Avenging Justice 2:

Caught Between an Ultron and a Doomsday

Part XVI

Earth, California, San Diego

"Ladies, gentleman and everything in-between, we have a very special guest today," the famous podcaster, Lilac Jones. "He is a former member of the Doom Patrol, and a real animal. Welcome to the show, Beast Boy!"

The green hued young man smiled a broad and friendly grin, "I'm just a big kitty cat." He quickly changed into a green tiger, then continued, "But the baddies know me as someone who's a bear to deal with." As if to accentuate his pun, he changed into a large grizzly bear. Changing back to his more human form, "Thank you for having me on today, big fan of yours."

Lilac giggled, "You heard it here folks, I have a superhero fan. I must admit Beast Boy, those were some awesome transformations. How'd you get your powers?"

Beast Boy leaned back into his chair, "Well, it's rather simple, it was a radioactive monkey lion dragon!" He waited several seconds, before bursting out laughing, "No, my parents were trying to cure me of a disease and used an experimental serum."

"Well, whichever way, how do people react around you?" Lilac moved on. "They must be in awe."

Beast Boy sat back up, a look of sadness crossed his features, "Not as much as you would think. The first thing people think of, is that I'm a Mutant. When they hear my story, they are then asking about the serum. Unfortunately, I don't know what all went into it."

"That must be hard, people are divided as ever on the subject of Mutants," Lilac said, and for a brief moment, Beast Boy caught something in her voice. "Well, I guess I won't be learning the secret to cool animal powers like yours today."

He gave her his best sideways glance, "Tell you what, I figure it out, you're first on my list to tell. Deal?"

"Absolutely!" Lilac squealed and then she felt her insides turn inside out. "We'll return in a moment, as I take set up for our next commercial break."

Then as the recording paused, she immediately looked out her window. That horrible feeling, like her guts were twisting themselves into knots and inside out, was in overdrive. The reason why became very apparently as she gazed over San Diego. High in the air a massive fireball was streaming across the sky.

"Beast Boy, I think there is trouble," Lilac said without missing a beat.

He winked, "I'll go take a look. Keep my seat warm, be back in three shakes of a gull's tail feather."

Moments later he was in flight, headed towards the fireball in the sky. What he was going to do, he wasn't sure yet, but he'd think of something. What he wasn't expecting was a blast of energy to come right at him. Rolling to the right, he dived and then ascended rapidly. Cresting above the fireball now, it looked like three people, or a tangle of three people. He would have more time to chew on this, but a grand explosion of energy nearly knocked him completely cold.

Below him, he saw the fireball crashing into the nearby beach. He dove, eagle eyes seeing the three figures had been blown apart by about one hundred yards. What he wasn't expecting was the guy in red, green with a yellow and black cape. Nor the floating teen girl in dark blues and blacks. Even more surprising to Beast Boy, was another guy who looked to be an honest to goodness cyborg. The world was getting weirder every day it appeared, Beast Boy approved.

Victor Stone was looking at the ocean from the beachside cabin. It was totally off the grid, no power, no internet, and used by surfers during the summertime. He could still link up to satellites and keep up with current events, but he did it at times he could more readily mask the connection. He was in no hurry for another group like S.H.I.E.L.D. to come looking for him again, though Maria Hill had left him with an emergency pager. Her parting words were to use it only if needed, a dire situation where he couldn't get away without fighting.

He had spent a lot of time in cyberspace, looking for news on his father. He quickly was getting frustrated. He didn't want to trigger any traps, but his limited time online was not getting him any closer to finding his father. He just wanted to know that his father was okay, even if their relationship was strained at the best of times.

Little did he know, destiny was about to come knocking, with a battering ram. Through the roof of the tiny beach cabin, a vaguely humanoid form crashed, taking most of the roof with it. Immediately Victor's defenses came directly up, energy beam weapon forming on his right hand, while a helmet wrapped itself around the human flesh part of his face. Even with as quick as he was, the intruder quickly blasted him and he went through the wall of the beach cabin.

Dick Grayson was walking around in shorts sleeves and shorts, a backpack on. He didn't think he'd need the case inside, but he had gotten in the habit of carrying it anyway. Alfred said it was the curse of growing up in Gotham City, one always expected danger around every turn. The stories Bruce told, that wasn't exactly an exaggeration.

However, Dick was deep in thought. He had closure, his own quest had come to a completion. Yet, he didn't want to stop now. There were others out there, like him, that were wronged. He wanted to help them like Bruce had done for him and many others in Gotham. Dick thought a moment about doing something, being a cop, a district attorney, but each one of those had limits on them. Would Bruce's way, the way of the vigilante be a better outlet? To do what the cops and the D.A.'s couldn't?

The large explosion of sand about a hundred feet to his left, cut all his musings out. Before he realized it, he was in cover, his backpack off, and his armor nearly on. The last bit, his cape swirled about him, as he stood up. The "R" on his left side gleamed in the sunlight, and he rushed towards danger. At once feeling more like himself, and having made a choice he hadn't even realized.

Raven, still in her borrowed clothes, wondered why she was being drawn here. The people were like her mother, and didn't seem to have any magic about them. They would need some serious magic, if they were to fight Trigon. They'd need something more than what she was seeing. There were many half-dressed people, of both sexes, that seemed to be in a perpetual state of relaxation and play. Where would she find warriors here?

She heard the disruption and went to look. Anyone responding to this, might be who she was looking for. If nobody came, maybe she could help a little. After seeing her home being attacked, and not able to do a think, she was itching for a little release. Raven knew she had to keep that in check, she was always having to keep her emotions in check. Things could get nasty if she didn't, but it also made infuriatingly frustrating.

With a quick spell, her Azarath armor replaced her borrowed clothing. She floated into the air, her hood covering her face in a near impenetrable shadow, with only her eyes visible. Behind her, her cloak billowed as the ocean wind caught it. She caught the visage of a young man running towards the explosion, and he wasn't like the others. He might be what she was looking for.

Her hands were bound, and she was scared. More scared than she had been in a very long time, even when her home was attacked and herself taken hostage. Yet, after the experiments, the pain and the suffering, she was no longer weak. She would fight for her freedom, and that was how she'd made onto the shuttle. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't been able to control it and was lucky the jump had taken her near to a habitable planet.

Unlucky for her, two of her would be captors had been in the shuttle, and fought her all the way down. If her hands weren't bound, she would have an easier time fighting them off, but she didn't think she was doing too bad, considering.

Her landing had been a little rougher than she had liked. There didn't appear to be any injuries to the inhabitants, and she would have felt guilty if they had. That hadn't stopped them from running and screaming, which she could sort of understand. The fact that she couldn't understand a word they were saying, well that might complicate matters. Even more as she saw someone running at her.

He might be one of the warriors of the planet. His armor was brightly colored, in red and green. What struck her was the yellow inlay of his cape, and the dark black of the outer layer. Was this in case he needed camouflage at night? Did that work on this planet? His look didn't immediately tell her if he was friend or foe, so she raised her hands, hoping he'd get the message.

Unbeknownst to Starfire though, one of her captors had made it up, and immediately hit her hard. She took the hit, rolled up and raised her bound hands to slam her attacker hard. Her captor responded with a blade like weapon, that she barely dodged. Moving around, she tried to find a way to retreat, but everywhere there were others of the inhabitants. She could go nowhere without getting them mixed up in this.

"You there!" she screamed at the brightly colored man in her own language. "Get the people clear." Starfire realized it was futile even as she said it, but she had to try something.

A loud pitched whine nearly took her awareness away at the wrong time. A metal vehicle with blue lights on top, came to a sliding stop on the beach. Out jumped two people in matching uniforms, both quickly held up weapons that she didn't recognize. They shouted something, and for their trouble her captor turned towards them.

Her captor's weapon sliced through the metal vehicle, and they brought their weapon around to take out one of the uniformed locals. Starfire dashed forward, and barely got there to stop the blow from connecting. For her trouble, she felt her captor's boot hit her head in the midsection. That was okay, she was tough, even if it did hurt. Her eyes glowed green, and again she tried to break her shackles. It was not to be, but she did an elbow to her captor's face. The other being didn't seem to mind and struck her hard again. Starfire wasn't hit hard enough to be stunned, just angered.