Re-Educating Miss Roth
A Teen Titans Fan Fiction by Jacob McDonald
Opening notes: Told you this one would be quicker! I'll also tell you now that you're going to love every second of it. Or hate me for it.
Best review from last chapter was a tie. Normally I'm all about long reviews (I am, after all, a review whore) but these two just stood out as being some of the best ones.
goldfish demon with a simple "You're evil."
and Meirionawith "yay, people die! Whoa, I am one sick little girl..."
Yes and yes. :)
Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Teen Titans, or an other DCU characters.
Chapter Twelve: Last Stand
Jinx laughed as she wrapped her arms around Greg's neck and smiled up at him, "You're being a very good boy tonight."
"Well, I wouldn't want to cross any lines..." he blushed a little.
"Aw! Cute!" Jinx pinched his cheek, "You're a real gentleman, you know that?"
"Yeah..."
"And you'll only put your hands where I tell you to put them?"
"Uh huh."
"So... if I ask real nice, will you let me blow you later?"
"Yea- what?" Greg went a little pale, "I mean... uh..."
Jinx laughed again, "Maybe a little more than that if we can fine a nice private place."
Greg opened his mouth to say something, but never got the chance. The doors to the dance hall exploded in, and both of them looked over to see what was going on. Armed gunmen stormed the place and started shooting at the DJ. The music died as the equipment was blown apart.
"What the hell?" Greg went to move in front of her.
"No! Greg, stay back! Don't-"
A man in a red jumpsuit with a metal mask walked in then, and fired three shots into the crowd of students.
One of them blasted half of Greg's head off.
"NO!" Jinx screamed as her date's corpse fell to the floor, and she was splattered with his blood. She staggered back, slipping in his brains, and got low as the rest of the gunmen opened up with their weapons. The rest of the students didn't know to duck in a firefight like she did though, and screams were heard as many of them were wounded.
"Get down!" Jinx screamed, "Everyone get-"
A body fell towards her and she reached out and caught the female form. Shoulder length red hair spilled across her bare arms, and she saw bright red blood staining pale, slightly freckled skin. Jinx began to hyperventilate.
The lively girls eyes were closed, and her head lolled to one side. Her body was completely limp and it was all Jinx could do to support the dead weight in her arms. Before she could stop it, tears flowed down her cheeks, and a terrible scream ripped from her throat.
"AMI! NOOOOO!"
Hanna looked up as an explosion erupted by the gym turned dance hall, and echoed across the grounds. She stood under one of the lamps that lit the path to the dorms, holding her shoes in one hand, and staring with slightly dead eyes as dark forms darted across the grounds and towards the large congregation of teen aged kids.
Raven's voice whispered in her head, "If something happens, and some heavy shit goes down... stay out of it... stay hidden, and keep safe."
"No..." she whispered, and dashed off the path. Looking around, she saw the cafeteria, and ran over to the side of it, where another smaller building that housed the food stores sat nearby. The shadows in-between made a good hiding spot, and-
As she silently padded into the darkness, she heard muffled moans coming from the other side of the smaller building. A male voice asked, "What do you think that was?"
The voice of Ginger Hammilton replied, "Probably some idiot setting off fire works. Now shut up and fuck me."
"You got it babe!"
As the sounds of passion grew louder, Hanna sank to the ground behind a stack of food pallets, "Please..." she whispered, "Please let him be a minute man..."
Rose flanked the last gunman in the row easily, coming up to his side hard and fast. By the time he noticed she was there, she had already sliced through the strap of his SMG with her knife and yanked the gun from his hands. A hard knee to the crotch, followed by a hard right with the but of the knife to his temple sent him to the floor. She moved on to the next man quickly, even as he was turning to shoot her.
Rose spun the gun around so the was holding the trigger with the gun upside down and pulled the trigger. The shot ripped into a rather sensitive spot on the next gunman, just below his waist. He gasped, and fell towards her, and she caught him and spun him around, using him as a body shield.
Lining up her shot, she flipped the switch on her gun to full auto and opened up in a low arch, blasting at the legs of the rest of the gunman. All nine of them were caught by surprise, and Deadshot called out, "Fall back!"
As they began to retreat out of the hall, Deadshot fired off two shots at Rose. The first one blew through her body shield's head, killing him instantly and leaving her holding two hundred pounds of dead weight. The second grazed her arm as she jerked to the side, having seen the shot a split second before it would have blow apart her chest.
"Damn." She whispered, and lugged the man backwards, laying down suppressing fire at Deadshot as he too retreated out the doors.
Becka looked up as the sounds of gunfire stopped echoing through the gym. Chad was covering her body with his, clutching at his right arm and moaning.
"Chad? Baby? Are you okay?"
"Got... hit in the arm..." He sat up off of her and looked down at his own arm, "Oh God..." The bicep was blown open, and his blood was dripping off in large drops. "Oh... fuck..."
"Stay calm... we need to... to..." Becka was feeling sick and she looked a little green.
"We need to wrap it tightly and keep constant pressure on it." Janice was suddenly at her side, "I need cloth. You." she pointed to one of the male students, "Get me the table cloth from the beverage table, and then look for anything else that can be used as bandages."
Becka looked away from her wounded boyfriend, "I... Janice, where's Hanna and Ami?"
"Hanna went back to the dorms." Janice replied softly, "I haven't seen Ami in a while, and I don't know where Jenny or Maggie are either."
"Oh... Christ... no... this isn't happening..."
As soon as she heard Jinx screaming, Ami's eyes flew open, "What? Fuck, Jenny! What?" she sat up and patted herself down, "Okay... not dead..."
Jinx stared at her for a moment, then jumped on her, hugging her and sobbing, "Holy shit, Ami, I thought you were dead!"
"I'm fine! Just... where did all this blood come from?" Ami looked in front of her and saw the two boys she'd been dancing with, "Oh fuck... Jenny..."
Jinx looked as well and saw them in spreading pools of crimson. Ami choked on her words, "That's Bobby and Joel... Bob used to give me shoulder rubs after gym last year, and Joel was with me in every math class I've had here... he was going to be a city engineer, and-"
"Ami." Jinx turned her away, "We need to find Becka, and I need to start helping people-"
"You'll stay with Becka." Raven materialized in a cloud of black energy, fully decked out in her Titan gear, "She's our primary principal. I'll do my best to ward off more attacks, but you need to stay with her and protect her at all costs."
"Fuck that." Jinx said as she excepted a bundle of combat clothes from Raven, "I'm with you all the way. The kids are safe in here and the rest of the Titans-"
"I can't sense Robin or Cyborg anywhere nearby." Raven looked away, "Speedy either. We have to assume the worst. They're dead and not coming to help."
"Oh God..." Ami reached out a hand, "Cassie..."
"Don't." Raven swatted her hand away, "I need to work. Becka is over there." Raven pointed and began to walk towards where Janice was quickly setting up an informal MASH unit.
"Becka!" Ami called out and ran over to where the brunet girl was writing on a notepad she'd found, "Thank God... where's Hanna?"
"She's out there." Becka jerked her head to the outside, "I'm getting a list made of all the wounded and the casualties. I... Cassie..." she stared in awe as Raven walked over, her power emanating off of her.
"I need to find Rose. She'll be able to help. Jenny will stay here and protect the gym... and you." Raven nodded to her, "You're doing great, Becka. Lead these kids... they're scared."
Becka's face set into firm resolve, "Right."
Jinx was at Raven's side a moment later, fully changed and ready to go, "I can't just sit here and-"
"Keep this building secure, Jinx." Raven scowled at her, then lifted off the ground and flew over peoples heads towards the entrance that had been blown open.
Jinx screamed in frustration and whirled around to face Becka, "Looks like I'm with you. Stay here, surrounded by as many people as you can. I'm going to secure the back of the building." As she stomped off, she called over her shoulder, "Ami! Look after her for now."
"Right." Ami stepped next to her friend. Becka looked over at her, but the red head just smiled, "I'll be your body guard for the next few minutes, Becka. Leave it to me."
Becka snorted, "Great. A body guard in heels..."
A ninja crept along the side of the food storage building silently, hiding in the shadows perfectly. The sounds of two kids having sex were coming from just around the corner. In case the girl was the mark they were after, he was going to kill both of them. Get in good with Shrike, then work his way up the ladder in the League.
He paused when he heard a sound behind him, but when he looked, all he saw was a stack of food pallets. Turning back to his mark, he moved forward quickly, pulling out a dagger as he did. Rounding the corner, he slashed at the first neck he saw.
The young man fell back with his throat cut out, and the girl screamed as blood rained down on her. She was leaned up on a crate, her legs still up in the air and her thong dangling off one slut-shoe clad food.
"Maybe a little fun before I kill you, bit-" he was cut off as a pipe slammed across his skull. Falling to the ground, he moaned and tried to sit up. A red and black blur rushed around the corner and slammed the pipe home again, even as Ginger continued to scream. Hanna stood over the ninja and hammered away at his head.
"Don't you fucking touch her!" THWUMP! "You fucking bastard!" SPLORK! "DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!" CRACK!
Hanna finally stopped beating the man, panting heavily. She turned her blood splattered face to Ginger and looked at her with feral eyes, "Are you okay?"
"H-Hanna?"
"Yeah."
"Did you... kill that guy?" Ginger looked scared.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think I did." she screwed up her face, "Put your damn legs down, Ginger! I don't need to smell your pussy stink..."
Ginger quickly lowered her legs and blushed as she hopped off the crate and pulled up her underwear. She looked over and saw the boy she'd been having sex with, "Oh God! Matt!"
"He's dead." Hanna's voice was hollow.
"Oh God... Hanna... you saved me... even after all the horrible things I've done to you-"
"It sucks getting raped." Hanna snapped, "Trust me, I know. No on deserves it."
Ginger just watched her in shock and awe as Hanna ripped her dress up both sides, giving her more room to move her legs. Tossing aside her pipe, she knelt down and pulled a two foot sword from a sheath on the ninja and tested the weight. Nodding her head, she turned back to the other girl, "I'm not taking any more shit, Ginger. Stay here, or come with me, but I'm not going to be a victim any more." Her blue eyes burned with rage, "I'm going out there to kick ass."
As Hanna turned and started to walk off, Ginger stared. After a moment she snapped out of her shock and scrambled forward. Avoiding looking at the bodies of the assassin or Matt, she picked up Hanna's bloody pipe and hurried along after the sword toting blonde.
Raven found Rose field stripping the body of the man she'd used as a meat shield of all of his weapons. She tucked a sidearm away in the waist of her pants, and double checked the number of rounds she had left in the SMG. Students looked on in awe as the dark Titan strode up to her.
"Rose." Raven walked up to her, "Thank you for forcing their retreat."
"I did what I had to." she stood up and glared at Raven, "My vision is getting more and more clear. He's out there, and I'm going hunting."
"Whoever he is, Rose, you can-"
"No, Raven." Rose shook her head, "You have to get to the admin building. They have the staff there and will start executing them shortly unless they're told where Becka is."
Raven paled, "Fine."
Rose just nodded and got to her feat. She slipped away towards a side entrance, and Raven turned to the blown down doors. Her eyes burned white from inside her hood and she uttered, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..." The doors picked themselves up and were telekinetically replaced, then barricaded with several tables, speakers, and other heavy objects.
Nodding at a job well done, Raven turned to the nearest students, "Go find Becka Pullman and ask her what you can do to help. I have to go." They all nodded with wide eyes as Raven vanished into a pool of shadows.
Jinx scowled and mumbled to herself as she walked down the hallway that made up the rear side of the athletic building. She jerked on a door as she came to, and scowled at it when it didn't budge.
"Stupid... at least I'll know if they come in this way. They'd have to blow these doors down." and she gave the door a swift kick.
The door opened silently on well oiled hinges, giving her a good view of the outside. She grabbed the door and pulled it back closed, peering out of the crack and straining her ears to listen.
There was a group of ninjas just outside the doors, and Shrike was leading them.
"Okay, so once we're inside, we take out anyone who gets between us and the mark." he was saying, "Don't hesitate. They're kids, and they'll go down easy, so just keep swinging your swords and they'll keep dying."
Jinx scowled again and stepped out of the door. She slammed it behind her, making the group of ninjas jump and turn to her.
"Ahem." she said.
Shrike looked at her and he grinned, "You're the one that was with Robin! The blonde that snatched my keys!"
"Yeah. Call me Jinx."
"Jinx, huh? Well Jinx, you're standing between us and the door inside." The ninjas all chuckled in a sinister manner and drew swords.
"I know." Jinx narrowed her eyes.
Shrike looked slightly surprised, then laughed, "Oh God! You're kidding right?"
"'Fraid not." Jinx didn't move.
"By yourself?" Shrike laughed again, "That's what? One of you against twelve of us?"
"Congratulations. You can count."
Shrike's smiled faded and her drew his own sword, "Boys... kill her."
As the ninjas started to fan out and flank her, Jinx took up a fighting stance and whispered, "Come on, Robin. Where are you?"
Slowly, ever so slowly, Robin swam up out of unconsciousness. There was a ringing sound, and then a buzzing. The buzzing gave way a moment later to what sounded like a voice. A sweet, familiar, welcomed voice.
"Kori?" he muttered.
"Yes! Oh, Richard... stay still while I free you."
"Free me?" Robin opened his eyes and looked out at her. Her upside down face blinked at him and he looked down. Choking, he snapped his gaze back up to her.
Robin was suspended by his ankles with sharp wire, hanging from a flagpole six stories off the ground.
"Okay... get me out of this, and brief me on what's going on."
"Yes, Robin." Starfire flew up and easily broke the wire with her hands, then carried her boyfriend to the roof of the building he had been on when Shrike had attacked him.
"What's the situation?" Robin rubbed at his ankles to get the blood flowing back into his feet. He noted the still wet blood on the side of his head, as well as the soreness in his ribs that meant they were bruised or broken.
"We received a distress call from Speedy ten minutes ago. He said the assassin Merlyn was attacking him, before his communication was cut off." she looked slightly fearful, but pressed on, "When we tried to contact Cyborg and yourself, we found that your communicators had been destroyed in a similar fashion. Finding you without the aid of the tracking devices took longer than we thought it would." Starfire handed him a new T-Comp, and he took it with a nod. Flipping it open, he raised all communicators on the network.
"This is Robin. All Titans, report. Now."
Beast Boy spoke into his T-Comp with one hand while he worked at an open panel on Cyborg's head with the other. A few sparks flew and he winced, "This is Beast Boy. I found Cy, but he was EMP'd. I'm working on re-routing his major functions through the shielded part of his cybernetic cortex, but I'm not any good at this, and he's made upgrades since the last time he showed us how it worked."
"Keep trying." Robin replied, "Check in when you get him up and around."
"This is Troia." the dark haired beauty spoke into her T-Comp, "Speedy is pretty banged up, but he's alive. I think he's coming to... yeah. Hold on."
Troia helped Speedy to sit up from the pile of ice she'd just broken him out of. He moaned and held his head, "Fuck. Getting frozen sucks."
"Robin wants a report." Troia rubbed his back to warm him up, "I found your bow already."
"Thanks." Speedy took the T-Comp from her, and spoke into it, "We got slammed, Robbie. First Vic, then you, then Merlyn took me out like a chump. Do we know the situation in the school?"
"Not yet." came Robin's reply, "But there's still one Titan unaccounted for. Raven? Are you there?"
Raven listened to Speedy's voice coming from the communicator, and let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding since Robin had asked them to check in. She nodded, "I'm here, Robin."
"We need intel now, Raven."
"Most of the students are in the gym, several are wounded, and there's been deaths as well. I've identified Deadshot as one of the attackers, and he has an armed squad of gunmen with him. Jinx has the gym on lockdown, but there's no telling how long she'll be able to hold it." Taking a deep breath, Raven plunged on, "Rose has helped in staving off the attack with expert combat tactics, and has left to 'hunt' for her target in this mess. I'm currently on my way to the admin building, where I have reason to believe there are several hostages being held by the attackers."
"Where's Pullman?" came Speedy's voice.
"In the gym." Raven replied.
"Then we need more protection there. They'll hit that building hard trying to get to her."Robin was back into full leader mode, "Speedy, head to the admin building and back up Raven. Troia, sweep the campus from the air and report if you find Shrike and his band of merry men. They're the one's that jumped me."
"What about me and Cy?" Beast Boy asked.
"When you get him working, check in. I'll tell you where to go. Starfire and I are headed for the gym to help secure it with Jinx. Everyone understand they're job?"
A chorus of "Yes!" met his question, and Robin's felt a swelling of pride in his team. He replied to them in the only way he could, "Good. Titans, Go!"
Hanna peeked around the corner of the cafeteria and then ducked back quickly. She looked to her left and saw a terrified looking Ginger clutching the bloody pipe she'd used to smash the ninja's head in just a few minutes before. She motioned with her hand, holding up two fingers, then pointing around the corner.
Ginger blinked at her.
Rolling her eyes, Hanna quickly ducked around the corner and dashed as quickly as her bare feet could carry her towards the two gunmen that were peering inside the building. The first one turned and stared dumbly at her as she came up on him.
"Wha-" he never even got the first word out before Hanna slammed him across the head with the flat of her sword, then brought the back of it down across his face. As he pitched over unconscious, she spun to the next gunman. She raised her sword, only to find herself staring down the barrel of an SMG.
"Shit." she whispered.
"ARRRAAAA!" Ginger screamed as she dashed around the corner with her pipe held high. Her face was contorted in fear as she drew nearer, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.
The gunman turned and shot her.
Ginger bounced off the wall of the building with a grunt and screamed when she hit the ground. Hanna watched with wide eyes, then spun back around and slashed at the assassin, only to find her sword blocked by his gun. Hauling back a fist, he leveled her with one punch.
"Stupid bitch." Lifting up his arm, he checked a small PDA displaying an image of Becka, and then looked back at the two girls. "Sorry, kids. Rules are rules." and he aimed his gun down at Hanna.
Suddenly, and knife flew out of no where and stabbed clear through his arm, jerking his hand away from the trigger. He shouted in pain as a blur slammed into him, knocking him down.
Rose stood over the gunman, and with a quick downward punch, knocked him out. Straightening up, she adjusted her combat garb, then looked down at the blonde at her feet, "Hanna, just what the hell do you think you're doing?"
The admin building was dark when Raven arrived. Moving several inches above the ground, she flew up to the double doors of the entrance and tested them. The left one swung open with barely a touch. Taking a deep breath, she gathered the shadows around her and floated in, looking about slowly.
The entrance hall was deserted, so she moved down to the offices. Finding nothing there either, she decided to go up. Floating to the ceiling, she made a portal and moved through to the second floor.
Peeking her head up, she saw she was in Mrs. Cain's office. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Kneeling on the floor was Mrs. Cain herself, Ms. Veerlin, the gym teacher Miss Lovit and Mr. Brogs, who she knew taught chemistry. They were all wearing formal wear for the dance, and all of them except Mrs. Cain looked scared witless. The Principal simply looked at their captors with malice and anger.
Standing over them were two gunmen, and a thin man with a pale complexion and a black goatee. He had a bow in one hand and an arrow loosely gripped in it. His black body suit made him hard to see against the darkness of the room, but Raven knew his face from her study of the criminal rosters at the Tower.
Merlyn pointed his arrow at Mr. Brogs' head, "Brogs, was it?" When the chemistry teacher nodded, the dark archer continued, "Do you have Miss Pullman in any of your classes?"
"Second period chemistry." Brogs whimpered.
"So you definitely know who she is." he tapped his chin, "I'll ask you again, Brogs... where is she?"
"I... I wont tell you."
"Oh... why not?"
"You'll kill her."
"I'll kill you if you don't tell me though." Merlyn drew back the arrow and pointed it directly at the teacher's head, "Your life or hers."
"I..." he glanced over at Mrs. Cain, who shook her head, "I wont."
Merlyn let the arrow fly right into his right eye. He pitched over dead, and Veerlin screamed. Lovit looked away, and Cain started to yell.
"You bastard! He was a harmless man who never hurt anyone in his life! Who do you think you are?"
"I," Merlyn strode over and kicked her in the stomach, "am the man who will kill all of you if you don't tell me where Pullman is!"
"Enough." Raven rose up from the ground and scowled at the dark archer, "You deal with me, now."
The two gunman pointed their weapons at her, but they were tossed back into the wall with a wave of her hand. Merlyn had an arrow pointed at her in half a second. "The League doesn't want to kill any of the Titans, Miss Raven, but we will if you interfere."
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinth- whoa!" Raven dodged to the side as the arrow flew at her. She brought her hands up and used her powers to deflect the next one, then dodge to the right as a third arrow flew past her.
She gasped at the speed. He was faster than Speedy, and his arrows weren't little trick arrows that froze or concussed. They were real, very sharp, and very deadly.
"Let's see if I can make a full sized Voodoo doll out of you, witch!" Merlyn laughed, and continued to fire.
Becka and Ami moved along the perimeter of the gym, checking on the students that had fled to the walls and huddled there. As Ami checked on a hyper-ventilating girl, Becka walked over to a young woman in a light pink dress. The girl was huddled over an unmoving shape and sobbing quietly.
"Hey..." Becka reached out and touched the girls shoulder.
Maggie turned a tear stained face up to look at her and blinked, "Becka?"
"Maggie? What's-" she looked down at the body Maggie was holding and choked. Gregory Vaugn lay with his head in Maggie's lap, looking pale and sweating profusely. A gunshot wound to his abdomen had leaked a huge puddle of blood all over the floor of the gym, and his face was scrunched up in pain.
"Oh God..." Becka whirled around and shouted across the room, "Janice! I need you now!"
Janice came running over as Becka turned back and crouched next to Maggie, clutching at her arm, "We'll keep him alive, Mag... I'm not going to let anyone else die tonight."
"Where's Cassie and Jenny?" Maggie looked at her with watery eyes.
Becka paused, "Out fighting. They're not really students... they're my protection detail. There's been death threats... and now this... someone really wants me dead."
"She's Raven, isn't she?"
"Yeah. And Jenny is called Jinx."
"I figured. Greg is going to die, isn't he?"
Janice was inspecting the wound, "No. I wont let him." she folded a large swath of cloth and pressed it over the still bleeding wound. Greg shifted and moaned, but didn't wake up. "He's lost a lot of blood. Ami?"
"Yeah?" the red head was there at her arm in a second.
"See if you can find anyone here who knows if they have an O-Neg blood type. I might be able to rig some kind of transfusion setup using the stuff we have in the supply closets here in the gym."
"That sounds kind of risky." Becka jotted down Greg's name on her clipboard as Ami dashed off, "Are you sure you can-"
"We don't have much of a choice, Becka." Janice checked Greg's forehead with her hand, "He's ice cold... Maggie, I need you to pull him into your lap and hold him tight. Give him your body heat."
Maggie nodded and complied as Becka flipped to a new page on her pad, "I'll take a few of the guys and see if we can't bust into the supply closets. I'll have an inventory for you in just a few minutes."
"Hurry." Janice nodded to her and she ran off as well. Turning back to Maggie who was holding her boyfriend close and whispering to him, Janice frowned, "Are you okay, Maggie?"
"I'm fine... just don't let him die, Janice... don't let him die."
"I wont..." Janice swallowed hard, and spoke the first words of the night she didn't really mean, "I promise."
Jinx landed hard and rolled out of the throw she'd just been caught in, "Shit." she jumped to the side as another sword came down at her. Rolling again, she came up and ducked another sword as it whistled through the air over her head.
Lashing out at the man who'd just missed her, Jinx punched him in the throat, then kicked him hard enough to snap several of his ribs. She was then forced to roll away again as another man came up behind her.
She'd been fighting like this for almost five minutes, and only three of the eleven ninja's were down for the count.
And then there was Shrike. He'd been prowling around the edge of the ring of attackers, watching her fighting style, and picking apart her defenses. She knew he'd be coming at her any moment now, and when he did, she'd be dead.
"Fuck!" she screamed as a sword slashed across her leg. She stumbled and Shrike took his opening. He darted forward and his drawn sword sank deep into flesh. Grinning, he twisted and pulled the sword out, listening to her scream.
Jinx fell to her knees, and he pulled the sword up for a downward chop that would end her, "Another one bites the dust, eh?"
Jinx chuckled. Shrike frowned at her as she started laughing, "What the hell are you laughing about?"
"You're fucked." Jinx slowly raised her head. He saw then that she had brought her arm up to block his stabbing strike, and blood flowed freely from the gaping wound he'd caused. Jinx nodded to his sword, "Thanks."
Looking at the tip of his sword, Shrike saw a small power inhibiting/tracking chip that Cyborg had implanted into her arm, which sparked once, then was dead. "What the hell is th-"
The area around Jinx exploded with pink light, and Shrike flew out of it with a cry of shock. The blonde came cart wheeling out of the explosion and turned with a shout, "HA!" Pink hex bolts slammed into two of the ninjas, who's swords turned to rust and fell apart in their hands. The group of attackers stared at the feral looking, pink glowing witch crouching in front of them.
"Let's play." Jinx grinned, her eyes burning with fuchsia light, and attacked.
Ginger winced as Rose tightened down the field dressing she'd just given her. The wound in her side wasn't deep, or serious, but it still hurt, and she whimpered a little, "God... I'm dying."
"You're not dying." Hanna scowled down at her, "If you're body hasn't gone into shock yet, you're going to be fine." she looked away in anger, "Besides, if you'd had half a brain and attacked with me rather than after me, you wouldn't have been shot in the first place."
Rose took one of Ginger's arms over her shoulders and hoisted the girl up to her feet. "Neither of you have any kind of formal combat training, so you shouldn't be out here fighting in the first place." She helped Ginger limp over to Hanna, then gave the shorter blonde the burden of helping her to walk. "I'll escort you back to the dorms, because I need to go there anyway, but after that you two are going to lay low and hide until this is over." Hanna opened her mouth to protest, but Rose cut her off, "This is the League of Assassins, Hanna. You've been lucky up until now, but that luck wont hold against their training."
Hanna fumed at her, but nodded anyway. Rose motioned for them to follow her, and they slunk off into the darkness.
The trip to the dorms was uneventful, and as they stepped inside through the doors, Rose let out a breath, "You can hide in my room. I've reinforced the locks and I have a Sat-Uplink on my computer, so you can contact someone for help if you want. Raven and Jinx are already fighting here, and the rest of the Titans can't be far behind, so this should be over soon."
"What are you going to do?" Hanna asked.
"I have unfinished business with a man I believe will be showing up tonight. He's not with the League, but he's still an assassin, and I plan to bring him down."
"How?" Ginger sounded snotty again, "You have some kind of army training or something?"
"I'm an expert in five different martial arts, and possess metahuman levels of strength and speed."
"Oh." Ginger blinked. Hanna arched an eyebrow.
The lobby of the dorms exploded.
All three girls flew back from the entrance and hit the ground hard. Ginger cried out and curled up, clutching at the wound in her side, and Hanna rolled over, hoping she hadn't hurt the baby in any way. Rose simply landed and rolled back to her feet, looking around for whatever had set off the bomb.
"It's been awhile, Rose." All three girls whirled around and looked to the wreckage of the dorms, where a tall man stood, framed by fire and destruction. He wore a red body suit, with a mask that covered his face up to his brow line, where his brown hair spilled out in wavy locks. Blue plates of armor protected his vital areas, and a black skull was printed on his left breast. In one hand he held a shotgun, and in the other, a picture. "You'll all be dead soon enough."
Rose placed herself in front of the other two girls, "Ravager." she held up her knife, and brandished it at him, "You... you..."
"Killed your foster parents? Yes, I did. Humiliate your father by taking the name his first son did before he was killed? Yes, I do." Ravager stepped forward, tucking the picture away in a belt pouch, "Neither of these girls is Rebecca Pullman. They don't have to die, Rose. Let's take this away from them Rose... it is, after all, a family matter."
"Fuck you, Wade."
"Uncle Wade, Rose." and he raised his shotgun, "Oh, my brother is going to hate me for this one."
"Half brother." Rose growled, "And Deathstroke will find you if you-"
"Kill you? Yes... and then I'll kill him."
"You can't beat him..." Rose grinned, "Let me show you how Deathstroke the Terminator really fights."
As she charged him, he fired.
Raven fell back and rolled as more arrows exploded around her. Coming back up, she telekinetically hurled another file cabinet at Merlyn, who ducked it and fired again, winging her with a sharp arrow head. She hissed as the blood dripped from the cut.
The fifth such wound he'd given her.
"Stop playing!" Raven shouted, and used her powers to rip the floor up around him. Merlyn jumped out of the way and landed almost right in front of her. Her eyes widened as he kicked her back and she crashed through a window.
She started levitating as soon as she was outside, and so the three story drop wasn't much of a concern for her. Still, Raven was concerned. She'd managed to take the fight away from the teachers who remained alive, but was loosing badly.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she screamed and brought her hands together, crushing the room Merlyn was in with her powers. He jumped out the window at the last second, firing an arrow at her. She dodged to the side, but saw too late that the arrow had a rope attached. Merlyn jerked it to the side, and it wrapped around her ankles. He swung away from the building with the rope attached to his belt, even as he fired another arrow to the roof. Raven was off balance from the sudden added weight, and wasn't able to attack him before he'd pulled himself all the way up.
"Let's play tug of war!" Merlyn laughed as he yanked on the rope, jerking Raven around, and giving her a mild case of whip lash. She growled and flew up towards him, lashing out with a black talon of energy.
Merlyn ducked it, and came back up with his bow, putting a stun-arrow right in her chest at point blank range. Raven was jolted with enough electricity to temporarily shut down her nervous system, and collapsed to the roof top, twitching.
"So that's two Titans I've bagged tonight. Not bad..." the black clad archer swaggered over, pulling out a sharpened arrow as he did. Knocking it, he whispered, "Why don't we just kill this one and get it over with."
Merlyn never even saw the red clad form of Speedy charging up behind him, and was knocked clean off his feet as the younger archer plowed into him. The evil man tumbled across the rooftop and ended up leaned halfway over the edge of the four story building, with an arrow knocked and drawn.
Blinking up, he saw Speedy with his bow and arrow in a similar stance, pointing down at him. Both arrows had sharp, lethal heads, and both archers wore looks of hatred and anger. Merlyn smiled in an evil manner, "Kind of a deadly toy for a kid like you, isn't it Speedy?"
"At this range, it'd be almost impossible to not kill you in one shot." Speedy narrowed his eyes through his mask, "But I'm gonna' try."
Two twangs were heard as the arrows released.
The first thing he saw was a diagnostic screen, which meant he was coming back online from having been burnt with some kind of EMP. Almost nothing could force a full shutdown like he was powering up from now, so Cyborg knew he'd been hit hard.
As his vision came back online, he looked up into the face of a grinning Beast Boy. "Hiya, Vic."
"Gar... what the hell is going on?" Cyborg sat up and rubbed his head.
"You got whacked with an EMP. I had to totally re-rout all of your major systems thought the shielded parts of your... never mind. I'm not even sure how I did it. The Titan Computer had a diagram though, so you should be mostly okay." Beast Boy rubbed the back of his own head, "How're you feeling?"
"Crappy. I'm running on 20 power, and I've got two blown servos. My sonic cannon is useless, and I'm out on infrared and ultra-violet spectrum sweeps."
"So... you're still able to kick the hell out of the guy that did this to you?"
"Yeah, I can still kick the hell out of the guy that did this to me."
Beast Boy grinned, "Sweet. Let's-" he was cut off as his T-Comp buzzed. He pulled it out and flipped it open, "Yo."
"Mr. Logan?" Beast Boy blinked down at the image of a dark haired man wearing sunglasses, "This is agent Howard at Interpole. We checked the files you asked us to... the one's you came across that we had flagged?"
"Right, on that Wintergreen guy." BB nodded, "Look, this isn't a good time-"
"Our time is quite valuable as well, Mr. Logan. It's now or never."
"Fine. What did you get?"
"Normally we wouldn't divulge this information, but we believe the Titans will have special intrest in this particular case. It seems Mr. Wintergreen has long been in the employ of a mercenary assassin called Deathstroke the Terminator."
"Okay... so what does that mean to the Titans?"
"Deathstroke's real name is Slade Wilson. His daughter is Rose Wilson."
Beast Boy's mouth dropped open and he turned towards the school, where smoke could be seen, and the sounds of gunfire echoed in the night. "Slade..." he whispered.
Cyborg stepped up next to him, "We have to get down there. Now."
Beast Boy shut his communicator without replying to Agent Howard, and the two of them jumped from the building top they were on.
Rose dodged to the side again as Ravager's gun went off, and blew a chunk out of the ground. Her ability to 'see' events split seconds before they happened had so far allowed her to evade his shots, but she couldn't get in close as long as he kept firing. She dodged again, and he fired again, using his last round.
As she charged in, he tossed aside his gun and pulled out a knife of his own. She came up on him and they locked blades, Rose gritting her teeth, and Ravager chuckling, "You know, this isn't the best idea in the world... I'm stronger than you."
"That's what you think!" Rose shoved him back then came at him again. Ravager side stepped her and delivered an open handed chop to her neck, slamming her into the ground.
"Huh. I'll finish you in a moment." He stepped around her still form and walked over to where Hanna was trying to pull Ginger to her feet. "Now... one of you two is going to tell me where I can find Rebecca Pullman, or-" he paused as a silver loop of rope dropped over his shoulders and tightened around him, pinning his arms to his sides. Looking up, he saw Troia holding the silver lasso. "What the hell? Aren't you Wonder Woman's brat?"
"I'm twenty-two." she growled, "And you're threatening my friend."
"So what's with the lasso? You want me to tell the truth?"
"Something like that." Troia yanked the lasso and pulled him off the ground, swinging him away and hurling him towards the cafeteria. Pulling the rope back, she found that he'd slipped out of it, and was pulling himself to his feet.
She growled and coiled the lasso back up, re-attaching it to her belt. As she went to fly over to him, Rose jumped in front of her, "No! Get Hanna and Ginger to safety! Ravager is mine!" and she turned and dashed off towards the killer.
Troia looked over at the two frightened girls, then sighed. She flew to them and grabbed a hand each, "Hold on." she said, and flew up into the night.
"HA!" Jinx shouted as she blasted another ninja off his feet with a blast of pink hex bolt. "Come on you mother fuckers!"
Jumping forward, she grabbed on of the men's shoulders and rolled over his head in mid-air. Coming down on her feet, she pulled him up over her back and threw him at another ninja. She followed the momentum of her body and dove forward and down, escaping the sword swings of two more ninjas that came up on either side of her. Jinx planted her hands on the ground and twirled about on them, lashing out with her feet and knocking the two men away.
Coming up, she blocked a punch as Shrike came in at her, then jumped up and kicked off his chest, knocking him back. As she flipped over in mid-air, she released another blast of full force pink energy at the ground, causing the earth to give way and buckle under the feet of the ninjas. She landed and lashed out immediately, kicking another one of them in the face, and listening with satisfaction as his jaw snapped.
Twirled around to face Shrike once again, Jinx grinned.
BLAM!
"Agraa!" she stumbled forward, clutching at her back. She pulled a hand away and saw it was painted red with her own blood. She fell to her knees.
Deadshot walked into sight, holding a .357 revolver. He stopped next to Shrike and yanked the younger assassin to his feet. "I'm going in the back way here. Pullman is inside. I'll cap her. You deal with this." he planted the gun in Shrike's hand, "Don't screw this up, Boone."
"Yes Sir." Shrike nodded as Deadshot walked past Jinx. As the blonde haired girl staggered to her feet and tried to lunge for him, another shot rang out, and Jinx felt a bullet tear through her right shoulder. Shrike grinned at her as Deadshot walked through the door.
Jinx stumbled back and spoke weakly, "Wont let you... get away with this-"
BLAM!
She cried out again and fell back against the doors. The latest shot had tore into her side, and she could tell it had ruptured some fairly vital organs. She slid down to the ground, leaving a streak of bright crimson behind her.
Looking up through failing vision, Jinx saw Shrike standing over her, with the gun pointed down at her skull, "If it's any consolation, you fought very well."
He pulled the hammer back on the gun, and grinned.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
BLAM!
Closing Notes: Tune in next time to find out who lives, and who dies. But more importantly, find out who stays together, and who ends this story with a tearful breakup.