FIGHT
I envisioned the climactic scene of this chapter since before I wrote the first chapter. No, seriously. It explains why Pride goes UBER STU. But it had to happen...
Into the world, the Darkness has tapped. To the Shadows, we can only Adapt.
Taokii's Flagship...
Pride sliced through legions after legions. He was a Darkagon, created specifically for the purpose of fighting another paragon of darkness. These pathetic imitations couldn't put a dent in him. He sometimes wondered why they tried. It didn't matter if they came at him with staves, guns, swords, or even fisticuffs. They were swimming in Darkness, and that energy couldn't touch Pride.
Space...
Terra was not built for space dogfights. Any blasts that hit her ship rattled her severely. The last shot that hit her ship bruised in her several places. Cyborg had her ship's chair double-padded, but it didn't help as much as she liked.
She swerved passed one ship and let a laser blast tear into the cockpit of a different one. She played several games with Beastboy, which had helped her reflexes. Then there's just the fact that women don't overthink their shots like men do. They just point and fire. More effective with swift, but large, targets.
Terra barrel rolled and closed her eyes to reduce the twirling effect and help her keep her lunch down. She fired off several shots where she saw the fleet, hoping to take some out. She had.
Beastboy was having the time of his life. He had taken the simulator on the Mini T-Ships and actually programmed it for a similar event to what was happening. He was constantly zipping from side to side and doing loopty-loops to avoid shots. Lasers zipped from his gun barrels at any target he saw. Fortunately, there was a vast difference in color schemes between the yellow Mini T-Ships and the dark gray Shadow Ships.
"Hey, Terra, hangin' in there!?" he shouted over the headset.
"I've used two doggie bags and my body is turning purple and blue."
"Yikes. Sorry to hear that."
He decided to get Terra a lot of chocolates to accompany the ice packs he'd get her. Of course, that thought was pushed away as soon as a shot hit the side of his ship.
"Damn it!"
"Relax, BB. These ships can take a nuke."
Cyborg's message was only somewhat comforting. Beastboy had been trying to take down 100 ships without getting shot once. He had gotten to 83.
Several ships went inactive as Beastboy fired more aggressively in his anger of his perfect record being smirched.
Throne Room...
The large doors were blown to hell, smashed to bits, as Pride burst through to find his quarry. He was covered in blood.
"Ah, the triumphant search has come to an end." Taokii said, offhandedly.
"Yeah. I've gotten the end of this wretched maze. I killed a lot of your soldiers to do it, but I did it." Pride said.
Taokii stood up and walked down off his throne to equal ground with Pride. They then assumed battle stances.
"Three." Taokii started.
"Two." Pride said.
"ONE!" they roared.
No Darkness was visible, however, as the two charged each other. This was an honorable battle. Humanoid against humanoid. Just raw skill. But how long that battle will last is up in the air.
Space...
Cyborg was proud of his work. It had taken him months of focused work to do it, but he had created technology so advanced, George Lucas would be calling him to see if he could bring the Death Star to reality any day now. Or at least some X-Wings.
Cyborg, of course, had a personal Mini T-Ship. It was designed for him to actually respond to his thoughts. A cord was connecting his arms to the board in front of him. It read his electronic signals to discern the brain waves and react accordingly, all the while giving him feedback on the environment.
He went into a straight-up climb, to allow to pursuers to crash into each other and implode. Darkness colliding at several hundred miles per hour had some strange effects.
Cyborg then went into a nose-dive and blasted several ships in his path. He smiled, almost insanely, with the pride he felt on creating such masterpieces.
Scalpel was mostly unfamiliar with the machine. Robin had made the Titans go through basic training procedures in the simulator. All he had gleaned was how to move and how to shoot. There was little red button on top of the joystick he used to move...
Scalpel came to the conclusion that Cyborg played too many video games. He was glad because of it, though, because the joystick design was simple in comparison to those massive boards filled with multi-colored buttons and flashing lights and charts he had seen on those wretched things humans used to fly and fight in. He shuddered at the thought of having to operate such ridiculous machinery.
He was glad they were in space. In space, there was no noise. Which means he couldn't hear the sounds of guns firing, ships exploding, people screaming. Those were the sounds of wars he'd rather leave behind.
A duck and swerve, he had dodged two shots and fired off five. One blew through the ship that fired at him, rendering it inactive. Three flew by and hit different ships in the main fleet. One eventually dissipated in the far reaches of space.
Gauntlet was on the same level of Beastboy. This was the most fun he'd had in... the last time he'd played a video game, which had been a few minutes before takeoff.
Barrel rolls were real. Swerves were real. Lasers were real. Implosions or explosions were real.
His ship rattled and he jerked about as the screen shot up a message detailing the damage.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, the enemy ships were real too.
He squinted his eyes and looked around to see the shooter. He spotted what might have been the offender and took off.
"THIS IS MORE FUN THAN ANY VIDEO GAME EVER!"
"Don't scream into your intercom!" Savior snapped.
There was the odd thing that Gauntlet was activating his headset to talk to Savior. Savior noticed that immediately afterwards and growled lowly about poisoning drinks.
Throne Room...
Pride slammed his fist into Taokii's gut, then followed it up with a kick to the shins. Taokii grunted, but took a swing at Pride's head. Pride ducked back, did a back flip and landed on all fours. He shot out his right leg in a wide arc that slammed Taokii's legs out from under him.
Taokii fell to the floor, then pulled his knees up to his chest and kicked out in a rapid motion to slam his feet into the standing Pride's chest. Taokii kicked off, hit the ground hands first, but pushed off the ground and landed on his feet.
Pride was sent to the floor and skidded several feet. His eyes turned solid black.
"I'm through with the warm-up." Pride growled.
He floated in the air and claws formed over his hands. Taokii smiled as black energy surrounded his hands, molding them into claws as well.
Space...
"Titans! We need to get into that Flagship! Pride's already boarded it. It's probably the main ship! Athenian formation!" Robin ordered.
They had been given the basic gist of about five formations, and were told to memorize them. The T-Ships gotten into a small group, then put distance between themselves, and shot forward, zipping about each other, but never blocking each other from shooting constantly.
In this, rather disorganized, formation, they managed to get through the fleet and board the ship.
Throne Room...
Pride tossed off his shirt and let his wings unfurl. Taokii smirked and charged at his equal opposite. They met, claw to claw. Pride pushed away Taokii, then sliced with both claws at his foe. Taokii dodged the claws, then punched Pride across the face.
Pride growled ferally and formed a whip of black energy, which cracked out across Taokii's face, then snapped out again and wrapped around his arm. Pride reached back and pulled Taokii to him. His claws sunk into Taokii's chest. Ben's soldier spat in his face, then pulled out his claws and elbowed him in the solar plexus.
Mal's soldier moaned in pain, then held up his hands to his chest. Black energy covered it, and the wounds healed. He smirked and formed a spear of dark energy, which he threw at Pride. Pride ducked under it, then threw himself forward in a slide-like maneuver, but he never touched the ground. His wings flapped hard and he shot for Taokii. Taokii crouched down, then jumped hard and defied gravity by staying the air.
Pride flew up after him and they met in a midair dogfight. Several punches and kicks were exchanged before they pulled out the weapons they had the most fun with.
Swords of obsidian energy formed in their hands. They grasped their weapons tightly and charged in flight towards each other.
They sliced at each other at the exact moment from different angles, causing their swords to clash. However, instead of simply breaking away and trying again, they held each other there, pushing harder and harder.
That's when the Titans burst in. Worst timing ever.
They Darkagons noticed them immediately. Both were angered by the intrusion.
"You know the rules, Manik. One on one, or no fight at all. Did you go soft on me? Pathetic." Taokii spat.
"I don't want them here any more than you do." Pride snapped.
"But still they stand there. They're allied with you the most, which means they'll most likely attack me. One on one or not at all." Taokii growled.
Taokii summoned up shadow energy and used it to push Pride back, then he formed a portal behind himself and zipped inside it. It closed immediately, leaving Pride with no way to follow.
Pride floated to the ground, seemingly calm.
"Pride! We need to get to the main control room and shut down this fleet." Robin ordered.
"You interrupted my fight... with Taokii." Pride stated, simply.
"There's no time for that. This fleet will reach Earth in a few hours." Robin replied.
(Right about here, imagine Out of Control by Hoobastank playing.)
"I've done everything you've told me to. I've followed your rules. And funnily enough, I haven't accomplished what I needed, and I'm fucking blind." Pride snapped.
The anger in his voice was steadily rising. The Titans, minus Robin, Savior, and Cyborg, assumed battle positions.
"We all have our orders. And your orders right now are to help us deactivate the fleet." Robin said, calmly.
Savior held up the remote to the shock orb.
"What do you want from me? Absolute loyalty? FUCK YOU!" Pride shouted.
For weeks, he had slipped more and more darkness into the Shock Orb. Small quantities over a long period of time allowed him to consume it in Darkness. It had a sensor, sure, but it reset every few hours due to lack of adequate technology to ensure the sensors couldn't be messed up by an external environment. The Shock Orb was surrounded by shadow energy, and that shadow energy imploded upon it, then warped it right behind the Titans.
It went boom.
The Titans were sent flying forward, towards Pride. Taokii was his enemy, but after having fought him since forever, their fights had been nothing more than light spars, practically fun. But he still wanted to spar as often as he could. And the Titans had interrupted that spar.
He was pissed.
Robin was the first to receive his wrath. A mass of shadow energy slammed into him and pinned him to the wall. Pride warped in front of him and slugged him in several pressure points, then warped again as Gauntlet swung in to attack. His feet hit the Boy Wonder's torso.
Pride warped behind Gauntlet and snarled.
"You're a fluke boy, but you still have honor." he whispered.
He grabbed Gauntlet by the head and slammed him as hard as he could into the wall. Two down.
Starfire threw several Starbolts at him, but Pride disappeared and reappeared behind Savior.
"I've had enough of your shit, Whiteman." he snarled.
He kicked him in the spinal cord. Hard. Savior went flying forwards, but the Shimmer lashed out and pushed him up. He got himself in a right position and let two Shimmer strands fly. Two strands of black energy that looked like the Shimmer shot out of Pride's hands as well. It pierced the Shimmer down the center before Savior could prepare himself for the pain waves.
"Anything you can do, I can do better."
Pride was in front of him, and kicked him in the face. Raven snatched up a pole and swung it at him. A shadow enveloped a different pole which snapped out and smashed into Raven. Four down.
"Don't you start up with me, too, whore."
Cyborg and Starfire coordinated their attacks on Pride. He shook his head as four beams and a barrage of blasts came for him. A shield was erected around him. The energy broke through, but hit nothing but floor. Cyborg and Starfire found their heads smashed together. Starfire crumpled, then Cyborg found several strands of darkness poking through his chest. The damage was sufficient to cause him to black out. Six.
"I know every pressure point on you assholes."
Beastboy transformed into a leopard and shot for him. Pride ducked and Beastboy slammed into Scalpel. He quickly transformed into a cat, darted off Scalpel, then transformed again to try and attack. Pride sent a wall of Darkness onto his back, driving him into the floor. Several more bashings had Beastboy out cold. He then flew down to Scalpel and drove a large sword through his chest.
This sword pierced the same area that Savior had pierced way back when during Flashing lights and sounds. The result was much pain as the new wound opened up the old one. Pride then formed his claws once more and opened up several old wounds while forming new ones. Then he slammed both fists into his face.
Robin. Beastboy. Raven. Cyborg. Starfire. Savior. Gauntlet. Scalpel. Who else?
Pride turned around to see Terra by Beastboy. He walked up to her and grabbed her by her neck. He then lifted her up in the air.
"Get your friends up when you can. With Taokii gone the Invasion's slowed down. The control room shouldn't be difficult to find. You morons were too busy trying to find the source of the noise, and you passed it. I already killed everyone in there." Pride snarled.
"You gonna' kill me too? Gonna' prove you're as much slime as Taokii?" Terra spat.
She had no access to earth and she was threatening an Omega Class umbramancer. How smart.
Pride slammed her into the wall and growled.
"Taokii has more honor than any of you humans! You intruded upon a fight that was never your own. That fight has raged for trillions of years and you stupid bastards ran in to stop it. IT IS NONE OF YOUR CONCERN." Pride roared.
Terra whimpered lightly. The draconic features had expressed themselves, but the worst was his eyes, or the lack thereof.
"When you reach the main control room, smash everything. The fleet will enter emergency mode, and every ship will warp back to the planet it's from. You will have five minutes before the flagship follows suit. Do you understand?" Pride growled.
Terra nodded, and Pride let her go. She slid to the floor, gasping. Pride turned around and formed a portal back to Earth. Terra watched him leave, confused. Why was he helping them?
An hour or so later, the fleet crash landed on its home planet, and the Titans were home. The fruitless search for Pride started up again a few days later. It was obvious he wasn't going to be found unless he wanted to be, though. Something much bigger than any war was coming. Pride could sense it. And he was getting a lot of sleep before it came.
For Taokii had found the artifact of great power once more. Castle Black was about to be resurrected. The storm had passed. But the gates of hell were about to be opened.
ADAPT TO SHADOWS