Titans: Elemental

Chapter 4: Divide and Conquer, Part 1

Months later...

We see a prison at night. Smoke pours from behind the outer wall and the shattered front entrance, as well as from a spot on the bridge that leads to the complex. Clues that indicate that something very bad is going on. The blaring klaxons and sirens settle the point decisively.

Inside, we see three guards run in through it. Each has a number emblazoned on his shoulder; 1, 3, 8.

Guard 1, "code red! Cellblock Nine! Move out!"

The other two follow orders, and he brings up the rear. They run in a short distance and then slow to a walk, weapons at the ready.

Guard 1, "main yard secure."

Something very large is thrown down in front of them to roll a little bit.

Guard 3, "there he is!"

They advance forward.

Guard 8, "he'll free the criminals!"

They all level their weapons.

Guard 1, "fire!"

Their target has already bashed a large hole through the wall of the cellblock and is on the way in: he threw part of the torn-out section at them. This creature is at least ten feet tall, very blocky, and appears to be built entirely of concrete.

It is the villain we saw before; Cinderblock.

Laser blasts from the guards strike the edges of the hole he has made, while a few connect with his back and others fly past. He turns to them, revealing his equally blocky face with small, red eyes. The shots are having no discernible effect on him. Voicing a grating roar, he raises one massive foot and stomps the ground; this produces a long fissure that throws debris and dust into the three guards' faces to spoil their aim. He moves into the cellblock and stops upon hearing;

BB, "you know, Cinderblock, normally, the bad guys break out of jail.

Dick, "and I can think of six good reasons why you don't want to break in."

Dick leaps across the floor and lands in a crouch.

Dick, "One!"

Now Starfire swoops and lands, looking sidelong at Cinderblock from over her shoulder.

Starfire, "Two!"

Beast Boy, as a tiger, lunges in. When he comes down, he has taken human form.

BB, "Three!"

Next, Raven drops in and gets ready to cast a spell.

Raven, "Four!"

Jack jumps in, his staff swirling in his hands as he lands.

Jack, "Five!"

Finally, Victor jumps in.

Vic, "Six!"

The Titans stand ready for battle now.

Dick, "no matter how you do the math, it all adds up to you going down. So, are you going to go quietly…."

Vic, "... Or is this gonna get loud?"

Cinderblock roars and barrels straight toward them.

Dick, "Titans! Go!"

They charge; Beast Boy becomes a falcon to fly behind Raven and Starfire. Yelling, the six heroes and the one oversized villain hurtle toward one another.

Dick lands a solid kick that staggers the foe. He turns around just in time to catch a double dose of starbolts in the back, courtesy of Starfire. Now Vic aims a right hook; even though Cinderblock stops it, he is still driven back by the impact.

Jack starts shooting chunks of debris at Cinderblock, forcing him back further.

Beast Boy dives in and rakes his talons across the concrete body time after time, forcing Cinderblock to run to another corner. Raven puts herself in his path and levitates a section of the floor, tilting it up until it stands vertical. She rises out of the way an instant before he crashes through this improvised barrier, then flies away as Dick, Vic, and Starfire rush him.

One giant backhand leaves only Starfire still in motion; the other two have been knocked away. She throws a couple of starbolts, but is then grabbed in those two enormous hands and pulled in with a little gasp for a face-to-face look at Cinderblock. A smile comes over her face.

Starfire, "I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am stronger than I look..."

She proves it by breaking his hold and delivering a high kick that drives him back against the wall.

Beast Boy as a falcon is heard, and he swoops in again; in an instant, he has hit the ground and transformed into a tyrannosaurus rex. Cinderblock stands back before unleashing his thundering charge and knocks him back with a single left hook.

Raven, "Azarath Metrion-"

She cuts off the incantation with a sharp, shocked gasp as she discovers Beast Boy's shadow falling over her and sees him dropping from above. His panicked yell is accompanied by the shadow's change to human form. He falls on her like a ton of bricks and is the first to get up, shaking his head to clear it. Raven stands a moment later with help from Jack and grits her teeth in anger before getting herself under control. A lock of hair falls over her face.

BB, "heh…. Watch out for falling dinosaurs?"

She gives him a hard glance and blows the hair aside.

BB, "I'm gonna leave you alone now."

He bugs out. Cinderblock chuckles to himself and starts to cross the area, but Dick jumps onto his neck and tries to put him in a headlock. Stumbling about at random, the stone behemoth tears a girder loose from the wall. A chunk of concrete from the floor goes with it.

Dick, "thrashing only makes me hold tighter!"

Cinderblock raises the girder for a swing back over his shoulder to hit Dick, but misses when he jumps away just in time; he only clocks himself in the head. Vic looks at another girder.

Vic, "now there's an idea..."

Jack starts freezing the floor, making Cinderblock slip and slide for a moment before smashing the ice as Jack starts shooting balls of fire at him before jumping away as Cinderblock tossed a huge piece of debris at him!

Vic then rips the girder free and charges. Hs and Cinderblock, swing at each other, the entire area flashing blue every time their makeshift clubs collide. Vic steadily gains ground on the enemy. They struggle at close quarters, and Cinderblock pushes Vic back in preparation for a mighty swing. It connects, sending the Titan and his girder skidding across the floor. Starfire floats down from above; Cinderblock gets ready to let her have it, but the quick flash of a starbolt causes the steel to heat and soften in his hands. He grunts in surprise, and she laughs as Raven looks on.

Cinderblock grunts and runs off down the corridor, heading deeper into the prison. Vic is still flat on his back, but gets up with a helping hand from Dick and dusts himself off.

Dick, "want to give this guy the Sonic Boom?"

Vic smiles and converts his arm to sonic cannon mode.

Vic, "I got the Sonic if you got the Boom?"

Their four teammates regroup and look off down the corridor.

As Cinderblock heads farther in, he hears;

Vic, "yo, Rockhead!"

He stops and turns around to find Dick and Vic running straight at him. They peel off to opposite sides and go up the walls, then jump toward each other as the cannon warms up. Whatever they were planning goes badly wrong, however, as their feet get tangled up and they are left spinning out of control in midair. Finally, they fly apart and Vic crashes into the wall. His cannon goes off, producing a blast of sound that engulfs Beast Boy and Starfire. Dick slams against the other wall; a disc in his hand slides away and detonates at Raven and Jack's feet.

Cinderblock is completely unscathed by the fireworks and clumps away, smashing straight through one wall after another in his path. Prisoners step out to look after the lumbering colossus, then start to sprint out the same way he came in.

Various prisoners, "hey, hey, look at this. It's freedom... Let's do it... Let's get outta here... Yeah!"

Dick gets back on his feet and rubs his head; the commotion reaches him from around the corner, and soon a throng of escaping prisoners is coming straight at him. He whips out his fighting staff and extends it to full length, and he, Raven, Beast Boy, Jack, and Starfire get ready to throw down. The five Titans and the prisoners face off. As the latter are caught by surprise, the former let them have it. Beast Boy resumes his T-rex form to scare the living bejesus out of them.

….

We see a sign on a cell door. "Prisoner 385901-Absolute Silence!" Cinderblock's footsteps rumble from outside and his shadow appears over the sign. Inside the cell, which is extremely large, a cylindrical glass tank of liquid is suspended from the ceiling. Within it is the figure of a man, floating erect and clad only in what looks like a pair of swim briefs. The door is smashed off its hinges, and Cinderblock enters and approaches the tank. In close-up, the man is seen to be perhaps in his thirties, very thin, with a shaved head. He is asleep and snoring loudly.

Cinderblock rips the entire tank away from the ceiling-mounted apparatus that holds it; broken hoses spew liquid and gases about the cell. He then punches a hole in the floor and jumps through it to make his escape, pulling the tank after himself. Even though the container gets briefly stuck and has to be yanked forcibly through the hole, 385901 does not so much as stir in his sleep.

….

Just outside the entrance of the cell block, two prisoners run out in a bid for freedom.

Prisoner 1, "let's go, let's go!"

Prisoner 2, "I think we're gonna make it!"

Prisoner 1, "yeah!"

They approach the smashed gate in the outer wall, which is promptly closed when the pieces fly back into the frame. The prisoners stop in their tracks.

Prisoners 1 and 2, "huh?"

The black wall resolves into a swirling vortex in front of the gate. It recedes to nothing as Raven floats in through the barrier; repaired by her telekinesis.

Raven, "think again."

The prisoners try to run, but Jack creates a ring of Earth around them and says, "she warned ya."

….

Later, near the holes Cinderblock smashed through the walls. Guards keep watch as the prisoners return to their cells, their arms shackled behind their backs.

Back with the Titans, Beast Boy is now a gorilla, but he quickly assumes human form.

BB, "jailbreak? I don't see any jailbreak."

Dick, "none of us would have seen one if Cyborg hadn't messed up!"

He looks away.

Jack, "oh no…."

Vic, "me? I messed up nothing! You got in my way!"

He looks away as well.

He yells so loud that Dick's hair starts billowing.

Dick, "you were too far forward, and Cinderblock got away because of it!"

Vic, "you saying this is my fault?"

Dick, "want me to say it again?"

Sparks fly between both pairs of eyes before Starfire pops up between them.

Starfire, "stop! No more mean talking!"

They turn their backs on her and each other, and the normal background restores itself as Beast Boy speaks up.

BB, "yeah. If you two are gonna fight, we need time to sell tickets."

Jack, "now is not the time for this Beast Boy."

BB nods and backs off; Raven steps up.

Raven, "Cinderblock escaped. No amount of yelling will change that. So stop acting like idiots, and let's go home."

Jack, "I'm in agreement. Let's just try to enjoy the rest of our night!"

Vic and Dick throw each other a disdainful glance from over their shoulders, and both of them snort.

Dick and Vic, "hmph!"

Their respective exhalations are visible in the air. Now they stride away, leaving the other Titans nonplussed.

Dick, "loser."

Vic, "jerk."

They whirl to face one another.

Dick and Vic, "what did you say?!"

Jack facepalms and mutters, "tin mad dog."

Raven asked, "what's that mean?"

Jack, "it's backwards for a phrase I don't wanna say in public."

They go face to face.

Dick, "do you have a problem, Tin Man?"

Vic, "yeah! It's four feet tall and smells like cheap hair gel!"

This hits him the wrong way.

The others have all become scared like infants, with the pair's shadows thrown across them as rough caricatures.

Dick, "well, you're an oversized klutz and your feet smell like motor oil!"

Beast Boy almost bawls like a baby.

Jack pats him on the back.

Vic, "you're bossy, you're rude, you got no taste in music!"

Dick, "I don't even know why you're on this team!"

Vic, "that makes two of us! I QUIT!"

These two words leave the rest of the group staring wide-eyed in total shock.

Vic stalks away from them, and Dick hangs his head.

….

Machinery is heard.

We see turning gears and other heavy equipment hard at work; cams and pistons and crankshafts. We see the same shadowy figure from chapters before seated on a large chair atop a raised platform. No features can be seen except for the glint of his full-body armor and his left eye. An overhead fixture pours light down on the seat.

In the harsh glare, the right side of the head and shoulder show a gray tint, while red-orange appears on the other side.

Cinderblock stumps into the light and places the tank containing 385901 on the floor.

The man, "Cinderblock. I see your mission was a success. Good. We will proceed with Phase Two. Wake him."

The behemoth strains at the metal cap on the top end of the tank and manages to unscrew it, releasing thick clouds of vapor. When they clear, the occupant begins to stir from his slumber.

385901, "I'm…. Awake? I should never be awake! I'm only human when I'm sleeping!"

The man, "but for what I have in mind, your human form is useless. I need Plasmus."

The man's form begins to swell and distort within the tank, causing the glass to bulge and finally shatter. What comes out is a mass of purplish slime that overwhelms the nearby Cinderblock, accompanied by more fumes from the liquid inside. When the view clears, the overhead light has gone out and the ooze has formed itself into a very large, roughly shaped humanoid with an extremely wide mouth and two tiny yellowish eyes; Plasmus, the form taken by 385901 whenever he is not asleep. The reason for the silence warning on his cell's door is now abundantly clear. Plasmus comes forward and lets off a screeching roar!

….

We return to Titans Tower. It is now the next day. Ringing is heard over a telephone line, followed by the click of the call being answered.

Vic is heard on the answering machine, "this is Victor Stone, aka; Cyborg. I'm either in the gym, playing GameStation, or kicking bad-guy butt. Leave a message."

We see the team in the living room. Starfire is at the kitchen counter, Raven is looking at a bank of monitors, and BB paces with a cell phone in his hand: he made the call. Jack is sorting through any mail they received. Dick stands at the windows.

BB is pacing behind Raven as they say, "hello? Vic? Pick up! Come on, Victor, pick up! I know you're there. The phone's built in your arm!"

We see that Starfire is mixing something in a bowl. Raven reaches up to press a key. Now Beast Boy hangs up disgustedly. Starfire holds up a spoonful of glop from her bowl.

Starfire, "taste!"

She shoves it into BB's mouth without warning. It sends him into convulsions, which end with him on all fours and trying to keep from vomiting. Finally, he spits out the mess and scrubs frantically at his tongue to remove the last fragments.

BB, "what is that? Cream of toenails?"

Starfire, "pudding of Sadness", she takes a spoonful, "it is what the people of my planet eat when bad things happen."

She eats it and is suddenly on the verge of blowing her own chunks; after a monster effort, she gets it down and ends up having a fit as well.

She is about to approach Jack, but he says, "I ain't eating it Star. And that's coming from a guy who licked an armpit on a dare."

Starfire cringed at that little tidbit.

Jack, "don't worry, I washed my mouth all night after that. Extensively."

Raven continues checking the monitors as Starfire brings her the bowl.

Starfire, "try. The displeasing taste will ease your troubled mind."

Raven turns to her and says, "my mind is never troubled. People come, people go. It's pointless to be upset about Cyborg."

Her hair flies wildly about her face and all the monitors crack; a sudden flare-up of her powers, caused by the fact that she actually is upset about his absence. She does not notice the damage, as she is looking directly at Starfire's wide-eyed expression.

Raven, "what?"

Jack snickers at this, making Raven smile for a moment.

Dick looks morosely out over Jump City as Starfire's flies to him with her horrid concoction. She holds the bowl out to him.

Starfire, "here, Richard. You must need this most of all since…. Well…."

Dick, "I'm fine."

He turns away.

Dick, "who knows? Maybe we're better off without him…."

Starfire lowers her bowl and gazes after him with obvious concern.

….

Later, we see Dick punching something with great vigor. It's a heavy bag. He delivers a final roundhouse kick and slumps over, winded. Looking up, he sees his and Cyborg's weight benches; the latter equipped with the sort of giant barbells only that Titan could lift.

….

In the kitchen, Beast Boy hoists a stack of dirty plates onto the counter by the sink. Many others are already piled up there.

BB, "yo! Whose turn to do dishes?"

Dick, "Victor."

The green Titan cries out briefly in surprise like a monkey at this. Dick goes to the sink and starts to wash a plate.

Jack is sitting on the couch nearby, and can't help but frown in sadness as he looks at a picture he had on his phone.

It was of the entire team when they moved in, smiling like goofballs.

Jack sighs and thinks, 'I hope he isn't gone for good.'

….

Dick is on the couch in the operations center; he is now playing on the GameStation system and blasting enemy aircraft out of the sky.

Dick, "come on, come on…. I'm not scared to take…. No! Yeah! Got it! Just one more and…. Yes!"

The screen flashes red and blue and shows the message, "Victor-1,000,000."

Dick, "new high score!"

Cyborg's name is smashed away by Dick's, and the score changes to 5,000,000. However, the Titan who set it is no longer elated by his achievement.

….

Dick approaches the door of Victor's room. It opens to show the interior.

A bookcase with pictures and a baseball on top, a computer desk with a football by the monitor, a trophy case in one rear corner, and areas for self-repair and diagnostics. A large inclined table with a footstop at its lower end is in the other rear corner; what the missing Titan uses for a bed.

Dick then takes a picture from the dresser and is looking at it. It is of the pair, laughing and having a grand time.

Dick, "I'm sorry…."

….

Reviews:

DreamWorksDisneyFan2000: I'm glad you liked Jack and Raven's moments together, since they're the main couple of the story, and yeah, I loved Bruce and Diana's chemistry in JLU, so I decided them for them to be a couple in this story.

raven 2012: I'm glad you're liking the story, but Blackfire and Kitten will not want Jack for themselves.

DaV1nc136: oh, I certainly plan to.

….

As you can see, most episodes will be told in two parts.

I hope I'm adding Jack into the story well.