Chapter 33
You Gotta Move...
One major problem the Brotherhood of Evil faced was Polybius. The Brain knew that Polybius was the toughest Titan. He could take hits that nobody else could. And while he often preferred to not use his powers, when he did, some doubted that even if they pulled every villain they had, they couldn't defeat him.
This left a significant hole in the Brain's plan. He suspected that regardless of who he sent to deal with Polybius, that the mute would win.
However, General Immortus had a plan.
The general argued that in order to defeat Polybius, they had to draw him into a place that best suited them. And that location would be none other than the lair they were in. And while it would be risky bringing him to the holding area of the rest of the frozen Titans, the general seemed confident that they could win.
In the meantime, while the other Titans were being taken down, the Brotherhood was going to send a few villains to keep him distracted.
That then left only one other major hole in their plans. That being how to bring down Wonder Girl.
The Brain had figured out about Montezuma's attack on Paradise Island and had no doubts that security had been amped up as a result, even if it was years ago. From what he could tell, the Aztec's attack seemed to leave a major scar on the Amazons as a whole, and they became far warier of the outside world than they had previously been.
The Brotherhood did have one significant advantage going for them in that situation, however. That being, Wonder Girl had to sneak off the island and was often left somewhat out of the loop. The idea was that by striking fast and hard, preferably while she would be sleeping, they could keep her out of the loop. The plan to deal with her would be to wait until she would sneak off and then take her out before she could link up with Polybius.
However, if the two did link up, then the odds of victory went down drastically. Polybius alone was a big enough threat. Combine him with Wonder Girl, easily one of the most powerful female Titans, and that spelled disaster.
And thus, on March 15th, the plan sprang into action. However, they ended up being forced to move slowly due to weather and ended up getting delayed by several hours. Far later than what they had initially intended to strike.
And while Polybius found himself hammered in a tight situation, on Paradise Island, a different threat began emerging.
Donna was laughing hard as she and Zenobia kept adding things to the original statement to make it even funnier than before. They were also a good distance away from the rest of the other Amazons.
However, good things could not last forever.
As the two turned a corner of one of the hills they had seen all their lives, they both stopped to catch their breaths.
"Oh, that is too funny." Zenobia commented.
"Oh, that was." Donna said, wiping the tears away from her eyes.
Zenobia then walked forward a few steps to a steep edge and looked out at the island. They could see the vast Aegean Sea and the long distance from the edge of the cliff they were standing atop to the water below.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Zenobia asked as she took in the horizon.
"Yeah." Donna agreed, "Not as beautiful as the one form Titan's Tower." Donna countered.
"That's because you're with Polybius." Zenobia teased.
"Maybe." Donna replied, causing both of them to giggle.
"Too bad he isn't here to save you." A male voice suddenly spoke.
Before either girl could react, a razor-sharp red X came flying out of the bushes. It found its mark and sliced Zenobia's head in two, causing it to split open.
Donna's jaw dropped as she watched her friend's head split open like a flower blooming. The body of the girl then fell backward off the cliff and into the water.
"Zenobia!" Donna called out as the body of her friend fell off of the cliff and into the water below.
"Sucks to be you." Red X said as he walked out of the bushes.
Donna spun back and looked at the masked figure. He stood at a slightly shorter stature than herself.
"You killed her!" Donna shouted.
"Sure did, Captain Obvious." Red X stated, "And up next, is you."
Red X quickly fired two razor-sharp Xs at Donna. The Amazon, well trained by Wonder Woman, was easily able to dodge these.
"You're gonna pay for this!" Donna shouted.
"Catch me if you can." Red X teased.
The masked figure then took off into the forest and was closely pursued by Donna. He led her on a chase for a while, before suddenly vanishing just short of the main settlement on the island.
Not wasting any time, Donna went straight to her mother.
"Mom!" Donna shouted, tears in her eyes.
"Donna!?" Her mother replied, "What's wrong!?"
"Somebody just killed Zenobia!" Donna replied.
A look of shock came over her mother's face as well as the rest of the Amazons in the area.
"How!?" Her mother was quick to demand.
"Somebody from Man's world snuck on the island. He was targeting me, but ended up hitting Zenobia!"
"Search the island!" The queen quickly ordered as she moved to comfort her daughter "Bring me his head on a pike!"
As the Amazons were quick to obey and scatter, Donna began to sob. Her mother was quick to try and embrace her, but Donna moved away. This confused her mother greatly as she was confused as to why she did this and questioned it.
"No!" Donna said, "He's gotten away, and Zenobia's murder is going to go unpunished! And you won't let me do anything about it!"
"You mean you recognized the man who attacked you?" The queen asked, "Was it Montezuma?"
"No!" Donna said, collecting herself, "It was a villain the Titans had faced before and given them trouble. Red X. You gotta let me go talk to them!"
Her mother was about to tell her she couldn't leave, but then remembered that Diana was gone. She wouldn't be able to respond to this threat for a long time. And with how long it took to bring down Montezuma, and that another man knew where the island was, this would be a considerable risk to all of the Amazons.
With a long sigh, the queen knew she had no choice.
"Then, you go after him." Her mother said.
Donna stopped crying as the words hit her. She looked up at her mother with a confused look on her face.
"What?" Donna asked.
"Go!" Her mother ordered, "Go to Polybius and the Titans and get help."
"Really!?" Donna asked, sadness replaced by excitement.
"I'm afraid I don't have a choice." Her mother said, "You have the connections needed to bring him down. I want you to go straight to Polybius, tell him what happened, and come straight back here."
"Thank you!" Donna said.
"Now, don't assume this is going to be a permanent thing." her mother warned, "This is a one-time thing. Straight to him and back. And I'll be checking up on you too. Now go get your things and go!"
Donna nodded and didn't waste any time rushing to her room and quickly got changed into her Wonder Girl uniform and took off flying for Jump City. However, before leaving, she found her communicator and phone destroyed. The young Amazonian looked at the two of them and cursed Red X for breaking them. But she didn't have time to do anything about them as she needed to get to Polybius as fast as possible.
Meanwhile, back on Polybius's end, the mute found himself bogged down in Spain. He had been getting hit with villain after villain all day, lost his backpack full of tools, and had grown tired. That being said, he managed to hide away from them in Madrid with two allies and was resting up.
When he awoke, he headed up to the roof of the building he had been hiding out in and looked out at the land. His eyes began scanning for the next villain. However, as his eyes drifted upwards towards the sky, he saw something flying overhead. A person, but he couldn't make out who.
They stopped and looked down at him before flying towards him at high speed. The mute was quick to back up a little and took up a fighting stance as he watched them approach.
"Polybius!" The voice of Donna called out.
As the figure grew closer, Polybius lowered his guard to see that it was indeed Donna, in her Wonder Girl uniform flying towards him. She was quick to land on the building and approach him.
"You've gotta help me!" Donna started quickly "Red X came to the island and murdered one of my sisters!"
Polybius held up one finger to stop her. She did as he pulled out his notebook, which he hadn't used in a long time and wrote something down.
'We've got bigger problems right now. The Brotherhood of Evil is attacking Titans everywhere. I've lost touch with everyone and have no reason to believe that any of them are alive at this point in time. I know for a fact we've lost Robin, and I've been getting hammered with attacks from villains all day.' Polybius wrote.
Donna's eyes grew wide in shock as she read this. In her mind, it seemed that Red X had been sent by the Brotherhood of Evil to attack and kill her. And Zenobia had gotten in the way. That, on top of the Titans, were losing in all corners of the world.
The mute Titan snapped his fingers in her face before the severity of the situation could set in. He then wrote down some more information for her.
"What!?" Donna asked, "You just plan to bust into their secret lair and go on a rampage!?"
The mute nodded.
"That can't be a good idea!" Donna argued, "Isn't there a better plan?"
The mute shook his head.
"There has to be!" Donna argued, "Alright, I don't care that my mother told me I could only report to you and then had to go back! I'm sticking with you, but there has to be a better plan! What about taking them out one by one?"
The mute shook his head again.
"Then maybe we could get some help!" Donna said, "I know Wonder Woman can't help us right now, but the League certainly has to have a few heroes it can spare."
Polybius gave her a more annoyed look. Donna could tell by the look in his eyes that he was dead set on a plan. And that there was nothing she could say or do to convince him otherwise.
"Alright." Donna said, "Where are we going?"
'Pairs.' Polybius wrote down 'With a ride.'
"With a ride?" Donna asked.
Polybius lead Donna back into the building, where they found two young men sitting at a table with a map.
"Polybius!" One of them greeted, "I see you brought a friend."
The mute nodded as he showed them, Donna.
"Marc." The first teen greeted.
"Rayanus." The second followed up, "We're friends of Polybius."
"Donna." The girl replied hesitantly, "Nice to meet you."
The three males were quick to fill Donna in on the plans of attack. Which pretty much was to drive right into their secret lair and start blasting.
"You with us?" Marc asked.
"Of course!" Donna replied.
And with that, the four took off in a 2002 Toyota Tacoma that Rayanus owned. It didn't take long for the team to get from Madrid to Paris. Once there, the group drove right up to the secret lair. From there, Polybius and Donna got out to clear the path for the Tacoma.
"They call this the city of love, don't they?" Donna asked as the two got outside of earshot of Marc and Rayanus.
The mute nodded as he began to head for the entrance to the base. Donna quickly followed suit.
"So, how do you know they are here?" Donna asked.
Polybius used his hands to express that he forced somebody to tell him.
"I see." Donna said, understanding what he was trying to convey.
Once inside, Donna couldn't help but notice a change in Polybius. As soon as they entered the base, something inside him just snapped. He began with a fast pace, a power walk, and Donna began to struggle to keep up with him at his pace without running
To her, it had seemed some sort of switch was set off in his brain.
As they walked down the hallway, the duo ran into Doctor Light, who was smoking a cigarette in the hallway. He spotted the two rapidly approaching him and stood up.
"You again!" Doctor Light spat as the two approached, "Stop!"
Polybius ignored the order. He didn't even slow down as a tentacle sprang from his back and quickly shot itself towards the villain. Without even stopping, Polybius quickly wrapped his tentacle around Dr. Light's ankle and slammed him on the ground hard. Hard enough to knock him out.
Donna didn't stop either, and the two just passed by the unconscious Doctor Light. The Amazon didn't give it much thought as she knew Polybius was powerful. And it seemed that the pain that normally held him back wasn't even bothering him.
But it was.
Polybius was actually in severe pain. His reason for rushing through this was because his pain medication was wearing off. And without a timely way to get back to Titan's Tower to restock, his only hope for his own survival was to save the Titans before he sub came to the pain. And at this point, opening up his back to use his powers didn't affect him much.
Quickly making their way to the main room, Polybius had Donna bust a hole through the lower wall, and the two entered to find that many of the other Titans had already arrived and were squaring up for battle.
"Polybius!" Beast Boy shouted, "Good to see you!"
The mute gave a thumbs-up as he and Donna quickly took up a position by their fellow Titans.
"Titans! Together!" Beast Boy shouted.
And the battle commenced.
Charging out ahead of the main body, Polybius was first to make contact with the enemy. Quickly using his powers, Polybius was quick to begin sweeping aside any and every opponent that dared to stand against him. Smashing people left, right, up, down, and center.
"Why do I hear boss music?" Gizmo asked himself as lights began to appear from the hole Polybius and Donna had come through.
Then without any warning, the Tacoma, being driven by Rayanus, came bursting onto the battlefield. The windows were down, and Marc was sitting on the ledge. In his hand was an aluminum baseball bat. And the two were blasting Aerosmith's 'You gotta move.'
"Who's that!?" Starfire asked.
"Friends of Polybius." Donna replied.
The two drove in and quickly began mowing down villains. If Rayanus didn't hit them outright, then Marc got them with the bat. It was a dream team combo.
"Good thing they're here now." Starfire said as she and Donna watched them, "We can use all the help we can get."
As the battle dragged on, the pain that Polybius lived with on a daily basis began to grow far worse. And by the two-hour mark, Polybius found himself beginning to struggle to keep going.
However, he did have luck on his side as the tides began to turn as Mas and Menos began freezing defeated villains.
And as time continued to drag on, the number of villains on the battlefield dwindled until none were left. What had once been a mighty force was now reduced to nothing but people trapped and frozen in ice.
It wasn't long before the battlefield had been cleared of enemies, and everyone gathered to admire the defeated villains trapped in ice. However, there was one major person.
"Polybius?" Donna asked as she hurried next to him, "Do you see Red X up there?"
Polybius suddenly snapped back to reality and did a double-take of the shelf. Scanning them all, he quickly realized that there was indeed no Red X up there.
The mute shook his head.
"Red X?" Robin asked as he turned his attention to the two, "Why are you asking about him."
"He killed one of my sisters." Donna explained with a hint of sadness in her voice, "And tried to kill me."
"Well what are we all doing just standing around here!" Cyborg said, hearing what Donna said: "Let's head back to Jump City and turn it upside down!"
"I can't." Donna said, "I've gotta get back home. My mother told me I was only supposed to go and tell you guys what happened and then go straight back."
"Well don't you worry then." Robin said, "We're going to take him down!"
"Yeah!" Cyborg said, "And why don't you head back to the tower so we can get this communication system figured out."
Donna agreed, despite knowing there was a high chance her mother was watching her, and everyone headed back with the Titans to their tower for a brief amount of time. Meanwhile, in Jump City, Nathan sat on his bed and covered his face. He remembered everything that had just happened and how he killed that poor girl.
"Why did you make me do that?" He asked, "Why did you make me kill her?"
"Because we need to get Donna off that island." The voice replied, "And I would cancel all the plans you've got because she's coming to Jump City. And I think it would be a safe bet to think that if she saw you, she's gonna hammer you with a lot of questions. Questions you don't want to answer."
"Right." Nathan said as he picked up his phone and began canceling, "Don't want that happening."
And there you have it! Chapte 33. I hope you enjoyed it and have a wonderful rest of your day!