Disclaimer: We don't own Teen Titans, Naruto, or anything else that might make an appearance in this fic...
Naruto Ultimate 3: Red-X Rising...
Chapter 35: Urban Jungle Pt. 3…
--
Normal Talking
Normal Thinking
Radio in use
Demon Talking
Demon Thinking
Jutsu in use
Inner Self-Talking
--
(Jump-City…)
Naruto placed a hand up on the top of the doorway as he looked outside of the chopper to the chaos below with a frown across his lips. 'As if my town wasn't hectic enough on its own, now I've got to deal with giant fucking plants too…' Naruto inwardly grumbled while Otacon twisted and turned passed skyscrapers and lashing vines.
"Snake! We've got incoming up ahead!" Otacon exclaimed and the old Soldier grunted while moving over to the door and cursed as he looked out to see another massive Venus flytrap like giant plant.
"Shit, just what we didn't need." The man grumbled before checking his Stinger and then aimed it for the plant. "Everyone brace yourself!" He warned and Naruto and Batgirl did so quickly while the old Soldier fired his weapon, a missile-flying forward before blasting the head off of it as they flew over it. Moving back inside, Snake quickly reloaded his Stinger while Batgirl looked at him incredulously.
"Who has a missile launcher in the Police department?" She demanded and Snake grunted while taking a peek out of the Chopper then brought his head back inside.
"Like I told that kid Cyborg, some of us have to take Cinderblock and other Metahumans down the hard way…" Snake grumbled and Batgirl just looked at him in shock while Naruto made his way back to the door and looked outside. The blond then grimaced as he saw a mess of vines below them squirming and wrapping around one another as if they were snakes poised to strike.
"Man, something tells me Ivy's seriously pissed…" Naruto mutters while Snake looks outside and rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, killing her babies will do that." Batgirl offered with a look and Snake scoffed while taking a sig from his belt and placed it between his lips. "Alright, you're called Snake, you wear an old bandanna, carry giant guns with you, and you even smoke too? What are you supposed to be some kind of wannabe soldier badass or something?" Batgirl questioned of Snake with a frown and the man grunted while Otacon grinned.
"He's no wannabe, Snake is the real deal." The pilot stated while keeping his eyes forward and Batgirl blinked.
"Wait, he really is a Soldier?" She asked and Snake grunted.
"Formerly currently retired…" Snake grumbled out while turning back out to look at what was coming their way.
"What outfit were you with?" Batgirl asked and Snake turned to her with a flat look across his face.
"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." He stated seriously and Otacon snickered while Batgirl looked at the man incredulously.
"Your joking… right?" She asked warily and yet Snake merely remained silent, worrying the girl greatly as he turned back to the task at hand.
"Batgirl lets worry about Snake's past when it actually matters. We have more pressing things to deal with at the moment, like, oh I don't know, rescuing Pinky before Beast Boy turns into something really dangerous." Naruto states flatly and Batgirl raises a brow towards the boy.
"What can he turn into that's really that dangerous? I mean I know he can become any animal living or extinct, but compared to most villains or heroes, he's not really all that dangerous." Batgirl notes and Naruto sighs, genuinely wondering if it was better or worse to have a world filled with metahumans, they seemed to have moved so far forward that they'd forgotten the dangerous of such basic creatures.
"Batgirl, I know that most villains and heroes have super strength, speed, endurance, and whatnot. But Beast-Boy is truly something deadly in his current state of mind." Naruto stated ominously and Batgirl looked to the blond former nin warily.
"How so?" She questioned and Naruto turned to gaze at her impassively, white masked eyes gazing into her bright blues.
"Beast Boy can be the thing man feared before super powers became so common. Tigers, bears, and lions… the most deadly of predators are his to command. He can become perfect killing machines if he wants to be, nothing is more dangerous than a beast when you have it cornered, even if Pinky manages to find Beast-Boy, she'll likely have to contend with all manor of beasts. The least of which would be from our age… and then you have to worry about beasts from ages passed, extinct creatures like Dinosaurs. And Pinky IS still normal encase you haven't forgotten." Naruto explained then reminded with a flat tone and Batgirl shivered slightly while Snake narrowed his eyes.
"The Green-Bean may not have much in the way of tact, skill, grace, or even any kind of discipline in him. But… his powers do make him a formidable, if not deadly opponent when he's like he is now." Snake said sagely and Batgirl sighed before looking over to Otacon with a strange expression.
"Think you can hurry it up Otacon?" She questioned and the man looked to his gauges before quickly nodding his head.
"Hang on tight everyon, I'm giving her all she's got!" Otacon said quickly as the chopper sped over the multitude of plants below them and towards BB's location…
--
(??…)
Raven appeared at the docks of Jump City and then grimaced when she saw that several vines wrapping around one of the warehouses. "Doesn't take a genius to guess where Robin is…" She muttered to herself while shaking her head, then teleported into the warehouse, within she finds the building slowly buckling under the force of the vines and then spots Robin, now on the ground and straining to free himself from the ropes around his arms and legs.
"Dammit! What the hell did they use for ropes?!" He demanded angrily and Raven shook her head and walked over to the boy wonder calmly.
"Looks like you could use a hand." She quipped and then blinks in surprise when she realizes what she just did. 'I've really been hanging around Naruto too much… eh, whatever…' She thinks to herself for a moment then shrugs the thought off while Robin looks at her and grinned widely.
"Raven! Thank god you're alright, are Barb and Starfire okay too?" He asks quickly and the dark Titan rolls her eyes while holding a hand towards him.
"Both fine. Beast Boy and Cyborg, not so much. Batgirl called some friends to get an antidote for Ivy's mind control from Batman." Raven explains while black energy forms over her hand before suddenly breaking the ropes around Robin's wrists and upper body with her powers, the boy wonder then quickly untying his legs and stood up.
"That's good. What about the rest of the city?" He asks while rubbing his wrists and Raven grimaced for a moment. "Raven, how bad is it?" He asks her seriously and Raven looks to the ceiling while evading his masked eyes entirely.
"Batgirl said that, and I'm quoting her on this, "It looks like Gotham on a Bad Day" end quote." Raven replies and Robin grimaces visibly before bracing himself as the warehouse shakes. "Now then, may I ask why you're only wearing your mask, vest, shirt, and pants?" Raven questions with a raised brow and Robin twitches before clearing his throat and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Harley and Ivy are so used to the Gadget users in Gotham that they eliminated the threat of any of my hidden gadgets by taking everything I had that I could have reached or hidden something in…" Robin replies with a bitter tone and Raven blinks, then shakes her head with an amused smirk.
"Right. Guess your tricks are starting to get a little too predictable then." She quips once more and blinks yet again, swearing she's starting to talk like Naruto, which makes her shiver slightly. 'Maybe I do spend too much time with him… but then again, there are worse fates than talking like him.' Raven mused to herself while Robin looked at her strangely for a moment.
"You're really hanging around your boyfriend way too much, Raven, your actually starting to talk like him now." Robin notes with a look at the girl and Raven merely shrugged her shoulders before both heroes braced themselves as the building shuddered once more.
"Where are your things? We really need to get out of here before those plants break in here and start tearing into us." Raven questions then states urgently and Robin frowned in thought before shaking his head.
"No Raven, I think your right about me becoming too predictable. If Harley and Ivy figured out my style so easily, it's only a matter of time before the villains around here do as well." Robin states then walks over to the girl, Raven having a brow raised in his direction. "Take me to the Tower, I have something there I'm going to need… I think its finally time for me to spread my wings and fly on my own." Robin muses and Raven looks at him strangely before nodding her head, then pulled the shadows in around them and teleported them both to Titans Tower…
--
(Elsewhere…)
Starfire flew through the air while looking down towards the ground for Cyborg around the Jump City Prison. "Please… where are you my friend…" She wondered while looking to the oddly shaped device she had on her belt. It looked something like a hi-tech syringe, complete with a needle, however instead of a plunger it had a button for it to rapidly inject the target, was made of titanium, and their was very little glass on it, the little bit she could see being shatter proof and tempered… clearly this "Batman" wasn't taking any chances with his toys.
Ignoring that Starfire finally spotted her half mechanical friend and smiled brightly while coming down near him. Seeing him looking at the Prison with a vacant expression, Starfire looked at the syringe at her waist before taking a breath and walking towards Cyborg. "Please, Friend Cyborg, are you yourself?" Starfire questions then yelps as Cyborg turns towards her, aiming his sonic cannon at her. Now she can see that his one normal eye is glowing a sinister green color, much like those of Ivy…
"Go away, the mistress don't want you here." Cy states in a dead monotone and Starfire looks at him with obvious hurt before taking a breath and standing her ground.
"Please friend Cyborg, I truly do not wish to do you any harm…" Starfire starts, but Cy merely continues to aim his cannon at her, causing the alien princess to sigh for a moment. "But, if you insist on aiding the Poison of Ivy, I will be forced to!" Starfire states with her normally chipper eyes glowing a bright green and locking onto the half metal teen as well, Starbolts forming in her hands. In response to her declaration Cyborg quickly fired his Sonic Cannon at the Alien Princess.
Growling Starfire flew over the attack and lunged at Cyborg, rearing a fist back she slammed it into his face. 'I must remember to make the apology to Friend Cyborg when is in the right of mind later…' Starfire thought before Cy grabbed her by her head turned on one heel and sent her flying. Spinning in the air, Starfire soon managed to right herself and then shook her head to get her bearings straight. Looking down towards Cyborg, the alien princess yelped and evaded Sonic Cannon fire as it came flying at her.
"Perhaps it is better that neither of us do the apologizing…" Starfire suddenly notes before concentrating and then sent a beam of energy at Cyborg from her eyes. The beam connected with the Titanium Titan and sent him flying back, skidding across the ground for a moment before impacting with the side of the prison. "Oh my… I did not wish to hit him that hard!" Starfire notes before shaking her head, she needed to focus at the moment, not worry about her friend when she was the one fighting him!
Moving back and then launching towards Cyborg, Starfire hoped he could forgive her for ramming him into the ground. However before she could, one of Cyborg's fists nailed her and sent her flying back before rolling along the ground. Reaching up to rub her jaw Starfire then slowly got up to her feet and balked when she saw Cyborg rushing towards her with surprising speed. Cyborg then gave a battle cry as he reared an arm back and slammed it forward, Starfire flipping over him at the last second and landing behind him in a low crouch.
"By X'hol… he's really trying to do me the bodily harm…" Starfire says in shock before looking to the metallic syringe on her belt. "I need to get hold of him, if only for a second so that I may help him." She notes quietly then powers up her Starbolts as Cyborg turns his eyes towards her. "But, in order to do that, I must first wear him down!" Starfire says to herself as she floats into the air, eyes glowing brightly…
--
(Meanwhile…)
Kitten could say her day was worse than it had been earlier, getting to Beast Boy had been the easy part… it was actually fighting him that had proven itself to be the real challenge. From what she could gather, Cinderblock, Overload, and Plasmus had taken off as soon as they were free, it was undoubted that the Titans would have to deal with them, though when she really didn't know nor care. All she did know was that BB was a much more dangerous opponent than she would have given him credit for, hence her problems thus far…
Cursing under her breath, the girl quickly flipped over a green tiger and landed in a low crouch behind it. 'You are SOOOO lucky I like you Beasty… I don't normally take this kind of shit from guys…' Kitten thinks to herself as the snarling tiger turns around to face her, fangs and claws bared, before it suddenly roared and lunged forward. Narrowing her eyes, Kitten evaded the first swipe of the tiger's claws then twisted into a kick, slamming her foot into the tigers face. However it only move slightly to the side, giving Kitten only just enough time to evade its next attack.
"So those Lara Croft games are right about not being able to hit a big cat like that…" She muttered to herself lowly then pulled a few shuriken from her belt. BB snarled towards her as she did, fangs bore as he lunged forward once more, swinging his razor sharp claws at her. Smirking slightly, Kitten flipped back and then threw her Shuriken at the green furred titan, her weapons slamming into his head and leaving several deep cuts while making him back up a ways. However before she could do anything BB suddenly changed shapes, now in the form of a rhino…
"Oh you have got to be shitting me…" Kitten states with a gaping jaw, seeing as a Rhino has very tough skin her syringe wasn't going to work on this sucker, so even if she managed to get on his back she wouldn't be able to do anything too him… Cursing a second later Kitten ducked out of the way of the BB Rhino as he slammed into a wall behind her. Pulling his head from the rubble BB turned towards Kitten once more and lunged forward, horn directed towards the pinkette.
Growling Kitten jumped up and then ran along the beasts back before flipping off of it and landing behind it in a low crouch. Quickly turning back to it she saw BB skid to a halt before shape shifting once more, now in the shape of a bull. "Oh great… as if that were any better…" She mutters to herself bitterly, glad she wasn't 'RED'-X right now… thought Pink was a shade of Red. Shaking her head of that thought Kitten considered getting onto BB's back and trying the syringe now. However, this beast would be harder to hang onto, especially with how wild he was at the moment. Looking at her mind controlled Boyfriend for a moment she grimaced to herself inwardly.
'If I drop the syringe it could take me a bit to find it, and with his ability to change into fast deadly creatures on a dime that could turn out fatal for me. No. I need to wait for him to turn into something where I can actually use the syringe on him without worry about dropping it or him retaliating.' Kitten muses to herself as BB drags one of his hooves along the ground, puffing out his breath through his snout. Inwardly grimacing Kitten crouched back, ready for anything, or at least hoping she was.
Seconds afterwards Kitten watched as BB came towards her with a loud cry, horns aimed for her. Narrowing her eyes the pinkette waited for the right moment and then flipped back onto the wall behind her then flipped off the wall and over the green Bull. As she did, BB slammed into the wall, now stuck in it with parts of the wall covering his neck. Grinning Kitten quickly jumped onto his back and made to reach for the syringe, however BB suddenly changed and threw her from his back. Landing with a grunt, Kitten turned then cursed as a green gorilla brought its fists down onto the ground where she had been less a moment ago.
Roaring and beating on his chest, BB quickly rushed Kitten once more, swinging his massive fists at the girl. Grunting and dancing around the beast's fists Kitten twisted into a kick to its head, then flipped away as it bared its fangs at her. Roaring in outrage BB jumped into the air and then brought both fists down on her. Cursing and jumping back at the same time, the gorilla missed Kitten by a hair's breadth while both his fists slammed into the ground. The ground around them shuddered as he did so and Kitten deftly twisted on one heel in order to keep her footing as she came back to the ground.
Panting, Kitten made a mental note to workout more while narrowing her masked white eyes onto the green gorilla. 'Why did I have to choose Beasty? Why not Cyborg!? At least he's still partly reasonable! Besides, I don't want to hurt Beasty too bad, not to mention the fact those stupid pheromones of Ivy's have driven him completely crazy!' Kitten inwardly complains while watching as the gorilla came at her once more. Sighing inwardly Kitten lunged forward into a flying kick to BB's face, knocking him off balance where she then flipped backwards off of his face.
Landing in a crouch as BB hit the ground once more, Kitten felt proud of her small achievement for a moment… only for her eyes to widen in fear as BB changed once more… this time into the shape of a dinosaur. However, looking at the new form Kitten was unable to tell what species it was, only that it had a line of quill like knobs down the back of its head and neck, two VERY sharp looking talons on its hind feet, a long thin shout that gave the impression of a Velociraptor, but it had a somewhat too short a tail for that species and green scales with dark green stripes down its back…
'That sort of looks like a Velociraptor from Jurassic Park Three… But those things were so inaccurate to a real Velociraptor it's not even funny, I wonder why Beasty looks like one?' Kitten notes then wonders silently while blinking towards the beast, shaking her head of those thoughts a moment later she looks at the beast warily when it hisses towards her, back arched and body postured to attack. Roaring out BB suddenly lunged forward at Kitten, the girl quickly ducking under it to avoid its razor sharp talons.
Rolling to her feet behind it Kitten grunted when its tail slammed into her, knocking her to the side. Groaning in pain she then looked up and saw it was crouching low now, its sharp teeth bared before it ran at her once more. Rolling onto her feet Kitten cried out as it lashed out at her with a quick kick, her left arm now sporting a long gash from its razor sharp talon. Rolling out of the way as BB suddenly lashed out at her with his snapping jaws Kitten panted out while looking at the beast.
"Oh shit… why did I have to get the one who literally has 'Killer' instincts?" Kitten had to wonder before reminding herself she choose Beasty cause she liked him… Shaking her head of that Kitten grimaced when the creature hissed towards her once more and then came lunging at her again. Rolling back as he bit forward Kitten then kicked the side of the Dino's muzzle before jumping onto its back. Yelping as he then started to buck and jump around Kitten grabbed the quills on its head to steady herself.
Hissing the Raptor like creature then rolled over, Kitten quickly jumping off of him before grunting as its tail lashed out, knocking her off her feet. Giving a loud coughing like call, the beast then shrieked while lunging at her, and Kitten rolled out of the way as its right foot came at her, claw ready to tear into her. Rolling into a crouch as the thing gave an odd snarling sound towards her, Kitten quickly considered the ways it could kill her and slowly started to back up.
"He had to turn into one of the most infamous and outright deadly creatures from the Jurassic Park series, didn't he…" She muttered under her breath before screaming as the beast lunged at her once more. Thinking quickly the pinkette flipped back onto the side of a wall and BB slammed into his head into it. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kitten hopped down to the ground, hopeful that he was back to normal only to call out when his left leg lashed out and cut her right hip. Looking at it with wide eyes, she saw its green eyes were open and narrowed on her dangerously, an evil hiss echoing from its throat as it got back to its feet…
--
(Tartarus HQ…)
"Everyone down!" Jinx shouted as the rest of the team evaded several lashing and twining vines. The group had been waiting for some kind of message from Naruto, only for the proximity alarm to go off. When the group got outside they had been shocked to learn that Ivy's plants had not only made it passed the city limits, but also seemed to be making their way further across the landscape. "What the hell is going on here? I thought Ivy said they wouldn't get this far?!" Jinx demanded and Gizmo grunted while hiding behind some rubble and fiddling with a portable keypad on his left arm.
"Shit, looks like the mighty plant avenger miscalculated the reach of her control on these things!" Gizmo exclaimed and then moved his arms over his head as the plants around them began to spasm once more.
"Oh what new hell is this?" Dani wondered with a light groan while now in ghost form and floating in the air, beams of green energy formed in her hands. In response to the question, several of the vines started to change further, splitting into roughly a dozen smaller vines before suddenly sprouting large colorful blossoms with sharp looking black barbs at the center.
"Okay, what the hell is that?" Jinx asked while Gizmo's eyes widened.
"Oh no… Some rare jungle plants are capable of firing small barbs laced with poison when threatened… and I think the vines can too now!" The Tiny terror exclaimed as his explanation before one of the many barbed plants fired at them. Those who could quickly ducked out of the way while Dani went intangible and Kid Wykkyd vanished into his cloak before reappearing with Jinx and the others, Duela flipping and twisting around the numerous barbs before landing with them as well. Once they had the barbs started to slam into the boulder they were stationed behind, the rest slamming into the walls of their HQ…
"Just fucking great… now what did you mean Ivy miscalculated Giz? Maybe she's just pissed off about Temp attacking her." Jinx questioned then offered while covering her head as several barbs went over their heads.
"No, she'd normally keep the plants inside the city limits, this lessons the chances for them to do any damage to the current eco-system outside since she's still an eco freak. However, from the looks of things, she miscalculated her ability to control the plants for such a massive area. Add in the fact the plants are rapidly mutating and now even adapting and I'm guessing their starting to develop a pseudo intellect. Basically she's lost control of these things and their just starting to run wild, destroying anything in their damn path that they perceive as a threat." Gizmo explained and Jinx then looked out from behind their hiding spot and widened her eyes.
"Aw shit! Everyone move!" She ordered and the others quickly did as told when one of the large thorny vines suddenly slammed down where they had been. "Now what do you mean they have a pseudo intellect Giz? Their nothing but fucking plants remember!" Jinx demanded then exclaimed and Gizmo grunted while using his portable to calculate something.
"What I mean ya damn shit licker is that the fucking plants are no longer completely under Ivy's control. Her telepathy isn't advanced enough to control an entire city's worth of plants at one time. What she's done is created a massive force of plants, and is only actively controlling smaller sections of it. The rest of the plants are linking to the others like a hive mind, thus as Ivy continues to control only a few sections of the plants, they start to adapt their own will with her goals in mind…" Gizmo explained and Jinx slapped the back of the tiny terrors head.
"In English Gizmo!" She exclaimed and the boy growled before pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Put simply, the plants are basically taking Ivy's goals and will and taking them as their own. Since they are constantly mutating they must have developed something similar to a hive mind, thus every plant in the entire city is linked to one another. While this would normally help Ivy it looks like she's unable to assert her will over so many at the same time. The will of the hive is so strong that their doing whatever they damn well please at this point!" Gizmo explained with a deep scowl and Jinx's eyes widened while looking all around.
"You mean to tell me these plants WANT to do all this damage?" She demanded and Gizmo rubbed his eyes.
"Sort of. The plants themselves would probably have no goals; however add in the mutagens and Ivy's blood and I'd say they have a few basic instincts. One, sustenance, two, survival, three, reproduction. These are the basic instincts of all life, even Ivy herself, now then, seeing as the plants are constantly mutating I'd have to guess that they perceive something in the city as a major threat and are constantly evolving to try and get rid of the problem. As far as sustenance goes, there's more than likely a reason they're spreading out like they are." Gizmo explained and Jinx frowned while watching as Blackfire and Dani started firing their beams at the plant once more.
"We can't keep up this pointless running and dodging for much longer, Jinx! We could really use a plan here!" Dani noted while firing several ghost rays at the barb shooting plants causing them to start arching as if in pain.
"I'm with her, unfortunately our powers are of very little use against these damn things!" Blackfire stated before firing her eyes beams and cutting down a vine, only for a Venus Flytrap like plant to rise up where it had been. "Oh by X'hol, I swear I'm killing anyone who tries to give me flowers after this over…" Blackfire muttered to herself with Jinx, Dani, and even Duela agreeing with the alien teen.
"Yo, this isn't the fucking time to be making plans for the future, we need a way to take these fucking plants down right now! If they continue to spread like this, the fucking city will be the least of our problems, the entire planet will be in for one very bad day if they manage to grow to a sufficient source of food." Gizmo reminds the other members of Tartarus with a deep scowl and Jinx grits her teeth while throwing several hex-bolts at the plants, causing a few to spontaneously combust.
"Well I've got nothing here, so what exactly did you have in mind shrimpy?" Jinx demanded before cursing as she flipped away from a vine and then was surprised as a blade came out of nowhere and sliced the vine in half. Blinking, the pinkette turned to find Duela grinning with a familiar umbrella in her hands. However, the handle of the umbrella had been ejected, a small circular blade present in the top of it, while a short sword like blade escaped from the very tip of the umbrella, a strong looking chain binding both pieces together.
"These plants are a real hassle, too bad we don't have any weed killer to get rid of them." Duela said sarcastically before laughing and flipping back, away from a vine witch she then threw the upper part of her umbrella at and pulled herself over to it. Grinning madly the girl then whooped as she rode the vine, waving an imaginary hat in the air while hanging onto the chain…
"Ugh, could that girl be any more random?" Jinx demanded while Giz was silent, typing on his portable before suddenly grinning widely.
"Random as hell and completely bat-shit crazy but damn I could kiss the bitch right now!" Gizmo exclaimed much to Jinx and Mammoth's confusion.
"How is that any different to what you'd normally do?" Mammoth questioned seriously, seeing as Duela was anything but ugly and Gizmo would probably have no reservations about ever kissing her.
"Because now I have a reason too! Duela said she wished we had some weed killer right?" Gizmo questioned and Jinx and Mammoth both nodded while the others continued to fight with the vines and plants attacking them. "Well think about it, if I can manage to whip up some kind of plant killer just for these suckers, we could be rid of the plants and if we play our cards right and spread it over the city, Temp won't be completely pissed off about you girls leaving his girlfriend to the mercy of two depraved psychos and attack us all." Gizmo replied then reminded with a look at the pinkette and Jinx shuddered before blinking.
"Hell, if she gave you all that from just one sentence, then I could kiss the crazy bitch…" Jinx muttered and then heard a laugh and turned to see Duela pull something out of her backpack before jabbing her hand down into the vine. It instantly started to rock and shake wildly, slamming even into the other plants around it while she flipped off of it to stand in front of Jinx and the others.
"What did you do to it?" Mammoth questioned and Duela held up her right hand, showing what appeared to be a black glove with several claw rings with syringes attached to them on each finger, leaving her thumb bare, tubes leading from the syringes to a manacle around her wrist with three tubes holding an odd glowing yellow solution within each of them.
"Fear-Toxin from uncle Scarecrow, I never leave Gotham without it!" Duela replied with a wide grin and Jinx looked at her warily as she leaned her sword / umbrella into her left shoulder.
"You carry Fear-Toxin around with you as well?" Jinx asked meekly and Duela shrugged her shoulders before suddenly kicking Jinx out of the way while rolling backwards into a low crouch. "Hey! What the…" Jinx started to say only for Mammoth to turn her head and see where she'd only just missed being impaled by one of the sharp barbs from the plants. "Oh… thanks…" She mumbled and Duela flipped onto her feet while looking back over to the plants with a frown.
"I was afraid of that, looks like my fear toxin only lasted a few seconds before they built up an immunity… Ivy's immunity to Poison's and toxins must have been transferred to them, though the new batch at least lasted for a few seconds… it'll be the same for any Weed-Killer we develop so we'll have to hit them all at once…" She mumbled to herself, sounding oddly sane to the other members of Tartarus, before she suddenly giggled crazily and placed her Fear-Toxin back into her backpack. "Oh well, back to work! This weed needs a whacking!" Duela exclaimed before lunging back into the fray with her umbrella and Jinx blinked.
"Okay, I'm confused, is she really insane or is she just messing with us by pretending she is?" Jinx asked seriously and Mammoth sighed while shrugging his shoulders with a flat look.
"That is one of the great mysteries of life…" He mumbled while rubbing his face and Gizmo growled in his throat.
"Would you shit lickers stop talking about Duela! I need someone to guard the lab and me while I try to whip up that weed killer! And oddly enough she's right about us needing to hit the entire city all at once if we want it to work!" Gizmo suddenly shouted and Jinx shook her head to snap herself into a better set of mind. Right now she didn't have Tempest to take control, she had to be the leader for the time being and that meant she needed to keep focused…
"Right then, Kid Wykkyd, I want you Private and Billy to head inside with Giz, the rest of us are far more effective against the plants than any of you guys anyways." Jinx ordered and the said three nodded their heads while rushing back into their HQ with Gizmo while Mammoth grabbed Jinx and ducked behind a boulder when another couple of the barb plants started to fire at them.
"Don't those things ever stop?" Mammoth wondered seriously and saw Blackfire as she flew into the fray roaring out and firing her eyebeams into the many plants, tearing several apart and smirking, only to gape in shock when the easily reformed and then lashed out, lunging at her.
"Shit! Now they're starting to regenerate too!" Dani exclaimed with wide eyes hidden by the black lenses of her domino-mask. "Got to think something, got to think… think… think!" Dani said to herself before yelping and turning intangible when one of the vines reached out for her. "Urgh! Dammit! Would all of you…" Dani growled out while flying around a hail of fire from the barbed plants, turning upwards into the air Dani then held her hands at her sides before slamming them together and firing a powerful beam down onto them, destroying the plants for a moment. "… mother fucking plants just…" She gritted out with a twitching eye as she threw beam after beam into the plants to destroy them, only for them to start to grow back soon after.
"LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!" She roared out as fire suddenly burst from her body in a massive circular wave of ivory flames and then quickly spread outwards like a raging inferno. Seeing the flames, Blackfire cursed while quickly grabbing Duela and pulling her to Mammoth and Jinx as the Pinkette grabbed Seemore from his spot. Ducking down the teens felt as the flames passed over them while they also burned there way through the plants, leaving only ash in their wake. Slowly, once they heard the flames start to die down, Blackfire lifted her head up, mostly due to being nigh invulnerable with her powers, but also because she was the only one willing to do so.
What she saw was something slightly disturbing, Dani was on the ground panting, and her ponytail was now seemingly made of arching white flames while more of the ivory colored flames also slightly covered her hands and feet… and more of the ivory flames spiraled up from her feet in wispy waves around her body. "Whoa… maybe we should start calling her "Whitefire" instead of Rei…" Mammoth muttered while looking on with Blackfire and the alien princess twitched.
"More like "Kaliand'r'" sometimes called "The Burning Princess" and goddess of death on my home world…" Blackfire murmured with no small amount of fear in her tone while Jinx and Seemore looked around at the damage with wide eyes.
"Wow… how much power is she packing in that hot little body of hers anyway?" Seemore demanded and got looks from the others. "What?" He questioned only for the others to turn back to the panting Dani as she looked around for a moment.
"Whoa, that was so cool!" She stated with a grin beneath her facemask. "How'd I do that?" She then asked eagerly while looking at her hands with wonder as the white flames started to dim, then disappear completely while the others face faulted.
"You've got to be shitting me!" Jinx exclaimed before shaking her head. "No, never mind, at least she bought us some time with that last bit, but I just hope it was enough." Jinx stated while reaching a hand up to rub her forehead and Mammoth squinted before grimacing.
"I don't think so…" He mumbled and Duela sat up and looked around quizzically.
"Why's that?" She wondered aloud and Mammoth pointed to the distance, squinting, Duela suddenly groaned when more plants could be seen heading their way.
"That's why." Mammoth stated and Jinx groaned before looking to Dani as she started rubbing her hands together and then throws them forward in some awkward attempt to restart the flames from before.
"Dani, think you can start another blaze like the last one?" Jinx questioned and Dani looked at her, then the advancing plants.
"Not really… unfortunately like with my Bio-Dad, any of my newer powers will kind of sporadically activate at first…" Dani replies to the older teen nervously and Jinx sighed while shaking her head.
"I was afraid you were going to say something like that…" She murmured softly before looking back to the others and then to the plants heading their way. "Alright team, its do or die time so get ready, we absolutely cannot let these damn plants get through to Gizmo!" Jinx stated and Dani and Blackfire formed their energy into their hands, Mammoth crouched down, Seemore switched to a laser vision, and Jinx herself called her hex-energy into her hands…
--
(Back with Starfire…)
Starfire yelped, as she was slammed into by Cyborg, then grunted as she skidded along the ground before flipping into the air and shook her head. Looking to see Cyborg lunging at her with a roar, the girl flew over her and then shot down and rammed into the titanium teen and rammed him into a wall. Quickly backing up and flying back into the air, Starfire formed a Starbolt with both hands before throwing the larger than normal blast at the Titan boy, slamming him further into the wall.
"P-please X'hol, may he be tired enough for me to finish this now…" The girl pleaded softly then groaned as Cyborg showed his normal stubborn attitude as he rose out of the rubble and then brushed a chip off his shoulder. Sighing the princess got ready to attack the titanium teen once more, only to gasp as Cyborg was knocked off his feet by a red and yellow blur that then skidded to a halt with a smirk beneath her.
"Hey Starbabe, nice to see you again, need a hand with metal man over there?" Kid-Flash questioned with a smirk and Starfire blinked for a moment before smiling brightly towards the boy.
"Your assistance would be much appreciated new friend." She replied and a grin spread over KF's lips before he suddenly moved like lightning, knocking Cyborg off his feet once more and then yawning behind him.
"C'mon big guy, you've gotta be faster than that if you want to win this fight." KF taunted and Cyborg growled while kicking out at the teen, only for him to quickly side step him and then moved over to lean into a wall. "Too slow." He mused and Cyborg growled while getting back to his feet and then fired his sonic cannon at KF, the hyper fast boy then popping up behind him while leaning over his shoulder. "Did you get me?" He asked humorously and Cyborg growled while trying to punch KF then started to fire at the teen as he ran away from him.
"Hold still you little…!" He stated to say only for Starfire to come from behind and grab him from under his shoulders.
"Excuse me Friend Cyborg, but I am ending this battle now!" Starfire stated and then kicked off into the air before suddenly stopping. Turning herself and Cyborg back down towards the ground and spinning, Starfire let go of her titanium teammate a split second before he slammed into the ground with a crash, KF grimacing as the alien princess and he then walked over towards him as he groaned.
"Well… he probably won't put up much of a fight now…" KF mused while rubbing the underside of his nose and Starfire nodded in agreement while jumping down into the hole and quickly pulled the Syringe from her belt.
"Please forgive me for this friend Cyborg, I know of your fear of the needles but in this case I believe that it is most necessary." Starfire then said while using the odd syringe on the human side of the Titanium Titans' neck, watching as he stiffened and then groaned before passing out completely.
"Well, that's one, down, one to more Titan, two hot villains, and a bunch of vegetables to go…" KF mused and Starfire nodded her head, then lifted Cyborg from the ditch and pulled one of his arms over her shoulders. "Need some help there?" KF questioned and Starfire smiled kindly before shaking her head.
"I am no longer in need of the assistance new friend." Starfire stated and walked over to lean Cyborg against a wall and then looked at the broken wall of the prison with a frown. "However, that I believe we must close up soon or we shall never be returning the prisoners to their rightful places within the Prison of holding…" Starfire mused aloud and KF smirked slightly in response.
"Right then lets get to work, princess!" He stated while rushing off, collecting numerous individual bricks and started to placed them down, Starfire flying to larger pieces of the wall and placing them down herself before using her eye beams to melt them together…
--
(With Naruto…)
"Snake do you think we could hurry this crate along, I'm getting a little worried about Pinky." Naruto questions then states while looking to the old soldier and Snake turns to his pilot.
"You heard him Otacon, would move this thing already!" Snake grumbles and Otacon lets out an annoyed groan / sigh.
"Sorry, but this isn't a military Chopper, Snake, it can only go so fast." Otacon reminds while Snake grunts and looks to Naruto, the blond nodding his head slowly before turning back to the carnage outside. Looking out of the door and down to the ground below, Batgirl has a worried frown cross her features while seeing the numerous vines, poisons, and pods that cover the city below them.
"I sure hope the city has enough to cover all these damages…" Batgirl muses and Naruto nods his head in agreement with her.
"We do thanks to TURF." Snake offers while looking out as well and Batgirl turns to him with a raised brow. "Titan Urban Reconstruction Fund… TURF." Snake responds and Batgirl plainly gapes at the man before shaking her head.
"I bet half the league wishes we had something like that." Batgirl muses mostly to herself and Naruto nodded his head before narrowing his eyes.
"Shit! Snake, we got more incoming plants!" Naruto shouted and the said man cursed while quickly raising his Stinger. Firing the man watched as he took out one of the plants, only to gape as it slowly started to regenerate.
"Aw hell!" He grumbled and Naruto and Batgirl both grimaced.
"Agreed, now their starting to regenerate… tearing 'em apart all this time must've triggered some kind of evolutionary response." Naruto mumbled and Batgirl nodded her head in agreement with the sword-carrying thief. "Oh well, looks like I'll have to deal with them the hard way… or in other words, the fun way!" Naruto noted before jumping out of the chopper, then hit his teleportation button, appearing in the air above the vines and other numerous plants. Cursing as several Barb-Plants suddenly sprouted on a nearby building, the blond thief rolled in midair to evade them and then unsheathed both swords.
"C'mon! Show me what you got!" Naruto called out while swinging both swords, sending arcs of wind into the plants to cut them down to size. However, he then grunted as they started to grow back, thus sheathed one sword and held one hand at his side. He had two options as a Venus-Flytrap rose up out of the ground and lunged at him, create a Type A Rsen-shuriken or a Type B.
Type B was a new Rasen-shuriken he'd developed in the HIVE, this was because he'd always hated not being able to throw his Rasen-Shuriken when he wasn't in Sage or Kyuubi mode. The attack was identical to the Rasengan in creation, save that he had also added four spiraling blades of wind to the outside of it that swirled inwards to keep the attack stable over a distance. When thrown, the spiraling blades on the outside were all that lost power, not the Rasengan on the inside.
Also, when holding it, Naruto had to keep his palm flat, and upon throwing it, it curved slightly. This was the version he'd been using for the last few plants since it was a long-range version and he'd wanted to keep away from them. He'd actually meant to give it a new name like "Spiral-Swirling-Shuriken" or something like it, though he wasn't exactly sure about that name…
Shaking his head, Naruto decided to screw it and formed the said technique into his left hand, allowing the spinning blades that made it to spin faster and faster, narrowing his eyes he pushed more and more power into the attack and it began to spin faster. Rearing he arm back he then threw the attack at the Plant and watched as it ripped through and destroyed the stalk of the massive plant. "Heh, now that's what I like to call pay-dirt!" Naruto said before teleporting forward and then swinging his Ninjatou in the air, slicing the next few vines into pieces before teleporting once more.
Forming another of his Type-B Rasenshuriken into his hand and then sheathing his Ninjatou to form a second one the blond threw both of them towards the ground where they tore through the street and formed massive spiral craters, taking out all the plants in their paths as well. Grinning despite himself Naruto then flipped up in the air and gave a mock salute to the decimated portion of the city as he teleported to the chopper and took hold of the outer portion of the door before pulling himself back inside.
"Are you completely insane?!" Batgirl demanded while grabbing him by the front of his coat and Naruto blinked for a moment.
"Why do you ask?" He questioned and the red head twitched while glaring at the teen with gritted teeth.
"Because you just jumped out of a chopper going at full speed, decimated a portion of Jump-City to take out a couple dozens plants and then jumped right back in like it was the easiest thing in the world!" She exclaimed and Naruto reached up to take a thoughtful look, Batgirl sighing and releasing the teen as he does. "On second thought, I don't want to know…" She mumbled to herself and Naruto chuckled lightly while looking to Snake who just shook his head. Moving up to the front of the Chopper, Naruto then spotted the prison they normally kept the "Ternion-Trio" and narrowed his eyes.
"There!" He finally says upon seeing Kitten running from the Dinosaur Beast Boy had become.
"You weren't kidding about Beast Boy being dangerous." Batgirl said lowly before Naruto quickly wrapped an arm around her waist and teleported them over to Kitten. Back in the chopper, Snake looked over to Otacon and his partner nodded his head while heading for a place to land.
As Naruto and Batgirl landed Kitten jumped and hid behind Naruto, panting labouredly while looking towards the green dinosaur that had been chasing her with wide eyes. The pinkette then looked up at her male counterpart with a pleading expression and Naruto raised a brow. The girl had numerous cuts and tears over her suit, one of her lenses was cracked and to top it all off she was covered head to toe in dirt and grime. "Help." She said meekly and Naruto rolled his eyes while turning to BB's dino form.
"Batgirl, you and Pinky wait for an opportunity to give him the antidote… I still got a little steam to blow off and Dino breath seems like a prime candidate." Naruto says with a dark grin as he cracks his knuckles, Kitten nodding her head rapidly before pulling Batgirl away to hide behind one of the walls BB had knocked down. Cracking his neck as he looked at the VR beast BB had turned himself into; Naruto then cracked his fingers and crouched into a stance.
"Alright then green bean lets finally see what you've got!" Naruto called out and BB screeched while lunging forward, snapping his jaws at Naruto, the thief quickly leaning back and then twisting into a roundhouse kick. Watching the beast right itself in midair then tap its talons, Naruto clenched his fists, then narrowed his eyes. "C'mon." He taunted and the beast screeched once more, lunging forward and swinging its large tail at the thief.
Catching the Tail and grunting, as he had to pump Chakra into his arms to do so, Naruto then turned and threw BB by his tail into a wall. "Is that all you got?" Naruto taunted and BB hissed angrily while getting back up, then roared loudly while lunging for the blond thief. Kicking out with a leg Naruto easily evaded before punching the beast in the snout. The hit was significantly stronger than Kitten's own as BB lost his balance and fell onto his side, Naruto twisting into a turn before ducking low and kicking BB to the side where he slammed into another wall.
"Don't want to be so rough with you Green Bean, but you've seriously got to calm down." Naruto muttered lowly only to blink as he heard a strange sound coming from the VR. Seconds later it changed shapes, now in the form of a massive green colored Tyrannosaurus-Rex… "Oh you have got to be shitting me…" Naruto mumbled before cursing as the T-Rex roared loudly, nearly knocking him off balance. Quickly lashing out, BB then turned on one foot, using its tail to attack and Naruto cursed as he flipped over it, the tail slamming into the remaining bits of the wall and knocking them all down completely.
Grunting, Naruto jumped onto the tail, only for BB to flip him up into the air with it. Quickly attacking him, BB opened his mouth to try and eat the young thief; cursing dino's in his mind Naruto caught BB's open jaws and placed his feet and hands between the many razor sharp teeth of the beast. Narrowing his eyes, BB applied more pressure only for Naruto to push himself out of his mouth. Roaring once more BB used his nose to knock Naruto back up into the air. "Alright that's it, this ends now!" Naruto exclaimed while forming two Shadow-Clones at his sides, each quickly forming a Rasengan into both of his hands.
Slamming his hands together, Naruto lunged back at the T-Rex and slammed the attack into its head. "ODAMA-RASENGAN!" He exclaimed as the attack forced the skull of the T-Rex down and into the ground, while Naruto was pushed back up into the air. Looking down at the T-Rex, Naruto was glad to see the beast was unconscious, but otherwise okay… 'With a skull as tough as diamond that isn't saying much…' He inwardly notes before flipping in the air and landing in a low crouch on top of the T-Rex as it slowly changed back to BB, both Kitten and Batgirl gaping at the thief.
"You took him down in five minutes when I've been fighting him little under an hour and barely given him a scratch!?" Kitten demanded loudly and Batgirl looked at the pinkette incredulously for a moment, and then shook her head in exasperation… why did she agree to go with the thieves again?
"Just administer the antidote before he wakes up." She mumbled while rubbing her face and Kitten nodded before she quickly rushed over to her current Beau and used the syringe on him. Seeing him grimace slightly before taking a peaceful expression in his sleep, thus Kitten gave a relieved sigh.
"You owe me big for this shredded suit Beasty…" She mumbled fondly while Naruto crossed his arms and looked up to see Snake and Otacon circling them.
"C'mon, lets go check up on Starfire and KF, they should've taken care of Cyborg by now." Naruto stated only to turn his head at a grinding sound, then cursed as a vine wrapped around part of the chopper. "Shit!" He stated as Snake and Otacon jumped out of the chopper while the vines tore it apart.
"Well, what now?" Kitten questioned as Snake and Otacon landed, Snake hanging onto the back of Otacon's belt.
"Now we check up on them to make sure their okay!" Naruto replies while running over to Snake with Batgirl following him. "Yo, you alright Snake?" Naruto questioned and the old soldier grunted while rubbing his head, Otacon groaning from his spot before throwing off his helmet.
"A few bumps and bruises, but none the worse for ware." The man replies while Otacon then reached into a pocket and pulled out a pair of cracked glasses.
"Speak for yourself Snake, some of us aren't formerly soldiers… I was just a Scientist who specialized in robotics and stealth enhancements before I met you." Otacon mumbled and Batgirl looked at the man with an impressed expression before all of them felt the ground shudder and shake.
"Great, now what?" Naruto gritted out while Kitten dragged Beast Boy over to them, the girl then grunting as she drops him to the ground. However, seemingly in response to Naruto's inquiry, several spore Pods like they'd seen before started to pop up before them, some of them started to shake.
"Why do they always have to mutate at the worst possible moments?" Kitten wondered aloud and Batgirl sighed.
"Probably just bad luck…" She stated and Naruto ignored her while narrowing his eyes on the pods as one suddenly opened up and shot out several poison spores.
"We need to take out those plants and quick!" Naruto stated and Batgirl nodded her head in agreement. "Pinky, you Snake and Otacon take BB and find cover while me and Bat Babe deal with the spores." Naruto ordered and Kitten nodded her head, Snake crouching down and scooping up BB before turning and jumping behind one of the overturned walls. "Alright, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto exclaimed and a dozen clones popped into existence around him.
"Alright boys, move out and deal with the spore plants, something tells me the shaking ones are going to turn into something really nasty." Naruto ordered and the clones quickly ran off and did as ordered while the Spores continued to shake and spasm for a moment before suddenly growing. As the clones started destroying the pods the ground suddenly rumbled as a massive Venus-Flytrap burst from the ground, snapping its jaws around several of Naruto's clones.
"Ah shit, its another one of those damn things!" Naruto complained while backing up with Batgirl as the Venus-Flytrap watched them unflinchingly, the pods around it all shaking and shuddering in preparation to mutate.
"What next? They've got giant thorned vines, venus-flytraps, spore pods, poison gas, and barb shooting plants all over the city, what else could they possibly start turning into?" Batgirl demanded seriously and Naruto backed up for a moment as one of the pods suddenly took on a drastic change in appearance. The pod not only grew, but then it started to glow an ominous green before suddenly bursting open. Out of it dropped an odd almost skeletal creature made of what appeared to be wood with a flower on its back, a single vine leading towards the ground from the flower.
"How about that…" He mumbled lowly and Batgirl's eyes widened dramatically as they both took low stances. As they watched the figures fall out of the pods, they also watched as they started to shake, vines suddenly bursting from the flowers on their backs and wrapping around their wooden forms, forming into a humanoid yet somehow still feminine body structure, making them appear thicker before leaves sprouted, then started to cover them like pale green skin, long vines of hair then falling from their heads to finish the oddly disturbing creatures off…
"Holy shit…" Naruto whispered as the plant like creatures all looked towards him with the exact same eyes as Ivy… "Bat Babe, what the hell is this?" Naruto questioned in shock while Batgirl gaped in awe towards the creatures.
"Ivy's blood is what allows her control of these things, and thanks to their constant mutations and adaptations, it looks like the plants are starting to turn themselves into copies of Ivy herself…" Batgirl guessed while Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled his swords from his back.
"Great, a whole batch of Dryads…" Naruto muttered and Batgirl blinked, and then nodded her head, agreeing that the name seemed to suit the creatures. "How can a bunch of fucking plants turn into something this complex, I mean, the rest of the mutations I can pretty much understand, but to be able to turn into a plant variation of Human life?" Naruto questioned while some of the Dryad's suddenly sprouted what appeared to be bark over their bodies like armor, large thorns growing out of portions of them as well, giving them a very fearsome look…
"Ivy has created intelligent plants in the shape of humans several times before, these are only different in that they appear very similar to Ivy's build and structure… More than likely that is a side effect of Ivy's blood being so concentrated into them." Batgirl replied while pulling the two saw-bracers she'd used earlier and crouched into a stance apposing the many Dryads.
"Wait, she's done this kind of shit before? That would have been really good information a while back you know!" Naruto demanded then said angrily before turning back to the oncoming Dryads as they started to form the barb shooters on their arms.
"These also seem to be adapting the larger plant variations into themselves, they're all just an amalgam of the other larger plants, only smaller…" Batgirl whispered to herself while ignoring Naruto, the blond grunting as he crouched down.
"Fine, ignore me, but I'm sick of standing around!" Naruto growled out before lunging into the Dryads, rolling and dodging several barbs from them before twisting on his heel and swinging his swords, unleashing two massive blades of wind to cut the Dryads in half. Smirking the blond stood up, only to widen his eyes while the Dryads started to regenerate lost limbs and armor… "Oh shit, didn't see that coming." Naruto mumbled while Batgirl threw an explosive Batarang at the Dryads, the weapon exploding and knocking the front few back into their "Sisters".
Growling and lunging forward once more, Naruto started to twist and turn, slicing through the Dryads quickly before jumping into a spinning slash, cutting one in half before coming out of it and slicing two more in two. Turning, Naruto grunted as they started to regenerate once more, the other Dryads slowly walking towards him. 'Stupid Plant babes need to learn how to stay down…' Naruto thought to himself before twisting on his heel and slicing them in half, then flipped up and over a few barbs. Landing in a low crouch, Naruto twisted into a sweeping kick, knocking a Dryad off her feet before stabbing the Dryad through the head.
Standing up and pulling his sword from the Dryad, he cursed as it grabbed his leg. Kicking it off he watched it slowly get back up, its wound healing instantly before several thin vines sprouted from its arms. Holding its arms towards the blond they shot out towards him in a massive wave. Cursing, Naruto held both of his swords before quickly spinning them both before himself, slicing and dicing the vines that got too close to him. Once the wave Ended, Naruto held both swords out before twisting all around, sending a massive wave of wind blades all around and slicing a vast majority of the Dryads in half.
Looking around as the Dryads continued to regenerate, Naruto raised a brow when he suddenly noticed that the pieces of them not connected to the main body of the Dryad started to wilt, then quickly die. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto wondered what the difference was then grinned, the vine attaching to the flower on their backs! 'That must act as their roots, take that away and the Dryads die! Ha, being a Gardener finally comes in handy in a fight!' Naruto thought to himself before lunging at the Dryads once more, flipping and rolling out of the way of the ones that fired barbs at him.
"I've got your number now…" Naruto whispered before flipping into the air and coming down behind a Dryad, cutting the vine from her back as he did. Landing in a crouch he turned and watched the Dryad fall to its knees, then turn a beautiful red, then dull brown, before finally becoming black and withering away. "Huh… nice way to die all things considered." Naruto mused before grinning as he turned to face the other Dryads, said creatures quickly firing on him, only for him to vanish.
Appearing above the Dryads, Naruto swung his swords, slicing dozens of the vines connecting to the many Dryads and causing them to wilt and die as well. Seeing this, Batgirl got the idea and smirked while taking a gasmask from her belt and placing it over her lower-face, lenses instantly snapping over her eyes as she lunged into the fray as well. Flipping over a Dryad she brought her saw-bracer down on the vine, cutting it and causing the Dryad to wilt before throwing several Batarangs at some nearby Dryads to cut their vines as well.
"I have to admit, X does have his moments of brilliance." Batgirl admitted while ducking and rolling out of the way as the Dryads started to fire more barbs at her. "Barbs at Barb? Irony at its best." Batgirl mused while throwing several Batrangs at the Dryads to cut their vines. Smirking the Dark-Angel of Gotham lunged forward, pulling a few capsules from her belt and tossing them at the Dryads. The capsules instantly started to explode; freezing the Dryads solid as she then slammed her fists through them and then flipped to the next few without missing a beat.
Elsewhere, Naruto flipped and jumped over Dryads while slicing the vines from their backs. As the battlefield started to turn into a graveyard for Dryads, those remaining quickly ducked underground, leaving Batgirl and Naruto alone with the giant flytrap. "Well this sucks, once you figure out how to get rid of them those Dryads aren't such a nuisance…" Naruto mumbled to himself before cursing as two vines shot out of the ground, a pair of Dryads riding on each of them.
"You were saying!?" Batgirl demanded and Naruto merely grunted before teleporting into the air. Falling down towards the Dryads, Naruto cursed as the Flytrap grabbed him in its jaws instead.
"Oh I am so sick of this happening!" Naruto shouted angrily while holding its jaws up. "That's it, no more mister nice Red-X! I fucking sick and tired of you giant Kami damned plants trying to turn me into plant food! It ends now!" Naruto exclaimed while forming a "One-Thousand-Blades-Jutsu" around his body. Once he had The flytrap was torn apart from the inside out as Naruto briefly floated in the air as the air spun around him and then spun in place while pushing Chakra into his hands. "FUUTON: MAKYOU KAITEN!" He exclaimed loudly while spinning even faster, forming a mini-tornado and pulling the vines and Dryads up into it before forming a quick One-Thousand-Blades-Jutsu inside of the Tornado as well.
The effect was instantaneous; everything unlucky enough to be trapped within the swirling tornado was torn apart piece by piece. Cursing, Batgirl fired a Grapple to the ground as the Tornado started to pull her in, Snake, Kitten, and Otacon holding onto BB while also ducking behind a large piece of rubble as the wind picked up the smaller pieces. Soon the wind finally died down, a now blazing red-eyed Naruto falling from the Tornado as numerous Vines and a roar of fury from Ivy came forth. Narrowing his eyes, the former Nin brought his swords back before swinging them both forward, the force of the wind he created knocking the oncoming plants to the ground while pushing him back up into the air.
Unlocking the thermal blasters from his gauntlets as soon as he was far enough in the air, Naruto aimed downwards and fired on the many vines, the blasts of pure red-hot heat setting them ablaze. Writhing and lashing out in pain, the vines started to slam into the ground, Batgirl cursing as she ran away and ducked behind the same rubble as Kitten and the others. "How the hell is he doing all that?" Batgirl finally demanded and Kitten shrugged her shoulders, though also made a mental note to never get on his bad side…
"I don't known, and so long as he's on our side for the moment I don't really care." Snake replied and Otacon nodded his head in agreement with the former soldier. Sighing, Batgirl then turned to look over the battle as the vines continued to writhe in pain, Naruto above them. Sheathing one of his swords, Naruto held a hand to the side, blood red energy forming in his palm and spinning into a bright red Rasenshuriken…
"RASENSHURIKEN!!" The blond exclaimed as he reared back his arm and then threw the Rasenshuriken towards the ground below. The Rasenshuriken hit the ground and tore every vine and plant below him apart, Pods, barb-shooters, Dryads, all were ripped to pieces as the attack seemed to spiral outwards, leaving nothing below him but a large spiral target. Panting in midair for a bit the blond haired ex-shinobi then began to fall towards the ground, only for his eyes to snap open mid fall.
Rolling to the side, Naruto watched as another couple vines started to rise out of the ground and growled angrily, eyes starting to burn an even fiercer crimson as the Kyuubi's chakra slowly became visible. "Stupid plants…" Naruto said in a low growling voice, only for one green and one red beam of light to slice through the vines, Naruto blinking and then shaking his head to rid himself of the Kyuubi's influence. Turning his head, Naruto saw Stafire carrying Cyborg, Wondergirl carrying Kid-Flash, and Supergirl all heading their way.
"Bout damn time…" Naruto mumbled to himself before teleporting to the ground and falling to one knee, panting heavily. 'Whoa… must've really overdid it with all the Jutsu that time…' He mused to himself inwardly while slowly rising back to his feet as the other Teens landed nearby. "Nice to see you're alright Tin-Man, hate for you to be out of the game thanks to Ivy." Naruto offers the teen and Cy looked at the thief pointedly for a moment.
"You know, if Rob were here he'd probably try and arrest you…" Cyborg noted and Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Kid has a bit of a one tracked mind, huh?" Naruto noted and Cyborg nodded his head in agreement.
"Luckily for you I'm not Rob, and I'm still a little pissed at him for not warning us about Ivy's kisses… or her pheromones… so I don't mind that you're here, so long as your trying to help us this time." Cyborg then said and Naruto smirked while giving a light chuckle as Supergirl landed next to him.
"Your alright Tin-Head, better than the kid at least, that's for sure." Naruto offered while Cyborg shrugged and then looked around and shook his head.
"Thanks X… but man what the hell happened around here? Looks like a nuclear weapon was dropped on top of this place." Cyborg questioned then stated and Naruto chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of his neck.
"He happened…" Batgirl deadpanned as she walked over to them with Kitten, Snake, and Otacon, Snake carrying the still unconscious Beast-Boy. In response to the accusation, Cy gave a look to Naruto and he shrugged his shoulders.
"What, the plants were getting on my nerves." He replied simply and Cy groaned while palming his face with a grimace.
"Man has enough power to level a city block and acts like its nothing…" He muttered while Batgirl and the others stopped nearby, Batgirl removing her Saw-Bracers. "You guys okay?" Cy asked the red head and she looked to the wounded Kitten fro a moment before replying.
"Save for Pink-X we are, Red-X here took on the bulk of the plants and leveled at least a quarter of your city while he was at it. And just so you know, it is a proven fact that Beast-Boy can literally sleep through a hurricane…" Batgirl then said flatly and Cyborg rolled his eyes and smirked in response.
"I've known that forever…" He replied while looking to the unconscious teen.
"Whoa, what happened to you?" Supergirl asked while flying over to Kitten as the girl held a large gash on her right bicep.
"Beast-Boy was tougher than he looked…" She replied and Supergirl grimaced before looking around.
"Where is that Raven girl from your team? She can heal people right?" She asked and Cyborg nodded his head before looking to his left arm and hitting a button.
"Hey Rae, can you head over here, Pink-X is in need of medical attention thanks to an out of control BB." Cyborg questioned and Raven raised a single brow for a moment before frowning.
"Me and Robin will be over shortly." She replied and the transmission was cut while Snake dropped Beast-Boy to the ground. Once he had Starfire rushed over to the green teen worriedly, then looked up at Snake with a frown.
"Did you have to drop friend Beast-Boy officer? Surely you could have let him down more gently." She questioned and Snake grunted while lighting a cig and then blew a little smoke from the side of his mouth.
"Don't care… I'm sick of dragging his green ass around… and I really needed a smoke." Snake replied while taking a puff of his cig, Otacon sighing when he did so.
"Please excuse Snake, he's not really a people person." Otacon offered and Snake scoffed while turning his back on the teens, Naruto rubbing his head through his helmet before looking to the side as Raven finally appeared with a very familiar teen now dressed in black beside her.
"Hi." Raven offered flatly and then looked around and widened her eyes when she saw Kitten. "I'll skip any witty banter and just get to work, you can fill Robin in on the situation…" Raven offered while walking over to Kitten and Naruto looked to newly dressed Robin with a raised brow. The suit he was wearing was skintight and black with a large blue firebird on his chest, a gray utility belt synched around his waist, metal capped steel soled boots like his old pair, a pair of gray forearm protectors with black gloves that had steel plates at the back of each hand, and a black and white V shaped domino mask.
"Wow kid, have you decided to join the dark side or is all the black and blue just an attempt to escape the Traffic Light nickname?" Naruto wondered aloud with a smirk and Robin gave him a look in response.
"One, what are you doing here, two, I've decided I'm going by Nightwing now, three, shut up." 'Nightwing' ordered and Naruto mocked him for a moment while Cyborg cracked his knuckles and walked over to his leader.
"Rob, me and you need to have a serious talk about this 'Need to know basis' shit you've been using with the rest of us lately…" Cy stated angrily and Night blinked before grimacing towards him.
"Can it wait until after we've saved the city from Ivy?" He pleaded and Cy twitched before breathing out a breath.
"For the time being, yeah, after this though, we are having that discussion Rob." Cy stated simply and Night flinched slightly before nodding his head.
"Now that Tin-Man has had his say…" Kid-Flash started to say before zipping over to stand next to Nightwing with a smirk. "How you doing Dick, long time no see." KF offered and Naruto blinked at the name. 'Dick? Oh the mileage I'm going to be getting off that one!' Naruto thought to himself with a mental, and oddly, maniacal laugh while Night looked at Kid-Flash in surprise.
"Bart? What are you doing here?" He wondered and then felt someone place an arm over his shoulder and looked to the side to see Wondergirl. "Donna? Wow, you too? This is a surprise, a pleasant one for once, but still a surprise." Night noted and Wondergirl rolled her eyes.
"All we need is Garth here and the team would be back together again." She noted to herself and Night smirked slightly.
"Actually, Garth is a member of Titans East, Donna." Night replied and Cyborg looked between the two with confusion written over his face.
"You know each other?" He asked with a blink and Kid-Flash grinned.
"Yeah, let's just say we're old friends." Kid-Flash offered while Nightwing smirked and rolled his eyes behind his mask.
"I met them back when I still worked with Batman, hell, that's back when I first met Duela…" Night noted thoughtfully and Wondergirl shivered.
"Speaking of Duela, is she still as psychotic as I remember her?" Wondergirl asked her old friend flatly and Night grunted.
"More so…" He stated and Wondergirl looked to Kid-Flash who was staring off into space before grinning.
"Leave it to Duela to prove us wrong…" He mused and Cyborg tapped his head.
"How so?" He asked pointedly and Kid-Flash wrapped his arms behind his head.
"Back when we fought her, we all swore she couldn't possibly be anymore insane without turning out like the Joker, looks like we were wrong though." Kid-Flash offered and Naruto looked at them and then crossed his arms with a frown.
"You guys seem really relaxed considering we're in the middle of a city that's practically under Ivy's complete control." He noted flatly and Night smirked towards the black clad thief.
"What's the matter X, running out of steam?" Night quipped and Naruto gave him a flat look in response.
"Let's see you take down a T-Rex, fight your way through half a city's worth of mutant plants, kick the asses of a dozen bikers, beat the hell out of some random Rocker in orange, save dozens of people numerous times, all in the same day and in only a few hours before finally getting tired…" Naruto stated flatly and Night blinked before looking to Batgirl for conformation.
"See the damage around here…" She stated and Night looked around then nodded. "He did that." She then stated while pointing to Naruto and Night looked at him with widened eyes.
"Alright… never mind." He muttered and then looked over to where Raven was finishing healing Kitten. "Raven, could you check up on Beast Boy when you're done?" He asked and the girl mutely nodded while working on the injured pinkette. "Alright, now can anyone tell me what the situation is thus far, and before I forget is anyone else around here that's normally not in Jump City?" Night asked while looking around then spotted Supergirl who gave a small wave to the teen. "Kara… why am I not surprised that you're here?" He wondered aloud and Cyborg through his arms up.
"Do you know every super teen in the world or what?" Cyborg asked seriously and Naruto looked at him with a raised brow.
"Jeez Kid, how many teams were you on before the Titans?" Naruto asked and Night cleared his throat while looking away from them both.
"Anyways, Donna, what can you tell me about the city thus far?" Night questioned while ignoring both older teens and both looked to one another before sighing.
"You know, he ignores us like you used to ignore that creepy Stalker Ninja girl Cheshire Temp…" Cyborg stated and Naruto scoffed.
"Are you kidding Stone head, she…" He started to say only to stop at Cyborg's smirk and give him a dirty look. "Cheater…" He muttered and Cyborg merely grinned.
"After seeing that tornado trick, you could only be Tempest man." Cyborg reminded while patting him on the back and Naruto waved him off then walked over to BB, Cyborg following while KF and Wondergirl filled Robin in on the situation thus far.
"Is Friend Beast-Boy going to be okay?" Starfire asked worriedly and Kitten sighed while Batgirl rolled her eyes.
"X might have been a tad too rough with him, but he should wake up soon enough." Batgirl offered and Kitten nodded her head in agreement, Starfire sighing in relief while Raven placed a hand to BB's head.
"He's just sleeping…" She offered flatly and Naruto snickered.
"Guy could sleep through a hurricane… and did." Naruto noted and Cyborg shook his head before leaning down.
"Watch and learn…" He said before holding one of BB's ears and took a deep breath. "WAKE UP GRASS STAIN! I'M MAKING STEAK AND EGGS FOR BREAKFAST!" He then shouted, getting looks from those around him only for BB to jump up and look all around before glaring at a grinning Cyborg.
"Dude! That is so not cool!" BB stated angrily while Kitten snickered and Naruto outright laughed.
"Now that BB's up, who else feels like a fifth wheel on the "New" team?" Cy asked while nudging over to where Night was talking to Wonder-Girl and Kid-Flash.
"Cyborg, chill, so Robin has old friends, its not like you didn't before, either." Raven reminded and Batgirl nodded her head in agreement with the statement.
"And lets not forget that you guys do have more members than they did." Batgirl reminds simply and BB blinks.
"Dudes, what'd I miss?" He asks while looking around with obvious confusion and Cyborg sighed.
"You don't want to know BB… you really don't want to know." Cyborg replied while Supergirl floated above the ground with her legs crossed below her, causing BB to point and stare at the girl in shock.
"Supergirl!" He exclaimed and the blond bombshell nodded while waving with one hand. "Dude! We have Supergirl in town!" BB said loudly and Cyborg turned his friends head to see Kid-Flash and Wondergirl as well. "DUDE! It's totally like a Mini-Justice league around here!" BB says in shock and Cyborg rolled his eyes before patting BB on the head.
"Yeah, we know BB… it's old news." He said simply while Naruto grunted and then held his hands in a T shape.
"Yo. Timeout, enough chit chat, we still have the problem of Ivy and Harley to deal with encase you heroes have forgotten." Naruto reminds flatly and Cyborg looked to the others who nodded their heads.
"Temp's right, and he WAS called the "Anti-Robin" of the Hive." Cyborg stated then mused with a smirk and Naruto narrowed his eyes in response.
"Temp?" BB questioned and Cyborg nodded his head.
"Short for Tempest, as in that one HIVE student I used to bunk with who was a Ninja with control over Wind." Cy replied and BB made an O with his mouth before gaping towards Naruto.
"You're the Anti-Robin?" He demanded in shock and Batgirl snickered, thus making Naruto grunt while crossing his arms.
"Not literally green bean, I was called that because I was a good team leader, used mostly weapons, but I was 'evil'. Though, I was the one who blew up the HIVE when you kids decided to invade…" Naruto stated then mused aloud and Cy blinked.
"You did that? Wow, that must've been fun." Cy guessed and got a look from Naruto in response.
"More fun than I care to admit but that's not the point. The point is we have a city that's covered from streets to sewers in plants and vines, a single person trying to control them…" Naruto started to say only to stop when he got a message from Gizmo, thus smirked when he finished reading it. "And I do mean trying since it looks like their starting to run out of control, and Gizmo says he's working on a plant killer for these suckers as we speak." Naruto reminds then offers and Cyborg blinked in surprise.
"Wow, Gizmo actually comes through for us in the end." Cy said in shock and Naruto snorted.
"No, he's saving his own Hyde, I'm still more than a little annoyed that my teammates helped Harley and Ivy when I explicitly said not to trash my city…" Naruto grumbled out angrily and Cy blinked before rolling his eyes.
"You know, you really shouldn't trust women like them." Cyborg reminds and Naruto grunted before looking over to Nightwing.
"Yo kid, my techie Gizmo says he's working on some Plant Killer for these things. Says he only needs some time to finish it off before he and the other members of Tartarus can spread it over the city." Naruto states and Nightwing nodded his head with a thoughtful expression while Wondergirl gave him a look.
"Your team is named Tartarus?" She asked and Naruto sighed.
"I heard that The "Titans of Myth" were all sealed in Tartarus, my team is basically made up of Evil teens with powers, apposing the Titans, thus, it just seemed to work." Naruto replied and Wondergirl decided she didn't want to know while Robin nodded his head.
"Alright listen up. Harley and Ivy are holed up in the Lex-Corp building in the center of town. We're going to have to split up for this to work. One team is going in through the buildings, while the other take a sewer entrance. This way at least one team can hopefully sneak up on Ivy. Pink-X, you stay here with Officer Connors and his friend, you might be fine now but you never know when they could use help." Night stated and Kitten nodded her head slowly while Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Excellent plan you got there kid, but might I ask whose going with whom?" Naruto questioned pointedly and Night gave him a look.
"Since neither of us would work well if we were on the same team we'll be on the apposing teams. Whoever wants to work with X can go with him." Night offered and Raven, Batgirl, Cyborg, and Supergirl stood with him. "Right, then Donna, Beast-Boy, Star, and Bart are with me." Night said while looking around and Naruto nodded his head, this team he could work with…
"Alright, then who's going which way?" Naruto asked and Night frowned for a moment before nodding his head.
"You have a greater number of land based members, you'll head in through the sewers while me and the flyers head in via the buildings and rooftops." Night states and Naruto looks over his team for a moment before nodding his head. "Alright then, Titans, Move Out!" Nightwing ordered as the two teams split off…
--
TBC…
--
AN: A new chapter is finally completed! I'd like to thank all of you who haven't decided to stop reading this story just because I haven't really updated in a while. Sorry about that but I'm hoping this chapter partly makes up for it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter; The "Dryads" are based after a few of the humanoid plant creatures Ivy was known to use in Batman The Animated Series. One version of them was strictly used as henchmen and spies, the others were intelligent enough to speak and think for themselves unlike the normal variation.