AN: Disclaimer time. The Teen Titans are owned by DC. Sean Wilson Kirk, Light, Zero, and a few other original characters are owned by Disciple of Revan. Jacob and a few others are owned by me. I don't own Bloodborne or Metal Gear either!
Outta This World: The Call Beyond Edition
Arc One: To Be A Titan
Chapter Three: A Name
After entering town, I decided to practice some of what I had learned in the archive. First were my attempts to use the flying disk, which went less than stellar. I did a bit better with the grappling system and spent a good deal of time swinging from rooftop to rooftop like a certain web-slinger.
I practiced until I felt hungry and found that this universe had much in common with my old one. There were still fast-food places like McDonalds and Olive Garden. My first stop for food was actually at a food joint called Big Belly Burger, which also went less than stellar…
I was standing at the front of the counter, ready to place my order. Some of the other customers were giving me some glances, probably due to my attire.
Then, I heard the door open, and someone shouted, "Alright arseholes, get on the ground! This is a robbery!"
I blinked in a mixture of confusion and amusement. "What kind of madman robs a fast-food place?"
"A stupid one, probably." Light responded.
"He's definitely not some kind of Machiavellian Mastermind..." Logic mused.
"Who cares!" Bravery shouted. "Let's just kick their asses already!"
"To my surprise, I find myself agreeing with Bravery." Light said, and I could imagine a small smirk on his features. "It would be a good time to test our new knowledge from the archive."
"…Well, who wants the honors?" I asked the others.
"Pick me!" Bravery cried.
"No, Bravery…" Light began. "We need to see how well Sean has taken to the knowledge from the archive."
"Oh, fine" The emotion whined.
"Are you deaf!?" One of the men cried, a Brooklyn accent in his voice. "We said get on the ground!" I heard a click and felt cold steel against the back of my head. I took a breath and as discreetly as I could, I faced one of the ends of my shortened quarterstaff towards where the man must have been. And then I clicked the switch, extending one half of the staff. The man behind me was impacted by the end of the staff, and was sent back a few meters, landing on the floor with a loud thump.
With that, the other two turned their attention to me, and I was forced to react quickly. I threw a card at the second man, who held a slick steel revolver, knocking the weapon out of his hand. Then I turned on guy number three and let loose a small stream of lightning, knocking him onto a table.
The second guy made the stupid mistake of trying to charge me, so I fully extended the quarterstaff and swung at his face. He went down in an instant.
With all of the robbers knocked unconscious, I looked through the crowd to see if there were any injuries. There were none, but the people looked at me with mixtures of fear, awe, and disdain.
"Well, it's good to see that not everyone will treat us the same." Logic mused.
And yet they are outnumbered by those who would oppress us." Fury spoke.
"Oh, be quiet you raging alcoholic!" Rude snapped.
I turned back to the cashier, who had a shocked look on her face. "Could I have my order?"
The cashier gave a rapid nod. "Sure, sure."
As I waited for my burger, I heard a cry of, "Sandy!" and felt someone tug on my sleeve. A young girl—who might have been seven or eight years old—smiled up at me with a grin filled with innocence. "Thank you, mister!"
"Yes, very well done." Another voice spoke. Said voice came from a well-dressed man with sand-colored hair-tired back into a ponytail, which started at the back of his neck. The man's three-pieced suit was grey, and glasses sat on his nose, which covered his brown eyes. "Do you have a name?" He asked me.
"…Not yet." I replied.
The man hummed and looked at the unconscious bodies of the robbers while some of the other customers dial 911 on their phones. Then he turned back to me. "Blitzkrieg. It means 'lightning war' in German. A fitting name, is it not?" He spoke, holding my gaze.
"Sounds good." I said, gulping down some saliva. Something about this guy…
"Well…" The man spoke again, circling to the other side of the counter. "I am glad that Jump City finally has its own superhero. Crime around here has been pretty bad as of late. Perhaps you could find some others and form a team?"
…He knew. I didn't know how, but somehow this guy knew who and what I was looking for. "Depends." I said, keeping my voice steady. "Are there any in the area right now?"
"Not quite yet." The man replied. "But I have heard rumors that Robin and a member of the Doom Patrol have been wandering towards this city for quite some time now."
"…Thank you." I said, as the cashier handed me my burger. By now, the kid had run off back to her mother, and people had sat back down to enjoy their meals. But I was no longer comfortable here. Not with that man staring at me with eyes as dead as Jacob's.
"Well…at least we know when we are…"
Councilman Six watched as the prospective new superhero and dimensional anomaly—who somehow wasn't registering as an anomaly—left the Big Belly Burger. The tall man shrugged, and decided it was time to leave as well. Those three members of the Vipers weren't getting back up any time soon, and the police were on their way. So, with his 'good' deed done for the day, he decided that it was time to visit another member of the council.
"Door to Control Room Delta-56-78." He whispered. A shimmering, ethereal rectangle that only he could see appeared in front of him. The man stepped through and found himself somewhere else.
The room was dark, as all lights had been turned off. Computers lined several counters and desks, most of them deactivated. At the very front of the room was a single, large screen, displaying several mug shots of teenagers. Six took the time to list of some of the names in his head.
Billy Karman. Benjamin Tiny. Megan Herbert. Kaleb Graham. Lukas Grail. Jacob Winters. Cecil Windwalker. Yara O'Joy. Harriet Sarana. Zachary Crowe.
The list continued. However, the list was not what was important to Six right now.
In one of the desks sat a man with hair the color of autumn leaves. He wore an old, Hawaiian shirt with Khaki shorts, along with grey socks and shoes that seemed a bit too big for him. "Hello, Six." The man greeted.
"Greetings, Twelve." Six replied. "How goes the special project?"
Twelve sighed. "The Old Man sent him into Yharnam. The odds are kinda against the kid."
Six hummed. The Old Man—otherwise known as the First Hunter—was known for his cruel training methods. However, given the man's profession, it was best to strip away the pretty dream that was being a hunter of monsters, and replace it with the cold light of day. "I have faith that the boy will make it."
"That so?" Twelve mused. "I suppose if Jacob Winters does survive this, he'll be able to kill just about anything."
"Indeed." Six intoned. "But he may not be Jacob Winters anymore."
There was silence as the two stared at the screen. Then, Twelve spoke again. "Do you really think it can be done?"
Six blinked, and then looked at his comrade. "Whatever do you mean?"
"Killing Councilman Null. Do you think it can be done?"
Six let out a sigh and gave the picture of Jacob Winters a long stare. "This organization…Team Canon…As much as One has contributed to its rise, it did not start with him. No…" Six paused, walking back towards one of the deactivated computers. "It started long before that. In chaos…with zero…with the man we know as Insight…with Null. One was the spring of life for this team…then there was Two…and now…we have more than one hundred." Six paused and looked upwards to the dark ceiling. "Taking it all back to One and making him pay solves nothing. So long as Zero remains…so long as Null remains alive…One will eventually grow back to one hundred again."
Six looked back at Twelve. "And so, it is not our responsibility—you, me, Three, Eight, and Ten—but our moral duty to erase zero…and kill Null."
"…So we have no choice then…" Twelve mused, placing his hand under his own scruffy chin.
Six set his jaw and spoke again. "If our dream is to be realized…no. We do not."
After the encounter with the strange man, I made my way to a pizza parlor that looked like a slice of the food that it sold, with the umbrellas on the balcony looking like pepperoni. I had long since finished my burger, but I had still found myself extremely hungry. Since finding this absolute blessing of a place, I had eaten three large pizzas, and was moving on to my fourth.
"Didn't think we needed to put away that much…" Timid said.
"It's probably due to the use of our powers, since they draw from our own stores of energy." Logic guessed.
"That…would be correct." Light replied.
"I…have been thinking about something." I interrupted.
"What about?" Light asked me.
"I should probably avoid interacting with the Titans for the time being, aside from the occasional team-up."
"And why would that be?"
"I have to be putting all of my effort into finding a way to permanently kill Trigon. I can't do that if I get to close to them and end up causing some kind of paradox."
"You mean trying to get it on with a certain mage, right?" Rude drawled.
I sighed. "Yes Rude, I do mean that. It's not like she would be into me anyway, as she's supposed to end up with Beast Boy."
Light sighed. "So your afraid that if you get too close to the team, your presence may cause some kind of temporal paradox or a tear in the fabric of reality, right?"
I gave a discreet not of confirmation.
"As far as I know…" Light began. "The time-space continuum isn't THAT fragile, so you can be friends with them. Just don't do anything…drastic."
"I'll think about it…" I replied as I looked up at the increasingly darkening sky. "Anyway, it is getting kind of dark out, so I better find some place to stay."
"Wait." Wisdom interjected. "What's that green thing? Up in the sky.
I blinked and looked upwards. "What green thi—!" I paled as I saw a comet with a green hue heading towards the parlor. "Oh…"
It landed seconds later, and the impact knocked me—and the other customers—off of my feet. I stood up and used the grappling hooks to ascend to a taller building, where I could assess the situation below.
Within the crater, a pair of green eyes opened.
"Well…shit."
"Wretched beast—ARGH!"
"Your fault! All your fau—HURKGH!"
"DIE! WHY WON'T YOU—EUAIGH!"
Jacob swung the axe given to him by the strange pale baby-creatures, killing resident after resident of this insane city known as Yharnam. The pistol that he had also been given hung at his side, completely depleted of ammunition after he had used the last bullet on some other werewolf abomination.
It had taken him hours of exploring the area known as 'Central Yharnam', but he finally had a lead on the word 'Paleblood'. He had heard this lead from a diseased man named Gilbert, who told him that the Healing Church might contain some clues. Said church could be accessed through two ways: The main entrance across the bridge, or the backdoor that could be found in one of the cemeteries.
As it turned out, the bridge had been a bust, and he ended up having to fight some giant-ass wolf thing with antlers. So, he would take the other route, and pray that he would find salvation there.
Five minutes.
Five minutes is all it took for the area around Starfire's impact crater to become an absolute warzone. First, said alien redhead had growled something out in her native language. Then, some idiot took a picture with his camera. This had startled her into a rampage, smashing everything in sight while the civilians scattered.
After I had observed her for a few moments, I determined that she was smashing everything in sight to break the cuffs, rather than out of any actual malicious intent.
"Excellent." Light commented. "Your brain is working its way up to its full potential."
I continued to watch as Starfire struggled with the cuffs. The alien girl eventually slumped forward in defeat, but soon perked up as her eyes laid on the steel beam that held up the platform that the balcony of the pizza parlor rested on.
"Oh…"
"Sean. Go."
I wasted no time in obeying Light as Starfire began smashing her restrained arms into the beam, the steel warping with every strike. As the platform began to sink downwards from the force of the blows, I grappled towards the building and began pulling back the remaining civilians on the balcony. As Starfire took a final swing, a bird-like projectile struck her in the temple.
I focused my attention back on the streets below, and saw a figure clad in a black cape and familiar colors.
Robin had arrived.
Jacob let out a grim chuckle as he passed his two most recent kills—a duo of wolfmen wielding large blades. He had finally arrived at his destination, a place apparently called Oedon Chapel. The doors to the cemetery were open to him, and all that remained would be to pass through, and a haven would be his.
Except…things were never that simple.
In the center of the cemetery stood a large and imposing man, clad in black clothes and wielding a pistol and an axe similar to Jacob's own in each hand. The man was surrounded by the corpses of several Yharnamites, all of which were 'infected' by whatever plague turned these men into the lycanthropes that every other resident had become.
The young man began to grit his teeth as the other Hunter—for that was what the other man was—swung his axe downwards at one of the corpses. The blow that the larger man let loose was so powerful that it cut through the body and into the rock beneath it.
Jacob took a single step forward.
The man stopped and turned towards the teen.
Said teen took a moment to analyze his possible enemy. Now that the man was facing him, he could grasp more of the man's features. The man was grey-haired, and his wrinkled face meant that either said man's life was a difficult one or a long one. Both were likely answers. The man was also blindfolded with white bandages, and his teeth were far too sharp for Jacob's liking.
"…Beasts all over the shop…" The man spoke, his voice hoarse from what must have been overuse. "You'll be one of them…sooner or later."
Jacob pulled back the hammer of his pistol with his thumb, right as the man in black charged at him.
The fight was going…alright. There were no serious injuries on either side...
Up until the outer restrains fell away, exposing Starfire's hands to the open air. After that, the energy bolts started flying.
"I'm ending this." I decided. "Before anyone else gets hurt."
"…You sure you don't want me to take over?" Light asked. "I mean, she is both scary and hot."
"I'm pretty confident in my ability to—!"
Starfire roared as she threw a bus at Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy.
"…Okay, you better take over."
"That's what I thought you'd say."
I felt Light take control, and we leapt down from the building.
Robin scowled as he and the other two—Beast Boy and the yet to be identified teen—huddled up behind a tipped over bus. "This is going nowhere. We need a plan of attack."
"Is attack a good enough plan?" The taller teen asked.
"Um, Robin?" The purple and black teen spoke, pointing at a black clad person in some kind of mask running towards them.
Then, the—!
(Man? Woman? Couldn't tell quite yet.)
Figure leapt over the bus, his clothes changing colors from black to white. The three teens watched as the new fighter landed on the other side of the bus, right in front of the alien redhead.
"Listen." The young man—unless the mask completely changed the new arrival's voice—spoke with a rough and scratchy tone. "I don't know what your deal is, but you best calm down. These guys might not want to fight you…" The young man took up a boxing stance. "But I am very willing."
Robin felt someone tap on his shoulder and turned to find Beast Boy with his eyes also on the fight.
"Do you think he can win?"
The alien charged.
"…No."
Jacob snarled as the man—Father Gascoigne—rushed towards him, swinging the massive Hunter's axe as easily as one would a wooden sword. The younger Hunter fired the pistol again, just as the axe descended in its most recent arc, causing the man to fall to a knee. Then, Jacob charged forward and plunged his hand into the man's ribcage.
"Die goddammit!" Jacob screamed, ripping his hand out in a single violent motion. The maddened Hunter fell backwards as his life fluids spurted out of the new hole in his chest. And yet…the man got up. Gascoigne stood up and laughed off an injury that would have killed most men.
Jacob sighed. He knew that the same thing was happening to him. He could still breath after being shot in the lungs. He could shrug off a pitchfork stabbing him in the abdomen. He could still walk after falling from heights that should have left him in a wheelchair. He supposed that this is what the strange blood-like liquid in the vials did. Enhanced a person's body to the point where they could recover from any wound. Perhaps even return from the dead…
But were there side effects? Would he become just like Gascoigne?
He had no time to ruminate, because for the first time since the fight began, the mad Hunter began to speak.
"Ah, the sweet blood…oh it sings to me…it's enough to make a man sick…"
The Hunter let out another mad laugh as he charged, the axe extended into its pole-axe form.
Light and I both hissed in pain as the girl launched us into another wall, cracking the bricks.
"I don't think we can take much more of a beating." I informed the split personality.
"Yeah, yeah I know!"
"Then can we be done?!"
"I think that's up to her at this point!"
Starfire charged at us again…only for a massive ethereal raven to block her path.
The other Titans—plus Raven—walked out from behind the bus. As Starfire continued to smash her restrained arms against the barrier, I walked towards the future team. "You got a plan?" I asked Robin.
One of his mask-brow-things quirked upwards, and then he spoke. "Get the cuffs off of her."
"How?" I asked.
"I've got a few lockpicks." He said, withdrawing a few tools from his utility belt. "One of these things might work on the restraints."
"Go ahead then." I said, stepping to the side and letting him pass.
Robin walked towards the redhead and said something with his hands raised in a placating manner. Starfire stopped hitting the glowing raven as her eyes dimmed. The barrier fell, and Robin unlocked the mechanism that held the restraints in place.
Then, the alien pulled him into a kiss by the collar, and then pushed him to the ground.
"If you wish to not be destroyed, then you will leave me alone!" She shouted, flying off into the air.
"Tch."
"You mad?"
"Fuck you."
"GOD DAMNIT!" Jacob screamed as he dodged another body-breaking strike from the creature. "DOES EVERYTHING IN THIS CITY TURN INTO A FUCKING WEREWOLF!?" He dodged again as the gravestones he had taken cover behind were turned to rubble.
The young Hunter supposed he should have seen the signs of the…rapid transformation that Gascoigne underwent. The teeth that were far too sharp, the bestial growls throughout their fight, the fact that the man exploded into a werewolf-hulk in front of his very eyes…
"No point in pondering on it now…" He mused, extending his own Hunter's axe into its pole-axe form.
"A Hunter must hunt…that is what you taught me, Eileen."
It had been a long night.
Not long after Starfire vanished, the Gordainians had shown up in a massive battleship, sending down what Beast Boy had taken to calling a 'deployment torch' in order to send a message.
To summarize what the message said: We are hunting the girl. Get in our way and your city will suffer.
The others and I had taken exception to that, of course.
So, after we found Starfire, we took it upon ourselves to drive the Gordanians out of the city.
And we succeeded. Their ship had crashed in the bay once the battle was complete, and the deployment torch left us with a good foundation that we could use to build the future T-Tower.
I had considered leaving after the fight, but the others had insisted that I stayed. After a quick debate and a majority vote with Light and the other Emotions, we decided that we would remain as a new part of the team.
Perhaps here, I would finally find a place to belong…
Lord Insight—also known as Councilman Null, or the Zero Man—sat on his black throne, clutching his helmeted head.
Something was wrong. Someone had changed another timeline.
Team Canon would have to act fast.
He pressed a button on one of his arm rests and hissed, "Five."
A short, round man with a receding hairline and golden-lined spectacles walked into the room. "Yes, Councilman Null?"
"Retrieve Agent Aleph-6632-8899-1100. Another timeline has been changed. I must know which one."
AN: As Blitzkrieg's first night in Jump ends, The Hunter's adventure in Yharnam continues...
No old men were harmed during the monologue made by Six...which may or may not have been stolen from Metal Gear.