Tartarus and the Titans clashed with such force that it seemed as if a nuclear weapon had been detonated in the street, and for a moment a flurry of activity came from within a cloud of kicked up dust as each member of both groups sought to bring destruction upon one another. Alas, they were evenly matched. Blows rained down upon one another, and energy filled the air as the final showdown began in earnest. This time, there was no halfway. The Titans could not afford to lose, and Tartarus would take no prisoners.
This was an all or nothing battle. Good vs. evil. Right vs. wrong. Titans vs. Tartarus.
A burst of sonic energy ripped through the air and slammed into Brother Blood's midsection, knocking the steel-clad cultist back, skidding around the ground in a crouch, using his claws to slow his movements, then quickly charging back into the fray, swinging his flame-filled fists out at Nightwing, who dodged aside, swatting the arms back with his extended bo staff and keep them at a safe distance from himself. Starbolts rained down from above as the two Tamaranian princesses launched themselves at one another in a blur of emerald and amethyst. They circled one another in mid-air, both blasting at one another with their eyebolts, their gazes filled as much with hatred for one another as they were raw power. And it was a lot of raw power. But their duel was interrupted by Deathfang, who'd leapt up and grabbed a hold of Starfire's leg, whirling her around in a circle in an attempt to throw her to the ground. But she was ready this time, and twisted just in time to catch herself, and grabbed great fistfuls of purple fur in her own hands. Using his own moment, she hurled Deathfang himself back into his comrades, knocking down Brother Blood just as he was about to smash Nightwing's head in. He paused long enough to give her a thumb's up before moving back into the fray. Or rather, dodging aside some lavender starbolts.
"Get out of my way you idiot!" cursed Blood, angrily shoving Deathfang aside... just in time to be slammed full in the stomach by a green ram and knocked flat onto his back. Growling, he flipped backwards and up onto his feet, and thrust out his hand, letting a bright burst of crimson lightning fly from his fingertips at Beastboy. A black wall of power blocked him.
The wall did not last long, Malchior lashed out with his blue-white energy knives, slicing clean through the barrier, but it gave Beastboy enough time to take to the air as a pterodactyl and yank Raven to safety moments before the Ravager sliced her to pieces, winging left and right to dodge a flurry of shuriken that whizzed through the air after them. The first batch he dodged, the second he wasn't so confident of, and so he gently dropped Raven nearby before making a swoop down against the Ravager. She hurled a second barrage of shuriken, but they were intercepted by black birdarangs, and Beastboy's flight was uninterrupted as he slammed into the Ravager and knocked her off her feet. She regained her standing stance with cat-like agility, lashing out at Beastboy with a katana that damn near sliced off his wing, but missed as he reverted to the form of a tiny humming bird and zipped away.
"Stop him! Blackfire, go after Beastboy!" commanded the Ravager.
The dark-haired Tamaranian nodded and shot down, hr hands filled with amethyst death as she shot starbolt after starbolt at the fleeing Beastboy, who dodged aside. They weren't any puny starbolts like Star's either (and those packed quite a punch, in reality) these were as big as beachballs and left a wave of destruction in their wake. One missed Beastboy but slammed into a nearby building, setting it ablaze.
Blackfire grinned and drew back her hands, filling them with an especially big starbolt, a ball of pulsating amethyst death and prepared to hurl it down at Beastboy and end their conflict so she could get back to Starfire and Nightwing. However, as she charged forward her gauntlets were engulfed in a black aura and were suddenly yanked forward, and she with them, and she was sent hurtling to the ground, her starbolt hurled off-track by her wild throw to slam harmlessly down the middle of the street further away. Raven gave a smirk, lowering her hands. Not the wisest of moves. Nor was lowering her guard and exposing her back, as she found out. A sharp pain lanced through her back as a dozen blue-white energy bolts struck her and sent her plummeting from the skies to crash onto the ground, very thankful she hadn't been high up to begin with. Rolling over, she saw the grinning visage of Malchior above her, as he dropped down onto the roof of a nearby car, his hands filled with blue-white energy.
"Been nice knowing you," he said, preparing to give her a full blast of energy...
When suddenly a bolt of crimson lightning shot from out of no where and struck Malchior in the shoulder, knocking him forward. Angrily the dragon-turned-sorcerer whirled, preparing to annihilate whomever had dared struck him.
Brother Blood stood behind him, and his eyes were burning crimson.
"I am betrayed!" roared Malchior.
"I still need Raven alive!" shouted Blood. "She's no good to me dead!"
"As if I give a damn about what you need!" cursed back Malchior, filling his hands with blue-white energy. Blood countered with crimson lightning around his steel claws. However, before the two could come to blows, Blackfire was suddenly knocked between the two of them, skidding hard along the pavement with enough force to leave a clear trail with her body. Growling, she pushed herself to her feet, as Deathfang and the Ravager rejoined them.
"Settle this some other time!" Ravager shot over her shoulder, her gaze pure venom as she regarded those two.
Honestly, they were battling the Titans in full form, and they were arguing like twelve-year olds!
The Titans had re-grouped as well. Both groups had their share of injuries and bruises but for the most part neither had managed to score any truly telling hits. Not for lack of trying on both their parts, of course. Tartarus was looking the worse off.
"Is it just me... or are you getting your butts kicked?" Beastboy asked Tartarus mockingly.
Nightwing angrily brushed the back of his hand against his lip, wiping away some blood that had spilled from a well placed uppercut from the Ravager. "It doesn't have to be this way," he said. "Surrender, and we'll go easy on you."
Ravager growled darkly. "You idiot. We beat you once already. We can do it again," she added saucily. "We'll break you in half. All of you. No prisoners this time. No mercy," she added for the benefits of Tartarus. Brother Blood, wisely, decided not to press the issue of taking Raven alive. He could deal with that on his own.
The Ravager grinned, watching her opponents, watching to see some sign of fear, some sign of hesitation, some sign of weakness. But to her shock, and more than a little horror, she saw none. She saw no fear, only confidence.
And now... she was the one afraid.
"ATTACK!" she screamed. And battle was renewed.
Deathfang hurled himself at Raven fangs first, intent to tear the little sorceress apart, but she was amply prepared, and side-stepped, allowing Deathfang to instead hurl himself face-first into Starfire's tiny but powerful fist and be sent hurtling high up into the air, howling all the while in agony and disbelief. Blackfire shot past the dark werebeast, hurling starbolts at Beastboy as she zoomed low along the ground, giving chase for him, now in the form of a green-raven, blasting at him with her eye-bolts. A hand shot out, however, extended on a cable and grabbed her legs, then snapped back and hurled her into the side of a building with enough force to crack the stone wall, even as the arm released her legs and retracted back into the arm of Cyborg. It flipped into a sonic cannon instantly, but Brother Blood moved quickly to defend his teammate and slammed into Cyborg's back, knocking him aside before he could fire. Cyborg retaliated by firing off a shot at Blood, who nimbly dodged aside and lashed out with a kick at Cyborg's chest... an action he sorely regretted soon after, for it was like a man without shoes kicking solid granite, and the Eighth Blood stumbled backwards, limping on his injured leg. Even his iron boots hadn't been enough to completely protect him from the pain.
"This is getting us nowhere!" cursed the Ravager as she hurled a flurry of shurikens at Beastboy, who shifted into the form of a serpent and twisted out of the way of their deadly flight. She glanced over at Malchior, who was working to keep Nightwing and Cyborg back with his magic. However, powerful though he was, the combined assault of both fighters was pushing him back as well. "Malchior! Separate the combatants! We can handle them more easily one on one."
"I am on it!" replied the dark sorcerer, deflecting a sonic burst that nearly took his head off with one hand, sending it harmlessly rocketing into the air. Then, he thrust out his other hand and launched a blast of black energy at Cyborg and Brother Blood, engulfing them. They vanished into the shadows as it fell to the ground and dissipated. Elsewhere, it would reopen, and they could continue their battle at their own pace. Malchior did this twice more, banishing first Beastboy and Deathfang and then the Tamaranian sisters, shuffling them off to other destinations in the city where their battles wouldn't interfere with one another's.
"Good work," said the Ravager with approval, glancing over at her sorcerer comrade. "That just leaves..."
Her next words were cut off as a boot slammed fully into her jaw and sent her flying through the air to slam hard into a nearby parked car. Growling, she pushed herself to her feet, seeing Nightwing already there, bo staff upraised. However, he'd made a critical mistake, leaving Malchior at his back, and the dragon-turned-sorcerer raised his hands and prepared to blast away the annoying fellow.
What he heard next, however, chilled him to his soulless core.
"Let me handle this one, Nightwing," intoned a voice behind Malchior. He whirled about, and saw behind him the lavender-haired visage of Raven, standing there in her white cloaked draped around her shoulders, obscuring all beneath her neck. Her expression, however, was one of anger, disgust, and hatred. All aimed at Malchior. And this from a woman who had supposedly had all such emotions drained from her.
Hell hath no fury like a woman betrayed.
And Malchior was about to learn this the hard way as Raven threw back her cloak with one arm and brought up an object previously concealed behind her in one hand. His ice blue eyes grew wide as he recognized it. The black metal, the red gemstones not unlike her chakra. It was the mirror. Her mirror. There could be no other like it in this world or the next.
And peering out from within the reflective glass, Malchior saw four sinister, crimson eyes.
He couldn't stop what happened next, no power could. And certainly not his own, not that of Anger in his soul. It reacted to the mirror on an instinctive basis, and like two oppositely charged magnets, he was sucked into the mirror by the power held within. The power of Raven's mind and soul. And she smirked, twirling around the mirror in her hand so she now could gaze into the reflective surface.
"Nightwing," she intoned, before feeling herself start to sink into a meditative trance. "Kick her ass."
Raven dropped down onto the ground, the mirror cradled into her hands, her legs crossed beneath her as she sank fully into a meditative trance. Her eyes were open, but she was no longer home. A black aura engulfed her, ensuring her body would be safe as she did battle in the realm of her mind.
All this did the Ravager watch... and then turned her attention back to Nightwing, back her own opponent. She had no doubt in her mind she would win. He was tough but so was she, she was stronger and faster with the serum enhancing her physical prowess, she could match him move for move. And she could see any move he made long before he made it. Surely he knew this all as well as she did, if not better.
Why then, she wondered, doesn't he look scared?
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Author's Notes:
Apologies for the short-ish chapter but it was again mostly filler. Coming up, a long series of stand alone fights where each and every Titan confronts their arch-enemy and their own inner demons. Oh yeah, and enough kickass fighting to fill at least a dozen Titan stories. Next time: Beastboy and Deathfang engage in the battle of the beasts, while Cyborg and Brother Blood determine who's the champ and who's going to the scrap pile.
Yomiori-Wolfdemon: Tartarus will get exactly what they deserve. No more, no less. Kill Bill was indeed a good movie, and Katergator's version of the Ravager draws some influence from the Crazy-88 costumes. I rather like it myself.
LoCaD: A little similar to his comic-self, yes. And yes, that broadsword does indeed come from 'Cyborg the Barbarian' as you'll see shortly. You are far too kind to compare me to the likes of Seth-Turtle, and I thank you. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.
Ray1: Hehe, yeah it was fun. And it saves me the trouble of making my own magic words, which can be tough.
Scathac's Warrior: Not quite, and that's not even remotely connected to the chakram gemstone. But you're thinking, I like that. And it's not like it's only been a day, it's been a whole week after all. Oh no, not fluffy pink bunnies. Whatever shall I do?
ViciousAssassin: That was a general statement you twit, and yes those were the Titans. No guarantees for those poor souls, but in the end I think all will be well now that the Titans are back, wouldn't you agree?
Pnaixrose: Yes, it is indeed Nightwing. Ain't it kewl?
TDG3RD: All of the Titans had their new uniforms influenced by the episodes in which they shined through the strongest. In Cyborg's case yes, that meant adding the broadsword his sweet Sarasim gave him.
Piccolo999: All my sources say Greyson, not to be confused with Gray, like the color, but whatever. It can't be that important. Homecoming is coming along nicely, sorry I haven't made another review in a long while but I'm saving them for something insightful rather than 'great story' etc.
Todd fan: Neither can I… neither can I.
Anwen: Patience, Anwen… it is coming. I would never not finish a story, it isn't in my nature to do something only halfway.
Blackbird: Turin makes great art, I simply hope they don't mind me using it as inspiration. I love his new line of artwork even better, actually. No, not her comic uniform, check out Katergator's picture of her to get a better idea, but it's fairly close to what she wears now.
Finn Mac Cool: She doesn't know how to operate it. Besides, she wants to beat Tartarus, not kill them all. Okay it's a plot hole, I admit it. But honestly, isn't it more fun this way? As for that, you'll see soon. Let us simply say it ties into Slade and the Ravager.
Elrohirthewriter: And you still owe me a workable e-mail to send it to! You impending bloodshed sense is tingling, you say? Well it's about to go into overdrive! Now we're cooking with napalm!
Ultimate R-Man: Most changes don't occur quite that quickly, but yes I understand perfectly what you mean. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.