of a smirk. "Fine, just as long as you don't try going easy on me."
"Oh no, I ain't sparring ya!" The girl pulled back giving Raven a wide eyed look. "Student teacher relationships are hot and all but they're disastrous for actually teaching anything. I know myself babe, we get all tangled up in there and I might just try to grope ya." Grinning at the thought, Frost ignored the narrowed eyed look the mystic was giving her while moving away from her and towards the large square the Konquerors had drawn on the ground where they held their sparring. "Imma need a less involved party with this if you know what I mean. Actually, I might even be able to kill two birds with one shot. Yo! Nightwolf!"
The shaman looked up from his ever pensive state, a pipe lazily placed on his lips. He stared at the kunoichi who had perturbed his thoughts. For some reason, despite his relaxed position, he looked slightly tense. The plumes of smoke flowing out his pipe making his gazeless blank look that much more intimidating.
"How you feeling Nighty? You need to let out some steam?"
Almost immediately Nightwolf was on his feet, putting his pipe away to approach the plucky ninja girl. It was clear that his inner turmoil was due to the evil spirits stirring inside of him, Frost's invitation couldn't have come at a better time.
"The earth thirsts for blood. She shall be quenched."
"Whoa, easy Nighty, you ain't killing anyone, remember that." Frost waved an accusing finger to the troubled shaman, her gaze cutting him off before he could get too carried away. "I'm putting you up versus Raven here; she ain't a fighter like us so you can't go crazy. Are you sure you can control yourself?"
Ashamed at his lack of self-restraint, Nightwolf redoubled his efforts to keep the spirits from taking full control of his body. He winced, showing signs of deep internal turmoil, before he gave Frost a straight answer. "Yes, I am in control."
It was quite a leap of faith from the part of the young kunoichi, to have the relatively inexperienced Raven against the unpredictable shaman. A worried look settled upon Jade's gaze sensing the unmistakable coldness in the air before a Mortal deathmatch, no matter how many times she had experienced such a dreadful sensation she could not grow accustomed to it. She could not even imagine how there were individuals who relished that numbing tingling feeling on their spine when kombat was about to ensue, if Jade hadn't sworn millennia ago to always follow the path of the warrior she wouldn't mind never ever experiencing that feeling again.
Raven was not hesitating however; the sorceress would not shrink from combat as she was far too familiar with fighting. Exuding with confidence, forged from a life time of fighting crime, Raven boldly took her cloak off so it wouldn't hinder her and stepped into the crudely drawn on square the Konquerors used as a ring. As it was usual done bynow, Sektor would be refereeing the match since he was the only one that had a playback mode if any wanted to see the replay.
After instructing both Nightwolf and Raven to not use any of their powers, Frost stood on the sidelines next to Saibot. Interestingly, though it was Jade who looked apprehensive with the sparring match, it was the shadow wraith who voiced any concern at all.
"Are you certain this is a good idea, Frost?"
"Relax man." Frost smirked as she watched the proceedings. "Without his powers Nighty is on the same level as Raven, he ain't as fast as the rest of us. He's unarmed, so he can only use his Vale Tudo, Okichitaw, Tae Kwan Do, super strength… " A Pause "Holy crap, this /is/ a bad idea. Wait!"
The ninja's horrible realization came too late. Sektor was already announcing the start of the match.
"Round One."
"FIGHT!"
Surprisingly, Raven was the one who took the innitiative. Doing just as Robin had instructed her to do when she was cornered, the girl rushed in with her upper body ducked low to avoid any stray attacks sent to her face and swung a right punch directly for the shaman's chin.
Robin did specify that this movement would work on just about any untrained opponent who was not expecting a forward attack, though as Raven would soon be very painfully aware, Nightwolf was neither unaware nor untrained.
The shaman didn't even bother taking a stance; the second Raven was ducking low his arm was already stretched out to merely wrap a gruff palm on the girl's face blinding her completely while at the same time stopping her attack from ever connecting. The shaman's hand was almost as big as Raven's head, which meant that he had no problems pushing on her head violently, forcing her to bend over backwards and slam her back first on the ground.
Raven gave a grunt when her body crashed on the floor, legs up and stretched out, she momentarily forgot all martial training and desperately went to grasp at Nightwolf's wrist in an attempt to pry his vice like hand away from her head.
The shaman took the very visible opening of Raven leaving her mid section undefended and brought a heavy fist on her stomach, with enough control to not punch a hole through her body, but with enough impact that it knocked the wind out of her.
Raven wiggled around trying to get air back to her lungs, writhing and struggling for a few moments before slumping back on the floor, her body lying perfectly still.
"Nightwolf wins."
"Flawless Victory."
Sektor raised a right arm up announcing the victor of the match in the time honored traditional manner. Respectfully, Nightwolf stood up away from Raven's body looking far calmer now that the vengeful spirits stirring within his body had been satiated from the craving for violence. The moment the shaman had gotten up Frost was already rushing and kneeling beside her magician lover, cradling her head on her lap with great concern.
"Raven! Are you okay?"
The sorceress stirred and groggily opened her eyes "Ooough… What hit me?"
"Punch to the liver."
Raven's face moved from side to side as if trying to see where the voice was coming from until she finally settled on Frost's face again.
"I see..." She blinked repeatedly "So... What hit me?"
The kunoichi gave an exasperated sigh and picked Raven up, carrying her as if she were her newly wed bride, one hand supporting the back of her head whilst the other was tucked behind the girl's knees. Out of reflex Raven circled her arms around the ninja girl's neck allowing herself to be carried.
"I think that's enough sparring for today," reasoned Frost.
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Jinx was no stranger to living in the streets, before being the top ranking student of the prestigious Hive Academy, before she was even scouted by their agents; she was a regular insignificant street rat. Being a metahuman meant that life had not been kind to Jinx, she had learned to fend for herself from a very tender age. In comparison, Mammoth never had to suffer anyone bullying him due to his giant size and strength and even Gizmo, who was very visible traits to speak of, could easily simply seclude himself if he felt threatened. In fact, in his case, the opposite was true as he was often sought out by others due to his incredible intellect.
For Jinx, the trade off for having bad luck powers was turning into an albino with pink hair and pink eyes, a freak of nature as the children that she grew up with often referred to her; along with any person that she ever met. Her powers were as much as giving bad luck to others as to herself. The girl had jinxed herself.
Because of this she had turned into the epitome of the saying of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Jinx was Nietzsche's poster child; time and time again she had been betrayed by old team mates or double crossed by her own employers who thought they could weasel away from paying her, every time emerging stronger, wiser and more devious. Her insight for strategy came from a complete lack of trust to her fellows and always seeking something that would give her an advantage in a fight. She had no glorious concept about honorable combat; fights were meant to be won by any means necessary and when they couldn't they were to be fled.
Not even Gizmo had the foresight to prepare such an elaborate escape route, he had back up information of all his data but that was the extent of his survival instinct, he was the type of villain that couldn't help but go down with his base due to his recklessness.
Jinx had ensured all escape pods were as tall as Mammoth so that no matter which one the giant chose, everyone could escape safely. This ended up being greatly beneficial for her as well, since Sheeva was as big though not quite as thick as the behemoth, allowing her to share her escape pod with a weakened Jinx.
Now, a few days after their defeat at the hands of Slade's pet zombie shaolin monk, Jinx and Sheeva were alive and well, secluded in a desolated alleyway of Jump City. The down side was that they were now tired, wounded and completely cut off from the rest of their team.
"Gizmo! Come in Gizmo!" The witch yelled fruitless at her communicator, without the tiny inventor to assist her she had to rely on what little understanding she had of radio transmissions. When her communicator failed her she had attempted to use a regular car stolen radio to tune in to their frequency, so far it had yielded nothing other than static, the witch wasn't even sure what she was doing would work.
"Mammoth? Baraka? Anyone?" Grumbling in defeat, Jinx tossed the radio aside too frustrated to continue talking to nothing but white noise. She hated when her plans failed, it was a personal insult to her leadership abilities.
Cursing profusely, Jinx turned the radio off and flipped over the table where it stood sending it tumbling to the ground.
"Calm yourself." Sheeva spoke while crouched on a corner, both her left arms bandaged up after getting broken. "If you destroy that contraption our allies will not be able to reach us at all."
"I know, I'm usually a lot more composed than this." Jinx was quick to realize her childish tantrum could have cost them the only radio they had. She knelt down to inspect it sighing a breath of relief when she realized that it hadn't broken by some miracle, probably using up the last bit of good luck she had.
"I just can't believe we got our hideout swiped from us like that. How in the world could we beat Slade just to have some half eaten living corpse with a martial arts headband make us look like idiots?"
"That was no regular undead we fought, it was Liu Kang, undefeated champion of Mortal Kombat. No has ever been able to best him in single combat."
"I'm sure someone must have defeated him! He's dead now! And I can tell it wasn't by natural causes, or what? Are you gonna tell me he fell off some stairs and broke his neck?"
Sheeva closed her eyes and took a calming breath; she understood Jinx's confusion and frustration because she didn't know the history of the Mortal Kombat events. Relating the entirety of her tale, how the evil sorcerors Shang Tsung and Quan Chi united to take down the Shaolin Monk in an attempt to usurp the power of Outworld for themselves, would be incredibly tedious and needlessly complicated however, if she went into a long tirade of how the problems in her realm came to be, Jinx was going to be left even more confused.
"Trickery." Responded the Shokan simply, her eyes still closed. "He was defeated through tickery. A sorcerer distracted him by posing as his friend while another snuck behind him. It was a dishonorable fight."
"Trickery huh?" Jinx made her signature chesire grin, eyes glinting with mischief as her devilish mind got to work. "That gives me an idea."
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Raven recuperated well from her spar with Nightwolf, even if she was supposed to be a frail magician she was still a super hero and the role demanded great physical endurance. After spending some time collapsed on the sofa, Raven opened her eyes and rubbed her head, awakening to the sounds of sparring to her side.
Nightwolf was the one that was cursed by evil spirits urging him to spill blood, but the rest of the Otherworlders suffered from a similar affliction and the fight had stirred their primal blood lust. Such where the side effects of participating in the Mortal Kombat tournaments.
When Raven opened her eyes and sat up straight on the only sofa the Konquerors had in their lair, she was slightly puzzled when she saw that Jade and Sektor had taken her place on the ring and where now fighting one another. Did these people ever do anything other than punch each other? No wonder their universe exploded.
"Aww sheeyit! Grudge match!" Raven was further stirred awake by Frost's excited cries as she cheered the two kombatants on. As it happened with her fight, Noob Saibot was at the girl's side with Nightwolf now taking the role of the referee.
"Jade, ready? Sektor, ready?" The Shaman looked at both the Amazon and the Cyborg Ninja who nodded, they looked very eager to get on with it, no doubt to relief some tension between the two. "With control you two." Nightwolf reminded them and took a step back.
"Round One."
"Fight!"
"You people really can't enough of it can you?" Raven appeared next to Frost placing her cloak back on in the process; her eyes suddenly wide and alert now that Jade and Sektor began fighting each other.
"Look, we're warriors. This is what we do for fun." Explained Frost, hands on her hips dripping her usual girlish sass. "And what do you mean by 'you people'? Is that some prejudice I'm hearing?"
Raven gave a soft scoff and went to slide next to Frost, arm wrapping around hers. Instantly all of Frost's haughty attitude melted away and she forgot all about the fight, eyes locked on those of Raven. "I mean, I find it amusing that you Outworlders put so much emphasis in fighting. You could do so much more with your powers."
The Ice Kunoichi gave a wry smirk, one that Raven could see since she didn't have her ninja mask on. "It's funny you mention that, because-"
An alert rang out just then to interrupt the match. Jade and Sektor didn't stop despite this and continued to try and outwrestle each other forcing Nightwolf to try and separate them.
"What's that noise?" asked Frost looking up at the red alert sirens Sektor had installed. She wasn't even aware the warehouse had any of that.
The Cybernetic Ninja was the one usually in charge of looking after security, but with him currently tangled up with Jade, Noob took that responsibility and swiftly went to check on their puny little laptop and check on the cameras. Typing away as he put the access codes Sektor had given him, Noob Saibot pulled the camera feeds to the main screen and made an intriguing discovery.
"Looks like someone just wandered into the wrong neighborhood," commented the wraith.
"Let me see!" chirped Frost looking over his shoulder, blue eyes widening with mixed surprise and delight. "Hah! Would you look at that!"
Wondering what had gotten them all riled up, Raven looked over Saibot's other shoulder and arched an eyebrow at what she saw. One of the cameras was showing the bewildered figures of Mammoth, Gizmo and Baraka, talking amongst themselves near a trash can. They were outside their very door steps and apparently had no idea.
"What's the High Five doing out here?" Wondered Raven out loud.
"I dunno, but I'll tell you what are they gonna be doing in a second. Getting pounded! Noob, check where's that little uppity pink haired girl, she and Sheeva should be around there somewhere."
The Shadow Ninja typed away gaining access to all the cameras only showing the empty corridors of Jump City's docks. "Interesting, there's no sign of them."
"No way those three losers have enough initiative to pull a raid on their own. If they're out here it's because that pink haired bitch is telling them to do it." Frost leaned in closer and tried to turn the volume of the laptop up. "Dang it Sektor, didn't you put any sound on the cameras?"
"I lacked the necessary equipment." The Cybrog gave a grunt after he had to be pried off the Amazon and crossed his arms.
"Imma need someone to eavesdrop on their conversation, see if they're planning to flush us out or they're just lost, Jade?"
"I'm on it!" The Edenian Amazon gave a firm nod when Frost looked at her and made a dash for an open window. She may not be able to teleport as Noob Saibot and Sektor could, but she was undeniably the best spy amongst them, it would be easy for her to sneak close to the High Five boys and overhear their conversation.
Raven was admittedly rather surprised at how efficient Frost's group worked. Everyone had an assigned role just like in her team, but there was a discipline that the Teen Titans lacked, Robin always had to drag Beast Boy and Cyborg and Starfire out of their idle activities to get them to work out, or remind them of their patrolling schedule. These people had no such trouble, they had been doing this for a while it seemed, even Frost.
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"This tastes awfull!" Baraka complained as he flicked some sludge off his forearm blade.
"Of course it does, you're eating out of the stinking trash can you butt muncher!"
The High Five boys, Mammoth, Baraka and Gizmo, wandered through the docks with lost expressions in their faces. Their escape pods had dropped them in the ocean and they'd had to swim to shore, and in the process a lot of Gizmo's gadgets had malfunctioned.
Supposedly Jinx had secured an abandoned warehouse for them all so they could regroup, but being the scatter brained guys they were none of them could remember which one it was. Whilst Gizmo tinkered with his radio, Baraka busied himself trying to look for some source of nourishment and was currently rummaging through a large garbage disposal, tearing through bags with his blades and sniffing at the contents. Outworld didn't have any trash cans and they thought of a place where people just threw things to get rid of them was a novelty to the bestial Tarkatan.
"Ugh! I thought you Earthrealmers lived in cities paved with gold and ate from silver platters! This food tastes just as bad as Outworld!" complained the Tarkatan general.
"Yeah, well don't believe all you read in the frakin' internet."
"Guys, listen." Surprisingly, the only voice of reason in the whole debacle was Mammoth. He was forced to do a bit of thinking due to the injury in his arm. With his back to a wall and his rear on the ground, the colossal beast man exhaled a frustrated sigh while he watched Baraka and Gizmo go at each other, one hand resting on his broken, swollen forearm. "We need to get back with Jinx. We're sitting ducks out here. You got any luck yet Gizmo?"
"Waddaya think I've been doing this whole time? Picking my nose like Stabby over here?" Gizmo pointed to Baraka who was, incidentally, picking his nose with his forearm blade. "I can't fix the transmitter with all my equipment stinkin' wet!"
"Well keep trying!" Mammoth yelled back. The giant colossus was not Jinx by any stretch of the imagination. His plan B when something failed was simply to try again but simply applying a lot more force.
Gizmo shouted right back with as much ferocity as his tiny body could generate. "With what parts, mullet head? You think just anyone will toss transmitter parts to the trash?"
"Why not go steal them?" Baraka piped in causing both Gizmo and Mammoth to look first at him, then back at each other.
"Why didn't we think of that before?"
"Because you were too busy yelling at me, booger brains."
Baraka jumped down from the garbage bin with a big wide grin, showing all of his sharp-as-knives fangs. "Ancient Tarkatan wisdom, when you want something, just take it!"
One alone could not bear the burden, two would split apart but with three they were sufficiently balanced to have some initiative. Baraka was a very poor replacement for Jinx's leadership, but at least the two could do something other than argue with each other.
"Alright you guys, let's scrap us some gear so we can take our base back." Mammoth got back up to his massive height of eight feet, popped his forearm back in place with a sickening crack of bone and motioned for the other two members of the High Five to follow him back into the city.
"Frost, did you get all that?" Jade whispered to her radio whilst she eavesdropped on the High Five, hidden behind a building with her back pressed against the wall.
"Roger Jade, stay frosty and keep an eye on 'em, we will be dropping the hammer on those guys in T minus 20. Wait for our signal to attack, over and out." Turning off her communicator, Frost noticed that her team and Raven were giving her very skeptical looks.
"What?"
"Please stop talking like that," muttered Raven.
"Fiiiine," sighed Frost and started issuing out orders. "Nighty, you and Saibot take out the big guy. Sektor, take care of the kid with the gadgets, I don't want a repeat of last time. Baraka is all mine. They're confused and outnumbered; we don't have to worry about them having better strategy than us, just stick to your man and bring 'em down. Let's move!"
"Howgh!" Nightwolf saluted.
"Very well.." Whispered Saibot.
"Initiating." Sektor droned out.
With her team charging out the building, Frost looked over her shoulder to see that Raven was staying put.
"Not joining us?"
"I'd prefer if the High Five don't see me helping you. Jinx may not be with them but they can still mention it to someone that can use it against me."
"Suit yourself." Frost giggled as she ran out after her team, the three of them leaping from roof to roof.
"You'll miss all the fun!"
Mammoth heard the whistling of an arrow before he could react. The sudden painful sensation of a sharp object imbedded on the back of his neck momentarily immobilized him and he reached up reflexively to grasp at it, blood trickling down to his collarbone.
"Oh what now?" whinned Gizmo as he whirled around, bringing the mechanical spider legs out of his backpack to get a better vintage point.
Mammoth gurgled and snarled, pulling the offending glowing green arrow out of his neck. Fortunately his neck muscles where thick enough that they prevented what would have been a fatal injury. Had it been anybody else the arrow would have surely ripped their throat out, but not a powerhouse like Mammoth. It still stung though.
"Argggh...What the hell is this? An arrow!"
"That's one of Nightwolf's! We're under attack!"
"No friggin' kidding!" Gizmo shouted.
The three villains whirled around to see in the direction where the arrow came from. The saw the Apache shaman perched atop a building with a glowing green bow held in his hand. The shaman hailed them fearlessly by standing up straight, raising his arm up into the air and yelling. "AY-YI-YI-YII!"
Mammoth snarled angrily back at him unleashing a bestial roar of his own. His war cry made the very ground shake and drowned out Nightwolf's shout, though this bravado was meaningless in the end as it was something that the Apache wanted Mammoth to do.
With all of them concentrating on the attacking brave, Mammoth didn't notice a shadow creeping under his feet. Suddenly he felt a pair of powerful arms sneak right under his armpit and before he knew it his entire world was spinning as Noob Saibot took him for a ride ending with him crashing head first into the pavement.
"Oh screw this! I'm out!" Gizmo tried to make a run for it but he too felt a pair of arms circling around him, bringing him down from where his robotic spider legs held him high. He struggled for a moment, kicking his legs and cursing loudly until he realized he was face to face to the barrel of a flame thrower.
"You know what this is," came Sektor's somber mechanical voice. "Cease struggling unless you want your face melted off."
At this point, Baraka was more confused than scared (although the notion that a Tarkatan would ever be scared was laughable). Gizmo was incapacitated by Sektor and Mammoth had managed to pry his head out of the ground, but he was now being attack by both Noob and Nightwolf. Even without the broken arm he had no chance of taking on both the Sin Eater and the Shadow Wraith at the same time.
Baraka's decision on who to help was made for him. A bladed circle spun in his direction and he barely managed to deflect it with a quick blade swipe. His yellow eyes glanced to the side in time to see a dark skinned woman garbed in green charging at him, a metal staff held in both her hands.
"Jade..." Baraka snarled under his fanged teeth as he unleashed both blades with a roar.
Making an X block, he stopped an overhead smash from hitting his head and pushed Jade back to try and counter her attack. As he moved to get within range he felt crushing pain on the side of his face as he took a roundhouse kick.
"Yo!" Frost chirped happily watching Baraka stagger to the side and whirled around swiping blindly at her like an enraged animal. The kunoichi cackled and slid backwards with her eyes locked on Baraka, still engaging her target.
The Tarkatan general attempted to charge the spiky haired girl but felt a steel object impact the other side of his head knocking one of his teeth out. Angrily, he turned around and tried to attack Jade again. It was almost pathetic how the two women where flanking him.
Frost threw an ice kunai at his leg making the warrior snarl in anger and pain. While he was momentarily dazed both Jade and Frost attacked him at the same time, Jade thrusting her bo staff on his throat while Frost kicked him in the back of the head, sandwiching him between the two.
"Urggg..." That was it for the mighty Tarkatan. He dropped to his knees holding his neck and collapsed on his side by Jade's feet.
"You make this too easy, Baraka." The Amazon smiled down at him, leaning on her bo staff.
"Hate you...so much..." He struggled to say.
Mammoth had no better luck against his two foes. The giant took a wild swing at Nightwolf, who ducked under it and ran past him sliding an energy knife across his sides to cut his stomach open. Mammoth held his wound with one hand and threw a haymaker punch with his other in an attempt to smash the dodgy shaman.
This too missed, his knuckles crashed into the ground as Nightwolf came to a stop before the punch could hit him, letting Mammoth's arm get stuck into the hole he just made. When he tried to pull it free, Noob Saibot came running at his side and kicked him on his outstretched elbow. It was the exact same spot where Liu Kang had hit him the day before.
With the extra pressure the arm broke again and Mammoth, too fell holding his once again useless limb.
"Mother fuAAAGH!" He felt a powerful hand pulling him by his long hair as Nightwolf held his energy knife to his throat, glaring at him dangerously.
"Yield." He commanded. Mammoth said nothing to that, merely looking angrily at the Apache while he huffed out air in exhaustion and pain.
"Okay, scumbag, where's the other two?" Frost reached down to grasp Baraka by his shirt and pulled him up to her face. The Tarkatan winced from all the cold air she was blowing on him. "I know Sheeva and the other chick were with ya! Did they get fed up with your three and threw you out?"
"Don't tell them anything!" Mammoth yelled to Baraka while he was restrained.
Baraka grinned maliciously and spat in Frost's face. "You hear that girl? As how you Earthrealmers say, We ain't telling you nothin'"
In response, Frost wiped the saliva out of her cheek and slapped Baraka with her open palm before summoning one of her serrated ice daggers. "Maybe you'll start talking after I've carved up that ugly face of yours a little."
"Frost! No!" All looked up when they heard a familiar voice. It was Raven who floated down where the battle had taken place, her cloak fluttered in the wind as she landed before she wrapped herself with it.
"The Titans are here too? This has got to be the most mud sucking, booger munching, fart sniffing day of my life." Gizmo went limp in Sektor's arms.
"What's up Rae? I thought you didn't want to be seen." Frost looked at the sorceress questioningly.
Raven in turn, shook her head. "I changed my mind. I've realized..." She hesitated to speak as if to trying to find the right words. "Frost...this is it, this is the opportunity you have to change your ways."
Frost closed her eyes and deflated, letting go of Baraka just in case he tried to bite her finger off when she was distracted. "Oh brother..." She sighed.
"Listen Frost," Raven continued not letting Frost's attitude dissuade her. "You've taught me a lot lately, you've proven to me that you really are the girl that I took you for. One that ultimately wants to do the right thing." She breathed in feeling the warmness that she was beginning to feel, this reassured her that she was on the right track with Frost.
"Frost, I am not going to hide any longer, let's make this official. Let me call Robin and you can turn these three over to us, it will show him that you're using your power for good."
"Ugh! I gotta deal with what twerp Robin now? That wasn't part of the deal!" Frost reeled back in horror, dreading having to do any interaction at all with the leader of the Titan Titans.
Raven's eyes softened. In the olden days, in the days where she was not allowed to feel anything, where there was only a void within her, the only thing she could do when someone disagreed with her was stare coldly at them.
Today, Frost unwittingly helped her cause by giving her the ability to unleash her emotions. The sorceress took a hint from Starfire and approached the ice kunoichi, looking at her eyes pleadingly. "Frost...please..."
The ninja could not refuse twice in a row that day, Frost's fair face turned a deep shade of red and she turned away breaking eye contact with the sorceress. "F-Fine! Sheesh! Just stop looking at me like that in public. It's embarrassing!"
Frost felt a soft palm grasping her cheek and was forced to look back at Raven. Staring at her with bewildered eyes, her face was cupped by both of the magician's hands, holding her head gently to pull her into kiss. Raven's lips lingered on Frost's blue painted own, slowly pulling back. None of the stoic coldness remained in Raven's eyes, she was positively glowing. "I told you I wouldn't hide it anymore."
"Eeeew! Did they just kiss?" Gizmo said making gagging noises.
"Hey, shut up, I'm trying to enjoy the show here. Gotta get at least something good outta this beating."
"I don't care, any display of affection just makes me sick to my stomach. Hey! If you two are done trading saliva can we please get a move on it?"
Raven went back to her usual somber mood and shot Gizmo a glare. "We'll be taking you to jail soon enough." Placing her hood up, Raven looked at Frost at the still shocked Frost and gave a quick nod. "I left my transmitter with Starfire, so I'll have to fly up there. Take them to the warehouse and I'll talk to you from there after I've worked things out with Robin." Giving Frost a parting caress to her cheek, Raven took to the skies and headed in the direction of the Titan Tower.
After Baraka, Gizmo and Mammoth were safely secured by a restraining spell Noob Saibot cast on them, Jade decided it was time to step out of the shadows and confront Frost. She had kept quiet about her relationship with the sorceress for too long.
"Frost." The Amazon placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. For her part, Frost was completely at ease reading a magazine while waiting for Raven to call her.
"Yeah?" She looked up.
"First of all, allow me to apologize for the way I've mistreated you. I admit now that you are a very competent leader and I was acting out of line by questioning you all the time. For that, I am sorry. Your title of prodigal Lin Kuei student is well deserved."
The kunoichi raised her eyebrows in surprise, but she knew that something else was coming and kept quiet. Just as she thought, Jade spoke again.
"With that out of the way however, I must ask you. What are your true intentions with this girl? I can see that she loves you very much."
"Hm? Raven and I are just fooling around, it's nothing really serious. I'll figure out a way to shake her off that mad notion she's got about making us all heroes. Girl has to grow up and realize not everything's black and white."
Jade placed her fists on her hips and stared at Frost looking very disappointed. "Frost..." She began.
"You really didn't think I was okay with us becoming heroes did ya? I made you guys a promise; we'll become the rules of this world one way or another. I'll convince Raven this is the way to go and we can stay together, no big deal."
The Amazon shook her head and decided to sit next to Frost. The kunoichi leaned her cheek on her hand sensing that Jade was about to give her a long sermon.
"Here we go… it's like having Nightwolf in stereo." She muttered.
"Frost, you can't lead on the poor girl like that. You care about her a lot too it seems. For that reason alone you should be honest with her."
"I was gonna tell 'er eventually. I figured it wasn't a good idea when she was covering me with kisses you know? Didn't want to get strangled in case she flipped out."
Frost felt Jade placing her hand on hers to get her attention. "Frost, you may be a prodigal fighter and leader, but you are still very young in comparison to most of us. I've been alive for more than a thousand years and have some experience in these matters, enough to know that what you are planning to do will do much more harm than good. Allow me to share some wisdom to you as a friend."
"You ain't no friend of mine Jade, quit lying."
"Yes, I am." Jade said severly. "I am now. Frost, after what we've been together I consider you one, even Noob Saibot and..." The Amazon tightened her lips a little before speaking again "And... even Sektor. It is as you said; it is different here."
The Wraith elbowed Sektor a few times when he overheard that. "Isn't that cute? Chan has a new friend now."
"Go burn in the Netherealm, Bi-Han." Sektor just gave a grunt and continued reviewing things on the computer.
"I've been there already." Chuckled Saibot.
"Alright, waddaya want to tell me?" Frost grew impatient, her plan was just to nod and pretend she was going to do whatever Jade told her only to really just ignore her and carry on with business as usual. It was not so much because she was a deceptive ninja, but because that was the norm for girl's her age told to do something by an authority figure.
"I...experienced a similar situation to yours many centuries ago." Jade began. "This may surprise you but I was...am...in love with Princess Kitana."
Frost gave a scoff and laughed. "Actually, you're kinna not fooling anyone with that Jade. You're in a proverbial transparent closet."
The Edenian bodyguard blinked a few times surprised by this development and turned to Nightwolf. "Nightwolf? You knew this as well?"
"Ermm..." The shaman had tried to distance himself from the conversation, trying to instead keep his attention on the prisoners, yet he saw no way to untangle himself from the mess he knew it was coming. "Yes… Everyone knew of your infatuation with the Princess. It was quite obvious, in fact, I think the only one that was not aware of it was Johnny Cage."
"Well..." Jade was honestly quite surprised and blushed slightly, still visible despite her sun kissed skin. "Leaving that as it may, I never told this to Kitana. For centuries, I watched from afar as she was betrothed to Prince Rain, always restraining myself from confessing my feelings. When Kitana chose Liu Kang as her best suitor I still held my tongue, hoping that my heart would find comfort knowing that my beloved was happy. And now, I shake with sorrow at the thought of never seeing her again, to think that I may be stuck in this dimension forever without her knowing that-"
"Okay, okay… cut the sap please." Frost made a time-out gesture with her hands. "What's does that have to do with me?"
"Frost, if you are not honest with your feelings I can guarantee you are going to regret it. If you continue this path with Raven and lead her to think that you will eventually join her cause, she may ask further commitment from you. Why, mayhap, when you both are of age, she might even want to marry you."
At that, Frost laughed loudly and kicked her legs. "Don't be ridiculous! Do I look like the marrying kind to you? Besides, that's like, illegal in these parts."
"Actually..." Sektor spoke up, unable to not butt in on the conversation. "According to this article, Jump City is obligated by Californian Law to allow marriage between same genders, unlike China. It could be a possibility the sorceress may attempt to do this."
"Oh..shit." Frost's eyes went wide and she felt fear that she never felt before. Her imagination went wild with images of her in a tuxedo carrying Raven bridal style, the Titans seated on Raven's side with her team seated on hers… Them living in a normal house with a bunch of adopted children and all of them crying… Having to do their homework and...and...
"No way." She hadn't taken into account that American laws were drastically different from China's.
"Not happening."
"I gotta break up with her."