Flashing lights and sounds

by Jedi-And

The official sequel to Legend Maker's "Wings Of The Eagles." New day, new problems, as the Titans are faced with a foe with a name even more pretentious then Savior. But can he back it up...?

21. Absolution: Armours and their Ghosts

Flashing Lights and Sounds

By Jedi-And

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, nor do I own Mr. Noel Collins or Robert Candide, but I DO own my own characters.

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Chapter 21: Armours and their Ghosts

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"You do this under protest!" Scalpel yelled, as he followed Savior from one room to the next in his attempt to discourage his friend from doing what he was about to do.

"Duly noted." The white haired teen replied, not slowing his stride.

We now rejoin the Titans from our pleasant little interlude a few days after we had left them. With the help of the JLA, enough evidence had been found to put a lot of the higher members of the cult behind bars, while a lot of the lower ranks, who just did what they were told or had no idea of the true nature of the organization they had belonged to, left and went home to their husbands, wives, sons and daughters. Their leader, Doctor Nickleson, had not been found, and neither had Vanity. The Titans worried about the day she came back, and him, but for now they just enjoyed the fact that the world seemed to be getting on fine without them, and had only really stepped outside to stop the odd and simple bank robbery since then. It was peaceful and fun.

Except Noel, ever the watchman, had other plans in mind.

Walking on while Nigel continued to rant and rave in his ear, the pair of them joined a room full of Titans to do something they had never done before: haze a Civilian. Like Raven had said, Nigel had given his trust to Sophie Mathews on a platter, and she had accepted said trust and returned it with respect and friendship. Cyborg and Starfire also accepted Sophie for being a kind, honest soul, and Gauntlet had no real negative opinion on her as it was hard for Robert Candide to have a negative opinion on anything. However, the other Titans had been persuaded to give her a hazing, though not in the usual sense. They were skipping the more physically gruelling tests and the more painful tasks and going straight to twenty questions. In reality, it was an interrogation, though Noel had been certain (and correctly so) he wouldn't be able to sell the Titans on that. But, disguised as hazing…

Whatever it may be, it was making the young woman uncomfortable. Sophie wasn't sure, and she was also unsure if she wanted to know, why all the Titans were all surrounding her in their 'auditorium'. It was built so large, well known heroes could come and almost 'guest lecture' the younger ones, or the Titans could lecture themselves to new up and coming heroes on the proper procedure of being a hero. It had been used a few times, though Nigel had never seen it before. It was small by most standards, only accommodating about twenty seats, though the floor space was large enough to do anything from a medical seminar to a martial arts display. One year the Titans were thinking about producing a play for the public; the space would be perfect for rehearsals if they could ever actually find the time to go through with it.

In the middle of the room was a chair, and in it sat the young undertaker who had agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to do this. She breathed slowly as she heard Nigel and Noel come around the corner and enter the room, Nigel now resorting to speaking in his native tongue to try and get his point across.

"Scalpel, 1) I can't understand you, and 2) Calm down, we're not going to harm her." Savior tried to reassure him. It seemed to work, as the alien simmered down and took a seat nearer the back.

"This is sooo important." Terra said flippantly as she put some popcorn into her mouth. Cyborg just shrugged.

"When Savior has his mind on something, he won't let it go until it's done. He's like a stubborn dog when you try and take away his chew toy." Cyborg noted lightly as the others also settled down. Sophie felt like she was under the microscope, as they all seemed to stare at her, waiting. She could feel the sweat rolling down her cheeks as she looked around the room, trying her hardest not to stare at the Titans, lest they thought she was staring at them in hate. There seemed to be a pause, enough to cause the air to stagnate and coughs to come from some of the Titans.

Luckily a new blast of fresh air filled the room; unfortunately this was soon followed by the smell of burning fur as the poor Titan who had to go get the lasso this time was Beast Boy, who wasn't exactly skilled at covert operations.

Although Wonder Woman was becoming highly irate that the Titans always seemed to go for her Lasso whenever they wanted to test if someone was lying, the other members of the Justice League were surprisingly positive on it, as it was a good analysis for their security systems. If the Titans didn't steal said rope every so often, they wouldn't know if their security systems were good enough to stop career criminals from taking the artefact and letting it fall into the wrong hands. The Titans always returned the lasso once they were finished so there was no real harm done. Still, it was getting harder and harder to break into the Watchtower, steal the lasso and get out. The JLA now realized that their defences and preventative measures had holes in them, but in such a fashion that they needed to improve the 'curative' ones, ones that reacted when something has been taken or disturbed. They weren't yet good enough to prevent said theft, but they also were not useless, hence the burn marks.

"Dude, that was not fun." Beast Boy said weakly as he handed the golden rope to Savior. The white teen didn't say a word as he nodded and made his way over to Sophie.

"Why did I have to do that?" Beast Boy asked as he collapsed over a few of the chairs.

"We explained. You were the next one to go get the Lasso. We all drew names out of a hat to go get said lasso each time we needed it." Robin elucidated. "Next time we need it, It'll be Scalpel's turn."

"Wait, how did I 'jump' the list as you humans say?" The alien asked, leaning over from one of the further rows.

"Simple, because you can't change fuses."

The group faded off into a slight flashback of him replacing the fuse for the kettle (why Nigel couldn't just use an American kettle which did not require fuses, rather then a British one that did was an issue lost to time…), only to accidentally make it explode (He had a wonderful knowledge of medicine, but his technological knowledge left a little to be desired, yet he could help to rebuild Cyborg at times because he understood the principles behind the organic counterparts, but there was a difference between an advanced cyborg and a tea kettle…). Unfortunately, when Scalpel made the kettle explode, Robin was in mid game and getting a high enough score to beat the rumoured high score Cyborg got during the time jumps, and ecause the explosion was electrical based it shorted out the entire tower, which meant that not only did Robin lose his game save, Beast Boy was cut off talking to then girlfriend Charm, Starfire wondered what she did wrong when she opened her mini-fridge to find the light wouldn't come on, and Cyborg was stuck in the lift.

But I digress...

"This won't hurt." Noel said, as he tied Sophie's arm to the armrest of the chair she was sitting in. She had a slightly worried look in her eyes as she tested the strength of the rope. Chances were the armrest or her arm itself would give before the lasso did. She was stuck, and whatever the Titans had in mind, she had a feeling she wouldn't like it.

Noel walked towards the seats but didn't sit down; he stood there, like a vulture on a branch waiting for its prey to die before swooping in.

"How do we know this will work?" Raven lightly asked. The sorceress had a small bandage on her forehead with some absorbent pads under it and stitches under that (She was wondering if there would come a time when her healing abilities would no longer be needed with Scalpel around taking all the medical emergencies and healing them the old fashioned way). "We've only tested this on heroes who had nothing to hide."

"What about the bit when Savior spoke about his first experiences with his power?" Robin asked.

"We can check.. HEY! How much do you weight Sophie?" Terra shouted from the middle of the rows of seats. On closer inspection there was about 40 seats rather than twenty.

"One hundred and forty to fifty pounds at my last weighing..." Sophie paused and covered her now bright red face with her free hand. Nigel blushed as well as he heard the ever so slight utterance of 'bitch' under Sophie's bright red lips. He had wondered why they hadn't dissipated yet and gone back to their normal flesh colour, as the rest of her seemed to return to normal after drinking the blood except her lips. She shrugged it off, just saying it was probably a side effect of her drinking the blood of a human, as she didn't need to drink it for nourishment, she just drank it because it hurt the other person, which was in this case her brother.

Terra laughed to herself, being only a deathly seventy pounds. She was one of the smallest, and the lightest of the Titans. She could also be nasty at times; perhaps whatever Slade had briefly tapped into in another life was finding new channels in the blonde girl, manifesting in less Judas Contract but still mean ways.

"Enough. This is for serious purposes, not high school bullshit." Savior snapped, and then unfurled a list of questions that he wanted to ask the undertaker. The reason behind the timing of this wasn't because they didn't have anything better to do (they still needed to get the underground bunker from the previous chapter sorted), but Noel had started with his usual paranoia and now they needed to wait for his list of probing and ultimately pointless questions to find out if Sophie was a threat to them in any way shape or form. Nigel's protests were understandable but ultimately dismissible; he wouldn't let his team suffer because Nigel seemed to think he had found someone to protect, kind of like Superman's Lois Lane. He wondered if it was more than that, but he just had to wait and see.

"Okay Robin, start the tape."

Robin nodded and pressed a button next to him, which started the microphone. They even had a little red light with the words 'Recording' outside of the room so if anyone was outside, they knew to take it easy when coming inside.

"Alright, these are the Teen Titans; Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Savior, Gauntlet, Terra and Scalpel interviewing Miss Sophie Mathews." Savior said, speaking loudly so he was sure he'd be heard. Everyone made a noise of acknowledgement, either in the human tongue known as English or in their own native language. Some said something in another language just to show off.

"First question Miss Mathews, and I won't beat around the bush like we do when recruit or join up new members." Savior said. He looked over his shoulder slightly before continuing on. "Are you a mole, spy or any other kind of traitor would set us up for any reason whatsoever?"

"No." She replied simply, shaking her head. She was a little taken aback by the question, however she half expected it. As she said, sometimes it's hard to believe people are good just to be good any more, there always has to be a level of deceit or selfishness behind it to make it believable.

"Would you ever turn into a mole, spy or traitor for any reason whatsoever?"

"I wouldn't have a reason to do so."

"Please answer that yes or no."

"No, I wouldn't."

Nigel's face started to scowl at the questions.

"Do you realize that staying at the tower until you get yourself back on your feet may result in you being kidnapped and/or tortured and/or killed."

This shocked Sophie somewhat.

"Er... Well I hadn't thought about it..." She paused a little. What else was there to do? She couldn't go back home as she didn't have one, and she couldn't go back to her father's house as that would make this whole leaving her family thing moot. Savior waited patiently. He knew such a thing could be a blow to a person as it may, or may not, make or break them in their resolve.

"Y-yes, I understand." She said lightly before continuing. Savior nodded.

"You realize that the same could be said for any one of the Titans for any reason?" He gestured towards the crowd behind him, though he was metaphorically pointing to Scalpel, and the alien knew he was. She once again paused, her face changing ever so slightly as she tried to think. Then she nodded solemnly, her brown hair falling in front of her face. "She nods but doesn't say anything." He spoke so that the tape could hear him.

"Why is Savior treating her like this?" Nigel growled to Raven, who just shrugged, wondering if her boyfriend was indeed taking this too far. She could understand not wanting anything to affect their team, but she didn't want him to take it too far and to try and plug the chair into the main electrical supply.

"Do you have any affiliation with any criminals of any kind?"

"My brother." She stated quickly. "He's corrupt, he lies, he steals, and I'm sure he embezzles and launders money but I can't prove it."

After she said it, she regretted it. But of course she could do nothing about it as her arm was wrapped in a lasso that acted like the perfect truth serum. Savior nodded and looked at his questions sheet.

"Would he offer us any problems in the future?"

"Not sure, though I do remember him trying to buy Titans Tower when it was the old labs owned by Doctor Stone." She replied. "He may try and go for it again; after all it would prove he has power."

Savior just growled in disgust. This Tony Mathews was another Maxwell Collins in the making. He wasn't quite there, but he could tell that Tony had everything it took; he just needed the experience and a few higher quality henchmen.

"Do you own any weaponry of any kind?"

"No, except a pair of antique swords that were display only which was handed down to me by my grandfather, however those had been 'confiscated' by my brother when he seized the Funeral Home."

"Alright." Savior paused and made his way over to her, each step a slow one. She had hoped that was it, that she would be untied and that they would carry on while she looked for her own place, but it wasn't quite over, He removed from his jacket a card with some writing on it and showed it to her. It was another question, but one that seemed to turn her beetroot-red and made her recoil slightly, her eyes almost welling up by being offended.

"Y...ou think I'm nothing more than some kind of..." She said, her voice weak. Savior had shown her the card rather than asked the question outright because of one reason and one reason alone, Nigel would have heard him. But he heard Sophie's reply.

"You tell me." Savior replied.

"That's enough!" Scalpel shouted as he stood up. "This interview is terminated." He made his way down as Robin nodded in agreement and clicked off the tape. Savior straightened himself up and placed the card back inside the secret pocket on the inside of his jacket.

"You are treating her like a criminal!" Scalpel continued to yell as he made it to the auditorium floor. Savior turned to face him. "I agree that we have to make sure that people don't want to harm the team, but if we look at her history the only thing she has ever had was a parking ticket!"

"I suppose you do have a point, however I have to make it clear that..."

The white Titan was cut off as alarms sounded throughout the building. Obviously something was causing a problem. The Titans looked over to Robin.

"Alright, time we had some exercise." Robin stood up, having fully returned to the role of leader. "Titans! Go!"

The Titans, ran, flew, jumped and teleported out of the room, leaving Noel and Nigel in the centre of it as they untied Sophie from the chair.

"Okay, now Sophie, you can stay here, but if you can't understand what something does within three seconds, please don't touch it." Noel stated, finally letting her go. She just offered another silent nod as she rubbed her wrist. Turning to the doctor, he tried to think of any other necessities. "Okay, now you go grab your gear Nigel and we'll be on our way. Whatever it is this time we'll find out when we get to the lounge."

The alien nodded and then started for the door…

…only to stop with the utterance of a single word.

"Nigel?" Sophie asked, causing the alien's eyes to bug out and Savior to groan heavily. The only time he has ever let slip a name, EVER, and it had to be in front of a civilian. He cursed inwardly and decided that there was only one thing to do.

"Hey Sophie? Look over there a second." He said, and she complied happily, turning to face in the pointed direction, completely trusting the Titan, as he reached up with his hand, the Shimmer coming from his palm to insert itself into Sophie's ear and wipe her recent memory clean.

Or at least he would have, if Nigel hadn't jumped in and grabbed his arm and dragged him back, literally forcing the Shimmer to miss her ear by a few millimetres as Scalpel pulled his friend out of the room. Sophie just looked confused as she could hear the struggle, but by the time she got the idea that maybe she should turn her head back to see what was actually happening, they were gone. She sighed; it must have been one of Savior's little traits to try and disappear without anyone seeing him, like Batman did, and then she mused on how Nigel seemed quite the handsome name, and for some reason it seemed to suit him quite nicely.

Once outside the room, Noel wasn't exactly the happiest of campers as he managed to shrug away Nigel's strong grip.

"What, may I ask, was that for?" He questioned sternly, brushing himself down.

"Well apart from the fact that you may inadvertently wipe away her memories of her training as an undertaker, that is an invasion of privacy too far." Nigel retorted. "It would be like one of us connecting Cyborg to a computer and Sideloading his memories onto a disk."

"Downloading, not Side-loading." Savior corrected. "But I suppose you're right. Still, I have my doubts about her."

"You're slowly becoming paranoid my friend. Why would she want to harm us?"

"Nigel, I could give you a list the size of the average phone book on why she might do something bad, because it has been done so many, many times before."

Nigel scowled again.

"But, for you... I'll give her a chance. After all, who knows what might happen in the future." Noel said, while shrugging.

"What did you actually show her?" Nigel asked as the pair ran upstairs to the lounge area.

"I'm not going to tell you."

Reaching the lounge, they actually found that their little spat had caused them to be a tad late, and hence there were no other active Titans in the room, just the information on the large screen in front of them.

"You're late." Well there was one Titan left. Raven sat upon the sofa with a bowl of ice-cream and one of the many books she meant to get around to reading.

"And you my dear are stating the obvious." Noel commented lightly, a slight smile on his lips before he returned to his usual work based attitude. "Blame safety discussions."

The reason that Raven was not on the mission was a simple one. In the last few months she had been attacked, slashed, eaten and cut up for parts and because of the blood loss Nigel had ordered her to take an extra few days off, despite the fact that he too had lost a lot of blood over the last few days. Then again, doctors sometimes never listen to their own advice.

The pair swiftly read the information on the screen and followed the Titans to the mentioned location (Raven giving them a little help and making a conduit to the museum that was being robbed, or at least near enough as not to strain her too greatly). Obviously they figured that it wouldn't take too long to take this person out. On the screen, taken from a hacked feed of the museum cameras, had been a man wearing armour and armed with a long spear. He didn't look too bad; the Titans could probably last a little while without them. Then again, while this spear wielding person was neither the tallest nor most defined people in the universe, he still looked like he could do some damage, even if it was only collateral.

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Collateral damage:

Damage done to an inanimate object, or in the case of super heroes, MANY inanimate objects. This could be anything from cars to buildings. Super heroes have been put through windows so many times people have lost count. The Titans, had they been paying attention, would realise that they go through windows more often then people give them credit for. Savior ranked at the top of the list on the whole window thing (He went through them so often it seemed a running joke of the cosmos), though he was quickly followed by Cyborg who had been put through as many walls as windows. Beast Boy and Terra would probably be at the bottom of the list, both being too small and light to be able to break a window, let alone a wall, unless they were propelled with enough force to do so. But enough force to propel them from their usual forms or constructs would have probably knocked the window out just because of the shockwave.

Damages calculate at least two thirds of the super hero group budget, or at least for a lot of the heavily powered ones: vigilantes, the ones who didn't have special powers, tended to spend more on gadgets than damages. Most people saw the damages and looked upon these 'special' people with a sort of disdain; even if their intentions were good did they really need to throw my Ford at them?

But we all know what road those intentions line, and we know about what could happen with them. Men and women fight, bleed, suffer, and sometimes die because they needed to, otherwise more fatalities would follow, only to find that when all was said and done they had been needed elsewhere and the unprotected area had fallen apart without them.

The Spoiler had had good intentions; she had wanted to help bring down the masses of criminals in Gotham, but the real question had been was she truly doing this for the city, or had it been to prove to Batman he was wrong about her? Was she hiding behind good intentions? Or was she just trying to do two things at once? Unfortunately, we will never know, as the young woman was killed, in the process triggering off a new mass hatred of costumed 'vigilantes'. The futures for heroes seem to be getting bleaker as the days wore on. Less and less people respected them for what they did or were doing, and would rather pull them from the pedestal they had been arguably placed upon by those who now wished to destroy them.

Men and women with good intentions, forever going into the darkness of the world to find a light switch. Problem was, the switch they pulled may have just been turning on the electric chair before they inadvertently sat down on it, having let their guard down in thinking they have done a good job.

Sometimes not even that. A lot of people think they can, deserve to, sit down after doing a good job, only to find out that they needed, forced to get back up and prove that their efforts have been useful in some way or another, and to carry on said 'good job' until doomsday. This was one of the things the Titans sometimes struggled with; if they had to give it all up, would they be able to? When they got old and had to pass the torch, would they be able to do it? Or could they not, because habit told them not to, because they were too used to the idea that they had to get up and get to 'work' on the city.

Before the Titans had turned up, Jump City had been a place of fear and loathing, caught between two powerful criminal empires that would have burned the city to the ground before they let the other side have it. Now it was a respectable place to live. There weren't as many cars about as there used to be as insurance inadvertently rose due to the fact the Titans tended to use them as ammunition, though also because of this tourism started rising, because it was such a generally clean city. It had been lucky the Titans had turned up when they did; any longer and the damage to the city would have been irreparable, like Gotham was now. The reason Batman had made such plans and took such lengths as had been revealed in the 'War Games' tragedy was because the corruption of the city of darkness had gone too far, and had sunk too deep. Unless someone cut it out with as much ferocity as when it was placed, Gotham would only decline until it imploded on itself and became a cancer upon the rest of the world.

Then again, it is not the city that is the cancer, but the people. People are prone to do things that other animals on this planet wouldn't even conceive of doing; rape, murder and other villainies…and stealing, although that was 'less' in the world of crime than the previous two named acts. It was still, however, noticeable. And it had been what the Titans had gone to stop that day when they left in the middle of Sophie's 'interrogation'.

It had gone relatively to plan, as Robin and the others had managed to surround the museum in question and had all gone in at different points to prevent the new unnamed enemy from escaping, only to see something they hadn't quite expected. Usually when a person robbed a museum they tried their hardest to keep the artefacts in one piece so they could be sold to collectors or other museums for large sums of money. However, the figure now in front of them didn't pay the same careful attention to the artefacts that other criminals might have if they were in there because a museum is usually a gold mine for everyone. The criminal steals the artefact, and sells it to someone else, that person then sells it back to the museum for more and the museum gets their artefact back. Of course most of the time this cycle was stopped at step number two because sometimes the whole point of buying something like that was just so you can boast at the fact you had something which you shouldn't, like the solid gold death mask of an old emperor.

But who said this man was in there to rob the place?

The Titans had surrounded him, and despite of aforementioned surprise they seemed to be winning against the man who was quite content ripping apart thousands of years of history. That is, they were winning until he managed to draw his spear from behind him.

That happened to be the point when things went to hell in a hand basket. When Savior and Scalpel managed to actually get to the relic warehouse that was this olden style building, they had found that a large chunk of the front had been destroyed by whatever the Titans had encountered, even as the Titans stood there, straight and true against the foe who walked slowly, calmly down the stairs in the front of the building. He was a relatively average sized man, his armour representing that of a mix of ancient Chinese armour and medieval plating. Most people would think he was a stereotypical knight, but half of his face was open, the lower half. The upper half was covered by a simple mask and helmet combination; you could even still see his eyes. His leather boots matched his armour, as it seemed to be made of a bronze alloy of some kind.

"Well now I've seen everything." He said, speaking in a somewhat bemused voice that was altered, just a bit, so it didn't sound fully human, altered by something unseen. If Raven had been there, she would have told them instantly if he was magical or not, but she wasn't so they had no idea what power type he had. It made the Titans feel uncomfortable. "A group that in some places is revered as one of the greatest super hero teams on the planet, and yet you still can't see when things are not of your concern."

"You are tearing up our city, I think it is our concern." Robin replied.

"Well then do-gooder, you will feel my evil wrath upon thee!"

"Do-gooder? Wrath upon thee?" Gauntlet asked, shifting through the leaflets he had managed to get. No one was yet sure where the hell he had managed to get those things from; maybe he had a secret supplier or something. "Methinks you need monologuing improvement. How about Evil John's evil courses?" He asked, holding up a leaflet to their foe's work.

"That was the man who broke into Jump City's Park Avenue bank!" Starfire commented, looking over his shoulder. It was indeed the red eyed, smirk wearing, black haired, cape owning super villain who had managed to escape the clutches of the Titans back in Wings of Eagles.

"Oh...um... yeah." He stated simply. Beast Boy snatched the leaflet away.

"Where did you get this!" He demanded.

"You do not need to know where I got this from." He waved his hand in front of Beast Boy's face.

"DON'T you be starting that again!" Cyborg exclaimed, pressing down hard on the wise cracking Titan. The man in the armour sweat-dropped somewhat, wondering if the fact their attention was diverted from him was accidental or just out of disrespect.

"We'll deal with you later Gauntlet, but for now we may as well ask your name." Robin stated, addressing the problem at hand, not the problem that had happened a while ago.

"Very well." The armoured man said. He coughed slightly and started to strike multiple posses. "I am the terror that haunts the dreams of the heroes of this world; I am the hero of a world destroyed by those who proclaimed to protect it! I am the MASTER of the injustice! I am Longius!"

"Long what?" Gauntlet managed to ask, getting out from under the hand that was pressing him down.

"Longius. That was the name of the Roman legionnaire who stabbed Jesus Christ in the side with a spear to make sure he was dead." Terra said. This produced a few estranged glares. "What? I had to read that part of the bible out loud when I was a kid, I couldn't really shake it."

"The namesake of the one who supposedly killed the son of the supposed God of everything, according to one of the major human religions? Isn't that a little..." Starfire clicked her fingers to try and remember. "What was the word people kept using for you Savior? Oh yes, pretentious." She stated, finally remembering. If she kept coming into 'physical contact' with Tim, she'd end up being a master of the English language, possibly even writing songs and poems.

"I promise you, I'm not pretentious in the slightest!" Longius declared, as he pulled out his spear and slashed it down, cracking the steps in front of him and forcing the Titans back as rubble and debris flew into the air. It was obvious that he wasn't exactly a master in this area, however he had enough skill to challenge them.

Robin leapt in, his bo extended as he brought it down upon the head of their foe, but Longius just raised his spear and blocked it before kicking the martial artist away…only to get blasted back by Starfire. No one took those two lightly, as in the Titan pairings they would probably be pretty high on the danger scale when together. Longius didn't seem to register that though, as he once again took his spear and swung at the air. She was nowhere near enough for it to actually connect, but he hadn't meant it too; he instead used a nice side effect of his spear which was minor wind control, which allowed him to fire a short, though somewhat powerful blast at the young Tameranean which forced her back though the air, making it harder for her to actually fly in and strike him.

Longius should have paid attention to what was in front of him rather then above him, as Scalpel came swinging down with his weapon to see if he could slash a line across their enemies' chest. Longius just managed to get his spear down, but because of the lateness of the action, combined with the strength of the alien, it still managed to knock him off balance, even if it was only a little bit.

The doctor didn't follow up though, leaving that task to others as Beast Boy bounded over the top of him as a cougar to try and complete the tackle on the spear wielder, but Longius had other plans. He leaned on his spear and then thrust out both legs, catching Beast Boy with them, using the changeling's own momentum against him to drive every ounce of wind out of his green body. The armoured man then used a surprising amount of strength as he shoved out a bit more and pushed Beast Boy away and into Scalpel, sending the two stumbling back (said motion probably using a little of his air manipulation powers). Taking up his spear, Longius wasn't finished yet as he jumped up and off the stairs, as he brought the spear down hard upon the road and actually cracked it open. It wasn't enough to do any real damage, but under the weight of two men the street collapsed, sending the alien and shapeshifter into the darkness.

"Longius Two, Titans Nothing." He smirked.

Savior swung down and lashed out with a few tendrils of Shimmer energy, trying to rip the spear from his fingers. He managed to get a firm grip on it, but actually removing it from his hands was a different task entirely. The two fought for control, but neither gained an inch. It was as if a third party more powerful then the town did not want the spear to move at all.

Once again, while this war of wills was being played out, Starfire had made it back into the air as Terra went into the depths of the crack made in the street to find the two of the less humanoid male members of the team. The Tamaranean started to fire blast after blast to disrupt the so called 'Christ killer', though one would think that with such a name the attack would prove to be nothing. But there are names and then there was reality, and reality had yet to answer the question of whether this man who shared his name with that of the soldier who helped in the death of the son of a god (or THE god, depending on who you asked), could manage to harm those who shared their names with creatures who gave birth to the gods themselves?

Dodging the blasts and winning the war of wills was a bit too much to do at once; Longius needed a plan or he would lose his spear, and without that he could actually lose the fight itself. So, in a swift movement, he threw Savior up in the air over his head, and, using his new found momentum, spun the spear so it cut the Shimmer lines. Savior jerked as he seemingly floated through the air…only to have Longius use his air manipulation with another spinning 'pass and push' to toss the white Titan into the team's first alien, once again knocking her out of the sky. Savior, still in the grip of the cut Shimmer pain, was saved a nasty fall by Starfire as she grabbed him before he slipped away from her.

"This isn't really going our way." Starfire said, a slight edge on her voice. Savior noted how much she had matured over the last few weeks…or was matured the right word for it? Could Kory have suffered his fate and turned bitter? For all his words to how it was inevitable, Noel didn't want Kory to lose her kind and light persona, looking at everything with new eyes, looking at everything like it was wonderful and fascinating. Noel would never be like that again, and he knew that some of the others could never go back either, so he wanted Kory to be a happy soul as long as possible.

Yet she'd just lost a child. Could even Kory come back from that…

He'd figure it out later, as the pair untangled themselves and watched Robin jump in and fight him with his metal bo. Because of the similarity of the weapons, neither could gain the advantage, so the fight continued to escalate further and further as the swipes and swings became more and more vivid, the two forms twisting and turning to form one continuous movement as if they were the ribbons used by dancers to help make their piece flow. Robin, however, had the advantage of years and years of training and that his weapon could be used in any way shape or form. The fact he was using a weapon with no sharp point on it meant that he could allow himself certain moves that would have cut him if he was using a spear or a crescent blade, and he made sure that his foe realized that, as Longius swiped at the Teen Wonder, only to have Robin press his hand against the end of his staff and push it forward, allowing him previously unused distance with his tool which hit home on Longius' lower back, pushing him away.

Their foe was lucky, as the weapon hurt but didn't break the bronze armour in which he was clad, allowing him to counter by spinning and once again slashing out in a horizontal line. But once AGAIN, this wasn't effective as the Former-Boy Wonder jumped it and tried to bring his staff down upon the helmet of Longius, who managed to get his spear back up just in time to block the blow. It still had an affect…the wrong kind: Robin felt the vibration rattle up his arms as if he just hit a concrete wall. Obviously the spear was tougher than its user. He took half a second to make a closer inspection of the spearhead, and with that Robin noticed that it wasn't complete. He looked at the sharp, jagged edges and noticed that it was in fact only part of the spear. There were still parts of it missing. Perhaps that was what Longius was looking for?

Robin would figure that out later, as he put his detective side away and spun his bo, switching the pressure from down on the spear to under it, hitting the 'cousin weapon' up into the air, forcing it out of the hands that had spent so long fighting for the weapon with Savior. Robin didn't waste time and stabbed his bo forward, however the armour was obviously lighter than it looked at Lognius sidestepped the hero…and wasn't so lucky the second time as Robin swung the bo to the side from his stab, intercepting him and sending the armoured foe in the opposite direction of the way he had tried to dodge before he lost his footing. Longius landed hard on his back, and Robin brought his bo down upon the struggling villain…

Who used the padded palms of his gauntlets to catch the pole-like weapon, and the two fought for leverage, a grimace on each other's face. Neither of their eyes gave away anything, much less how much in the way of strain they were feeling. Robin worked out every day of his life and was extremely toned, however he made sure he was balanced and hence lost none of the speed he gained from his naturally lean form, which left him with the speed and grace of an acrobat (though nowhere as much of an acrobat as Dick Grayson, his predecessor, but then again he had been raised in a circus) and the strength of a heavyweight wrestler. Longius, on the other hand, gained his strength through an unknown method, though it was doubtful that he trained as much as Robin did. Hell, Nigel sometimes mused even some of the military on his home world didn't work out as much as Tim did.

And it appeared that wherever it came from, the strength of Longius was starting to fade. Robin popped his detective side out again and guesstimated that he was slowly moving down from a level seven threat to a level five, roughly from the threat that Myth was all the way down to just above Mumbo. Obviously without his spear he wasn't much of a challenge. Longius knew this himself, as he searched franticly for his weapon, his eyes finally spying it nearby…and that brief distraction was all Robin needed to adjust the leverage to whip one hand into his utility belt and pull from one of the many sections a pair of new fashioned police handcuffs with the leather band in between the cuffs to cover the chain either to protect said chain from rust or allow the police to hold onto the handcuffs better. He thrust them out, trying to snap them on Longius' wrists…

A shocked look came across the villain's face (or what could be seen of it) as he looked back towards the movement, even as the cuffs snapped closed on his wrists. He realized what was going to happen, and then engaged a part of his brain he wasn't using and did something only villains did, and that was to aim bellow the belt with a kick. Most of the male Titans had all taken to wearing a cup to protect their future family blood lines, and while it didn't hurt half as much as it could of, it still made Robin go numb before the cuffed villain coiled his leg up and kicked him off, rolling over and diving for his spear.

It wasn't his day though as a long, black, jagged crescent blade came from the sky and dug itself into the ground at an angle, landing next to the spear.

"Missed me!" Longius taunted as he grabbed his spear in mid-dive.

And then fell flat on his face.

Getting up, Longius tugged at his spear, as it had not been pulled out of the ground with the forward momentum he had as he expected, but had instead been stuck fast and caused his forward momentum to evaporate, forcing him to fall to the ground.. Longius cursed as he got to his knees and tried to yank his spear free. It remained thoroughly stuck. Longius thrashed and pulled at the spear, as he started to utter obscenities and lose his composure in his attempts to force the spear from the street. The Titans could only laugh as their foe continued to struggle. What had happened was that Scalpel, having finally been brought back from the abyss he and his colleague had fallen into, noticed that Longius had spied his weapon of choice when Tim had snapped the handcuffs on, and knowing he would go for it, Nigel threw his own weapon and had used one of its jagged edges to pin the spear in place, leaving their foe defenceless. And the armoured villain knew it too.

A green bear which was larger (and smarter) than the average bear came up next to the occupied Longius and grabbed him in a, er, bear hug, crushing his huge furry forelimbs upon the foe, trying to crack the dull bronze armour. Caught, Longius didn't really have a lot of options, as while he had a slight amount of super strength with his spear, without it he only had above average human strength, and that wasn't enough to try and force his way out of the grip of the monstrous bear (a very large Kodiak bear, in case you were wondering), so he did the next best thing, something Beast Boy himself had done many times.

He bit the changeling. Hard.

Beast Boy let go, as Longius aforementioned above normal human strength also meant he could bite with some fervour, and he had managed to chomp down on a bundled-together host of nerves that Beast Boy didn't care to get bitten, as he loosened the bear hug with a roaring yelp, allowing Longius to slip out. Now before you say he wouldn't let go because as a bear he could take far more punishment then as a human; yes admittedly he could take a lot of damage as a bear, he could be hit and smashed around like a punching bag and still come out of it in a fighting mood, but that' was when he was in a full battle mindset, or as much of one as Beast Boy could muster, and he had lost said mindset with that hit involving the spear, and he hadn't quite gotten back into it. Even so, just because he was free didn't mean Longius was out of the woods, as Beast Boy lumbered after the armoured villain, who gasped at the giant creature's surprising speed, making the green young man laugh to himself before he attacked.

Longius jumped out the way of a swipe of Beast Boy's good arm…and jumped straight into the hands of Starfire, who was now very irritated with the spear wielding, armour wearing villain.

"Time we had a hero-to-villain talk my foe." She called, ascending with Longius acting as a passenger. "I will not harm you if you give up now, but persist and I will have to take action!"

To emphasize what kind of action she meant, she started to soar over the buildings, turning a little before correcting her flight path to make sure she didn't get too far from her team. Longius squirmed in the alien's slender fingers, trying to get free. He only managed to turn around so he was now facing her rather than facing outward.

"You have nowhere to go! Give up now and I will not drop you!" Starfire promised with a strong threatening undertone that indicated she would do just what she said if she had to. The armoured foe, seemingly unperturbed, looked down as she passed another set of buildings on her ever-moving flight. And then he smiled.

"Sorry, this is my stop!" Longius said, as he reached up and grabbed at Starfire's chest. Starfire looked shocked and then her eyes glared daggers at Longius as she instinctively raised her hands and balled them into fists so she could beat him away. Unfortunately, this meant the only thing that was stopping the young man from falling was his grip on the fabric on her top, and unlike her it wasn't as sturdy as it looked when you had the weight of an entire person and their armour upon it.

A ripping sound was heard and Longius fell onto one of the rooftops that they had been flying over at the time. He could survive a short drop like that as he landed, his boots causing the ground to crack slightly. He stood up, and then became aware of something in his hand; it almost felt like a cross between latex and lycra. He looked down to see a purple piece of cloth that doubled as armour, however the seams were not as strong as the material that supported it.

"…Oops." He said. Even though a mask-esque helmet covered the top half of his face, you could tell he blushed as he quickly dropped the piece of the shirt and looked up to see Starfire charging up a giant Starbolt in one hand while the other tried to keep her dignity, the look in her eyes having gone from angry to murderous.

"YOU! YOU! HOW DARE YOU! These are not yours to TOUCH!" She bellowed, and fired the blast at the rooftop, causing the still handcuffed Longius to run for his life, diving for the next rooftop, and then rolling up and diving for the next one as the now highly embarrassed Starfire continued her bombardment, having to switch hands when one arm got tired.

In the end he didn't manage to outrun her; random chance reached out and blessed him, as a random reporter was out and about trying to find proof that Jump City's industries were causing a layer of smog that were begin to rival even Light City. Unfortunately on this clear day there was no smog about, nor much in the way of cloud and he had been just about ready to pack up and go home when he spied Starfire up in the air blasting at something. He watched, noticing that something was off, that there was too much orange on the young girl and he managed to zoom in with the camera to find her half naked and flying, so he strapped on a flash just to make sure, zoomed in so he had a decent picture and took a snapshot. Kory noticed the flash, realized what it was, debated her options, and then zoomed away after the light, lest her photos fall into the wrong hands or worse where they were more likely going to be, in tomorrow's Jump City Times front page or page 3 of the local men's tabloid so men all around the city and maybe even the state could drool over her.

Longius, meanwhile, was trying to make his way down across the buildings and back to the street, having some trouble on the ladders because he was handcuffed and couldn't move his hands freely, but making it down anyway. He was rushing across the latest rooftop as Terra made her way up it. Gauntlet pulled himself up next to her as she pulled up a few chunks of concrete to try and slow Longius down, as Gauntlet readied his artefact to fire off the yellow energy in a large blocky battering ram esque shape. However, their plan wasn't thought through as well as they though as it actually helped the armoured villain: he dodged the first few rocks and ram, hence forcing Terra to call up more 'ammo', and as those rose up from the street then jumped upon one of the larger rocks and continued downward, as she kept on getting her 'ammo' from one street and hence made a path for him. Gauntlet tried to attack him with the battering ram, but the swirling rock ledges kept messing up his aim and he kept missing. Their combined powers seemed to be proving counter productive that day, as Longius continued down. Terra growled and followed him, continuing to pelt him with rocks, even thought it seemed pointless: his armour protected him and he had actually made it all the way down via the impromptu rock path. Now back on the ground, he had one thing on his mind.

Get his spear back and kick some arse.

And that he did, as he ran straight for where his spear was pinned, trapped under its more monstrous, out of town cousin. That little factor was going to be one of the flaws in his plan, as not only was the pinning weapon a lot heavier than it looked, it was also well and truly buried in the ground and hence going to be harder to shift. His thoughts on that matter, however, were stopped when he once again found himself under siege by the Growing-Boy Wonder, as Robin jumped in to gain a little bit of revenge for Longius' attempt to make his next few days uncomfortable ones. Longius just managed to duck under the swipe by the young martial artist and once again only just managed to shift to the side to avoid another painful attack, dancing around the Titan's blows in a most comical way before something happened Robin didn't expect. He swung straight down with his staff, expecting to hit the helmet and knock some sense in (or out) of the spear-wanting villain, but Longius once again managed to get his hands up in the air rather quickly, and all Robin heard was a dull thud as the metal Bo came down upon the leather bound middle of his handcuffs, stopping the attack dead. Both stood there for a moment, shocked that it actually worked, but the one on the wrong side of the law actually took note of the confusion first and kicked Robin away even as he clamped his hands on the bo that was stuck between his wrists. With his newly stolen weapon, he quickly spun it, proving surprisingly graceful with any kind of pole-based weapon, but he wanted his weapon, not any of the heroes' ones. He slid the weapon in between his spear and Nigel's Halberd and used it as a crowbar, trying to get the right amount of leverage to force the heavier weapon from its resting place and away.

Terra swooped in to continue her attack.

Longius decided he'd had enough of playing Gordan Freeman and disposed of the makeshift crowbar by throwing it at the young geomancer and smacking her straight off her rock with a javelin throw from hell. And because she was no longer controlling the rock, it stopped dead and fell, taking Rob Candide with it. Having finally wrenched it up enough, Longius yanked the Halberd out and tossed it aside, finally allowing him to take up his spear…and what was the first thing he did?

He threw the spear away.

After all that effort he just threw his spear.

Most of the Titans stared in amazement, wondering if he was either brilliant or foolish. Some of the things he did suggested the former, while the other things suggested the latter.

Then they saw what he had planned, and it worried him that he might be able to pull it off. You see, he wasn't throwing his spear away, he was throwing it up, and what goes up, as stated so many times by so many cliché action heroes, must come down. It was a fact of nature that the heavier thing would have more for gravity to get and keep ahold of, and hence he threw the spear straight up and the spear came down, now flipped around so now the spear tip was coming down like a bullet from a very large gun.

Longius just held out his wrists and the spear head sheered through the metal and the leather of his handcuffs, passing through it with little resistance. But then again that was steel, and even though made of flesh, Titans were made of sterner stuff.

And Scalpel was going to prove this as he rushed in, snatched up his discarded glaive and charging the newly freed foe. He didn't care if it was going to end up being one on one, he wasn't going to let his friends be pushed around by someone who dared to try and usurp him as the newest pole-arms guy on the block as it where. He swung in, but now that Longius had his spear back he was a more than capable opponent.

Their weapons clashed hard against each other before Longius spun his weapon away, doing a near complete 360 before he followed the spin and stabbed out in a straight line, but all he got was a tip of his cape which was nicked ever so slightly as Scalpel spun too, following the direction Longius' weapon was going in, and once Longius had been committed to a move the alien had dived away, rolling off to the side of Longius and then slashed at the armoured villain's ankles. Luckily, or unluckily, Longius managed to jump at the last minute, but it didn't seem like a conscious thing. It was so delayed it almost seemed that he was ordered to do it by something.

Longius slashed down but missed again as the alien flipped to his feet. Longius swung up and in a horizontal arc, only to strike the metallic pole that the demonic looking blade sat upon instead of something less robust. This time the impact sent shakes up both sets of arms. Unlike Robin's staff/bo, which was designed for its flexibility and light handling, Scalpel's glaive was designed to be strong, thick and sturdy. It was the heavyweight of the pole-arm family; the spear wasn't. The alien weapon also had the advantage of being designed by a species very used to war, and hence it was designed to also be supple and swift but with enough rigidity to support the blade on its end. Then again, Longius was clearly wielding more than your garden verity spear, so when it came into contact with the Blacktrinian weapon it was like the immoveable object being hit by the unstoppable force. Neither won, all it did was hurt those involved.

But the home team was used to such events and quickly countered, as Nigel quickly switched tactics and knocked the spear down so quickly the spear holder fell forward, as Nigel thrust his head weapon out, causing Longius' armoured head to collide with the well-made pole, stunning him for a brief moment, which gave Scalpel the time to pull off his next manoeuvre as he thrust his halberd down, burying the end in the ground, and then swung up on his implanted weapon and did what seemed to be a handstand on the end of it before he swifted his weight forward and flipped off, returning himself to a upright position and landing heavily upon his foe's back forcing Longius to the floor. Scalpel may have looked only slightly muscular, but he was actually very heavy. As explained beforehand, his race was very dense in physical terms; alongside that he also had his metallic claws on both his hands and feet, and his cape that was weighted like a thick quilt. Al in all he weighed roughly three hundred pounds. Not bad for only five foot nine inches in height.

Longius bit the dirt in a literal way, though he managed to keep his hand on his spear, as he felt the great weight that had flattened him jump off. Not happy that he had been forced to eat concrete, Longius shoved up and swung out with his spear. Scalpel, being all too proud to have actually pulled off a move sometimes referred to as 'The Flaming Candle', allowed his foe to actually get the drop on him and trip the alien. Growling, Nigel went to get up, only to found Longius had done so first and stabbed downward. The good news was, he missed Nigel's body. The bad news was, he had had his loose clothing speared, allowing his foe to lift him up and swing him around like a rag doll on the end of a stick.

"Don't think just because you have a similar weapon..." Longius said, twisting his foe up and then pulling him back down to the ground with a strong thud. "It means you can beat me! I am the master! The showstopper! The best there ever will be! I am LONGIUS!"

And he yanked Scalpel back up and swung his spear out in preparation for another ground slam, but this time his spear ripped out of Scalpel's shirt and threw him back over to the museum and then INTO the musuem, causing the doctor to bounce once or twice and then roll a little, breaking through not only a few windows but a few very pricey exhibits.

What really irked him was that not only had he allowed himself to be tossed in such a way, and not only had he ripped one of the few shirts he had that was in one piece, but what was worst of all was the comical finish of the attack as he flew and bounced through the museum at quite a bit of speed, finally coming to a stop with his back hitting and then resting against a pedestal, causing it to buckle slightly and in turn causing the vase that sat upon it to rock backwards and forward, taunting him as if he didn't watch enough cartoons.

Scalpel growled loudly and lashed his fist out in anger, striking the ground…and forcing the vase to finally give way to comic relief and fall on his head, smashing quite loudly. As bits of priceless whowithjit fell from his hair, he grumbled in Blacktrinian, his eyes conveying a murderous look which would have generally been out of character for Scalpel. Usually after a almost pratfallish toss like this, he would be pretty angry but just get up and go off to fight more, not pause to glare and growl.

But it was because of said growl that he noticed something; a glint just in front of the sitting alien. It was a flat, metallic silver piece that seemed like your generic piece of scrap metal, but it had a aura about it. It made him feel strange.

He almost felt…powerful near it.

He couldn't quite explain it; all he knew was that there was something emanating from the shard of metal. On closer inspection, he could see slight engravings on the surface in a language he couldn't understand nor hope to learn. The feeling of intensity continued to grow.

A part of Scalpel's mind told him to run, told him to try and hide somewhere, anywhere and not to touch it. His logic told him that the shard was of something of more power than he could comprehend and even if he knew what it was he probably shouldn't touch it. But something new, something strange, something else compelled him to ignore everything he knew and everything he learned and force him to reach out with his talon like fingers to take such power for himself so he could finally prove he wasn't a 'bit player' as the humans put it.

A chance for him to have the power for once, a chance to have enough power so he wasn't a play thing, so he didn't get a new scar with each new foe, so he could stand up and knock THEM down rather then him being the one that was always sent flying…

His clawed hand was only a little bit away from it, just a few inches, slowly moving down. His fingers opened up a little more to receive the artefact, as a glow seemed to appear around it, like the light was trying to reach up and grab hold of the doctor's jagged digits.

"DON'T TOUCH IT!"

The scream came out of nowhere, somehow both ringing through the air and yet seem almost transparent, as if it was being carried on the wind. Despite this strange quality, it was loud enough so that Scalpel wasn't the only one to hear it. The Titans, who were now back to fighting Longius, also heard the scream echo though the wind…but Longius felt it first, felt the power he wanted, the power he sought, the power he required; required to do what 'needed' to be done.

Scalpel's eyes went wide, his logic thankfully taking over once more as he sharply pulled back from the shard. Looking up, he saw Longius, steamrolling his way towards the alien at speeds that you wouldn't expect from someone with that amount of armour upon his frame, and he suddenly knew exactly what Longius was looking for. In that sublime moment he figured out why Longius was attacking that museum instead of robbing it, destroying everything that most people would consider valuable to get something that was of incalculable value to him...

"Don't let him get that shard!" The voice yelled again, and Scalpel agreed. Letting the spear wielder get the shard would only cause more trouble. Pulling out another tube from his jacket pocket he pressed a button and another glaive, though slightly cruder than his usual one, snapped open. As Longius closed in, Scalpel flipped to his feet and hit the shard behind him as if it was a hockey puck before standing up to Longius.

"How do you humans put it? If I want that piece you will have to go through me?"

"Close enough freak." Longius growled, and lashed out with his spear, stabbing forward and of course, Scalpel dodged to the side, spinning his own body to avoid the blow, however Longius proceeded to completely ignore Scalpel as he dived forward to try and grab the shard...

Remember a few months ago? During the incident involving the Chronoton Distorter, which had its name changed from the Chronoton Destabilizer and which was changed from the Chronoton Detonator? Well, one of the many things Scalpel did during that time loop was to learn and play an earth game called golf where he, as he put it, golfed for Titans. Well, he said it would help him, and at the time Noel was skeptical (not to mention covered in clay), but now the alien realized that it had indeed helped. As Nigel spun his body, he had allowed his glaive to drag a little and once he was in the right place, he planted his feet and allowed his glaive to not only catch up but to follow through, performing a golf swing from the other side of hell and planting the flat edge of his crescent blade into his opponent's face, which not only stopped his forward motion but sending him flying back with more whiplash than he would have liked.

Longius flew back and crashed through another of the exhibits. Growling, he stood back up and rushed for the alien, only to get a bo slammed onto the top of his helmet. After a lot of trying, Robin finally was able to land this hit upon him, once again driving Longius down. And this, he appeared to be out.

Robin slowly, but surely, walked toward their downed foe, placing his bo on the back of the metallic torso armour he wore and lightly poking him. Longius didn't move. Robin started to relax…

Longius lashed out with his spear again, and just like Scalpel, Robin hadn't expected the foe to fight like an animal and yet think like a man, as he pretended to be down and then lashed out when he was surrounded. The spear's pole slammed into Robin's kneecap, forcing it to the side, or in other words the wrong way. Robin fell with a scream.

"Stupid! Stupid!" He cursed himself. Not only had someone gotten the drop on him, someone had done it when he should have seen it coming a mile away. It was probably why he was still Robin, and not Nightwing or Batman. Yet at any rate.

Forcing his way to his feet, Longius made yet another break for the shard, jumping, diving and spinning to avoid the numerous attacks by the different Titans. The latest one to come between him and the shard though was a six foot six black man who was made of more metal then flesh, and who introduced that superior metal component that now replaced a certain end of a limb to the metal that shielded the flesh and bone of their foe's opened helmet.

In other words Cyborg lamped him with a mean right hook.

Once again Longius skidded back, though this time he remained on his feet. Which was just as well as Cyborg followed up with a mean body punch from his left fist, and then another right hook (which was also mean) before a light left uppercut (mean too), making sure his foe didn't fall to the ground. Cyborg was putting his strength into the boxing like blows, but also making sure they wouldn't be TOO damaging, just enough to knock the wind out of him. Cyborg pulled back after a left straight jab (wouldja believe it? Mean!) for another right (you get the idea); however this time instead of a punch he unfurled his sonic cannon to make sure this right was 'heard'.

Longius had definitely been dazed by the attack, not really paying much attention to the teen machine, seeing as he had spent a lot of his time to blocking and dodging rather than identifying just how he was throwing the punches, but he did know one thing. If Cyborg was pulling back, it meant he was going to hit him and it was going to hurt, but combined with the hissing noise, that meant only one thing.

Longius ducked to the side as the blast came, almost deafening one of his ears, and as he dodged, probably out of instinct than anything else, he grabbed a long metal bar that was part of the supports for a concrete pedestal. Having grabbed it, he yanked it out and stabbed it through the metal work of Cyborg's arm. Normally that wouldn't have done too much damage…had he not been firing the cannon as the long, barbed pole skewered it. This caused the cannon to overload, and the resulting sonic explosion not only threw Cyborg right back out of the museum, but also drove Scalpel and Beast Boy to their knees holding their ears in pain. The metal man landed hard on his back, before looking at his ruined arm.

"Damn! This ain't funny!" He cursed, referring to how many times he seemed to have been damaged like this. It was a good thing he couldn't get scars, as he would have a mountain load of them. It was the problem when you where the group's tanker really, as you had to stand at the front and take the punishment while others waited behind you and prepared for an attack.

Inside the museum, Longius managed to pull himself up after being thrown back a bit himself from the blast, and walked forward calmly as if nothing could stop him. Everyone who had come across him was down by fair or foul means. Well, most of them as he realized that a certain white Titan was still up and about and hence he made a dash for the shard, hoping that he could get to it before he came.

Sure enough though Savior descended from the ceiling like a giant spider, his Shimmer firing out strands and grabbing the walls as he followed at a quick pace, but Longius was closer to the shard than he was. Savior lashed out with almost all of his Shimmer stands, but Longius seemed to have eyes in the back of his head as he dodged, jumped, rolled and dived around them. He was a lot more agile than he looked, then again it could just be that he was a slippery guy.

Scalpel saw him coming, but because his head was still ringing with pain he could only do a basic slash. Unfortunately, not only did he miss Longius, he got Savior. Without the finesse to be able to pull back in time, due to the fact he felt like he had been inside a bell when it was rung (that was the curse of having such large ears), he kept on going with his slash and sliced one of the Shimmer lines, causing Savior to jerk and fall, landing on top of Scalpel. The doctor just pushed him off and turned, getting to his feet slowly and watched as Longius reached down.

"FINALLY." He said, his tone pure malignant joy.

They had been too late, but they could never have realized the repercussions of allowing Longius to receive the shard. A bright light shone out from where he stood as soon as his hand touched the glowing metal. Each part of him seemed to shine out as his form turned towards Scalpel and the others. A yell that could only be described as one of power and triumph came from him as a shockwave shot out, the same colour as the glow of the metal. It pushed them all back and seemed to clear the space around where he was.

And…it was an essence they had felt before, an essence that made the Titans wonder.

---

Raven has been resting in the tower and had actually fallen asleep with her resting upon a large book. Beforehand, she had actually started to see if she could write some of her own spells, and had done so for the ones she had created in a large, leather backed book with fresh pages that soon would become the somewhat brown and tattered pages of old that spell books ALWAYS had. She had planned to do this to her book herself, as it would disguise it amongst her other books. The last thing she wanted was for someone to get their hands on the book and use her new spells against her. Most of them so far were simple and revolved around three word incantations, the first of which being her all too famous words which act as an 'all purpose' spell. She had found though, despite its usefulness, it had proved that it could be a bit weak at times when confronting other more powerful sorcerers, which was the main reason for the book if she was being honest with herself. She wanted to have a more powerful spell just in case, and if not maybe her knowledge could help the future mages, though she would probably live long enough to teach the future mages what they needed to know anyway. It worried her that she would live so long while those around her died, but it was something that couldn't be avoided. But because it couldn't be avoided she had ignored it and went back to researching a binding spell to see if she could cross it with that of a boomerang spell, a spell that shot past the opponent and came around and hopefully against his or her turned back.

But during her research, Raven had fallen asleep, a large and hefty book acting as her pillow while she napped, her desk covered in papers and notes and a half filled glass or milk. It was needed, after all it had calcium and such made your bones stronger. The heroes joked about the fact Superman actually advertised milk. Out of all the things he promoted milk with that whole 'Got Milk?' campaign. In any case, Raven was actually having a nice dream, though what it was usually contradicted with Raven's style. She was usually described as a 'winter' person, and the dream had her relaxing with Noel at a beach during the sunset.

Apart from that we don't really know what happened before and after it, but what we do know is that when that shockwave was sent out she bolted upward. Her eyes went from peacefully shut to alarmingly open and awake in less than a second, her mind racing as she accidentally pushed papers and that half filled glass off the table, her body moving from a slouch to ramrod straight at an frightening rate.

"What the hell was that?" She asked, lightly rubbing her head and the bandages upon it. Whatever it was, it was strong, and it resonated with magical power. A magic that wasn't quite right. It was like smelling a rose from your home town, a rose you were used too and then going to another place and smelling another rose. It had the same generic smell, but it wasn't the same, the smell was tinted with something. And that is what Raven felt; the magic had been tainted by something, like a decayed flavour.

She rubbed her head again, and the wound ached as she rubbed a little too hard. Suddenly angered at the fact she got benched for something so small, she started flipping rapidly through her book and found a new spell she had made that morning. It was a curative spell, but it required a place to store the pain. Her own healing powers usually took the pain of another person into her body, but of course she couldn't really do that with herself, and so she had started to experiment by trying to put the injury on another object or person if need be. She got up and grabbed a full sized manikin and placed it in front of her. It happened to be the one she used to hang up her costume, mainly her cape. Well, that surge pretty much ensured she was going back into the field, so she may as well test it now.

Taking her cape off of the mannequin and placing it upon a chair, she prepared herself as she crossed her legs and floated in mid-air. Chanting lightly, the injuries on her head and body slowly fading into nothingness and seeming to transfer in a steam onto the non living person. The injuries and medical attention that had been done to her appeared upon the dummy in every intricate detail: the cuts stab wound to her thigh, the slice across her forehead and around her Chakra, the bruises to her abdomen, everything, leaving Raven in pristine condition, fresh out of the box.

Raven knew that wouldn't stick though. The spell would only last twenty four hours at most, maybe less. She couldn't tell and didn't know, but she knew that when it did she had to stop, as once the period was done the injuries reverted back to their owner. Taking off the bandages, she slipped her cloak on and over her casual clothing and warped away, hoping she wasn't too late.

She wasn't too late; the fight had only just begun as the Titans all managed to right themselves, digging themselves in as best they could. Unlike some shockwaves, which pulsed, this one was a constant blast of air and it continued to push the Titans back. Savior had managed to regain his mind and slung up Shimmer lines all over the walls to try and prevent him from losing his footing and going flying. Cyborg had made his way back into the museum and was using his weight to his advantage as had grabbed hold of a stone pillar with his free (and only) hand. Terra had made a rock platform behind her and she was using that to prevent her from going anywhere, though she wondered if that was a good idea. Beast Boy had transformed into a mole and went into the dirt that had been caused when Terra had ripped the floor up for an attack, started to dig his way towards Longius. Scalpel had dug himself into the ground, his sharp claws acting as anchors as Robin and Gauntlet held onto his cape for dear life hoping the buckles on his shoulders didn't pop off at the last minute. The Goth member of the team was lucky; she arrived a moment after the shockwave had started to die down, along with the glowing. The Titans righted themselves, got up and surrounded Longius, though they could tell straight away that they might be in over their head.

As Longius was now changed. He stood there, no longer in simple bronze armour. It had changed completely. For a start the armour itself was now silver and any cloth sticking out from under it was a blue colour. It was in the style now of a more advanced version of Roman legionnaire armour where it had several wide strips for shoulder armour one on top of another. Silver bands strung across his stomach and chest, leading into what seemed to be a solid chest plate with a spearpoint edged into the silver, a spear stuck in a body. His legs were baggy trousers with armour on his kneecap and downwards resembling devils and more spears. His feet were armoured as well, even though they looked more like sandals then feet armor like the kind medival knights wore. Strips of leather now hung from his waist with studs on them and the letters 'L', 'G' and 'S' engraved into the grey leather which fell to his knees. A light, mid torso length cape hung from his back, also in a light grey colour to almost imitate the silver of his armour. His helmet had also changed. It was no longer like that of a knight, but of that of a knight from the future. The top half was now sleek and coned down. His eyes were no longer visible as it covered everything, from the very top of his head to his filtrum, the gap under his nose and followed his cheeks around. Almost like an spearhead itself, except the lines that crossed it were not that of a spear tip, but were lines that flowed from the 'nose' of the helmet and up behind and around, segmenting the helmet. There was now a plume upon the helmet, but not in the traditional centurion's sense where it went from left to right, but in the comic centurion style from front to back. But there was nothing comic about this large blue and silver plume. It was short, but wild and impressive. All in all, his new (upgraded) outfit was imposing.

And then he raised his spear, a spear that now had a blue staff with a silver snake curling around it in 'silver leaf' towards the tip, which had a large buckle upon it and from it hung slips of paper, each with words in Latin. Raven could read Latin and while she couldn't read most of it she could see one of the strips clearly, and that one evidently read Vae Victus.

Woe to the conquered.

"I am Longius." He spoke. "Contemplate my name on the branches of the tree of woe."

He pointed the spear at the Titans. The end had been extended, albeit only on one side. Before it had been noted that it looked like some parts were missing from the blade, and now Robin knew just what had been missing. A section of the spearhead was now rebuilt but not completely repaired. It was like a puzzle, splitting a spear head into four sections you would have the top, bottom, left and right sides. There was the small triangle for the bottom and now the left section was added. If we were to look at it comically, it now looked like a cosmic can opener.

But the Titans weren't thinking like that as they were going to be on the receiving edge of whatever hit them, and they guessed one thing above all else, and that was with this new look came new powers.

And boy where they right.

Longius swung his spear around him and then brought it hard down upon the ground. The Titans dove out of the way of the jagged line that shot across the floor, expecting it to crack open and swallow them whole, but it didn't. It wasn't the cracking line of an earthquake-esque ground-splitting but a line of power along the floor, a line that split apart into a multitude of lines, ones that each went straight for each of the Titans. These blue lines of energy continued to follow the young heroes until it came into close contact and exploded upward, sending a beam of energy blasting out towards those who were flying and to those who weren't. All the Titans were caught with a full on blast of whatever their line had to offer, tossing the older teenagers around like toys

As they collapsed, Longius took a step forward, strong and powerful, as he walked through the valley of burnt marks the line had left on the floor that the Titans had created when they had tried to dodge. The Titans groaned as tried to get up from the blue energy line attack, rubbing their arms, heads and other extremities.

Raven, however, had managed to escape via a teleport, and hence was fine as she floated in front of Longius as he tried to make his casual escape. She raised her hand and chanted to herself, a purple blast coming forth from her palm that was roughly the size of your average basketball, a purple and black flame which was the generic blast when someone learned dark magic.

Longius just raised the spear slowly and the tip seemed to absorb the attack. Raven hadn't expected that to work, it wasn't the most powerful of spells, but it was a good test spell as it couldn't be deflected back at its owner and had enough power to do something if it had hit.

Or so Raven thought.

As with another fancy spin with his spear he pointed it straight at Raven, and the energy she had fired into it came back at her in a beam form, blasting the young sorceress back before she could utter the words to form a shield. The little scene might have been short, but it had been enough time for the Titans to get back up to their feet.

Scalpel lunged in with his spare glaive and slashed at Longius like a madman, only to find not only was Longius blocking his attacks, he looked like he wasn't even trying. That was bad enough, but what irked Scalpel next wasn't something that happened every day. As Scalpel brought his weapon down upon his foe, Longius put his hand up and caught his glaive in mid swing. If this wasn't surprising enough, Longius then swung in with his spear and broke the glaive in half as if it was made of rotten wood, not a tough (though crude) Blacktrinian metal. Nigel just looked down at the gap in his weapon, his eyes wide as a snarl came upon his face, but it was a snarl of shock rather than the usual one of anger. Longius wasted no time and thrust forward with a kick into Scalpel's gut that sent him flying back and knocked enough wind out of him for at least two days worth of breathing, or at least that was what it felt like.

Savior jumped into where his friend had left off in the attacks, but he was simply back handed away and then found the spear, moving with insane speed for something so large, rammed through straight through one of the Shimmer lines and into the floor. Savior jerked in agony as he fell to the ground, now pinned, but it wasn't the end of it as Longius once again kicked his foe, the kick bad enough but for Savior it hurt even more as his Shimmer ripped apart as the end got yanked out when he flew through the air.

Robin also jumped in to try and get Longius. The blunt end of said foe's spear uppercutted the teen hero in the mid-air before Longius spun it and used the flat edge of the spear to smash him back down to the earth below.

Having decimating three of the better close combat Titans, Longius again attempted to leave…and then a fourth Titan came up to the batting plate as a green tiger jumped out of the ground. Yes, the ground. Beast Boy had spent a lot of time burrowing under Longius, and hence he couldn't see what was going on, but had felt the energy and come up to the surface as a spider to see what was happening. Waiting until he almost got stepped on, Beast Boy lingered until the last second and then grew into the nastiest tiger he could and lunged forward.

But the spear was once again up and in the way, blocking the Titan as he attacked. But this time it wasn't going to be a fair fight as Gauntlet ran up behind Longius and hit Longius in the back with a yellow energy ram. To be quite frank, it may as well have bounced off him because it didn't do a lot. Longius, more annoyed than anything, outright ignored Gauntlet's attack as pushed Beast Boy away and spun with his spear outstretched. Beast Boy just managed to turn into a triceratops to allow his armoured head to take the brunt of it while Gauntlet raised his Gauntlet energy to try and add to the protection.

Guess what?

The spear slashed through both the armoured bone and the shield, carving a large slice out of the gauntlet energy while Beast Boy reverted to his human form, now sporting a large cut on his head. Gauntlet was as shocked as Scalpel was and was about to protest, but their silver foe then snagged Gauntlet with his spear, picked up the energy wielder, and threw him straight into Beast Boy, sending them both a little dizzy.

"Just let me go." He stated.

Cyborg and Terra charged in, Terra planning to crush him between a rock and Cyborg, but as with the other plans, this didn't work.

"Fine. I'll use the back. Ta-ta for now." He said, and just as the two Titans were almost about to smash him, there was a bright flash and then Longius was gone, escaped, causing the anorexic geomancer and the tall and powerfully built half machine to crash into each other and collapse in a pile upon the floor.

And the dust settled.

The Titans groaned and struggled to stand as Starfire dropped down, having grabbed a shirt from somewhere, most likely off the rack of a nearby store. She helped them up, making sure they were okay.

Scalpel pulled himself from the rubble and stared dumbfounded at the broken glaive that was still in his hands before growling deeply and throwing it in rage against the floor. Yes, something was defiantly wrong with him it seemed, but it was probably just a lot of combined stresses.

Raven rolled Savior over onto his back and made sure her boyfriend was still breathing, which he was, thankfully. He looked in confusion as he reached up to touch her unblemished forehead. She just gave him a look saying 'I'll explain later'.

Robin pulled himself up, and then nearly falling back down. He would have if it hadn't been for Starfire's help. He held out his leg and slammed his palm against the kneecap, hard, forcing it back into place. That hurt almost as much as it being dislocated had.

And a new foot landed lightly, effortlessly upon the ground as the Titans all pulled themselves together. Beast Boy managed to turn into a snake and slither out of the pile that formed him and Gauntlet.

"You got any leaflets for this situation dude?" Beast Boy joked as he turned back. Gauntlet pulled a bent wad out of his back pocket and flipped through them.

"Not today."

Beast Boy groaned. Where the hell was he getting them from?

But his attention was drawn as he felt a cold wind pass him, followed by a warm breeze. He turned quickly and his ears dropped as his pupils dilated.

A ghostly figure moved to where the epicentre of the attack was. You couldn't see many details, but you could see colours, faint tints of shades trying to hold onto what little opacity they had left before they completely faded into a translucent mess. Slowly, silently, the Titans each stood up and walked, or floated, over to the figure as he bent down. We could tell it was a he, as the body form suggested so. The phantasm stood back up and turned to face the heroes.

"I told you to not let him get that shard." The figure said.

"And just who exactly are you to be telling us what to..." Terra was cut off as Robin walked forward; the realization hitting him as if it was a hammer. The expression on the older Titan's face explained it all. The newer Titans didn't have a clue, but the original five did, they knew, boy did they know.

"You."

"More or less." Timothy Trevor said.

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I know, I'm bad. I should stop using cliffhangers, but they are just such a handy plot device! See you in the next chapter!