Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans or anything else in this story
JUMP CITY UNIVERSITY
"Stupid kids!" Mammoth screamed as he smashed through a small restaurant on the campus. Near him Rocker was devastating a dorm, Jinx was blowing up the band's patio where they played every Sunday, Gizmo was planting bombs in a dorm, and Rocket was ramming into civilians trying to flee the devastation.
"When will the Titans show up?" Rocker asked on the communicator as she continued her sonic attacks.
"Hopefully soon, hopefully soon," Jinx said as she quickly glanced in the sky, she didn't see anyone so continued her own destruction.
After several minutes, Rocket made a loud noise as he was flung hard into the ground. Jinx looked and saw a very tough looking man holding a knife in his hand. He looked like a wild man from a forest, which he was. The young man with fierce green eyes and wild brown here glared at Jinx before speaking, "TITANS GO!" Avengement had arrived with the Titans Reserve.
Jinx looked in surprise as suddenly Nightfire appeared with her green starbolts ready, to the right of Avengement, to the left of him came the ice girl, calling her self Mistress Freeze, she gave the HIVE a very scary grin to show she was ready for revenge. Behind Avengement appeared Aries in her own costume, mimicking her father, Aqualad's uniform.
"HIVE! Let's get them!" Jinx yelled as she charged forward with her team coming close behind.
To make things even, Freeze used her powers and insured Rocket was out of the fight, now the odds were four against four.
Jinx, Rocker, and Gizmo stood back to asses the situation while the brute known as Mammoth lunged forward. He was charging straight for Avengement. Before the other Titans could react, Avengement smiled as he signaled them not to attack and he let Mammoth come at him. When Mammoth was in range, Avengement himself lunged forward and the two of them began beating each other.
"Let's go get them Titans!" Nightfire said as she began hurling Starbolts at Jinx who began dodging them. Leading her away from the group as the two of them began their fight.
Freeze assaulted Rocker full force, shooting very sharp icicles at her. Rocker responded with her own guitar attack, smashing the icicles to pieces and sending Freeze hard into the wall of the nearly destroyed dormitory.
Aries was left to deal with Gizmo who launched a quick rocket attack while Aries began using the water from the pipes and trying to take out the missiles.
The Titans Reserve had been assembled by Nightfire, who had volunteered the day Robin arrived to bring all the Titans together. To possibly aid in the upcoming battle with Iqbal, she had succeeded and now the Titans Reserve had arrived to carry the load for the rest of the Titans who were busy trying to save the city from rioters. This was a great fortune that she had left earlier and brought the reserves.
NORTH SIDE
RIOT ZONE
"Nightfire and the Titans Reserve are battling the HIVE," Robin said as he put the communicator down. The Titans had arrived next to a residential neighborhood which was directly in the path of the rioters. Fireteen had setup a fire wall to cover a good part of the neighborhoods entrances with Kili's and Nola's help; Guardian was with Robin and doing aerial recon for the Titan leader. Darkness was using her powers and had covered the remaining part of the neighborhood's entrance with a black energy field. The reason this neighborhood was being protected was the fact it was a very productive middleclass neighborhood and it was directly in the rioters path so stopping them there would be enough to end the riots.
Robin was staring ahead, he could now hear the loud mobs driving forward, he could hear the glass being broken, and he could smell the flames from the burning cars and stores. "Guardian, which barrier are they closest to," Robin said through the communicator.
"They will reach Darkness's area soon enough," Guardian said, "They are also nearing Fireteen's" he added.
"Alright, you go to Fireteen, and I will go to Darkness," Robin said as he moved towards his cousin and teammate.
"What should I do? Bash some heads?" Guardian joked.
"No, talk some sense into them, if they force they way through though, force them back, too bad the police felt it better to guard Hartwell's personal businesses. They might have been able to help these citizens here," Robin observed dryly.
IN THE RIOT LINE
"What the hell is that black field?" one rioter cried out as they marched towards the neighborhood of the exploiting rich.
"I don't believe it! The Titans are in league with Hartwell!" one man yelled out as this angered and fired up the crowd even more.
"Lets go break through and finish Hartwell and his cronies off once and for all!" a woman cried out as the crowd surged forward, so excited and full of rage about the Titans they ignored some cars and businesses.
Suddenly, from the back, six men with rifles came out, wearing ski masks they pointed there guns at the crowd and opened fire. Screams and panic came in the rear.
Guardian heard the gunshots and commotion and rushed forward. He flew past the crowd jeering and cursing his name, passed several burning cars and businesses, until he reached the dozens of civilians either lifeless or moaning in pain as the six gunmen continued there massacre. Guardian swooped down in rage as he bashed two gunmen's head together taking them down. The other four turned to fire but the electricity, speed, and brutality of Guardian insured none even got a shot off. Guardian grabbed on of the gunmen, barely conscious and he said, "Who ordered this?"
"The boss," the terrified man said weakly.
"Which boss?" Guardian said his voice full of venom.
"Jim, boss Jim!" the man cried out, Guardian hit him hard, and then he heard more gunshots. Guardian then flew as fast as he could trying to stop these gunmen who were massacring innocent people just for someone's business interests.
DARKNESS'S BARRIER
Robin had arrived to see the rioters just reaching the barrier and failing to break through. Anger was the result, and the anger turned to hate when they saw Robin and Darkness holding the line and halting them.
"Why aren't you letting us through!" cried out the protesters enraged.
"This isn't the right way! This isn't the right way! These are good people! They don't deserve to have their home burned down!" Robin yelled at the protesters.
"To Hell they do!" came a defiant cry.
"Yeah, these rich boys buy girls and ruin our lives by rubbing it in all the time!" came another protester.
"Some of them do, I will admit that, but you can't hold all these hardworking people on the actions of a few!" Robin continued pleading.
"Get out of the way! I know those people, we have to teach them a lesson they will never forget!" yet another rioter yelled out.
Suddenly the rage shifted back to the Titans blocking their path. "Why the hell are you helping Hartwell anyways, you are supposed to be with us!" cried a rioter as others nodded in agreement with the man.
"We are with you but we will not condone leaving children homeless!" Robin said.
"So how much is Hartwell paying you!" came another hackler as other rioters laughed at the insult.
"No, he isn't paying them, that whore probably screws him!" one of the rioters said, pointing at Darkness. Again a round of laughter went around.
"Do you enjoy screwing the bastard or does he pay you?" came another jibe as the "jokes" became dirtier.
Robin was furious, and Darkness was hurt, but they couldn't do anything, they had to keep the barrier up.
JUMP CITY POLICE STATION
Guardian dragged in the last two gunmen, "Here are the last two," he said to a cop angrily as he turned to walk away.
"Thanks?" the cop replied, unsure.
As Guardian left, feeling terrible and disgusted by the bloody scenes he had just witnessed and by the devastation, he heard a voice call his name from a cell he was walking by. He turned and faced James, his unofficial brother.
"James?" Guardian asked as he approached the cell.
"Yeah Guardian, how are you?" James answered, talking like nothing was up.
"Why are you in jail? What did you do?" Guardian asked the now grinning kid.
"Me and Sue were walking by when we saw the rioters, so we joined, we got arrested for lighting a car on fire," James said with a sly grin.
"Why the hell did you light a car on fire for? I mean you are from a middle class family too?" Guardian said in confusion. He was very surprised that James was so upbeat, he had been in a pretty bad depression for a while and now it looked like he was finally out of it.
"To Hell with the middle class, I hate how this society runs. The sin, the drinking, the sex, the drugs, society has to change. So since the rioters were going to make that change I joined, along with Sue," James added.
"Who is Sue?" Guardian asked, curious who this girl was.
"A friend I met a few nights ago by the cliffs, we have a lot in common and are trying to improve our situation and condition," James explained easily.
"Should I try to get you out of jail or something like that?" Guardian didn't want to leave James in the corrupt police jail.
"Oh no, my parents are coming to bail us out, don't worry, I will be fine," James said with a reassuring smile.
"Great, guess I will see you latter," Guardian said a little hesitantly as he left and marched on to the backdoor to go join the Titans in the fight against the HIVE.
JUMP CITY UNIVERSITY
"Come on, is that the best you got?" Rocker taunted Freeze as she struggled to get up. She was bleeding from her nose. Rocker also had some injuries from the fierce fight.
"Oh, that wasn't even close to the best I can do!" Freeze said as she shot out some small ice particles, as Rocker took them out with her powers, Freeze launched a fast attack catching her off guard. Rocker was driven back with a cut on her arm.
Before Rocker could react, Rocket, who had escaped the ice slammed into Freeze's back, taking her out of the fight.
"Seems the odds have gone back to five to three," Rocker observed to Rocket who also had a huge smile on his face.
Before they could begin concentrating on the now outnumbered Titans Guardian slammed into Rocket. Guardian had slipped into pouncing distance and had hit the closest target he could get, Rocket. Rocket again went down hard, and for the second time was out of the fight.
Rocker turned and began playing her guitar, the sonic blast heading straight for Guardian. Guardian took a blow and fell back; his nose was also bleeding from the sonic attack as Guardian decided his strategy.
Guardian faced her down, Rocker wondered why he wasn't moving, but still went with the attack. She launched a massive sonic attack from her guitar but instantly regretted it. Guardian had a grin as he used his powers which flew through the sonic blast, destroying her guitar in her hands.
Rocker held the charred remains of her guitar and looked at Guardian in shock, "How in the world did he do that?" she thought.
"You want to surrender or do you want to join your friend Rocket on the ground," Guardian said as he approached the now powerless girl.
"Alright, alright," Rocker said clearly still shaken by the fact her source of power was completely destroyed.
"Good," Guardian said as he prepared to handcuff her and then he would help his other teammates who were still fighting the rest of the HIVE.
Suddenly, Rocker was frozen by Freeze's ice power. Freeze came in and smiled smugly at Rocker whose head was the only part of her body that wasn't frozen. "Seems like I got you this time," Freeze told her viciously.
"Bitch," Rocker said as a response, her voice was filled with hatred.
"Lets go get the rest of the HIVE," Guardian urged Freeze to come help him finish off the rest of the HIVE.
"Alright," Freeze said almost reluctantly, she wanted to mess with Rocker for a little longer.
Guardian lead Freeze to Avengement, Nightfire, and Aries who were both caught in a battle which no one was winning.
Jinx looked around, she saw her team was being surrounded and slowly being isolated. "HIVE, lets get out of here!" she yelled as she dogged a starbolt.
"What about Rocker and Rocket?" Gizmo called out as he struggled on in his fight.
"We have to leave or we all go!" Jinx growled.
Mammoth launched himself and charged forward, nothing was going to stop the behemoth as he escaped to the open park. Gizmo quickly joined him, and Jinx skipped in. They pushed a button and quickly teleported home.
"Damn it!" Avengement yelled as he slammed his fist to the ground, although he hurt himself bad he didn't show it.
"We couldn't have stopped the three of them, Guardian and Freeze were too far away, and we were all exhausted," Nightfire observed.
"Still, we should have at least stopped Gizmo or Mammoth," Avengement said.
"You guys sound like we lost or something," Guardian said.
The other Titans looked at the smiling Titan in surprise; they thought he would be the most angry about the HIVE's escape.
"We caught two of them you pessimists," an exhausted Freeze explained as she pointed at the nearly frozen HIVE members Rocker and Rocket.
"Mission accomplished," Guardian said to his teammates.
"Let's get them to the Tower before they escape," Aries said as she looked at the ice which was slowly melting.
"Aries, you bring those two to the detention center in the Tower basement, the rest of us will go help Robin deal with the rioters," Guardian ordered the Titans who nodded and carried out his command. Aries used her powers to carry the bodies to the Tower while the rest of the Titans moved to the barriers.
DARKNESS'S BARRIER
The rioters' ranks were actually dwindling, news of the massacre had disheartened a few rioters, and the reports of Guardian saving lives also played a part as people stopped hackling the Titans. However, their was still a core group of rioters who continued to fling objects at the barrier and hurl very dirty insults at Darkness.
Robin continued to call for calm, he had heard the rioting had ended in Fireteen's area, no one wanted to charge at a wall of fire.
Robin looked up at Darkness and could see the rioters were taking their toll on her. She had a cold stare set on her face as she stared down the rioters, completely emotionless, as if she cut herself off from the rest of the world.
By the time the rest of the Titans showed up, the rioters realized their run was over and they began falling back, grumbling in disgust.
One rioter yelled out one last insult before the final retreat, "Hope you have fun screwing Hartwell tonight witch!"
Guardian's nostrils flared with anger as he rushed forward and flew into the crowd tackling the man to the ground. The other rioters stared in wide eyed shock at how fast Guardian had tackled the man. The other Titans also watched in the same shock, not sure if Guardian would let the man live or not. There was complete silence, Guardian readied himself for a punch.
"Let him go Guardian!" Darkness screamed as she finally showed emotion and charged forward.
Guardian stopped his fist, halfway to the hackler's face. Oh how much Guardian wanted to kill this man.
"Let him go! I have seen enough blood, enough hate, enough is enough!" Darkness yelled at Guardian, tears streaming down her face.
Guardian reluctantly let go of the man and stood there as the heckler scurried off, along with the rest of the shrunken crowd.
For a few moments Darkness hovered there, the wind blowing, then she just flew as fast as she could to her room in the Tower. She had never been so humiliated in her life before.
"What happened?" Nightfire asked Robin who just watched her go.
"They were really hard on her," was all Robin would say.
"We got two HIVE members," Avengement said, trying to change the subject.
"Who?" Robin asked.
"Rocket and Rocker," Freeze answered Robin.
"Excellent, we can get the information on Iqbal's hideout so we can go get Raven and stop this madman," Robin said as he turned towards the Tower.
"Where's Nola and Kili?" Aries asked, now everybody noticed they were missing.
"They're with me," Fireteen said as she, Kili, and Nola arrived, like everyone tired.
"So this is a major Titan victory?" Freeze said to the now silent teen.
"Yeah, I guess it is," Robin answered her softly; he was barely heard by his teammates.
"Then how come this doesn't feel like a big victory?" Guardian said, not bitterly, but as a question.
"I have no clue," Avengement answered for the whole team. As if on cue dozens of reporters showed up.
"Guardian! Guardian! Who was responsible for the massacre?" one reporter asked.
"Is it true Darkness is having an affair with Hartwell?" a second reporter called out.
"Is it true Hartwell has you on the city budget?" a national news reporter asked the Titans.
"Have you joined the Jump City government?" came the calls of several of the dozens of reporters assembled.
"Why wasn't the attack on the University predicted? Why were the Titans caught so off guard?" was the most asked question.
"No interview or comments today, we are all exhausted and want some rest," Robin told the reporters. "This was a huge victory and we have captured two HIVE members and prevented the destruction of an entire neighborhood," Robin added.
The reporters didn't care so continued demanding answers, the Titans response, flying straight to the Tower.
TITANS TOWER
"Darkness?" Guardian called as he knocked on her door. Their was no answer.
"Please open the door, I need to talk to you," Guardian said.
"I can never show my face in public again," came the response on the other side.
"What? Why would you say that?" Guardian asked in genuine surprise at her statement.
"Did you hear them, they say I am Hartwell's mistress," Darkness said from behind the door, her voice trembling as she spook.
Guardian smirked a little, don't worry about those idiots, no one believes them, besides, you're my mistress," Guardian said. She immediately opened the door and glared at Guardian who had a weak smile on his face.
"What do you want," she asked tiredly.
"I want to make sure you are okay, and to reassure you I am with you no matter what along with the Titans," Guardian said.
"Yeah right, that was part of the reason you came, you obviously also have a request so go ask it," Darkness said. Guardian always brought his work with whatever he did.
"We need you to probe our prisoners mind and find Iqbal's hideout," Guardian said, not denying that was also part of the reason he had come.
Her eyes widened, "Why am I crying, we have to save my mom," Darkness said as she rushed to the lower levels where the two supervillains were being kept.
THAT NIGHT
Guardian was in the same street he had been earlier that day. The same street he saw the gunmen shoot the rioters for no apparent reason. However he saw not the protestors on the ground, but his Titan teammates.
He flew there and saw Robin, Fireteen, Nola, and Nightfire on the ground dead, a pool of blood around them.
Guardian glided to the ground and looked in shock, frozen at the sight before it. His hands trembling, he felt their skin, to make sure they were really his friends. Then he heard the noise.
"This ends now!" Avengement's voice was clearly heard a little more down the street.
Guardian flew as fast as he could, but to his horror he saw the hooded man pull out his machinegun and unload on Avengement, Mistress Freeze, Aries, and Kili. All dead instantly. Guardian continued flying straight at the man, his hands glowing with electricity, he was going to murder this monster.
Suddenly, he noticed Darkness chained to the wall, not moving.
"Please just let her go!" Guardian cried as the murderer aimed the gun at Guardian's love.
It seemed no matter how fast or how hard Guardian flew he wasn't getting any closer; he was one step behind, like he was today. Seventy-eight people were killed in the massacre, although they said a lot more would have died had Guardian not showed up, Guardian still felt responsible. Now his entire team was dead and the only one left, his love, was about to be killed because he was too slow.
Darkness woke and let out a shriek before the bullets tore her apart. Guardian screamed, "NO!"
Guardian finally reached the gunman who let Guardian tackle him. Guardian ripped off the man's mask and was shocked to see his own face stare back at him.
Guardian woke with a start from his nightmare, "What the hell did that dream mean," he thought as he drank a cold glass of water. He was sweating quite a bit from that nightmare.
Special thanks to all the reviewers and writers. SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Neilie (thanks for the compliments, hope the support continues)
BlackGothFaerie (moreJames, glad you like the quotes. Anna Kili drama will get more intense in upcoming chapters, the riots get solved this chapter)
AnimationWickedRaven (thanks, glad you enjoy)
whitewolf33 (hope you liked the riot scene)
Elissar (hope the intensity continues)
Kirara-so-cute (hope you enjoyed, thanks for the continued support)
ShockTreatment (so glad your enjoying the story)
Moonfire01 (hope your question on Nightfire is answered, don't worry, she is very important)
Dragoon of the Moon (I had an idea for James, he will connect with the main story in upcoming chapters)
StickLad (Anna's got a problem, which will be adressed in upcoming chapters, glad your into it)
Thanks again to all readers and reviewers, and don't forget:
PLEASE REVIEW!