CHAPTER 3: Unwanted Message
"It's too quiet," Bumblebee murmured nervously, agitatedly fingering the yellow energy stingers in her hands as she looked around where the Titans' computer systems indicated the alarm security network had been triggered. The members of the Teen Titans and Titans East were scouting the perimeter among a compound of buildings and warehouses that served as a docking facility and loading area next to one of the many harbors of Jump City. The area was abundantly stocked with wooden crates and large, metal cargo shipping containers brought in by the numerous trucking companies, the gigantic metal boxes slightly red with rust from the sea water nearby. Mas y Menos, the two speedsters of Titans East, were oddly holding each others' hands, vital since their abilities of speed could only be harnessed by direct contact, but still incredibly queer-looking nonetheless.
"I don't like this," murmured Mas to his brother in their native tongue.
"I know, Mas. This whole thing just…doesn't seem right. This couldn't be a more obvious trap…and as usual, we have to go right into the middle of it," Menos agreed back. Since they were conversing softly in Spanish, neither team paid them much heed, especially since the words were lost on them.
"So the baddie this time? Mad Mod? Killer Moth? H.I.V.E? Brother Blood, even? It makes sense considering we still haven't seen hide or hair of the guy since he vanished from maximum security," Speedy mused, his bow and steel arrow drawn.
"We are not sure, Friend Speedy," Starfire said hesitantly, her melodious voice wafting down gently like goose down as she managed to lower herself to the ground from her aerial position in the sky, "The report at the Titans Tower had only stated that there was an intruder in the vicinity."
"Well, whoever it is, we're so gonna open a can of whoop-ass on their - " yet the sentence absolutely died off the cybernetic teenager's lips as Cyborg's jaw dropped as well as he eyes bugled out so much in astonishment, you could see the whites all around. Upon seeing Cyborg's odd demeanor, the other Titans looked up ahead before they too gasped in surprise, the Teen Titans more so than the Titans East.
"No…" whispered a horrified Robin, his body rigid.
"It can't be!" Mas y Menos chorused in distress.
"No way!" gasped Beast Boy, his face white underneath his green skin, turning paler by the minute.
There, standing at the very end of the pier of the shipping docks…was Slade. It was so hard to believe and yet…there he stood, clad in his black and brown leather apparel, his gold and black halved mask polished and shining under the soft lights of the harbor's streetlights, his eye staring forlornly at the group of teenage heroes. Mercurial, silent, deadly, and yet appearing as fresh and clean and vibrant as if he never perished in the lava battle with the ex-Titan, Terra.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Titans?" Slade said casually, "A month? A year? A millennium? Far too long for my tastes, anyway. I was beginning to think that I would never see you smiling faces again, nor see just how your pitiful copycat team, the Titans East, would prove to be slightly a bit more inadequate than the originals."
The members of Titans East just glared at Slade for the remark, fuming.
"How…how'd you survive?" gasped Cyborg, his mouth opening and closing dumbly like a goldfish.
"Terra took you down, Slade…way down!" Beast Boy snarled, his face uncharacteristically harsh and angry. Robin got into a martial stance, his voice calm yet intense.
"Slade…" the Boy Wonder hissed, "I don't know where you've been but you shouldn't have come back. But if you want to fight, I'm still ready…"
Slade just laughed as, to everyone's surprise, a strange symbol then began to glow in the reddest tinge of fresh blood, burning brightly like fire, as the lines slowly appeared until they formed a strange symbol of similar to the letter "S". Raven's eyes went wide with alarm and apprehension as she recognized the pictogram, and it scared it deeply. On the day of her birthday, it was the last thing she needed to see, and the growing dread of the knowledge of her future being validated like this threatened to paralyze her.
Slade chuckled lowly, "Ah…but that is so precious, Robin. But I didn't come for you."
The assassin then looked pointedly at the cloaked girl before he smiled in a sinister manner behind his mask, saying, "Hello, birthday girl…I have a message for you."
Raven's breath quaked, literally, as she gripped her cloak. Instantly, the other Titans and the members of Titans East got in front of Raven protectively, shielding the girl behind them and as a curtain of bodies. Raven felt her mood lift slightly from the gesture of love and protective will.
Starfire's eyes glowed hotly with the green sun-energy coursing through her body as she exclaimed angrily, "She does not wish to hear your message! Please leave Friend Raven alone, and do not come back or we shall be forced to open a strange can of ass-whoop and use it on you!"
Biting his tongue, Cyborg decided not to correct her on that one; there was no point. Slade's eye narrowed as he took several steps forward menacingly.
"I will deliver my message, Titans…and I do not intend to let you stop me," he said pitilessly.
"Yeah right! You and what army, Slade?" Beast Boy growled.
Speedy just snorted derisively as he notched the end of his arrow to the bowstring of his bow.
"Hey, in case you haven't noticed, dipstick, you're outnumbered! You couldn't handle the Teen Titans when they fought with you before! Heck, from what I've heard, even Terra was able to kick your sorry ass! And now that we're here, it's ten of us against one of you! What makes you think we're gonna let you just idle on by and do whatever you want?"
Slade's eyes flashed triumphantly as he snapped his fingers, and to the Titans' horrors, numerous teenagers emerged from the shadows all around them. And Robin and Cyborg and Bumblebee recognized four of them…
"Hello, scuzz-suckers!" Gizmo grinned with sick anticipation as he activated the mechanical spider legs from his backpack with a flaunt, the metal appendages lifting the small techno-genius from the ground and ready to smash and cut everyone down thanks to its razor-sharp edges and indestructible metal alloy.
"Gizmo? Mammoth? Students from H.I.V.E.?" gasped Bumblebee, "You're all working for Slade?"
Slade then inexorably and stonily instructed, "Hellions, H.I.V.E…give the Titans a formal greeting from the Hellfire Club."
"Hellions, H.I.V.E…attack plan, Omega-Fire!" yelled Monet, and though there was some scandalous looks of resentment from Mammoth, Gizmo, See-More, and Private HIVE, the antagonistic teens all obeyed the female Alpha-Hellion.
"Titans, go!" yelled Bumblebee and Robin in unison, and as one, they all scattered, dispersing as they each took on one or two opponents. Both the Titans and the Titans East spread out as they used a combination of their powers and fighting abilities to drive back their foes. Empath, the handsome, fair-skinned Hellion, then grinned as he immediately targeted the human, masked vigilante, thinking that this would certainly be easy.
"Feel scared, yet flat-liner? You will be soon enough…" Empath derided nastily as he then used his mutant power to direct a full-blast of telepathic suggestion to manipulate Robin's emotions. Immediately, it hit with the desired effect. Robin grunted in pain, holding his temples with his hands as he shut his eyes and gritted his teeth painfully, causing his mouth to throb. Completely out of the blue, Robin had the overpowering and devastating sensations of fright, anxiety and self-loathing consume his concentration and very being, forcing him to stop whatever he was doing and just bemoan inwardly. Unpleasant memories, nightmares, phobias…all of them hit Robin with such intensity, it was more powerful than the Scarecrow's fear gas as his terrors intertwined with reality, making it difficult for Robin to tell what was real and what was not as he saw images of himself dressed as Slade's apprentice…his father's dead body, cut down by bullets…Batman calling him a disappointment and saying he ever regretted taking him in…the Titans turning against him, blaming him for their failures…
""No!" yelled Robin, and Empath just grinned as he invoked more of his mental suggestion into Robin's repressed and darkest corners of his mind. Robin then had enough as he invoked every bit of willpower he had in ignoring the visions screaming at him as he removed several birdarangs from his belt, the black and yellow discs popping neatly into his hand. He then shut of the conscious connection to his mind, lessening the effectiveness of Empath's exploitations, before he flung the circular boomerangs directly at Empath with vengeance. Empathy was so confident that he was winning that he was taken aback and couldn't dodge the projectiles in time. Within less than two seconds, the Hellion felt the birdarangs crack against his mouth, his forehead, and his hands painfully, leaving red welts and drawing some blood from the deep bruises. Empath busied himself from the pain, and that one moment of distraction ended the torture session for Robin. With a roar, Robin tore across the space in between them before he launched himself into the air and spun around, bringing his foot, heel first, directly into Empath's face.
Wham! Empath's head cracked to the side before the dignified and spoiled teen flew back into a streetlight before going limp, slumping to the floor.
Meanwhile, Mas y Menos, with joined hands, were running circles around Monet, trying to incapacitate her in a whirlwind and trapping the Hellions from attacking their friends. Around and around they went, no more than a red and white blur, as pressurized walls of air pressed against Money from all directions, yet the dark-skinned telekinetic was quite familiar with that modus operandi as she smirked. With a wave of her hand, she lifted the two Hispanic brothers of the ground and forcefully separated them, thereby unable to allow them to use their powers.
"Hey! No fair!" yelled Menos in Spanish, yet without much mercy, Monet used her telekinesis to slam the two repeatedly against the wall of a nearby warehouse, painfully ramming them over and over again. Their cries and hollers of pain as well as the blood blossoming their uniforms was immensely satisfying for her before she flung them hard against a stack of crates. The H.I.V.E. student, See-More then grinned as he did the finishing touch of encasing both Mas and Menos into separate force-fields, keeping them apart and trapped in the spherical domes of energy.
"Stay put, you little, overactive Chihuahuas," he mocked before he and Monet left to fight some more of the Titans.
"Ow…" groaned Menos.
"I hurt…in places…that I didn't know…I even had!" wailed Mas in Spanish, pretty sure that he lost all feeling in one of his legs where Monet broke it.
Meanwhile, Beast Boy found himself in the sights of the Hellion Bevatron…
"Hey kid! Wanna play with me?" sneered Bevatron.Beast Boy just shot him a very disgusted look on his green face.
"Dude, you have no idea how dirty that just sounded," the green-skinned animorph retorted before he transformed into a raging bull with barely a noise and heavily galloped at full, stampeding, speed towards the tall, lanky protégé of Emma Frost. Bevatron grinned before his hands crackled with energy of electricity than could only measure in volts in the thousands before he let loose a bolt of white, hot lightning. Beast Boy, realizing he'd have to be quick to take Bevatron down, then shapeshifted into a hummingbird, so tiny that he was able to nimbly evade the energy comfortably since Bevatron could barely make him out. Aqualad then took the chance as he then tried to blitz Bevatron from behind, but the Hellion swiftly evaded the attack, letting Aqualad pass him before he delivered a swift push pick directly into the Titan's back, sending him flying. Unfortunately, this gave the green changeling to transform into a ram before head-butting the Hellion hard into his gut, his thick head catching the mutant in the stomach before sending him flying. Glad for the assist, Aqualad and Beast Boy then dashed together for a combined frontal assault at their rival, but Bevatron wasn't finished. Raising his hand above, snakes of electricity surrounded him, caressing his body playfully and protectively while building quickly in intensity and power before he let it loose in a wide berth, striking everything within its radius. And unluckily, Aqualad and Beast Boy were not swift enough to dodge it as the electricity coursed through their bodies, causing them to scream in agony before they both fainted and collapsed to the ground, blacked out. The Hellion grinned as he advanced to the Titans, intending to deliver the finishing blow.
"You two stay right where you are! After all, your lesson from the Hellfire Club isn't quite finished yet!" Bevatron boasted, his hands sparkling with another blast of deadly electricity, ready to kill Aqualad and Beast Boy, but Bumblebee then launched herself at the male Hellion with a tightly balled up fist, her wings propelling her to almost sub-sonic speeds. Since she could tell the mutant's powers were electricity based, using her stingers would be ineffective considering he would either absorb or turn it back on her. And Bumblebee was far from helpless without her weapons of choice.
"And here's a lesson for you, courtesy of Titans East, big mouth!" she snarled, and since she was expertly flying from Bevatron's blind spot, Bevatron was unable to avoid the strike as the African American girl let loose with a ferocious uppercut.
Pow!
"And booyah! Sparky's down for the count!" Cyborg cheered from the sidelines as he fought against Gizmo, admirably watching Bumblebee knock out Bevatron with her single punch, sending him flying into and against the metal wall of a shipping container.
Meanwhile, the whole thing was just too much to take in for Raven as she kept chanting "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" over and over again, trying to maintain and barricade the doors to the gate in her soul, preventing the dam of inner turmoil, guilt, and fear that had been surging inside her ever since she was fully aware of her sixteenth birthday today.
The Mark of Scath, the prophecy of her and her father, the return of Slade from the dead…it was just too much to take in at once.
Raven hugged herself, trying to desperately erase the numbness in her soul, the fear and dawning comprehension that Slade's return was because of her, her voice strangled in a half-sob, "I…I just want this day to end!"
"I think we both know that this day is far from over," a voice rang behind her. Raven gasped as she whirled around to see Slade standing behind her, his eye gleaming maliciously.
His voice was slightly amused, as if this was nothing more than a game to him, his toying with Raven's mind and self-loathing, as he said, "Hello birthday girl…ready for your present?"
Raven felt her anger, her desperation, send bile bubbling in her throat as she stared at the Mark of Scath burning brightly on Slade's forehead. She just wanted to scream, to cry, to break down into a fetal position, but instead, she then had all she could stand as she gave into to her urge and desire to lash out.
"Stay the hell away from me, you son of a bitch!" Raven screamed shrilly, not even caring that her emotions were now growing wildly and completely out of control. She had an inkling what the message was, and she would kill Slade first rather than have him damn her peace of mind and her life. Normally, she loathed killing, but this was Slade and this was her destiny, something she would do anything to avoid and stop from coming to reality. She would do anything to change it, to force it to remain hidden and forgotten and lost forever.
She would do anything.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven screamed, flinging her hands at Slade, and instantly, a black, clawed hand consisting of darkness and shadows coagulated from the ground out of thin air before it grasped Slade tightly like a vise, crushing him between the fingers. With a grunt, Raven flew high in the air and the hand grasping Slade followed her, elevating higher and higher above the roofs of the buildings before she then invoked the hand to bring the assassin and power-slam the man into the concrete ground with the same amount of force as a falling semi.
CRASH!
Raven sighed with relief, her body shaking, as she saw the wafts of smoke rise from the crushed rock and rubble of the pavement, thinking Slade was now nothing more than a stain on the ground. She landed back to the ground amid the battle between the Titans, H.I.V.E. and the Hellions. Yet the fear instantly returned and intensified as she saw Slade stand up from the hole and walk towards her, not even showing any signs that he was the slightest bit injured from the attack.
"I have a message for you, my dear Raven," Slade stated solemnly, like a harbinger of doom.
"ROT IN HELL!" screamed Raven. Yet before she could strike Slade again, the assassin then deftly grabbed her wrist, and for an instant, Raven was immersed with pain beyond words. Whimpering in excruciating anguish, Raven did not even see Slade's face glowing in red as her face was glowing in white. With all her strength, Raven shrieked as she wrenched her hand out of Slade's fingers, but there was a faint ripping noise as she fell backwards on her rear. She then saw that she jerked back so hard with Slade still gripping her sleeve, she tore off the fabric of her costume covering her arm, and to her horror…her gray skin was branded with red marks, the same red marks on Slade's head, the same marks of her birthright, of her father.
"No…" she gasped, the gate threatening to buckle in her mind as her self-control and assurance plummeted upon the sight of the writings on her body. Slade just looked smug.
"It has begun," he said. Raven then tried one last attempt, even surprised that she was so daring and bold enough to even attempt what she should have known was impossible.
"STOP!" she shrieked, and within moments, the docks and rather, the entire city froze and remained suspended in time, tinged by the slight tone of darkness as Raven's psyche and powers completely and utterly caused the medium of time to be meaningless. Raven gasped as she looked around in the eerie silence that was only moments ago filled with searing energy blasts, rants, and brawls. Her friends, all in stationary positions not physically and realistically possible, were as still as statues as they were paused in brave and courageous poses while fighting the Hellions and H.I.V.E. to the very best of their abilities. And yes, the Hellions and H.I.V.E. members were immobile as well, the shadows cast all over their bodies. Yet thankfully…Slade was petrified as well. Raven then collapsed on her knees, sobbing with a mixture of disbelief, shock, and elated relief.
"Thank you…" Raven wept, wiping her eyes and nose, "It's stopped. It can't happen."
"You are incredibly ignorant, Raven," Slade's voice broke, and Raven jerked her head up to see Slade still moving, despite after freezing time! It should have been impossible! And yet, Slade was just full of surprises as he crossed his arms over his chest, the red mark of hell burning on his forehead as he took in the quivering mess of a Titan before him.
"No…" Raven sniveled, unwilling to believe it. If Slade could still remain unaffected, after the most powerful use of her powers, then that truly meant she was in danger…
The masked man then scoffed, "Did you honestly think you could hurt me, my dear? I was given powers by the Hellfire Club and the Thirteenth Order powers that only you could ever imagine, powers that certainly dwarf over your own. But of course, your father's own influence is enough to erase everything you could ever do…"
And with that, Slade snapped his fingers, and in an instant, the time freeze was abolished. Raven was horrified to see that the one act that left her drained was undone with a simple flick of Slade's fingers.
Slade just gave a disgusted laugh at the attempt, as if shocked with gall at the fact that Raven was actually stupid enough to pitifully try to deny her heritage, as he mocked cruelly, "You might be able to stop time, birthday girl, but you can't stop me. You can't stop any of it, really."
Slade's voice was then touched with a shred of interest as he intoned, "I have to say, Raven, that when I found out the truth, I was very impressed. All this time, I had no idea about the power that was lurking inside of you, writhing and begging to break out like a newborn beast from the womb of its mother. The glorious destiny that awaits. But then again…it's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"
"Damn you…" hissed Raven with the utmost venom she could muster despite her fear eating away at her mind and senses. No, he's lying. He's deluded. This couldn't be happening. Just because Slade said it didn't mean she couldn't change her path, change what she was meant to do. She was in control of her life! It was her choice to make! She didn't want to bring the Armageddon! Wasn't that enough that it could be averted?
"Oh honestly, Raven, did you think that you could just blow the candles and make it go all away?"
"Please, let me be! I don't want this! I don't want to bring the end of the world! Leave me alone!" Raven shrieked, the pressure now starting to get to her as she was close to having a nervous breakdown.
"Today is the day it begins, my dear Raven," Slade murmured hauntingly in the area, his voice echoing eerily in the dead stillness of the night, still clearly lucid despite the sounds of the intense fighting in the background, "You've known this all your life. It is going to happen. And no matter how much you wish, no matter where you go, no matter how much you resist and squirm…there is nothing you can do to stop it."
"I can at least stop you!" shrieked Raven as she telekinetically lifted up several pipes and broken glass, the darkened auras enveloping them, before she hurtled them like bullets directly at the assassin. No more was she going to be merciful, no more was she going to put up with this crap coming out of his mouth. She was going to kill him, silence him for good…anything to make him shut up. Yet to her dread, she was too weak to fully besiege Slade as he nimbly avoided the shrapnel before he continued to advance towards her. Yet then as a final act of a miracle…
"I gotcha!" Robin yelled as he swooped down from the rooftop using his Bird-Grappler and with the lifeline, Robin managed to neatly grab Raven around the waist and swing to the far end of the compound before the two landed far from Slade and the battle. Raven was never glad to feel the sturdy and solid Robin in her life as she held on to him gratefully, feeling hot tears leak out of her eyes. Robin set her down quickly before grabbing her hand.
"Raven, run!" and with that, both he and his friend dashed off as fast as they could, as silently as snow falling on the grass, using the cover of the shadows and of the alleys to confuse Slade from tailing them. Yet Slade just smiled to himself. Like all cat-and-mouse games, they had become the prey and he, the predator. And in all cases, the cat always won…
---
Meanwhile, as the Hellions and H.I.V.E. gathered their forces again to attack the Titans, they suddenly felt the ground quiver and tremble madly as the very terrain cracked and sent the helpers of Slade stumbling back as a wave of moving concrete, wood, and stone pushed them off their feet. Tarot then realized what this meant as she looked up.
"Oh no…" she groaned as she saw the X-Men, the Misfits, and the Joes standing side by side, either standing or hovering in the air, glaring at the Hellion with warning. It was Avalanche who used his seismokinesis to cause the tremors to send the soldiers of the Hellfire Club and H.I.V.E. flying. Yet some of the Titans were immediately suspicious of the newcomers.
"Who the hell are you?" Speedy growled as he aimed an arrow at Scarlet Witch. Wanda bit her tongue from coming off with a sharp insult or a threat to put away his weapon before she hexed it to backfire painfully into his face. Cover Girl then spoke sternly to the red-haired archer.
"Hold it, we're not your enemies, Speedy! We're good guys, and we were sent to help contain the Hellions and stop them from wrecking havoc on Jump City! Green Lantern sent us to give the Teen Titans some assistance since we've dealt with the Hellions and the Hellfire Club before!"
Cyborg then realized who their associates were as he yelled in his communicator, "Titans, don't attack them! Repeat, don't attack these strangers! They're not with H.I.V.E! I recognize them from reports me and Robin got from the Justice League! They're the X-Men and the Misfits and G.I. Joe! They're good guys! They ain't against us!"
"The Misfits?" gaped Starfire.
"And the X-Men and G.I. Joe? Whoa, talk about good timing!" Mas commented in Spanish upon hearing this, still trapped underneath the force-field See-More encased him and his brother in.
"That's good enough for me! You guys came just in time! We could use some help sending these creeps back to the holes where they crawled out of!" Bumblebee as she let loose several discharges from her yellow energy stingers at Tarot who blocked it with an energy barrier she called forth with her Shield tarot card.
"Everyone, move out!" Wolverine commanded as he, the X-Men, the Misfits, the Joes, and the remaining Titans charged with renewed force and vitality. Xi and X23 immediately set themselves upon Mammoth, but undaunted, Mammoth picked up one of the nearby cargo containers before he swung it like a baseball bat. Rina gasped as she managed to duck and twist her upper torso backwards, the gigantic metal box missing her head by several inches, but the lizard-like Misfit was not so lucky as the very corner of the container clipped him painfully in the side, and squealing, Xi was sent crashing back into several crates.
"Xi!" cried out Rina in alarm and worry before she snarled, her eyes making her vision cloud red with bloodlust and violence, drawing out her claws with a snikt, "You are going to pay for what you did to my friend, you furry ape!"
"Bring it, pretty girl!" sneered Mammoth as X23 lunged at him, actually managing to sever chunks of the container in the H.I.V.E. student's hands before it could actually strike her with her claws. At the same time, Low Light managed to protect Cyborg from being decapitated by Private HIVE's shield as the Joe transformed his body into adamantium to act as a guard against the incoming discus.
Clang!
Flying high into the air in a graceful bound before landing uselessly on the ground, Private HIVE's yellow, metal, razor-sharp Frisbee ricocheted off Low Light's chest, leaving the H.I.V.E. teenager weaponless.
"Looks like you've just lost your toy, Private," Low Light grinned as Jean then picked up the student with her telekinesis, preventing the beefy and brawny soldier from even gaining some traction in order to either run or counterattack. Sunspot then used the small bits of solar radiation he had stored in the cellular reserves of his body as he then let loose several blasts of orange and black-spotted radiation directly at the opponent's chest. Yet to Sunspot and Jean's shock, it had no effect! Though a bit smoky, the uniform and armor of Private HIVE was barely singed! The leader of the H.I.V.E. Five just sneered at the red-haired X-Girl and Roberto.
"Ha! You think you weaklings can stand up against a manly soldier from H.I.V.E. like me? I'm practically immune to anything you bozos can throw at me!"
"Then how about a bazooka missile?" Roadblock said as he took the rather mint and modified M1A1 weapon out of the leather straps that lashed it to his back before he primed and had it ready in one, effective, fluid motion. Roadblock then aimed the mouth of the rocket launcher directly at
"Oh shit," cursed Private HIVE with wide eyes of a horrified grimace, knowing that despite the invulnerability due to his armor, he really didn't want to press his luck. Unfortunately, he was going to find out the hard way as Roadblock fired.
KABOOM!
"Not pretty…but effective!" chimed Cyborg and Sunspot in unison eagerly as they saw the hulking figure of the Private of H.I.V.E. Academy go flying backwards before landing heavily into the sea, causing a noticeable splash.
Meanwhile, See-More managed to trap Bumblebee, Dragonfly, Boom-Boom, and Magma in a force-field like he did before with Mas y Menos.
"Hey, let us out, you little Cyclops copy-cat!" Tabitha snapped as she tried to hurl a time bomb at the walls of the barricade, only to find that the explosion did little to dent the energy cage trapping them. The lanky adolescent just leered as he then used his X-Ray vision, clearly having much fun.
"Oh don't mind me, X-Girl! I'm actually just enjoying the view, if you get my drift!" he chortled. Bumblebee then guessed why.
"Augh! You pervert! See-More's using his X-Ray vision on us! Oh God, you are such a sick jackass, you know that, See-More?" Bumblebee shrieked as she used her arms to cover up her vital parts, and upon hearing this, Lina, Tabitha, and Amara also screamed with indignation and humiliation as they too covered themselves as best as they could. It was then the Fred had enough as he charged directly at the green-and-white clad African American mutate.
"You leave them alone, you little, one-eyed slug!" he roared.
Then See-More made the mistake of glimpsing upon the Blob with his X-Ray vision for an instant…
"AAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHH!" See-More screamed in agony as he immediately quit using his powers and rubbed his eye vigorously, hoping he could somehow claw that image out, "Oh God, oh God, oh God, I'm blind! I'm blind! Oh God, that was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen! That was just wrong! Oh God, I'm gonna need therapy after this! Oh God, oh God, oh God - !"
"Oh shut up!" Blob snapped, embarrassed, as he let See-More have it with a good smack across the face, sending the H.I.V.E. member flying and crashing into a stack of wooden crates. Upon knocking out the teenager, all the shields around Bumblebee, Dragonfly, Boom-Boom, Magma, Mas and Menos vanished, bursting like a bubble on a needle tip.
"Thanks, Blob!" Amara called out as she and the other girls rushed out, ready to help their friends fight. Toad and Quicksilver helped out Mas y Menos in the distance.
At the same moment, Starfire was preventing the Hellion, Beef, from attacking Cyborg with a lamp-post he managed to rip out from the surrounding area…
"You shall not dishonor my friend Cyborg any longer with your sneak attacks!" Starfire shouted with promised vengeance, instantly coming to Cyborg's defense, as she then let loose a continuous stream of emerald-toned energy from her hands, and had Beef not dodged at the last second, he would have instantly been blasted through the floor and into the waters of the bay underneath. Then the blond-haired Roulette sent a black hex-energy bolt directly at the extraterrestrial's back, and Starfire screamed in a high-pitched as the energy tore through her body and ate at her senses before she plummeted from the sky and hit the ground. Roulette grinned at Beef.
"She's all yours, Beef," she said simply. Beef smiled wickedly, full of ideas, as he then pinned down Starfire before she could prop herself back up, restraining her hands to the floor. Starfire gasped and tried to break out of his grip, but Beef knew that the Titan was incredibly strong due to the fact that she was from another planet, and he used he superhuman strength to pinion her to the floor even more, positioning his body on top of hers. Starfire then felt the sudden urge to throw up, nausea building up from the fact that this creep was touching her.
"My, you're a little feisty thing, aren't ya?" Beef chuckled as he managed to hold down the squirming and noticeably smaller teenage girl under him. The Hellion then decided to examine her pretty little face a little more.
"Still…I have a thing for redheads," leered Beef as he leaned closer to Starfire's lips, "Have to admit, I've never experienced an alien chick before."
Starfire then did the only thing that made sense to her, amid the revulsion and fury that was starting to percolate in her blood from the violating suggestion Beef was hinting at. Though she could have simply blasted the Hellion with her eyebeams, Starfire choose a much more humiliating and vindictive option.
With all her superhuman strength, Starfire brought her knee up and rammed it into Beef's sensitive area.
Beef's face went completely and one-hundred percent white, his eyes wide with only the special kind of pain a man can feel as his throat went dry and only a strangled, gurgle could escape from his strained voice-box, nearly falsetto. Almost instantly, his grip around Starfire's arms lessened as the Tamaranean was able to wrench her hands free before she deftly grabbed the Hellion by the neck and threw him against the wall of one of the nearby warehouses.
Crash!
Starfire, her eyes glowing with anger yet satisfaction as well, said stoutly to the gaping hole in the wall where Beef went right through it, "I am no Chick! I am a Tamaranean! And you know nothing of inter-galactic geography, you pig!"
Meanwhile…
"Are you two all right?" Wavedancer asked as she and Nightcrawler helped Beast Boy and Aqualad rise from their sprawled positions as they slowly regained consciousness from Bevatron's last attack. Aqualad's head was swimming painfully, as if someone shoved a pile of ball bearings in his skull, yet his vision was beginning to sharpen and clear as he glanced upwards.
"Yeah, I think so…nothing broken. Thanks for the - "
Yet he trailed off when Wavedancer and Aqualad then got a good look at each other before their faces darkened instantly with recognition…and viciousness.
"YOU!" they both snarled at once.
"Get your hands off me, you bitch!" Aqualad snapped.
"Gladly, jerk!" Shipwreck's daughter responded wholeheartedly, giving the Atlantian a brutal shove that sent him sprawling back to the wooden ground.
"God, I can't believe fate would bring you here out of all the topsiders I hate the most! Shouldn't you be over at the Pit where you and the rest of your inbred family belong?" Aqualad spat with bile as he managed to pick himself off the floor.
"Go back to the sea and sponge some more off of your uncle, you parasite!" snapped Althea back.
"Huh? You two know each other?" Nightcrawler asked, a bit shocked and surprised.
Beast Boy then grinned as he teased, "Dude, are you two like exes or something? Were you two boyfriend and girlfriend once?"
"ONLY IN MY NIGHTMARES!" shouted Aqualad and Wavedancer together before they glared daggers at each other, although in this case for the Misfit and the Titan, a better metaphor would have been shooting nuclear missiles at each other.
---
Meanwhile, Robin and Raven were finally cornered by Slade inside a cathedral, the light from the stained glass windows dousing Raven with a haunting yet somewhat sacrilegious halo of rosy-colored pink and white light. Robin stood in front of Raven with his staff drawn, his mind contemplating on any other possible escape routes. Slade just stood among the flaming wreckage and smoldering rubble where he had blasted the wall and door that Robin had barricaded earlier with various bits of furniture into nothingness with just a simple flick of his hand, his fingers glowing with flame in the same shade of the mark of damnation on the forehead of his mask. Slade just emotionlessly looked at Raven before his annoyed voice then rang out forcefully, "I have a message for you…and I will deliver it, whether you like it or not."
"God damn you!" yelled Robin as he charged at Slade, but before he could even contemplate on the best way to pummel and avoid the possible attacks Slade could bequeath him, Slade's good eye flashed just once. With a holler, Robin was flung backwards into the wall before he crashed right through it, mercifully losing consciousness as his body limply lay among the cracked stone and mortar, blood dripping from his mouth and a deep gash on the back of his head.
"I have already been damned, Robin, so I doubt anything God could do to me I haven't experienced already," Slade said simply before he advanced towards the now terrified and panicking Raven. God, she was having trouble keeping a clamp on her emotions, preventing the gate from breaking into nothingness and letting nothing hold her back as the emotions now churned so badly, her hands were literally shaking uncontrollably.
"It's just you and me, kid…" he said in a sickening voice.
"Leave me alone! Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven screamed from the depths and pit of her soul as she summoned the church organ, ripping it out of the wall, before she flung it at Slade who merely rendered the metal and wood into ashes instantly with a stream of fire from his finger. Now at a loss, Raven summoned the energy to surround her and envelop her protectively before she teleported to the very roof, atop the highest tip of one of the turrets of the cathedral. Gasping, Raven fell to her knees, drained and weakened severely. Yet Slade somehow miraculously appeared behind her. Raven gasped as she tried to scurry away but Slade then tackled the gothic witch, pinning her down to the narrow ledge of the turret.
"You are making this much more difficult than this needs to be. The message must be delivered," he said coldly as he picked up Raven and forcefully gripped her by the shoulders.
"Get away from me, Slade! Get away! I don't have to listen to anything you say!" Raven cried.
"The skies will burn…"
"No, it won't! I'm not hearing this! You can't make me!" she cried, now tears pouring down her face.
"Flesh will become stone…"
"Stop it…" Raven's voice was now jaded, pleading.
"The sun will set in your world, never to rise again…"
"Stop it! Stop it! Just stop it! STOP IT!" Raven was now absolutely hysterical.
"Time won't wait forever. You can't run away from who you are…"
"I can try!"
"No, you cannot," Slade said as he ripped her cloak off, and to Raven's repulsion, terror, and dreadfulness, more of the runes bearing similar markings to the one on Slade's head were branded on her skin, glowing faintly through the torn patches of her uniform.
"What you have concealed, you now shall become!"
"Please, stop it…" Raven sobbed, now breaking and cracking, "Stop it, please! Stop it!"
"The message will be delivered. Your destiny will be fulfilled…"
And with that, as Slade gripped her, Raven felt a surge of a powerful, unbearable force course right through her. She now could see it. She saw Jump City, completely reduced to rubble underneath an ashy sky full of smoke and death, not allowing the sun to shine through and illuminate the numerous corpses and dead bodies mixed with the rubble. She saw two sets of familiar red eyes looking on gleefully as the entire planet of Earth turned brown and black from all life perishing within moments. She saw the total eclipse of the sun as the oceans died out and the air grew thick and heavy with the stench of decaying organisms as more and more people were frozen in stone, their expressions displaying fear and surprise, doomed for eternity as lifeless rocks. And within them, she saw black creatures and demons, with soulless eyes and no hint of emotion or heart as they mingled among the very statues of the Teen Titans and Titans East. And also with them…were the dead bodies of the X-Men, the Misfits, the Justice League, and the Joes, nothing more than rotting flesh and gruesome skeletons to be feasted on or discarded like diseased trash.
Yes, this…was hell. And the gate was cracking…
"No…" whimpered Raven, now crying in a frozen state of mind, her voice teary and tears rolling down her cheeks, "This…this can't be the future. It's can't! It's just a vision! It can't be real! I won't do it!"
"Yes, it is, and you know it, Raven," Slade purred seductively in her ear as he held her, pinning her arms to her sides, "Yes, look at it. Drink it in…behold, the world you were destined to create!"
"No!" The gate to her soul was hanging on by a thread…
"It is written all over your face…"
The gate broke…and immediately, the floodwaters of her soul came flooding out, engulfing her with the very emotions she had tried to sustain and suppress for all these years.
"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Raven howled in pain as a huge surge of energy escaped from the jewel upon her forehead before it intensified in the levels of infinity, growing bigger and bigger by the instant before all the forces of darkness in her soul formed into the shape of a gigantic raven. Spreading its wings, the soul raven flew into the air, tossed back its head, and gave a single cry of mourning, of death, of lament before it burst and exploded, sending its shadows and dark aura into the night sky before it vanished as quickly as it came. And with that, the red markings on Raven's body vanished as she went limp from her outburst with Slade still holding her.
And with a flourish, Slade gave the epitaph of his message…surprisingly, a message that not even Raven knew about.
"For darkness is the heart's true essence. The fate of the Earth rests on the Gathering of Twilight…"
Raven gasped, her body limp, at the familiar words of the mysterious "gathering". Finished, Slade said in a final, smug tone as he released the painful vise around her upper arms.
"We'll be in touch…oh, and happy birthday."
With that, Slade viciously shoved Raven off the edge, sending her to plummet to her death. Raven didn't even scream as she numbly and wearily toppled down to the ground; she was so tired, she would just wish to rest. Yet before she could hit the ground, Robin swooped down, like a true angel, with his grappling-line and expertly caught her before she could crash and die from the impact. Landing softly, Robin cradled Raven close to his body. Raven showed no emotion; she just stared off into space silently, tears running down her cheeks, traumatized.
"Raven?" Robin asked worriedly, but Raven just silently cried harder as she stiffly hugged Robin hard, unwilling to let go. Robin glared at the turret of the cathedral; Slade had vanished.
"Damn you, Slade…" Robin hissed.
---
"Whoa! What was that, yo?" gasped Toad as he, the Misfits, the Titans, the X-Men, the Joes, the Hellions, and the H.I.V.E. students witnessed the sudden discharge of a familiar black aura in the shape of a bird as it streaked into the sky and crackled with a furious backlash of dark energy before fading as suddenly as it came. The other Titans then knew who was responsible for it.
"Señorita Raven…" whimpered Menos, holding a hand to his mouth in dread and already expecting the worse. Slade then appeared next to the Hellions and the H.I.V.E. members, and on cue, they all started to back away.
"Hellions…H.I.V.E…the message has been delivered. Our mission is finished, so now, let us leave."
"You shall not be leaving anywhere!" yelled Starfire in fury as she, Bumblebee, and several of the Joes, Misfits and X-Men rushed directly at the assassin and his troop. Yet Slade then decided to do a final, grand performance as the Mark of Scath burned brightly. With a wave of his hands, fire literally engulfed his entire body before it coalesced and formed a gigantic mass of fire in front of him and his troop. To the heroes' collective fright, they saw the hulking mass grow and expand until it turned into an upright, humanoid fire creature, a demon of hell. Large, strapping, well-proportioned, and its head was nothing more than a flaming skull as it then gave off such an inhuman roar, it sent shivers down everyone's spines, including the Hellions and the members of the H.I.V.E. Five. And on the very center of the torso of the fire spirit was a red and black symbol of a black heart crossed out in red with a barbed "X".
"Consider this as a present from the Hellfire Club and the Organization," Slade explained steely.
"Whoa! Since when could Slade do THAT?" gasped Cyborg.
"If you, the X-Men, the Misfits, and G.I. Joe ever manage to survive, we will cross paths again quite soon, you deluded fools," Slade promised cruelly as he and his students started to strategically retreat.
That was when Professor Xavier had enough.
"I cannot allow that," the mentor of the X-Men said stonily as he brought his hands to his temples and concentrated his telepathy on Slade, feeling himself floating in the astral-psyche of the medium of the commander's mind, yet Slade then suddenly shot a death glare from his eye as he felt the mutant probe his mind underneath his mask. The Professor then felt like he was struck by lightning as he gasped. By God, never before had he even encountered such a structured and concrete mind like Slade's! Rigid, controlled, and no amount of his prodding could even cause the willpower of Slade to bend even in the slightest! He was even more mentally controlling and structured that Cyclops himself! Charles Xavier then tried to retreat out of the plane, but to his horror, something was gripping him and leaving him suspended. He was trapped in Slade's mind!
Trying to use your telepathy on me, Mr. Xavier? You shall learn that my mind and psyche are not like most men, Slade's voice coldly intoned, echoing all around Professor X as invisible forces started to squeeze the X-Man like a vise. Now cornered and defensive, the Professor increased his concentration, feeling a bit of satisfaction when he could literally feel the slight surprise of Slade of being subjected to the increasing of the mental attack. The Professor, though pacifistic and gentle, was sorely underestimated; any nemesis of his past learned the hard way that if they dared cross the line with him, Xavier would make them regret it wholeheartedly.
And you shall learn that I am not like most mutants, Professor Xavier replied just as coolly as with a final assault, Slade mentally floundered in discomfort while the Professor broke through the shields of the psychic fortress. The Professor then looked on with a mixture of bewilderment, wonder, and horror as images flew by his consciousness so fast, they were almost a blur. Despite the strenuous and forceful willpower of Slade trying to push him out, the Professor could see haunting visions of a desecrated city, turned to rubble and the citizens frozen in stone with expressions of fear and alarm etched in their faces. He saw the sun fully eclipsed, shrouding the Earth in darkness, as the very planet was slowly overwhelmed by a red, fluid mass of unholy aura, as if the Earth was being stained by a torrent of fresh blood. He then saw, as a final prophecy of doom, two sets of slit, narrowed and demonic eyes, stacked upon each other, glowing an evil and wicked crimson as two emblems burned brightly in outlines of flame and hellfire. One was a highly, stylized letter "S" with two slashes and another was a slightly modified symbol of a heart with a barbed "X" crossing it out.
A deep, inhuman voice that did not belong to Slade then snarled with power and omnipotence, "The gem was born of evil's fire! The gem shall be his portal! He comes to claim, he comes to sire, the end of all things mortal!"
Without further ado, the session ended and the sage mutant was violently hurled out. Professor Xavier came to in his own body, gasping with fright, his skin already starting to sweat, as the images disappeared. Slade looked at the X-Men's mentor and leader with absolute murder and outrage burning in his eye of steel.
"Very impressive, Xavier," Slade hissed to himself, promising swift vengeance. After all, if there was one thing Slade hated the most, it was to lose. Yet now was not the time for counterattacks, and with that, Slade disappeared with the rest of the Hellions and the H.I.V.E. students in the cover of the shadows, barely without a sound. The Professor just stared lifelessly, shaking in petrified fear, at where Slade disappeared, still unable to believe what he had just witnessed.
"The gem of Trigon…" Xavier said in the closest of a quivering whimper.
"They're getting away! We have to go after them!" Xi snarled, still eager to return some payback to Mammoth for the two broken ribs in his right abdominal.
"We can't, Xi! We have to stop that fire thing and let these baddies go on by! If we don't stop it before it goes to town, it'll burn the whole city and people will be killed all around! God damn it to hell! This fire beast is not easy to defeat! My bullets don't cause it to even retreat!" Roadblock yelled as he fired his machine gun, emptying the entire clip of armor piercing ammunition into the being of fire and lava and yet upon contact, all the metal shrapnel melted into nothingness before they could even penetrate the skin and flesh of the organism. Unaffected, the monster lumbered on.
"Dude, what are you? Some sort of 'Walt Whitman meets Rambo' freak?" Beast Boy said at the African American Joe, making a very annoyed face of exasperation before he transformed into a gigantic green elephant and sucked some water into his snout from the harbor before discharging his liquid cargo onto the flames atop of the fire demon.
"This coming from the green-skinned shape-shifter?" pointed out Magma dryly and rhetorically as she waved her hands at the creature, trying to force it to disintegrate with her mutant ability to influence molten rock, before she yelled over her X-communicator, "You guys! This thing isn't natural! I can't even use my powers on it to manipulate the lava around this creep and take it apart! Whatever this thing is made of, it isn't ordinary magma and fire!"
"And I can't use my telepathy to shut it down!" cried Jean Grey as she hovered high above, trying to strike into its inner mind and consciousness, yet finding the creature was just an empty shell, "It has no consciousness, no perception! It's like some mindless drone created just to destroy us!"
"Holy Toledo! This thing's even more powerful than the heliopath spirit that Slade summoned with the Thunder and Lightning gods!" Cyborg uttered in shock as he aimed his sonic cannon from his arm and fired, full blast, directly into the middle of the creature's chest, the energy bouncing off the Heartless insignia. Apparently, sonic energy was not that powerful against Slade's fire.
"Well, how did you defeat that heliopath the first time?" Boom-Boom asked frantically as she hurled five or six plasma bombs directly at the monster's head, only to find it just as ineffective.
"We had caused the clouds above to send down its rainwater!" Starfire called down loudly from above as she then swooped down and tossed several starbolts in quick succession, her hands going so fast, the bombardment of green energy was like the fiercest hailstorm. Upon hearing this, Storm tried to cause the clouds above to rain down torrents of water, yet it did not put out the flames. Cyclops then used his eye-beams, but it was just as fruitless as Starfire's starbolts as they both displayed little effect on the fire Heartless. Starfire then turned to the leader of the X-Men.
"Brave He-who-has-Red-Eye-Beams, what is your name?" Starfire asked, her face contemplative.
Cyclops had to slightly irk at the bad timing for introductions, yet he decided to humor the orange-skinned girl as he said quickly, "My name is Cyclops!"
"Friend Cyclops, combine your eye-blasts with mine! A unity of such attacks surely must be more productive against this gominap who threatens the safety of our teams!" Scott felt even more bothered at the redhead's unique speech patterns and he didn't even want to know what a "gominap" was, but he nodded once strongly, realizing that it could be a good idea. Together, both Starfire and Cyclops combined their attacks, and together, red and green beams of energy intertwined each other before spiraling directly upon the fire creature. Though it was slightly a bit more effective and did cause the fire spirit some noticeable pain, it was not enough to stop it fully. Avalanche then decided to help as he tried to bring down the creature by sending it to plunge into the sea water below by using his tremors to collapse the ground underneath the fire demon. Yet the creature then snarled at the earth-mover before it surrounded Lance and itself with a wall of fire, trapping the Misfit into a ring of no escape.
"Lance!" roared the Joe, Spirit, as he managed to leap into the fray before he could get cut off. Reaching into his pouch, Spirit managed to take out several capsules specially designed by Airtight back at the Pit to release a chemical upon contact with heat that would crate mass amounts of foam that could put out fires in temperatures of hundreds of degrees, Fahrenheit. With a grunt, Spirit flung the capsules directly at the fire demon, but though there was a furious discharge of foam, the fire beat was not extinguished. If anything, it got even madder as it roared at Spirit and Avalanche, intent on making them suffer for trying to directly infuriate it.
"Dad!" gasped Lance, yet the Native American Joe then got in front of Lance protectively.
"Get behind me, son! I won't let it get to you!" Spirit commanded sternly, yet he could clearly and worriedly see that he and Lance were trapped.
"Lance!" screamed Shadowcat in horror, and instinctively, the X-Girl rushed towards the wall of flames the creature had created to cut itself off from the other heroes, planning to phase through the barricade and get Spirit and Lance out of danger. Yet it was not to be. The instant Kitty's body came into contact with the red and orange heat, there was ferocious backlash of red energy, crackling like electricity, before the flames consumed her and her costume, and no matter how hard she tried, Shadowcat could not phase to escape from the fires. It was as if the demon's powers could affect anything tangible or intangible, and Shadowcat was subjected to incredible pain and agony as her skin blackened and smoked within seconds.
"Aaaaahhhh!" the X-Girl screamed, "Help! Someone help! I can't phase it off! Aaaaahhh!"
Scarlet Witch ran to the X-Man, yelling sternly, her face white with shock and dread, "Kitty, hold still! I'll try to hex it off you!"
With a grunt, Wanda summoned up a suppressing hex and invoked the chaos-energy upon Kitty's body, and thankfully, to Wanda's great relief, the flames flickered and snuffed out, vanishing into smoke. Unlike the fire demon itself, the small flames on Kitty's body were lesser in intensity enough for Scarlet Witch to smother. Yet Kitty was curled into a fetal position on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, her flesh littered with oozing pink burns and patches of charred, black skin. Even parts of her hair were completely burned off.
"Kitty!" yelled Colossus as he rushed over to her side, cradling his girlfriend in his arms protectively while the fire demon advanced towards the Joe and the Misfit, now intent on incinerating them to a fiery demise in mere seconds.
"I got her!" cried out Whitelighter breathlessly as he laid his glowing hands on the heavily injured Shadowcat, "But someone please stop that thing before it kills Lance!"
"This should stop it!" yelled Wavedancer as she summoned two gigantic waterspouts with her hydrokinesis from the ocean nearby, her face darkened with utmost concentration as she held her quivering hands above her head, trying all her concentration and mental willpower to guide the twin snaking currents of water which were as wide as one of the Joes Eagle tanks. With a grunt, Althea had the blue spirals rain down on the enormous hulking mass of lava and flames and hellfire with enough force to crack a mountain in half. Squealing with rage and annoyance, the fire giant just stumbled and faltered a bit before it let out such a furious discharge of heat that the water spouts actually evaporated madly into steam before it could even come into contact with the fiend. Althea gasped in shock as Jean used a telekinetic shield to protect all the nearby Titans, Misfits, Joes, and X-Men from the extreme, scalding heat.
"It wasn't enough!" panted out Wavedancer as the creature now was on new levels of anger. With a howl, the fire spirit summoned by Slade then tried to blast Wavedancer, but then a second swell of seawater, this time in the form of a wave, struck it from behind. Althea looked up to see the Titan, Aqualad, riding on a crest of another wave while causing another one to rise from the harbor and crash into the beast again.
"Althea, combine your attacks with mine! Maybe a double water attack can put it out!" yelled the violet-eyed Altantian.
"I don't want your help, jerkface!" Wavedancer snarled poisonously. Aqualad just glared at the Misfit female soldier as he shot back coldly.
"As much as I would love to oblige to your wishes, Puddles," (and Althea felt her face burn even more with anger at the mention of her embarrassing nickname), "I don't think your Joe and your friend are in any position to argue unless you want them fried to a crisp!"
Biting her tongue and knowing that the Titan was right, Wavedancer summoned another, single, gigantic waterspout as Aqualad then invoked another small tidal wave, and as one, both water attacks struck the fire Heartless with full intensity. Yet to their growing realization, even the might of two water-manipulators could not extinguish the glowing demon. It was far too powerful, and the water did little to extinguish it.
Iceman then yelled at Althea and Aqualad, "Wavedancer, Water-guy, try again! I'll use my ice beams to help cool this fire thing off! Maybe the three of us can put it out!"
"Can't see any reason why not!" agreed Aqualad strongly, though he was incredibly drained and weary from using his mental force to summon so many numerous attacks of water, unsure if he could continue to keep this up. And Wavedancer herself knew that she probably only had one more good attack left in her.
Instinctively guessing that it was now or never, Razor then turned to Ray, Sam, Roberto, Jamie, and Tabitha and ordered, "New Mutants, arm your glovatrixes with the fire retardant missiles! Help out Wavedancer and Iceman!"
In understanding and familiarity from countless training, the four adolescents gave a fierce nod.
Storm then flew in, using every bit of her willpower to bring in the most piercing artic winds, snow, and ice.
"Messengers of the cold and winter, protect Avalanche and Spirit! Freeze everything!" Immediately, winds of abnormal and destructive levels came rushing all around the creature
"One ice arrow, coming up!" yelled Speedy from the ground as he drew the string of his bow tautly, "Might as well help you out, Aqua-shrimp, since this is a baddie too big for you to handle!"
"Oh blow it out of your butt, Speedster!" snapped Aqualad angrily as he sent the wave to reach towards the heavens, ready to come hurtling down upon the target.
"NOW!" yelled Wavedancer as she, Iceman, Aqualad, and Storm struck at once.
"Foam missiles…AWAY!" Razor, Bezerker, Sunspot, Cannonball, Multiple and Boom-Boom yelled in unison.
"One ice arrow, comin' right at ya', big and ugly!" yelled Speedy as he let loose the shaft.
In a beautiful display of ice, water, foam, and artic winds, all the attacks struck perfectly with all the greatest force the heroes could muster. And yet…it was not enough. To everyone's dawning consternation, the fire Heartless of Slade roared, still burning brightly despite the numerous attacks meant to put it out before it continued to advance towards Lance and Spirit trapped in the ring.
"Oh no! It wasn't enough!" Sam cried out.
"Can't we do anything? It'll kill Lance and Spirit!" cried Forge.
"We can't!" Low Light shouted, "The thing's pretty much damn invincible! If it could withstand all those combined attacks, nothing can stop it!"
"Lance!" Multiple screamed helplessly, mentally begging for something, some sort of miracle.
And then, to everyone's amazement, a booming voice rang throughout the area, its voice baritone and quivering with power and noble honor as an enormous energy blast in the shape of a roaring lion's head shot out towards the fire creature from the rooftops above from a figure shrouded in the darkness, carrying a sword…
"GAIA!" the voice yelled, "FIST OF THE BEAST KING!"
Author's notes: Can you guess who the mysterious swordsman is yet? Don't worry; like asha-man72 mentioned once before, I'm not the type to bring in a character for the sake of it. Without going into too much detail, let's just say HE is here for a big reason. You'll find out more (but not everything) next week in the chapter "Can Someone Explain What's Going On?" when the Titans, the X-Men, the Joes, and the Misfits finally discuss the mysterious matters while we see what is going on with Slade and the Hellfire Club. Until then, read, enjoy, and review!