Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
AN: I hope you have time. This chapter will be longer than the previous one!
Unfriendly Competition
Chapter 2
Playing for Keeps
Black Rose pinned Terra to the ground and pushed down on her neck with her staff. The spiky thorns nicked Terra's throat.
"You're playing for keeps, aren't you?" Terra grunted, bringing up her arms to push against the staff.
"I always play for keeps," Black Rose muttered, bringing her masked face down to Terra's. "And I always win."
"We'll see about that," said Terra, her eyes glowing yellow. The ground began shaking around them in a circle. The large chunk of rock brought the two sparing girls up into the air, spinning. With great effort, Terra managed push Rose's staff from her throat and she kicked her in the stomach with her legs. Rose stood up and imbalanced, she fell off the spinning rock. Terra got to her feet and held up her arms, causing a hand of earth to come up and catch Black Rose.
"Looks like a good time to plant roses," she said with a grin, causing the stone fist to close over Rose and bring her into the ground.
Terra came down to check that Black Rose was finished. She walked over to Rose's burial spot.
"That wasn't too hard," said Terra, smiling as she turned away.
But Terra had spoken too soon. Just as she began to walk away, the rocks began moving behind her. Rose used her thorny staff to dig her way out.
"Not so fast," she hissed, "we're not through yet!"
"What the?" Terra said in surprise, stepping away. Her hands and eyes glowed yellow and she hurled rocks and dirt clods at her opponent.
Black Rose held her staff in front of her and twirled at high speed, knocking the rocks away from her body, slowly advancing on Terra as she did so. Clenching her teeth, Terra made the earth split between Terra and Black Rose. Black Rose put her staff down to pole vault over the ditch. She ran after Terra and slugged her in the stomach with the rose end of her staff. Terra gasped for breath and Black Rose brought the staff up to meet Terra's jaw. Terra yelled as she fell backward.
"Is that the best you can do?" Black Rose demanded. "Power is nothing unless you can control it."
Terra gasped. She heard someone say that to her before. It was Slade. It was the first thing he told her when she left the Titans and come ask him for his help. "Power is nothing unless you can control it, Terra."
"Didn't anyone teach you how to fight? Pathetic."
"Of course I had a teacher," Terra muttered, "I was just getting warmed up!"
Terra rose to her feet and wiped the blood form her lip. Slade had not only taught Terra how to control her powers, but how to use martial arts as well. Not much, but the basics of fighting. It was time to put that to use. Terra ran after Black Rose, attempting to throw a punch but Black Rose easy smacked her with her staff. Terra screamed but with her arm bleeding, she grabbed onto Rose's staff, attempting to take it away. It wasn't easy. It was as if Black Rose was reading all of Terra's moves before she even made them. How was she doing that? Who taught her? Was she reading her mind? Terra pulled hard on the staff while creating a large spiky rock to form out of the ground between them. Once the rock was five feet high, Yerra jerked hard on Rose's staff, causing her slam into the rock. She heard Rose groan in pain and Rose's grip loosened over the staff. Terra twisted it from Rose's hands and tossed taside, where she made another fist of earth come out of the ground and crush it into pieces. Terra brought down the large spike of earth she had used so she could get a look at Rose.
It was a shame Rose wore a mask. Terra would love to see her face. She probably had a cracked her nose and blood was dripping into her lip. Maybe she chipped her tooth.
'Take off your mask,' Terra thought, 'c'mon, I want to see how bad you look!'
Rose brought her hand to her masked face and touched it gingerly. She didn't remove her mask.
"Looks like you lost your toy," Terra said, glancing at what used to be Rose's lethal staff.
"No matter," said Rose, stepping back and clenching her fists. "I can still play with these!"
She smacked her forearms together as she did the same with her ankles. Terra watched her looking confused. What was supposed to happen? Then a popping, splitting noise came from Rose's suit. Green thorns emerged from the green triangles and stripes on Black Rose's suit like some sort of armor. A few, being the smallest were just a of an inch long that were placed on her torso, hands and feet, where as the longest being six inches on her knees, elbows and shoulder blades.
Terra stepped back in shock. If Rose would knee her in the stomach she'd be dead. Terra wouldn't even be able to throw a punch without getting injured by those thorns.
"Oh no," Terra mumbled.
"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"
Raven pulled tombstones up from the the ground and threw them at Jesse like bombs. Jesse zig zagged to avoid them and picked up her pace. Glancing behind her to see how close Raven was, Jesse grabbed a tombstone and ripped it up from the ground. She spun around in a circle and tossed it at Raven like a discus, knocking her to the ground.
As Raven got up to her feet, Jesse ran to her, grabbed her by the back of her cloak and spun her around in it. Raven lost her balance and fell back.
"Comfortable?" Jesse asked and she ran off again.
"Come back here!" Raven shouted, rolling back and forth, trying to get her arms free. Raven pulled her arms from her sides but it was not enough. Jesse had rolled her up too tight. Snarling, Raven's eyes glowed red and black energy unraveled her out of her cloak. Raven stood to her feet and took off in the air to search for Jesse.
"I'm not in the mood to play hide and seek!"
Jesse Quick crouched and leaned against a tombstone to catch her breath and come up with a plan to stop Raven. Unbeknownst to her, Raven was flying right over her head. Suddenly, the tombstone she was leaning against was encased in black energy and lift up in the air, causing her to fall down on her back.
"Huh?"
Raven flung the tombstone into Jesse's stomach before she could run off. Jesse grunted as all the wind left her. With Jesse trying to catch her breath and get to her feet, Raven began ripping up more tombstones to make a fence around Jesse.
"Now try to get away from me," said Raven, ripping up a tree from its roots.
Jesse gasped, rolled over to her stomach and tried pushing herself up. Raven swatted the tree at Jesse as if she were an insect. Jesse let out a grunt as she jumped onto the tree, ran up it and punched Raven in the face. Raven cried out as she flew backward. Jesse fell from the tree and landed ungracefully on the ground.
"Look, Starfire," Batgirl said, "you agreed to compete in this tournament so you've got to fight me."
"I only stayed so I can be with Terra and Raven," Starfire said sadly. "When my friends go into danger, so do I. I fear that we are in trouble."
"What are you talking about?" Batgirl demanded. "This is just a friendly competition for us to use our skills, learn from each other, and become better! There's nothing to be afraid of!"
"I fear that this is an unfriendly competition," Starfire insisted.
"Well, whatever you think it is," Batgirl said, shaking her head, "you're playing in it. You've got to fight me."
"I do not wish to hurt you."
Batgirl grinned and put her fists on her hips. "Hey, I'm tougher than you think."
"You have not any powers," said Starfire, "and I have what you call the advantage."
"Well you can't just stand there and let me beat the daylights out of you," Batgirl said with a frown. "It wouldn't be fair to you either. You've got to fight. I want this to be a challenge."
Starfire sighed and inclined her head. "If we must fight, then I will not use my starbolts or fly. I will rely on my own Tamarian strength."
"You don't have to do that," Batgirl said irritably.
"But I must, please," Starfire insisted, "you can use whatever you want against me and I won't use my powers. This way we're even."
Batgirl was impressed with Starfire's attitude but bummed about it the same time. She was really looking forward to fighting with a strong opponent. But Starfire was just enough not to use her starbolts or fly in this battle to make it a fair fight. Batgirl groaned.
"Oh all right," said Batgirl, "I hope you don't just let me win. And if you ever change your mind about using your powers, it's fine with me."
Starfire giggled jumped and clapped her hands. Batgirl watched the Tamarian with a tired and confused expression.
"Oh, yes, let us proceed!" Starfire exclaimed.
"Go on and attack me," Batgirl said, "and don't hold back."
"Oh, very well," Starfire said, lifting up a large box above her head. "I first wish to appolgoize for any pain that I cause you."
Starfire tossed the crate at Batgirl. It landed on top of her and she came stumbling out of it wearing a framed portrait of Mona Lisa, her head where Mona Lisa's should be.
Starfire gasped. "Oh, friend Batgirl, I am truly sorry!"
Starfire pulled the frame off Batgirl and squeezed her in a deathly embrace, cracking all Batgirl's bones.
"Ahh!" Batgirl cried.
Bumblebee shrank down and buzzed around to avoid Jinx' hexes. They hit the wall of the hive, causing beeswax and honey to fall. Bumblebee zapped at Jinxs' feet, who cried out and started doing a wild dance to avoid being stung.
"Ouch! Hey! Quit that!"
Jinx waved her arms wildly and managed to swap Bumblebee away. Bumblebee looped around a couple of times in midair.
Jinx threw another cluster of hexes after Bumblebee but Bumblebee was just too fast for her. Jinx' hexes got the ceiling, causing it to crack and spill beeswax onto Bumblebee's wings. Bumblebee gasped as Jinx let out a shout of excitement.
"Ha!"
With Bumblebee's wings all sticky, flying was difficult. She crash landed into the floor of the beehive.
"Looks like I'm Brother Blood's new favorite!" Jinx said haughtily.
Bumblebee returned to normal size and tested her wings. They flittered helplessly but weren't enough to get her airborne again. B ut just because she couldn't fly, doesn't mean she couldn't sting. Bumblebee got to her feet and raised her stingers at Jinx.
"Guess again! HAH!"
ZAP!
Jinx' hair frizzled out of her horn-like pigtails. She shook her head to get herself ot her senses. She sent flash of pink hexes at Bumblebee's stingers, making them backfire and sting her. Bumblebee cried out, dropping her stingers as she backed away to look at her hands. Laughing, Jinx made the ground crumble with her hexes and Bumblebee's feet caught stuck.
"No!" Bumblebee yelled, trying to pull her feet free.
"Yes!" said Jinx. "Finally, I get to take you down. You know, Bumblebee, I never really liked you."
"Feeling's mutual, bubble-gum head!" Bumblebee snarled.
"Hey! No one talks to me like that!" Jinx shouted and Bumblebee grinned in satisfaction. "After today, I'm going to make sure you're expelled from the HIVE!"
"And how would you expect Brother Blood to let that happen?" Bumblebee asked. "You forget I'm his top student."
"Oh please! I am!"
"Are not!"
"Am too!"
"Oh come on, you're pathetic," Bumblebee said, "I wonder why Brother Blood even puts up with you."
"You call me pathetic?" Jinx demanded. "At least I'm a real student!"
"What are you talking about?" Bumblebee asked, chuckling.
"You've been up to something ever since you came to the HIVE," said Jinx, "I know it!"
"Oh yeah?" said Bumblebee. "Where's your proof?"
"I…er…" Jinx mumbled, pausing to put her finger to her lip. "I've got no proof…as of yet. But I will!"
"Oh please, I'm just as a real student as you are," said Bumblebee, "I'm the best in every subject."
"And that's what gets me!" Jinx yelled. "How could you come into our school and suddenly know everything? What are you up to?"
"I'm just trying to improve myself," said Bumblebee, "isn't that the whole point of the HIVE?"
"I still don't trust you," said Jinx.
Fearing again of being made into Swiss cheese, Terra broke up the earth around her and tossed as many stones she could muster at Rose. Rose made a quick handstand and began turning around on her hands, her legs out like a T. The thorns on her legs cut the stones in half, chipping off some of the stones like she had done with her staff. Terra couldn't believe it. What were her thorns made out of? What could be stronger than rock? Perhaps it was the speed Rose was twirling. Perhaps if Terra threw her rocks hard enough then she could make the thorns on Rose's suit blunt.
Then Rose put her legs together and she dropped down into a roll, making her whole body like a tire with spikes. Terra screamed and jumped out of the way as Rose's thorn suited body ripped up soil.
Black Rose stood up, turned and ran after Terra. She began punching at her. Terra dogged what she could. Black Rose dropped kicked her. Terra yelped in pain as the thorns ripped at her naked calves. Rose lifted her foot revealing the spiked thorny cleats on her feet. Just as she was about to bring her foot down on Terra's face, Terra sank into the dirt and disappeared. Black Rose laughed.
"You want to play and hide in seek now, Terra?" she said. "Or do you give up?"
Terra wasn't about to give up. She just needed time to think. She needed a plan. She let the ground move her away from Rose. It was hard fighting hand to hand against Rose, even without the thorns. She had a way of reading her every move. But Rose shouldn't be able to read her moves if she couldn't see her. She shouldn't' even be able to tell what kind of attack she would do with earth. But what could Terra do?
'Think, Terra!' Terra thought angrily. 'Think!'
"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Rose shouted, digging htrough the dirt with her thorns.
Then Terra came up with one. There had to be away to break those throns from Rose's body. Then it would be easier to bring Rose down. The dirt pushed Terra bck to the surface about ten feet away from Rose.
"There you are," said Rose.
"You want a piece of me?" Terra demanded. "Come on then!"
Terra wasn't going to lose to this flower girl. She had been through much already. She fought a giant scorpion, she could handle this chick. Terra was a Teen Titan. Terra was Slade's apprentice. She thought because of being those things, she was unstoppable and she was going to prove it.
Rose ran after Terra. Terra stood where she was, teeth bared. Just as Rose came to punch Terra, Terra lifted up a wall of volcanic rock to protect herself. Rose's fist hit the wall, smashing and bending her metal thorns as a result—not to mention broken fingers. Rose yelped and brought her hand back. Rose attempted to go around the stone wall to get to Terra, but Terra created more stone walls to protect herself. Rose kicked and punched and kneed at every wall, though it didn't do much good. They made all her thorns break. Terra then caused the walls to shoot away from her, smacking into Rose. With a thud, Rose hit the ground and scrambled to get back up.
"You…!" Rose began furiously.
Terra created another wall, taller and wider than the others and pushed it against Rose.
"I—wont—let—you—win!" Terra shouted pushing the huge wall with all her might. Around her all of the volcanoes erupted, shooting ash and smoke.
Rose fought effortlessly against the wall, barely scratching pebbles and specks way. She made a shout of frustration. The wall slammed Rose so hard that she flew back and landed into a tar pit.
Terra brought down the stone wall and used a chunk of dirt to fly her over to the tar pit. Rose was surely done this time. She was lying on her back in the tar and no matter how hard she thrashed she couldn't get out. It stuck to her body like glue.
"Looks like you've met your sticky end at last, Rose," Terra said with a smirk.
She couldn't believe she could joke after this. She really had spent too much time with Beast Boy.
"Not bad," said Black Rose, "I underestimated you."
Terra grinned and folded her arms. "I know. I'm a Titan, after all."
Then Terra thought of something. Black Rose was stuck in that tar. She couldn't do anything. This was a perfect opportunity to unmask her, then Terra would know her identity. She had to know who Black Rose. She wasn't sure why, but there was just something about her. Terra floated down right in front of her.
"What?" Black Rose mumbled.
Just as Terra reached for her mask, Black Rose vanished in a flash of light.
"Hey, where'd she go?" Terra asked. "I want to know who she is!"
Black Rose sort of reminded her of someone. She just couldn't put her finger on it. What she did not know was that she and Black Rose had something—or someone—in common. Slade. As Terra was Slade's apprentice, Black Rose was Slade's daughter.
"WINNER…TERRA!"
Raven floated down to the ground. She had a plan in mind to stop Jesse and if she played it just right, it would work. Jesse narrowed her eyes and ran at the half demon girl at top speed with her last ounce of energy.
When Jesse got within five feet or Raven, Raven quickly put up a black force field of black energy. Unable to stop in time, Jesse smashed into it. Jesse's whole body began aching terribly. She couldn't move. Raven kept the shield up for a moment before taking it down and kicking Jesse in the stomach.
"Oof!" said Jesse and she fell to the ground. She looked up at Raven tiredly. "How--?"
"You ran yourself blind," said Raven, pulling down her hood.
"Ohh…" Jesse moaned and she passed out.
Raven gave a small smile of triumph as she turned to look at the cemetery. "Cool. I should go to the graveyard more often."
Seeing a white flash out of the corner of her eye, Raven whisked around only to find Jesse gone.
"WINNER…RAVEN!"
Batgirl felt more and more embarrassed as she continued her fight with Starfire. Everytime Starfire threw something at her; she'd give her a bone cracking hug. Starfire didn't seem to realize that her thoughtful attitude was enough to kill Batgirl—and anyone else who was hugged by her. It was enough to finish Batgirl already and she didn't know how she was still in the game. Batgirl didn't even care who won anymore. She just wanted the game over.
When Batgirl threw a punch at Starfire or any kind of attack, Starfire always laughed and said, "Well done, friend Batgirl!"
Then Batgirl noticed a pole right behind where Starfire was standing. She got an idea. She ran and high kicked the Tamarian in the face. Starfire stumbled and hit the pole behind her. With Starfire zonked out, Batgirl took out her bat-grappling hook tied Starfire to the pole. Batgirl stood back, waiting for Starfire to wake up. But she didn't instead she disappeared. Batgirl breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally, she's out of my hair!"
"WINNER…BATGIRL!"
"Well maybe after this tournament," said Jinx, taking hold of Bumblebee's chin. "You won't want to show your face back at the HIVE. You'll be too embarrassed."
Bumblebee laughed. "I don't think so. You haven't seen all I could do, Jinx."
"Oh come on," Jinx said, "you're out of tricks."
"Not quite," Bumblebee muttered, "they don't call me Bumblebee for nothing."
Jinx raised an eyebrow and Bumblebee cleared her throat loudly. Bumblebee opened her mouth and hawked a beeswax loogie right in Jinx's face.
"Oh, gross!" Jinx yelled, stepping back with her hands to her face. Bumblebee shrank and pulled her legs out of the rubble. She approached Jinx, returned to normal size gave her one hard punch in the gut to knock her out conscious.
"You got nothin' on me, honey," said Bumblebee, resting her fist on her hip. Jinx disappeared and Bumblebee began shaking her butt in a victory dance.
"WINNER…BUMBLEBEE!"
The four winners appeared back in the domed chamber. Terra was surprised to see that Starfire didn't return back. Terra was certain that all the Titan girls would've won.
"Hey, what did you do to Starfire?" she demanded Batgirl. "How could you win?"
"Nothing," Batgirl muttered, "Starfire wanted a fair fight so she didn't use any powers."
"What happened to you?" Raven asked Terra, nodding her bleeding legs. "Did you really win?"
"Of course I did," Terra retorted. "I'm here, aren't I? Take a look at flower child…where is she?"
There was another white flash and the Master of Games appeared before Terra, Raven, Batgirl and Bumblebee.
"Well played, young champions. You have survived Round One."
"Where's Starfire?" Raven and Terra asked in unison.
"Starfire and the other losers have been returned home safely," the Master of Games informed.
"Home?" Terra muttered to Raven. "Starfire wouldn't go back home if we were still here, would she?"
"No," Raven said, her eyes narrowing. "She wouldn't."
"Now you must rest, for tomorrow you face…Round Two!"
All four girls disappeared in a flash of white light. The Master of Games grinned and looked at his red gem where the other four girls were held.
"Hey, where am I?" Jinx demanded, looking around a small room. The walls looked like red windows. "Let me out!"
She held out her hands but no hexes flew from them. "What gives? My powers."
"Fear not, friend!" Starfire said triumphantly. "I shall get us out."
"You call me friend now?" Jinx asked, snickering.
Starfire glared at Jinx then raised her hands at the wall. Just like with Jinx, Starfire's powers were gone.
"I do not understand," Starfire whispered, looking at her hands.
Jesse lunged forward, preparing to sprint and she just moved like a normal girl. "My powers are gone too!"
"I haven't any powers to lose!" Black Rose declared.
Black Rose turned to the wall and clacked her arms together, however, her thorns did not extract from her suit.
"No," she moaned, "my suit…but how?"
"You do don't have your staff either, do ya?" Jinx demanded.
"No," Black Rose answered. "It was broken in the match."
"I must call my friends," Starfire said, removing her communicator. She opened it up. "Starfire calling Terra!"
Terra did not answer. Starfire tried again.
"Starfire calling Raven! Raven! Please answer!"
Raven didn't answer either. Starfire raised her voice and the other three girls had to cover their ears.
"RAVEN! Please, you cannot be meditating at this time! I need your help!"
"I don't they can answer you," said Black Rose.
"You!" Starfire yelled at Jinx. "You did something to my communicator!"
"How could I when my powers are gone too?" Jinx demanded.
"I wonder where we are," Jesse said, placing her hand on the wall. "I can see through this…"
"It looks like the place we came to," Black Rose said thoughtfully. "So we may still be in the tournament?"
"Maybe," said Jesse.
"I want out," said Starfire. "I would never leave my friends alone. Terra and Raven need me."
"I think they can handle themselves," Jesse told her. "We've got to worry about getting out of here."
"Hey, you think that this Master of Games creep is behind this?" Jinx asked, rubbing her head. "Maybe because we lost, he wanted to keep us as prisoners?"
The four girls all exchanged glances, looking horrified. What if they were prisoners? And if they didn't have their powers to get out, what would they do?
TO BE CONTINUED
Hey, what did you think? Sorry for the late update! So much going on at the moment. Hope ya liked all the fights. I decided to make the warehouse Batgirl and Starfire was fighting in a picture framing factory since I work in one. And the thing with Bumblebee dancing, real honeybees dance in hives when they're telling the other bees where food is and stuff. So I just had to make Bumblebee do a victory dance! I know she doesn't have beeswax loogies but I had to use it for an extra power. Hey, maybe she does but never uses it.