Just got back from vacation, but my computers' been down a few days. Thankfully I was able to use it today, so enjoy the new chap!

Chap. 6

The Large and Highly Destructive Fight Scene

(Followed by some Light Conversation)

The B.R.A.T.S charged the H.I.V.E members, who instantly charged right back. They knew from their training that they were strongest when they worked together, so the young villains expected a quick battle against these small and seemingly harmless kids. But before they could bring any of their strategies to bear, Bartman yelled out, "Not today dudes! Plan D, B.R.A.T.S!" With that, the purple clad warrior and the Scarlet Whimpernel leapt up and knocked Jinx away from her partners. Mammoth and Gizmo tried to follow her, but fireballs kept Gizmo off balance, and a speeding green and yellow blur did the same for Mammoth. Suddenly, the once tightly-knit H.I.V.E unit became three separate units, each with a pair of unknowns surrounding it.

Mammoth however, was the exception to the rule. The only foe that he saw was Neuron. Remembering his foe's previous nerdy appearance, Mammoth smirked and said, "Oh this will be sweet." Grabbing a piece of rubble, he hurled it at the young boy and watched it hit... absolutely nothing. "What the hell?" he snarled. "Forget where your target was, did we?" said a voice from behind him. Mammoth whirled around to see Neuron standing a few feet behind him. Roaring, the giant brought his fists down right on the hero, smashing the pavement right to the sidewalk. Smiling, Mammoth stood up, only to hear, "You're not very good at this are you?" Enraged, Mammoth saw that Neuron was now leaning up against a streetpole, looking as if he hadn't a care in the world. "How the hell do you do that?" Mammoth yelled as he began to race towards his foe. But suddenly, his legs locked into to place. Mammoth flexed every muscle in his body, but he could not move an inch further. Looking down to see what was wrong, he gaped in horror. His shadow had somehow reached up and wrapped his legs in what looked like a black shroud. As he looked on the, the villain realized that he could barley feel his legs now. Suddenly, part of the shadow began to twist upward and as Mammoth looked on, it formed itself into a strange, demonic head. But then the head spoke, and spoke in the voice of the Nightstalker; "Here's a tip, bro." It said. "We chose names that reflected what we could do. See, I'm Nightstalker and I can control all kinds of darkness.. including shadows. Can you guess why he's called Neuron?"

For once, the lights actually came in Mammoth's head. "He's as fast as thought as thought?" But the head cringed. "Oh I'm sorry sir! That was only half of the answer. But don't worry, you'll still make it to the lightning round." As he said that, Mammoth felt the hairs on his neck stand up. Turning away from the head, Mammoth saw that Neuron was now facing him. However, the young boy's body was glowing white, and when his eyes popped open, they crackled with electricity. "You see, the human brain produces over six megawatts of electrical energy." Neuron cried out. "But I produces three times that, and that's enough to power the whole city. So you see, I am not only as fast as thought, I am also as strong as one!" With that, Neuron pointed at Mammoth and a huge bolt of electrical energy shot out of his fingers. Mammoth tried to run, but the Nightstalker held him tight, until the very last second, when he suddenly vanished. That did Mammoth no good, as the blast hit him full on. He screamed as the electricity flowed through his body and then, burned and smoking, he fell to he ground, unconscious. Neuron paused, let the energy dissipate, then sped over to his foe. When he reached him, the Nightstalker reformed out of the shadow next to, clad once again in his blue armor. "Think I gave him too much?" asked Neuron, as he nudged Mammoth's head with the tip of his boot. "Enhh, maybe." shrugged his partner. "Dude like him, he'll wake up soon enough. Of course, if he remembers his name, that'll be something." "Kinda like the time I shocked Bart's dad out of his last heart attack." "Yeah. I told Homer not to eat a bacon, ham, butter, and egg sandwich and wash it down with grease." "Should we be helping the others now?" "Nope. It's our turn to impress the Titans, Neuron. Let 'em see what we can really do."

"OK, maybe we should set the Titans loose now!" yelled Polar, as he dodged a blast from Gizmo's backpack proton cannon. "Can't." replied Heatstrike, who quickly returned the blast with a wave of pure heat energy. But before the blast hit it's target, Gizmo's spider legs shot out of his pack and carried him up a wall. "Better go back to target practice, kruzloids!" sneered the boy genius as he climbed up the wall, preparing to get a better view on his targets. "Ya know, I'm really starting to hate this guy." said Polar, as he pulled himself up. "He's more annoying then Skinner's mom is to Skinner on earwax day." agreed Heatstrike, who suddenly noticed a large, empty metal billboard near Gizmo's new perch. "But I think I have an idea..."

Gizmo quickly prepared his cannon, knowing that with his legs to carry him, he'd be moving too fast to be caught. "This is gonna be sweet!" Suddenly, an ice slide formed right underneath Gizmo, and Polar slid up. "Actually, crime is mostly a sour business." The young hero replied. "Dude, that was lame." said Gizmo. "My kitty says it's cool." replied Polar, seemingly hurt by this admission. Taking advantage of his foe's distraction, Gizmo fired his cannon, destroying the ice slide and sending Polar back to earth. In seeming desperation, he fired off two blasts of cold that were aimed at the spider legs, but went wide. Luckily, Polar managed to make another slide for himself before he hit the ground. "Aww.." sneered Gizmo in a sickeningly sweet voice, "did the baby miss his shoty?"

"Not weally." replied Polar in the same tone. Suddenly, Gizmo realized he was sliding down the wall. Looking to his sides, he realized that his back legs were frozen solid. Panicking, he struggled to reactivate the motors, but the cold was too extensive. Grasping for support, he fell off the wall and through a bus stop, the frozen legs shattering on the way down. As Gizmo tried to shake off the impact, Heatstrike stepped in front of him. "So, where you headed?" he asked nonchalantly. Enraged, Gizmo snapped the remaining legs at him, but Heatstrike caught them in both hands. His gloves glowed bright red and within seconds, the legs were reduced to a pile of metallic goo. Gizmo was so shocked that he didn't even feel Polar ripping the backpack from him until it was in Heatstrike's hands. "No wait.." he cried, but the backpack joined his legs minutes later on the floor. "Now, will you this quietly, or do I have to melt anything else on you?" asked Heatstrike his hand starting to glow. Gizmo, mumbling angrily, shook his head and allowed himself to be restrained. If he had looked up, he would have noticed that the billboard above his perch had been atomized clean and shone like a second sun. He would have also noticed that it was bent slightly at the sides, as to reroute beams of light in another direction...

Meanwhile, Bartman and Whimpernel were having a difficult time battling Jinx. Of course, it was difficult for anyone to fight someone who could make the ground beneath you explode with a thought. The two heroes had to keep weaving and bobbing every few seconds to avoid the exploding pavement, flying garbage, and whatever else that the young witch threw at them. "This is nuts!" yelled Whimpernel, as he found temporary shelter behind a large chunk of street. "How can we fight her if we can't even touch her?!" "You don't, moron!" Jinx yelled in glee as she caused the street chunk to move and got Whimpernel in her sights again. "A little help would be good!" the red one cried as he began to run from the lethal wave of barrages once again.

Bartman however, had been watching Jinx go after his teammate, and it had told him all he needed to know. "Scar, use Pattern 4!" He yelled out. Whimpernel reacted immediately. He did a complete 180 and started running towards Jinx. The barrage followed him. As he got closer, Jinx realized what he seemed to be doing. With an effort, she caused the road to raise up and act like a shield to protect her She heard the barrage smash against the shield and went out to get her enemy. "Nobody tries that sort of thing on me, dweeb." She muttered. Suddenly, Whimpenel stepped right in front of her, his arms outstretched. "Finally grow some courage?" she sneered as she prepared to launch another attack. But then something happened. The world began to spin around her. Jinx started to feel sick, and there was some kind of low buzzing in her head. Putting her hand to her head, she tried to shake it off, but instead it increased. Jinx fell to her knees, unable to keep standing. Suddenly, she hear a voice behind her say, "I noticed you have to see what your affecting to work it properly. So I had Scar here try an old stand-by. He's using an ultrasonic frequency to destroy your sense of balance. Works good doesn't it?" Jinx turned and saw Bartman standing behind her. He waved, and then threw the hardest punch that Jinx had ever felt.....

"Well done.' said Bartman, a few minutes later as the BRATS met in the center of the street. Each of the HIVE was there, and were either unconscious or restrained. "So when do the cops get here?" asked Heatstrike, holding Gizmo back with one fiery hand. "They're about two blocks away." said Whimpernel. "They'll be here in a few minutes." "Damn, you hear even better then I do." said Nightstalker. "Hey, does anyone feel like we forgot something?" "You know, I do." replied Polar. Suddenly a voice rang out, "YEAH YA DID, AND YOU'D BETTER GET US OUT OF THESE THINGS NOW!" "Come on, let's get 'em out of those things before he pops a gasket." Said Bartman. As they walked towards the captive Titans, Nightstalker remarked, "You know, Cy probably does have a gasket in there someplace."

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting." said Bartman, as he knelt by Starfire and slipped his hand behind her pendant. He then slammed his other fist into it, which caused it to shatter and the bounds to fall away. "Well, you did manage to defeat the HIVE." said Star, as she stood up. "Was hoping you noticed that." said Nightstalker, as he used his sword to cut away Raven's chains. As Polar and Neuron freed Robin and Cyborg, the Titans' leader asked, "How did you get those powers?" "All in the ring." said Bartman, pointing to the one on his left ring finger. "But who built them?" asked Robin. "I did." Replied Nightstalker. "Used Crackerjack prizes and thritieth century morphing technology. "How the heck did you get that?" asked Beast Boy, as Heatstrike freed him. "Well, if you dig into a box of Crackerjack....." But Bartman interrupted. "Actually guys, we'll tell you later. See we didn't come to the city for the grammar rodeo." "Shocker." replied Raven dryly. "We've got some information you might want to hear about. And barring that, we might just be offering an alliance." "What's this info you've got?" asked Robin crossing his arms. Looking over at the Hive and the cops leading them away, Whimpernel said, "This probably isn't the best place to talk. What about your Tower?" At that, Robin raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything, Raven said, "We barely even know who you are. Why should we let you into our home?" "Well, for one thing, we did manage to save your friend from becoming street pizza, as well as save the rest of you from the three stooges over there." snapped Nightstalker. "Calm down." said Robin. "I might let you in but first I need to know what this information is about." "An old friend of yours. In fact, he's a mutual acquaintance. His name is Slade."

That was all it took. Robin's eyes narrowed and he said, "The Tower's this way." "Oh don't bother." said Nightstalker, as he began to punch a code into the computer on his wrist. "We've got a ride and it should be here in 5...4...3..2.. step away from the curb please...1..now." Suddenly, there was a screech of rubber and a huge red car screeched into view. It's back wheel spun around and it did a full turn right into a curb parking space. Four doors popped open, but the Titans were stuck staring at the car itself. It was easily half the length of a limo, but it's front and back looked like they came off a 50s Thunderbird. The entire paint job was bright red and the front window was curved back, like a snowmobile visor. "Built this baby too." said Nightstalker as he lovingly ran a hand over it. "Out of an SUV, stretch limo and Thunderbird. Installed jets, triple steel frame, weapons system, and remote control." Pointing to his computer as he said it. "So, who wants in first?"

There we go! Hope you enjoy it and don't worry, they'll be more soon.