Titans: Elemental

Chapter 61: Aftershock, Part 3

We see Terra emerging into light against a black background.

"My name is Terra, and I have done horrible things."

A towering image of Slade, wreathed in flames, fades into view behind her.

"I have sworn to serve a dark master", he raises one hand, "I have obeyed his every command", it curls to a fist, "and committed crimes in his name."

A lick of fire washes across the area. When it clears, the view has changed to a street in Jump City. Ranks of commando robots march along under the glow of sunset. More robots, secondary black-and-white ones, but with gray armor, are on the march. Both groups of robots are advancing in a single body through the misty street. Behind the marching androids, Terra rises into view on a piece of pavement and floats overhead.

"I have betrayed and attacked everyone who used to be my friend. One by one, I have destroyed the Titans."

Her hands glow threateningly. People stand frozen in terror.

"And with no one left to stop me…."

Rumbling, followed by geysers of mud and stone dust, we ses another ravaged block. Wrecked cars are strewn about in the fog.

"... I have brought an entire city to its knees."

Slade's robots continue their unstoppable march, emerging from the dusty haze.

As Terra is now standing before the flaming image of Slade, her mind wanders.

She sees her former friends all meeting their end….

Dick.

Jack.

Victor.

Bryan.

Raven.

Blackfire.

Starfire.

Rose.

…. Beast Boy.

As Slade's image moves away, Terra gives an empty look.

"My name is Terra. I have done horrible things…. And…. And…. I have no regrets…."

….

We see a fog obscuring the sky that makes it impossible to tell what time of day it is. We see a group of pay phones, all off the hook, along the deserted street. A couple of cars sit abandoned by the parking meters as wisps of dust and fog drift past.

We then see a battalion of the secondary robots. They stride across the street, leaving commandos at attention on both sidewalks.

….

The view shifts slightly and flickers with a bit of static; Slade watching it and other angles on a wall of monitors in his stained-glass-windowed lair.

Overload, Cinderblock and Plasmus stand nearby.

Slade, "a world without Titans. I was beginning to think I'd never see the day. But at long last, the city is ours, and victory is mine. And any other hero dare not oppose me while I'm in control."

….

We see Terra, riding her pavement platform slowly down, both arms tucked behind her back.

Slade, "fine work, apprentice. You have made me very proud."

Terra, "thanks. It was fun."

She says this with an empty voice, as if she no longer took pleasure in any of this.

Her mind drifts to memories from some time ago….

….

A sound of young laughter; the Titans bring her up short, and the blond bulldozer's image is one of her in the old black/yellow-orange outfit. The sky behind her is clear and blue now, and Beast Boy's hand reaches up to plant itself on her shoulder. She joins in the laughter.

All ten are around an outdoor table at the team's favorite pizza joint, with stacks of empty boxes everywhere. The tallest sits by Vic, whose arm is held aloft by Starfire, while Raven just sits and reads with Jack's arm around her shoulder. This was the day of a pizza-eating contest that Victor has just won handily. Beast Boy looks very ill, while Dick waves a white flag in surrender, and Rose has face-planted onto the table with Bryan rubbing her back.

….

Back to the present day.

The table stands unused in the mist. Terra eyes it for a long moment before speaking.

Terra, "Sector Five is secure. Pretty quiet up here since all the people cleared out."

Slade, "get used to it, my dear. This city is only the first of many."

She starts away.

Terra, "I know."

Slade, "with our growing power, we'll soon have the Justice League at our mercy!"

Terra forces a smile and says, "I'd like to see them try and stop us…."

She continues down the silent street. We look across the building facades, whose windows show her passing, stolid reflection, not a person in sight, and stop on a set of double doors.

….

Another flashback; the Amazing Mumbo kicks them open, sacks of cash in hand, and runs off laughing. He has just pulled a bank job. Dick, Bryan, Rose and Beast Boy run out after him. Before the mad magician can set foot on the opposite sidewalk, a huge stone fist shoots up, seizes him in an unbreakable grip, and hoists him up . After it has gone, the view clears to show Vic, Jack, Blackfire, Starfire, and Raven looking on as well, and amid a fluttering shower of loose bills, Terra steps into view to look up at her work.

Dick, "yes!

Bryan, "nice one!"

BB, "go, Terra!"

Terra laughs in glee.

….

Terra floats past the bank and the commandos stationed on the sidewalk; she is now deep in thought over these past moments. She passes a tree….

….

Terra laughs and walks through the park with Beast Boy.

BB, "and then Victor says…."

They pass another tree….

….

She continues her patrol, eyeing the troops, and stops amid a group of secondary robots. All are facing the Tower, standing alone and dark in the mist that covers Jump City Bay.

Terra, "well, we did it. They're really gone."

Raven's telekinetic powers flash into view, in the form of a long ribbon that wraps itself around one robot and hauls it away. Terra has spoken too soon.

Terra, "huh?"

Another robot steps forward and is promptly blindsided by a starbolt/sonic cannon combo. The explosion sends Terra sliding across the pavement; groaning in pain, she tries to lift her head.

Slade, "apprentice, report! What's going on?"

Four robots are each taken out a different way.

One is engulfed in flames, one is frozen solid and smashed with a boulder, one is sent flying into the air and then sent right back down, smashing into pieces, and the last is electrocuted before being wrapped up in vines and crushed!

Terra, "I don't-"

The Titans' silhouettes begin to emerge from the miasma; she scuttles backward a bit.

Terra, "no! I destroyed you! You're all-"

Her nemeses stand motionless in the fog.

Slade, "Terra! Attack! Now!"

She follows orders, smashing their position to rubble, but when the dust clears, all it reveals is a car that has been flipped upside down by the tremors. Panicking a bit, she backs up and looks left and right, that curtain of hair over her right eye swinging heavily with the motion. In the fog behind her, Beast Boy as a wolf races by; an instant later, two booted feet pass in front. Now Terra is rattled, but her attention is distracted and she does not notice that Victor was coming up fast to throw a punch. he catches her squarely in the back; his sonic cannon sends her down the street a bit, and as soon as she gets up, two starbolts hit her broadside. One purple, one green.

She sits up woozily, rubbing her head, and suddenly finds the shapes of Raven, Rose and Beast Boy, back in human form, advancing from the murk. A stone column rises to carry her out of range, but another of Starfire's shots blows it apart under her feet. The outline of Dick leaps high and hurls a handful of grenades down at her; she raises a rock sheet to stop their explosions from reaching her, only to be flattened by Vic's cannon shot.

Slade, "on your feet, Terra! Your suit's neural interface allows me to assist you in combat….", Terra stands, "... but I can only help if you get up and fight!"

Vic rushes at her now; with a fierce yell, she brings up many pavement chunks amid a broad vertical shaft of yellow light that surrounds her. Whatever she was planning is cut off when an enormous black hand reaches up from behind and seizes her. Raven's "soul-self" emerges entirely, carrying Terra high into the air. We see the apprentice's face, whose eyes register undiluted fear and then narrow as the yellow glow starts anew. A stone spike shoots up to knock her out of the apparition's grip, and she rises on a piece of it, but the silhouette of Beast Boy, once again a wolf, streaks across and plows her away.

Terra tumbles through the fog and lands to find that growling beast advancing toward her.

Terra, "Beast Boy! Beast Boy! Stop! Aren't you even gonna talk to me?"

His snarls are the only answer she can get, and Vic starts to emerge off to one side.

Vic, "there's nothing left to say."

Blackfire, "what else can we say?"

Starfire, "you attempted to annihilate us."

Raven, "did you think we wouldn't take it personally?"

Bryan, "after we tried to warn you?"

Rose, "over and over again?"

Jack, "and you just threw it all right back at us?"

Dick, "it's over, Terra."

Terra is ringed by the nine heroes in righteous fury, Beast Boy back in human form. After one last panicked look around, she makes up her mind and takes to the air, riding high above the rooftops to make her getaway. One by one, the Titans step out of the fog and look after her. Starfire is first to break the tense silence.

Starfire, "she seems quite scared."

Raven, "scared isn't the same as sorry."

Blackfire, "she's gotta pay for everything she did to us."

Bryan, "agreed. She needs to know the pain we felt when she betrayed us."

Dick, "I don't care how she feels. Terra's a dangerous criminal, and she has to be stopped.

Beast Boy, "she will be", he clenches a fist, "I'm going to make sure of it."

Vic's forearm panel beeps; he checks it.

Vic, "got a lock. She's heading east."

….

Another street. Terra runs to beat the band, and takes cover in an alley.

Slade, "where do you think you're going, young lady?"

Terra, "anywhere! I was getting thrashed, I had to get-"

….

We see Slade's fist, slamming down; he is in his lair.

Slade, "no! I will not tolerate failure, apprentice. I will not permit you to run away! You will stay! You will fight! And you will win!"

….

Terra edges to the mouth of the alley and looks out. Nothing here, but a moment later, Vic rushes with a savage yell and rams a shoulder into her hard enough to drive her well down the block. She raises a couple of rocks and sends them at him, Rose and Raven; Vic smashes through one, while Raven levitates the other and throws it back full force, and Rose slices through hers with her staff. Ravens hits the ground just in front of Terra, shattering into several chunks and giving her a new platform to stand on. Vic's sonic cannon blast slices the air just next to her, as does blasts of laser fire from Bryan's gun; up she goes, only to meet Starfire and Blackfire assaulting her with starbolt, Dick's one super-strong right hook and Jack throwing huge balls of fire at her. The Tamaraneans instantly pulverize the stone into dust, dropping Terra back to the street.

She brings a new piece of roadbed loose and rides up on it, but Dick's grappling hook whistles into view to snare her. A hard yank on the line has her eating asphalt in no time, but she is soon upright again and shooting pieces of rubble at Dick to stop his charge. Next, two starboltz nail her in the back; here comes Starfire and Blackfire, blasting away and assaulting Terra back.

More fragments are lifted and fired into the air, but two mighty starbolts blow them all away and drop the traitor to her knees, with anger and hurt.

Vic's turn. A bionic punch at the ground makes her jump away, and his follow-up cannon burst sends her down again.

She tries to get up, only for Rose to drop kick her in the back and somersault away.

Terra is then hit with a laser blast from Bryan before she can even blink.

She looks up with a gasp as a large shadow falls on her from overhead; the source, a bus, crashes down right on top of her and explodes. Raven lands to inspect the smoking site; she moves this vehicle, but behind her, Terra emerges, intact, on a piece of asphalt and flies away, only to find Beast Boy charging as a pterodactyl and Jack on his own slab of Earth with electrified water engulfing his hand. A last-second dodge puts her past the ex-boyfriend and magic user, so that they have to double back and do some serious flying to catch up again.

Terra raises several columns at crazy angles to slow them down; BB crashes into one of them, but her platform is quickly hit with Jack's ball of water and lightning and she nearly loses her balance.

Having taken his teammate's place in the pursuit, Jack blazes away and scores a number of very near misses.

Terra, "Slade! Help! I can't do this alone!"

….

Slade, "dear child, you are never alone…."

….

Terra races past, Jack hot on her heels, but a section of the pavement ruptures, stretching from side to side, and the Titan stops short. As the others rush up, Beast Boy in human form, the trio of monsters appears amid an aura of crackling blue-white light. The nine stare bug-eyed, watching Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock rise slowly into the air. Currents of energy begin to eddy around the bodies, and then they begin to swirl together as if they were in a nightmare ice cream maker. Cinderblock's hand develops a coating of Plasmus sludge and becomes energized; his toes elongate, similar to those of the purple beast, and also light up; slime oozes over the chest and head, the latter of which is soon covered with those lurid green eyes.

The stares of horrified amazement continue. Now the aura that surrounded the three creatures has become a sparking ball, which soon disappears under a huge eruption of energy from beneath the street surface. All nine Titans avert their eyes from the blinding radiance; when it clears, one long-toed foot is set down, accompanied by a loud growl. Two legs, two arms, one body and head, but looking as if assembled from random parts of the three creatures. Topping it all is Plasmus' multi-eyed face. This conglomeration, Ternion, roars down at the Titans.

Vic, "and I thought they were ugly before."

Bryan, "I think I'm gonna hurl…."

Ternion charges.

Dick, "Titans! Go!"

….

We see Slade's lair. He stands with his back to Terra as she runs in.

Terra, "Slade! I made it! I'm alive. I can't believe they almost beat me."

He stands motionless for a second, then whips around and smashes a forearm into her face. She fetches up against the far wall and is soon covered by his approaching shadow. Raising her head, she utters a sharp gasp; he stands over her.

Slade, "that was nothing…. Compared to what I'm going to do to you..."

….

Reviews:

Sethelephant: indeed. It's gonna get intense!

Bailey Radcliff: happy to hear all that.

raven 2012: glad to hear you liked the chapter.

DaV1nc136: indeed. The Judas Contract storyline is such a serious one.

pokemonking0924: glad you liked the chapter. But I'm pretty sure I've already said; TERRA WILL STILL TURN TO STONE! The plan is for her to actually rejoin the Titans when she returns in the finale and explain how the Hell she came back.

Ushindi: glad you found the chapter that way. 1. I LOVE Catwoman! 2. Love the histories and lore of all the Lantern's.

….