Titans: Elemental

Chapter 59: Aftershock, Part 1

We see a stained-glass window, such as might be found in a cathedral, seen from inside. Orange-tinted sunlight shines through the panes into the dim chamber. We see more of the interior; a collapsed jumble of steel beams betrays the fact that this place, wherever it is, has not been used in quite some time. We go along a row of windows. Slade stands at one of them and turns to address someone behind him. Since his throw down with Beast Boy, he has had a chance to replace his mask and armor.

Slade, "you have had doubts in the past. Made mistakes."

We see Terra at another window. Seen in profile from the waist up, she stands with head bowed and eyes closed. The black and yellow-orange outfit she sported in her last outing with the Titans has been replaced by a very different rig: steel breastplate and shoulder/elbow pads, a layer of cloth wrappings under the armor to cover her entire body, black codpiece, a metal hair clip above the left ear.

Slade, "but all that is behind you, isn't it?"

She opens her eyes and lifts her face.

Terra, "yes."

Slade, "you belong to me now…. Don't you?"

Terra, "I do."

He walks around behind her.

Slade, "from this day forward, will you serve me and me only?"

She turns her head slightly to look at him over her shoulder. The movement reveals a second clip over her right ear, as well as the hair that has fallen forward to hide that side of her face.

Terra, "I will."

She raises her hands, now clad in thick steel gloves like his.

Slade, "will you obey my every command?"

She steps forth.

Terra, "I will."

Slade, "will you fight at my side forever?"

He holds out one hand, palm up, and she stares into it. He has a disc marked with his S insignia. She gives him a hard look, takes the item after a bit of hesitation, and holds it over her breastplate.

Terra, "I will."

She fixes it in place.

Slade, "and will you destroy the Titans?"

He looks searchingly at her.

She says what he wants to hear.

Terra, "I thought you'd never ask."

Her mouth curves up into a cruel smile, but it almost looks forced…. As if a hint of regret was breaking through.

….

We see the streets of Jump City during the day. A vehicle motors down the block, it is seen to be the T-Car. Dick rides shotgun next to Vic.

Rose, Bryan and Blackfire sit in the very back. Beast Boy sits with Starfire, Jack and Raven.

BB, "okay, okay, I got one. Why are ducks so funny? Because they're always quacking jokes!"

Vic and Dick groan softly.

Raven, "pull over. I think I'm gonna be sick."

BB is caught flat-footed; Starfire seems positively perplexed, but her face soon lights up.

Starfire, "oh, I see! It is humorous because ducks lack the large brain necessary for the telling of jokes. Hehehe."

Dick, "actually, Starfire, it just wasn't humorous."

BB, "huh?""

Raven, "because Beast Boy lacks the large brain necessary for telling jokes."

Rose and Blackfire start cackling.

BB, "come on, Raven, you know I'm hilarious. And I'm not gonna give up until I get you to smile. Okay. Why did the aardvark cross the road?"

The T-Car rolls up and brakes at a stoplight.

Raven, "to beat up the idiot telling jokes about him?"

Everyone in the car starts laughing except for Starfire, who looks confused, and Beast Boy, who looks irritated.

Vic, "the idiot telling the jokes…. Hahaha!"

Dick, "now that's funny."

Starfire, "please. An aardvark is some form of duck?"

Jack, "no Star, Raven's making fun of Beast Boy now."

Starfire, "ohhhh…."

Beast Boy's frustrated groan makes itself heard and the light turns green. As the T-Car rolls through the intersection, a boulder slides into view along the cross street and bulldozes it away. Vic's pride and joy tumbles over and over, the windshield cracking, and skids upright to a stop in a horrible scream of smoldering rubber. Due to Starfire's efforts, her door is blasted away just before the engine explodes and throws a piece of itself far away.

She climbs out, groaning and rubbing her head, and Vic opens his door. As soon as he steps to the street, it falls off the hinges and both Titans stare ahead in surprise. The others emerge bug-eyed; Beast Boy is the first to find his power of speech again.

BB, "Terra?"

She stands not far away, amid the clearing dust and smoke of her assault.

Terra, "hey, guys. Miss me?"

Rose yelled, "Judas!"

With a fierce yell, Terra raises her hands and brings them forward; many small chunks of stone rise from the pavement and rocket toward the Titans. All nine bail out, leaving the T-Car to absorb the full bombardment. Glass, headlights, tires, frame, and body panels all are mercilessly battered and smashed hopelessly out of shape. Beast Boy has taken cover behind the large rock she first slung at them; its sudden ascension takes him by surprise.

BB, "huh?"

He turns just in time to see it make a perfect one-point landing on the car, crushing it flat. Now Terra focuses her powers on the section of pavement beneath her feet and gets herself airborne to zoom straight at the team.

Dick, "Titans! Go!"

He, Starfire, Bryan, Jack and Beast Boy move first, the last turning into a cheetah as he charges, and Vic, Rose, Blackfire and Raven bring up the rear. Terra skims her platform along the street, a long fissure forming ahead of her. It rapidly widens while racing toward the Titans, and a huge stone pillar rises to push Dick, Rose and Raven out of sight. The other heroes continue their rush, Starfire and Blackfire blasting away, but a boulder flies into view and knocks them both backward.

Vic shoots one worried look back toward them, then trains his sonic cannon on Terra and fires. Bryan does the same with his laser gun. The blasts chop away part of her paving fragment and puts her off balance for a moment; however, she quickly regains control and sends the broken piece down at the remaining Titans. It crashes into Bryan and Vic's faces and floors them, but Beast Boy and Jack jump away and the former becomes a falcon in midair.

Jack forms his own slab of earth and starts trying to hit Terra with his staff. She blocks every strike with the metal gauntlets on her arms and pushes Jack away before firing a pillar of Earth at Jack, sending him flying until Blackfire catches him.

A fast swoop puts BB in Terra's face, at which point he reverts to human form and hauls himself over her leading edge.

BB, "Terra, stop! We're your friends!"

Terra, "I don't have any friends, remember?"

Having thrown his words back in his face, she follows them with an uppercut that knocks him clear. Starfire catches him just short of the ground; behind her, Terra flashes past and flips backward off her stone, leaving it to continue riderless.

Dick, who has fallen near the T-Car's wreckage and been knocked out from the hard landing. The mass slams down, bouncing over him, and she soon comes down after it.

She directs a vicious smile at the prone Titan and levitates two large stones to crush him. As he starts to sit up, the weights are lifted higher and moved directly over his head, but before she can drop them, Raven touches down and levitates a third stone.

Raven, "don't make me hurt you."

Terra, "don't make me laugh."

Raven's stone moves behind the blond head, but her hold on it is suddenly broken and Terra sends all three boulders straight at her. The impact, just inches short, throws her far down the block; she grabs a lamppost to slow down, spins on it at high speed, and ends up hurtling down the street anyway. The friction of her contact with the metal weakens it to the point that the section of the post above that spot topples into the street.

A swing of Dick's arm knocks Terra's away, and in an instant, he charges at her. The two swing at each other energetically; Vic and Bryan leap in to help double-team her, (that's what she said), but she promptly kicks all three boys away in opposite directions. As soon as Dick is on his feet, the pavement before him erupts into a jagged wall that blocks his approach and stretches far down the block in both directions.

She smiles at her work; she sticks a disc on Dick's side of the wall. A red light at its center flashes briefly before the thing detonates with a mighty blast. Vic and Bryan, meanwhile, are in the clear at another point in the street, and watch as chunks of debris tumble past them, followed by the human bulldozer herself. Dick's bomb has blown a hole in the wall.

Dick, "Cyborg! WS! Now!"

As she starts to get up. Vic levels his cannon and Bryan levels his gun.

Vic, "sorry, kid."

Bryan, "but we gotta do this."

Terra's thin-lipped mouth curves into a smile; she stabs the fingers of one hand into the ground. A glowing crack spreads ahead and behind and explodes at each boy's feet, sending both skyward. Just after they have been launched, we see inside an office whose wall-to-wall windows give a view of the street. Dick, Bryan and Vic fly up past here as the people inside go about their business. One man runs the copier, while a second sits at his desk and talks to a female co-worker.

The man says, "then I said, 'chill out. It's not like the sky's falling.'"

As he says this, Dick crashes onto a rooftop across the street; when he finishes, Vic comes down through the ceiling and lands on the desk. The woman squeals in terror as the dust clears.

Bryan falls back down to the ground outside.

Terra straightens up, looks up toward the spot, and smiles.

Terra approaches Raven; the latter is still half-unconscious from that spin around the lamppost, while the former raises an enormous boulder and shifts it over her.

Raven looks up with a gasp as the mass starts to drop.

As the gray monolith fills the screen, she lifts one black-glowing hand toward it, and it stops moving just in time and starts to move back up, but not due to her powers. As it rises higher, we see that Starfire, Blackfire and Jack using his powers have come to their teammate's rescue. Putting their backs into it, they heave the sheer tonnage over her head; behind her, Beast Boy runs in and gets an arm around Raven's shoulders to help her up. Jack runs to Raven to help as well.

Starfire and Blackfire stand with that huge missile poised above their heads. After a very long moment, they fling it straight across the intersection at Terra. The Titan-turned-destroyer stops it with almost no time to spare and sends it right back, but a two two-handed starbolts reduce it to a storm of gravel. Starfire immediately let's go with an eye blast that finds its mark and sends Terra crashing against the remains of her pavement wall.

As the Tamaranean glares at the fallen enemy, wisps of smoke rising from the corners of her eyes, Raven, Jack, Blackfire and Beast Boy move up behind her. She flies over and kneels by Terra's side with obvious concern.

Starfire, "Terra!"

Terra's eyes are closed, but soon pop open and glow very brightly.

Terra, "you always were easy to fool."

The spot of pavement at Starfire's feet explodes into a high-pressure jet of mud, propelling her some distance away. Terra steps up and dusts herself off nonchalantly; the now-furious Titan stands up to face her. Raven, Jack, Blackfire and Beast Boy come in to offer reinforcements; the latter arriving as a falcon, then resuming human form. They are at the front entrance of a nearby building; out comes Dick, freshly descended from the roof where he crashed down. He runs to join the others. Rose comes over with Bryan at her heels. Vic emerges from a door across the street to complete the lineup.

Terra has stood her ground and focused her energy on the asphalt around her; glowing cracks now spread in all directions, and more power races along the ones that stretch toward the Titans. Very large masses emerge from the roadbed, forming into a pair of colossal humanoid mud figures that stand in front of Terra. The Titans are momentarily dumbfounded.

Raven, "that's a new trick."

Jack, "makes me wish I had learned it before this happened."

Staring at her hands, Terra is just as perplexed as they are.

Terra, "whoa. How did I-?"

Her hair has shifted a bit, exposing her ear, and we can now see a Slade-marked radio receiver plugged into it.

Slade, "you didn't. I did."

She turns a very scared look back toward that ear.

….

We see the interior of the stained-glass-windowed lair; Slade steps into view.

Slade, "your new suit is more than a fashion statement, my dear. It is a sophisticated neural interface that gives me direct access to your nervous system. Your power is my power. My strength is your strength. We are connected, Terra; united as master and apprentice! We fight as one!"

He raises his fists behind his head with a growing yell….

…..

…. We see Terra doing likewise. The glowing hands hit the pavement, sending out a webwork of shimmering fractures that lace among the Titans' feet. When they fade, the two mud golems drop from sight and part of the street behind the team erupts in a blast of light and smoke. Vic aims his cannon and Bryan levels his gun at the spot only for both to get smacked away by an emerging arm; its owner stands up from the weakened pavement and Dick and Rose rush toward it. The other standing Titans brace for action and immediately get a torrent of muck in their faces.

Beast Boy, almost up to his waist in the mess, becomes a rhinoceros and charges down the street. The second beast's arms now have a piece of sewer pipe jammed onto the end. It stops the flow and drops away just in time to avoid the green Titan's rush; he returns to human form and throws a confused look around, and the foe stands up from the pavement behind him. Seeing a brown fist coming down at him, he becomes an ankylosaurus and lets the tough hide deflect that blow. The two eye each other as Dick and Rose drop into crouchs; they have to jump right away to avoid the first golem's huge fist.

They and their enemy square off for a moment, after which they leap onto the rubble-covered back. It takes little time for the thing to stretch out an arm and pull Dick loose; he is pinned under that hand, about to take a severe pounding from the other one, but Rose pulls out her sword and severs the arm!

Vic is rushing down the block with a yell, then to the monster as he tackles it. As soon as he hits the ground, though, the semi-liquid body disappears to leave him sitting in a cloud of dust. After a quiet moment and a puzzled look back and forth, the ground rumbles and two thick tendrils of mud shoot up just behind him. These loop over his head and punch back through the pavement just in front, crossing just above Vic's head. He is quickly pinned down when both loops contract, then finds himself aloft as the creature emerges beneath him.

Dick is on the scene, ready to mix it up. We see the rest of his captor; it has the big man wrapped up in its arms and is using him as a shield. The sound of starbolts is heard, and we look down the street, where Starfire and Blackfire back into view and toss off a couple of shots. A crack of asphalt at their feet, and a thick tendril of sludge has emerged to ensnare them both firmly, but some quick eye blasts and superhuman heaves break them loose again. Raven and Jack back up to the sisters, shielding them from a few flying rocks and a very big one that comes after them, then lifts off.

Dick looks toward Beast Boy, who is still eyeing his adversary up and down. It jams the pipe-ended arm into the street, pops it up under the green dinosaur, and spews out a muddy fountain that launches him all the way to the opposite sidewalk. Beast Boy plows into a building near Dick, taking out one of the plate-glass windows, as Dick gets a pair of discs ready.

Dick yells as he throws the discs, "Titans! Fall back!"

The projectiles arc toward Terra, who puts up an arm to shield her face, and explode to produce thick smoke.

Terra, "cough, can't see!"

As she says this, we look to Blackfire and Starfire; the tentacle reaching towards them disintegrates suddenly.

We see Jack and Raven, who takes down the barrier she has put up around herself and him. Both golems vanish into the street, Vic getting dropped flat as they go, and Beast Boy stands up in human form behind Dick. Brhan runs over with Rose. Each directs a slightly puzzled look at the leader, wondering at his decision since Terra's offensive has been blunted.

Dick, "you heard me! Fall back!"

He hurls down a smoke bomb, which instantly throws up a thick veil to hide the team's movements. Out of the haze from the discs' explosion, Terra raises herself on a tall stone column and watches the smoke slowly dissipate: no one in sight right now. She is frustrated and furious at not having been able to finish the job here and now.

We see that Beast Boy has not followed Dick's order right away, but he soon takes a few reluctant steps backward and wheels into a run to catch up.

….

Later, at Titans Tower; it is now early evening. Inside the entrance hall, Vic is in one of the armchairs, bending over a table, while Raven leans against the wall. Her crossed arms and disgusted expression say more about her thoughts on Terra's turncoat attack than any words ever could. Jack stands next to her, leaning against his staff.

A small clinking sound comes from Vic's direction. A bowl sits on the table, and he is picking bits of stone stuck from his forearm circuitry and dropping them in here. Farther back, Starfire sits on a flight of stairs next to Dick, who leans against the railing with Blackfire, and Beast Boy stands nearby.

Rose is wrapping some bandages around Bryan's real arm. He had landed on it hard when Terra tossed him around.

Vic, "I shoulda blasted her when I had the chance."

Raven, "I should've hit her with everything I've got."

Blackfire, "get in line, sister."

Bryan, "at times like this, I wish BOTH my arms were cybernetic."

Starfire, "why did I permit her to fool me again?"

Dick, "why couldn't we take her down just like any other criminal?"

BB, "because…. She's not just another criminal. She's Terra. She was a Titan. She was…. Our friend."

Jack, "Beast Boy, I wanna believe that were true, but look what she did to us all…."

Raven, "Terra was never our friend. She was a liar and a spy, trained by Slade and sent to destroy us. She's evil. Always has been, always will be."

BB, "you don't know what you're talking about, okay, Raven? She's made some serious mistakes, but she's not-"

Vic, "hey, man, the girl wrecked my car. Seems pretty evil to me."

With one swift, violent motion, Beast Boy seizes the table and flings it aside.

BB, "this isn't a joke! I knew her better than anyone! I know all the terrible things she's done, and I know exactly how messed up she is. But she's not evil! We can't just give up on her."

Raven is briefly caught out by these words, but her eyebrows soon lower again; her opinion has not shifted a bit.

Dick, "Beast Boy, she's working for Slade."

BB turns to Dick, "when you were working for Slade, did we give up on you?"

There is a long pause.

Bryan, "he has a point…. You were blackmailed by Slade, I was mind controlled by him, and Rose is his daughter."

Rose, "maybe there's more going on then we think?"

Dick, "... she gets one last chance. One. We have to break Slade's grip on her. We have to try to get Terra back."

The alarm and red flashers go off.

Starfire, "trouble!"

….

We see the prison Cinderblock attacked many weeks ago.

An alarm is going off here as well. Inside the front gate; Terra rides over the wall on a chunk of rock, comes to a stop, and swings both hands above her head with an agonized groan. From one of the cell block towers, a broad rock column shoots straight up; two other towers experience the same fate. From here, just above the turmoil, one by one, Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock rise into view on these pedestals. The first of these has the many-eyed form he took on during his fight with the Titans when Starfire was transforming into a cocoon, and the second now has a skeleton of microchips visible through the surging electric sparks that compose his body.

Terra floats up to their level. Her breakout efforts have brought the three villains up to at least twice the height of the towers' roofs. Terra is floating a bit closer and holding up a disc identical to the one on her breastplate. It is thrown at Plasmus to stick under his mouth with a brief flash, eliciting a brief screech from him. Identical devices are scaled across to hit the chests of Overload and Cinderblock in turn and bring a small groan from each.

All three are quite docile now.

….

Slade, "well done, my dear apprentice."

He is watching her on his monitor. The image flickers a bit. After a moment, three other screens each show one of the newly freed holy terrors.

Slade, "the neural remotes are online…. Overload, Cinderblock, and Plasmus are in my command…. And everything is under control…."

….

We see hooves galloping across a forest plain. The legs are green, giving this away as Beast Boy. Vic rides bareback, his cannon at the ready. Jack is right beside them on a floating slab of Earth.

Dick calls, "we've got three escaped criminals attacking three separate targets. Whatever Slade's doing, we have to split up and stop it."

….

We see Dick on his motorcycle, racing down the street.

Starfire, "Richard, Bryan and I shall defeat Cinderblock."

Raven, "Rose, Blackfire and I can deal with Overload."

We see Starfire, Raven and Blackfire in flight above Dick as Rose and Bryan run along some rooftops.

Vic, "and Beast Boy, Jack and I'll take Plasmus."

BB, "what about Terra?"

Raven is floating down an alley, scattering bits of trash in her wake.

Dick, "we'll have to worry about her when this is over."

Dick and Starfire, carrying Bryan, roar into view and disappear toward the horizon.

….

We see a large rectangular chamber; the same one in which Dick met with Slade when he was Red X, or else one very similar to it. A large cylindrical piece of equipment is suspended from the ceiling, with a floor platform centered below it, flanked by two armed guards; all is peaceful for the moment, but a crackle of sparks from a nearby control panel breaks the quiet, Overload is hard at work. Lines of current trace a lattice up the wall. Up the balconies, emergency lights coming on, across the ceiling, toward the suspended device and down its length. More bulbs flick to life on the surface; at the bottom end, the arcs gather within a large ring that faces the floor.

On the platform, Overload's energy surges into it, causing a flash and a broad beam of energy to shoot straight up; it flies up to the overhead ring, which is now emitting an identical stream of radiation. The two meet with a blinding flash, which clears to show Overload now in the place.

A guard yells, "fire!"

He and his partner train their fire on the intruder, but without effect. In response, Overload lifts his hand and causes the two weapons to fly out of the guards' hands. They disappear into his arms, which form into spikes; the men yell in panic and beat a quick retreat through the door. Back to the chamber; Overload grunts a bit and turns back to the overhead rig from which he emerged, only to see it turn black as Raven's powers encompass it. The entire place soon goes black as well, and her "soul-self" rises from the floor and turns into the blue-cloaked Titan herself, with Rose and Blackfire holding onto her.

Raven, "so, Overload, think you can handle a total blackout?"

Growling, he extends an arm straight at her for a stab; she stops it with a large shield, which she pushes back toward him. It plows into his face, forcing him to somersault backward across the room and right himself in a hurry. She follows this bulldoze with a few black energy bolts that set him bobbing and weaving. He pours himself into the floor grid, races toward the platform, and turns off to go up one wall, at which point he re-materializes in front of the girls. The shock sets them all tumbling in midair, but they all flip upright and Raven and Blackfire fly back to him.

Raven, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

Blackfire, "eat starbolts!"

Raven's spell creates a wide barrier, just in time to stop the blow he is aiming at her, but not before Blackfire manages to get a few hits on him!

The energy of his strike is absorbed and starts to break it down, filling the area with light….

….

We see the beam from Vic's built-in flashlight. He, Jack and Beast Boy, in human form, are on patrol in a chemical plant. We see a couple of large glass storage tanks. Plasmus' face appears within the contents of one of them as the three boys pass, but they continue on without noticing.

The sound of bubbling liquid is accompanied by the disappearance of that face and causes Beast Boy, Jack and Vic to wheel back to it. They see only the roiling liquid, however, and trade somewhat bewildered looks before resuming their surveillance. Soon, Plasmus eases into the tank again with a submerged screech; he bursts out in full voice.

He spits a mouthful of the contents at the trio, who spilt up to avoid the hit; Beast Boy turns into a leopard as he bugs out. The sludge quickly eats through the section of equipment where they had been standing, and it topples slowly to the floor. Vic dives away from the next gush just in time and sets off running.

Jack throws a ball of flames at Plasmus, making him stagger long enough for Jack to catch up with Vic.

Plasmus' shots rain down all around them; finally, Vic somersaults between a couple of vessels and stops next to Beast Boy, with Jack sliding in next to them.

Vic, "great. Now he spits acid."

Jack, "why can't we ever fight a villain who shoots kittens or something!?"

Beast Boy resumes human form, "let's just get this over with."

He becomes a pterodactyl and hoists Vic up as Jack shoots into the air with a small tornado around his legs The three dodge the creature's slime gobbets and counter with a yell, an fire blast and a cannon blast that tears through the purplish midsection. Vic is let go and sails neatly through the hole before Plasmus can get it sealed again; he stops at the far wall and looks back.

Vic, "huh?"

Plasmus turns toward him, revealing Beast Boy, back in human form, trapped within one of those huge, vomit-green eyes. The hero holds his breath as he struggles against the outer covering, then begins a transformation. The beast roars over Vic as Jack lands next to him, but that eye starts to bulge out of all proportion, and soon, Beast Boy bursts out of it as a tyrannosaurus rex. Vic and Jack find themselves standing in the growing shadow, which reverts to human form just in time for the changeling to drop neatly into Vic's arms.

We see Plasmus, roaring down at all three of them.

….

Reviews:

Bailey Radcliff: It's okay. I know what it's like to get busy with a puppy.

Canadude2029: well, either way, I'm glad you liked the chapter and are excited for more.

pokemonking0924: glad you liked those parts so much.

….

Rest in Peace Kevin Conroy. Truly an amazing actor that we lost way too soon... Rest in peace, Dark Knight.