Chapter 13: Freak of Nature
Writer's Note: This story was written before the Season 2 episode 'How Long Is Forever' aired, and as a result I used Warp's DC comic version rather then the time travaling version that appeared in the show. Also, SR, a parody theme that played when the guest star showed up.
It was turning out to be a good day for Emil Lasalle.
He had been worried when he had been forced to rebuild his costume from scratch, but he had, and now that it was up and running, Warp was back and badder then ever.
The bank had never known what hit it. One moment it had been a normal day, and the next thing they had known Warp had been there in his green and yellow suit. All the guards had been knocked out before they knew he was there, and just to show how quickly he could go, he had knocked out all the tellers as well. The customers had fled, but Warp didn't care much. The police would never lay a hand on him, and even if something did show up that could be a threat, Warp was ready. He just hoped that…
"Man, you people never learn, do you?"
Warp had been putting another bag of money onto the pile he was intending to teleport away with he heard the voice. He recognized it, and wasn't that surprised that it was there.
"Let me list the reasons this was a bad idea! ONE!" Robin said as he leapt down.
"Two!" Cyborg said as he smashed through a wall.
"Three!" Beast Boy said as he flew in as a dove and turned back into his humanoid form.
"Four." Savior said as he lowered himself down from the ceiling.
"Five." Raven said as she appeared from the shadows.
"Six!" Starfire said cheerily as she flew in through a window. She loved this entrance! Now Robin just had to finish it.
"No matter how you do the math…" Robin began.
"Yeah yeah yeah, I know. It all adds up to me going down. You did this the first time you stopped me, remember?" Warp said.
"Apparently you don't remember what happened. We kicked your ass! And we'll be glad to do it again." Robin said as he cracked his knuckles.
"Ah. Boy Blunder, you aren't the only one who can add. I've added a few things myself." Warp said.
Robin was about to reply, except he never got the chance.
Because the air in between where the Titans were grouped suddenly exploded, a yellowish energy erupting from nowhere and blowing all the Titans away. Robin tumbled away, nearly hitting the wall before Starfire caught him. Raven managed to stop herself: the rest of the males weren't so lucky, all of them hitting something.
"Ow…I don't recall Warp being able to do that…" Cyborg said, rubbing his head.
"That wasn't Warp." Robin said as the smoke began clearing.
A woman was standing where the explosion had happened. She was black, and had her hair in a rather stereotyped afro style. She had on a yellow mask, grey jacket with a winking yellow smiley face on it, black-grey pants with yellow markings on the knees, and yellow, grey, and black rollerblades.
"Who the heck is THAT?" Beast Boy said.
"Who cares, I have her!" Savior said as he leapt at the woman.
"NO SAVIOR WAIT…!" Robin was yelling.
"Peek a boo!" the woman said.
And then the woman was suddenly gone as another energy explosion detonated where she had been, right in Savior's face. He flew backwards again, grabbing a pair of pillars with the Shimmer to avoid being slammed into the wall again. His bare skin burned. The Shimmer had just caught the tail end of the discharge, but it had acted a bit like a sharp blade, and it hurt.
Then another part of the bank exploded as the woman re-appeared, blowing the desks around her to pieces.
"Who is that Robin?" Starfire asked.
"Like she said. Her name's Peek-A-Boo." Robin said. He only faintly knew the woman from his occasionally scanning of Batman's files.
Peek-A-Boo was a Rogue, a title that had been given to a group of metahumans that usually tangled with the Flash over in his hometowns of Keystone and Central cities. She had a teleportation talent that was latent in nature, unlike Warp's machine-induced skill. However, it was extremely unstable and tended to produce an implosion in whatever area she had just left and arrived in. It was that implosion (rather then an explosion) that had blasted the group and then Savior.
But why was she helping Warp? From what Robin remember, Peek-A-Boo (real name Lashawn Baez) was only considered a Rogue because she had tried to steal a kidney to aid her ailing father. When he had died, she had disappeared, bitter after a stint in prison. However, she had not been a true "Bad Guy" at heart, so why…
"You're not the only one who can recruit help, Titans." Warp laughed, and then he disappeared. Before anyone could blink he re-appeared in front of Beast Boy and punched him, then warped away again when Beast Boy tried to retaliate.
Raven threw something at Peek-A-Boo, but one chant of her namesake and she was gone in a blast. She reappeared near Robin and Starfire, and cried out when Starfire threw some Starbolts at her. One more chant of "Peek-a-boo!" though, and she was gone. A second later, Savior landed where she had been. He had apparently been planning an attack. Growling, he used the Shimmer to toss himself across the bank, literally bouncing off the walls as he waited for her to re-appear.
Robin threw a heat disc at Warp, but he disappeared. Robin waited a second and then threw a Birdarang in a seemingly total random direction.
Warp reappeared some distance away…and the Birdarang smacked him in the face. A second later, a few Starbolts hit him as well, throwing him backwards with a scream.
"They never learn that the tools don't make the man." Cyborg said.
"Oh really?" came a new voice behind them. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg turned around.
Robin gaped.
The man who was standing there, by look alone, certainly didn't look intimidating. He wore a goofy-looking blue-white outfit that looked like a stereotyped Eskimo outfit, topped off with some goofy blue sunglasses. His face was pitted and unpleasant-looking, even with the shades. He didn't look very menacing.
But Robin knew who he was.
If Peek-A-Boo was a Rogue, the man standing before them was their King. His real name was Leonard Snart, and he had been a petty criminal busted by the first Flash, Barry Allen. In revenge, Snart had built a gun that was able to freeze anything it blasted solid. He had battled Barry Allen until his tragic death occurred at the hands of another and then had eventually become a foe of the new Flash, Wally West.
His name was Captain Cold. His name was as goofy as his outfit. But he was a dangerous man, and he was aiming his dangerous freeze ray at the three.
They tried to dodge, but Captain Cold had had years of experience shooting at a foe who could move a LOT faster then the three of them, and he connected with Cyborg. Cyborg could barely yell before ice covered him, turning him into a statue.
"Evening Titans. Chill." Captain Cold said, and fired at Starfire. She barely dodged and retaliated with some Starbolts. Captain Cold rolled, the bolts flying over his head, and then he fired at Robin. Robin yelled as his body was caught by the ray and began to freeze, before Starfire blasted Cold with another Starbolt, throwing him off his feet with a curse.
"Robin!" Starfire said, as she flew down and placed her hands on the ice, focusing the solar energy that powered her Starbolts into heat that melted the ice. "Are you ok?"
"I'll be fine. Let's take Cold down."
"PEEK-A-BOO!" Peek-A-Boo yelled, disappearing a second later before Savior's Shimmer-whip demolished a pillar.
"Dammit. I know it's a cliché, but stand still!" Savior muttered under his breath as he looked around, waiting.
Peek-A-Boo reappeared with her usually destructive entrance.
And then Raven appeared out of the shadows in front of her and decked her. Peek-A-Boo stumbled back, and Raven lifted up a chair and threw it at her, smashing the seat end into Peek-A-Boo's chest and knocking the wind out of her.
Warp's suit had been damaged by Starfire's bolts, and he was frantically trying to re-route power when Beast Boy pounced on him in the form of a bear, pushing him to the ground and roaring at him. Beast Boy raised one paw, carefully keeping the claws retracted so he would just knock Warp silly and not rip his head off.
At least that had been the plan before Cold sat up and blasted Beast Boy with the freeze ray, turning him to ice. Warp grunted as the extra weight was placed on him before he completed the re-route of his power system and teleported with Beast Boy. He reappeared twelve feet above the ground and immediately teleported away, leaving Beast Boy's frozen body to fall.
Raven flew over, grabbing Beast Boy's frozen body and keeping it from hitting the ground. Then Warp appeared behind her and slammed his metal-enclosed fist against the back of her head, dropping her with a cry.
"Got you!" Savior said as he Shimmer-pulled himself towards Peek-A-Boo as she re-appeared. He landed on her back as the Shimmer wrapped around her mouth, sealing it. Savior wound up another strand that would konk her on the head…
Only Peek-A-Boo made a muffled noise that sounded like "Peek-A-Boo" and then she and Savior were gone.
Though the other Titans didn't see it, they reappeared about 7000 feet above the bank. The teleportation had disoriented Savior, and he couldn't fight back when Peek-A-Boo shoved him away. Another yell of "Peek-A-Boo!" and Savior was blasted away from the leaving Rogue, plummeting downward in freefall as Peek-A-Boo returned to the bank. She re-appeared right beside Robin and Starfire, blowing them against a wall.
"Finish it Cold!" Warp said.
"My pleasure." Cold said, as he aimed at the two.
And then his gun was gone. He blinked, and then a gust of wind ruffled his hood. A gust that was way too strong to have come out of nowhere unless…
"Flash!" he cursed. "How do you always know where I am even when…" Cold said as he looked around, his voice trailing off.
It wasn't the Flash who had run into the bank and snatched away Cold's gun at super-speed. Instead, it was a teenager in a red and white outfit and crazy hair that assumed a semi-bowl shape on top of his head. He was grinning widely as he twirled the gun on one finger.
"Sorry Snart! Wally's busy! But perhaps I can entertain you?" the teenager said.
"IMPULSE!" Robin said.
"That's my name!" Impulse said, suddenly right next to Robin. Then he was on the other end, handing Robin the freeze gun. "Don't wear it out!"
Savior frantically tried to whip together a shape that would slow his descent, but making a working helicopter blade was a lot harder then it looked.
"Ok, maybe I'll try a parachute…"
Peek-A-Boo felt worried. She had been coerced into doing this with the promise of getting enough money to disappear and start a new life. That had seemed like a good enough reason to return to crime. But now that Impulse, a child-speedster who was pretty much everything the Flash was in a smaller package, had shown up, she was beginning to have doubts.
Fortunately, he seemed to be paying attention to Warp. The two still standing Titans…wait wasn't there three?
And then the desk crushed Peek-A-Boo up against the wall. Raven had thrown it carefully enough to not break any bones, but it still hurt like hell.
Cold had gotten another freeze gun from his parka and was firing at Robin, who was jumping around like a maniac and throwing explosive discs to mess up his aim. Starfire was thawing out Beast Boy. And Cyborg was…
Still frozen, and Raven had an idea to kill two birds with one stone.
"Azarath…Metrion…" Raven said, as Cyborg's iced body floated up as Robin pole-vaulted away from Cold via his staff. "ZINTHOS!"
And she threw Cyborg's iced body at him. It would serve two purposes: knock Cold out and free Cyborg.
Or at least it would have if Cold hadn't ducked. Cyborg flew over his head. Raven heard something break as he hit the wall.
"OOPS." She said, and then she ducked herself as Cold fired at her. She melted back into the shadows before Cold turned her into a statue she would have to be melted out of.
Having been freed, Beast Boy became a gorilla and lunged at Warp, who was occupied with Impulse. No matter where he went, Impulse was standing on front of him.
Beast Boy's powerful fists slammed into Warp, and he found himself being thrown forward. Enough: the job had gone bad. He had to retreat, and he did, warping away and outside.
Only to find Impulse standing in front of him again. The teenager waved.
Savior, meanwhile, was ruining the side of a skyscraper as he grabbed the edge as he fell past it and dug a Shimmer-hook in. The hook ripped into the concrete and was yanked down as the special energy cord ate away the momentum Savior had accumulated via the fall. He finally stopped about thirty feet away from the ground. Sighing with relief, he snapped out another strand and headed back to the bank.
Cold jumped away from a Starbolt barrage and fired his gun at Starfire, who dodged. Beast Boy charged at him as a rhino, but was forced to turn into a mouse when Cold recovered quicker then he expected and fired at him.
"You children can't win! I'll put you all on ice!" Cold yelled.
"Aren't you a little old for snappy banter?" came a voice behind him.
Cold turned around just as Cyborg swung, punching out Cold's lights and knocking him across the bank. He hit the ground, moaned, and was still.
"Very nice." Raven said as she appeared out of the shadows.
"Yeah, maybe not as nice as you USING ME AS A FREAKING PROJECTILE! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" Cyborg yelled.
"I just wanted to get the ice off you." Raven said.
"What if I had broken into pieces?"
"That was a risk I was willing to take." Raven replied.
"Where is Savior?" Starfire asked.
Warp growled as he teleported again. Once again Impulse was there when he reappeared. He gave Warp a raspberry.
Warp teleported again. Same result.
"You seem smart enough not to take a swing at me. Are you smart enough to give up? You'll never get away from me." Impulse said.
"We'll see!" Warp said as he activated the suit again.
As soon as Warp started to teleport, a blazing streak of red took off…in the OPPOSITE direction. In a nanosecond it was out of Jump City. Several nanoseconds later it was blasting across the Pacific Ocean. Warp started to re-appear as it left France. As the man fully re-appeared it finished crossing the Atlantic.
"YES! I know I could outrun you!" Warp crowed.
"Wrong."
Stunned, Warp turned around as Impulse appeared in front of him, the ground behind him scorched from the run.
"I followed you even taking the LONG route."
Warp gaped as he realized that in the second he had taken to teleport several hundred feet Impulse had run around THE ENTIRE WORLD. In desperation, he took a swing at Impulse.
Impulse didn't just dodge, he slapped Warp 52 times before he felt the first blow, and then ran up the nearest wall and jumped on Warp's head. No sooner had Warp's body registered the impact when Impulse jumped off, ran around to Warp's front, and as he started to fall down, did a flipping kick that knocked Warp backwards into the wall. That was all she wrote for him.
The Titans had become looking around for Savior when Peek-A-Boo managed to push the desk off her. She was amazed her talent hadn't activated: it sometimes did when she was struck by something.
She saw Cold was down. That was it. She was out of here.
"Hey it's…!" Beast Boy said.
"Peek-A-Boo!"
Peek-A-Boo teleported out of the bank and onto a roof a block away. She stopped, taking deep breaths. She wasn't used to using her talent so much, and it was…
"I see you."
Peek-A-Boo turned around to see Savior. He snapped back his arm to throw the Shimmer.
"PEEK-A…!"
WHACK! A blow to the face took down Peek-A-Boo. Except it wasn't the Shimmer that struck her, it was Impulse's fist. He had run over to the building, up the wall, and over the roof, and knocked out Peek-A-Boo before Savior could.
"Too slow!" he said, giving Savior a thumbs up.
Savior just lowered the Shimmer and shook his head good-naturedly.
"Thanks for the aid Impulse, though we could have handled it. But just why are you in Jump City…?" Robin said, as the Titans watched the police put the bested supervillians in the specially prepared paddy wagon and cart them back to prison.
"Just passing by. There's only so much world out there when you're as fast as I am." Impulse said.
"Reporters at 2 o'clock." Beast Boy said.
"What? That's not for three hours Beast Boy…" Starfire said.
"Are we actually going to speak to those idiots?" Raven asked.
"Well, it kills the time…" Robin said.
"Besides, after dealing with those three, I'd say we're out of the woods for today!" Cyborg said happily.
And then the streets were suddenly filled with a loud bellowing roar that seemed to shake the streets.
Impulse glared at Cyborg.
"If you ever say that cliché again, I will kill you before you can blink."
"What the hell…" Robin said.
And then a building a few doors down and across from the bank suddenly exploded outward as SOMETHING crashed out through the front with so much force the whole front of the building collapsed.
"WHOA!"
"Never a dull moment!" Beast Boy said as debris pelted the group.
The reporters stopped heading towards the Titans and Impulse, and then with the unique brand of stupidity the media always has, turned and headed for the dusty…thing that had come out of the building.
"What is going on Robin?" Starfire was asking, trying to clear her eyes from the stinging dust.
Screams started coming from the area that the reporters had run towards.
"I don't know, but we'll find out! Titans, GO!" Robin said, as he pulled out his staff.
The dust cleared then.
"Holy…!"
The creature that had smashed through the building was roughly the size of a dump truck. It crouched on well-muscled, catlike legs, despite it having a reptilian body structure and scale-like skin that looked more like armour. It had a long, crocodile-like mouth that came from a head that had no eyes. A three-pronged split tail whipped from it's back, smashing into the street so hard it shattered. Strange fleshy appendages sprouted from it's back, but they had no definite shape or apparent use. The creature was mostly reddish in colour with a strange variety of other colours in various places (it's tail was nearly white, and the weird appendages on it's scaled and spiky back was pitch black) Its mouth was filled with cruel teeth, and four black fleshy extensions (its tongue?) had lanced out and grabbed the nearest people it could find. Unfortunately, the Titans were too late to save this group, even Impulse, as the creature yanked the screaming people into its mouth and chomped down. Blood spurted from between its teeth.
Several of the Titans were nearly sick at this display, but Robin's eyes went cold.
"Titans, GO!"
Raven picked up a few cars and threw it at the monster while Impulse dashed out, grabbing all the people he could and carrying them away from the creature. Beast Boy became a T-Rex and charged forward, planting his huge foot on the creature as he leaned down and ripped open its back with his teeth. But no sooner had Beast Boy ripped a chunk out of the creature than he recoiled and then half ran away, half fell down as he turned back into himself, gagging as black stuff foamed at his mouth. Savior snapped out a Shimmer blade and broke off one end of a fire hydrant. It sprayed Beast Boy, washing the foul stuff away.
"Jeez, that thing is ugly!" Cyborg said as he armed his sonic cannon and fired at the creature. It wailed as it was pummeled by the ultra-powered noise, and fleshy parts of its body exploded, throwing black gunk and yellow fluids onto the streets and nearby buildings.
Trying to keep her gorge from rising, Starfire flew up and unleashed several Starbolts onto the creature's front. More flesh and gunk exploded from the wounds, and the creature roared in pain. Showing insane speed, it swung around and smacked Cyborg with its tail. He flew…and then was caught by a returning Impulse.
The creature looked upward and snapped out its tongue-extensions, catching Starfire. She screamed as the creature began to drag her back towards its mouth.
Impulse was running as soon as he heard the scream, blasting up the nearest wall and leaping off, swinging his arm at super-speed and chopping the tongue off. He started to fall, as Starfire pulled off the tongue and caught him. Meanwhile, Robin had been in mid-grab at his utility belt when Impulse had saved his girlfriend, and his hand switched from the Birdarang to the explosives discs.
"You wanna eat something? EAT THIS!" Robin said, and threw the discs in the creature's mouth.
The front of the creature's jaw exploded, throwing flaming flesh around, and it wailed…and then made a noise of anger as the jaw suddenly grew back and sprouted more teeth. Its muscles suddenly bulged even larger, and the fleshy extensions broke open to reveal glistening black wings.
"Mental note: Heat makes it bigger." Robin cursed.
The creature opened its mouth and then fire suddenly belched forth. Robin leapt out of the way. A few seconds later Raven wrapped a metal lamp post around its mouth, sealing the snapping maw shut. Beast Boy turned into a triceratops and charged into the creature's side, using his huge horns to rip through the scaly armour. Black blood soaked his head, and he turned around and ran back into the fire hydrant stream. Savior lashed out a Shimmer blade and ripped the wound open more. What looked like organs were now pouring out of the hole. The creature ripped off the makeshift muzzle and wailed, and then charged. The Titans got out of the way, as Impulse zipped past it and grabbed every person that happened to be in its path as it rammed it's way into a hotel lobby and out the other end.
By the time the Titans caught up to it, the creature had found a grocery store and had broken into it. Messy noises were coming from the store, although, thankfully, no screams.
The police that had arrived to take the villains the Titans had stopped but a few minutes before had called backup, and the police and SWAT teams were now shooting the store with their firearms and whatever else they had. The creature barreled out, charging at the officers, and they scattered as it rammed into their cars and sent them flying. Its wounds had healed somewhat, perhaps as a result of all the food it had just eaten, but it was clear the creature was still hungry. It opened its mouth to grab some of the men and women…except a police car suddenly stopped in mid-air, encased in black energy, and then flew into its mouth. The creature gave a muffled roar and tried to get the car out as Savior swooped down and grabbed the police officers, pulling them away from the rampaging beast.
"Thanks for the aid officers. We'll take it from here! If you want to help, call STAR Labs!" Savior said as he put the cops down a few blocks away and bounded back to the monster.
Impulse was running around the creature to distract it, as Cyborg ran over and punched a nearby building so hard all the windows on the bottom ten floors shattered. Raven flew up, chanting, and the glass shards turned black and flew into the creature, impaling it with hundreds of makeshift knives. It wailed in pain. Black blood soaked the street.
Robin was about to throw a freeze disc at the monster when it flexed and then the glass shards suddenly exploded out of the monster like they had been fired out of a cannon. Robin threw himself behind a car a second before he would have been cut to ribbons, and the other Titans did their own dodging acts. Savior wasn't so lucky, as a shard caught his Shimmer strand and sent him falling down, screaming in pain. Impulse caught him just in time.
Hearing Savior scream, anger arose in Raven. Despite what had happened several weeks ago…
"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!" she yelled as she pulled two telephone poles out of the ground and rammed them right though the creature's head. The creature screamed, more blood flew, and then it actually ripped itself free, though it lost one of its jaws in the process. A blast from Starfire blew the rest of the jaw off, and the creature screamed from the ruin that had been its mouth.
"We don't have time for anything else. Finish it Impulse." Robin said as he went over to check on Savior. Cyborg was blasting the wailing, writhing creature with his sonic cannon again, and more parts of it exploded messily.
"You got it." Impulse said as he got up. He lined himself up…and then he ran at the creature…and then shifting his molecules at super-speed, THROUGH the creature. He appeared out the other end and within 1/2789 of a second had grabbed all the nearby Titans and pulled them away to save them from what happened next.
The creature exploded, its molecules disrupted by Impulse's super speed trip through it. Flesh, guck, blood, and god knows what else splattered all over the streets and buildings.
"Wasted!" Cyborg whooped.
"Well, that was…interesting…" Raven said as she appeared out of the shadows. 'Now where did…"
"Look!" Starfire said, pointing from the sky.
A large chunk of creature flesh, one of the wings extending from it, suddenly split open. A new wing emerged, and then parts of the flesh sloughed off to reveal a yellowish-white creature that had a bony structure. The new one had two clawed arms and a body that ended in a spiky tail, no legs. It's head shifted, cracked, and then hardened as a mouth emerged from nothing. Still eyeless, and screaming, the new creature spread its wings and took off into the sky.
"Aw man! That think isn't content with just being a freak of nature, it has to be a BUNCH of aberrations!" Savior cursed as the pain from his cut Shimmer finally faded.
"Aberration…" Robin said. "Flying Titans, after it! We'll follow as soon as possible!"
Starfire and Raven took off after the monster, while Beast Boy became a pterodactyl and flew with them. Robin and Cyborg armed grappling hooks while Savior used the Shimmer and Impulse ran after the thing.
Flying up to the side of the newly named Aberration, Starfire unleashed a barrage of Starbolts against the creature. It shrieked and snapped one of its arms at Starfire, and several bony shards flew from the limb. Starfire shrieked and dodged frantically as the projectiles impaled themselves into the building behind them
Beast Boy flew at it, clawing at the creature's head, but his talons were thwarted by the creature's new bony armour. It turned around, showing surprising grace for a patchwork mutation that had gotten the ability to fly only a minute ago, and slashed at Beast Boy. He flew back and charged form, turning into the mystical griffin. He flew it, slashing and biting with his claws and teeth again as the creature tried to stab Beast Boy with his tail.
By now the landbound Titans were up on the rooftops near the creature and running alongside their flying companions. As Beast Boy pulled back from Aberration, Savior used a Shimmer-spring to throw himself off the roof, and then used twin Shimmer blade-strands to slash at Aberration. But the monster again showed surprising grace as it pumped its wings and flew over the slashing energy whips. Savior fell, catching a nearby lamp post and swinging himself back up, using the Shimmer to pull himself back up to the roofs.
Robin threw a Birdarang at the creature's wings, but he missed the frail membrane in them, instead hitting the hard bone exoskeleton the monster had grown. Aberration didn't like that, as it screamed and hurled bone spears at Robin and his running partner, Cyborg. One of them rammed through Cyborg's leg, and he yelled and stopped dead. Robin stopped and ran back to his teammate to check on him.
Raven floated up and threw several borrowed girders from a construction site at Aberration. The metal pieces bounced off the monster, staggering it and breaking chips of bone armour off. It shrieked and lanced at Raven, lashing its pointy tail at her, but she disappeared into the shadows and reappeared behind the creature, picking up the girders she had just throw and using them over again, throwing them into the creature's back. More bone chipped off as it screamed
Impulse ran up to Robin as he finished pulling the bone spear out of Cyborg's leg.
"He ok?"
"Just hit metal! I'll be fine!" Cyborg growled as he re-routed his circuits so he would be able to stand on the leg.
"Impulse, I have an idea!" Robin said, seeing a building on the horizon. "Listen!"
As Robin explained his plan, Starfire flew in again and hit Aberration with several more Starbolts, and when the creature turned to fire at her she flew in close and rammed into the creature's head with her shoulder to throw him off. Savior leapt off the roofs again and this time connection with a Shimmer-mace that smashed the creature into the side of a building. It managed to stay in the air, however, throwing more bone spears at Savior. These missed, mostly because he was falling.
"Need a lift?" Beast Boy said as he flew in under Savior.
Impulse, meanwhile, had run over to the building Robin had indicated and managed to carry everyone to safety in the several seconds the previous acts had taken the Titans. Now he waited at the foot of the building.
Starfire was throwing more Starbolts when the creature came into position.
Impulse began running in a circle, creating a vortex. Aberration flew right into it, and that was all the other Titans needed. Beast Boy flew in as Savior propelled himself off Beast Boy's back and smashed the creature with another Shimmer-bludgeon. The creature staggered over the roof of the building, and then Beast Boy flew over it and turned himself into a brontosaurus. With a roar, he landed on it, crushing it under his immense weight and nearly caving the roof in as they both landed on the roof of the skyscaper. Blood splattered on Beast Boy's immense underside. He hopped off and turned himself back into his human form as Savior, Starfire, and Raven landed on the roof. A moment later Impulse joined them to look at the crushed creature.
"Think we got him?" Savior asked.
"It needed sustenance to increase its mass and heal its wounds. We have removed it from all sustenance. It should die soon if it isn't already dead." Raven said.
"I don't know. Like that book says, life finds ways…" Beast Boy said.
And then the tail of Aberration whipped at them. The Titans scattered as the creature moaned and began to grow larger, its bony body going soft.
"What the hell! You said it couldn't mutate unless it had stuff to eat!" Impulse said.
"It found something. Look." Beast Boy said as he watched the newly grown mouths under the creature devour the roof beneath it. Aberration had mutated so that it could eat stone and steel.
The Titans launched a new attack, but Aberration kept eating. The top floor of the tower caved in as Aberration ate away the supports, its body growing larger and larger as armour formed over its body and four stubby legs sprouted underneath it. The mouths underneath it closed up as a new head emerged from the side. Aberration had become like a turtle. A turtle roughly the size of three eighteen-wheelers, with six more stacked on top of those three, as it continued to eat.
"It must have evolved the shell after all the attacks we threw at it!" Savior said. "Impulse, run through it again!"
"OK-WHOOPS!" Impulse said as Aberration slammed one of its new legs down, causing the side of the building Impulse was on to break off and fall. Savior cursed and tried ramming and slicing the new shell of Aberration, but he wasn't making a dent.
Starfire threw more Starbolts, as they exploded along the shell. Aberration roared, as the shell began to vibrate.
The Titans noticed the many holes along the shell before they began spewing green energy blasts. Starbolts. The Titans scattered in shock as hundreds of blasts flew at them, exploding on the buildings around them.
"How is it doing my attack?" Starfire asked.
"He must be able to adapt itself to mimic whatever its been done to it. When Robin threw a grenade in its mouth during it's first form, it mutated to breath fire. Now, after all the Starbolts you threw at it, it figured out how to convert solar energy into its own bolts!" Savior said from his perch on a nearby building.
Robin and Cyborg finally arrived during the barrage. Cyborg armed his, er, arm, and prepared to fire when Robin slapped it down.
"No missiles! It likes heat, remember?"
Raven had picked up some wreckage and was throwing it at Aberration, but the shell was protecting it, even as it continued to eat the building, growing ever bigger.
Impulse ran back up the side, but Aberration had become so large he took up the whole roof, and Impulse had to retreat when the shell holes spewed, er, Ab-bolts at him.
"We need to get it off the building, if it keeps eating…" Robin said.
"It's gotten too big for us to move! How do we move it?" Cyborg said. He tried his sonic cannon. All it seemed to do was annoy Aberration.
"Only thing that might be able to move it is something…hey, I have an idea!" Savior said. Using the Shimmer as a spring, he threw himself over to where Beast Boy was circling.
"Hey Beast Boy, you can only mimic animals, right?" Savior said when he had landed on Beast Boy's griffin back.
"Yeah."
"Think you can mimic that?" Savior asked, pointing at the quasi-turtle form Aberration had become.
Beast Boy gulped.
"That's not a real animal! And I've never tried to become anything with so much mass! I could very well kill myself!"
"What are the odds?"
"YOU AREN'T THE ONE WHO HAS TO TRANSFORM!" Beast Boy yelled.
"Well, we're fresh out of ideas. I guess we'll have to call the Justice League…"
"I didn't say I wouldn't try. But if this goes bad…I'll definitely haunt you Noel!" Beast Boy said.
"What if I die here too?"
"Then I'll haunt your ghost! Now back off!" Beast Boy said, as he steeled himself for one of the greatest transformations he had ever tried.
Savior leapt off as Beast Boy circled around. Starfire and Raven were blasting and throwing things at Aberration, until Savior swung by and they backed off. Beast Boy took a deep breath as he lined himself up.
Here went nothing.
Beast Boy flew at the creature, and as he got close he closed his eyes and tried to force his body into the mental picture he had taken of Aberration, feeling his body bulge out and out and out as the strain became murderous…
And then Beast Boy rammed into Aberration with all the momentum he could muster in his huge new form.
Aberration screamed as he was titled up and then shoved off the building by his new twin, falling down to the street below as Beast Boy shrank down to a robin and put on the brakes, flying as the Titans cheered.
"YEAH! Can you FLY NOW, you piece of garbage!" Beast Boy yelled.
And then Aberration hit the streets. It was roughly the equivalent of a gigantic egg hitting the pavement, as Aberration literally exploded, blood spraying up so high it almost hit Beast Boy. The whole city shook from the impact.
"Yuck. Just yuck." Cyborg said as the spray of gore fell down again.
"Just as effective as what I was going to do, I guess." Impulse said as he appeared next to Robin.
The Titans made their way down to the giant mass of flesh that Aberration had become, strewn all over the streets. The Titans picked their way through the mess.
"If you find anything that still looks alive, don't attack it. Call me." Robin said, freeze discs at the ready. If Aberration had liked heat, he was pretty sure the opposite was true as well.
The Titans poked through the mess as the police made their return, as well as STAR Labs, an ambulance or two, and of course the media. The police managed to keep them at bay while the Titans searched.
It didn't end well, as Raven moved some ruined flesh aside to find a melted hole in the street leading to the sewer. Apparently some part of Aberration had survived and retreated.
"MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!" Savior cursed out loud. Starfire's eyes went wide, and Robin glared at Savior.
"What?"
"Um Savior, don't wear-say in front of the lueless-cay lien-aay who doesn't nderstand-uay how to use the ords-way roperly-pay." Beast Boy whispered.
"OOTAY ATELAY." Robin hissed.
"Great, it got away. Now what do we do?" Cyborg said.
"There are literally thousands of miles of tunnels down there. We could search for months and find nothing." Robin said.
"So what do we do?" Impulse said.
"WE, for the moment, will try and find out just where that creature came from." Robin said. "YOU can come along with us if you want Impulse."
"Thanks! I think I will!"
"The jackals are back." Raven commented as reporters continued to swarm into the area.
"We may as well talk to them now, or they'll follow us home." Robin said. Most of the group sweatdropped as Robin walked over to the police captain so he could call a press conference.
Still caught up in the adrenaline rush, Beast Boy didn't notice the very slight cut on his leg. It had come when, during his ram attack, a bit of him had been nipped off by a sharp part of Aberration's shell. When he had become human again, it had become a very small leg wound. But a small part of him had been lost.
Deep in the sewers, a mass of seething uncontrollable cells forever in change to ensure its survival managed to get a mind clear enough to realize what was stuck to it.
………..Food.
Find.
Eat.
Aberration thrashed until it had grown legs and skulked off into the sewers, in the hunt.
Great, now we have THIS thing after the Titans! But before that, the Titans may have to face something even deadlier: the mass media….