Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, all rights to the owners.

Something, something, big battle incoming! Three versus four isn't good odds though! One of those three is Crow though, and we all know he's a powerhouse in the right circumstances. It's not like the other Titans are pushovers either. But Crow, Changing, and Cyborg against Ternion, Rose, Mumbo, and Terrance? Not exactly an easy fight.


CHANGELING

"Okay, something's up." I huff. "No guards outside the town hall, but Thunder and Lightning were circling overhead earlier? I don't buy it."

"I didn't even consider that." Cyborg says honestly. "But yeah, good catch."

"So where are the guards then?" Crow asks. He waves an arm vaguely in the direction of the town hall. "Because there are gonna be guards, right?"

"Yep." I have no doubt there is. You don't devote two supervillains to guarding a place just to leave it otherwise unguarded.

Well, actually, this is Rose. Maybe this is a masterful feint of some sort, but the town hall seems like a valuable enough spot that it would have some more protection.

"So basically, we're sneaking in." I say. "There's no way we're going to walk in through the main entrance."

"Roof then?" Crow chirps at me.

"Yeah." I nod. I stretch, then morph into a crow. I caw at Crow, and he takes to the air as well. Then he pauses, points at Cyborg, and she suddenly starts floating next to him.

Right, Cyborg can't fly. Probably should have considered that. I guess we're also just leaving the T-Car here at the edge of the parking lot too.

Whatever. I don't care that much. I just want to fight something.

I take the lead and find us a suitable entry point. I don't choose the most obvious window, in fact I fly around the back and choose a totally normal, unimportant window. I caw at it and peck it, and Cyborg gets the message. A blast of her cannon rends the air and the window shatters. I dive into the opening and untransform as soon as I can. The window breaking wasn't quiet, if there's anyone in this building they're going to know we're here.

I don't wait for confirmation that the others are following before dashing out the nearest door and down the hallway. I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for, but I'm knocking open each door I come across. Some are locked, and when they are I simply brute-force the door open with a shoulder slam, often breaking the door (and sometimes the lock) in the process.

I find a lot of office rooms filled with cubicles, filing cabinets, and all that boring stuff. Some of them have signs of struggle, like papers scattered on the floor and chairs or cubicle walls that are knocked over. There are no people though. No people, no rosebots, nothing.

I don't buy it. I'm almost positive there must have been someone here. A janitor, the mayor, someone. I won't be surprised if I find hostages somewhere, I'm expecting to find hostages somewhere, and when I do I want to rush in I don't want anyone to have time to try and threaten me with them, hence why I burst into every room with abandon. I want the fight to start instantly, because a standoff is going to be more dangerous overall because it gives our foes leverage to work with.

I suppose there's possible harm to the hostages, but it's better for the situation overall. Robin would definitely disagree with that, but she disagrees with everything I do.

Unfortunately, I don't find someone before they find me, and by that I mean a group of rosebots come storming up the stairs. Not that they're any real challenge; one blast from Cyborg's cannon and a follow-up crush attack from Crow's magic takes the group out. I don't even get to participate.

Still, if those rosebots came from downstairs, that's probably where the enemies are. I turn into a hummingbird and fly downstairs.

It's a good thing hummingbirds have great reflexes or else I would have been swatted out of the sky by the bo-staff swung at me the instant I'm down to the new level. I wasn't expecting to find Rose so quickly, or to find Rose in particular at all, but this works.

It gives me something to fight.

I move out of bird form back to my normal human self. My claws and fangs slide out, and I lunge.

CYBORG

Changeling is being reckless, and it's a problem. Mostly because it's brought us face-to-face with Rose, and Changeling doesn't look in the mood to back off and get help. I mean, Rose along would be manageable, but Rose isn't alone.

I don't know if Changeling doesn't realize the fact that Ternion just smashed through one of the walls, or if she genuinely doesn't care because she's dedicating all her focus to Rose. Terrance has also leapt through the hole in the wall and is pulling dirt and rocks from outside to use, and Mumbo is also here. She's twirling her wand, but oddly doesn't seem to be too keen on actually fighting.

Crow is turning to hold off Ternion, so I guess Terrance is my job. Not sure how I feel about taking on a mage one-on-one. If there's one thing I know about being a hero, it's that fighting people with magic sucks.

I level my cannon and fire without prompting. This is no time for words. Terrance makes a wall out of packed dirt and rocks that mostly blocks the attack. I have to dive to the side to avoid the whole wall being thrown at me the next moment.

A loud roar signals that Ternion is attacking. I can smell something foul and burned, likely from Ternion, as it points its arm at Crow and lets loose a steam of electrified goop and chunks of rock. Crow dodges the attack rather than try to block it and phases into the floor for a moment as the attack flies overhead.

Changeling and Rose are having quite the duel right now. I would have thought Changeling was totally outmatched, but considering her better-than-human durability the hits Rose does land with her staff aren't doing all that much damage.

And then Rose makes the mistake of using her staff to block. She brings it up horizontally, stopping a claw swipe from Changeling, and Changeling responds so quickly I think she must have been waiting for Rose to do that. Her head snaps forwards and she bites down on the staff, crushes the metal between her teeth, and leaves Rose with two broken metal scraps in her hand.

Changeling grins viciously and spits out the metal scraps, along with a bit of green blood. Rose's one good eye narrows, and she drops the remains of her staff in favor of bringing up her fists.

Terrance is not so easily handled though. I don't know how to fight mages! I make the decision to just rush the guy. I use my metal arm to block a few stones he launches at my head and start swinging when I'm close enough. Terrance has to scramble back to avoid me punching him in the face. At the very least he can't fight well like this.

"Fuck off!" Terrance snaps at me. He pulls some more dirt through the window and smacks me in the chest with it, but I'm made of metal so it predictably doesn't do much. "I don't want to deal with you!"

Terrance reaches down with one hand and then forcefully pulls upwards. A pillar of stone juts out of the floor, completely walling me off from him for a moment. I try to move around it, but Terrance pulls up more stone pillars, eventually completely surrounding me and trapping me between them.

This is going to take a moment to break. Better get to work…

CROW

I should not be fighting Ternion! I can't do this alone! Changeling is busy fighting Rose though, and Cyborg-

"You!" Terrance snarls, interrupting my fight. He holds out a hand to Ternion, and the monster jerks to a stop. I wonder how he's controlling Ternion? "Fight me!"

"Umm…" I stall. "Do we have to?"

"Yes!" Terrance snarls. He jabs a finger in my direction. "You're the reason I chose to do this in the first place!"

I frown. "I don't understand."

"Of course you don't." He spits. "You're a child. You pretend to be older than you are."

"I have a condition-"

"Shut up! You stopped me from having any chance. No chance to be a hero because you said I was incompetant, and no chance with Changeling because you got in the way even though you said you wouldn't!"

"I-I never meant to-"

"Of course you didn't." Terrance's voice is acidic. "Because you're just so innocent, right? Make up your mind, are you a child or not? If you are, get out of my fucking way, and if you aren't, stop pretending you don't know what's going on!"

I blink rapidly in confusion. What is going on? I was trying to protect him because he wasn't skilled enough. I'm not a good fighter, and if he's worse than me, he's certainly not good enough to be fighting. As for Changeling… I know he wanted to impress her and all that, and I really tried not to get in the way! Changeling just likes me. That's really it. There's nothing I could have done about it except actively push her away, and I wasn't about to do that! "Look, I'm sorry things happened as they did-"

"Oh you're sowwy?" Terrance mocks and exaggerates the slight childish lisp my voice has always had. "Well thanks, that just solves everything doesn't it?"

"Taking over the city doesn't either!" I protest. I take great care to enunciate my words so I don't accidentally slur letters.

"Wrong!" Terrance snaps. "I'll get the recognition I want, and I'll impress Changeling by beating you!"

"Beating up someone you claim is a child? Real impressive." Cyborg interrupts. She broke free of her stone prison and is now standing beside me.

"You stay out of this!"

"There are better ways to get recognition than becoming a villain." I say slowly. "And you don't need to impress Changeling, there are other nice women in the world, and more to life than trying to get a girlfriend."

"Hypocrite! Says the one clinging to her any chance he gets!"

"I don't do that…" I mumble. Granted that's not because I don't want to, it's just because I'm too nervous.

"You totally do." Cyborg whispers out of the corner of her mouth. I try not to blush, this really isn't the time. Cyborg looks at Terrance again. "Look, buddy, I get it, rejection stings an' all, but this is a bit of an overreaction yeah? S'not like we're the only people in the world who you can find purpose with. Bein' a hero kinda sucks. Ya need either a crazy amount of dedication or to win the superpower lottery, and you never get as much free time or recognition as you'd want. Changeling's a good girl an' all, but Crow's right, there are others."

The "and others that are less volatile" isn't said, but Cyborg's voice clearly implies it. She's also clearly not choosing to address how weird and slightly creepy it is for Terrance to be so focused on getting a girlfriend in the first place.

"You. Are. Not. A part. Of. This." Terrance snarls. He points at Cyborg and Ternion lurches to life once more. Cyborg pats me on the back and takes a few steps away, leading Ternion towards the door. Terrance's glare deepens, and he pulls up a chunk of the floor with his powers, levitating concrete and tiles in the air.

That's new. From what I can remember, he could only levitate dirt and rocks. "You've improved!"

"Don't patronize me!" He hurls the concrete chunks at me, and I use my own power to redirect them to the side. "You've always patronized me! I'm older than you!"

"Well age and maturity don't always mean the same-"

"Shut up!" He pulls more concrete from the floor. "Stop acting like you're better than me!"

"Well, I am at certain things." I say. "But-"

"Auugh! Stop talking!" He launches, and fails to hit, several more large projectiles. I'm getting a bit frustrated. He's not listening. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, I am better at him than certain things, but he's better than me at others. It just happens I'm good at fighting with magic because I've had a lot of magic training.

I play defensive for a minute, trying to talk him down, but he clearly doesn't want to listen. It's with reluctance that I start fighting back. It's not as difficult as Terrance probably hopes it is. Terrance's moves are all telegraphed, and while they're powerful I also don't have to use too much energy to stop them. It's like how Changeling explained to me how to stop a punch. You don't block it straight-up, you knock it to the side, deflect the power, and by extension waste less of your own power. I can do the same with his attacks. I don't have to shield them or block them outright, I can just change their momentum a bit and waste a lot less of my own energy.

And when I do strike back, I hit as hard as I can. I want to stop him quickly if I have to fight. He hurls more rocks, I deflect them, then I phase into the floor. Terrance whirls around, trying to find me, but I don't need to attack from in front, behind, left, or right. I can strike from below.

Two black, hollow, hemi-spheres erupt from the ground around Terrance and trap him between them. I press my hands against the surface and whisper "Azarath, Metrion, Somnum, Zinthos…" and push the pink mist that comes out of my hands into the sphere.

Within ten seconds Terrance has stopped struggling, and when I open the hemi-sphere he flops onto the floor, forced asleep by my spell.

I should probably go help Cyborg now.


The fight's not over yet, but the chapter is. Were you expecting the Titans to get curb-stomped? Ternion is still a threat though, everyone has only been able to distract them so far and not actually beat them.


Azarath Cat: No regular universe counterpart. Hysteria is just someone I came up with because I needed another superhero to mention, and I don't know any other DC characters that would be active in Jump, so I made one up.

yqyoung: Having something that conveniently nullifies anti-magic crystals is way too blatantly contrived to me. Not that having something that deals with the anti-magic crystals is a bad idea, it just needs to be worked into the story in such a way that isn't obviously just a way to curb the issue. Though hopefully with what I've done, which is taking Chang mostly out of the picture, that should deal with the crystal issue for the most part (as she is the supplier of those things).

Origami Stars: Yes, Hysteria is made up. Needing another super operating in Jump, but I don't really know anyone from DC that would work, so I created them on the spot. No idea if they'll ever be used or mentioned again.

Yes! Slade's plan in the show only made sense in the context of "Superman stays out of Gotham" style storytelling, where the Titans are treated as if they're the only major superheroes in the area and Slade can do whatever he wants if they're out of the way. Not the case here, and so a political move made most sense (and lined up with Rose's motives).

Guest: Glad you like it! Rose was a bit of a struggle to decide what to do with. Deciding a motive that made sense in the context of the world was rather problematic, but it seems like it worked out.