Titans: Elemental
Chapter 52: Titan Rising, Part 2
We see the whirling drills of two worms as they break through an expanse of stone. After a moment's grinding, the metal diggers emerge fully and race forward, passing it on either side like a pair of onrushing subway trains. We watch them zooming away; and we can now see that the third worm is alongside them, and Vic, Starfire, Bryan, Blackfire, and BB, as a cheetah, give chase.
The worms proceed steadily on and one turns upward; when the dusty haze from this move clears, the view has dissolved to a shot of their three tunnels, the two level courses diverging from center. Up come the five Titans, who examine the scene in the light from Vic's sweeping beam for a moment.
Vic, "I'll take the ugly one."
Bryan, "which one's the ugly one?!"
Vic, "Titans! Go!"
Each heads along a different tunnel. Bryan goes with Vic as Blackfire goes with her sister. Vic and Bryan barrel after a worm and Vic raises his left arm with a yell. A panel flips open to expose a small launcher loaded with a clamp/suction cup device. This is fired ahead, trailing a long line, and hooks the worm's rear end. The big man hauls in with all his strength, feet striking sparks from the tunnel floor as he is dragged along. Bryan jumps onto his back to help add some weight. Suddenly, Vic's face registers great surprise-and a second later, the leviathan angles sharply downward and drags him and Bryan screaming into the depths.
The sudden change in momentum throws them off balance and dumps Vic onto his chest; more sparks fly up from the contact, and he ends up spitting out a mouthful of gravel. After Vic has been towed, another worm breaks through the tunnel floor and continues upward, and the Tamaranian sisters fly after it. Starfire tosses off a couple of starbolts to destroy falling rocks before unloading an eye blast. This melts a ring of stone around the end, welding the body to the tunnel walls to stop it cold. Starfire stares and giggles at her work.
Blackfire, "nice work sis."
However, the worm quickly breaks loose and bores its way upward. Once the debris has cleared, the sisters charge off after it.
Blackfire, "well, at least it worked for a minute!"
We then go to a section of rock face that is already fractured. It shatters entirely under the advance of the third worm, which BB is chasing. He catches up and launches himself at it, turning into a giant sloth on the way down and digging his long claws into the metal hide. Unable to get a firm grip, he slides back and is dumped to the tunnel floor as the prey thunders into the distance. After a surprised look at claws that have been ground down to nubs, he resumes human form.
BB, "guess I won't need to cut my fingernails for a few years."
The three worms dig in all directions: one towing Vic and Bryan, Starfire and Blackfire shooting after the second, BB as an ostrich chasing the third.
….
We then see a rock face with part of a steel framework visible in front of it. The material shatters from the other side to reveal Raven, Jack and Terra, who have excavated their way in, and Rose and Dick are still behind them. The two girls and boy stare as they shoulder past them.
They are in a huge underground expanse whose walls are lined with those steel members. Sitting at its center is a cylindrical computer console, with keyboards spaced at regular intervals around its perimeter. A broad beam of green light emanates upward from the middle of this rig and generates a holographic image. We are in a truly gargantuan vertical shaft; the computer stands on a platform that has walkways connecting it to the walls, and the hologram is an image of the Tower and its island.
….
We see the three worms, joined to form a circle, oriented horizontally and spinning near the ceiling.
We focus on one of the busily digging worms. Vic has reeled himself in and climbed aboard, and he is now crawling toward the head. Bryan jumps off of his back and climbs alongside him. They stop and look up in alarm, and a large chunk of stone breaks away from the tunnel. It plows into Vic's face, throwing him off his perch and leaving him to watch the monster continue its headlong rush.
Bryan loses his grip and flies off next to Vic.
Standing up, Vic checks his forearm panel; it shows one worm tunneling straight up, and the other two soon join it on converging paths as all head for fresh air.
Vic, "BB! Blackfire! Star! We're getting close to the surface! Whatever their target is, they're about to hit it with everything they've got."
Bryan, "then we better hurry up!"
….
We see a patch of ground at surface level. One by one, the three worms break through and rise into the air with the help of small rocket thrusters mounted along the body lengths. Tilt up as they fly in different directions, then we see Vic and Bryan emerging from underground. Starfire and Blackfire do likewise, then BB in gopher form; up above, the giant drill bits retract into the segmented bodies. Two free ends hook up. Now all three worms have joined into a ring that matches the one spinning in the underground chamber. It is suspended directly above the Tower, on whose island the worms surfaced.
As Starfire, Blackfire and again-human BB stand frozen in shock, Vic and Bryan move closer and stare popeyed. That emitter comes to life, firing a laser beam straight down to cut a circular incision into the earth. Two other beams have started up, one on each worm, and at ground level the five Titans are forced to make a run for it as one of them rips toward them. Once the dust has cleared, Vic stands up and addresses his onboard communicator.
Vic, "Dick! It's the Tower! They're attacking Titans Tower!"
….
The worms down in the underground shaft have started firing beams of their own, but up instead of down to chew through that rock from two directions at once. We see the holographic Tower image, now with a cylinder marked around it and a flashing red arrow pointing downward from the bottom end to show the structure's intended movement. Rose, Jack, Dick, Raven and Terra stand at the computer console.
Dick, "it's not just under attack. It's about to be underground."
….
The Tower is still under siege by the aerial worms as Vic, Bryan, Blackfire, Starfire, and BB watch.
Starfire, "our home!"
Bryan, "my stuff!"
BB, "Slade's trying to sink it."
Vic, "one drill going up and another going down. If either of 'em break through, we're gonna need a new place to live!"
Starfire, "I like where we live!"
Blackfire, "amen sister!"
The sisters take off, while BB becomes a pterodactyl and hoists Vic up. Bryan stays on the ground and starts shooting as fast as he can. Starbolts and cannon are brought into play against the wreckers.
….
Back at the drilling ring going up. Dick whips a birdarang at it without effect, and Raven's black shots do no damage either.
Jack starts shooting fire at it, but the burns leave no lasting damage!
Rose keeps working at the console, trying to think of a solution.
As Raven keeps shooting, Terra warms up and looks toward the wall; she brings two large boulders out and projects them at the worms, but even these missiles have no discernible effect.
Dick, "not even a scratch", they all run back to the console, and Dick starts working at the keyboard, "if we can't break the drill, hacking this computer is our only shot at shutting it down!"
The gloved fingers fly on the keys. But they all hear well, and see that Slade has entered and is charging straight at Dick, and with a furious roar he launches a flying kick. The blow drives him past Raven, Jack, Rose and Terra to dump him on the walkway behind. The masked criminal rushes at him, and as Dick sits up to rub his shoulder, another steel boot zeroes in on his head. He rolls away just in the nick of time, and after a moment, the two take a few pokes at each other without connecting as they work their way toward the shaft wall. Rose quickly joins the fight and starts helping Dick fight her father!
The three of them move into a service elevator at the outer end of the walkway. Raven, Jack and Terra run toward it.
Terra, "NightWing! Ravager! Hang on!"
Dick, "forget about us! Shut down the drill!"
Rose, "we'll handle my dad!"
Slade, "good. Now I have you both to myself."
Rose, "could you get any creepier?"
Slade hits a button, bringing up a waist-high gate: the sort often used on lifts like this, and lunges at Dick and Rose. Jack, Terra and Raven watch the elevator climb the shaft wall until it has passed.
Terra, "looks like it's just us."
All three look up toward the ceiling. One laser beam incises the bedrock above.
Raven, "we have to hack in."
She runs toward the computer; Terra warms up.
Terra, "why hack when you can smash?"
Jack, "wait, no!"
She propels a boulder toward the hardware.
Raven exerts her powers and yells, "no!"
Raven has stopped the rock halfway between herself and Terra.
Raven, "we don't know how this thing works. Destroy the controls and we might never be able to stop it.'
Terra, "or we might stop it sooner and save our home."
Jack, "yeah, but we gotta think what'll happen if we just smash it! You can't make an omelet if you smash everything into the bowl with the shells!"
Terra puts more effort into trying to move the weight on the end of this line, Raven increases the resistance, and small fragments fall around them as a result of the strain.
Jack tries to keep the rock steady, but his own powers pail in comparison to the standstill between the girls.
Terra, "why can't you just trust me?"
Raven, "'cause you don't deserve it! I have to meditate every day to keep my powers under control. And I'm supposed to believe that you can just suddenly control yours? Trust is something you have to earn!"
Jack, "she's right! It took me ages to control my powers!"
Terra, "how? How do I earn it?"
Raven, "you can start by trusting me."
Jack, "you trust us, we trust you!"
Terra turns this over nine or ten times in the space of one second, and then relaxes her hold on the stone. Raven and Jack do likewise, allowing it to crash down onto the walkway, and all three turn to the console. The rock ceiling is being sliced by the drilling laser beam once more. The trio look up from the keyboard in sudden alarm; a second later, a gigantic piece of stone falls from above and crushes the system to scrap. Sparks fly everywhere as the two girls and guy are thrown backward from the impact. One emitter starts to glow much more intensely and puts out a wider beam, breaking away the ceiling at a greatly accelerated rate. All three lasers behave in this manner, put into overdrive by the literal system crash. Jack, Raven and Terra, get to their feet.
Terra, "okay. Maybe smashing the computer was a bad idea."
Jack, "that's very clear right now."
….
Back in the elevator, Rose, Dick and Slade continue to fight as it rises up, up, up! After several hundred feet of climb, during which Dick takes a blow that knocks him back to the wall, the elevator jolts sharply and throws him to the floor. Looking up, he finds that they have nearly reached the ceiling and the drilling worms.
Dick, "the Tower!"
Rose starts holding back her father with her staff as Dick tries to get to his feet.
As the lasers make yet another pass, the interior section trembles and slides down, accompanied by a shower of dust. The rock has now been cut so deeply that the Tower's weight is enough to fracture it.
Slade, "going down."
He leaps nimbly over the back half-wall of the elevator and into space. When Dick and Rose rush to the guardrail, all they see is the worms and the approaching ceiling. Out they go, just before the car goes off its rails and crashes. They both fire off their grapples, catching them on a neighboring set of guide rails, and perch safely on one of the horizontal bracing members.
….
Back at the Tower. Starfire carries Vic up toward the rotating wreckers, while Blackfire does the same with Bryan, and BB, now a falcon, flies up alongside them. The three boys drop onto the upper surface, BB as an octopus, Vic converts his hand into a drill and puts it to work on the metal skin, and Bryan starts firing a continuous stream of lasers. Blinding sparks play over the spot.
Vic, "Beast Boy! Go!"
The octopus flips him a salute with one tentacle, becomes a mouse, and scampers to the newly bored hole. In he goes.
We see within the worm to show bundles of wiring running along its length. BB chews on one, then another, and the crackling arcs testify to the circuits he has broken or shorted. Outside, the worms' bodies bulge from a series of internal explosions before blowing apart. One blast throws the shape-shifter clear; he has transformed into a turtle, but soon resumes falcon form and wings away.
The worms, now completely separated, fall in three different directions toward the bay and splash in. On the shore, Vic, Bryan, Blackfire and Starfire cheer wildly as BB lands and takes human form.
Vic, "Dick, we did it", he activates his communicator, "we took out the drill... Dick?"
A laser beam erupts from below the water, issuing from the subterranean drill, and starts to trace around the shore. All five Titans are thrown down with a yell due to the accompanying tremor. Sure enough, all three lasers have pierced the bedrock, and after a long moment, the entire island begins to sink into Jump City Bay.
Vic, "Go!"
Starfire and BB gasp. The former lifts off, carrying Vic with her, and the latter again becomes a falcon to fly up with them.
Blackfire quickly grabs Bryan, and they follow after the others.
As the descent continues and dust and smoke pour up, they get clear of the site.
….
Underground, the sliding mass of rock is about to hit the drill.
Raven, Jack and Terra watch it.
Raven, "we have to go! There's nothing we can do now!"
There's eyes glowed as she said, "yes, there is! Trust me!"
Down it comes. The glow has shifted from her eyes to her hands, and it manifests itself in a pair of wide-angle beams as she raises them with a savage yell. The energy strikes the lower face of the monolith, which smashes the drill apart as it stops and the worms crash down all around her. After several seconds in midair, the sheer weight of this formation proves too much for her and it starts to drop again. As her knees buckle, Raven steps up next to her with both hands loaded for bear.
Raven, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
Jack stepped forward and tightly gripped his staff with his hand extended into the air, helping to stop the formation.
Jack, "we got you Terra!"
Terra straightens up. Ever so slowly, the combined force of the three heroes' powers begins to push the collapsed rock back up the way it came.
….
Back on the surface, Blackfire, Bryan, Vic, Starfire, and BB, in human form, stand on the shore of Jump City Bay. The boys sadly regard the site of the Titans' lost home, but Starfire cannot bring herself to look, hiding herself in Blackfire's arms. But suddenly, a loud rumbling starts up, and BB stares dumbfoundead.
BB, "no way."
Bryan looks up and says, "holy crap!"
Vic follows his lead.
Vic, "Starfire, look!"
Starfire, "I cannot", she raises her eyes a bit, "our home is…."
Blackfire turns her sister so she can see.
The rumbling marked the rise of the Tower, which is now emerging from the waters to stand as tall as it did when the Titans were playing volleyball on its roof.
Starfire, "... Saved!"
Blackfire, "and here I thought I'd seen it all."
Vic, "but how?"
BB, "Terra."
Vic lifts his forearm, and his communicator panel shows Dick.
Dick, "and Raven and Jack. Working together."
The five heroes watch as the island and structure are pushed up the last few feet, back into proper position.
….
Later in the hall, Raven and Terra are walking along. The blonde's goggles, which have been propped on her forehead since she wrapped up her stunt on the roof, hang around her neck again.
Terra, "so…. Friends?"
Raven, "close enough."
Terra, "sorry we kinda got off to a rocky start.'
They stop at a door.
Raven, "actually, I thought things went pretty well. Took me a year to stop hating Beast Boy."
Both laugh. A door is heard opening as Terra's boots advance and are followed by Raven's. Raven turns toward the wall as Terra steps forward, puzzled.
Terra, "um…. Where are we?"
Raven, "your room."
She flips a light switch. We see across the area: walls painted to show a mountain landscape under a starry night sky, big green bed at the far wall, a cactus next to this, bookshelves, a large couch and coffee table facing the window. The other Titans are here.
Dick, Bryan, BB, Jack, Vic, Rose, Starfire Blackfire, "SURPRISE!"
Terra looks around, flabbergasted.
Terra, "you guys did all this…. For me?""
BB, "yeah, since you helped save our home and all", he slides to her, blushes, and cocks his eyebrows, "we thought you deserved your own room."
Dick, "you also deserve one of these."
He holds out a communicator, and she takes it and looks wonderingly down at it in her palm.
Terra, "so I'm…."
Dick, "... A Titan."
He holds his hand out to shake.
Dick, "glad to have you on the team."
She shakes.
Vic, "aw, yeah! Very nice!"
Rose, "very very nice!"
Bryan, "right on!"
Blackfire, "welcome to the team. You're gonna fit right in!"
Jack, "it'll be nice having someone with similar powers on the team."
BB, "this is the best thing that's ever happened to me."
Hearts in his eyes appear as he says this.
Starfire, "welcome, new Titan!"
Raven, "congratulations, Terra. You earned it."
The newest teammate gives her a gratified smile.
Vic, "alright. There's only one way to commemorate such a momentous occasion. Waffles!"
All but Terra head out.
Dick, "mmm!"
Jack, "sounds great!"
Starfire, "perfect!"
Blackfire, "I'm drowning mine in syrup!"
Rose, "whipped cream and strawberries!"
BB, "can they be non-dairy waffles?"
Bryan, "seriously?"
Terra, "sounds good. I'll catch up in a minute, okay?"
She watches the group leave. After the door has closed behind them, she turns and looks down at her new communicator.
Terra, "I don't believe it. They actually trust me…."
As she says this, the hair above her right ear, where she used to wear her butterfly clip, falls forward to cover that side of her face….
….
Reviews:
Canadude202: yep. Thus we continue her story arc...
Bailey Radclif: well, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.
raven 2012: I'm glad you liked the chapter.
DaV1nc136: yeah, for as much as I love Raven, even I'll admit she can be pretty harsh. But in the case of Terra, most of her worries were justified.
pokemonking0924: yep. Things will get better for Terra…. Eventually…. Jack will learn some new skills thanks to Terra. Don't have much interest in Static Shock. But I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.
AlphaGodzilla19: probably not, since the next appearance of Mad Mod is AFTER Terra is turned to stone. I plan to follow canon, where she gets turned to stone, but diverge upon her return in the finale, where I give an explanation for how she came back and have her go through a redemption arc.
Ushindi: yep. Don't worry, Terra will get a redemption arc. 1. Oh yeah, indeed I do.
TheGoldenYoshichu: glad you enjoyed the chapter. Terra will have more remorse than canon, but she still betrays the team.
Guest: pretty much everything you said about Jack's powers is true.
….
For those wondering, here are the voices I chose for the added characters.
Jack: Yuri Loyenthal.
Rose: Mae Whitman.
Bryan: Sonny Strait.
Also, for a few days, I'm gonna have a poll up for a Scooby Doo story.
