Chapter 23: With Great Power…

"How are we going to catch him anyway? With speed powers he could be in China by now!" Terra said.

A bright flash on a nearby building top caught the Titans' attention before anyone could answer.

"Somehow, I don't think whoever that was wants to run. He didn't as Acid Jackrabbit. He wants a showdown." Robin said. "Everyone converge on the rooftop at once! We can't let him pick us off one by one!" Robin said.

Another bright flash ignited the roof as the Titans scattered and charged the rooftop.

"Ah, Robin!" Nester said as the leader appeared. He had changed forms: instead of the purple speedster he was now dressed in what looked like an outfit made of leaves. His face and body were smudged with dirt, and he had twigs and sticks woven into his hair. But it didn't look like he had just been dragged through a forest: somehow it fit.

Robin whipped out his staff as his allies flew up around the rooftop.

"I am Robin as well! Robin Goodfellow, to be exact! Let's begin your last dream on this midsummer's eve!" Robin Goodfellow declared, and leapt at a speed that Robin had not been expecting, effortlessly dodging Robin's staff swipe and punching him across the face.

"Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand!" Robin Goodfellow chanted as he flipped over Robin's falling body, cartwheeled and leapt through the air, jumping through the gap between Starfire's twin Starbolts and slamming both his feet into her chest. "And the youth mistook by me…!" Robin Goodfellow fell to the ground, rolling in a tight somersault that dodged all of Terra's thrown rocks before he bounced off the ground, leapt up, grabbed Terra around the neck with his feet and ankles, and threw her hard into the rooftop. "Pleading for a lover's fee!" Robin Goodfellow landed and did several backflips away from Beast Boy's lunging ape form before he suddenly did some bizarre reverse move where he started going back and then suddenly snapped himself forward, flipping over Beast Boy's lunging arms and landing on his head, driving it into the ground, hard. "Shall we their fond pageant see?" Robin Goodfellow did a full split to avoid the chunk of railing Raven threw at him and then he rolled and leapt up, grabbing Raven's cape and whirling around her, wrapping her up and pulling her down to the ground with a loud thud. "LORD WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE!" he finished, throwing his arms up.

And Gauntlet nailed him from behind, sending him flying off the roof with a muffled curse. Gauntlet didn't bother to check if it was another line from Puck: he was doing a once over of his teammates. They were fine, just stunned, and he followed Robin Goodfellow, who had bounced back and forth between the walls of the buildings on his way down to the street. A bright flash ignited as Gauntlet was halfway down, and when he landed Nester was punching in the code again. Ah crap, don't be…!

"Ah ha! You again!" Nester said as he completed the code. A bright flash lit up the street. When it faded, Nester was…a bull humanoid in a loincloth. Gauntlet felt relieved.

"Now I shall crush you! I am MURDERTAUR!" Nester, aka Murdertaur bellowed, and then he stampeded at Gauntlet.

Gauntlet jumped over him.

Murdertaur continued his charge as Gauntlet landed. Apparently Nester had misjudged this form's capacity to stop, as he continued storming down the empty road.

"Um, WHOA!" Gauntlet yelled, and finally Murdertaur managed to stop.

"Look, I know you're still a bit new to the whole supervillian thing, but uh, how are we supposed to slug it out if you're stampeding off in the other direction?" Gauntlet said.

"I'll smash you to pieces!"

"YOU? Bullshit. Please, I'm sick of this bull! I think this is a bunch of bull!" Gauntlet said.

"AND YOUR BANTER IS STILL TERRIBLE!" Murdertaur roared as he charged again. But he was too slow again, as Gauntlet dodged aside.

"Bullseye! Not!" Gauntlet quipped. "Time to round this up pardner, because there's a new sheriff in these parts, and he goes by the name of Buckaroo Bob, The One-Gauntlet Kid!" Rob said in his best John Wayne, and threw out the Gauntlet's yellow energy field like a lasso, having it fall and wrap tightly over Murdertaur's shoulders.

Murdertaur just snorted and grabbed the yellow energy, pulling down so hard Gauntlet was sent flying straight up into the air.

"WHOA! Ok, how about the FLYING One-Gauntlet Kid!?!?" Gauntlet yelped as he flew up. He did a slow flip and then fell, back in control and aiming for a specific spot. "Time to take the bull by the horns!"

And he landed on Murdertaur's back.

"GRUPH?" Nester said in confusion.

"Gruph? I'm sure that's a translation for, RIDE 'EM ROBBIE!" Gauntlet whooped. Murdertaur snorted and obliged by charging and jumping and thrashing all over the place, trying to throw Gauntlet off.

"Maybe I lost something in the translation?" Gauntlet asked himself as Murdertaur continued his efforts. "Hey, this is actually kind of fun! Do you mind? I've always wanted to yell this: YEE-HA!!!!!!!!!!!"

Murdertaur resorted to ramming himself into walls, but Gauntlet clung tenaciously, though Murdertaur managed to twist him so that he was hanging over Murdertaur's shoulders, face to face with him, abet upside down.

"If you're going to fight this close to heroes in the future, may I suggest a breath mint?" Gauntlet inquired. Murdertaur just bellowed and charged again, trying to squash Gauntlet's upper half between his head and a wall, but Gauntlet pulled himself up at the last second and Murdertaur ran smack into a steel wall, head first. He reeled back, his legs now bowlegged.

"Ok buddy, time to wrap this up, starting with your feet!" Gauntlet said as he thrust out his arm, the yellow energy flying out and wrapping around Nester's now cloven feet. In one swift move, Gauntlet dove forward, did a quick tuck and roll, jumped back and past Murdertaur, and yanked as hard as he could, sending Murdertaur tumbling heads over heels across the street.

"If you sprain a horn, feel free to charge me, but the last thing I need is a charging man-bull!" Gauntlet finished, as Murdertaur crashed into a car. "Now, WHOSE banter sucks?"

"WHY YOU!" Murdertaur snarled as he got up, and then a loud mooing caught his ear. He turned just as a green cow slammed into his side, causing him to fall over onto its back. Beast Boy then pitched Murdertaur up and thrust out his hind legs, slamming him over another car.

"HA! Chalk one up for the cow, and that's no bull!" Gauntlet added, as Beast Boy became human again, looking very pleased.

A bright flash on the other side of the car took away his grin.

"Oh no not…!"

Another bright flash, as Robin and Terra arrived.

"THE ICEMAN COMETH!" Nester yelled as he floated up, now a pale bald man in a blue and white costume with a furred cloak. "I am Lord December! Now is the winter of my discontent!"

"At least winning is still in season." Gauntlet quipped, as Lord December fired a giant freeze blast at him and Beast Boy. Gauntlet threw up a yellow energy shield, and since it wasn't enough to stop the blast and since the energy shield couldn't be frozen, instead the ice blast went everywhere, freezing the ground, building walls, and everything else.

Robin, trying to keep his footing, hurled an explosive disc at Lord December, but he erected an ice wall in front of him and it exploded harmlessly on that. He floated up, and then a powerful and chilling wind whipped into effect. Starfire flew down, firing Starbolts, but the intense wind cut straight to the bone, and she couldn't concentrate enough to aim properly.

Gauntlet formed ice skates with his yellow energy and skated over to where Lord December was floating, thrusting an energy fist at him. Lord December countered with a quickly-formed ice battering ram, and the impact of the two meeting drove both of them back. Raven appeared out of the shadows, but as she raised her hands and began to chant her cloak suddenly frosted over and became encased in thick ice, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Nuts!" Terra said as she flew down next to Gauntlet. "Don't worry, a quick volcanic eruption should turn the heat up quickly!"

"In the middle of Jump City? Even I think that's a bad idea." Gauntlet replied.

"Point. Ok then, let's even up the playing field!" Terra said as she jumped off the rock she was riding and slammed her fist into the ground. The entire street buckled, shattering the ice on top of it. Now able to move, somewhat, Robin ran in again and leapt, swinging his staff…

Until he found himself encased in a big block of ice, only his head sticking out.

"Cold enough for you?" Lord December chuckled.

Growling, Beast Boy, in a form of a polar bear, suddenly reared up behind Lord December and swiped him with a powerful bat with his huge paw, claws sheathed of course, lest he rip the villain in half. It was enough to send Lord December across the entire street and into a wall of ice that came crashing down around him in a hail of sharp daggers. He snorted and flew up, as Starfire flew over to Robin and placed her hand on the ice, melting it, as Raven, having had to discard her cloak again, and along with Terra, flew after Lord December.

"Don't get in my way!" Raven snapped.

"Please, you'll just get in mine!" Terra said, as Lord December finished his flight and landed on the roof. Terra thrust out her arm, willing boulders to fly at the cold-commanding villain, and then she realized she was a few hundred feet above the ground. She'd need ammo. So she called it, ripping chunks of concrete from the ground below.

"Terra! Stop that! You're destabilizing the building!" Raven yelled. Terra sweatdropped as she realized that the building was getting pretty wobbly…

And that was all Lord December needed as he hurled a huge ball of ice that crashed against Terra and sent her flying across the sky and into the nearby Jump City harbor.

"Stupid twit." Raven said, as she turned and thrust up her arms. Black energy claws emerged beneath Lord December, wrapping around him and pinning his arms to his side before she nailed him with a powerful telepathic bolt, sending him flying across the sky himself. Only a carefully formed ice slide kept him from going through the side of an office building, as he came crashing back down to Earth.

"Dammit, enough of this!" Nester said as he got up, pulling out the HERO Device. He pressed in the keys, and with a bright flash he was back to normal…

And throwing himself to the ground as the Birdarang whizzed above him. Nester definitely had some good instincts, as he pressed the keys again.

FLASH!

"Oh no!" Robin said, as Nester arose, now fully garbed in a pitch-black armoured costume and mask. He almost looked like Robin's mentor Batman, abet without ears or a bat sign on his chest. Was this the jackpot?

Raven swooped down…

And Nester's new form reached up, and a gauntlet of some kind of his arm fired. It was too fast for Raven to put up a shield, as a small black orb struck her right between the eyes and knocked her silly. She fell to the ground, as Robin growled and extended his staff.

Nester turned and fired again, five extremely quick shots, all aimed in the same spot. They all struck the staff, and the fifth one broke it after the first four weakened it. Robin blinked, and then threw it down as he thrust his arms up, his fingers spreading as six metal rings appeared between them. He hurled them all at Nester's new form in a twisting, swirling pattern…

And Nester shot them all out of the air anyway.

"Give up Robin! You can't beat me, the Midnight Marauder!" Nester laughed.

"How about I then?" Starfire asked, flying and firing a blitzkrieg of Starbolts. The Midnight Marauder dodged all of them in a series of flipping jumps, and then bounced off a wall and leapt up, slamming the heel of his foot into Starfire's face. She went crashing through a window as Robin took her place. But the Midnight Marauder blocked all of his punches and kicks, his arms blurring around in the form of a combat genius. Which Robin experienced the hard way as the Midnight Marauder grabbed his arm, flipped Robin over him, and as he was in mid-flip thrust out his leg, slamming it into Robin's chest and sending him tumbling across the street.

"Hey!" Gauntlet yelled, as he picked up a nearby car. "CATCH!"

Gauntlet threw the car at the Midnight Marauder.

And the Midnight Marauder pulled something from his belt, some kind of twin-handed crossbow like weapon, and fired it. The small arrow-shaped projectile split into two, a thin red laser line trailing between the two parts. The line hit the car and the tips were spun around from the impact, wrapping more of the line around the same spot. There was a brief sizzling noise, and then the car SPLIT IN TWO, the laser lines having sliced it in half, both halves crashing to the ground on each side of the Midnight Marauder.

"Er…good catch." Gauntlet said. The Midnight Marauder didn't reply: instead he fired four of his marble-sized orb weapons at the wall next to Gauntlet, aiming for incredibly small cracks in a manner so precise it was scary.

With a loud crunching noise, cracks ran across the wall and it broke apart, tumbling down on Gauntlet.

A loud rumbling noise came from behind the Midnight Marauder, and he turned to see Beast Boy charging at him as a triceratops.

"Let's see you stop ME with some little orbs!" Beast Boy yelled.

So the Midnight Marauder did, firing one right into Beast Boy's left eye. With a yell, Beast Boy turned back to human form to do an instinctive move when an eye is hurt: grab at it.

With a quick jump and a brutal chop to the side of his neck, Beast Boy was down as well.

The Midnight Marauder turned and looked around, gazing at all the fallen and downed Titans. He smiled slightly, and then did a slight bow.

"Well, if that's all you have to say…"

And then the ground began to rumble. Under his mask, the Midnight Marauder arched an eyebrow.

And then it came around the corner, a tidal wave of mud, three stories high and filling the whole street, and on the top of it rode Terra on a rock surfboard, grateful in all the hours and hours of practice with Robert that let her pull a stunt like this.

"COWABUNGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she whooped as her mud tidal wave rolled towards the Midnight Marauder, carefully scooping up her fallen Titan allies so they weren't crushed or drowned.

Looking worried, the Midnight Marauder bent down, pressing something on his boots. There was a slight whirring noise, and then rockets ignited, sending the Midnight Marauder up, as Terra's wave drew close, but he was still going to go over it…

Terra gave him the finger.

And then a giant fist of muck flew out of the wave and slammed into the Midnight Marauder, sending him flying backwards, crashing through some windows seven stories up and out the other side, as he tumbled and landed in the middle of the street…on which there just happened to be a huge puddle of mud to break his fall.

"It's a dirty job, but man, do I love doing it sometimes." Terra said as her mud tidal wave shrank, flowing into the sewers. It revealed a very dirty street and cars, but at least the Titans were relatively clean. Who would have thought she would ever have that level of fine control?

"Great work Terra!" Beast Boy said. Terra smiled shyly.

"Come on Titans! We have to catch him before he switches forms again!"

And the Titans ran and flew, trying to get around the side of the building before…

FLASH!

"Oh no!" Starfire said. Nester had already transformed! If he keyed in the code again…

The Titans rounded the corner.

"TOO LATE HEROES!" Nester yelled as he saw the Titans, as his finger finished pressing the R and moved onto the O…

Robin hurled a Birdarang.

Too late.

FLASH! The giant blast of light seemed to knock the Birdarang away, as Nester's new form appeared in silhouette.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha…this is finally your end Titans…" Nester laughed. Robin's heart sank. Nester had hit the jackpot. They were all…

"I AM…" Nester declared as he was revealed.

In a stubby form with a green shell on his back and a green painted face.

"…The Human Turtle?" he said.

A pause. And then all the Titans grinned wickedly.

"Hey wait! No fair! I need something better!" Nester protested.

The Titans charged.

"YIKES!" Nester yelped, and then his arms, legs, and head disappeared into his shell. Strangely, the shell didn't fall to the ground, but levitated in place. Guess that came with the powers.

Unfortunately, Nester had withdrawn the HERO Device into the shell with him. But this was a problem Robin knew how to handle, as he reached into his belt and withdrew a smoke bomb. As the other Titans surrounded the floating shell, Robin threw it into the head hole.

It exploded.

"ACK! BLARGH!" Nester hacked as his head popped back out. The last thing he saw was Robin's green-clad fist.

"Dude, weak."

The floating shell spun around seven times before it hit the ground. Nester's limbs and head popped out again, limp and lifeless. He was done.

"Lucky us. Before he hit the jackpot, he got the booby prize." Gauntlet said as the Titans gathered around. With a dull clatter, the HERO Device rolled from Nester's right hand. A second later that hand was suddenly encased in black energy as Raven levitated his hand and pressed the buttons, hoping that it would work.

It did, as with one final flash (abet with no Vegeta present, heh heh), Nester Weames was rendered back to normal. The Titans all let out a relieved sigh.

"And so ends the supervillian career of…hey, who is this guy anyway?" Beast Boy asked.

"Who cares?" Robin said.

Nester moaned.

With the Gauntlet energy, Rob scooped up the HERO Device as Robin got out some handcuffs and cuffed Nester. Rob turned it over in his hands.

"Hey…!" he said, and with that word his Gauntlet retracted, going from covering his whole right arm to being a small ring on his finger. With the Gauntlet technically "turned off", Rob began pressing the buttons.

Raven's eyes widened.

"ROB DON'T…!"

Another bright flash and sizzling noise, and Robert Candide suddenly started spasming as if he was having an epileptic fit. The HERO Device flew from his hand in a violent jerk, and as Robin and Raven watched in horror, the device, almost in slow motion flew through the air…

And fell down in the perfect angle to fall through a drainage ditch, disappearing into the sewers.

"ARGH!" Robin yelled, charging and leaping through the air to try and grab it, but he got nothing BUT air even as he jammed his arm into the drainage ditch as far as it would go. Raven vanished into the shadows as she teleported into the sewers below to look, and Terra and Beast Boy eventually joined her, but all their search efforts were for naught.

The device was gone.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT! AGAIN!" Raven yelled at Rob. By now the police had arrived and were escorting Nester to a police car. Robin, filling in the head officer in on what exactly happened. Which the officer looked to be having a hard time believing. Robin sighed. Without the device, having this teenage boy (his name was Nester Weames, according to his ID) charged was going to be hard, much less convicted.

But, then again, without the HERO Device, what could he do?

Besides tap the great potential of his own mind and marrying it to his dreams and obsessions…but Robin digressed.

"I thought it would work that time, maybe increase my powers. I had to give it a try." Rob replied calmly, as if he was telling Raven the temperature.

"After what it did LAST time? My GOD Rob, I'm pretty sure you have a brain in your head but it's times like these I really wonder!" Raven growled.

"Hey, come on Rae! We won! We beat the bad guy, he didn't get the jackpot, all is good! Don't bitch just because Savior's not here to do it!" Terra said, sticking up for her teacher (which was ironic, considering that due to the various comings and goings, Terra hadn't even MET Noel yet). Raven's eyes narrowed.

"Terra, you think it's THAT simple? We LOST it. That device is dangerous! It doesn't have a conscience, a will of its own, anything to control the incredible power it randomly gives out! By losing that device, Rob could have caused it to fall into the hands of someone even worse! We could wake up tomorrow and find hell has come to the surface of the Earth!"

"And maybe we won't." Rob said, and yawned. "Well, we won, and I'm craving ice cream. Say Terra, mind giving me a lift back to the Tower?"

"Certainly, I could go for some Heavenly Hash myself, get the taste of seawater out of my mouth." Terra said. A few seconds later, they were heading back to the Tower on one of Terra's rock platforms.

"Titans…!"

Raven's eyebrow arched, and she saw that Nester was weakly waving a fist at them, or doing as best he could while handcuffed. But he didn't seem angry. Rather he seemed…content. As if, in some way, he found this whole thing…comforting.

Things going the way they should.

"It ain't over! I will have my revenge…I will beat you Titans…and the world will know my name…will win…next time…" Nester said as he was put in the police car. A few minutes later, the Titans were left alone.

"Well, all in all, he wasn't too bad a guy." Beast Boy said.

"Yes, he did not harm anyone, in the end, except us. As good a villain that one can have, I suppose." Starfire said.

"And speaking of good badness…" Raven said. Andrew Benjamin was approaching the Titans.

"I guess you won." He said.

"Yep." Robin said.

"Well then…good. Well, keep on protecting the city Titans. I won't be getting in your way anymore…sorry I caused that bad guy to get away…" Andrew said.

"Hey." Beast Boy said. "All things aside, thanks for trying."

Andrew smiled a bit.

"Yes, and Andrew? Don't go home and try to arrange being bit by a radioactive chipmunk tomorrow. If you really want to be a hero, find your own way. Life can be funny sometimes." Robin said.

"Yes, I suppose. Well, then, goodbye."

"Bye bye." The remaining Titans said as Andrew walked down the sidewalk.

"You know, despite what I said, I think he'll go far." Robin said.

"Preferably far away from us." Raven said. All the other Titans glared at her. "What?"

"Rob? We're home! Hello? Did you eat all the ice cream?" Gar Logan said as he and the other Titans headed into the living room.

"He's gone." Came a sudden voice, and then Cyborg came out of the kitchen.

"Victor! You're back!" Kory said happily, and flew over to gave Cyborg one of her usually bone crushing hugs, which Cyborg handled a lot better then anyone else due to his mechanical body.

"Good to have you back Cy. You staying?" Gar said.

"Yeah. I've made my peace with what happened, and I'm ready to go back to defending others and ensuring that this kind of stuff doesn't happen again, in this city or elsewhere." Victor said.

"Well, welcome back Victor." Tim said.

"Indeed. We missed you." Raven said. Everyone looked at her wryly. "That includes me too. Really."

"So, where has Rob gone?" Kory asked.

"I came home when he and Tara were pigging out on ice cream. Not two minutes later, Rob got an urgent phone call; I think it was from his hometown. He left immediately, and he asked Tara to come with him, something about her being a great help. They left a minute later. That was about seventeen minutes ago. Rob said that he wasn't sure when he'd be back and if he doesn't come back…"

"Avenge his death." Tim, Gar, and Raven said in exasperation.

"So, did I miss anything?" Victor asked.

"We fought six new enemies." Gar said. Victor looked a tad bit alarmed.

"SIX? Man, who did YOU tick off recently?"

"Well, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. You see…"

Near Jump City was a place called Edge City, and as it's named implied, it wasn't as nice a place as Jump City was.

Such as this scene might demonstrate. The exact situation was a block or two of run-down apartment buildings on the edge of town. The block was owned by a corrupt and absentee landlord who had recently decided to sell the buildings. The buildings were then set to be torn down for some construction project whose nature was still vague and stood a good chance of falling through. All the same, the landlord, a oh so great piece of humanity known as Kevin Malloy, had sold the buildings and ordered all the residents to get out. The residents had refused, trying to keep from being thrown out of their homes by legal means. Never one to play by the rules, Kevin had called in some favors and given away some cash and at the moment several squadrons of police were trying to force the residents out, using tear gas, rubber bullets, and simple brutality.

And one of the victims of their cruel, heartless campaign was 14 year old George Keane, who had been separated from his mother and sisters in the riot and had tried to help out one of the ringleaders of the resistance to be thrown out, Shane Sellers, who was being savagely beaten by a group of six police officers. His efforts had rewarded him with his own beating, which he had managed to escape by running away and then falling down into a drainage ditch. Hurt, bleeding, and soaked, he tried to get up via the open sewer pipe, wondering what he and his family had ever done to deserve this. They had never hurt anyone. Why were they being hurt? Why were the bad guys winning? Why…

And then it fell out of the drainage ditch and landed on his foot. Stunned by the sudden weight, George looked down.

The water was starting to carry it away, but George picked it up first. He looked at in confusion and some wonder, the lovely golden disc with the four letters. Four letters…only four? Strange, they spelled out a word…

No…not letters. Buttons. Slowly, in the curiosity that Aladdin probably had when he had rubbed the lamp, or perhaps Pandora when she had opened her box, George brought his hand up and began to press the buttons.

H…E...R...