The Titan Legacy
By Mephistopheles
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!! Except Kristina, Agriant, the random hobo, my cardboard box, 49 dollars in consecutive pennies, and a spoon.
Note: Sorry, but I have to say this one line I find hilarious: "Art speaks to me. And talks with me. And argues with me. And threatens me. Come to think of it, art has tried to kill me…"
Chapter Two: Enter Agriant (And two Italian plumbers.)
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It was Monday, roughly 1:00 PM, the team having finally gotten up…
"Subject Kristina exhibits fairly high combat proficiency through advanced power control. Metallic items produced seem to be easily used, to the point of appearing weightless." Robin said to himself, studying Kristina in battle. Without realizing it, he had instinctively slipped into "record" mode, even though his observations weren't being documented at the moment.
"Hey guys, we have a problem!" Cyborg yelled at the other end of the room, where he was looking at a monitor of the city.
"This will have to wait." Robin said to himself. "Ok, Kristina, I guess you get to prove yourself in combat today."
"Oh joy! Oh rapture!" Kristina said in her best Starfire impression. Robin couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or serious.
So the team gathered in the main room, Gauntlet back to playing Resident Evil 3, the ever-present "Eat burning death!" line still lingering about.
"Why are you all standing there?" he asked.
Then the alarm actually went off, sounding oddly like the Super Mario theme song.
"My ears! They burn!" Gauntlet yelled, falling over. This earned him some very odd looks, save for Savior, who just sighed.
"What's the problem?" Noel asked, wanting to know what they had to fight THIS time.
"You aren't going to believe this…" Robin replied.
The titans had fought some odd opponents; the hobo topping them so far, but what they were about to fight would prove to cross the border of off into insane. Not to mention strangely difficult! For you see, no one saw what was coming next.
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When the Titans arrived, they found all the regular buildings intact. The co-op, the bank, so on and so forth. The only thing wrong was the large holes in the sides of them.
"Oh no!" Starfire yelled.
"Oh no…" Robin echoed.
"Oh no." Savior added.
"Oh no." Beast Boy mimicked.
"Oh no." Cyborg continued….
"OH YEAH!!!" Came a yell as the Kool-Aid man crashed through the front wall of another building. [AN: Am I being too silly here? Of course not!]
"No! He's turned to crime! Why Kool-Aid man?! Why?!" Gauntlet wailed as he fell to his knees, mock crying.
"Kool-Aid man?" The strange figure replied. "Oh, yeah!!" And the figure took off the costume to reveal…
"You have got to be kidding me…!" Was all Savior could say.
There standing in front of them was, in a red shirt and blue overalls…was Mario. [AN: Alright, now I'm being too silly.]
"This can't be happening. I'm dreaming. Mad Mod kidnapped us again. I hit my head and this is all some coma-induced delusion. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO EXPLAIN THIS!" Savior yelled.
"Momma mia!" Mario replied, holding up two big bags of money.
"Alright! That's it, I'm issuing a complaint to the authors union!" Robin yelled to himself.
"How did a video game character get here?" Starfire asked, clueless.
"COUGHCHEAPPLOTDEVICECOUGH!!" Gauntlet said, coughing into his hand.
"Hey'a Titans, get'a over here'a so I can kick your asses." Mario said, getting into a fight stance.
"We'll worry about that later Star, right now we have a plumber to deal with." Robin replied, whipping out his staff… "I've heard of life imitating art, but life imitating Super Smash Bros…?"
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Agriant was positioned in the highest floor of an abandoned building, right beside another one, an office building. An office building where several men would meet. To discuss a partnership in the drug and weapons smuggling business, to be exact.
That was something Agriant had noticed about the Titans. They were too busy stopping the "big" crimes done by metahumans and psychopaths, and all the while they couldn't find the people pulling the worse crimes. Sure, they had stopped Asphyxiation, and the Lord of the Night, and Trigon. Hell, they had even stopped a white supremacy group!
But that was what was wrong. They used the law, and the law had its cons. He knew that things had gone too far for the law to be considered. Everything had to be done to protect the innocent.
Everything.
Agriant reached up onto his hood that concealed his face and felt the area where his eyes were. He felt the burn marks. He knew all too well indeed.
So here he was, packing a modified sniper rifle, with an arrow behind the bullet, just to continue his trademark.
One would think he used Mario as an advantage, to distract the Titans. But this was not the case. He hadn't the faintest clue how Mario got there. Perhaps the gods of fan fiction were smiling upon him today.
Of course, he had made mistakes. After all, he was only human. For you see, the Titans would soon know of his presence, and would fight him. Unfortunately for him, he can't hear me talking. So now, back to the Titans. And Mario…
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"This is such a cliché…!!" Gauntlet yelled, flying away after being hit by a green turtle shell.
"How are we allowing ourselves to be beaten by an Italian plumber?!" Cyborg roared, unable to fathom why or how this little midget was actually hurting them.
"Face'a this'a!" Mario yelled, pulling out two bobombs from god knows where. He threw them at the Titans, who were completely unprepared for such an attack.
"Ah shit…!!" Cyborg yelled, flying away after the projectiles hit.
"This is'a too'a easy!" Mario yelled happily. It was then he noticed Gauntlet coming back, holding the shell in a force field fist.
"Eat this! BANZAI!!" Gauntlet yelled, throwing the shell with all his might, right into Mario's head.
"Mama mia!" He yelled, flying away.
And then it clicked."OF COURSE!!!" Kristina yelled.
"What?" Was the initial response.
"Mario's in league with the Italian pizza company. Think about it! Mama mia! Get'a pizza! Am I the only one seeing the connection here?!" She yelled.
A short pause.
"………………WHAT!?!?!??!?!?!" Savior yelled incredulously.
They would have given this more thought, but Mario had returned. With some sort of pump device on his back.
"Mario, are these the interlopers?" The pump said, in a computerized tone.
"That's'a them. Now lets'a whack their asses." Mario said, grabbing the pump's firing mechanism. He began raining high pressurized water down on the group. Oddly enough, this was actually hurting them.
"That's it, I have a plan!" Kristina yelled. "Ok, Terra, get him with a boulder, Gauntlet, get me in the air and throw me at Mario with all your might. The rest of you, distract him!"
"FORE!!" Gauntlet yelled, lifting Kristina up with a force field fist, and throwing her at Mario, who happened to be on his butt since Terra had just hit him with the aforeplotted large rock. She formed a large battering ram with both her hands and rammed into Mario, who once again, went flying.
"Funny, I expected him to shrink." Savior muttered.
"That actually worked!" Kristina said happily.
"Not for'a long." Came a voice from behind them. There, in his green shirt and blue overalls was Luigi.
"Oh god!" Savior said in exasperation. He was tempted to go over to the nearest brick wall and start hitting it to see if gold coins came out, just to check if this Bizarroworld he had stepped into went the extra mile.
"Now'a to'a finish the job'a." Luigi said happily.
Just then, Robin's personal alarm went off, sounding like the Super Mario theme song again.
"Hey'a! That's my'a song!" Luigi said, doing a stupid dance.
Robin looked at his communicator. The computer had found Agriant's next possible target. Another supposed drug dealer who was having a meeting in a building right beside an abandoned one. Which would be a PERFECT ambush point….
"We've got a problem!" He yelled. "Savior, come with me. We'll go down and fight him. The rest of the team can beat these two… plumbers."
So Savior and Robin were off. For now, we will follow them, and see what great battle will ensue.
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Agriant stared outside the window of the building he was in. The meeting was a good fifteen minutes away from happening. No matter. He could be patient.
Not good enough. Karma being the bitch it was, decided to repay him for killing Bob.
"Hey!" A voice yelled behind him. Agriant didn't have to turn around to see who it was.
"Ah, the Teen Titans. Good to finally meet you." Agriant said, turning around. He may have sounded calm, but fighting all the Titans was something he knew he could not accomplish. However, he seemed relieved that there were only two; save for the fact it was two of the best.
Robin looked at him coldly.
"So, plotting more murders I see. Tell me "hero", how do you justify taking a life of another human being?"
"Far from it. A human…one who has harmed countless others. Why do you think I killed him? The law failed, and I did what it couldn't. I removed a cancer from our midst." Agriant replied.
"Great. The old ends justify the means. Why do the ones with the most righteous goals always have the most blood on their hands?" Savior half asked/half pondered. This had turned from a battle to an argument.
"Because the righteous have to fight for what is right."
"Reality and perception do not always mirror each other child."
(Insert dramatic music here)
With that the battle started. Robin had prepared three explosive discs against Agriant, throwing them as hard as he could. They were blown out of the air when Agriant drew his triple barreled crossbow and fired three bolts, each hitting a disk. The bolts then swiftly reloaded.
Robin and Savior had no time to react as Agriant holstered the crossbow and darted across the room in a blur of speed, nailing Robin in the face with a well-placed kick quickly followed by another to the chest. This sent Robin flying…
Just before a Shimmer bludgeon collided with Agriant's face, this time sending him flying. He flipped in mid air and landed gracefully.
"I suppose the Black Knight said it best… HAVE AT YOU!!" Agriant yelled, running at full speed, which was pretty damn fast for a human, at Savior. Savior struck out with a Shimmer blade, which wasn't razor sharp but still had a fair edge. It was met with the blunt side of Agriant's own five feet long curved sword [AN: I'll say it again, anyone who wants a pic, tell me in your review and/or an email].
"Not bad." Savior said, the Shimmer sword moving around a bit as the two tested each other's strength and will. Agriant moved first, slashing to the right, Savior dodged left as two more Shimmer strands, one from each of his shoulders, shot out, forming hammers and slamming, (quite hard I might add), into Agriant's chest. "Not good enough."
It was at this point a metallic staff from Robin slammed into Agriant's back, sending him back forward.
Then a Shimmer blow to the face, quickly followed by a roundhouse kick from Robin, who was still standing behind him. The two really could work together quite well. Another swipe of the staff…
And Agriant, now having turned around, caught it and used it to throw Robin at the Shimmer, which was in the process of striking again when it found it's target changed. Too late to do anything, and Robin and the Shimmer collided.
Robin got up… to be hit by his own staff, straight in the head, sending him flying… again…
"This guy is good…" Robin muttered, rubbing his bleeding nose.
A Shimmer bludgeon lanced again at Agriant, the white energy line lashing from Savior's hand. Agriant dodged to the left, his left hand suddenly glowing a slight blue.
"It is rather pathetic. Spending so much time and energy seeking the truth that you refuse to believe." Agriant muttered to himself, grabbing the Shimmer strand. The glow intensified, sending blue fire up the line that enveloped Noel, who immediately screamed in pain. The Shimmer wasn't effected by fire, but this was clearly more then that. It acted like the Shimmer's weakness: blades, which caused terrible pain to shoot through Noel's being if it was cute. And this was even worse: It felt like he had cut the Shimmer over and over again. Every nerve in his body was on fire.
Then, out of nowhere, Robin was back, slamming an explosive disk into Agriant's back, sending him flying. Most people would have to recover from such a blow, but Agriant simply got up and charged.
"Don't you feel pain?!" Robin said in shock.
"Pain is nothing more then a reaction, like any other. I simply accept it." Agriant replied, throwing a roundhouse kick that Robin ducked under.
Robin got a punch in, across the face, before nailing him in the eyes with a well-placed kick that sent Agriant right into a wall…
That he bounced right off of, landing neatly and diving at Robin. The force of the dive however had knocked his hood down.
"Good lord!" Robin said. The exposed face of Agriant had sever burn marks on it, but that wasn't what shocked him. It was the fact that Agriant HAD NO EYES. None! Just bloody traces, seared onto the burn scars around the holes that once held his eyes.
"Yes, I am blind. However, this only helps me." He said. Indeed, the stunning nature of the injury was what ended the battle. Agriant grabbed Robin by the arm, turned and flipped him, nearly breaking his arm, and then yanked/whipped him back up again. He then gave Robin a roundhouse to the face, and ended with a firm triple one footed kick followed by a double kick, both into the chest.
"Goodbye." Was all Robin heard before a fist slammed into his face, knocking him unconscious. He fell, and Agriant straightened up and turned around to see Noel standing there, seemingly calm but really in a state of razor alertness for Agriant's next move.
"So what's your excuse? Some righteous crusade? You've seen the truth behind all the lies? Perhaps a hate of humanity in general? Believe me, I've heard them all. To me, you're just another madman." Savior said, and fired another Shimmer bludgeon at Agriant. Agriant dodged it, and this time Noel didn't let him grab it again as he brought it back and swung again from the right side.
"You should know why all too well, Savior. Or should I say, Noel Alexander Collins!!" Agriant yelled, dodging the attacks.
Savior stopped dead.
"What… how…?" He stammered.
"I did my research. It figures you can't understand why I'm doing this, even though you have the most understanding. Men like those scum don't help the world, they corrupt it. They deserve to die. Your father is a monster. But you are not like him at all. You are not corrupt. You believe in helping those weaker then you. So why do you stop me from removing those who harm society? Why?" Agriant asked.
Savior ground his teeth, both in irritation that this blind psycho had figured out his secret identity and that nagging sensation that always came to him when he argued morals after seeing all he had seen: that Agriant might just be right.
But there was no proof that he WAS right. In this world, it wasn't much, but it was all Noel needed.
"Because my city, OUR city, was turned into hell, and over 700,000 innocent people died because someone just like you thought he had it all figured out on who should live and who should die. And after that, I don't care how pure and righteous your intentions are. You're a murderer. And I'm taking you down."
"As expected, a perfect answer."
A Shimmer sword, fully sharpened, lashed out. Agriant grabbed up his fallen sword as he dodged. Noel shot out another line in a blade-form and swung it. Agriant managed to dodge that as well, abet barely. Noel called a third line, formed a bludgeon and swung with all three. Agriant was able to dodge the swords, but took the bludgeon to the stomach. He recovered almost instantly and attacked again. The blades lashed out from the left. Agriant dove forward, avoiding the blades, and grabbed the Shimmer strands. Blue fire shot up them again, causing Noel to roar in pain. Agriant then spun around, creating a yo-yo effect, allowing him to summon enough force to throw Savior into a nearby wall.
He then looked outside the window. The meeting, the one had had been setting up for this interruption, had ended.
"Shit!" He cursed, looking for his sniper rifle. He found it, whipped it up, and, to quote my friend Alex "Blew his friggen head off." In one smooth motion. Which was pretty damn impressive considering he was blind.
Then, as quick as he had come, he was gone, leaving Robin and Savior with nothing but a need for medical treatment.
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Now, onto a more humorous note, we will join the rest of the Titans in their fight against the two Italian plumbers.
"Mama mia!" Mario and Luigi said simultaneously, throwing shells at the group.
"BO-YA!!" Cyborg yelled, sonic blasting the shells back at the two plumbers.
And then, as you would expect, they started chucking bobombs at a rapid rate, which was impressive for such small beings. This caused much pain for the group.
"Good lord! DON'T YOU PEOPLE EVER QUIT?!" Gauntlet said to himself. The reply he got was four bobombs, sending him flying. "Why does everyone fly away in this story…?! What is this, Bob and George?"
"Alright, that's it! I've had enough of this!" Kristina yelled, forming a shield on her left arm and a large war hammer on the right. "Let's all attack together! They can't defend against all of us!"
So, that's what happened. Several Starbolts, a sonic blast, a metal hammer, and a telekinetically tossed car, quickly followed by a rhino charge. Needless to say, the battle ended very quickly. However, they still had their own injuries.
"Let's go home…" Cyborg said, limping over.
"What about Robert?" Starfire said fearfully.
"Oh yeah…"
Now that the battle had finished, they went in search of Gauntlet. After about three minutes, they found him in a nearby tree.
"Yo Rob! GET DOWN HERE!!" Beast Boy yelled.
A crackling sound was heard as Gauntlet fell to the ground, hitting many branches on his way there. He got up, brushed himself off, and shook his fist at the treetop.
"Damn you chipmunks!! You have thwarted my attempt to get your nuts this time, but in the end… VICTORY SHALL BE MINE!!!!!"
"Alright, he's lost it." Victor muttered.
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So, with that, they called it a day. When they arrived back at the tower, they discovered Savior and Robin. Savior was trying to find information on Agriant's possible next target, and Robin was tending to his broken nose.
"Damn… What happened to you guys?" Cyborg asked.
"We had a meeting with our dear vigilante friend. He put up one hell of a fight." Robin replied, snapping his nose back into place. Such was his training that he managed to do that with only a slight wince.
"So…um…regarding the combat thing…did I pass?" Kristina asked, looking hopeful.
Robin and Savior exchanged glances.
"I suppose, but I think we need one more field test."
"Then again, knowing these stories, chances are we'll get another test right after we're fully healed." Beast Boy said, jumping on the couch.
"Really? I always thought villains would be smart enough to attack when we're weak and unprepared! I mean, honestly, it makes you wonder about the general-" Kristina said, but was cut off.
"SHH!!!!!" Gauntlet said. "You're giving them ideas!"
"Sorry." She replied.
And so, the Titans decided to relax, and try to figure out Agriant's next move. So now we shall leave them… because I'm getting tired of writing… and I'm out of coffee…
Oh yes, and one final note, to all readers: JUST BLOODY REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, I realize I have taken Terra out of the story. It's a plot hole, but I find her WAY to hard to write. Stupid new-season-on-at-7:30-in-the-morning-on-a-Saturday!