The Cutting Edge Chapter 4: Running for Office, a teen titans fanfic

Part 4: Running for Office

"All right, report guys. What do we know?" Noel said in front of the bulletin board he had picked up, along with all the odds and ends the four young adults would need to keep their clues ordered. He didn't really know if it would help, but he had watched Law and Order a lot of times: he was probably doing SOMETHING right.

"Pretty much everything we knew yesterday." Gar said. If he was with anyone else, he would have made some goofy suggestions, but he knew Noel wouldn't appreciate them, and after the so-called battle with Cauterize the night before, Gar Logan wasn't really in a joke-cracking mood.

"Right, but that's important. Going over old ground is tedious and frustrating, but you never know when something is going to leap out at you. All right, let's put it up." Noel said, and began pinning sheets of information he had printed out. "We know Cauterize is tapping the Speed Force. We know he's young, from mid-teens to mid twenties at the latest. And we know that he knows what he's doing, as evidenced by his coordinated attacks and his utter lack of mercy or remorse towards those he feels need to die. What else?"

"He clearly has knowledge of blades." Nigel said, sticking up his own notes…and getting both fingers stuck in the soft cork that the bulletin board was made of. "Oops. Hang on a second…" Nigel said, grabbing his arm and yanking it out, sending papers flying. Shimmer strands caught them and pinned them back on.

"Sorry. Anyway, Cauterize has knowledge of metals and designs. He's constructed two swords that can be used while moving at incredible speed without any detrimental effects. He can use those swords perfectly, causing severe wounds that are exposed to such heat they are fused shut almost as soon as they are opened, hence his name. This suggests he may have some knowledge of anatomy as well, abet the kind that can be gathered from any medical textbook." Nigel said.

"He knows how to fight, but I think it's just from his speed. I don't think he has any actual combat skill or leanings. His whole style of fighting is based on his swiftness. If we can find a way to lesser or neutralize it, I think he will prove to be a sitting duck." Tara said

"Ah, and there is the $64,000 question. Just how DO we neutralize his speed? Until we know more, we'll just have to wing it, for better or for worse. Now…" Noel said, looking back at the board. "Let's consider our suspect pool. As you all know, Light City is in a bad way. A local crime lord by the name of Stephen Pierce has the entire town in his pocket and is using it to make an empire, abet in ways we can't link to him. Cauterize has, with his actions, done some severe damage to the structure of Pierce's territory, but it is damage that can be fixed. Cauterize wants something more permanent. I'm sure he'll target the power players who organize these things, players which include Mr. Pierce and his bootlicker, Mayor Tercero, who we have to see in a few hours."

"Don't remind me." Tara griped.

"Getting back to the suspects, there's a lot of unhappiness in this town, especially considering it used to be very prosperous. There are a thousand people who would like to be doing what Cauterize is doing…but that means nothing. Tapping the Speed Force isn't like finding a penny. You have to be truly fortunate…or dogged. Motivation that has to go beyond normal human desire."

Noel picked up a picture.

"An informant gave me the name of this kid here, Toby Garigen. He was a track runner, very fast. Whole town worshipped him until he injured himself, at which point they dropped him like a hot potato. I've witnessed that Toby is VERY determined to get back to his former peak…and something else." Noel said, pulling out a new folder. "The testimony of Arisha Choshi, aka Giggles, indicates that Cauterize seems to have a thing for Asian women. She reported on how he seemed to be struggling with an urge to…well, you know. He kept it under control…but we don't know how long that will last. According to at least one person, Toby also likes Asians. And he thinks women should basically give themselves to him. Terra and I saw evidence of this firsthand."

"But if Toby is like that, why didn't he just commit the rape?" Gar asked.

"Not sure. It might just be a mild thing. Rapists do what they do to dominate, and control women, to hurt them. Toby didn't seem to want that…maybe a worshipful attitude, but I get the idea he probably knows deep down when he'll get it or not. Then again, I am not a psychologist. He might just have more control then most. Or maybe he's working his way up."

"He can commit dozens of murders but he can't bring himself to actually rape a girl?" Nigel asked.

"True Nigel, but who knows what Cauterize thinks? But he does seem to have a very direct attitude to his killing. He just does it. We haven't really seen any evidence of sadism. He might be messy, but what he does happens so quickly that his victims probably don't feel it. Raping is a more…vicious act, another kind of monster…maybe he doesn't want to go there…or hasn't worked up the courage to go there yet."

"What about Tara?" Gar asked. Tara nodded.

"That's also true. Tara, what did you get from your, um, battle with him?"

"He didn't seem to much care that I was there. An annoyance, at best. He gave the indication he thought we had been hired to stop him, but he didn't press it. And while he made threats and toyed with me…I didn't think he got anything out of it. Like I was more of a step then a obstacle."

"Which suggests great confidence." Nigel said.

"Yes…and quite possibly confidence that isn't intermixed with arrogance. Which could be a serious problem. Egotists make mistakes because they think they're infallible. Cauterize might not think he's like that…close, but not utterly, and he may be cautious in that regard. Which is, as usual, bad." Noel said. "But getting back to Tara's fight with him…Tara said Cauterize appeared to be favoring his right wrist. And while I know that could be coincidence, I don't like the smell of it. In which case, I add another suspect, Van Toolman." Noel sad, putting up a picture of the coach. "Toolman is a failed football hero who had to give up his dreams due to the assumptions and judgments of others. Not only is he probably really steamed at this town, and the reasons that it did what it did, that is, the failing of the tourist industry, which let Mr. Pierce get his slimy hands into the place, he looked like the type to obsessively do what he does, which is the world of general exercise and exertion. And when someone is obsessed in this world, who knows where it may lead? And he also got into a confrontation with Tara at the school where I saw him, during which I had to restrain him by grabbing his right wrist. And I wasn't gentle. The fact that Cauterize seemed to have a similar injury…well, you see where I'm going here."

"Not really." Nigel said. "From what Tara said, this Toolman was violent, with a hair trigger temper and apparently a deep rooted insecurity complex. If he was Cauterize, Tara would probably be dead. He strikes me as the type that would take great pleasure in paying Tara back for her supposed sin of showing him up. Why hold back and act like he did?"

"Again true, but remember Nigel, we have no idea just what is going on in his head." Noel said. "There might be elements of various psychosis' here. Let's say Cauterize IS Toolman. As his normal self, he may feel small and inferior, prompting him to act like he did towards Tara, but behind the mask of Cauterize, he becomes a whole different person. He KNOWS he has power. He KNOWS he is better. He could easily treat Tara completely differently. He might even get a kick out of it, you know, ha, if only the fool girl knew who was showing her up…but then again, it might very well prove he ISN'T Cauterize. We have too many if, and's, and maybes in this case. We still have a few hours before the press conference. Let's get cracking. Find out what we can, considering what we know for sure: Young man, prepared, knows his blades, has a thing for Asians. Let's get to work."

And the Titans did, as they read, wrote, phoned, typed, faxed, and online researched everything they could think off. Noel, after nearly forty minutes of security checks and traces, was allowed into the JLA computer database to look up a profile of Thaddeus Thawne, aka Inertia, who was a known teenage Speed Force user on the wrong side of the tracks. But he hadn't been heard from in a while, and he didn't have any links to Light City. It was a long shot, but it seemed to be all they had.

Until Tara came into the room some time later.

"Hey, I just got off the phone with an officer Someone Or Other. I called the Police Station to see if I could tap into the gossip, see if there was a chunk of information there."

"Why so?"

"Well…why is Cauterize so confident? I thought…maybe he works for the police department. They have more then a few young policemen. I'd certainly be confident if I could know what the enemy was planning ahead for." Tara said.

"It might also explain how he was able to make such accurate attacks on the criminal element." Nigel added. "Even when you can move that fast, it takes time to search every single nook and cranny. It would be a lot faster if you had a direct line to just where these people tend to be."

"Interesting points, both. I assumed you learned something." Noel said to Tara.

"Not really…and I must say, it disgusts me at what some of them are willing to say about each other behind their backs without any proof besides a fake name. Do you know one of them has a "special" mug shot book he keeps of prostitutes he took pictures off while topless?"

"Tara, the point."

"Right. Guess who is known for being a knife collector and having a large amount of fancy and antique blades in his home?"

"Who?"

"Our own special chauffeur. Detective Chesbro."

Detective Chesbro flashed his badge to the security guard at the door and headed down the hallway, passing a gaggle of secretaries on their way to a coffee break, some suited businessmen, and a janitor before he went up some stairs and headed for the double oak doors at the end of the hallway.

He was surprised to see someone sitting in a chair outside of them. He was reading a newspaper, his face concealed. Chesbro coughed to get his attention, and the paper folded down to reveal the face of Deputy Mayor Roman Fernendez, who looked both surprised and irritated.

"Morning." Chesbro said.

"Yes it is." Roman replied, folding his paper and setting it aside. But not before Chesbro's sharp eyes noticed that if he hadn't missed a move, Roman was reading the Classified section. So either he had been there a REALLY long time…or he had just been making a show of reading the paper. Or he was looking for a job. You never knew.

"Detective Chester?"

"Chesbro."

"Right, of course. Can I help you with something?"

"I'd like to speak to the mayor."

"He's currently very busy right now."

"It's urgent. It has to do with this Cauterize business."

"I'm afraid even that won't do. He really is very busy."

"I could just kick the door down. With the chief's death, any complaint would get lost in the shuffle."

"I wouldn't. He really is BUSY. You know, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more?"

What was really happening occurred to Chesbro.

"Oh. Is he this busy often?"

"More often then I'd care for." Roman said.

Chesbro struck the option that Roman was looking for a job. He'd read of him last night: born in one of the areas of Light City that had been the first claimed to the problems it was suffering from, his father working long long hours at the chemical plants and his mother holding down two jobs so they would have enough money to send him to a good school and become someone. How a tragic accident (and it HAD been an accident, really) had killed his father in his senior year of high school, forcing him to go to a local college rather then the Yale or Oxford that should have been his due. He learned what he could there and returned to Light City, where he joined City Hall as a clerk and rapidly made his way to where he was. Which would be really impressive, if it didn't just mean that Tercero had seen his talent and wanted to make sure Roman was kept firmly under his thumb until Roman's talents and drive were consumed by numb despair or he made a power play and Tercero had an excuse to "remove" him. Two of Tercero's deputy mayors had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The official story was they packed up and left town. The unofficial story was pointless, as none of it could be tied to anyone of consequence. So why bother?

Chesbro wondered which of the two awaited Roman. Probably Option 2. From the way he was sitting there, his muscles tensed and coiled, there was a lot of resentment that he was being made to sit outside Tercero's office while Tercero dallied with whatever piece of eye candy had caught his attention this week. Roman was the type that wanted to change things.

By any means necessary, perhaps?

"Mr, um…Deputy…"

"Roman is fine."

"Roman. You'll forgive me….but I am a naturally suspicious person. I wanted to tell the mayor of them…but seeing you sitting here, I have some more. So please don't take this the wrong way. But where were YOU last night?"

"You mean, where was I when Cauterize made his second attack and killed all those pimps and other deviants?"

"How did you know his specific targets? The papers still haven't put that together." Chesbro said quietly.

Roman didn't blink.

"I work in City Hall Detective. There are other information sources here. And to answer your first question, I left here at six, and went home and went to bed. I was alone, and no one saw me. So, do you want to arrest me now because normal people don't go around making sure they're alibied every second?"

Chesbro just stared.

"Hello? You gone deaf suddenly?"

"No. Just pondering what you said. It's true. Just about anyone can sound guilty under the right light." Chesbro said.

He didn't say it didn't matter for Roman, because Chesbro knew he was lying. He was good at that. He couldn't tell the degree of the lie…but it was there.

Maybe that meant nothing. EVERYONE lied to the police, even if it was just a tiny fraction. Roman might just be keeping secret that instead of going home he went to the house of a girlfriend people shouldn't know he was seeing. Or maybe he went to gamble. Or maybe he went to an S&M club. Or maybe he went and lit a bum on fire. Or maybe he was Cauterize.

Chesbro didn't know yet though. He'd have to keep putting the pieces together. The picture wasn't clear yet.

"Well, I'll check back later. Thank you for your candor Roman. I'll repay it in kind…" Chesbro said. "I think you're hiding something. And I'll find out sooner rather then later what it is. I'm very good at that."

"Then why are you still here?" Roman asked. Chesbro pondered the question, and then realized Roman wasn't so much asking why Chesbro was here, in City Hall, but here, in Light City.

"I have faith, Roman. This city is in a bad way…but you and I both know it used to be a lot better. You might have given up on it changing, but I haven't."

"Yet."

"Possibly. But in a way, it is changing. Problem is, it's the wrong kind of change. And if you have something to do with it, I don't think you're just hiding it from me Roman. I think you're hiding it from yourself."

"We all have something to hide, Detective." Roman replied.

"True." Chesbro said, and left. He'd head over to the station and do what he could before the press conference this afternoon. Maybe he could grab a nap. Despite the fact that he kept nodding off these days, he didn't seem to be getting much rest…

Roman watched him go, and was going to go back to his paper when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out.

"Roman."

A brief pause, and then all the tension and strife and general unpleasantness seemed to flow off the Deputy Mayor.

"Hi mom." He said. "No no, I'm ok. Yeah, I'll be at the conference, though I probably won't be on camera. Well, maybe a glimpse…" Roman said, sounding far more relaxed and possibly even happier.

He didn't even notice the door opening and a blonde haired girl with smeared lipstick leaving while adjusting her skirt. He was wrapped up in the phone call. And why wouldn't he be? It was his mother. She'd slaved her whole life to get him where he was, and he was going to make her proud. Even if for the moment it was just by talking to her on the phone.

"DOMAIN! GET IN HERE!"

Roman grimaced.

"Sorry Mom, I have to cut this short. Yeah, love you too. Bye." Roman said, and hung up. He threw his game face on over his intense frustration and went into the office to write Tercero's speech.

The mayor was always in a good mood after such "work". He'd probably only yell at Roman to rewrite it twice.

Stupid bitch.

Shouldn't have gone so easy on them.

But I know where they are.

Next time, I'll show them…

"Detective."

Chesbro jerked up from his chair, his vision blurring and then clearing to reveal a female face. He recognized it as the officer he had spoke briefly to at the Pranker robbery scene, before Cauterize had made his presence felt for the first time.

"Sorry sir. You looked to have dozed off."

Chesbro cursed inwardly. Now it was happening at work! What was going on? Maybe he should see a doctor…

"Is it time for the press conference?" he asked.

"Not yet sir. I just wanted to tell you that for now we've got an unofficial new chief."

Chesbro arched an eyebrow. Unofficial?

"Who?"

"Turnquist sir."

The unofficial part suddenly made a lot more sense.

"How did that happen?"

"He came in today and started roaring at everyone he was sick of the nonsense and that everyone was going to shape up or ship out. I think you slept through the best parts though."

Chesbro allowed himself a wry smirk. Garry Turnquist was 58 and the main reason he had become a police officer, back in the days before the city had gone to hell. In the days when his uncle was his father, the actual one busy with his drinking. His uncle was also a policeman, and Turnquist had been his partner, a huge barrel of a man with a booming voice and skin as black as coal. His uncle, Preston Chesbro, used to say the reason Turnquist was so dark was because he had been forged in the fires of hell and been put on this world as a warning to bad people for what awaited them. While his father had eventually cleaned up, by then it had been a little too late: Chesbro was 14 and the time to forge crucial bonds was gone. They had a fair relationship now, but part of Chesbro would never forgive his father for what he had put him and his mother through, the same part that would always love his uncle as his father, now retired and living down in Florida after his weekly lottery ticket finally came up with a $341,980 jackpot. At least someone in the family had had some luck.

Turnquist had stayed on though, as solid as a rock. He should have been police chief…had it not been for the decline, and the arrival of types like Stephen Pierce. Turnquist had been forced down, denied everything he should have had and had earned. But he had soldiered on, and for that same reason Chesbro had.

And now he was police chief. For now, Chesbro mused cynically. The Powers That Be would never let someone like Turnquist stay in that position. Turnquist would actually try and do his job properly. That would not do.

He wondered how long it would last. A month at most?

Unless…

No. He couldn't think that way. He was a police officer. His job was to uphold the law. And that including what Cauterize was doing…even if his likely target's death might let Turnquist stay as chief.

Turnquist wouldn't have wanted it that way either.

"Thanks for the news. Anything else?"

"No sir. Any luck on the Cauterize investigation? I saw those mutants, think they can help?"

"I don't know yet." Chesbro said. "Two of them ran into him last night, but he basically ran away without really putting up a fight. Must have been tired or something. If they meet him again, when he actually intends to put forth an effort…then we'll see."

"OK, LISTEN UP! I'M ONLY GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE!" Van Toolman roared to the Psy Ed class (as well as coach, he was also gym teacher). "I am not seeing as much improvement as I would like, so therefore, everyone who is on the football team will be doing my scheduled exercises instead of the usual!"

Most of the class groaned.

"HOWEVER…I am in a good mood, so I will make this offer. If you pieces of shit seriously bust your asses in this, I will cancel after school practice for today. Don't stand there thanking me, MOVE!" Toolman bellowed. The football part of the class ran off with some actual motivation. "The rest of you, do the usual, and don't goof off, I'll be watching the team, but I'll also be watching you, and if I catch you messing around, you'll be joining them, with TWICE the weight!" Van warned, indicating how the teenagers had picked up large logs and were running around with them. "Garigen, you don't have any classes after this one today, right?"

"No sir." Toby Garigen replied.

"Ok then, go! You know how to work yourself better then I do, go do one of your runs and we'll call it even!"

"Yes sir! Thank you sir!" Toby said, and jogged off.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Van was in a good mood too as he turned back towards the players.

Why wouldn't he, knowing what he knew now?

He smiled to himself. Soon.

An hour later, several of the members of the Illuminati emerged from the locker room, showered and very sore. At least they'd pleased the coach: he had told them to shower and then he had left. One of the players had left the locker room to get a Coke from a vending machine and had seen his car leaving the parking lot. The players had speculated where the coach was going in such a hurry, but none of them had any answers. So they headed off to their remaining classes, some grudgingly and some not.

It was one of the grudgeful ones that was going down the hall with one of his friends when the door to the Shining opened and Marco Corber stepped out. Who knows what he was doing, but no sooner did he step out then the football player walked into him and shoved him out of the way, causing him to stumble and fall on his rear.

"Move it fatass!" the player snapped, moving on. Marco sputtered on the ground for a bit before he found his voice.

"You can't treat me like that! I'm the editor of the school newspaper!"

"Yeah, RIGHT!" the other one catcalled. "Go tell someone who'll believe it fatso."

The players disappeared around the corner, and Marco steamed in the doorway at the comments and disrespect. He turned back into the room, looking at Elijah, who was sitting on the couch typing on an old electric typewriter as if nothing had happened.

"How dare they treat me like that!" Macro snapped, wanting some sympathy. All he got was a wry look from Elijah over the top of his glasses.

"If you want respect Marco, you're in the wrong business." Elijah said, and returned to typing. Marco snorted and stomped over to his office, slamming the door.

Tara stood in front of the full length mirror that was in the hotel room she was sharing with Noel (exactly why, she wasn't sure. She had been given some rushed explanation that Nigel had to do weird alien things and had roomed with Gar several times so Gar was used to them and it would be best if they shared the other room. If Noel wasn't already taken, she might have suspected him of having ulterior motives in his organization. But not being with Gar aside, Noel was a neat and considerate roommate who always knocked, kept his clothes folded, and didn't snore.) It was about an hour before the press conference, and Noel had finally called for an end to their Sherlocking and told them to get ready for it and relax and do whatever. Noel was shaving in the bathroom, and with them having currently stopped thinking about their problem (after Noel and Nigel had almost gotten into a fistfight arguing on various sociopathic tendencies and whether Cauterize had demonstrated them or might demonstrate them or wanted to demonstrate them but hadn't because a blimp had crashed or something…), Tara was thinking about her personal problem with Gar.

There was something there, she knew it. But she just could not find the key. She was being reminded of those pictures you would stare at until your eyes focused in a certain way and allowed you to see a new image. She had never managed to see the pictures and all she had ever gotten was a headache. But if it was a perception thing, what could she do to turn Gar's head enough so that they could get out of this vicious circle?

So here she was in front of a mirror. She had abandoned the weight gain idea. Nigel was right: she simply had too strong a metabolism. She studied herself. All the training that Tim and Noel made the Titans undertake in their off hours had given her a slight muscular build, but not enough to detract from her femininity…but due to her body type, she had no curves. Her breasts were rather small, and her legs, while long, had no real shapeliness. Her voice was soft and breathy, which some people found sexy but others used as another sign along with her hair color that she was a dunce. She was no dunce…except in this matter.

Maybe she needed a new hairstyle. Maybe some curls or something…

Tara began fiddling with her hair and hence didn't hear the door opening. She did hear a cough however, and turned to see Noel drying his face.

"Would you like my opinion? No makeup. You have a fine natural look." Noel said.

"I do?"

"I'd say so." Noel said, removing the towel. Tara had been adjusting her hair when Noel had gotten her attention and hence she hadn't had a chance to seriously examine the style she had improvised. She cocked her head and looked at how it positioned now, the long golden sheet falling over her right eye. It had a certain danger…and on another level…it bothered her. Deeply.

"New look?" Noel enquired.

"Maybe in another life." Tara replied, pushing her hair back to the way it was. She sighed. She couldn't really think of any physical change…and that brought her right back to square one. She turned back to Noel, who had four sheets of scribbled notes and a picture that he was holding in front of him via the Shimmer. Did he ever stop thinking and just relax, Tara wondered. She remembered the time Gar and Victor had collaborated to get Noel drunk, but their plan had backfired: Excess alcohol had just caused Noel to fall asleep. No amusing drunken antics that might have shown a hint of the things Noel kept carefully guarded, and to make it even worse, Noel's unique mutation of his nervous system had kept him from getting a hangover, while Gar and Victor had lain around the entirety of the next day groaning and moaning. That had actually been a good day for her, as she had looked after Gar and he had seemed to appreciate it…but once again, she just could not find the right words…

Well, maybe she could use his constant musing. He HAD been with Raven a while now: he probably had some concept of romance. Then again, maybe he would just see it as girlish silliness…and if he actually said that to her face, she was going to shove a rock where the sun didn't shine.

"Uh, Noel?"

"Yes?" Noel replied, lowering the paper. Tara suddenly felt her cheeks flushing. She dearly hoped it was slight embarrassment of asking Noel for his advice about this, much like a child would get embarrassed when they had to ask their parents for advice about sex. She didn't even want to consider the possibility that she was now developing OTHER feelings…nah. She was just embarrassed, and besides, Noel's last name was Collins, not Stu.

"I was just wondering…um…you know, we never really got to know each other, what with one thing or another, and I just have to…"

"Oh god, you're coming out of the closet, aren't you? Why does everyone always come out to ME?" Noel suddenly complained. Tara felt shock pervade her system, and she opened her mouth…and then realized where she had heard that before, and the shock was replaced by irritation.

"Oh funny. Ha ha Stewie."

"Just trying to relax you Tara. You seem pretty tense." Noel said.

"And you've figured out why?"

"I have a fair idea." Noel said. Tara sighed.

"What did you do?"

"With what?"

"With Raven! I've heard the story. You and her had great difficulties as well. How did you get around them?"

"Well…great patience, perseverance…understanding…"

"I've already done all those things! And you and Raven is not the same as myself and…and…"

"Garfield?" Noel said.

"…Yeah." Tara said. "You weren't around for the first times, what with the Grant sisters and the other…thing. It seemed inevitable then. But…life just happened, you know? And now we're back here…and the sparks just won't fly any more. What happened?"

"Time, I guess." Noel said. He debated being blunt and just saying what he suspected: that Gar's feelings and hesitations mirrored Tara's and all she would have to do is say she liked (loved? Maybe not QUITE there yet, but…) him and ask him to kiss her, and that would be it. But then again, Tara always had some insecurities with a lot of things. Perhaps now that she had her powers under control, it had transferred to her feelings. Hence, being so blunt might just scare her.

So, if being up front wouldn't be productive…what situations helped break down these kind of barriers?

An idea occurred to Noel.

"Tara…as you said, Raven and I had problems. She was linked to her father, and her feeling things caused problems and even deadly danger. I thought I could get around that…but it was hard. On our first Valentine's Day, that is, the first one with us being on the same team, I tried making her a Valentine. She tore it up. That almost ended it right there. It was pretty hurt and angry about the whole thing. It was actually Kory that told me I might be giving up too soon…and she was right. There was something there…but what actually brought it out was later that night…the Lord had made his first appearance, back before the god abilities, and Raven and I had to stop him. In the process, he zapped her with a taser and literally killed her as her heart stopped. I gave her CPR to revive her…it worked…it actually worked more then I expected as she turned it into a kiss. True, she ended it almost immediately and the two of us basically spent several months struggling with how we felt…but the point is…it was just the right time. Everything matched up: the situation, the actions, the closeness, what came before…maybe you and Gar just need to find, or be found, by your own version of that. Chlorine is deadly poison to humans in a pure state, and sodium reacts violently to water, but if you combine the two, you get sodium chloride, aka table salt. But you can't just throw sodium and chlorine in a bowl and then dump it on your food. You have to do it the right way…or in some cases, things just have to happen."

"And how will I know if they have?"

"I think you will. Like I said, this is just personal recollection. You might need something different. But sometimes all you really need…"

"Is a crisis like this one." Nigel said.

"I dunno Nigel. How do you know Tara will go for it? She might bristle at the traditional knights and princesses approach. And despite how I feel, even I know that we really shouldn't be turning this problem into an attempted springboard for…"

"Yes yes yes Gar, you're focusing on the wrong thing. My point is, basically, if you can't express how you feel to her directly, do it INDIRECTLY. Watch her back in a fight. Support her. Show her that you're rock solid, so to speak. Maybe that will accomplish what you can't seem to do with verbiage."

"But don't relationships that get started due to extreme circumstances not work out well?"

"Well…it…why does that sound familiar…wait, you are quoting one of those films with that wood actor!"

"Wood actor?" Gar said, arching an eyebrow.

"You know, he is so bad at showing emotion…Keenen something…"

"Keanu Reeves?"

"Right, him! You are quoting that film about that bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over fifty, and if its speed dropped, it would explode…what was it called again?"

Gar facevaulted.

"I don't know. The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down?" he said sarcastically.

"Was its title that long?"

Gar facevaulted again. Nigel sweatdropped.

"Getting back to the point…it just might need a trigger Gar. Could be you helping her out, could be a crisis…hell, she may LIKE being rescued. The ideals of those women who seem to think all men are evil doesn't apply to everything you know." Nigel said. "But I have one suggestion that could definitely work."

"What?"

"Get showered. The bathroom is free and your fur, dare I say it, can cause an unpleasant odor when mixed with your perspiration."

Gar looked offended.

"He has a point BB." Noel suddenly said from the doorway. Gar looked at Noel, then at Nigel, and then hmmpphhed and headed for the bathroom.

"You need to get dressed Nigel?" Noel asked.

"I am." Nigel said, tilting his garishly colored hat.

"Right, stupid question, along with "Are You Colorblind"?" Noel said. "So, offering Gar romantic advice I see."

"Yes, much like you were in the other room with Tara."

"What? How did…oh right." Noel said, looking at Nigel's huge ears. "How did this happen? How did you and I wind up playing cupid? It's not in our job description."

"You find it aggravating?"

"Yes…"

"Well LAH-DI-FREAKING-DAH!" Nigel suddenly yelled, as he seemed to hunch over. He began pulling at his pants, as if he was trying to keep them at waist level. "Listen here Mr. Savior, you may think that trying to help two teens who like each other but can't find the way is annoying, but let me tell you, I am 38 years old, I am divorced, and I LIVE IN A VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER!"

"Very nice Chris Farley."

"Thanks!" Nigel said, standing up straight again from his mimicking of one of the late comedian's recurrent SNL characters.

"You watch too much Saturday Night Live though."

"Blame it on the Blues Brothers." Nigel said, this time referring to Dan Akroyd's and the late James Belushi's suited and sunglassed characters whose movie Nigel had watched in the same time frame where he had met Sophie, which had started his addiction to the late night comedy show. Noel recalled the time around Christmas that Nigel had tried to sing Adam Sandler's Chanukah song. He felt sorry for the guitar after it was done: instruments like that were not meant for clawed aliens.

"It still doesn't help our problem…"

"Who whoa, PROBLEM? Hold it buddy." Nigel said, stepping over to Noel. "YOU were aware of the situation beforehand." Nigel said, poking Noel lightly but firmly with the point of one of his claws. "You TOLD me. YOU picked the team. YOU are the reason the two of them are here. You could have picked Cyborg or Starfire to be the "heavy hitter", but no, you picked Terra, which indicates you had at least SOME desire to see this through."

"I thought putting them together in a small personal mission would be enough, I didn't expect to have to play Cyrano!"

"This doesn't require any performance on a musical instrument!"

Noel facevaulted.

"Look Savior, you have put this into motion, and you have a duty, as the leader and as a teammate of the two, to see if you can help them find happiness. If you DON'T want that responsibility, well, too bad! So you better help with the playing stupid…"

"CUPID."

"Right, or next time I examine you, I will INSIST on a proctology exam first."

Noel narrowed his eyes. Nigel crossed his arm and held his gaze.

"Fine. I'll give them whatever expertise I can. I hope that they pick the bed next to YOU when the combination of repressed lust and teenage hormones finally ignites. Now get ready, we have to be at City Hall in twenty minutes." Noel said, and turned to leave the room.

"Oh yeah!" Nigel said, pumping an arm. "I have become one of the few to talk Savior into doing something he did not really want to do! This is a great accomplishment! A grand achievement! A momentous deed! There is only one way to truly express it: LIVE FROM NEW YORK, ITS SATURDAY…"

A Shimmer hook swung back and yanked Nigel away from the front of the nonexistent camera with a yelp.

Toby Garigen raced along at a swift controlled pace alongside the road, his legs pumping and his breathing controlled. He rounded a corner and, in one swift motion, grabbed the small water bottle he had tied at his side, squirted one quick stream into his mouth and two on his face, and then reattached it to his side without losing a beat. The cold water cooled his face, but only for a short bit as he ran on. It had rained late last nice, and Toby wouldn't mind if it did so again, it would keep him cool…but he'd have to be careful or the cold would make his muscles cramp out…

And then the van by, the tire slashing through the large puddle on the road and sending a large spray of dirty water up and onto the sidewalk…right onto the spot Toby had been standing a second ago.

"Missed me!" he yelled after the van, loving his reflexes.

The van didn't even notice as it drove on. Had Toby, who had returned to his run, actually given it a closer look, he would have seen it was a news van. And the reason it had caused such a large splash was because it was in a hurry.

And so it drove through the streets of Light City. Had the reporters in the van been local, they would have found the place easily, but the Cauterize story was starting to rise above the local level. In this day and age, with superheroes protecting all the real hot spots for crime, that took some doing. But Light City had no superheroes of its own, only a killer metahuman, and that kind of problem in a city that didn't have its own built in solution was what attracted attention. Well, at least until some do-gooder actually stepped up to the plate and got rid of the villain, but that was the mass media: find the fodder and when it's done move on to the next source.

And it was the kind of attention that made Mayor Tercero forget all about the anger of his…friend, Stephen Pierce. While the local media had long ago learned that writing the wrong story had consequences (The ones that hadn't been "learned" had left Light City in search of greener pastures, leaving a core set that had no problem doing what it was told), having people kiss your ass because they were terrified of repercussion got old after a bit. But now, Tercero had a wider stage, one he could show off on to the entire world. He had managed to get some territorial metahumans to come and help, even more impressive considering they were teenagers! What a wondrous leader he was!

(True, he kind of hoped Cauterize would kill a few hundred more people before the freaks took him down. That way, he'd get all the credit. After all, he just brought them here, it was up for the mutations to take care of their own, and since they clearly had some degree of incompetence in that…but what could you expect in teenagers anyway? Maybe after it was all over he'd suggest in an interview that having teenagers protect a city wasn't very responsible…)

The makeup people were finishing tidying him up, while nearby Roman stood, furiously writing a new speech by hand. Tercero had decided on the way that the speech had written for him was junk and told his deputy to write a new one. Of course, Tercero planned to use the old one, which was fine, but he had seen the ambition in Zoneman's eyes. It had to be ground down and snuffed out by tedious tasks. He didn't want to have to make "the call" to Pierce, Stolen was good with his tasks and his compliments. He'd hate to lose him, god knows what the NEXT loser would be like…

Maybe like this, as Roman suddenly leaned over, groaning. Annoyance flickered across Tercero's brow.

"What's wrong Conan?"

"I told you sir…I have a bad stomach flu…flaring up…washroom…"

"You have to finish the speech!"

"Have sir!" Roman said as he handed the paper to another aide and then ran for it. The aide handed it to Tercero, who looked it over.

"Hmpm." Tercero said. It was indeed a brand new speech, and neatly written in Dunagan's immaculate penmanship. The kid sure could write fast…

"Your honor…" Said another secretary. "The superheroes are here."

"Excellent." Tercero said, standing. "Come people, we have a weary city to reassure." And Stephen Pierce. Tercero added mentally. He was pretty sure Pierce was watching.

After all, he was the one who had told the mayor to call for the conference in the first place.

(Writer's Note: Just so you know, there were no typos in that above segment. Tercero is just REALLY bad at remembering names of people who don't concern him.)

"Let's get something clear. We will not answer any questions." Savior said.

"What? Why?"

"I refuse to give the sharks their blood. We stay on the podium for five minutes at most, so if you don't want us to suddenly take off in the middle of your speech, we suggest you keep it short. We came here as a favor to help take care of the vigilante, not because you think you made us. We might be young, your honor, but we've seen plenty of the world. Remember that, before anything."

Tercero blinked, wondering if that was a threat. In the old days he probably would have been able to tell, but years of working with Stephen Pierce had dulled his instincts for such things. Instead, he reverted to what Pierce had taught him, as he tossed on a happy face.

"Ok then! Let's go!" Tercero said, clapping Savior on the back and guiding him along. Beast Boy gave him a sidelongs glance and noted Savior's annoyance and disgust. He almost smirked. Poor Noel. Life seemed to go out of its way to put him in uncomfortable situations. He remembered that just before this, the four of them, having finally retrieved Tim's car from the police station, had driven around for twenty minutes before they had found a place to park it. It was a good thing the parking meter they had stopped in front of was broken. Or Savior probably would have broken it himself.

Scalpel was going over his twin bladed staff weapon known as a glaive, and satisfied that it was working perfectly, folded it up and placed it on his person within easy reach. He had a gut feeling that he was going to need it.

Terra was staring into the window of a cigar shop, as Scalpel approached her. He thought she might be looking at some magazines in the window, as many cigar shops also carried lots of magazines. As he drew close to her however, he found that there were just the usual nicotine-stuffed death sticks that were the stock and trade of the tobacco industry. Nigel personally didn't get it: plenty of tests show that unless you possessed exceptional genes, smoking would ultimately prove hazardous to your health. So why did so many people do it? Well, their choice and all…but Nigel didn't understand why people who so willingly corrupted their own cells. Then again, maybe if he smoked a cigarette he'd understand. Then again, it was the kind of understanding that was similar to jumping off a cliff: Nigel KNEW that would be fatal, he didn't have to do it himself to know that.

So why was Terra…

"You think these might work?" she asked, turning to Scalpel, who arched an eyebrow.

"What?"

"You know…maybe a…" Terra said, mimicking lighting a cigarette and puffing on it. "Might give me an air of glamour and…" Terra trailed off when she saw Nigel's horrified look. "What?"

Nigel didn't reply. Instead he just drew himself up and fixed Terra with a look that said it all: Surely You Are Smart Enough So That You Don't Need ME To Tell You. Terra looked at Nigel for a few seconds, and then it dawned on her.

"My god…it's getting so bad I actually considered taking up smoking in some far flung idea it would help. What's WRONG with me?"

"Oh nothing Terra. You're just young, impressionable, and filled with certain feelings that can cloud one's judgment…in any case, I think we need to be going, away from the shop filled with the cigarettes…"

"Oh don't worry Scalpel. I won't be taking up smoking in THIS life." Terra said, as she and Scalpel walked away.

Not as many reporters as he had expected, Savior mused from the podium. Apparently the story was still trickling out. The trickling might yet become a full-blown torrent, but Savior wouldn't be at any of THOSE press conferences. Let the idiot and most likely dirty mayor preen for the cameras, Savior had made it very clear that he'd only be doing this once. He hoped his teammates shared the same feeling, he was going to get REALLY annoyed if he turned on the TV and saw them on it when they should have been tracking down Cauterize.

Not just many reporters, but most of them were local, who Savior had noticed were strangely taciturn. Strange. Probably the leftovers of the same purge that had led to Elijah getting kicked off as editor of his paper. And that was just a SCHOOL paper. Savior hated to think of what had happened to people in the LEGITIMATE media. His anger stirred in him. Goddamn Stephen Pierce and all he had done by taking advantage of a city in decline…

But, of course, there were media people from more national sources, but all of them were mostly at the back, struggling for position and trying (and failing) to get closer. Savior couldn't help but wonder if that had been arranged as well.

The mayor had begun talking while Savior was doing his pondering, but Savior tuned him out, working on his internal clock and waiting for the mayor to finish. If he didn't in time, Savior WOULD just leap off the stage and swing away, who cared if it made Tercero look bad?

Beast Boy was standing next to him, looking uncomfortable at the camera flashes. Savior felt for him. Scalpel and Beast Boy were standing side by side, and most of the people were taking pictures of them in the old "Look at the circus freak!" tradition. Scalpel was holding one clawed hand before his eyes to block out the bright flashes (his species didn't much like bright lights). Terra was behind the two, looking even more uncomfortable then her would-be boyfriend Beast Boy (and there was ANOTHER headache. Noel didn't have time for silly games, maybe he should just go with his plan of locking them in a room, he was sure that would be all it would take…)

Savior sighed inwardly and scanned the crowd again. Around the crowd were the finally reorganized police forces, under the command of their new chief, a big black man with a very loud voice. Turnquist, his name was, though Savior had met him for all of ten seconds before he had literally been dragged away by the Mayor's people. But Savior had gotten a good feeling from the man. This was a man of character. How long that would last in this city that courted damnation a little more every day, Savior did not know. Well, the police officers were certainly as alert as they could be, and Noel knew that there were undercover officers in the crowd…well, undercover to the public, Savior recognized some of them.

Including Chesbro, who was off to the right. He looked as bored as Savior felt.

Savior, out of the last fragments of general respect he afforded every human until they lost it as well, did not check his watch. He estimated there were about two minutes left. He let Tercero's voice in: the moron was talking about how great this was for his city. Idiot. What would be great for his city was a full-fledged enema that would get rid of HIM as well. But then again, cities seemed to loathe leaders. Why else would they forever elect politicians in the same ever-vicious cycle?

His eyes slid over to Chesbro again, and then focused on him. Chesbro was no longer paying attention; instead he seemed distracted by something. Then, as Noel watched, he actually turned and began pushing his way through the crowd. Where was HE going? Had he seen something? Did he need to use the washroom…or maybe…

Savior tried to follow him with his eyes, but Beast Boy accidentally leaned over too much and jostled him, startling Savior in his high-strung state, and when he looked back Chesbro had vanished.

"…may seem to be something to fear, it was said by a great man that there is nothing to fear but fear itself, so why should we fear some…"

Chesbro grimaced. He wondered if Tercero could even give the name of the man who had made that famous quote (Franklin D. Roosevelt). This was the type he was trying to protect? An egotistical coward that had nothing of substance behind his veneer but was far too good at his job to let the majority of the voters see behind it? What was going…

Something winked at the corner of his vision.

Chesbro immediately forgot the mayor as he tried to figure out exactly what he had seen in the corner of his eye. It had looked like…

He caught it again, in a better view. A very quick flash of light, like the sun being reflected off a mirror…

Coming from the top of the ten-story building across from the podium.

Chesbro's eyes narrowed. He did not have a good feeling about this, and when he had a bad feeling, bad things usually happened.

He began heading for the edge of the crowd, hoping he could make it in time.

He was near the edge with a sudden spell of dizziness overcame him, and he stumbled. Goddamn, not NOW. He had to do his job, he could sleep later…

Flint Baker may have looked like an ape in human clothing, and said look may have spoken accurately about his intelligence, but Flint had plenty of animal cunning, and it had carried him well enough in life. He was no dim-witted goon who smashed whatever his boss pointed at. He had been in the Marines, and he had learned plenty there before the assholes had court-martialed him on trumped up charges and kicked him out. But that was fine with him. Working for Mr. Pierce better suited him anyway. He was good at making him happy. When Stephen Pierce was unhappy, Flint was unhappy. And that insolent white haired teenager had made his boss very unhappy.

But Flint would fix that, as he peered down the scope of his rifle. As mentioned, he wasn't an idiot. Pierce had had his people do their own research about the four Teen Titans who had come to the city to stop Cauterize. He knew about Savior's talent, the Shimmer, and how records showed that it had an almost supernatural sense of danger when injury threatened its base, the nervous system.

But Flint was fine with that. He wasn't going to shoot the teenager in the head anyway. No…he was aiming for his right knee. The Shimmer wouldn't be guarding THAT area, and a hollow point bullet through the knee would teach the teenager not to treat his boss like he was some low-level gutter trash that deserved to be kicked around.

This was Mr. Pierce's city. After he no longer had a leg to stand on, maybe Savior would learn that important lesson and go back to playing kid's games in his town while Stephen Pierce did what he did best.

(True, he could always call in the woman he was supposedly seeing, who might or might not have a healing talent, you could only get so much information in one night…but the teen would still have to live with the agony until that happened. Flint had shattered his kneecap once, and HE, who had taken a lot of pain during his life, had been driven to tears from the agony. So he could only imagine what having your kneecap blown apart would feel like…)

He had been lining up his shot while he was thinking, and now he finally had it, and the superhero expected nothing. Flint smiled to himself. Mr. Pierce would be very happy…

And then something was blocking his vision.

Something black.

"Unsporting."

Flint jerked his head up from the sight, looking up at the form of Cauterize, who had somehow snuck right up to his side and placed one of his blades in front of the scope to block his view, and in the back of his head Flint's brain took in the visual info he had managed to process, that Cauterize, as this was surely him, was a shrimp and Flint could easily take him…

Cauterize's metal enclosed fist hit Flint 136 times before he felt the first blow.

The scream ran through the air.

Had this been a normal press conference, the clamoring of reporters would have completely drowned out the noise, but as mentioned, Light's City's local media had been cowed long ago, and there had been no racket as Tercero had finished his speech and Savior had prepared to give the signal to leave.

All shattered by the scream, which rang out suddenly. The Titans all jumped to attention in the strange, stay-in-the-same-spot way that people do when they register danger but can't figure out where it's coming from.

And then Savior saw the body falling, thrown off the roof of the old, worn down office building that was in front of them, and his body instinctively reacted, as he started forward, his team seeing the movement and following him, even as on the heels of his reaction came that realization that it was pointless: the falling body was already halfway down and there was no way Savior could move…

The body hit the ground in the distance, even as the figure's forever silenced screams began to spread to the crowd.

And Savior stopped at the edge of the platform, his teammates also slamming on the brakes (they were surprisingly in tune today…)

"Wait…!" Savior said.

His realization came in record time.

But what happened was in the realm where records mattered nothing.

A bolt of red and black zapped down the building that the man had been tossed from, actually beating the falling form to the ground as it hit the street and did a perfect 90 degree turn, running alongside the perimeter of the crowd, and then another 90 degree turn almost immediately at the edge of the group of people as he reached the side of another building, zapping up and along the side of the building and back down to the street before gravity realized that it was supposed to kick in, reaching the side of the podium as Noel's brain began to process the action that would result in him saying "Wait…!"…

And he dashed across the platform, the sudden wind burst knocking over all the mayor's people and the Titans themselves.

The only one it didn't blow over was the mayor.

That was because he was gone, carried away, as the bolt of color hit the building across from the other one and went straight up the side of it, defying gravity once again. You would have expected the bolt to zap up the side of the building and then curve onto the roof.

It didn't.

It kept going up, straight up off the side of the building and up into the air.

Mayor Tercero never knew what hit him. One second he was hearing a scream, and then the next one was a blur…

And then he suddenly felt wind on him. Lots of him, blowing at his face and coat, as he tried to figure out what had happened, where had he…

Then he glanced down.

And screamed, his fear utterly overriding his many years of practice regarding his voice, turning his shriek of fear into an amusing high pitched Chris Rock in 5th Element noise, as he realized he was no longer on the ground but far above it, seemingly floating up…because someone was holding onto his suit front.

He looked, and shrieked again when he saw the black-glass gaze of Cauterize.

"Hello, 'your honor'"

And Cauterize reached up with his other hand, even as the drifting upward motion of the two slowed almost to the point of stopping, and flipped up the front of the helmet.

Tercero's eyes went wide.

"YOU…!"

"Yes." Cauterize said. "You've been bad Mr. Mayor. I know that all too well. This is going to be a nice town…and to ensure that you can't be here. But relax! This is what you've always wanted! Tonight, you'll be all over the national news…because you'll be all over the pavement."

"BUT I…!"

"Goodbye your honor."

And Cauterize slammed his hand up in a Speed Force charged uppercut that smashed into Tercero's chest, breaking a few ribs even as it threw him even farther up with another scream, even as Cauterize's upward momentum finally ran out and gravity began to reclaim it's errant child.

Cauterize flipped his mask back down and re-sealed it, and as he began to fall he put his hands in front of him. In normal motion he might have looked like he was making shadow puppets, but at high speed the movements produced a powerful wind that blew Cauterize backwards as he fell. The ground far below was replaced by the skyscraper that Cauterize had run up's roof, but it was still quite a trip down, one that would surely kill him…

Has he not begun flapping his arms, like the old comical joke of people trying to fly. Except that at super high speed, this actually worked. Somewhat, as Cauterize didn't have the body and bone structure birds had that worked with their wings to allow flight. But it was enough to slow him down. A few high-speed spins bled off more downward speed, enough so that when he hit the roof at an angle, it was more at a long jumper's speed then a human falling to his doom speed. He still lost his footing on the landing, but a quick roll and he was back up. He smiled to himself, pleased that he had actually pulled the tricky aerial maneuver off.

As he watched Mayor Geoffrey Tercero plummet to his sure doom.

Then his eyes caught movement.

He sighed. The so-called superheroes were making a move. Apparently the girl hadn't gotten the message.

Fine. He'd spell it out.

"MAYOR TERCERO!" someone screamed.

The Titans looked up as they finally caught the high-pitched screaming that had until then been drowned out by the crowd, which was panicking. Terra and Beast Boy were trying to use their abilities to prevent a stampede that would surely lead to mass death, while Savior was trying to figure out what had happened.

Until he heard the yell, and he looked up to see a small form falling towards the streets of Light City.

But this one, he could catch.

"I GOT HIM!" Savior yelled, as the Shimmer sprang out, grabbing hold of a light post nearby and hurling Savior up, as he slammed the Shimmer into the side of the skyscraper and tense for the following jump that would pull him up to Mayor Tercero so he could…

"No you don't."

The blow hit Savior before the sentence was half done, striking the teenager so hard that he was literally thrown for a loop, spinning in mid air, even as the red and black blaze zapped past him after the blow, hit the street, ran across it and up the building on the other side, drew parallel with the still-reacting-to-the-first-blow Savior, and then in a manipulation of momentum, exploded off the side of the building and flew through the air, his fist striking Savior and sending them both smashing through the window behind the no-longer-whirling teen. Savior went crashing through a wall behind the window and through some desk furniture, even as Cauterize tucked and rolled from the punch and sprang to his feet…

As Savior began another bounce from the impact…

Within a second, all the people on the floor Savior had crashed into were on the bottom floor.

And Cauterize was right back on that floor.

Phasing through several walls and other objects.

All the windows on the floor exploded outward as massive explosions detonated from the disrupted atoms, even as Mayor Tercero fell past the windows.

As a red and black blur zipped from the building just ahead of the explosions, beat Tercero back to the ground, and sprinted towards his landing position.

Right over a TV truck.

Which Cauterize phased through.

The truck exploded, flames gouting upward and engulfing Tercero moments before he crashed down into the flaming wreckage with a gigantic crunch. A follow up explosion detonated immediately afterward, giving Tercero a jump boost to whatever he had earned in the afterlife.

And Cauterize stopped, the explosion detonating behind him.

He took a deep breath and smirked as one last blast blew behind him.

"Mr. Mayor, you're off the air."

Another explosion detonated from above, from the skyscraper floor that Cauterize had ravaged to get at Savior, and the building began making a scary creaking noise. Terra turned her attention from the finally dispersing crowd to the building, and with a curse flew up to it, huge rocks trailing her. Hopefully she could wedge something together before the fire softened the steel structure to the point of collapse…

And Savior exploded out of the flaming windows with a scream, falling down to the street with a flip and landing, the impact driving him to his knees even with the Shimmer.

Cauterize stared at him.

Savior got up, his outfit shredded in several places and a slight burn on one side of his face to add to the cuts and bruises he had suffered from the shrapnel. He glared at the vigilante speedster, who simply returned his look, all expression blocked due to the helmet.

Savior's hand curled into a fist, the knuckles popping.

The Shimmer lines swirled around Savior, and perhaps reaction to his rage, the normal shapes had formed into creatures, snapping dragonheads that hissed and snarled at Cauterize.

"Hmmmm." Cauterize said, in interested speculation.

Savior snapped back his arm.

"GET OVER HERE!"

And he fired the snapping dragon lines at Cauterize, who watched them approach…

And then he was gone just before impact. Savior immediately switched tactics and turned the spearing Shimmer into a whip that lashed to the side, spinning to the right in a circular path and smashing through everything in its way, including a few cars, as Savior tried to catch Cauterize in the area effect…

The line slashed past the 180 degree point, and if Savior had been able to see things in the movie style of "bullet-time", he might have seen Cauterize leaping and spinning in a tight corkscrew over the lashing line. But he didn't. All he felt was the impact as Cauterize uncoiled his body and lashed out with a spinning roundhouse to the side of Savior's head.

Savior's head snapped back from the impact, the impact spinning him on his heel…

And Cauterize was there in front of him, ducking under his body and pistoning a vicious uppercut into his upper chest that knocked Savior right off his feet, his legs spinning up as his torso swung down. He might have completed the flip and landed on his chest…

Had Cauterize not zipped around him again and smashed both his fists into the upside down form of Savior and sent him flying across the road, crashing back first into the nearest building before he crumpled to the ground.

Cauterize emerged from his Speed Force assisted state and took a deep breath as the slowly falling Savior (in his perception anyway) suddenly sped up a lot as he hit the ground. Cauterize cracked his knuckles and rotated his wrists, wincing a tad as he rotated the right one.

"GRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Savior bellowed, pushing himself up and sending dozens of Shimmer lines at Cauterize, lancing and twisting and burrowing underground at him, all of them trying to grasp him, if only for a split second…

It was too bad Savior's eyes couldn't comprehend the gymnastics act Cauterize did as he ducked, dodged, leapt, rolled, skipped, spun, and avoided every single Shimmer strand with ease.

All Savior felt was a slight tug before he suddenly saw that all the lines had been grabbed and tied in a knot, a knot that was now being held by Cauterize.

"If I was anyone else, I would cut this to cause you pain." Cauterize said.

And then he was up against Noel, his metal-laced fist slamming into Savior's sternum. Savior's eyes went wide with surprise at the sudden change of strategy, even as his wind whooshed out of his mouth, carrying a stream of bloody saliva.

"But I'm not anyone else." He finished.

And he cut looses, blitzing Savior with hundreds upon hundreds of blows, hammering him so bad the stone wall behind Savior began to crack and give from the impacts, as all of Savior's strategy, experience, and self vanished in the endless impacts that pummeled every part of him.

And then it stopped.

And Savior fell to his knees and then onto his face.

Silence, as the body lay at Cauterize's boots. Then he reached down and grabbed the hair, and then he managed to yank Savior's dead weight up and prop him against the wall via pressing his arm to his throat.

"Leave this place." Cauterize hissed. "You will only lead your teammates to your doom. You have no idea what is going on, and you have no RIGHT to try and…"

"IIIIIIIIII-YAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Scalpel yelled as he came flying down from his leapt, his glaive slashing down…

And catching one of Cauterize's arm blades as it suddenly appeared in his hand, blocking the downward strike.

Though due to Cauterize's back being turned to him, Scalpel didn't see his mouth grimace with strain.

"Finish this after him." Cauterize said, and removed his arm from Savior's throat. Savior crumpled to the ground, and although he was very much alive, he was pretty much dead and buried, if you understand.

Scalpel had landed from his leap, his hand expertly sliding down the glaive as he did so to properly maintain the pressure. Cauterize kept his arm locked, preventing the weapon from descending. But the limb was clearly tingling, the sign that the muscle wasn't up to the task of permanently stopping the downward slash and was starting to give in. Which was understandable: Scalpel was one of the strongest Titans.

He smirked, showing off his huge canine fangs.

"So…can't take the heat eh?"

Scalpel was smashed backwards by the blow to his face that was actually twenty delivered so fast Scalpel couldn't make out the individual impacts, and even as he stumbled back Cauterize ran past him, stopped, and ran back, ramming his elbow into Scalpel's side. Scalpel let out a gasp of pain and stumbled a few steps before stopping. He expected another follow up blow, but none came, and he looked up to find Cauterize was standing there, looking at him.

Blood began to drip from Scalpel's noise, and he lifted up one of his claws and checked it, and then lowered it.

"You cut down those who cannot even begin to defend themselves and then run back into the shadows from whence you came. So I wonder…are you a warrior looking for a challenge…or a coward?" Scalpel said, giving his glaive a twirl and putting himself into the second Blacktrinian combat position.

Cauterize cocked his head.

"Either answer me or kill me where I stand. Then the world will know your character." Scalpel said.

Cauterize didn't reply.

Instead he brought the arm clutching the blade he had used to block Scalpel's original strike to the gauntlet on the other arm and withdrew the blade's twin.

And Scalpel had his answer.

"YAHHHHHHH!" Scalpel said, leaping forward.

Cauterize dodged to the side, but slow enough that Scalpel could actually see him, but Scalpel had known he was going to miss and reacted according, doing a tight right side roll that brought his blade behind him slashing in a wide arc. Cauterize blocked the blow with both his swords and spun, slashing down, but Scalpel got his glaive up and intercepted, his leg thrusting out in front of him for a kick, but in a blur Cauterize ducked under the leg and, grabbing it as he rammed his shoulder into the knee, threw Scalpel over him to the ground. Even as he landed, Scalpel pistoned one of his clawed feet out, but it hit nothing but air. He rolled as a blade stabbed into the ground near his head and slashed his blade out in another wide swing that caught Cauterize's sword in the middle…and made him stumble two steps.

Scalpel felt the knowledge he had just learned fed into the warrior state he was in. Cauterize was so very impossibly quick…but he didn't have much in the way of physical strength.

That meant he could win!

Scalpel planted a hand on the ground and spun up, swinging out both his legs in a move that mirrored a combat style known as Capoeria, but Cauterize was back on his game immediately and dodged it, leaping over the low roundhouse slash that Scalpel followed up with. Scalpel rolled with the failed blow again, coming up and spinning to block another slash. He felt this blow: Cauterize was using the Speed Force behind that. But not enough, as Cauterize stepped back and began slashing his blades around, slashes that Scalpel blocked with expert twirls and pokes from his weapon.

Cauterize's mouth turned down in a frown. Scalpel gave him one of his grins, feigning false confidence, and then transformed his apparent move into another one almost instantly, the glaive swinging up in a deadly arc.

The edge whistled an inch past Cauterize's helmet.

The blow had caused Scalpel to stick his knee out though, and he felt a slight pressure as Cauterize ran, stepping on Scalpel's knee, then his shoulder, and then leaping off as he slammed the heel of his foot into the back of Scalpel's head. Scalpel fell forward, but he held on to the glaive as he pulled an insanely tight tucking roll, losing his hat in the process, as Cauterize spun and hurled one of his blades at him. The glaive caught it and knocked it away, impaling it into a wall as Cauterize landed.

Scalpel kipped up to his feet and looked at the killer vigilante, who was now breathing heavily.

"Care to slow down?"

The blades crashed together in a shower of sparks as Cauterize attacked again, and Scalpel shoved the blade aside and tried for a gutting move, but Cauterize was already at his flank as he slammed his free fist into Scalpel's side before Scalpel spun and tried yet another roundhouse slice, one that Cauterize ducked as he swept his leg out and tripped Scalpel, the quickster spinning up and trying for an impale before Scalpel whirled back up, spinning both his legs and his glaive in a deadly cutting dervish that drove Cauterize back, but he didn't stay back long as he lunged in with a stab that he turned into a sideways slash that Scalpel caught with the middle of his glaive as the blade slid along the side due to the angle, causing Cauterize to lean in just a bit…

And Scalpel snapped out his hand, and suddenly he had Cauterize by the arm.

"…HUH?" Cauterize said.

"You…"

Scalpel really shouldn't have spoken.

Because suddenly he was holding onto a maelstrom, the king and emperor of all jackhammers, as Cauterize turned his powers inward and vibrated his molecules at speeds that could barely be measured. The vibration was so intense it actually threw Scalpel back several feet, which was good, because even if he had held on he would have been shaken to pieces. He hit the ground and fell, his glaive clattering to his side.

Cauterize wasn't paying attention to him. He was looking at his arm, that Scalpel had somehow managed to grab, and though the grip had been short Scalpel had started squeezing the very instant he felt something, and Scalpel had a very tight grip, not to mention very sharp fingers.

Cauterize stared at the slight cut in his outfit as blood began to flow in a slow stream.

"………..You touched me." He said.

Scalpel was getting to his feet, trying to recover from the brain-scrambling feeling of holding a Speed Force user that had moved his body in a way impossible for normal humans.

"You…actually…touched me."

Cauterize looked at Scalpel as he retrieved his glaive.

"…………Huh."

Cauterize's shoulder and arm slammed into Scalpel and pistoned him backwards as Cauterize grabbed a handful of Scalpel's front and ran with it, smashing Scalpel through the walls of the bottom floors of two buildings before he slammed him back first into a thicker wall that didn't give, sending a gigantic shockwave through Scalpel's body.

"I understand the whole concept of noble combat, but quite frankly, in the end it's just little more then a kid's game, and this city has no time for games." Cauterize said. "But if you want to play a game…"

Cauterize flexed his right fingers and inch long blades snapped from the metal lattice he used to protect his hand.

"Tick…"

Cauterize slashed his hand across Scalpel's face, leaving shallow surface wounds.

"Tack…"

Another slash, this one vertical.

"Toe."

The blade snapped back it as Cauterize cocked his fist back and nailed Scalpel with 234 blows to the face within two seconds. The wall crumpled behind Scalpel and he fell on his back as wreckage collapsed on him, burying everything but his legs.

A brief blurring of Cauterize's image gave the impression he hadn't moved, but what he had really done was zip over to where his other blade was stuck into the wall and retrieve it. And considering how fast he moved, he could have probably gotten a drink of water as well, who knew?

"Now go to sleep. Maybe you'll have more of an understanding when you wake up." Cauterize said, and sheathed his blades into the gauntlets.

And Beast Boy leapt at him, this time hedging all his bets on the fastest animal form in the world: the cheetah.

Cauterize dodged without effort as Beast Boy landed, turning with a low growl.

"75 miles an hour. Please." Cauterize said, as Beast Boy returned to his normal form, giving Cauterize a dark look.

"Go ahead then. Show how great you are. I'll even help your wretched ways, I won't even fight back."

Cauterize chuckled, and then he was suddenly in front of Beast Boy.

"Now…where's the sport in that?"

Beast Boy recoiled a bit. Cauterize cocked his head.

"Well?"

Beast Boy's combat instincts kicked in, as he fired up his self DNA-manipulating abilities and turned into the largest grizzly he could muster (his abilities were limited in a sense that he HAD to become animals that existed as they were. If he tried to modify the forms, like making a bear that was, say, fifteen feet tall, his unique viral mutation would reject it, and while it was possible to hold the form, the strain was so intense that it basically rendered Beast Boy worthless…with a few rare exceptions…but this was not one of them), and with a growl he slashed at Cauterize.

Who dodged, as Beast Boy expected, and countered, slamming a few dozen punches into Beast Boy's huge flank. But Beast Boy had guesstimated this move, and that was why he had become a bear: the creature's incredibly thick muscle and bone. Though Cauterize was delivering so many blows at high speed, the bear's natural padding reduced the impacts (well, more like impact, as they were delivered so fast Beast Boy's senses read them as one blow) from bone shatteringly fierce to painful but mostly annoying.

And Beast Boy used it, as he swung again. Cauterize again dodged and countered, but Beast Boy shrugged off the blows as he tried something a bear would not ever think of: a backhand (that was the advantage of taking animal forms while maintaining human intelligence). He had hoped that might work, but it didn't: Cauterize dodged it and hammered blows into Beast Boy's chest and torso. It hurt, but it was a pain Beast Boy could take, and he bared his teeth at Cauterize in the closest thing he could manage with the bear's visage to express mockery.

"Am I being attacked by a mosquito?" he taunted, and slashed again. Again a dodge, again a counter, again nothing. Cauterize reappeared in front of Beast Boy, breathing heavily. Beast Boy attacked, slashing with both paws, and he felt a surge of elation as he felt his claws just catch slightly on Cauterize's outfit. The bastard was slowing down, he was tiring, and all he had to do was get in one good hit…

On the vigilante who was now gone, a line of fire burning away from Beast Boy.

"Ueh?" Beast Boy grunted.

Cauterize stopped in the middle of the field that was several miles away from Light City. He lifted up his hand as his metal lattice snapped over the fingers.

"I'm going to bet he really regrets saying that." Cauterize said to no one is particular.

The field exploded with a sonic boom as Cauterize blasted back towards the city, breaking the sound barrier immediately and blasting through the Mach's as he headed back to his target.

It was a good thing Beast Boy hadn't turned back into a human.

Because being in the bear form was the only thing that saved him when Cauterize blasted up the street, turning the tar beneath to molten slag as he blasted up to Beast Boy and hit him while going at Mach 10.

Beast Boy exploded backwards, smashing through every single window and wall of the buildings behind him for nearly a block, even as the force of the blow shattered every window on the street that Beast Boy had been standing on when he had delivered it. Much could be said of Cauterize's power, skill, and abilities that he had been able to deliver such a blow without reducing his arm to a shattered ruin…but as said, the manipulations of the Speed Force were legion.

Beast Boy finally ran out of impetus after a block and a half and his huge form hit the ground and dragged alongside it, leaving behind a few fur tuffs. Blood began to pool from the bear's snout as Beast Boy whimpered and turned back into his normal form. He bear form had saved him from more serious injuries, but Beast Boy was so bruised and banged up he couldn't have cared less.

Cauterize appeared over him, and carefully nudged him with his foot to flip Beast Boy onto his back. He knelt, gently placing a knee on Beast Boy's chest as he looked into his dazed and blackening eyes.

"Maybe YOU will listen." He said. "Get. Out. Of This…"

Rocks flew at him, boulders the size of suitcases fired faster then a speeding bullet.

Cauterize vanished before they hit him.

The rocks exploded into pebbles.

And Cauterize appeared behind Terra before she could even lower her arms from the first attack.

"Slow learner I see."

Terra slashed her leg behind her in a reverse heel kick and hit nothing, as expected, as Cauterize blurred away. She snapped down her arm and slammed her fist into the ground as a hundred shards of stone snapped up and began whirling around her in a furious dervish that would have sliced and crushed a man to nothing.

She saw a blur moving through them and twisted, two big hunks of concrete breaking up as she tried, with every bit of skill and effort she possessed, and every bit of rage at what Cauterize had done to Beast Boy, her friends, and all his other victims, to get him.

Her rocks exploded, throwing her backwards. For all her motivation, Cauterize was beyond such things, as he had phased through both rocks as she was noticing her presence. The rock storm ceased immediately as Terra flew backwards, and then her endless training kicked in as she flipped and turned around, a chunk of rock ripping out of the ground and sliding up parallel to her feet. When her soles hit, she'd flip the rock 90 degrees to right herself and go into the air, where Cauterize…

Flashed passed her, and with her feet still four meters from the rock, a blade snapped out, far quicker then her eyes could see, and carved the boulder into dust, the blade going back into the gauntlet as Terra was about to hit her former perch…

And instead hit Cauterize's fist as he slammed his hand through the now shattered stone, breaking it as if he had super strength as well as speed, and smashing his palm right into Terra's chest. The connection of two such fierce momentums gave Terra the brief sensation of being crushed between two walls before the force of Cauterize's second blow overrode the force of his first initial blow and sent her flying backwards again. She hit the ground and bounced a few times before coming to a stop.

She coughed, as blood welled up from within her and spilled out her mouth.

"Misery, misery, misery." Cauterize said, walking towards her. "Tercero is dead child. He was dead before you could even begin to protect him. What do you do now? Try and find someone else to protect? Child, that is not only pointless, but worthless. This town was nice once, and it will be that way again, no matter what stands in my way. Now tell me…do you really want to throw your life away, for this?"

Terra coughed again, and then she slowly pushed herself up, her blood running from her mouth like a vampire that had just fed, as she wiped it away with one of her gloves as her eyes alit with golden power.

"That's a question you should be asking yourself."

And Terra clenched her fists as she called to the earth, feeling the earth respond, wondering if this was just some last pointless defiance, because if Cauterize wanted her dead her heart would be pierced or her head removed before she even knew what had happened, but if she was going to die, it was going to be on her feet, and fighting for her cause…

Beast Boy felt the ground vibrating, and he summoned the strength to roll over and pull himself up, ordering his brain to stop making his body hurt, he had a job to do. His talent instinctively reacted by turning him into a gorilla, an animal that had been known to be able to take huge amounts of pain. As his new nervous system processed the damage and lessened it to a point so that he was able to think clearly, he snorted, and then he turned into a pterodactyl and began beating his wings.

Cauterize had stopped again, and had crossed his arms, watching Terra, seemingly with amusement. Rocks began to rise up around her. Poor girl, she never learned…

A brief flicker…

Cauterize dodged back a step as the glaive slashed through the air where he had just been, burying itself in the ground at an angle, his head jerking up to the sight of Scalpel hanging from a lamppost and grinning viciously at him.

And then it happened.

The ground behind Cauterize suddenly buckled and rolled up like someone shaking up a rug, sending cars and everything else positioned on the street flying like Tinker Toys, and even as Cauterize turned and tried to re-access his enhanced state, it rolled underneath him and hurled him up into the sky.

"LET'S SEE YOU RUN ON THIN AIR!" Terra screamed, as Beast Boy swooped in and Scalpel spun on the lamppost and hurled his body at the vigilante, having spent much more time in non-flight situations then Cauterize ever had…

"YEE-HAH! CAN YOU FLY SUCKER! CAN YOU?" Beast Boy whooped.

Though Beast Boy could not hear Cauterize's reply, it was "I don't know, will this do?"

Because Beast Boy didn't have time as Cauterize righted himself in mid air, thrust out his arms at 90 degree parallels, and began to spin, his form dissolving into a blur instantly as he rotated more times in a second then most car tires do in an hour of driving. And the insane speed caused the reaction he wanted, as the air around him was dragged into his rotation and began to twirl as well, building upon itself far faster then it could in nature.

The end result was within two seconds of Beast Boy's errant taunt, he and Scalpel suddenly found himself in the midst of a full-fledged tornado.

"GAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Beast Boy yelled as the intense winds swept him up and he lost himself in them. Scalpel had suffered the same fate, and with a scream Terra was swept up into the maelstrom as well, unable to get away in time or resist the power Cauterize had brought into being.

The tornado grew even larger, sweeping up cars, newspaper stands, trash cans, and everything else that wasn't nailed firmly down, the debris battering the Titans inside the whirlwind, as if they were inside a blender with blunt blades. The tornado grew even bigger, ripping into the sides of the buildings around Cauterize and just adding to the debris as the Titans spun and spun and spun…

And stopped, as Cauterize touched down on the ground, canceling his gyrations.

The tornado died instantly, everything coming crashing down to the ground around Cauterize, the proverbial raining cats and dogs. A few things landed where Cauterize had been standing, long after he had moved, of course.

And the Titans hit the ground as well, lying as still on the ground as any piece of wreckage.

Cauterize looked around. Scalpel had landed on the roof of a car and nearly gone through it. Beast Boy had returned to human form and it didn't look like he'd be changing to something else any time soon. And Terra lay on her back, as if she was just looking at the sky…except the truth was her muscles were so battered she couldn't use them to move.

"So…is the day saved yet?" he asked, looking around in the way of someone who gave the pretense of wanting answers to questions he already knew the answer to. "Anyone? Hello?"

A crack rang through the air.

Cauterize snapped up his hand and caught the bullet that had been fired at his back, not even bothering to turn around for the task. He cocked his head as he brought the bullet closer, as if he was fascinated by it. And then he started to turn around.

"FIRE!!!!!!!!"

Cauterize turned into an onslaught of firepower that rivaled even the one he had faced two nights before. Except this one wasn't being caused by a cowardly sycophant desperately trying to escape the fate he had chosen with his decisions, but a general who had mustered his troops and brought them to bear against the enemy. Unofficial Chief Garry Turnquist might have sympathized, just a bit, with what Cauterize was trying to accomplish, but to him, murder was murder and he had to do what he had lived his life by. And he did, not hiding behind his troops of police, SWAT, and anyone else he had managed to round up when Cauterize had sent the press conference straight to hell but standing and firing right beside them.

A brave stand, by men and women who knew they were up against and faced it anyway.

Not that it made a whit of difference.

Cauterize began his dodging, this time like the Agents of the Matrix films, leaving afterimages as the bullets blasted and streaked by him, as if they were gently tossed softballs. The bullets hit everything behind and around him, but Cauterize remained elusive.

However, the firestorm did have one positive effect as it somehow lit a fire under the Titans who moments ago had wondered if they could ever walk again, if only because they had to move or risk becoming the victims of the attack. Scalpel cursed and shoved himself off the car he was on in an awkward leap seconds before sparks from the ricocheting bullets ignited the gas tanks in the car, causing it to explode. Terra thrust up her arm and a rock barrier sprang up before her mere moments before bullets began thudding into it, a similar one protecting Beast Boy as the air roared with noise and more cars exploded from the barrage, the intense heat causing a chain reaction among other vehicles and turning the street into a level of hell as more and more explosions rocked it. In the corner of his eye, Beast Boy saw their car, the one Robin has loaned them to drive up here, now on it's back and half crushed from the fall, explode into a ball of fire from the chain reactions.

"Dude, not AGAIN." Beast Boy whined.

And abruptly it ended, as the last of the SWAT Team ran out of bullets. The officers didn't hesitate this time: they were already reaching for new clips and slamming them in, as Cauterize stopped, his form coalescing back from the blurry state it had been in.

"Not bad." Cauterize said.

The ends of all the police officers' guns flew off seemingly at the same time, as Cauterize's dash and slash happened too quickly for individual cuts to register.

"Not good enough though."

All the police hit the ground at the same time, the difference between the blows Cauterize had delivered to the backs of their necks in nanoseconds, or virtually none at all. From standing tall to in the dirt, in the time it took to blink an eye.

Cauterize reappeared. He snapped his left blade back into his gauntlet, and then he actually leaned down, placing his hands on his knees as he took deep breaths.

The cock of the gun was very loud in the silence.

"Don't move."

Cauterize turned his head to look at Garry Turnquist, who had somehow gotten back up. He may have been getting older, but he wasn't getting any weaker, as he squared his body in the classic shooter's stance and kept his gun perfectly motionless as he aimed at Cauterize.

"You are under arrest. Drop your weapons and put your hands on your head."

A crazy request, you might say. How could someone actually make one after all they had seen Cauterize do?

Cauterize knew that reality all too well, as he smirked slightly.

"My dear captain, do you really expect me to give up?"

"It'll be easier then if you keep doing this." Turnquist said, even as he thought of his sons, grown and at colleges that were away from Light City, and if their last meeting was going to be their LAST meeting, and his wife…Vanessa, together 27 years and he loved her as much as ever, he had been afraid that what he has chosen to do with the department as it would risk harm coming to her, but if he had given into that fear he would not be acting like the man she had married, and now it may have led to his death, not from the dark shadows that strode to choke his city but the costumed vigilante who wanted to cut all the rot out no matter the consequences…

"Do you actually think that you are what this city needs?" Cauterize replied.

"…Yes."

"You would think that." Cauterize said, and suddenly his blade was in his right hand.

Turnquist began squeezing the trigger, but the bullets met the blade before they struck their target, Cauterize knocking them out of the air and away from him as he walked towards Turnquist at normal speed, but Turnquist would not retreat, he would stand his ground no matter what because he had been backing up for far too long…

The gun clicked dry, and Turnquist instinctively dropped it as he reached for his nightstick…

Only to realize that times had changed, and a move had had honed for decades was worthless as he no longer carried a nightstick…

And then the blade was on his throat, the razor sharp edge biting, ever so slightly, into the upper lay of skin on his Adam's apple, even as the hand he had used to reach for the weapon was seized at the wrist and shoved down, even as the black glass of Cauterize's helmet reflected his expression of surprise and fear, the helmet hiding Cauterize's own expression, which could have been a dozen things…

"After what you did, be grateful this is it." Cauterize said.

And then he yanked the blade away and spun it around, intercepting Scalpel's clawed hand, the sword striking between the alien's two talon fingers as Scalpel tried to twist the blade out of his hand, but Cauterize was simply too fast, ramming several dozen blows into Scalpel's sternum, opening up a long ago inflicted wound that never seemed to heal properly, even as he yanked his sword back and backhanded Scalpel at super-speed, even as Turnquist made for one of the guns on the ground and had just begun his ducking leap when Cauterize's hand slashed into the side of his neck, and he hit the ground, knocked cold.

"Then again, how could I ever do worse to you?" Cauterize asked.

He ran backwards as rock spikes erupted from the ground where he had been standing, dodging away from a leaping Velociraptor claw kick and an immediate followup anaconda encoiling before he spun away from another glaive throw. Beast Boy didn't give up, charging as a rhinoceros and hitting nothing but the wall as Cauterize zipped to the side and then zapped back in a Speed Force assisted shoulder ram that sent Beast Boy tumbling along, even as Cauterize ducked under a leaping kick from Scalpel and charged at Terra as thousands of pebbles flew at him, dodging around them as he snapped his arm out and clotheslined Terra, and even as her feet were leaving the ground blasted over to Scalpel as he was turning and slammed his elbow into his forehead, and then back over to Terra, who was now parallel to the ground, as he laced his fists together and slammed them down on her stomach, sending her crashing down.

But as she hit, she lashed out wildly, and the ground erupted and buckled and shattered as she sent a wild array of commands into it. Devoid of rhyme or reason, the instructions quickly merged into a low level earthquake that caused parts of the street to ripple, break, and buckle even more.

Cauterize was already on the run through, as he tried to get back to Scalpel to put an explanation point on his attack of the alien as well, except he had to dart aside as long squid arms grabbed for him, his mouth curling in annoyance as he tried to dodge away…

And then he stumbled, Terra's wild talent outpouring having made the ground rough and broken. Cauterize immediately snapped himself out of his "zone" to recover and Beast Boy managed to grab him.

He regretted it though, as Cauterize immediately spun in Beast Boy's slimy tentacles before he could tighten his grip, generating intense heat in an instant and forcing Beast Boy to let go. The pain caused him to turn back into a human being, even as Cauterize tried to get back into form…and then Scalpel was there, clawing and slashing at Cauterize as the rough ground impeded his dodging and forced him to walk backwards to avoid tripping again, even as Terra started getting back up and Beast Boy prepared to transform again as Scalpel drove him backwards…

"ENOUGH."

And Cauterize leapt up, spinning until his feet and head had done a 180-degree switch, and then he slammed out his fists, catching both Beast Boy and Scalpel in their faces. They hadn't been closing in on him, he'd been luring them into a trap, and it paid big time as he smashed his metal laced fists into their faces, throwing them backwards, even as he began twisting to land, he slashed out his leg in a precise pattern at such a high speed that he fired off a blade of wind that slashed at Terra, which would have surely cut her in half had it not been aimed at the ground in front of her rather then her person, the manipulated air slamming into the concrete and triggering an eruption of force that threw Terra backwards, even as Cauterize landed from the leap and snapped out his blades, even as he took a breath…

And the line lashed out, coming from nowhere, and catching Cauterize clear across the face. His helmet front exploded into a hundred black shards as the impact snapped his head back and threw him, causing him to hit the ground, even as he recovered and rolled with his momentum.

As Savior swung down, and his fellows recovered from the last attacks as they all prepared to attack…

As Cauterize looked up at the man who he thought was finished, only to return and catch him when it really counted…

And Savior saw a face behind the helmet that was covered by a black ski mask, the only thing peering out from the hole he had made one eye with an intense gaze with an undertone of great anger.

"I SAID ENOUGH!"

The four blows were as one, as Cauterize struck hard and above all fast, the time between the separate attacks virtually nonexistent.

Indeed, time seemed to stand still as the attacks came.

And then all the Titans blasted backwards, even as all the windows once again exploded from the impacts, all the young heroes hitting the ground among a shower of broken glass.

Then, stillness.

And then Cauterize reappeared (as in, slowed down enough for the human eye to see him) about ten feet from the fallen teenagers.

He took a few deep, gasping breaths, holding his chest, and then collected himself, as the rage in his eye faded and was replaced by a cold calculating front. He looked back over his shoulder.

"Next time, I won't be so nice. There better not BE a next time. Ta again." Cauterize said.

And then with one final explosion of sound and a line of fire erupting from the ground where Cauterize had run, he was gone, as if he had never been.

Except the evidence to the contrary showed was far too strong…

As Beast Boy, blood running into his eyes and everything in his vision splitting apart and blurring, somehow got up and raised a fist.

"Hey wait…we're just warming…"

And then he fell backwards, landing with a small thud and not getting back up.

None of the other Titans were moving as well, nor was the Light City Police Force, nor was anything in Cauterize's battle zone. All that remained was wreckage, human and otherwise.

"So much for the late Mayor Tercero's great solution to the problem." One of the police officers said bitterly, as he looked at the mess. By now backup and rescue vehicles had finally braved the area where the battle had taken place now that it was clear that Cauterize was gone.

"Goddamn freaks. All of them." Said another.

"Shut the fuck up soldier." Came a sudden growling yell, and the two speaking officers, as well as several others who were clustered around the ambulance where paramedics were examine the police, jumped and looked at the Unofficial Chief, Garry Turnquist, who had refused treatment as he went around to make sure his people were all right. They seemed to be, on the attack force front anyway, but Cauterize's abilities had caused a great deal of damage, and there were more then a few people who had been caught in the chaos.

"They did their best. Until you can do any better, keep your trap shut." Turnquist said, looking at the ambulance where the teenagers were being treated. The paramedics there were currently looking at the leader, who was sprawled on a stretcher and looked like he WISHED he were dead. The alien one was up, barely, and he was examining the only female of the group. The green skinned one was sitting nearby, staring off into space, perhaps due to the severe concussion he had most likely suffered during the fight. Far be it from the invincible fighting force that Tercero had painted them as. They looked a lot more like teenagers then titans at the moment.

The officer gave him a dirty look.

"ARE WE HAVING A PROBLEM OFFICER!?!?!?" Turnquist roared.

"SIR! NO SIR!" The police officer replied, instinctively reacting like a recruit might to the drill sergeant voice Turnquist possessed. Truth was, he didn't much like yelling, but as the Unofficial Chief of Police, he needed people to focus on the last three words rather then the first.

Now more then ever, because with Tercero not only dead but killed right in front of a large crowd and the media without anyone being able to do more then provide more targets for Cauterize to attack, the city's descent was going to become a freefall. The citizenry would panic, especially after what had happened to the so-called superheroes that had been sent in to protect them, but that wasn't the worst. What was the worst was that Stephen Pierce would finally realize that this might be something that all his connections and puppets couldn't protect him from, and he'd start lashing out in panic himself, which would surely lead to innocent people getting hurt or killed. Turnquist grit his teeth. Cauterize, that self righteous bastard, running around like he was a god that possessed all the answers, not understanding in the least that he was just making the city disintegrate faster then it already was, but Turnquist would be damned if he just let this place, his HOME, fall apart…

And then he heard people reacting to something…his people. He turned and saw why.

Approaching the group was Jonathon Chesbro, abet the worse for wear. He was clutching the left arm of his trench coat, which was shredded and bloody. No…no clutching, gripping something.

"I could use some help here." He said, stumbling. His fellow officers rushed forward at the stumble, grabbing him gently and helping him along to the ambulance, where he sat down.

"Let me through!" Turnquist ordered, pushing his way to Chesbro, whose arm was being looked at. Turnquist finally saw what Chesbro has been gripping: the end of a strip of cloth that he had tied tightly around the top of his arm. A tourniquet.

"What happened? Where were you Chesbro?"

"I saw him." Chesbro said.

"Saw who?"

"The vigilante." Chesbro said through clenched teeth as the paramedics cut off the arm of the coat to reveal a blood-slicked limb. Some of the officers made slight noises of shock at the injury. "It's ok. Worse then it looks…I hope…"

"You saw him? How?" Turnquist said incredulously.

"I was in the crowd…saw something flashing on the top of a building." Chesbro said. "I thought it looked suspicious, so I went to investigate. But the crowd was too thick, couldn't go through them, so instead I went into the building on the side of the road. I was hoping to use a side door to get back out and hence go around the crowd…except no sooner did I get into the lobby when a huge group of people suddenly appeared in it."

"Appeared?"

"Out of thin air. But it wasn't. Just before it happened I got assailed by a bunch of wind gusts. That, and from what the people were saying…I think the vigilante took them from the building and put them there, for some reason."

Turnquist couldn't give him an answer, but if Savior, who was currently having his eyes examined as best the paramedics could, as they were pretty much swollen shut by now, had been nearby, he could have. Those people had been the ones that Cauterize had removed from the floor he had punched Savior into so he could use said floor as a weapon.

"Anyway, no sooner did I recover from that surprise when I heard the chaos outside. I would have gone back out…but the people were scared and confused…so instead I decided I'd get them out. So I led them all to the side door I was going to use and was seeing them out…and it was just about done when something pushed me."

"Pushed you?"

"I had my back to another door. Something pushed me back and through it. At the time I was looking at the backs of the people I was seeing out of the building, so I thought a group might have come from behind me and shoved me through in their panic. So I got up, noticing I was in a bathroom, and opened the door…and I just happened to glance back…and I saw him."

"You saw his face?" Turnquist asked.

"I wish…" Chesbro said, and grit his teeth as the paramedics began cleaning the wounds on his arm. "I think he shoved me in when he was going into the washroom. Maybe he was going so fast he didn't notice me. I was just turning around when he stepped out from inside one of the stalls…he was pulling on a ski mask or something."

Turnquist's heart sank. The only glimpse of the vigilante under his helmet and it was when the bastard was putting on another mask…wait a minute…

"Why was he putting on a mask?"

"I don't know. That was pretty much all I saw. He turned his head, I think he was about to slip on his helmet, maybe he wanted to do it normally so he could look in the mirror and make sure he didn't make any mistakes…or maybe he was resting…I don't know…I started to take a step and then he was gone. He ran past me and in the process he hit me, threw me into the mirror. It shattered, slashed my arm up pretty good…I came to in a pool of blood. Anyway, I managed to tie off my arm so I didn't bleed to death and headed out…and I found this. I assume the vigilante got away."

"You assume right Detective." Turnquist said darkly.

"And the teenagers?"

"Weren't any help. He thrashed them."

"I thought so." Chesbro said, and winced again. "So, will I live?"

"Looks like it detective. You didn't appear to have severed any arteries…just a lot of minor surface cuts. You should be ok." The paramedics said.

"Ok, bandage me up then. Hurry." Chesbro said.

"Sir, you may need a doctor…"

"I'm not bleeding to death, am I?"

"No sir but…"

"Then bandage me up! We have things to do!"

"Hold on Chesbro. You might have more damage there then these boys can diagnose. I suggest you listen." Turnquist said.

"Hell no! We have to get moving! Collect some evidence before…"

"Chesbro…I already have men doing that. You've been hurt, let them help you."

"With all due respect chief, I don't know if I trust those men very much."

"Oh? Why not?"

"You know sir." Chesbro said, his eyes darkening. "More then a few have…other loyalties. Even if they find anything…it might be for HIM instead of…"

"ENOUGH DETECTIVE! You are to be treated and that is that!" Turnquist said, and left.

Chesbro tried to keep his face neutral, but the always-there resentment began to bubble.

He glanced over to the so-called superheroes.

"And what did you do anyway?" he asked himself, as the paramedics began to bandage his arm. "Nothing but titles and reputation…and we're always left holding the bag."

Turnquist walked away, his mind racing, carefully controlled chaos that threatened to skid off its wheels.

"Ok people listen up! I'm only going to say this once!" Turnquist ordered. He noticed one of his men approaching, one he had sent on a specific task. Good, he needed his information.

"Sir." The SWAT member said as he approached.

"What's going on sergeant?"

"The only verified body so far is of Mr. Tercero, but there was a great deal of pandemonium, even with the efforts of the metahumans, sir. Stampedes, fires, explosions…anyway, there are a few people who have been reported missing sir. We're hoping they just got lost in the commotion and nothing has happened to them…but we're still sorting through it all. Give us another hour and we're have a much clearer picture."

"Thank you sergeant. Ok people, you heard him! MOVE! We need to keep our eyes opened and our ears to the ground. Search every single building that bears a definite mark of the vigilante being there; look for anyone who might have been missed in the confusion too! GO, GO! Sergeant!" Turnquist yelled after the leaving policeman.

"Yes sir!"

Turnquist was already thinking ahead. The police department had been bad enough, but with Tercero's death ALL the city's functions were going to go to hell…unless they nipped it in the bud right now. But to do that, Turnquist needed something. Or someone.

"Sergeant, with Tercero's death, the mayorship legally transfers to the Deputy Mayor, Roman Fernendez! We need to find him now, get everything set up…"

"Sir, that could be a problem sir!"

"What? What do you mean a problem? We need him!" Turnquist said, and he meant it. Not only could Fernendez officially make him the chief of police, but as far as Turnquist knew, he didn't have any connections to Stephen Pierce. Which could be highly beneficial if the person in "absolute power" wasn't doing everything to please someone with rather dubious intentions…

"Sir…Fernendez is one of the missing."

Inside a car, eyes peered through powerful binoculars, admiring the handiwork. But eventually his interest in what had happened passed, and he turned his gaze onto the teenagers.

"Perfect." Van Toolman whispered. "Just you wait. You thought this was bad? You don't know bad."

And as another ambulance came screeching around the corner and stopped in the huge crush of vehicles that were parked at the edge of the destruction, Toby Garigen trotted out of an alleyway…and then stopped, staring at it all. He reached down and massaged his leg muscles as he watched the hustle and bustle, as people ran around and yelled and screamed and cursed and did a bunch of other things that indicated that they weren't happy.

"Man, this city really IS going to hell." Toby remarked, and then he turned and jogged away.

To Be Continued