Authors' note: All right I'm back with another chapter, took me a while to figure this one out but I think you'll like what I have in store. Enjoy
Teen Titans All Stars
Chapter 11
Dissolution
"Titans come in do you read me?" Anarky asked.
Lifting the button on his communicator he received nothing but dead air.
"Your communicator is useless. Nothing can get in or out of this place." Orpheus told him.
"So we're pretty much on our own." Rose said.
"Yeah, you can see why it's so important to get outside people in here." He said facing her.
"Yeah except now we're cut off from our teams so how are we suppose to get out of here?" Eddie asked.
"Like I said, I work security. I know every square inch of this place every exit, every camera." He told them.
"So then what about Batwoman?" Anarky asked stepping forward.
Orpheus put two fingers to the temple of his helmet and started scanning the building's blueprints. Her image came up on screen and showed her lying down with a mass of people surrounding her. He groaned and shook his head.
"She's in the main hall, I think there going to sacrifice her." he said.
"Let's move!" Anarky said racing past them.
"Why would they sacrifice her?" Rose asked.
"That's one thing I haven't figured out yet about this organization. All I can guess is that their planning something big." He said as they raced down the hallway.
Back in the main hall Batwoman struggled as Mannheim started the ceremony by opening the Crime Bible. Back in the corridor Orpheus alerted the team to an upcoming obstacle.
"There's a camera 40 feet ahead." He told them.
"I got it!" Kid Devil said as he leaped through the air and tore it apart with his claws.
The screen went blank in the control room with no one paying attention to it. The guards were too busy watching the ceremony on the main screen. Just as they were coming around the corner the team ran into Jinx catching both teams off guard. Immediately she flung a series of energy blades at them the guys dodged them as best they could. Rose nailed her with a flying kick to the chest and knocked her against a wall. Ravager put her blade to Jinx's neck to finish her.
"We don't have time for that!" Orpheus yelled turning the corner and ran into the rest of her team.
"Hey what are you guys doing down here?!" Mammoth yelled.
"Take em out!" Orpheus yelled.
The two sides went on the offensive; the Hive brute threw a punch at Orpheus missing him as he slid between his legs. Mammoth looked up and saw Osiris coming at him. The teen cupped his hands together summoning a magical lightning ball and thrust it at his chest knocking the Goliath through a wall. Gizmo fired his rockets at Anarky; Rose jumped in front of him and crossed her swords creating a force field. Once the threat subsided Anarky threw himself into the air and knocked Gizmo out of the sky with his staff to the skull knocking him out.
"Nice teamwork." She smiled.
"Thanks." He said.
See-More was all that was left as he launched a series of eyeball attacks at the group each having it's own ability. But the team shot past the attacks and hurdled towards him.
"Waa!" he yelled as they knocked him out with a joint punch to the face.
Just then Cinderblock appeared blocking the hallway, Golden Eagle sailed forward with an electrified mace in hand and smashed his face with it taking the giant down as the rest of the team maneuvered past him.
"So it has been prophesized in the Book of Cain, that if a virgin heroine of the purest blood is slain by the Sacred Stone of Cain then that untainted blood shall let loose the Demon King of Hell. And start a glorious revolution of blood. The Batwoman is that heroine, and now let us bring our lord to Earth, the great and powerful Neron!" he cried.
Upon hearing this some of the villains started to murmur amongst themselves. Some of which were starting to question the cult leader's sanity.
"What's wrong?" he growled. Brother Blood stepped forward from the masses and cleared his throat.
"Uh Mr. Mannheim are you certain this is what the Book of Crime says?" he asks.
"You doubt my authority Blood?" he asked.
"Of course not I've dealt with plenty of wackjobs in my lifetime. What I'm asking is, are you certain that book is what you claim it is?" he asked. The audience started to side with Blood on this one.
"How dare you, my men found the Crime Bible in an underground Turkish temple dating back hundreds of years this book is bound by the original stone Cain used to slay Abel." He said holding up a sling like rock.
"The murder of Abel brought evil into the world and thus we are bound by it. Evil is an unstoppable force that has overtaken the world and will be the new rule in this 21st Century Day!" he yelled.
"Listen Manny, I know a thing or two about evil cults. And if there's anything I know it's that bringing the Devil to Earth is a horrid idea. So unless you want to doom us all I suggest you step back from this charade." Blood told him.
"It seems as though we have a dissenter in our ranks." Mannheim said in a low voice.
An explosion blew out a wall as Orpheus, Ravager and the others made their debut.
"Looks like I'm not the only one." Replied Blood.
As the team faced the ranks of the HIVE 500 and Intergang, the cult members themselves didn't know who to fight.
Mannheim drew in a frustrated breath of air.
"The HIVE 500 are no longer part of us, destroy them all!" he yelled.
Well that answered that, the members of Intergang turned against their ex-brethren drawing their guns while the Hive had more unique weapons to rely on. As the battle soon devolved into a free for all, the 'Titans' made their way through the battlefield to save Babs. Some like Golden Eagle flew over the battle while others like Ravager and Kid Devil went right through them. Orpheus' shoes became rollerblades and drew a pair of oversized daggers from his thighs and cut through the ranks. Osiris blew others away with his lightning blasts and feats of strength. Taking down villains with several well placed hits as he tore through the flood of villains while Brother Blood rushed the stage to take on Mannheim. The Hive leader came at him with a flying kick that knocked him back into the curtains. Blood then turned his attention to Batwoman.
"Nothing personal." He told her as Mannheim came back at him with a flying kick.
"You think you have what it takes to beat me? I've taken down guys that were a thousand times worse than you!" Mannheim growled.
"Says that pot to the kettle." Smirked Blood.
Mannheim created a golden energy ball in his left hand and hurled it at Blood. The villain was thrown off stage into the riot as Mannheim turned to sacrifice Babs.
"Now where were we?" he asked picking up the jagged sling.
"Here!" she yelled as her binding tore lose and hit him in the face.
Barbara undid the rest of her bindings and was free, and came flying at him with an airborne roundhouse kick. Mannheim blocked the attack and skidded back on his feet as Barbara landed in a crouched down fighting stance. Mannheim came charging back at her wielding the Stone of Cain. Barbara did a one handstand and kicked his chest spinning around in the air before landing another kick knocking him into the podium and breaking it. Mannheim groaned clutching his chest as he struggled to get up.
"Not bad little lady." He groaned.
Barbara returned to a fighting stance without saying a word.
"The strong, silent type huh?" he said getting up.
"I'm more a girl of action." She told him.
As the battle continued on the Titan-esk members were being overpowered by the combined effort of the HIVE and Intergang while they were still fighting each other. Being outnumbered a million to one Orpheus and the others wouldn't last much longer. Eddie slashed at several gang members with his claws and shot flames at the members of the HIVE, while Orpheus fought off the ones he could with his blades. And employed the technology in his suit to issue out a force blast through his glove that threw several bad guys back, Rose was cutting through the ranks with her swords while Osiris used his lightning powers to punch his way through the slew of gang members. While Golden Eagle punched out several HIVE teammates with his armored fists while smashing another one across the chest with his mace and sent him flying into the wall and ceiling. Batwoman continued her battle with Mannheim who blasted her staff in half before throwing another punch at her. As she ducked Blood blasted him with his Sonic Cannon and threw him into a wall. As she looked over her shoulder Blood turned and fired at her and sent her to the ground as he got back on the stage. Bruno got back on his feet and formed an energy ball in his hands and blasted Brother Blood.
The cyborg jumped over the beam as it flew over the crowd and took out a wall on the far side of the building. Brother Blood came down on him with his cannon charged and blasted him before his foot reached Mannheim's chest. The blast missed him by inches but his foot was dead on and sent them through a blue curtain. Down on the ground Mannheim formed an energy blade with his hand and slashed off Blood's right hand.
"No!" he yelled before Mannheim punched him in the chest and knocked him back.
"You're probably wondering where I got these powers?" he told him.
"I'm guessing you got them from the Crime Bible." He responded.
"Correct." Bruno replied.
"Figured as much, there's no way a regular person like yourself could suddenly develop powers." Brother Blood said getting to his feet.
"With the exception of metahumans." Mannheim finished.
"And I have a file on almost every metahuman on the planet." Blood told him.
"And I now have powers the likes of which the world has never seen." Mannheim said with hands glowing.
"Like I haven't heard that before." Blood scoffed.
Mannheim growled and went to power up before he could, the building started to quake and a nearby wall was blown apart. As the two looked up, everyone else that was fighting turned their attention and saw the Titans made their grand entrance.
"Is this a private party?" Nightwing asked.
"Because we're crashing." Said Raven.
"The Titans!" Blood yelled.
"Oh boy are we glad to see you guys." Said Orpheus.
"Looks like we're just in time." said Cy.
"Let's see if this evens the odds a little." Replied Beast Boy.
"Attack!" Brother Blood yelled.
"Titans go!" yelled Nightwing.
As mobsters opened fire on the Titans Raven opened her cloak and absorbed a score of mobsters sending them into another dimension. While Nightwing worked this way through the troops taking everyone down with a series of strikes with his staff and dropped like flies. Beast Boy turned into a tiger and clawed at several Hive students. While Cyborg cleared a path with his sonic cannon and Starfire cleared her own with a flurry of starbolts. Terra tore up the ground knocking villains off balance as she flew past. Red Robin sliced his way through the ranks with his sword making his way over to Rose while Red X used his shurikens and performed martial arts. Nite-Wing was close by doing his own thing with his staff. In minutes the team had decimated the entire ranks of Intergang and the Hive whose fast and furious drive didn't give either side time to react. Nightwing made it the stage shortly thereafter to facedown the two men and the rest of his team appeared behind him. Brother Blood wisely decided to retreat from the battle.
"I'd love to stay and chat but I have more important things to attend to." He said before teleporting out taking the unconscious Hive students with him.
"Looks like it's just us then." Nightwing said.
"You think I'm afraid of you guys?" he said wielding a massive energy ball in his hands.
Nightwing got back as Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, Orpheus, Arsenal, Osiris and Kid Devil combined their powers into a colossal energy blast as Mannheim threw his. The combined energies overpowered it and sent it flying back at Mannheim the gangster yelled as he was blown away by the blast but didn't kill him. The cult leader hit a wall his cloak and suit were ruined and was knocked unconscious.
"You ok?" Nightwing asked Babs.
"Yeah I'm fine, thanks for coming." She said.
"No problem." He told her.
Barbara turned and walked over to the Crime Bible lay discarded on the floor and picked it up. Inside was an illustration of her being sacrificed.
"He wasn't kidding." She said picking it up and placing the edge of it on her thigh.
"What is it?" Dick asked kneeling down beside her.
"It's a Crime Bible, I thought Mannheim was full of it but apparently he wasn't." she said examining the book.
"We'll get it processed, let's get these guys rounded up." he told the group.
"Already on it." Raven said going for her communicator to alert the police.
Later that evening at Titans Tower, Barbara sat on the ledge overlooking the ocean when Dick approached her.
"Everything ok?" he asked sitting down next to her.
"It's just a lot to take in." she said looking down at the island.
"I was almost sacrificed today to bring Neron to Earth, I didn't know what to expect if I was going to make it out of there or what." She said solemnly.
"I can't imagine what that must be like, I've been in plenty of life and death situations before but I've never been through what you went through. You know I wouldn't put you in danger, maybe I should reconsider my role as leader." He said.
"No Dick…" she said touching his arm.
"You're a great leader, you know the risks and what we face on a daily basis." She told him.
"But I should done more research and assessed the greater risk before I sent anyone in there. If anything happened to you or anyone else on this team, I wouldn't forgive myself." He said.
"That's just part of life." She told him.
"She's right you know." Star said they looked back and saw her coming towards them.
"Sorry I didn't mean to eavesdrop." She said.
"No you weren't eavesdropping." Barbara told her.
Nightwing leaned back on his palms and stared up at the night sky.
"Sometimes I wonder if I have any right to do this kind of stuff." He said.
"We trust you wholeheartedly and you've always come through for us in the past." Kori told him.
"And what makes you a great leader is that you don't give up, so don't start now. You have a lot of people that depend on you." Barbara told him.
"Thanks." He said.
"Besides you've seen what happens when you're gone. This team would be a mess without you." Kori told him.
The Titan leader cracked a smile.
"That's true, when one of us goes the whole damn team falls apart." he said with a chuckle.
"And you're the one that held the team together when the Beta Titans disbanded." Said Kori.
"Yeah." He said with a sigh.
"Well as long as you're all right I guess that's all that matters." He said patting Barbara's shoulder before standing up and walking out.
"He really is a great leader." Said Kori.
"Yeah but even then that's a lot of responsibility to put on a man's shoulders." Said Barbara.
Author's Note: All right what did you think of that? Hope you guys liked it. I tried to get this out as soon as I can so I'm sorry for the wait. Let me know what you think. Already planning out the next storyline.
Please review
Green Gallant.