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Stone Prison
By: Demonabyss
Chapter 10: Invitation
What's wrong with me lately? Ever since a few days ago I've had this weird feeling. Something isn't right and I don't know what it is. It's been messing up my work and I can't plan as well as before. All I know is that something is going on in Titans Tower and it's big. I can feel it through the earth, almost as if it's waiting for something. I don't like this. One of the many things I learned on the road is never just sit back and let something come and get you. You go and get it before it even knows what hit it. I'm probably going to regret this, but I have to talk to one of the Titans, but which one? I can't talk to Starfire, she's nice but I doubt she'd fully grasp whatever the situation is. Robin is also out of the question cause he'd most likely try to haul my butt in as soon as he saw me, the key word being TRY. Cyborg is one option, seeing as how he's a little more sensible, but like Robin he might try to catch me without listening. Beast Boy is definitely out of the question, I refuse to even speak to someone who would listen to Slade over me. That leaves only one option, Raven.
Raven and I have never been on clear terms, but it was pretty safe to assume she didn't trust me and I didn't trust her. However, Raven has the tightest grip on her emotions of the group and is the most logical. The two of us also have a decent amount of common ground to stand on, considering our powers and control issues. If any of them would be willing to make a deal with me and listen to me, it would be Raven. Now I just have to figure out how to contact her without alerting the other Titans, or getting blown to god knows where for that matter.
(Normal POV)
Terra worked hard at the central computer in Slade's, or rather her, underground fortress. She had rearranged the place so that the only way you could get in is if you could phase through solid matter or had geo-kinesis. She had even modified all the locks in the place so that only someone with geo-kinesis could open them. It was rather ingenious since the locks had no keyholes or keypads of any kind, hell most people wouldn't even know where they were. Unless you knew what to manipulate inside and were able to, you might as well try smashing the wall down, which she had reinforced with thick dense layers of stone and booby-trapped with magma veins. Oh yes, she had made sure that at least in this fortress she had the home field advantage.
As she worked she noticed something odd. There was a virus in her computer, not a nasty one like the kind that wipeout entire systems, more like one designed for annoyance more than anything. It infected a word program and started to randomly generate the names of various cities and towns. Terra would've immediately erased the stupid thing if it weren't for one fact; the places it was listing were all places she had been, every last one of them. The blonde scowled at it. 'Someone out there is either trying to be funny, get my attention, or just plain piss me off. Well they got two outta three!' she thought, royally ticked. She did not take well to being taunted by some arrogant hacker who she had probably never met.
'Let's see where you come from shall we?' she thought as she ran an advanced tracing program to see where the virus had originated. She traced the virus to an abandoned base in the middle of Oregon, far north of her position. Now who in Oregon would try to piss her off? For that matter, who even knew where she had been? Well, they would learn the hard way not to piss off Terra the geomancer.
Days later, the blonde stepped through the woods into a clearing. She had come here after locking down her fortress, simply taking a bus in one of her disguises. In the clearing she had expected to see the abandoned base but it didn't look so abandoned. There were a number of planes and aircraft of various types stationed nearby. 'Interesting, better keep a low profile,' Terra thought as she made her way towards the base, pulling a hood and cloak tightly around her. 'Jeez, I fee like Raven in this getup,' she thought in weary amusement as she held a tight grip on the weapons she had brought with her.
She moved closer to the base to find that the front gate was wide open. 'What is this? Either they want people to walk right into a trap or their only expecting certain people to enter. Only one-way to find out,' she thought as she walked up to the gate cautiously. When she got there a guard in an Arabian type uniform stopped her.
"Halt, please state your name and your business here," he said with authority though it had no effect on the cloaked geomancer.
"Terra, and as for why I'm here, somebody in this base thought it cute to mock me about my past and I'm here to have a little chat with them," she said calmly in a soft dangerous tone.
The guard gulped and quickly checked a clipboard before turning back to the girl. "You're on the list, you may enter."
Terra raised an eyebrow but didn't speak as she walked in. 'I was on the list? What is this all about?' she thought as she walked into the central bunker of the base. When she entered she was surprised to see it set up like a fancy restaurant/ party, however that wasn't what really surprised her. It was the fact that most of the people here were well known criminals and villains, many from Batman's Rogue's gallery. She walked forward silently and confidently as she glanced around. 'So someone considers me on the same level with these people? Well I'm certainly not a hero I'll admit that. Anti-hero possibly, but unlikely, outlaw definitely, but a villain? Well, I guess I've been that too,' she thought as she walked up to the buffet that was spread out, passing by the Joker and his henchwoman Harley Quinn. She pulled down her hood as she started piling on food on her plate, not caring if any of these people saw her, not like they could do much to her anyway.
"Hey Mister J, who's that kid?" Harley asked pointing to blonde teenager that wasn't far from them. This drew the attention of quite a few people there as they just noticed her as well but didn't recognize her from anywhere.
"Who knows, but I must have a word with the host when he gets here. How they could associate me, clown prince of crime, with the rest of this riff raff is beyond me," the Joker said pompously causing most of the people within earshot to scowl at him except Terra.
She calmly took a drink and tasted it before speaking. "I agree," she said calmly which surprised everyone listening. "How our host could put a pathetic circus reject such as yourself in the same league as me is beyond my comprehension," she stated in a casual manner. This caused people to smirk, Harley Quinn to get ticked, and the Joker to glare at her. Terra ignored them all. "You're nothing but a pathetic ugly clown with no powers, no skills to speak of other then being an idiot, no class, and no style. The only reason the Batman hasn't put you out of his misery, and everyone else's for that matter, is because Batman will never kill. That's the only reason you're alive right now, so I wouldn't be so arrogant if I were you," she stated clearly so that everyone watching could hear.
Poison Ivy, who was sitting close by next to the Riddler smiled as she leaned over to whisper to him. "I don't know who this kid is, but I like her already," she stated as she watched the interaction between the blonde and the clown.
Riddler nodded. "Indeed. Anyone who is so calm while bringing the Joker down a peg or two certainly has my respect. But what is the riddle behind this girl?" he asked as he watched with Ivy.
"H… How dare you! I am the clown prince of crime! No one has come closer to killing the Batman then me!" he yelled at her.
Terra just calmly munched on piece of French bread with some garlic butter before speaking again. "Not what I hear. According to my sources, your girlfriend has come a lot closer to killing him then you. In any case, why don't you run along, go find a kid's party or something," she said as she picked up some salad. "I wonder if the shrimp is any good?" she said ignoring the smoke coming out of Joker's ears.
Everyone watched as the Joker, enraged at this girl's pretentiousness, pulled out his gun and aimed it at the side of the teen's head. However, they were all surprised when the girl's hands and eyes flashed a faint gold glow and Joker's gun exploded in his hand. It took a moment before what had happened registered with everyone. Joker held his smoking hand in rage for only a moment before he saw the golden glow of the girl he had attempted to shoot. She didn't even bother to look at him as she held her hand flat out and flicked two fingers up. The instant she did, two slabs of rock sprang up through the floor in a blink of an eye like a bear trap and sandwiched the Joker between them, crushing him instantly. She then flicked her fingers down and the slabs quickly sank back into the floor.
Joker stood for a moment before falling to the floor with a broken nose and face and probably some other broken bones as well. Terra casually tried one of the shrimp as the gold glow died down. "Not bad. I hope you've learned to keep your trap shut Joker. The only reason I left you alive was because no one needs your carcass stinking up this party." She then glanced at Harley Quinn who was just standing there, obviously scared out of her wits. "You wanna try something?" The jester girl shook her head and backed away. Terra just grinned. "Smart little clown. Now, why don't you remove your unsavory boyfriend from the buffet table, he's blocking the line," she said calmly which Harley immediately complied, not wanting to piss off the blonde teen.
Terra was about to continued until she heard someone clapping. She turned and immediately recognized the short heavyset form of better known as the Penguin. "Well done my dear. Many people have wanted to take the Joker down a peg and you did that very nicely. Tell me what's your name my little cockatiel?" he asked pleasantly.
"Terra, just Terra, and it's nice to see you again she said with a sly grin while ignoring the bird remark.
The short man stared at her, confused. "Again, we've met before?" he asked carefully. As a man who specialized in information trafficking in the underworld, he knew to be leery of people when they said something strange like that, especially a blonde girl with strange powers.
Terra's grin just widened. "Now how could you forget your favorite delivery girl? Don't you remember that nice chat we had when the Justice League was patrolling Gothem?" she asked casually. Penguin's eyes lit up in realization as the blonde nodded.
"That was you?" he asked astonished. He then suddenly put two and two together. This girl, her obvious power, the Justice League's searching, the recent news stories; it all added up. "It was you. You caused those upheavals," he said quietly though a good section of the massive hall they were in quieted when he did.
Terra shrugged. The Justice League knew, the Titans knew, the military knew, and at least a couple of underworld powers knew. What did she care if anyone else knew at this point? "So I got a little ticked when some idiots tried to capture me. As long as nobody tries something that stupid here, you got nothing to worry about," she said with a shrug. Penguin just stared for a moment before laughing out loud.
"Very well my dear. Please, I invite you to sit with Mr. Nigma, Miss Ivy, and myself," he said motioning to a table where a lovely red headed woman sat next to a thin short haired man in a green suit.
Terra shrugged as she easily picked up her plate, which was stacked with food. "Sure why not? You're probably better company then most other people here," she said calmly, still keeping her cloak close to her. "So, do any of you know who's throwing this party?" Terra asked as she began to devour her food like a ravenous shark on a feeding frenzy.
Riddler, Poison Ivy, Penguin, and a good number of people sitting nearby all stared for a moment as they watched the girl eat. 'And I thought Killer Croc had an impressive set of jaws,' Ivy thought somewhat surprised as she watched the blonde teen swallow a whole piece of pie without chewing. Many were mildly wondering where the girl put it all and how someone could eat all that and still stay relatively thin. The red head shook herself out of her daze before answering. "Our host hasn't shown himself yet, but whoever it is has gone to a lot of trouble to get all of us here," she said as she glanced around at the various villains and mercenaries in the grand hall.
"Ah, welcome ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased you all could make it here on such short notice. I have an interesting proposition for all of you," a man announced as he appeared on a stage with a black haired woman to the right of him and a large bald headed man to the left. He wore fine green colored clothes, had a black pointed beard, black hair with silver lines, and dark green eyes. Many knew this man, he was known as the Demon, Ra's Al Ghul.