CH21: Titanfall Part2

"5…4…3…2…1"

(BOOM)

The synthetics were bombs. Or so I thought. They sure sounded like bombs. I saw the flash go off followed by the thundering sound of the detonation. And yet all the Titans were in one piece. The smoke cleared, and I saw them scattered along the floor. Robin was on top of Starfire having attempted to shield her from the blast. Cyborg managed to land on top of Beast Boy and I could tell he was in major discomfort due to the tin man's weight. And Raven… her hair was messed up and her costume was a bit scorched, but otherwise she seemed fine.

"What… hit us?" Robin asked helping Starfire to her feet.

"Concussion bombs. I wouldn't risk your wellbeing. After all, I've got plans for you meddlesome Titans."

Concussion bombs? They still should have caused more damage than what was dealt especially at the proximity they were at. I can only assume Raven managed to set up some kind of barrier to protect herself and her friends from the initial shockwave.

"It's five on two. We're going to kick your butts!" Beast Boy shouted.

"Count again my green friend."

Finally. That was my cue to swoop in and give an impressive entrance. I teleported myself right in front of Beast Boy and punched him in the face.

'That was for hitting me with your tail jerk.'

"Kyd?" Raven asked wide eyed. The look she gave me was like the one Jinx had given me back at her apartment. Why did everyone think I was gone?

"Raven, get him!" Robin shouted as he took out his retractable bow staff and swung at me.

Too easy. I dodged it and did a reverse kick right into the boy wonder's ribs. He'll be feeling that for a while. I then heard the charging of a cannon, Cyborg's to be exact. He proceeded to fire bursts of plasma at me, but I skillfully teleported from place to place making him miss each time. While he was firing, Beast Boy tried to ram me in rhino form while Starfire used her starbolt eye-beams. I jumped out of the way of Cyborgs blast, opened a portal for Beast Boy seconds before he was about to ram me, made him reappear in the air, and used his initial inertia to slam into Starfire who was hovering above.

(BAM)

Beast Boy and Starfire smashed into the floor together whilst I closed the gap between me and Cyborg. I attempted to slice off his cybernetic arm using my blades only to be thwarted by Robin who blocked me with his bow staff.

I charged at Robin with both cape blades in hand. I sliced, diced, horizontally, vertically, and parried. But this Titan kept blocking me blow for blow. Cyborg attempted to get some shots in as well, but I made sure to steer clear of his massive fists. I didn't stand a chance against them by myself.

I warped next to Slade and Ravager putting the battle on pause. Raven who had made no move against me during our skirmish, stood in the same place in shock. I guess she legitimately did not think she would see me again, which infuriated me. The girl whom I had spent so much time with in The Bleed and had even shared feelings for was just going to let me rot in a frozen stasis. Man, that hurts. In my moment of reminiscing, Slade broke the silence.

"Allow me to introduce you all to my newest apprentice, Kyd Wykkyd. He's one of the poor unfortunate souls whom you all sealed away. And now with him by my side, yours will fall."

"It's still only five on three. Those are bad odds." Cyborg said.

"Yea, for you." Ravager replied as she drew her twin katanas. Slade also took out his own bow staff while I grabbed my cape, ready to teleport if necessary.

Cyborg transformed both his arms into sonic cannons while Beast Boy turned into a Gorilla. Starfire's eyes were glowing emerald green and her fists both had starbolts on hand ready to deploy. Raven who was recovering from the shock of seeing me, managed to find her fighting spirit and levitated over the ground with her white eyes and discharging black magic.

"Slade is mine." Robin said.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of his lackeys." I heard Raven say. Now she was just trying to piss me off.

"TITANS GO!"

In an instant, Robin was fighting Slade one on one while Ravager charged at the remaining four Titans.

Cyborg was blasting away as she made headway, getting closer with each shot he missed. I concentrated and opened a portal under her feet and she dove in like a kid jumping into a pool, emerging above Cyborg and bringing down her blades on the metal man.

(SLICE)

"Aaaarrrggg."

I saw what used to be Cyborg's arm fall to the floor and short circuit. In retaliation, he brought down his other arm in hopes of striking her while she recovered from the touchdown from my portal. Imagine his surprise when she blocked his punch and countered with a kick to his abdominals.

(BAM BAM BAM)

I was surrounded by a bombardment of starbolts. I tried to home in on the source but the ground beneath me separated itself from the foundation and levitated.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Raven flipped the ground I was on upside down and propelled it towards the floor thinking it would squash me.

Instead I warped out of there just in time, located the heroines causing me grief and flew straight at them.

Starfire was the first to react. She fired multiple blasts at me which I nimbly dodged at first. When the second barrage was heading my way, a black aura enveloped me and kept me from moving.

(BAM BAM BAM)

All three starbolts hit me. It hurt like a bitch.

'Goddammit!'

I mustered every little bit of willpower I had when Starfire used her starbolt eye-beams. If those hit me, I would most likely lose consciousness. I outstretched my hand and barely managed to open a portal right in front of me in which the blast went into. I opened the connecting portal right behind Raven.

(BAM)

The blast scorched her and made her lose concentration. I was free from her binding aura and warped over Starfire before they had a chance to recover.

(Slice)

"AAAAHHHHH"

I sliced through Starfire like a knife through hot butter. The beginning of my incision started at the top of her left breast and ended at her right hip. She was bleeding, a lot. She proceeded to hurl more starbolts at me, but her aim was off. At this point she was like an out of control machine gun spraying and praying.

I teleported behind her and put her in a head lock. Biggest mistake of my life. I forgot how strong this alien girl was. I'm pretty sure the elbow jab she gave me fractured my ribs. I'm surprised they weren't broken after that blow. Needless to say, I no longer had her in a headlock. I was instead embedded in a wall several stories high contemplating my life decisions.

I got my bearings after a couple seconds and refocused on taking down Starfire. I teleported behind her and cut her again. This time the incision went straight down her back. She swung her arm around trying to hit me but I teleported to yet another side of her and cut her thigh. I repeated my attack pattern again and again. I cut up her other thigh, her arms, her chest again, over and over in hopes that the blood loss would knock her out or at least exhaust her. It did.

After about the twelfth cut, she began to fade in and out of consciousness to the point where she could no longer stay levitated. She began to plummet to the ground and I thought she was going to make a bigger crater than I did, until Raven caught her with her magic and eased her down gently.

I looked around and saw Robin holding his own against Slade, almost overpowering him most likely due to the shock and anger of seeing his girlfriend be shredded to ribbons by yours truly. Ravager had Cyborg and Beast Boy on the ropes. Cyborg was still missing his arm and had more scratches on his metal plating to compliment the sparks he was discharging. Beast Boy had shifted from ape form into a tiger and most of his stripes were red due to the cuts Ravager must have dealt to him.

By the looks of things, we had the upper hand, so far.

I then found myself in a pitch-black barrier and saw Raven now a couple meters away from me.

"Why would you do this?" She asked gritting her teeth.

'Why?'

She dared ask that? Did none of the Titans have the realization of what they had done to us? I began to slice away at her barrier furiously. The more I sliced, the more strained Raven looked. Finally, my perseverance overwhelmed her concentration. The barrier burst open and I soared towards the blue haired enchantress.

(POW)

I socked her in the stomach with my knee which resulted in her spitting up blood from her mouth onto my costume.

'Why would I do this?'

I karate chopped her neck and sent her plummeting down to the ground. I saw her hit the floor hard and crack the foundation. I could have really hurt her, but I didn't care. I was overcome by my emotions. I felt anger, betrayal, and sadness all at once. The Titans would know that what they did to us villains was wrong, and they would pay the price.

Raven stood up and I warped right behind her, kicked the back of her knee joints, and forced her on her knees. I walked in front of her and looked her over. She looked like shit. I almost felt bad. There was blood on her mouth and she still had burns and holes in her outfit due to the concussion bombs going off.

'Do you have any idea what you and your friends did to us?'

Raven looked up at me. "We beat you and had you all imprisoned."

This girl was as clueless as Jinx. I grabbed her by the cowl and lifted her up so that her gaze was level with mine, so that she could look into my eyes as I told her the atrocity she had committed.

'That was not prison. Prisons have bars, room to walk, air to breathe! You and your Titan friends gave us a fate worse than prison! When you froze us, our lives stopped. We may have been unconscious, but we had enough self-awareness that we were indeed alive. We were unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to live! We lost weeks of our lives due to the cryostasis and when I awoke it was evident that Jump City's heroes had no intention of coming back for us. You left us to a fate worse than death.'

Raven's scowl loosened up a little and was replaced with a look of empathy.

"Well, now you know how it feels. It's not like we planned to freeze you all. We just decided to use your own weapon against you all. Besides, you villains would have left us for dead also, on display while your reign of terror took place should you have won."

I threw Raven across the floor.

'That's not the point! Titans are supposed to be better than villains. If heroes have the capacity to leave multiple people in cryogenic stasis disregarding their right to life, who can anyone trust?'

"I'm not saying what we did was right. What I am saying is that you all deserved it."

'No one deserves that!'

"Then why did you freeze the heroes? Knowing what you do now about how awful it is to be a living popsicle, how can you ever justify the freezing of the Titans, or anyone for that matter?"

I thought about it long and hard. This girl Raven… had a point. It was awful being in that frozen state and I would hate for anyone to be in that situation. Why would I condone the freezing of Titans? Perhaps it was because I hadn't experienced the effects myself at that point. And the freezing of the heroes was the Brain's idea after all. I was just along for the ride as were the rest of the villains that joined the Brotherhood.

"Well?" Raven asked.

'I don't know. I can't justify any of it knowing what I do now about being frozen. But at the time I had no idea it was so awful. It was all the Brain's idea. He designed the machine and deliberately put the Titans on display when we were done freezing them.'

"It doesn't excuse your actions, at all! Thanks to you and your buddies, lots of Titans were frozen that day."

'No, it doesn't excuse you and your Titan friends. You all knew what it felt like to be frozen before the villains did. Hell, you would think Robin himself would stand against that inhumane form of containment. But instead, you all blindly chose to ignore the fact and leave us petrified in our suffering. The villains were ignorant to the awful effects the freezing had on the body. You Titans were not!'

During our chat, Raven had picked herself off the floor and was a couple feet away from me. The battles around us raged on. Ravager was still fighting Beast Boy and Cyborg while Robin took on Slade. Starfire was unconscious on the ground, but me and Raven were in a world of our own. Then Raven said something that I would never forget.

"I'm sorry."

I was taken aback. I had no idea what to say. The anger and fury I felt moments ago subsided.

"I'm sorry we left you all there in that state. And most of all, I'm sorry that even with what we went through and experienced in the Bleed, I never went back for you. But now Slade has two of our friends, and his aim from what I gathered thus far is the complete extermination of all Titans. Kyd, you said you and your friends were left to a fate worse than death. If you help Slade succeed, the fate of the Titans, including me, WILL be death!

Raven always did have a knack for arguing. But Slade never said anything about killing the Titans. I don't think he would have to with the Immobilizer. But if Raven was right and Slade had his way, I would have had helped with a genocide.

Was simple revenge worth the lives of all the Titans?

Was it worth Raven's life?

What was I going to do?