Garfield: Hey guys! Time for the "The Gotham's Most Wanted" arc so sit back, relax and here we go!
Kimberly: I'm so stoked for this!
Ron-Pool: Me too! Start the chapter bitches!
A Symbiotic Bond: A Venomous Titan Reborn
Chapter Eighteen
China – The Blackbird
Teen Titans
"I am so in love with this thing," Cyborg said he flew the X-men's top jet, the Blackbird towards the location of Raven's communicator. It had been two hours since the group left Japan and they had finally been able to pinpoint Raven's location.
The kindly Professor X lent them the Blackbird to get to their location quickly so they didn't lose sight of their friend and his student. Jubilee decided to tag along for the ride with them, much to Cyborg's secret delight.
"I'm glad you're enjoying it," Jubilee said with a green hue to her face.
"Air-sick?" Cyborg asked her.
"A little…" Jubilee admitted. "Nothing landing and getting out of this blasted thing won't fix."
"How is Robin and Starfire doing back there?" Cyborg asked.
Jubilee lifted up her purple shades and glanced back to see both Robin and Starfire sleeping. "Fast asleep Cy," Jubilee responded before flipping her glasses back down over her eyes. "So since it's just us…Wanna play twenty questions?"
Cyborg looked to Jubilee and snorted before replying with "I'm game."
"Alright. I'll start. How old are you?" Jubilee asked.
"Sixteen," Cyborg replied. "Second question. How old are you?"
"Sixteen," Jubilee replied. "Same age. Lucky us."
"Right?" Cyborg replied.
"How long have you been in the hero business?" Jubilee asked.
"Two years with the Titans and one year without them," Cyborg replied. "You?"
"Well, I've been in there for four years now but I don't know if you can classify me as a hero," Jubilee replied, a tinge of bitterness in her voice.
"Why do you say that?" Cyborg asked.
"Well…Everyone views us mutants as freaks and a danger to society. Despite us saving the world a few times over from several of threats the Justice League brushes over…No matter how much good we do, everyone looks down on us."
"I hate assholes like that," Cyborg said. "People often looked down on me because of my metal body among other things. I just kept trying to prove them wrong until I met the Titans. They became my family and I realized that I didn't care what people thought of me anymore. If people don't like me, fuck 'em. They don't matter .The only thing that matters are those that mean the world to you."
"Holy…Did you have the speech ready to go or something?" Jubilee asked.
Cyborg snorted and said "I'm not Robin. These bad boys are always on the fly."
"For being on the fly, it made me feel a little better…Thanks," Jubilee mumbled.
"Anytime! I'm always down for cheering a friend up," Cyborg replied.
"Oh! What is your favorite food?" Jubilee asked.
"Chinese food," Cyborg said. "Favorite color?"
"Pink," Jubilee replied. "Favorite animal?"
"Oh shit…Um…Um….I'm torn between a Lion and a Tiger," Cyborg said.
"Why not a Liger?" Jubilee asked. "The best of both worlds."
"Oh shit, good point! Um…Favorite memory?" Cyborg asked.
Jubilee grinned and said "Meeting my Wolfy dad Wolverine and my weather mom Storm."
"You adopted?" Cyborg asked.
"Technically…" Jubilee replied. "My parents disowned me when they found out about my powers. When I first joined The Professor's school with Nightcrawler, Kitty, Anna Marie, Hisako and much later Laura, Wolverine was our tough, no nonsense teacher while Storm essentially babied us. Two year ago, to all of our shock, Wolverine and Storm wound up getting married and adopted us as their kids a year later…So I'm Jubilation Lee-Howlett."
Jubilee let a gentle smile appear on her face. "Going from being alone to having a brother and sisters and parents that love me…It's amazing…"
Cyborg gave her a smile and said "Yeah. Meeting my friends gave me the same feeling. Especially Beastboy…After my dad died, I roamed around. Hiding what I thought was a hideous body. When I met the green bean, the first thing he said to me when I revealed what I am was "Cyborg? Cool! You're like Robot Man 2.0!" Man, was I confused about him. He didn't treat me like the monster I thought I was back then. He treated me like a person."
Cyborg then chuckled and said "Later in our first official battle, the disguise I was wearing was ripped off and I remember screaming "My suit!" but he then said "So? You look way cooler with it." My response was to mess with him about his mask. I never did tell him I liked his mask…I miss him…"
"Did he die?" Jubilee asked.
"No…He lost his powers and disappeared without saying goodbye to any of us. When I find him, the first thing I'm going to do is wreck his shit."
Jubilee laughed softly and said "Favorite Ice cream?"
"Neapolitan," Cyborg replied.
"Oh fuck off. That's cheating!" Jubilee exclaimed jokingly, which made Cyborg grin until he saw something on the Blackbird's screen. "Yo, wake up Starfire and Robin. We're here."
Jubilee nodded and unhooked her seatbelt and walked back to wake the pair up.
The Blackbird hovered over the large hole that was on the roof of the Mandarin's mansion and the four leapt out of the ship and landed into the large chamber of the Mandarin's where they were treated to the grizzly sight of a dead villain and a wrecked chamber.
"What the hell happened here?" Jubilee muttered with a frown on her face.
Robin looked around and found his eyes spotting a familiar X-star and walked up to it then knelt down and frowned. "Red X was here…"
Starfire noticed that a strand of webbing was hanging from the ceiling and flew up to it and tilted her head in confusion as she said "And webbing that is larger than normal…" she then happened to look to the left and saw a camera.
"Friend Cyborg! There is a Camera here!" Starfire said.
Cyborg, whose red eyes was glowing as he looked over the dead body of the Mandarin, looked up and said "Awesome! So that means there is a security room somewhere in here!" Cyborg then reached down and pressed a button on which turned the red eye into a blue one.
He could now see the electrical current of the camera leading to the southwest side of the Mansion. "Follow me guys," Cyborg said.
After going through various twists and turns of the mansion with Cyborg in the lead, the group of four finally made it to the security room. After finding the camera that watched over chamber, Cyborg tapped a few buttons on the screen and began to rewind the footage as he said "Alright…Let's watch the tapes."
The group watched as the Mandarin sat in the middle of the chamber, sipping a cup of tea as the camera rumbled, the sounds of an off-screen battle taking place. Seconds later, a male figure in a pitch black suit with a white spider emblem on the front came into view.
"It seems you all have made it into my chambers. I am very impressed Spiderman" The man said calmly as he reached out and poured himself a cup of tea. "But to follow me to this universe has impressed me greatly. Are you looking to perish that badly?"
"Don't call me by that name," the figure said, a venomous edge in his voice. "I may share his abilities but I am not Spiderman and I will not die by your hands. Not now, not ever."
"Guys…" Cyborg began. "Did that voice sound familiar?"
"I heard it too…" Robin said.
Starfire and Jubilee stayed silent as the video continued.
"Admirable but foolish to make that claim."
The teens the watched as an insane battle took place with things being created from seemingly out of nowhere while the figure seemed dodge them all with ease, impressing the four teens.
"You are quick but that shall be your undoing. Now begone to the Realm of Darkness, Spiderman," The Mandarin said.
"I'm not Spiderman!" The four then watched as the force of the wind caused the ceiling strand of web was attached to break, sending the screaming figure through the portal, just as Red X and two other teenage girls entered the chamber.
"There is Red X," Robin said. "And I know that one is Rocket. I was actually eyeing her up to join the Titans before choosing Zatanna and Static Shock but this last one…Huh, I'm not too sure who she is…"
"Pause it Cy-man," Jubilee requested.
Cyborg nodded and was about to pause until he heard Rocket shout "Garfield!"
Robin, Starfire and Cyborg stared at the screen in shock.
"No…" Robin whispered. "No, that's too much of a coincidence…"
"His voice is recognizable…" Cyborg began.
"That person was Friend Beastboy?" Starfire asked, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
"I'll need to single out the audio to get confirmation. While I do that, we need to see what happened to that guy," Cyborg said.
The four continued to watch the ensuing battle, which quickly went south for the three they were watching and just as things were getting to the worse, the hole of the roof was ripped off, revealing Raven, Jean Grey and…
"Loki Odinson of Asgard. And I bring you good tidings, master of the ten rings," Loki said as the black disk landed on the ground before fading away. "And I have graced your eyes with my presence for one simple thing…I need the Infinity Stone you hold."
Robin caught the scepter Loki was holding and his eyes widened in surprise. "Guys! The Scepter!"
"That's the same one that was used on us!" Starfire exclaimed. "But I don't remember this Loki character holding it. I remember someone named Trask having it…"
"Loki is known to shapeshift into others," Jubilee explained. "As for the scepter. Either he took it from Trask…"
"Or he was the one that captured us and sent us to Japan to fuck with you guys," Cyborg finished.
"But he mentioned the Infinity Stones…" Robin said to both Cyborg and Jubilee, not catching the shocked look Starfire had made. "What are they?"
"I thought they were a myth…" Starfire whispered.
"A myth?" Jubilee asked.
"Yeah… My parents told me about them when I was little. They are six immensely powerful objects tied to different aspects of the universe, created by the Cosmic Entities…I can't remember specifics but I do know that one of them on their own is bad but if someone were to collect all six of them…No one would stand a chance…" Starfire replied.
"And this Loki is looking for them…" Robin said.
"And he found one apparently," Cyborg said as he motioned to the footage of Raven holding the Power Stone in a black orb.
"Aww shit…What do we do?" Jubilee asked.
Robin stayed silent for a moment before he said "There is only one person we can reach that I know would have info on where one of these stones are. And for that, we're going to need to go to Gotham."
"You think he'll know about these stones and their locations?" Cyborg asked.
"He's the world's greatest detective. Even if he didn't, he would make it his business to find out," Robin said.
Gotham City – Jinx's Apartment
Jinx
"Finally!" Jinx exclaimed as she placed her unwanted guest on her couch, sweat dripping from her face. It had taken her forever to get them both to her small apartment due to the wound in her side and she was exhausted.
She slipped out her black shirt, leaving her in a black tank top and tossed the shirt over the hero's head and walked to the bathroom to get a better look at the wound she had gotten during her escape from Chance.
"Not too bad. Nothing a day of rest can't cover," Jinx said as she examined the wound. She splashed some peroxide on the wound, making her hiss in discomfort before placing a large bandage on it and wrapping her torso up with medical wrapping.
She walked back to the living room only to go to the kitchen to put on a pot of ramen noodles and sighed.
She had really sunken low since H.I.V.E went down.
She finished her beef noodles, poured them into a bowl and made her way into the living room and sat across from the unconscious hero in a chair, sitting in the lotus positon. She slurped some noodles into her mouth and narrowed her eyes as she watched him sleep.
How strange to have this guy here.
After all of her battles with the Teen Titans, here she was harboring one in her rinky dink apartment. The only solace she had was that it was potentially Beastboy behind the mask. He had at least made her laugh a few times during their encounters.
Though if it was Raven…She wasn't quite sure she would have left her behind either.
She took another slurp of her noodles and let out a small sigh. At least she could say that her life was never boring.
It was then she heard him let out a groan and then mumble "Why do I smell perfume and blood?"
"That's my shirt," Jinx said.
"Ah…" He replied. "So…Why is your shirt on my head?"
"I tossed it and didn't care where it went," Jinx replied before taking down the rest of her noodles before tossing the bowl to the ground and said "So…Good morning Sunshine."
She watched as her unwanted guest lifted himself off the ground and his white eye masks blinked twice before looking her way. "Well…Out of all the shit I expected to see, seeing your face is not what I thought would happen."
"What? Is my face ugly?" Jinx asked.
"Far from it. I just wasn't expecting to see it," The hero replied.
Jinx felt her face heat up slightly from the roundabout compliment she had just received but she stamped it down and said "So, obviously you know me. I know you. Question is. How the hell did you wind up in that portal thing to get here in Gotham?"
There was a full minute of silence before his eyes widened.
"GOTHAM?!"
Garfield: So the new Arc is underway. It seems the Titans are going to come to Gotham. I wonder if I'll get to see them…
Kimberly: I'm just wondering who else will find out that I'm the Pink Ranger…
Ron-Pool: Answer to one. Yes but after some…things happen and answer to second one is hoooo boy! Until the next chapter guys and Happy Holidays!