Disclaimer: Teen Titans is owned by DC Comics and WB as well as many other people, just not me. I do, however own all original characters and therefore they cannot be used without my express permission.
New Players on the Stage
Chapter 3: So Many Questions, So Few Answers
The ride back to Titans Towers was an unusually quiet one. It was quite an unusual situation they found themselves in. It was not so much the defeat that bothered them, as they had lost a few battles in the past, but rather they WAY they were defeated. A group that they had never met until now just showed up and completely overpowered them and left them laying the middle of the street. When they had come to, not only was this Terror Sect group gone, but also the H.I.V.E. students and the device they were trying to steal. Although who actually got it, the Titans couldn't be sure.
One thing they were sure of though was the looks on the people's faces in the crowd that had formed. The looks of confusion and disappointment were hard to miss. That day the city had seen its mighty heroes defeated. Broken. Humiliated. It left those present with feelings of uncertainty and a loss of confidence in their champions. That hurt the Titans more than their wounds did. Ever since they had established themselves in Jump City, they made an unspoken promise to its citizens to protect them from the things the police couldn't. So in turn the people came to expect this from them and for the most part the accomplished that goal. There was only one time when they had failed to keep their promise. A time…none of them liked to talk about.
It took them many months to rebuild the public's confidence in them after that incident and to have it stripped away from them again in mere minutes was discouraging to say the least. It left them with not only wounds to their bodies and prides but with many questions as well. Who was this new group? Where did they come from? Did they want something else besides the Titan's complete humiliation? Most importantly, when would they be back?
These questions filled the Titan's minds even after they reached the Tower. It created an uneasy silence among them as they tended to their wounds. Being the closest thing the team had to a medic, Raven did her best to heal her friends. Fortunately, most of the bruises looked worse than they actually were. She only had to heal Robin's cracked ribs as he had already wrapped the chest wound himself. Cyborg simply ran a diagnostic on himself to see how much damage the electric surge had actually done. Beast Boy could have been considered the lucky one as he walked away with only minor cuts and bruises.
That left Starfire. She received the most painful injuries. While the burns on her hands were taken care of quickly enough, her foot was another matter all together. Because of the time elapsed from their defeat, to their revival and back to the Tower, the heated rubber of her boot had time to cool and therefore stick to her skin. They had cut the boot open just to peel it off of her. To her credit, she didn't cry out once during the procedure, though Raven did hear her mutter a few choice Tamaranian words that didn't sound very friendly. Once she removed what she could, Raven used her powers to remove the remaining pieces of rubber with her powers as well as heal the injured foot as best she could. Unfortunately, even she could do so much and the wounds became regulated to second-degree burns that would have to heal naturally. She applied some anti-burn ointment to help then carefully began to wrap Starfire's foot.
She did this as the others continued their practice of silent sulking and reflection. For most of the team, that meant sitting on the half circle couch while letting their wounds heal. Robin, however, paced the room back and forth in spite of his injuries. He knew he should have joined his friends and let his wounds set somewhat before being active again, but he just couldn't. It was a habit he picked up somewhere along the line, whether from his mentor or something he come up with himself, but either way if he didn't have a hard piece of evidence in front of him to study, he would usually end up pacing around as his mind tried to reach a satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately, there were just too many questions about this situation that he couldn't answer. There was only one answer he could come up with at the moment. The answer to a question that, not surprisingly, Beast Boy was the first to ask.
"Sooo…what was that all about anyway?" the changeling spoke up.
"It was a message," Robin answered definitely.
"What? They never heard of e-mail?"
"Not that kind of message. They wanted to show us what they could do. Let us know how much they could hurt us."
"Well I definitely got THAT message loud and clear. I mean we haven't been beaten that badly since…" Beast Boy let the sentence hang, afraid of what might happen if he completed it.
"Terra," Raven said flatly.
Another silence fell upon the group. In truth, they had all been thinking the same thing, but just like Beast Boy, none of them really wanted to say it. For some reason, saying seemed to make it more real, more hurtful. It dredged up painful memories for all, especially Beast Boy. He had been closer to her than any of them, and thinking about her always brought up mixed emotions in him. It didn't help that he had seen her, or rather someone taking her form, during the battle. He knew in the back of his mind that it really wasn't her, but at the time, he believed it. It looked exactly like her. Now just the physical appearance, but also the look in her eyes. That same lost, pleading look that he had seen in her eyes the last time he seen her alive. It was unbelievable. Beast Boy shook his head to clear those thoughts and get himself back in the game. As per his luck, however, just when he was ready to focus on the task at hand, everyone else seemed to be preoccupied.
"Well that's not fair," he muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest.
The others ignored the remark as they were preoccupied with there own thoughts. The mention of Terra not only dredged up bad memories, but also bad thoughts in regards to the new villains.
"You…do not think…" Starfire started hesitantly.
"That Slade's behind this 'Terror Sect' group?" Robin finished with a dangerous edge to his voice.
"Don't start this again Robin," Cyborg warned him. "You remember what happened the last time you thought Slade was alive."
"He was playing with my head. He still could be."
"Dude like Cyborg said, he fell into lava! Who's gonna survive that?" Beast Boy asked.
"Maybe we only saw what he wanted us to see. He's used robot doubles before. It could have easily been one of them we saw fall into the lava. This is what he could have been doing all this time, training this new team of his."
"Robin please," Starfire pleaded, a hint of sadness in her voice. "Do not skip to answers."
"Uh…that's jump to conclusions Starfire," Raven corrected.
"Yes, thank you," she nodded before she turned her attention back to Robin. "You made peace with yourself that Slade was dead. Why can you not believe that now?"
"But who else would know us so well?" Robin asked.
"Someone else that's been watching us," Raven countered. "It's not out of the realm possibilities."
"She's right. As many times as we're shown on the news and in the papers, some other wacko is bound to take interest in us," Cyborg added.
"Plus it's not like our fights are taking place in the desert," Beast Boy chimed in.
"See? There are lots of ways someone could know us," Starfire replied in her usual cheerful tone.
Robin sighed as he turned this information over in his head. He knew they all have valid points, but he'd also seen far too many supposedly dead villains return in his time to simply let go of the idea that Slade was back. Still he didn't want to worry them and judging by their reactions, he was doing that right now. He resolved to look into the Slade connection later, when he was by himself so that he wouldn't give his friends any more grief.
"Regardless of who it may be, I think it's safe to assume someone brought them together," Raven spoke as she finished bandaging Starfire's foot and stood up. "A marital artist, a shape shifter, a telekinetic, an android and a pryokentic. Maybe the last two don't match up exactly but its close enough. Pretty big coincidence that they all just happened to meet up and form a team, isn't it?"
"Agreed," Robin said then turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" Cyborg asked.
"To do some work on the case. You guys can rest though. Just keep an eye on any news reports that may pop up about this Terror Sect."
Before any of the Titans could offer protest, Robin disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. They looked around at each other for a moment before Raven began to leave as well.
"Now where are YOU going?" Cyborg asked again, sounding a little annoyed.
"We're done here and I need a shower in the worst possible way," she remarked and gave a slight shudder at thought of what could be covering her clothes.
Robin sat back in his chair and stared up at the large computer screen in front of him, fingers tented and head tilted forward. Displayed on the screen were profile shots of most of the Titans adversaries and their currently known status.
Slade-Deceased; Brother Blood-Captured; H.I.V.E. Trio-Active; Red-X-Active; Mad Mod-Captured; Mumbo Jumbo-Captured; Johnny Rancid-Active; Killer Moth-Active; Kitten-Active; Fang-Captured; Kwiz Kid-Active; Prof. Chang-Active; Control Freak-Captured; Adonis-Captured; Blackfire-Unknown; Dr. Light-Captured; Cinderblock-Active; Plasmus-Captured; Overload-Active; Punk Rocket-Captured; Thrash-Captured
Robin stared at each of the panels marked "active" intently, though he didn't completely rule out those who were captured. He knew all too well that some criminals were still able to run their plans even within the confines of their cell. Considering this fact still didn't help narrow down a suspect though. Brother Blood was the most likely suspect, but quick call to Titans East confirmed that not only was he still in jail, but also kept heavily sedated and depowered so that he couldn't use his hypnotic powers. In fact, the only real trouble they seemed to be encountering was a motorcycle gang.
The only other person he could think of right away that would have the resources to create and train this team was Mad Mod. That didn't fit his profile though. It just wasn't…crazy enough. No one else stood out though. Maybe Kwiz Kid, as he proved himself to be quite resourceful in their last encounter and it did leave everyone with questions that would fit his M.O. However, the only reason he chose to confront the Titans was to impress Kitten, though Robin really couldn't imagine why. Still, he was the most likely suspect at this point.
Even so, something kept nagging at the back of Robin's mind. It still didn't feel quite right. He looked over the roster of the Titan's villains more closely, trying to find someone who was more likely to be controlling Terror Sect. As he did, he took a closer look at the last two entries: Punk Rocket and Thrash. Not that he suspected either of those two of being criminal masterminds; he was just taken aback at how similar they were.
The wackos are getting redundant, He thought with a sly grin.
It faded, however, as his eye slowly drifted upward towards the person he truly though was responsible for the Titan's latest misfortune: Slade. He drew his gaze past the picture to the glowing red word stretched across it: deceased. Slade was dead. Logically, he knew this. The others were right; there was no way he could have survived the fall into the lava bath. Even if he did, he would have made his move by now. At the very least, he would have announced his presence. So, with all these factors adding up to conclusion that the masked psychopath was gone, why couldn't Robin still let it go?
He stared at the screen a moment longer before he clicked it off. Before he could move on with this case, he had put the past behind him and he knew just the place to start.
Despite being located in one of the most advanced buildings in the city, the basement of Titan's Tower was not much different from the basement in a normal house. It was dark, dusty, and in some places dank. It was also the storage space for things they didn't really use or had nowhere else to put. Mostly it was full of boxes containing old newspaper articles about their adventures, lots of fan mail, some of Cyborg's early projects that he would finish "some day", and a few things from closed cases that they couldn't fit in the evidence room.
It was the contents of one of those boxes that brought Robin down here. Fighting off the feeling of déjà vu, pulled down the box marked "Slade" from its resting place atop the small wall of boxes in a corner of the room. He placed it down on the ground and gently removed the top to reveal the many items of Slade's he had collected over their battles. The prize of the box being, of course, one of Slade's broken masks he had acquired. He stared at it intensely for a moment. Once again, thoughts of just how Slade might have survived the fall and returned to plague them again ran through his mind. His eyes narrowed slightly as he slowly reached for the mask. Remembering what happened last time, he covered his mouth and nose with his cape before he picked up the offending object and held it close to his face.
"Robin?" a quite, concern voice asked.
Taken by surprise, the Boy Wonder instinctively jumped up into a battle stance. He relaxed when he saw it was only Starfire then quickly hid the broken mask behind his back.
"Starfire? What are you doing down here?" he asked as notice the crutch tucked under
her right arm. "You should be resting."
"As should you," she replied intently. "Your wounds have not had proper time to heal either."
He subconsciously clutched at his chest. "I'm fine, really."
"Then what are you doing down here?" she asked as she tried to peek behind his back.
"I…I don't know really. Finding piece of mind I guess." He relented and held Slade's mask out for her to see. "Holding the mask, seeing all this stuff boxed up, it just helps make the point clear that…"
"Slade is dead."
"Yeah. I knew he is. You and the others are right he couldn't have survived. I just don't know why I can't let it go."
"When I was very little, Galfore told me something that I have always remembered. He said that we never forget those who make an impact on our lives, for better or for worse. I believe that is why you cannot let Slade go. Whatever he may have done, he impacted our lives in many ways."
"Mostly for the worse," Robin muttered bitterly. "But you're right, I don't think I'll ever really be able to let go of what he did. That doesn't mean I have to let him completely dominate my life though. I'm going to accept the fact that he's dead and move on to solving who's really pulling Terror Sect's strings."
Starfire smiled and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "And we will be there to help you."
Robin smiled back at her and gave a small nod. If there was ever any positive impact Slade made on their lives it was strengthening their bonds and knowing that they would always be there for each other.
Strika stood within the doorway of the darkened room. The only true light came from the large video screen on the far right wall, which currently replayed the battle she and her group fought against the Titans just hours ago. Despite the illumination, the figure watching the tape remained mostly in shadows. In fact, the only feature she could make out was his mask, which was reflecting the image on the screen. The both stayed silent as the fight continued to play out once again. When the playback came to an end, the screen when blue and the figure finally spoke up.
"Impressive," he stated.
"Thank you sir," Strika replied as she gave a slight bow.
"I see you took out the H.I.V.E. students rather easily. Their standards must be falling of those three are their top students. Still, they're meaningless in the end. Now, about the Titans. What did you notice while in battle and while watching the play back?"
"They were a little tougher than we anticipated but nothing we couldn't handle. Also, Pyra's arrogance caused her to be caught off guard momentarily. I'm trying to work on her with it, but…you know how she can be."
"Indeed. But I'm sure given time she'll be able to control her…fiery temper if you'll pardon the pun," he said with a slight hint of humor to his voice. "Now, is there anything else you noticed?"
"Mercurial. While it didn't have an adverse effect on this battle, his unwillingness to fight could put us in danger later on. Again, I'm trying to work on it with him but he's hard to reach. It's just so…I don't know how to describe it."
"But I know what you're trying to say. I know it can be difficult but keep at it. Don't push him of course, but make sure he realizes that it would be in all our best interests if he would give more to the team."
"Of course, sir," Strika nodded.
"Speaking of the team, where are they?"
"They're in the lounge relaxing."
"Then go join them. You earned your victory celebration as much as they have. I'll check in on you in a moment after I've inspected the device."
The masked blonde gave a slight bow before she turned and exited the room. As she walked through the unassuming hallway, she thought back on the fight once again. She picked out certain things she wanted to go over with each individual team member later as well as any injuries the Titans might have substance for use in a future battle. One that was sure to come much sooner than later, she suspected. But she would deal with that when the time came. For now, she intended to take her leader's advice and relax with the rest of the team.
She entered the living room/lounge and took stalk of the situation before announcing her presence. It was a large room with a widescreen TV against the far wall. Near the middle of the room sat a full-length couch with two recliner chairs on either side, each sitting on a rotating base to turn from the TV to the coffee table placed in-between them should the situation call for it. On the right wall stood a small gaming table and adjacent to it tucked in the left corner of the room was a small kitchenette/dining area used mostly for snacks and such.
She focused her attention from the layout of the room to the people in the room, expecting where each of them sat. Pyra and Beta took over the couch and sat rather close to each other, which seemed to be a usual occurrence lately. She would have to look into that later. Tekka sat in one of the recliners with her legs tucked underneath while she stared intently at a crossword puzzle, the eraser end of a pencil resting on her lips. That came as no surprise, since the telekinetic was usually working on some kind of brainteaser in her off time. Also not surprising was that Mercurial was sitting away from the group at the gamming table, rocking slightly in the chair. Despite the fact that he seemed to off in his own little world, he was the first of them to notice her.
"Strika!" he cried out in a mixture of surprise and joy.
Naturally, this caused the others to turn toward her as well.
"So the boss lady finally returns," Pyra remarked. "What's the word from above?"
"Yes. D-did we do go?" Mercurial asked.
"Yes we did. There are few issues to work out but overall we did a great job beating the Titans," Strika commended.
"Beating them? Hell, we smoked 'em!" Pyra shouted, emphasizing her point by producing a puff of smoke with her hand.
"Especially that Cyborg. Showing once again how inferior organics are to true mechanical beings," Beta added with a smirk. One that quickly faded when he noticed three angry females staring at him. "Present company excluded of course."
"Of course," Tekka muttered before she went back to her crossword. "'Three letter word for candy'. That's easy, PEZ."
"Wait you actually heard that!" Pyra said in mock surprise. "Brain girl actually came out of her world of puzzles and teasers to get involved with us lesser beings! The world must be coming to an end!"
"Yes I did talk and now I'm going back to ignoring you."
"Oh really? Well try to ignore this!"
With that, the flame wielder lunged forward and in one swift motion grabbed the paper from Tekka's hand before she landed perfectly in the middle of the room.
"Hey, give that back!" the other girl shouted as she bolted out of the chair.
"Make me," Pyra taunted.
"I really don't think you want me to."
"What's the matter? Scared? Come on; hit me with your best shot."
"You asked for it," Tekka smirked.
Before she knew it, Pyra found herself floating above the floor without the benefits of her powers. She thrashed around a bit before she noticed the smirk on Tekka's face and the causal motion of her hand.
"Is this it? Seriously I was expecting something a little more…I dunno…threatening," the red hair scoffed.
"I could also erect a physic shield that would make it impossible for you to use your flames without using up all the oxygen around in," Tekka warned.
"Is that so? Well could you do it before I lit THIS on fire?" Pyra asked, holding a lit finger up to the crossword."
"DON'T!"
"That's enough!" Strika called out, trying to bring order to the situation. "Tekka let her down, Pyra give her back the crossword. It's bad enough we have to worry about fighting the Titans without fighting each other as well."
The two muttered something intangible under their breaths then complied with their leader's wishes. Pyra did hand back the puzzle but not before yanking the pencil out of Tekka's hand and writing something down. When she got it back, the black haired girl look at what was written and to her surprise found it to be the answer to a question that had been troubling her for awhile. Her eyes widened slightly before narrowing at the flamethrower.
"I could have gotten that," she said.
"Sure you would have," Pyra smirked as he fell back down onto the couch.
"Good. Now as I was saying," Strika spoke up, drawing the attention back to her. "We did well against the Titans this time but we also gave away our surprise. They know who we are now and what we can do, so they're going to be ready for us next time. That means they're going to step up their game, which of course means we have to keep ours up too."
"I agree," a new voice spoke.
This time it was Strika's turn to face the newcomer to the room. Though still bathed in darkness, they all immediately knew who it was.
"Mr. Dark!" Mercurial cried out again.
"Please Mercurial, there's no reason to be so dramatic all the time," Mr. Dark told the boy.
"I-I know. I…just…can't help it sometimes."
"Yes I know. We'll have to work on that."
The shape shifter nodded nervously as he drew back into himself once more. The others kept their attention on the man that had all brought them together. He had a penchant for sticking to the shadows, which is why they guessed he chose his particular moniker. He was also in darkness unless he wanted you to see him. The only feature of his to be constantly seen was the plain, reflective mask he wore. It kept anyone from seeing his face or emotions and allowed the viewers to only see themselves in a warped reflection. Though each of them knew he bore no ill will toward them, it still unnerved them to look at the mask as it did any of his opponents. His constant debonair demeanor seemed to enhance his intimidating presence even more. He gave them all a quick overview before he continued.
"Now as Strika pointed out, you all did exceptionally well in your first battle with Teen Titans, but you lost the edge of surprise. You must rely on your skills and teamwork to carrying you through until the plan is completed. Make no mistake about it, the Titans WILL interfere with our work from here on out and they WILL try to defeat you."
"Then why didn't you let us just kill them when we have the chance?" Beta asked.
"Because killing your opponent and beating them aren't necessarily one in the same."
"Huh?" Pyra mumbled.
"If you kill your opponent in the heat of battle all you've accomplished is to destroy his physical body. His spirit is more than willing to keep fighting and from my experiences the hero's spirit is the most willing of all. They will keep fighting no matter the odds. It's actually quite annoying."
"So then what are we suppose to do?" Pyra asked, still seeming slightly confused.
"Break that spirit of course. For heroes such as the Titans the best way to do that is to hand them defeat after defeat. Show them that they are no match for your strength. Show them at even at their best they are not match for you. Chip away at them little by little until they finally come to the conclusion that they cannot defeat you, that there is no winning. Then," he paused as he brought a black gloved hand up to his face with the palm open, "then we shall crush them!"
His statement was concluded by balling his hand into a fist, the point driven even deeper by the action being reflected in his mask. The members of Terror Sect looked at each other and were joined together by one unifying thought: crush the Teen Titans.
To Be Concluded…
Author's Notes: Cue dramatic music. Well, there you have it, the villain reveal. However, I'm sure you're all still wondering quite a bit about him, aren't you? Well you'll just have to stay tuned to find out. Hence the title of this chapter. Leaves questions for the Titans as well as the readers. Also, I know this is a bit of a talky chapter, but it couldn't be helped, I had to move the plot along as well as give some screen time to my villains to flesh them out. Hope you all enjoyed it. Additional notes, Kwiz Kid comes from the Teen Titans Go! comic. I originally was just going to have his name there but then the paragraph about him just kinda sprang into my mind. I also decided to include Punk Rocket into my universe and make a joke about how he and my OC Thrash were similar, by the way, is just consequential. Now enough of my rambling, on to reader responses. I see some new faces in the crowd as well as a familiar one.
Reviews:
TDG3RD: As I said above, now you know who Terror Sect is working for. As for what Mr. Dark's goals are…well again, you'll just have to wait and see.
JustIce37: Not clones at all, but rather a team put together specifically to take out the Titans, as the story itself stated. As for how they're actually able to beat the Titans, it's like the old saying goes "Practice, practice, practice".
ThunderDragon: No, they won't forget that butt kicking for a long time to come. Hope you enjoyed seeing the fall out from it.
BolenPUCR: You know I was wondering if anyone was going to keep a scorecard on how the two teams did. You may come to regret that decision later, though. Hehe. Glad you liked my OCs and I hope liked their little scene there at the end.
NateZ: Good to see you're still so supportive of my stuff. Here's a new chapter for you. Enjoy it! Heh.