Ok, I lied...again...I've decided to split this chapter up into 3 parts since it got a little long. Here you go Part 2
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Chapter 27
Titans Falling
pt.2
"Come on, hurry up" The young Australian girl complained. She tapped her foot impatiently against the asphalt waiting for her friend to pick up the pace. She brushed a red stripe of hair from her eyes as she prodded her bluish gray arm with her gloved hand. A large figure moved in the shadows of the alley and slowly stepped forward, the figure's chest had a purple glow in the shape of a square.
"Are you…sure?" said the figure in a slightly hollow voice. The girl whose name was Argent nodded her head.
"Trust me, they'll like you, besides I'm scarier lookin' than you" she joked. The figure moved closer to her, then backed away.
"No…they won't I know it…I'll just endanger them, just like the others". The figure broke into a mad sprint and disappeared into the alley.
"JOHN!" Argent shouted. But he was long gone; all she could hear were his heavy footsteps in the distance. "I swear, you may be 18 but you've got the social skills and confidence of a 9 year old". This was true; John was very nervous around people whom he didn't trust, Argent was just about the only person he did trust. It wasn't that he didn't like people; he just was worried they wouldn't accept him. Though Argent could hardly blame him, he was…dangerous. Suddenly a dark shadow passed over Argent. She looked up and saw a large boulder hovering over head. She quickly ducked into the alley to avoid detection. The boulder passed by, never straying from its course. Argent let out a sigh of relief.
"Boo"
Argent found herself in a crushing headlock. A slate of red energy cut between her and her attacker sending them flying in opposite directions. Argent got to her feet but found her attacker already on top of her. The skull faceplate sent a chill through Argent; its eyes were glowing an eerie yellow shade and seemed to cut right through her. Argent reached forward and two red arms made of energy grabbed the attacker and pressed him against a brick building. The attacker struggled but found that he could not force his way out of his pin.
"I see...this is gonna be fun" the attacker joked as he tried to make himself comfortable in his pin.
"Who are you?" Argent demanded. The attacker laughed and his faceplate slid back.
"Name's Terran and yours" Terran smirked.
"Argent" she replied.
"Argent…an interesting name" Terran hummed "well now that we've been acquainted, let's continue". Terran flexed his arms and stone pillars shot from the ground between him and Argent, cutting her connection to him. Terran landed on the ground and punched the air in front of him. Smaller pillars extended from the larger pillar to his left and smashed Argent into the ground. The ground beneath her turned into a vortex and sent her spiraling into the air. Terran made a circular motion with his hand and the vortex began to spin faster and faster. Then a red force field crackled to life and the vortex collided against it protecting Argent from the vortex. The vortex began to slither around the forced field and continued upwards towards Argent. She flew into the air and created two red energy arms and began to swipe at Terran with them. Terran did a few flips to avoid the energy arms and continued to send more pillars of earth at Argent. Argent switched her tactic and began attacking the pillars that got close to her.
"I think I'll drag this on just a bit longer" Terran thought. He was to busy toying with Argent to notice that a red force field had appeared behind him and was slowly progressing towards him. Suddenly Terran's back stung and he wiped around to see the force field drawing closer. Terran ran at full sprint to escape but found another one had formed in front of him. Terran leapt to his right only found another, he looked behind him and saw another behind him as well. Argent was trying to box him in. Terran raised his hands to his sides and sent a wave of earth at each force field as they came in around him. The area around Terran erupted into smoke and all anyone could hear was the crackling of the force fields. The dust cleared and Argent saw Terran trapped inside her net of force fields. She drifted down to the ground and stepped closer to the force field.
"Well, looks like I got you" Argent crowed. Terran didn't reply, he was placing his hand next to each field, only to draw his hand away as the field crackled with energy. "Ya know you're actually kind of cute…" Argent admitted. Terran simply smiled and continued his routine. "…but you're evil soooo your loss, anyways now I've got to call in the Teen Titans to take you away now that I've caught you".
"Yes it was impressive that you caught me…" Terran admitted with a smile "…unless of course…"
Argent felt a cold presence behind her.
"…you were trying to capture me". The back of Argent's head throbbed as she was punched into her force field. The field collapsed and the Terran inside the field grabbed her and forced her into another headlock. The real Terran stepped forward and lifted her head from her chest.
"Why are you doing this" Argent cried in an attempt to bring Terran to his senses "what'd we ever do to you"?
"Nothing…it's just my job". Argent threw the stone Terran off of her and began sprinting away with the real Terran in close pursuit. Suddenly the ground beneath Argent pulled itself out from under her and she fell to the ground. Terran stood a few feet away; he raised his fist to strike. Argent gripped her head, waiting for the final blow that would end her…but it never came. There was a brilliant flash of light and Terran screamed in pain and went sailing into a building. Argent lifted her head up at the sound of metal boots clanging against the street. A large muscular figure in a shiny grey suit was walking slowly towards them replacing his gauntlet with great effort as light streamed from its crevasses. His armor was bulky and bulbous around him. It had a large backpack attached to it with two metal hoses extending from opposite ends; one connected to the right of his left armpit and the other attached to where his nose and mouth would have been. There were two eye slits on the helmet that had dark brown eyes peering from within. His heavy footsteps echoed down the street and his heavy breathing was audible from even this distance.
"JOHN!" Argent cried and ran over to him.
"Are you hurt?" John asked, his voice resonating within his suit. To Argent; any sound John made had hollow sound to it.
"This guy…hurting me" Argent joked "not a chance, but he did try". John's eyes narrowed as Terran lifted himself from the wreckage. He pushed Argent behind him and bellowed
"You will harm not her"!
"And what are you going to do about..." Terran smirked as he dusted himself off "…'Tin Man'". Terran threw his hand forward and a large boulder hurled itself at John. The boulder smashed into John and sent a cloud of dirt everywhere. John stepped from the cloud unscratched, and the purple squared on his chest glowed brighter. A thunderous clap echoed down the street and John disappeared. Terran jumped to his feet and searched frantically for any sign of where John had went. Suddenly Terran's stomach compressed and he felt the air rush from his mouth. John's fist was pressed deep into his gut and force of the impact caused the dirt around them to spiral outwards. Terran spat out blood and it splattered across John's helmet. John withdrew his fist and Terran fell to the ground in a heap. He shaking violently and gasping for air.
"Do not get up" said John "I do not wish to continue this fight".
Terran took in a deep breath and spoke weakly. "We don't have a choice". Terran leapt to his feet and his fist connected with John's chin flipping his head back slightly. Terran leapt away and raised stone versions of him from the ground.
"Then you leave me no choice" John said unfeelingly. He grabbed his gauntlet in each hand and twisted it. Light poured from them as John pulled his gauntlets off farther. His raised his hands to shoulder height and destructive energy blasted his arms. Terran withdrew into the ground for protection but his stone clones were instantly vaporized. John forced his gauntlets to lock in place and the energy discontinued. He dashed to where Terran had withdrawn into the ground and punched his fist into the spot. He pulled his fist from the ground with Terran's hands inside his fist. He spun around furiously until he was just a blur. He then let go and Terran went sailing into the air. Terran landed a few blocks away and barely had time to get his senses back in order when John appeared right on top of him. John pinned Terran to the ground and brought his steely mask inches from Terran's face.
"Do not continue to fight me, you will only get yourself killed" John growled.
"A bit of a 'Powerhouse' aren't you" Terran grunted as he tried to free his arms.
"'Powerhouse'" John hummed "I like that".
"Glad you…feel that way". Stone arms shot from the ground and sent John flying away. Terran leapt to his feet and sent more boulders at John. The boulders were shattered as they impacted John's armor, doing no visible damage. John slowly stepped forward allowing himself to be hit by each boulder, showing how futile Terran's attacks were.
"If you will not stop fighting then I shall force you to stop". John leapt high into the air and began to remove his left gauntlet. Once again destructive energy poured through it, destroying everything it touched. John stopped once it was halfway off and slapped his gauntlet, making it spin. Each locking mechanism in the gauntlet caused the energy beams to become short sudden bursts, giving the impression it was raining energy. The energy impacted against the ground causing random explosions everywhere. Terran jumped side to side in an attempt to avoid the deadly rain. Suddenly the rain ceased and Terran found himself in John's iron grip. John smashed Terran against the wall, pressing ever harder. Terran could see only a glimpse through John's fingers. He saw Argent cheering across the street as well as the damage John had caused in their battle.
"No wonder he's locked up in that suit" Terran thought as he tried to pry John's hand from his face "this guy is dangerous to himself and everything around him". Terran moved one of John's fingers so he could speak clearly. "Hey big guy…just wonderin'…how long have you had this kind of power, you're like a friggin' supernova".
The pressure John was applying to Terran weakened as John let up. "For as long as I've had this suit…it's what keeps me from hurting others…I've kept myself locked up for a very long time…I do not wish to use it for battle…but I will fight if I must". Once again the pressure increased and Terran felt like his skull was going to cave in. Terran glanced down on his chest and thought he saw a scratch in John's armor. At first Terran believed he had caused that, but further inspection revealed it wasn't. The scratch was in the shape of a jagged cross, it looked as though John had carved it in when he received the suit. An idea occurred to Terran.
"Hey…look, let me go and I'll be out of your hair and never cause any more trouble again" Terran pleaded. John's eyes shifted from side to side trying to decide the right course of action to take. "Everybody deserves a second chance…right"? John nodded and let Terran fall to his feet. John turned away and trudged across the decimated street. A sharp rock extended from Terran's hand and he leapt at John. He grabbed his helmet and the rock was thrust into John's eyes. John screamed in pain and Terran leapt off to avoid John's flailing arms. For a moment Terran had a look of horror on his face, he couldn't believe he had just done that. Rouge's training had kicked in and now Terran was acting on full instinct. Her first rule: Attack relentlessly, her second: Never back down, and her third and most important: Fight to win, especially if it means killing your opponent. Terran's arms reinforced themselves with iron ore and he began thrashing John as hard as he could. Terran brought down a two ton boulder on top of John and he was instantly buried beneath it. John did not immerge, Terran shook violently as his suit began to drain the adrenaline it had pumped into his body. Terran began to back away, but Brain's voice forced him to halt as it blared in his head.
"Don't stop…finish him".
Terran's mood instantly switched to cruelty. He stepped towards the boulder with a sneer on his face but was force back by the traces of light erupting from it. The boulder was blasted apart and John stood up, with his back hunched over. The earth began to shake and a low rumble sounded from inside his and light dance began to dance from his armor. Terran instantly brought up a stone wall just as John let out an ear piercing yell. Two blocks of Steel City were enveloped in a magnificent light as John discharged as much energy as he could. Terran's protective wall collapsed and disappeared in a ray of light. Argent pushed her powers to the limit to protect herself from John's last ditch effort to defeat Terran. Then as quick as it came, the light vanished. John fell to his knees with his armor had a soft orange glow and steam rose from it. He was panting heavily and he removed the rock from his eye slit. Argent ran over to him but forced herself to keep from hugging him.
"How's your eye?" Argent asked. John looked to her and she saw his eye was still there and undamaged. "I guess it does pay to be completely made of energy huh?" Argent joked. John nodded and weakly got to his feet. He had used up a lot of his energy; if he had used anymore he would have died. Argent helped steady him with two energy hands and they once again trekked towards Steel City's Titans Tower. "Guess we don't have to worry about him any more huh"?
"No" said John in a weak voice "he's still very much alive, he'll be back soon". At this Argent hurried John along and soon they were on the roof of Titans Tower. They were soon met by Bumble Bee.
"Good, you guys made it" she sighed with relief "That's everyone, now come on; we have to get to the safe house as fast as we can".
"Where are the others?" Argent asked. Bumble Bee smiled and pointed to a large submersible craft in the water.
"Lucky for us, our friend doesn't clean up after himself, we grabbed all the wounded Titans as soon as he left" Bumble Bee's face darkened "many of them are hurt…badly, we need to get them away from here as fast as we can so they can recover". A loud explosion echoed in the distance and the rest of Titans East team raced to the roof.
"He's coming this way!" shouted Speedy.
"So soon?" Bumble Bee cried. She looked to Argent and John. Bumble tossed them the keys to the craft and hurried them down below. "Go" she said "we'll hold him off". Bumble Bee flew out the roof hatch and joined her team as they raced to intercept Terran. Argent and John rode the elevator down to the bottom floor of the Tower and hurried towards the craft. Argent buckled herself in and started the crafts turbine engines. She looked to John who had awkwardly sat in a chair that was much too small for him. The plastic seating had melted onto his armor but he hadn't noticed. She giggled slightly. Argent activated the craft's engines and they quickly dove into the ocean.
"Do you…think they'll be…alright" John asked hesitantly.
"Argent shook her head "I don't know".
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Credit for the creation of John "Powerhouse" goes to a good friend of mine, if any of you have played a game called Freedom Force then you know that John looks and acts a lot like the character Manbot. My friend did not plagiarize Manbot, he just got lucky.
