Disclaimer: Yo no poseo el Teen Titans. (I do not own the Teen Titans.)

Gunsmoke And Black Roses—Chapter Twenty-Eight

HIGH NOON-Part Two

Jinx jerked awake with a muffled cry, heart pounding. Falling… she remembered falling, and… strangely, she didn't seem to be hurt. Her vision blurred, though in didn't matter because she was in total darkness, and her ears were ringing with the rapid descent she'd experience.

Sitting up and trying to calm herself, she took some deep breaths and attempted to slow her heartbeat back to normal. It thumped rapidly, badly startled from the huge plunge… but what had happened? The floor had just opened up and… boom, she was here. Sheesh… It had all happened so fast…

"Hahahahah…" A soft laugh came from some far corner of the pitch-black distance, echoing out across the space in which Jinx was standing; it was agonizing to hear and almost painfully startling.

Wheeling around to face the direction from which the noise had come, she balled up her fists and charged up a couple of hexes, eyes flashing pink with dark energy. Her feline eyes, shimmering with rose tint in the dark, darted nervously around her shadowy environment in an attempt to locate the source of the airy laughter.

"Wh-who's there…?" She demanded, her voice echoing all around the place.

As suddenly as it had started, the laughter died off, leaving the dark pit she was in silent as a grave. She shivered a little, uncomfortable with the situation.

"I… I know someone's there! I can hear you!" She hissed, hiding her nervousness. "Who are you?"

She felt something whoosh behind her, causing a gust of cold air to run across her shoulders. She gasped and whipped around looking badly startled; she saw nothing that would've caused the gust of air. Then, something tapped her on the shoulder, but once again, she saw nothing when she turned around.

The laughter started again, loud and cackling like some sort've banshee… except that it was masculine, as though a man was doing the laughing in question.

Jinx, already rattled by recent events, screamed and loosed several hexes in the general direction the laughter was echoing from. She heard a few muffled zaps, but nothing that indicated she'd hit anything. The hextress flung several more bad-luck spells but with no more results than the first time. Breathing hard, she stumbled back, looking around desperately for something to attack; still, there was nothing there..

"… (Tsk, tsk, tsk.) Jinx, my dear, you really should be more careful, shooting off hexes aimlessly. You never know whom your opponent might be…"

Jinx knew this voice. She couldn't… place it, not quite, but she knew it from somewhere.

"Dammit! Who's there? TELL ME!" She screamed, stamping one of her heels against the ground. But this gesture hurt nothing but the ground, and was pointless in and of itself; it made her feel even more helpless to the situation.

Her only answer was another peal of laughter. But it was not like the loud, shrieking cackle of before. This time it was just… a chuckle, a low chortling sound.

"Now, m'dear… surely you haven't forgotten me so soon?"

And as a pair of eyes flashed bloody red in the darkness, she gasped and stumbled back, tripping over a jagged rock and falling on the ground. She groaned, and rubbed her leg, staring wide-eyed at the spot where the shimmering eyes had been.

"Heheheheh. You remember me, don't you…?" The voice, cruelly familiar and mockingly affectionate, echoed from blackness. "Of course you do. After all… not many youngsters can forget…" there was a sudden sweeping sound, as the flowing of robes over hard, rocky ground. "… Their teacher."

At that moment, realization hit Jinx like an eighteen-wheeler over an armadillo. Flashing angrily with dark energy, her feline eyes crackled with pink fire. "… You…! Blood!"

Sure enough, she was correct. The man in question strode out into the dim light Jinx stood in, just as tall and wickedly elegant looking in his white-gold-and-black robes as ever. He sneered and rolled his piercing eyes in a rather haughty manner. "Humph. That's BROTHER Blood to you, missy. But you should be thanking me… I've come to reunite you with a couple of long-lost friends…"

At these words, two more sets of eyes, both very beady but one larger than the other, glared red from the darkness. Two more sets of laughter joined Brother Blood's chuckle, a deep booming guffaw and a small, impish cackling.


"This is bad… very bad..." Sub-Zero mused sadly to himself as he dusted off his white clothes as best as he could. He had no idea where he'd landed, but… he was far away from his friends and that's what worried him. He hoped they weren't in trouble; he'd never forgive himself nor Slade nor Myntull or anyone else… If anything happened to them, especially Jinx.

Squinting, he managed to make out the cavern around him… it was enormous, like a huge cave. Right in the middle of the whole thing was a massive pool of water… or more accurately, a subterranean lake. The light shone in from a large crater-shaped hole in the ceiling, like moonlight. The way it reflected off the water gave the cave a certain unreality and ethereality.

Though the knight was accustomed to cold, he still shivered. The temperature was not to blame, however… it was more just a feeling of foreboding. Like something was about to happen.

'If I'm gonna get outta here…' Zero reasoned mentally. '… Then I better get to looking for an exit.'

But unbeknownst to the young man, something strange was taking place deep within that lake. A large metallic grating, made to cover a huge underwater cavern, was slowly cranking open. Air bubbles…. A swarm of them, as though a giant something was breathing in that dark cavern… were pouring out of the opening.

As Sub-Zero surveyed his surroundings, pulling a small flask of rum from his belt and muttering to himself as he did so, he was far too absorbed in his musings to notice the rippling of the lake's surface.

He unscrewed the cap from the flask and took a long swig, trying to calm himself. He gulped the rum down and wiped his mouth on his cape with a satisfied sigh, pocketing the flask in his belt again. The rippling grew to a great churning and foaming, but he still didn't notice for he was too far away.

'Think, Zero, think!' He urged himself mentally. 'They trapped me down here for a reason… I'm sure of it. But… why…?'

He got his answer when the lake let out a sudden geyser of water, hissing with enough volume to elicit a startled jump from the knight. He turned slowly around, staring incredulously at the sight. The water bubbled and sizzled, and something was cutting a large 'V' shape through the water as it came at the shore…

Something… was coming up.

Zero shook with shock and stumbled back as he saw the shape coming up. As the thing leaving the wake in the water neared closer, a huge spike that jutted up from the water like a rock pillar came progressively higher up out of the water. It was… a horn!

Then, like a giant cannonball, the thing shot up out of the water too fast for him to follow, splashing out a tidal wave of water as it did so. But a second later, he looked up and saw a titanic shadow silhouetted against the opening in the ceiling. A long snaky tail, writhing like a serpent, and two awful wings flapping at high speed like some huge, ghastly bat. The spike was a horn, fixed atop a big ugly head and four thick legs with clawed feet lashed through the air and kicked about.

Then, like a living missile, it shot down at the ground and landed with an explosion of rocky fragments and thick, choking dust. The ground trembled under its footfall and the lake splashed from the sheer impact nearby. The thing was enormous, as big as Zero's ship.

"No… dragon…?" Zero whispered. He shook his head, intensely stunned.

It was a dragon, just like before. In fact, it was THE dragon from before. How he knew it was, or how Myntull had gotten it, he didn't know… it really didn't matter; what mattered was that he was in deep trouble!

It was different now. Its bony body had been reconstructed but now featured shiny metallic over-armor and all manner of giant pipes, wires, and vents. Its rib cage, no longer hollow, now contained what looked like a giant, pulsing motor that rumbled like Smoke's truck to the 10th degree. All around this massive motor, there were turning gears and pistons, along with a long row of alternately opening and closing valves.

It's head was the same, but the while the bottom jaw remained bone, the top part of the head including the snout, top jaw, and horn, were encased in a helmet-like metal armor. The horn, in particular, had been sharpened and curved into a scimitar-esque shape, making the overall creature much more threatening and evil-looking.

The four legs that the dragon stood on were still bone, but covered by a series of thick metal bands, each encrusted with studded spikes and flashing light panels. Its feet were now equipped with tank treads so that it could either walk or roll, whichever was needed.

Its huge wings had been covered in metal completely, with jagged wings that looked a lot like Myntull's except much bigger. They now sported large airplane-style turbines along the edges that whirred threateningly, spewing noxious gasses from rusted exhaust pipes.

Lastly, the dragon's tail was modified so that the natural bone drill on the tip had been replaced by an industrial mining drill made from what looked to be laser-etched steel with a thin layer of reinforced diamond coating. The tail itself was bone like before, but had numerous antennae and wires protruding from it.

Zero, numb with shock, stood there shakily and stared in utter disbelief. This couldn't be happening! "No…" He groaned croakily. "I… I don't believe it! They rebuilt him!"

It was like some sort of bad joke. He'd defeated the Death Dragon before, but now it was back. How many times must this thing be defeated…? Sub-Zero had heard the phrase, 'Blast from the past', but this was ridiculous!

"Oh God… Not again…"


Robin, thankfully, hadn't been knocked out from the fall. But that didn't mean that it hadn't hurt like a mug. The Boy Wonder groaned and rubbed his sore back, wiping small pebbles from his cape and grumbling darkly.

Getting up and looking around, he saw that he was surrounded on all sides by machinery and a sort've smoky haze, as though he were in some large, dimly-lit factory. He sighed to himself. "Great. Just great. Looks like we're separated in enemy territory… so much for the element of surprise."

His thoughts were abruptly ended by a powerful blow to the head, courtesy of a thrown chunk of cement. With a muffled shout of pain, he was tossed against a wall as his body spun in midair from the force of the blow.

"Oh, I wouldn't say all that. The element of surprise is working quite well for me."

Robin scrambled to his feet, forcing himself to ignore the throbbing in his head. He recognized the voice instantly; it the one he heard within his nightmares, the dark, dour, mockingly polite sneer.

"…Slade…" It wasn't so much surprised or angry as it was satisfied. "I found you again."

"No, Robin. I found you." The voice from the shadows countered.

"Why not come out and face me like man, so we can settle all this once and for all?" Robin demanded with a slight trace of grim amusement. "Afraid of a boy…?"

Laughter erupted from the shadows, seeming to come from absolutely everywhere at once. There, to the left of a large stack of metal barrels… no, behind that huge, turning gear, it faded and appeared just to the right near a large pipeline in the wall; it then moved to the ceiling, echoing down from above. The voice of Slade was everywhere.

"Poor Robin. Only too eager to fight, as always…" There was a moment's silence. "Hm… I like that in an opponent."

Without warning, the dim area was lit up by a wash of red light, bathing the area in a Hellish glow.

And there, barely a dozen feet in front of Robin stood none other than Slade himself.

"The clock is ticking, Robin…" Slade's one unhidden eye narrowed to a slit, venomous and hateful. "… Shall we begin…?"


Starfire awoke with a small moan and shielded herself from the uncomfortably bright light shining in her face. She stayed like this for several minutes, until her eyes had become used to it, then she dared to crack them open, revealing thin lines of emerald green. She blinked in confusion.

She was caged. And she wasn't the only one in the cage.

"Sister…? Sister!"

Starfire hovered over a few feet to Blackfire, who was slumped in the corner of the large cage, the walls of which seemed to be made of some icky, green goo. She shook her sister lightly by the shoulder and mumbled a few things in Tamaranean.

"Uuuuugh…"

Blackfire's misty gray eyes fluttered open; at first she saw only a blur of wild colors, but then everything sharpened and she saw Star's concerned green eyes blinking in her face. "… What the… Star?"

"Oh, you are unhurt!" Star sighed loudly, going slightly limp in midair with relief. "I thought…"

"Nevermind." Black responded flatly with a shake of her head. "We have to find a way out of… wherever this is."

The cage they were in consisted of a frame made of some strange, highly reflective metal, with a texture like a mirror. The walls of the cage were transparent and made of what looked like green jelly.

Angrily, Blackfire attempted to tackle through the nearest wall. She hit it with a thud, causing it to wobble and stretch as she tried to break through, but a moment later it whipped back into its normal shape and sent her reeling back onto the hard metal floor with a grunt.

Starfire scowled and charged a green energy bolt in each hand, hurling them at the walls at high speed, like a barrage of green lightning. Each one caused an explosion, splattering parts of the walls but never quite penetrating all the way through… the cage simply grew back the blown-away chunks instantaneously.

"We are… trapped." Star moaned, plopping onto the floor and putting her face in her hands.

"Myntull. This is his doing!" Blackfire snarled, punching her palm as her eyes flashed purple.

"You are incorrect. Myntull was merely our informant." A strange new voice echoed about, seemingly through the walls. A pair of Tamaranean heads snapped forward towards the source of the voice, startled badly.

Outside the cage was a simple room with nothing but a single door. The door in question swung open after a few moments, and in stepped two tall figures. Both were huge, bulky creatures covered in what was either armor or metallic skin. Both were red, and with a mismatched pair of arms… one was a normal, albeit clawed, hand but the other was a large clicking pincer, like a crab. They walked on two legs and had small disk-shaped heads with gnashing teeth that seemed too small for their tall, muscular bodies. They lumbered over to the cage and glared in on the prisoners with multiple yellow eyes.

"She is the one, yes?" One of the creatures asked, turning to his compadre.

"Yes… the criminal and her sister." The other said with a twitch of the head that might be taken as a very strange sort of nod-like gesture.

The two girls stared blankly, until they got a good look at their captors. Blackfire's eyes went wider than they'd probably ever been and Starfire just stared, mouth agape and jaw dropped; both of them were too shocked to speak.

"… C-centauri Officers…?" Blackfire stammered hoarsely. "Y-ou… you're…" She couldn't quite get the rest out; she went limp and very pale.

"I demand to know why we are being held captive! We have done nothing wrong!" Starfire screeched, banging angrily on the gelatinous walls, her eyes glowing green and emitting a threatening sizzling noise.

"On the contrary. Your sister is currently a high-priority escapee from our prisons, on account of being wanted for… let's see…" The officer opened a sort've computer panel on his arm with a display including a mugshot of Blackfire and various bits of information written in some bizarre, alien language.

"… One count of grand theft involving a Centauri Moon diamond, two counts of successful escape from our prisons, one count of governmental coup on Tamaran, one count of framing an innocent for a crime, three counts of vandalizing Centauri-Law-Enforcement property, and two counts of resisting arrest with lots of violence."

"Oh, yes…" The second alien officer piped in. "That's quite a substantial list of crimes, and more than enough to merit immediate execution. In fact…" He clicked his pincer ominously. "… We were already preparing for the ceremony when you managed to escape last time."

"No one is going to kill my sister! I am the rightful ruler of Tamaran! I can contact my K'norfka Galfore immediately and have her pardoned; I left him as ruler while I was on Earth!" Star explained hastily.

"Of course you can. But that still doesn't negate the crimes she has committed not involving Tamaran. And besides…" A gurgling laugh grated from the creature's metallic throat. "… I'm sad to inform you that you won't be pardoning anyone, Your Highness."

This took Starfire aback. "… Wh-what do you mean…?"

"That strange and mechanized Earth creature whom you call Myntull has been an invaluable source of information pertaining to our search for the escaped convict Blackfire. But his conditions required that certain other parties be, ah…" His eyes glinted in a disturbing way. "… Terminated."

The other creature continued. "That is why that by exactly midnight Earth time tonight… Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, AKA Starfire will have died tragically in an explosion while battling her sister, who had finally come to exact revenge once and for all…"

Starfire pressed herself against the wall incredulously and Blackfire began to tremble violently as the creature continued speaking. "We, unfortunately, arrived to late to save her but we managed to arrest the culprit and elected to execute her on-location before she could cause any more damage."

While the two stunned Tamaraneans remained silent with shock in the cage, the two Centuari officers looked at each other and burst into pleased laughter.


"Cyborg! A little help, please?" Raven demanded exasperatedly from within a tight circle of slowly advancing Orcs and Slade robots. Just when one of the Orcs leapt at her, it was abruptly blown out of the air by a shot from Cy's sonic cannon.

"Sorry, Rae. But I'm in a tight spot myself…" Indeed, he was having a hard time fending of the horde of enemies that had set upon him. The shots form the orcs' plasma rifles and the robots' laser pistols had scorched Cy's metal skin badly, making him look tarnished and burnt. Still, he mowed down wave after wave of them, never backing down.

Beast Boy was faring a bit better, at least. He'd transformed himself into an elephant and was slinging his long trunk and huge tusks around violently, trumpeting loudly to scare them off. Anything that got too close was trampled under huge, green feet.

Raven was probably having the most trouble… she blasted them apart with clouds of crackling black magic, but to no avail. Each enemy defeated seemed to trigger three more in its place. She couldn't see the others for the enemies around her…

Terra floated in midair; perched on a large floating boulder she'd broken off form the cavernous walls of the place. She hurled boulders down like hail, but was hesitant to do so because she had to swerve to avoid gunshots and didn't want to crush her friends by accident…

"We have to run!" She screamed down to Raven and Cyborg. "We don't stand a chance without the others!"

"We can't run; they've got us pinned down!" Raven yelled back up irritably, tossing large piece of machinery at a crowd of robots with her powers, crunching them to bits with a metal screech. "We're trapped…"


"So… here we are again, prototype. Just like we began."

"Not quite. I've got some new toys and you've been eatin'."

Smoke cocked his new siege gun and pointed it at the metal behemoth in front of him. Myntull had grown indeed…

He was now on tank treads instead of legs, box-shaped with rows of artillery cannons on all sides, speakers built into the top, and a large gatling-turret on top with the brain of the madman mounted at the gun's controls that were wired to connect directly with his mind. He looked like a tank… actually, he was a tank; he was a tank with a mind of its own.

The metal the body was made from had a greenish tint and was shining as though freshly buffed and polished. The treads were black with large spikes protruding from the sides and various antennae and things were mounted on top around his brain. Various pipes and vents spewed nasty exhaust gasses of all kinds of alarming colors: filthy brown, nauseous green, dark black, hazy purple…

The gatling turret his brain was mounted on had twin guns mounted together, each with a dozen barrels with a large crosshair mounted between the two guns for aiming.

"I see you appreciate the new look, prototype. Then again, you've always been partial to new methods of mayhem, haven't you?"

"Shut up!" Smoke growled. "Whether I die here or you die here, it's going to end one way or another. And don't think I'm going down without a fight."

"Dear, dear, prototype. I know all that already. One knows his own creation as he or she knows his or her self… perfectly. And besides…" The gats mounted on his new tank body whirred noisily. "… The fight, I was rather looking forward to, you see…"

"Then let's go, Exhaust breath!"

"Hahahah! The doctor is in!"


"This is insane!"

Jinx backed away from the two former-friends that were advancing on her: Gizmo and Mammoth.

She glared hatefully at Blood. "You're controlling them!"

"Of course I'm controlling them…" he said as though it were obvious, unabashed by the fact. "… They wouldn't be attacking their best friend otherwise. I must say, it was very good of that Myntull fellow to give me the chance to kill you once and for all."

"I knew it!" The sorceress shrieked. "You're working for them!"

He sighed in a tired manner. "My dear, must you state the painfully obvious?" His eyes flashed red again. "Gizmo! Mammoth! Kill her!"

Mammoth lunged forward with a bellow and Gizmo let fly with a rocket from his backpack-cannon.

Jinx gasped and leapt over Mammoth whilst simultaneously slinging a hex bolt at the rocket, blowing it up in midair. She came down and landed lithely on her feet; she almost attacked Mammoth, but… she hesitated. He was her friend… he couldn't help he was under mind control…

Said brute got up with a grunt and ripped a chunk of rock from the walls, hurling it with a snarl at Jinx, twisting and hurtling through the air fast enough to create a low humming sound. The makeshift projectile hit Jinx hard enough to send her reeling; she thumped and slid across the ground with a scream of pain, a few small droplets of blood spurting from her hairline as the rock nearly broke her skull. She moaned on the ground and lay there helpless with pain.

Through shaky vision, she saw the huge outline of Mammoth advancing on her holding a stalagmite like a war-club, patting the palm of his massive left hand ominously.

She whimpered slightly as she was lifted up in the air by a metallic spider leg protruding from Gizmo's backpack; it squeezed her tightly like some huge awful snake. She couldn't take both of them at once…

As Blood chuckled sinisterly in the background. She shuddered a little and opened her eyes to see Mammoth preparing to cave her head in with the huge stalagmite. She only knew one way out of this; it was hopeless, but… maybe… just maybe…

"G-guys, no… please… don't do this…" She moaned weakly, shaking her throbbing head; blood began to drip just slightly down her forehead "… I'm your friend… remember…?"

"You may as well give up, Jinx. They can't hear a word you're saying; both of them are firmly under my control. For someone so intelligent, Gizmo was surprisingly easy to manipulate. And Mammoth? Well, there's not much there, so… not much effort need be expended." Brother Blood said with a haughty and snide smirk, sneering out the words in a really condescending tone.

Gizmo tightened the grip of his mechanical limbs and Mammoth raised the club above Jinx's already bleeding head.

"No… Mammoth… Gizmo… you don't… remember me…?" She tried again, but their faces remained as expressionless as ever.

"The poor young fools. Why, they think you're dead… they believe you perished in the explosion that burnt that building to the ground; you should have if it wasn't for that one little pretty boy who…"

"His name is Sub-Zero…" Jinx hissed icily, cutting him off.

"Whatever. They think that Sub-Zero is to blame for your death, thanks to a little memory modification work on my part. If they knew the truth, they'd be thanking the Teen Titans with open arms for saving you… and turning on me for trying to kill you; I certainly can't have all of that, now can I?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You're sick…"

"Perhaps so. But you're worse off; you're dead." He snapped his fingers. "Kill her! Now!"

Mammoth grunted and swung the stone… but…

He stopped. His huge hands stopped in midair, the stalagmite he held by its point being mere inches from Jinx's face. She was staring at him. Large, watery eyes with their rosy feline pupils staring dead at him unflinchingly; her expression was one of mournful resignation.

And at that moment, something in Mammoth's brain clicked.

Jinx, seeing that something was working, managed to squirm around in the metal spider-leg and look Gizmo dead in the eyes… It had the same effect as it did on Mammoth. His eyes, which had been glowing red, began to flicker to their normal color and his grip loosened a bit.

"I gave you an order, gentlemen… Kill… her…Now…!"

Mammoth lifted the stalagmite again and Jinx moaned. She thought she'd gotten through to him, but…

She closed her eyes and whimpered, so she wouldn't see the heavy slab of rock swinging down upon her head. There was a sound, the hum of something large and heavy swinging through the air. There was a cry of pain.

… But not from Jinx.

When several seconds had passed, she opened her eyes uncertainly and gasped out loud.

There was a large dent in the wall shaped rather oddly like a tall robed man and Brother Blood in a heap below it, knocked out cold. Mammoth dropped the stalagmite and Gizmo's robotic appendages released Jinx. She crumpled to the ground clutching her head with a moan.

"Don't just stand there, dufus! Find something to use as a bandage!" Gizmo barked.

"Uh… Hey, Giz… how'd we get here again?" Mammoth asked dazedly, running over to Brother Blood and tearing off a small strip of cloth from the edges of his robe.

"I don't know! It had something to do with the headmaster; I know that. How is Jinx alive?" he sounded surprised now. "She died… in that fire!"

"And why'd the headmaster wanna kill 'er?" Mammoth grunted in equal confusion.

"… L-lie…" Jinx moaned.

Both of the brainwashed baddies snapped their heads over and stared.

"She's still conscious!" Gizmo squeaked, badly startled. "Hurry up, ya big lug and get that cloth over here!"

Mammoth lumbered over and handed Gizmo the cloth. With a few presses of the buttons on his chest-unit, Gizmo withdrew his mechanical spider legs and stood ground level above Jinx, tying the cloth around her bleeding head like a bandage.

"Uh… Jinx…" Mammoth seemed a bit lost for words. "… You're alive!"

"… Glad to see you haven't lost any of your eloquence…" Jinx sighed heavily.

Mammoth just blinked. "… Huh?"

"How did you survive that fire? And where are we? Why are we here? Why is the headmaster here? Who—" Gizmo questioned rapidly, but Jinx cut him off.

"You've been lied to the whole time." She groaned, sitting up shakily. "The fire didn't kill me, and the Titans didn't cause that fire… Brother Blood did…"

Mammoth was aghast. "Not the headmaster! He wouldn't have…"

"He would and he did." Jinx said grimly. "He tried to have me killed and if Sub-Zero hadn't have saved me—"

"Wait… wait just a minute…" Gizmo's memory put two and two together. "… That white-haired Titan with the sword? HE saved you?"

"Yes. And I'm…" She trailed off.

Mammoth raised an eyebrow. "You're what…?"

Her eyes darted about nervously and she swallowed. "Um… guys… this is… going to come as something of a shock, but…"

She whispered something in Mammoth's ear and Gizmo leaned over to listen.

About thirty seconds of dead silence ensued, and one could almost hear the pin dropping or the crickets chirping. And then…

"… YOU'RE WHAT?"

"I'm… a Titan."

"But… but… but why?" Gizmo stuttered, quite rattled by the sudden news.

"You hate the Titans… don't you?" Mammoth added.

She looked away from them. "I… I hated the Titans, yeah. But… Guys, Sub-Zero saved my life… and he took me in when I had nowhere else to go. But the Titans found out and…" She paused, closing her eyes. "I was so sure they were going to lock me away in some dark prison again, and they were originally going to, but…" She trailed off, moaning and clutching her head.

"But what?" Gizmo asked wide-eyed while Mammoth helped Jinx to her feet.

"Zero, he… he took up for me. He told them not to send me to prison and… they didn't. They just, asked me a bunch of stuff and… well, one thing led to another and…"

"You… joined them…" Mammoth grunted slowly.

"Well… yeah." Jinx said sheepishly. "And besides, if I hadn't then me and Zero would've never started da—" She clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing she'd said too much.

"Never started what?"

"Uh… never mind. Now come on, we have to go help them! Just leave Blood there; he's not going anywhere…"

She started off down the only pathway she saw, a long narrow one in the shadows from which Bro. Blood had emerged suddenly. After going only a few feet, she realized they weren't moving; they just stood there. She turned around and looked at them.

"What are you waiting for? Come on; they need help!" Still, they didn't move.

"… Jinx…. They're the Titans… we can't help them…" Mammoth grunted. "I mean… They're…" He trailed off uncertainly.

"Yeah! And besides, they don't want our help." Gizmo sneered, hovering in midair with his jetpack.

She looked at both of them incredulously, eyes going from one to the other. "But… fine! Fine! I'll go myself!" She snapped. "… I thought you guys were better than that…" And she took off running into the dark, fading rapidly from view.

Mammoth and Gizmo were left alone, staring into the shadows. They looked at each other bemusedly… and then took off running after her.

"Jinx, hang on! We'll help!"

"We're coming! Don't leave us here…"


"You mother fu—!" Sub-Zero was cut-off mid-obscenity by an explosive beam spewed forth from the mechanized Death Dragon's mouth; apparently, they'd replaced the natural fire-breath or ice-breath with some sort of high-powered beam weapon.

He got up groaning from a pile of charred rocks, shaking himself off a bit. This was definitely not going well… the monster was much more powerful than before.

With a metallic screech, the creature let fly with missiles from cannons mounted to the turbines on its wings. Sub-Zero reflexively hurled several ice rays simultaneously, freezing the missiles in midair; they dropped to the ground… but still exploded, knocking him back with a grunt.

"Okay… you want to play rough? Let's play rough." Zero muttered darkly to himself, removing his warhammer from its case on his back. He stumbled to his feet and stared the creature in the eye…

He dashed forward suddenly, lifting the hammer up with one hand and firing off several freeze rays from his other hand; the freeze rays formed platforms of ice in midair and he leapt along them before they tumbled to the ground. Leaping off the highest one, he came down on the creature's metal head-armor with his war hammer. There was an awful smashing, like the gnarling and bending of metal, and the dragon roared in pain as Zero fell back down to the ground.

The creature shook its head violently, and Sub-Zero saw, with grim satisfaction, that there was a large dent in its head shaped like his hammer. The dragon roared again, opening its mouth and letting fly with another beam from within. Sub-Zero raised his shield in the hand opposite his big hammer, and it blocked the beam; unfortunately, though, it still exploded, so Zero was still knocked to the ground.

With a massive grunt, the creature snorted plumes of gas and steam from its nostrils and, with a flapping of wings that bombarded the entire area with high winds, it took to the air.

It flew about, writhing and squirming erratically in midair like a flying serpent. Then, with a deafening, motor-like whirr, it cranked up the steel drill on its tail and started spinning downwards to earth in an attempt to impale Sub-Zero. The knight gasped and dashed frantically towards the lake in an attempt to take cover. Just in time to avoid certain death under a 300-ton monster, he jumped high up into the air and, with a quick somersault, dove into the water.

The creature froze in midair above the surface of the water, snarling angrily. It leered at the lake, its glowing eyes nearly sparking with rage. But out of nowhere, the waters began to move and grow rough; then, an entire column of whirling, twisting water spurted up from a wild whirlpool and knocked the dragon out of the air with a shriek of agony. It twitched and fluttered in midair for a few seconds, and then it went falling into the water with enough force to create a massive tidal wave that soaked the entire subterranean chamber.

A few moments later, Sub-Zero crawled out of the water chuckling; he was wet but otherwise unhurt. "Heheheh. You see?" He yelled at the water. "… I've learned some new tricks, too."

His celebration was cut short as another energy beam broke the surface of the water and blasted Zero point-blank in the chest, sending him flying through the air with a scream and thudding against a wall; he slid off slowly with a loud groan of pain.

As his vision swirled, he groaned and shook his head. The dragon crawled out of the water; a long, forked tongue slithered from its mouth and fluttered sinisterly in the air, dripping with filthy saliva and sizzling greenish-yellow venom.

'I'm done for…' Zero groaned mentally, closing his eyes from exhaustion. He could hear the creature's footfalls on the ground, ringing in his ears and shaking the ground beneath him forcefully. It roared evilly as it approached.

But the next thing Zero heard was the shot of some sort of weapon and the creature screeching wildly along with the sound of a loud explosion. Then, there was a giant thud as the monster fell to the ground; the whole chamber shook and trembled violently and uncontrollably.

Surprised, Zero sat up groggily and opened his eyes… and saw the last person he'd expected to see, at all.

"What the…?"

He was abruptly snatched up and carried off to a dark corner of the chamber in pair of large, burly arms. Then, his carrier laid him down behind a large slab of stone.

"Stay here." He grunted deeply.

And with that, the huge form dashed back out the cavernous battlefield, where the dragon was snarling and pulling itself back up for another round.

"No… can't be…" Zero murmured, rubbing his bleary eyes. But then, a second later, another form came dashing behind the rock where the other had laid him, and he recognized this one; it was a tall slender outline he knew very, very well…

"Zero! You're hurt!"

"… Jinx…? How did you…?"

"Mammoth bashed through the wall and Gizmo distracted it with a rocket." She said in a nonplussed manner, as though it were simple and obvious. "Oh, are you okay? It shot you!"

He shook his head and pulled himself up to a full sitting position, looking into Jinx's eyes. "No. I'll be okay… I just need a breather." His crimson eyes widened, puzzled with the whole situation. "Mammoth and Gizmo… they're…"

"On our side." Jinx finished simply.

"They tried to kill you! What makes you think we can trust them?" The knight asked her anxiously.

"No! They didn't try to kill me; Brother Blood tried to kill me. They were brainwashed… they couldn't help it…" She insisted in their defense.

"… If you say so." He said softly. "… But they're probably still pissed at me; they'll try to—"

"They'll try nothing." She said firmly, grabbing him by the armor and gently lowering him back down to a lying position. "They're with us now… I think…" She shook her head. "Look, you stay here; we'll fight the dragon."

"The Hell I am!" Zero protested, sitting back up. Jinx flinched back, startled. "I'm sorry… It's just… Jinx, I usually do whatever you tell me, but I'm not letting the three of you take that thing on by yourselves; I'm coming, too."

With that, he leapt up and ran back out from behind the rock and into the fray. Jinx sighed deeply and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Stubborn boys." And went off after him.

Mammoth, meanwhile, was slinging the dragon around by the tail like a toy while Gizmo peppered it with rockets. The thing shrieked in anger and whirred the drill on its tail, which Mammoth avoided but just barely.

"We could use some help here!" He bellowed.

"I got your back, big guy." Zero said. "I guess…"

And with that, Zero drew his sword with a whoosh of white, frosty mist. He dashed up to the spot that Gizmo was hovering above.

"Hey, Glitch!"

"Gizmo." Jinx reminded, coming up behind him.

"Uh… right… Gizmo! Can you give me a lift…?"

Gizmo pressed a few buttons on his control pack and extended a long metal tentacle; Zero leapt upon it and it lifted him up like a platform.

"Thanks!" He yelled to the pint-size genius, who just shrugged and nodded whilst he continued to blast the dragon with rockets from a distance.

With a war cry, Sub-Zero leapt off the tentacle and flew through the air like a bullet; he landed on the dragon's head with a thump and grabbed onto its horn. He brandished his sword with a flourish, and a few slices later, the horn was rolling on the ground, completely severed. The ragged stump, where the horn had been, exposed circuitry and wires.

"Gizmo! Fire in there!" Jinx shouted, pointing to the stump.

"Will do!" He squeaked, pulling down his goggles. Inside his eyewear, a targeting crosshair appeared and locked onto the dragons snapping mouth and jerking head. It blinked and read 'TARGET LOCKED ON; FIRE AT WILL.'

"Gotcha!" Gizmo cackled, firing off the rocket from his back-cannon. It whizzed through the air like a flying train and curved downwards in a wicked arch, flying down into the exposed stump.

"Hey, Titan Boy!" Mammoth yelled, letting go of the frantic dragon's tail. "Jump; she's gonna blow!"

Zero needed no second bidding. He jumped down and rolled along the ground stopping to where Jinx was standing and hurling hexes at the dragon's feet, thus keeping it too tripped up to turn and attack Mammoth.

The broken horn began to smoke and burn…

Mammoth grabbed the thing's tail again with a grunt and heaved mightily; with one broad motion, he lifted the monster into the air and hurled it into the lake, then broke into a run towards Jinx and Sub-Zero. Gizmo raised his goggles again and flew towards them also.

The lake churned and spat up water, bubbling madly the whole time, as an explosion occurred beneath it; mechanical bits and pieces of bone were flying up from the water, burnt and broken. The unlikely quartet standing down on the ground cheered.

"Yes! We did it!" Jinx turned around, smiling like the Cheshire cat. But she gasped and stared at what she saw.

Mammoth and Gizmo were standing on one side of her looking edgy and uncomfortable. Sub-Zero was on the other side with his sword drawn, eyeing the pair warily.

"Of for the love of—" Jinx hissed to herself in intense frustration. "Would you two cut it out? We're on… the same… side." She spat the words out slowly. Then, she quickly rounded on Zero. "And Zero! I'm surprised at you! They're my friends too, y'know!"

There was a long moment of awkward silence as Jinx fumed, Mammoth and Gizmo cowered, and Zero rubbed the back of his head guiltily. Then, Zero sheathed Eviglasere with a small click and walked over to the other two.

"Uh…Ahem… Look. I know we kinda got off to a bad start."

Crickets chirped…

"But… look, I, uh… I appreciate the help. I couldn't have done it without you guys… or Jinx."

They looked at each other. Then Mammoth grunted and bellowed: "If Jinx is on your side, then…." He sighed heavily; this seemed to be very difficult for him to say. "Then… I…. I guess we are too." He grumbled.

"And besides, you knocked out the headmaster with a stalagmite. I'm pretty sure that's secure grounds for an expulsion." Gizmo chirped dryly.

Jinx smiled and looked to Zero, who grinned lopsidedly back at her. "Well, I… I guess we better go find the others."

Suddenly, the cavern shook violently; the walls crumbled, and the lake splashed. Smoke was rising from the walls and both the ground and ceiling were cracking unnervingly.

"Wh-what's happening?" Zero stammered with a yelp.

"It's the explosion; it's damaged something structural! This place is coming down!" Gizmo piped up urgently.

"RUN!" Jinx screamed.

They took off towards the manmade exit Mammoth had made on his way in…


"Face it, Robin. I'm always one step ahead of you!" Slade rumbled, punching the boy wonder hard enough to make him stumble and fall.

Robin leapt up off the ground in time to avoid Slade's boot crushing his skull. He whipped around with his Bo Staff and sent Slade reeling with a blow to the head. "No one stays ahead forever, Slade."

The masked villain roared and charged with his shoulder, intending to knock Robin off the dimly lit balcony they were standing on. Any drop off would result in a several hundred foot fall; there was only one path leading off and Slade was making sure Robin didn't go there.

Robin dodged nimbly by leaping over Slade and landing behind him; Slade had to stop quickly to avoid going over the edge himself. Slade retaliated by ripping a segment of pipe off the railing of the balcony and hurling it at Robin's head. The Boy Wonder stopped it with a birdirang, which whirled back to his hand once it had taken out the pipe.

"One of us has to win, Slade…" Robin growled, narrowing his masked eyes. "… This can't go on for eternity."

"Then you should run." Slade hissed mockingly. "After all… I'm not losing to you, and what would you have us do? Fight here for all eternity until Judgment Day itself?"

Robin glowered, drawing a boomerang. "No Slade. Judgment is on its way now." And with that, he hurled the boomerang with a grunt.

Slade ducked under the boomerang, but stood up too soon, because it nailed him in the head on the way back to Robin's fist. "Oof!"

The Boy Wonder took advantage of this turn of events, pouncing on Slade with staff brandished; he beat him ruthlessly with it until Slade finally kicked him off and several feet away.

"Foolish boy! You will die in this place! You and your pathetic little ragtag group. The prototype is being dealt with by Myntull as we speak, your little freeze-machine friend is digesting in a mechanical dragon belly right about now, your precious Starfire and her loathsome sister are in law custody, Brother Blood is going to finish off Jinx once and for all…" His eye narrowed evilly. "… And the troops are finishing off the rest!"

"Liar!" Robin shouted back, charging straight at him while twirling his staff. Slade was ready though. He grabbed the staff with his left hand; he brought his right fist into Robin's gut, knocking the air out of him painfully. Then, he kicked him backwards and threw the staff on top of him as he lay on the ground.

"You should know better than to lose your head." Slade scoffed softly. "… It'll be the end of you."

"You're going to lose a lot more than a head, Slade." Robin mumbled, gritting his teeth tightly.

Slade ran at him, intending to finish him off, when Robin fell to the ground, rolled to the side… and stuck out his leg…

Slade's visible eye widened as he tripped over the outstretched leg. He went fumbling forward awkwardly, through a few stacks of barrels and over the railing… and then, finally, into the darkness below; the sound of something being ground up by the large, turning cogs on the machinery echoed upwards noisily.

Robin panted and fell to the ground…

… He'd done it.

… He'd won; after all this time, he'd won.

He put his head in his hand, running gloved fingers through his messy, spiked black hair and sighing with worry. The others were in danger… he had to find them, now.


If you think World War 2 was something, you should've seen this. Smoke and Myntull were squeezing off rounds at an incredible rate; Myntull fired off his dual gatling turret and peppered the area with a barrage of high-power bullets whilst the cannons on his new tank body spit explosive mortars onto all sides, filling the room with explosions and smoldering craters.

Smoke weaved through the cannon mortars, and returned fire with his siege gun. He was doing something never done before; his and Myntull's bullets were literally knocking each other out of the air before they could hit and cause any real damage… that's how good they were.

"You will die here, prototype!"

Smoke sneered. "Maybe so. But if I do, I'll see you in Hell, Doctor."

Myntull ceased fire and kicked all his treads into full-speed, intent on running Smoke down. Smoke was too quick, though; he leapt up onto the top near the brain and whipped out his chainsaw. There was a cranking and whirring, and the sound of metal being sawed. The control column with the brain-containing jar at the top was cut off at the stump by Smoke's chainsaw; the gunman neatly caught the brain in his hands. With a flick of his wrist, he yanked some dynamite out of his pack and dropped it on the ground before leaping off the tank-like mech.

Still holding the brain like a football, he charged away and leapt into a barrel roll on the ground as the mech exploded in a spectacular shower of sparks, flames, and steam.

Smoke smirked cockily at the jar in his hand, still containing the gurgling brain.

"Well, you know what this makes you, Doc?" He yawned, cocking his shotgun.

… One boom later, there was one less evil asshole in the world.


"Let go of me!" Blackfire screeched, squirming. Her hands were cuffed and encased in some sort of metal that prevented her from firing off blackbolts. A large metal band was strapped around her eyes like a blindfold so that the blackbeams from her eyes did no good.

Starfire was restrained in much the same way. Both of them were being roughly dragged by the Centauri officers towards a large glowing structure resembling an old-fashioned guillotine, except with a shimmering plasma blade instead of a metal one… and it also head two head-sockets instead of one…

They forced the pair into the devices and both grabbed long levers that operated the machine. They began counting down from ten…

"Sister… if we do not live through this, I… I just want to say… I'm glad we finally reconciled." Star sniffed.

"A-and… and I'm s-sorry… sorry for everything I've ever done to you, to anyone…" Blackfire moaned, holding back tears

They both tensed up as the officers hit the number one, preparing to be beheaded simultaneously.

Then, just as the spacemen started to say the number 'zero', Starfire was freed from her bonds by a well-placed birdirang. Moments later, a couple of gunshots rang out as Blackfire was blasted free from her restraints.

Both aliens looked off towards the source dumbstruck; this was… a big mistake. Because moments later, Star and Black reached up simultaneously and grabbed them, blasting them with several energy shots and tossing them about.

Star threw one into the air, where he was promptly blown apart when Robin threw a small hand grenade. Blackfire spun hers around and tossed him over to Smoke who blasted him point-blank with his shotgun, leaving a torso-less pair of legs that smoked from its charred waist…

"You found us!" Star said, stretching and enjoying having the bonds off.

"Yeah. And we took out Slade." Robin said.

"And Myntull, too." Smoke added with a nod.

Robin motioned to the exit with his hand. "C'mon… the others are still in trouble, we have to go!"


"We're not gonna win this…" Cy groaned, on his knees and heavily damaged.

"We… have to." Raven whispered hoarsely; she was clutching a wounded side that was bleeding slightly.

Terra was leaning against a crate, panting heavily and Beast Boy crouched in front of her with a gash on his shoulder.

"We have to fight. We have to win!" B.B. said fiercely.

"We can't…" Terra moaned, clutching her head.

A line of enemies, orcs from the left and Slade bots from the right, advanced on them slowly and menacingly, cocking their weapons and grunting….

… Until the Slade bots were knocked apart by a pair of flying boomerangs and the orcs were mowed down by a stream of bullets. The Titans looked up, dumbfounded at the sudden surprise attack on their behalf. Their eyes suddenly widened.

"Somebody asked for reinforcements?" Smoke asked, twirling a smoking revolver.

"You got it." Robin said, brandishing his staff and catching the boomerangs.

The remaining baddies that hadn't been beaten started to retreat towards a large pair of double doors… until a massive fist punched through, grabbed them, and pulled them in. A moment later, they shot back out frozen and shattered on the ground.

Out from the doorway stepped an unlikely combination of figures…

"Sub-Zero!" Robin yelled

"Jinx!" Raven cried.

"Gizmo!" Cyborg bellowed, shocked.

"Mammoth!" Beast Boy and Terra shouted in unison.

"BUBBA! RUNT!" Smoke screamed, delighted.

About Thirty Minutes Later…

"Wait… so they're on our side now?" Raven muttered skeptically, cocking an eyebrow.

"I don't see why not!" Zero snapped. "They saved my life!"

"And besides, I love these guys!" Smoke laughed, clapping Mammoth on the back. "How've you been, big 'un? I haven't seen you since the monster truck rally!"

"Uh…" Mammoth and Gizmo were a little to rattled by recent events to speak with much coherency… can you blame them? Finding out you've been mind-controlled, and almost killed your best friend whom you thought was already dead but wasn't because your school principal is a megalomaniac who's lied to you… trippy stuff, man.

"Well… I guess they can stay at the Tower." Robin grumbled. "But remember: I'm watching you…"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Don't let him scare you guys. He's just full of hot air." Robin huffed and walked over to Starfire.

"So…" Jinx sidled up to Sub-Zero. "Glad this is all over…?"

"You know it." He responded tiredly. "… God knows I need some sleep."

"Oh, I don't know about that… I'm trying to decide how much sleeping I'm going to let you do when we get back to the tower…" She purred sultrily.

He smiled back into her eyes and kissed her fully on the lips… and behind them, Gizmo and Mammoth gagged simultaneously.

"J-jinx! You… and… and him? You're…?"

"Of course… didn't I tell you that?"

"You told us he was your friend!" Gizmo muttered crossly. "You didn't say anything about… ugh!"

Meanwhile, Smoke was flirting with Blackfire. "Oh c'mon, admit it… you were a little scared…"

"I wasn't scared!" Blackfire snapped. "I was just… just…" She huffed and went silent.

"Well… if you weren't…." Smoke paused. "… I was."

She looked at him. "Huh?"

"I thought for a minute I'd lose you. If Robin and me had just been a bit later…"

"Don't think about that. Just be glad we're both safe and sound."

After a long conversation, Robin sighed and turned to the others. "Well… I don't know how we're gonna squeeze Mammoth in the T-Car, but… I guess we should head home." He said with a smile.

It was the most uncomfortable ride they'd ever experienced.

THE END