Special thanks to co-author Ultra Sonic 007 for the INSTIGATOR fight scene.

Maternal Instinct
Chapter Three: The Fruits Have Eyes

Noel's first thought when the lights went out was blasphemous enough to give the devil pause. The second and third were to worry about the safety of Raven and curse Mother Mae-Eye. The fourth was to thank every higher power whose existence hadn't been patently disproved that his mind was yet his own, that he wasn't being controlled…

And so he did.

Savior stood up, hearing sounds he couldn't identify in the blackness. What had just happened? Mother Mae-Eye's powers had overwhelmed Raven and Jinx, and then… all had gone dark. Did that mean she has won? But if so, why was Savior still alive and conscious. Or maybe this was what death was like… Just blackness. In preparation for heaven or hell?

Stop it Collins, he told himself. Get a grip. You're not dead… yet anyway.

Finally, he was sure he heard other people, and prepared two Shimmer lines. "Is anybody there?" he called out.

"I am here!" replied Starfire's voice in the darkness. "It is good to hear that you are unharmed, Noel."

"Shush, Star," Noel barked. "Secret identities."

"Oh! Sorry!"

Suddenly, the voice of Robin cut through the blackness some distance away. "Starfire."

"ROBIN! You are unharmed?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Can you make us some light."

Starfire perhaps nodded, and made an affirmative grunt before raising her hand and creating a green glow over the area immediately around the Titans. It was stifled, though, as though the darkness itself around them had mass.

Even so, when the light appeared, Savior found himself staring straight into the face of Mammoth, and let out a slight holler of surprise as he jumped back. Mammoth let out a similar cry and jumped back as well, though his was more of a growl…

"HOLD IT!" Robin shouted, drawing a birdarang.

"Wait, wait!" Mammoth said! "I wasn't trying to sneak up on you. I was just hoping not to be noticed… I'm too hungry to fight you right now."

Robin sighed, closed his birdarang, and replaced it on his belt. "Star, make the light brighter."

The green glow above her head enlarged, growing into what Savior thought would make Son Goku proud. They could see enough of the Atrium—if that is where they were still—to tell that it had been changed. It now looked like a meet freezer, though there was no meat hanging from the hooks.

"'Mother' is trying to keep us healthy," Robin grumbled.

"Robin," Starfire said, her eyes aglow, "I can see there's nobody else here. Everyone else must have been transported elsewhere."

"Or vaporized," Savior said sharply.

"No way," Mammoth said. "Heroes never get killed by the bucket load unless there is a massive universal reorganization about to happen."

Noel regarded Mammoth oddly, then his expression flashed with anger, and he randomly punched Mammoth in the face with a Shimmer-incased fist, knocking him a few feet through the air. Then Savior pounded on his chest and wrapped the Shimmer around his throat. "YOU STUPID APE! WHAT ON THIS GODFORSAKEN PLANET WERE YOU AND THAT MIDGET THINKING KEEPING THAT ACURSED PASTRY?"

"GAH!" Screamed Mammoth, unable to answer because of the pressure around his trachea, which wasn't as invulnerable as his chest. At least not enough to withstand the 4.7 tons of pressure the Shimmer was capable of applying.

"Let him go, Savior!" Robin shouted.

"Was it not Gizmo who kept the pie?" Star asked.

Savior continued to choke the massive foe. "Don't bother me with technicalities right now! Raven is missing or dead, most of the team is gone, and a thirty-story bank full of people is possessed by a witch who eats people for their souls… ALL THANKS TO GIZMO AND THIS BIG MORON."

Noel let the pressure on Mammoth's throat ease off for a minute, and the big guy was barely able to choke out, "He…kaff said that…kaff… we could give it to our enemies… kaff!"

Noel's expression changed to one of supreme annoyance and he turned to regard Tim. "Why on earth did you agree to go through with giving them the pie in the first place? Do you lose all sense when I turn my back?"

"What?" Mammoth asked with one last cough. "Weren't you there when she took over your Tower?"

"Oh, he was there alright," Robin said. "And he got so mad that she had controlled him he spent the rest of the night tearing apart simulated villains in our training room while Gauntlet and Beast Boy formulated that brilliant plan for disposing of the pie behind my back, SAVIOR." Robin's stressed that last part, and Savior felt like saying something back, or punching him or something, but restrained himself. (In another world, perhaps Robin was 'in' on the giving of the pie to the Hive Five students. However, in this world events such as Gauntlet and his goofyness joining the Titans and the terrrible tragedies of the Final Night, the Last Wish, and the End of Metal all had pushed Robin to a level of seriousness that he may never have crossed otherwise.)

"You're the leader. You should have been leading."

"You're the co-leader, Savior," Robin pointed out. "Hold yourself to your own standard, and then we'll talk."

Mammoth, rubbing his throat, walked over and interjected. "Hey, look, guys, I'm sure this is really entertaining, but I'm hungry. You think we can finish this after we find something to eat?"

Savior lashed out again, using the Shimmer to punch Mammoth again. "SHUT. UP. BARAN."

"Geez Louise, what is your deal?" Mammoth said, getting up and rubbing his head. "I just wanted some food this time."

Savior glared at him. "If you don't stay out of this, Flinders, I swear I'll lobotomize you."

"Naw, you wouldn't. You're a coward like all the other heroes—too afraid to kill so you hide behind a higher morality."

Savior turned from Robin again, sick of being interrupted. "In case you haven't noticed, Mammoth, MY MORALS ARE NOT PRISTINE."

But Mammoth just smirked and shook his big hairy head. "Bluffing."

"I. DO. NOT. BLUFF. One more word out of you and I'll reduce your intelligence to that of mayonnaise."

"No you won't," Robin interjected. "We need all the help we can get. For the time being Mae-Eye is a bigger threat than Mammoth."

Mammoth, however, had only actually heard one word of Savior's sentence. "Mayo.. yeah, that would be good. And a big, juicy tomato… and THREE patties…. With mustard…"

Starfire's eyes lit up slightly at the mention of mustard.

Savior turned to knock him down again, when his arm was restrained by Robin. "Enough. You will do as I say, Savior."

"We're co-leaders," Savior shot back. "You just said so yourself."

"No. I am rescinding that status for the remainder of this mission unless you do something that makes me change my mind. Consider yourself demoted."

"How dyou you expect to enforce that!?" Savior shot back.

Robin gave him a glare that could cow a demon and Savior remembered, for the first time in a while, who Robin's mentor was. Noel's eyes flashed with anger, but he did nothing.

Starfire put her hands together, a nervous habit. "Robin, are you certain…?"

As Robin walked off, he muttered towards Starfire, "Currently, I'm not really certain of anything. I'm beginning to think that Noel his a fledgling sociopath."

A deep frown stretched across Kory's face, and she shook her head. "This power struggle must end, Tim," she said to him out of Mammoth's earshot. "If you two keep fighting, it will affect the whole team. Remember the rhekmaz."

"We'll quit fighting when he learns to control his temper," Robin said. "I had to learn the hard way, but even that never teaches Savior…"

BAM!

Robin and Starfire turned their heads back to see Noel on top of Mammoth, a Shimmer noose once again around his neck. "DROP IT, NOW!"

"What is going on this time?" Robin demanded.

Savior reached into his pocket and removed a tape recorder, and pressed rewind, then the play button.

Mammoth's voice said. You know, I still owe you a wallopin' anyway for infiltrating our old base, so you had better lay off me or I'm going to pay it in full.

"Drop the grudge or I'll leave you immobile. My Shimmer can and will affect the nervous system in VERY painful ways. Even one as underdeveloped as yours, Baran."

Something seemed to click, and Mammoth's eyes shot wide… "SHIMMER!"

"What?" Savior's face turned to confusion, why did Noel's power make him freak out?

"He means his sister!" Starfire realized aloud.

Mammoth jumped up, throwing his would-be tormentor off and rushing off into the darkness alone… "SELINDA!" He cried. "SEELIIINDAAA!"

And then, he was gone…

"Mammoth!" Robin shouted after him. But there was no answer… "Wonderful."

"What now, fearless?" Savior said tritely. "Your plans are working marvelously, I see."

"What is it with you?" Robin shot at him. "You're attitude has gotten worse and worse until you've become almost unbearable. You tried to do a little better after you nearly went ballistic on Danny Phantom, but then you went right back to your old habits. What is your problem, Savior?"

"Well, gee," Noel said. "Let me think. I started out fine, but then, what? OH YEAH. Baran, Jinx, and that midget barged into the tower while you were out, beat me to within an inch of my life, threw me out a window, inadvertently discovering my weakness, and then… THEY TOLD THE WHOLE SUPERVILLAIN COMMUNITY ABOUT IT."

"It's not that," Robin said. "Even after that, the Savior I knew then wouldn't fly into such a psychotic rage over being harmlessly frozen that he would set a base underneath a populated city, underneath the friggin' EIFFEL TOWER, to detonate and kill a third of our rogues gallery!"

"How was I supposed to know that the Speed Force users were going to freeze them?"

"Boys…"

"You didn't have to KNOW," Robin retorted. "If you had just REMAINED CALM and not flown off the handle…"

"Boys."

"So a bunch of villains who froze us alive because they decided to escalate our fighting to the level of war and much like Hitler found they weren't as good as they thought. Cry me a river."

"BOYS! STOP THIS AT ONCE!" Starfire yelled, but to absolutely no avail.

"PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T CONTROL YOUR TEMPER, 'SAVIOR'!" Robin shouted. "What if it is civilians next time. What if it is Sophie? Or Terra. What if you're anger gets Raven killed?"

Savior began to grind his teeth, thinking of how to come back… but no matter how he tried, Robin's words just replayed… What if? What if Raven had been knocked unconscious into a dark corner and Kid Flash hadn't been fast enough? What if?

"It won't happen," he said at last.

"You can't know that."

"We can't stand around dwelling on what ifs," Savior said. "Let's go fix this mess."

Robin nodded. "I'm going to follow Mammoth to make sure no white spiky haired angry people try to kill him."

Savior gave as close an approximation to Raven's trademark glare as he could. "I'm done with him. And Robin, be accurate. The base fallout aside, which was an accident due to our wires being crossed more then anything, I don't kill. I maim, I cripple, I make people WISH they were dead, but I don't kill."

"Then how are you any better than them?" Robin snapped.

"I'm not. I'm worse. And deep down, you're glad for it. Because if I didn't fulfill that necessity, you'd have to."

"You're delusional."

"Whatever."

Robin paused for a moment. "You two stay together. As far as I know, the horror movie anti-logic doesn't apply here, and you shouldn't face anything more threatening than giant gingerbread men. But we're separated enough as it is—I need you to stick together. Can you please promise me that much?"

"I will if you quit talking to me like I'm a child, Robin," replied Noel.

"Good, then. Find everyone you can. Fix their minds, get them out of any pies or ovens you find, and get back to the atrium. We'll meet here again in three hours for progress reports." With that, Robin removed a light from his belt, and ran off in the direction that Mammoth had.

"Starfire…" Savior started, staring at the beautiful girl and instantly wishing he hadn't been such a jerk to Robin… Starfire's sadness, when it was aroused, became everyone's sadness just because of the person Starfire was. "I'm sorry."

She nodded. "You have three hours to prove it," she said. "Let us go find our friends."

They picked a direction, and together ran off into the darkness…

The capabilities and limits of the arcane are constantly a source of confoundment to those who do not understand its intricacies. If magic can transmute an entire planet into a fiery mishmash of steel and magma, and turn the flesh of everyone on the planet into stone, how can anyone defeat a magician? What makes Tala the Sorceress less able to use magic than Trigon the Terrible?

Maybe it's not for us to know… Because whereas Savior and co. had been protected in the darkened Atrium of the bank, several others had survived, and yet still been transported elsewhere. Why had some been protected and some not? Could anyone really answer that question?

And where was Raven, the source of the resistance to begin with? Certainly not here.

Still dazed from the rush of magic through him, Gauntlet blinked. "Who got the plate number of that magic express…?"

"That's a horrible joke, even by YOUR standards," grumbled Jinx as she sat up, readjusting her hair. She looked around…and blanched. "Uh…boys…?"

Billy Numerous shook his head. "Man, I got a bunch of screws loose…can someone help me tighten them?"

"…sure," replied Gauntlet as he bonked Billy Numerous on the head (with a yellow Gauntlet screwdriver, natch).

The HIVE student growled. "WHY'D YA HIT ME YOU DARNED FOOL?"

"Boys…"

"You told me to," replied Gauntlet, looking a bit dumbfounded (then again, he never did like Billy's Southern accent. Though that banjo music was catchy).

Billy growled as he yelled, "THAT'S NOT WHUT I-"

"BOYS!"

The two turned towards Jinx. She pointed around them.

Then they finally got a good look around.

The bank was gone. The room they were in had become a look-alike to the candy house of Hansel & Gretel lore, save for an even more candy-oriented twist. The floors were made of graham crackers. The walls were covered with dark chocolate, and the ceiling was lined with green icing. The desks and tables were constructed of the finest peppermint in all the land. The windows were made of grape-flavored taffy. The partitions separating visitors from the bank tellers were made of watermelon-flavored, hardened sucrose (basically, what lollipops are made of). The vault was a giant blue jawbreaker, and the pillars were made of licorice. The lights were truffles, filled with chocolate fudge and-

"SHUT UP!" roared Gauntlet, hands fixed on his stomach. "You're making me hungry!"

Sorry.

Jinx frowned as she looked around. The others were gone. No one was there. This isn't good…did our spell not work? That couldn't be it; the three of them were unaffected. But where were the others?

"Mmm…this stuff shore tastes yummy!"

Jinx sweatdropped as she saw Billy Numerous licked the lollipop partition. "Come on…don't eat this place. It WAS a bank, after all."

"Why should I a-listen to you, Judas Benedict?" retorted Billy. "B'sides, yer teambuddy over there's fillin' his belly with sweets n' lick-o-rish!"

Jinx glanced at Robert Candide, who was taking a bite out of the pillars. The blonde Titan innocently replied, "What?"

Rumbling.

Everyone paused as the door to the vault at the far end of the room rolled away (literally), causing minor tremors in the ground. A familiar cyborg stepped out, towering at over six feet. The hulking carapace of the HIVE student known as INSTIGATOR was now covered with brown fur. The singular section that revealed his face was shaped like a heart, and his face – usually set into a scowl or frown – was pulled into a smile.

Gauntlet hissed at the sight of the smile. "So…unnatural…getting…Mandy vibes…"

"What the tarnation are you babblin' about, you spiky-haired crawdad?" demanded Billy Numerous. Gauntlet merely stared, wondering why Billy described him as a crayfish.

INSTIGATOR cheerfully said, "Mother is wondering where you've been! Come on, dear brothers and dear sister! It's almost time for dinner!"

Billy blinked. Then he took another bite of the floor.

INSTIGATOR gasped. "You KNOW better than to eat sweets before dinner! Looks like it's up to big brother to set you youngsters straight!" He rolled up into a fuzzy ball and charged.

"PLEASE! No references to that Godforsaken 'reality' show!" yelled Gauntlet as the three dodged the fuzzy wrecking ball…of DOOM!

(Only a few people will get this reference, but I know one will absolutely love it. ;P )

"Mammoth!" shouted Robin, "Baran!" He had been working his way through the darkened maze for nearly ten minutes, coming across nobody. Was it possible that May-Eye's magic had gotten powerful enough to somehow expand the size of the bank?

It was too dark to really see anything ahead of, him, but his examination of the walls had shown a bunch of portraits in this hall. Perhaps once they had been of former bank presidents or important patrons, but now they were all of his team mates, and the HIVE students, but in clothing that would suit the witch's eccentric tastes. He even thought he'd seen one of the photos showing INSTIGATOR dressed up like a teddy bear.

Suddenly, he heard a loud crash up ahead, followed by sounds of fighting…

Robin ran forward, the sounds getting louder as he went, until he found the source. It was another large room, this one done up like a huge bedroom by May-Eye's twisted decorating sensibilities…

And high atop the massive bed, Mammoth was trading blows with Cyborg…

Cyborg, who was wearing what appeared to be an early 20th century schoolboy uniform, complete with a navy-esque cap atop his bald, half-metallic head.

"Good grief," Robin said.

Grabbing his bat grapple, Robin ran forward, his bo-staff in his other hand, and fired at the top of the bed spread. He underestimated its size, however, and caught it near the bottom. It reeled in and pulled him up, so he climbed up the sheet to the top, where Cyborg and Mammoth were still fighting.

"Get away from me, Stone!" Mammoth barked, smashing Cyborg across the room.

"But dear brother Baran," Cyborg said. "Mother only wishes the best for you! Why do you disobey her?"

"Stand down, Cyborg!" Robin ordered, jumping over Mammoth to kick him in the face. He drew a birdarang.

"Brother Timothy," Cyborg said. "Are you an accomplice to Brother Baran's misbehavior? You'll be punished too."

"SHUT UP!" Robin shouted. "Mammoth."

"What?"

Robin spoke quietly. "I need you to keep him distracted while I try and shut him down from behind. Just keep him still long enough for me to work."

"Sure thing, 'Timothy'," Baran mocked. Robin cursed the witch silently. Now Mammoth was privy to his first name. Not a lot, but… Hey, it was the age of the internet.

"My name is Robin. Now go!"

Jinx fired off a wave of pink energy at the ceiling, causing the hardened icing to crumble and fall. INSTIGATOR's grin (Good Lord, it was so CREEPY) didn't falter. "Now now! You know better than to try and give me sweets! But I won't disobey Mother, oh no!" He crossed his arms and barreled towards Jinx.

The pink-haired sorceress performed a cartwheel, dodging to the side as INSTIGATOR stomped past her, leaving tremendous footprints in the floor. "Gauntlet, watch out!"

Robert's golden Gauntlet flashed yellow as it sprouted two arms, which wrapped around INSTIGATOR. "Huh. You sure aren't huggable."

INSTIGATOR wailed, "That's not true! Mother said I was ALWAYS huggable like a wittle teddy bear!"

"Sheesh! How come he's such a durn' chatterbox now? Stop the yappin'!" yelled Billy Numerous as he sprouted into multiple copies.

INSITIGATOR broke out of Gauntlet's hold, much to the boy's surprise (then again, he never encountered INSTIGATOR that much in battle; the cybernetic teen was practically a wrecking ball in terms of power—and roughly so in terms of shape). The 'Teddy Borg' charged.

Billy and his copies linked together, forming a wall in front of Gauntlet. INSTIGATOR blinked as he ran into the red wall of clones; Billy Numerous groaned as the wall stretched…but INSTIGATOR's footing broke first.

Like a slingshot, he was sent flying backwards. The cyborg crashed through a peppermint table before coming to a stop in a wall of chocolate. Shards of candy were sent flying.

Gauntlet moped. "Such good candy…gone to waste. And now there's Teddy Borg fur in it!"

Jinx blinked. "Teddy Borg?"

"I read it in the script," remarked Robert as he pulled out a thick paperback. The pink-haired Titan slapped at it. "Never mind your shenanigans! We can't rest now; the only way to get him to stop is if we knock him on the head!"

Billy snorted. "Since when were you made the leader, ya turncoat? I should oughta be team leader!"

Gauntlet briefly thought of Billy Numerous being team leader. Then he thought about Southern accents becoming mandatory. Then he thought of his room being filled with hay to become a pigsty. Then he grinned as he formed a banjo with his Gauntlet, strumming on the strings. "Soooooo-EEEEEE! Here pig pig pig pig pig, here pig!"

Jinx stared at Robert oddly, wondering what went on in her teammate's head. Something told her she didn't want to know.

"You…"

Everyone turned to INSTIGATOR, who was pulling himself out of the hole in the wall. His lips were trembling due to shock. "You…BROKE MOTHER'S FURNITURE! Now it's time for me to give you all a spanking in her stead!"

Billy groaned. "And I thought I would be gone from mah pappy's spankings when I came to the HIVE!" He noticed Llarenes and Robert staring at him oddly. "Whut? I was a rascal! My pappy don't take kindly to that!"

"Whatever. Head smashy!" yelled Gauntlet as he formed a hammer with his weapon and swung.

INSTIGATOR used his firm hands to grab the hammer. "No roughhousing without Mother's permission!" He then yanked Gauntlet towards him, grabbing the surprised Titan in his furry grip. "Fortunately for me, Mother gave ME permission!" He then threw Gauntlet into the air…and yet, the Titan still managed to call out, "Then your Mother's biased!" He then crashed into the taffy window, getting stuck in its gooey trappings.

Jinx lashed out with another wave of reality-altering energy. It crashed into the wall, causing it to hum and crackle before shattering into dozens of pieces. INSTIGATOR blinked as a wall of chocolate fell on him.

Man, now I'm getting hungry.

Jinx sighed. "I think that got him."

"YOU KNOW THAT'S A JINX, JINX!" yelled Gauntlet.

Sure enough, INSTIGATOR erupted from the chocolaty rubble, his hand wrapping around the sorceress. His grin was still pasted onto his face. "Naughty naughty! Big brother needs to punish his little sister!"

"I'm not your sister!"

Gauntlet blinked and rushed forward in a vain attempt to rescue Jinx from INSTIGATOR's hand, but to no avail…

Annoyed, Jinx blinked as she was put on his knee…and then she yelped as the thick, furry hands of INSTIGATOR slapped her rear. "OOOOOW!"

"Don't cry little sister! Mother doesn't like it when her children cry!" said INSTIGATOR, smiling all the while.

A shadow fell over the two.

"Yoohoo."

INSTIGATOR looked upward. A column of Billy clones was holding the gigantic jawbreaker vault door above their heads. They all grinned. "This'll only hurt for a second. Like a bee sting!" Then they dropped it.

INSTIGATOR, still grinning, blinked as the jawbreaker fell, not even realizing that Billy Numerous swiped Jinx from his grasp. "Oh fiddlesticks."

SMASH!

INSTIGATOR was all but flattened by the massive jawbreaker. The Billy clones disappeared as the real Billy let go of Jinx. "Now YOU owe me somethin'!"

Jinx sighed. "Actually, if you count all the times I saved your worthless butt back when I was still part of the HIVE, YOU – and Gizmo, and Mammoth, and a lot of people – owe me at least seven times."

Billy Numerous blinked. "Uh…well, you're still a turncoat!"

The jawbreaker was suddenly pushed aside from beneath. The massive cyborg stood up, looking at the duo in silence…but there was one difference.

He was no longer grinning.

Then he ripped off the teddy bear outfit.

Jinx grinned. "Welcome back INSTIGATOR."

Then there was yelling in the background.

"Don't mind me! I'll just take my time eating my way out!" Slurp, slurp. "Mmm…grapey…"

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a Hershey bar…

Thank you for letting me know where you were going, Ultra. Mother might worry about you.

No Chaltab! Not you too!

Just kidding!

"Do you think we shall find any of our friends in this place, Savior?"

"I don't know, Star." Savior began silently cursing Robin for sending Star with him. Of all the other Titans, Savior felt worst when he was a jerk towards someone if Starfire saw it. "It doesn't look like this part of the bank has been affected by the magic."

Noel's statement was based on the fact that the hall they were in was bare, with nothing resembling the motherly trappings of their foe.

"Your assessment may be in error," she said. Her alien eyes could pick up more than Noel's could, and she saw the room up ahead. "I believe I see a massive oven mitt in the room ahead of us."

"Perfect."

The two Titans arrived at the end of the hallway, and climbed out of the hallway—to find that it had somehow become a vent for an air conditioner… They came out in the new room atop a giant kitchen table, and sure enough, a giant oven mitt lay on the side next to a big fruit basket. The room smelled of freshly baked cookies.

"I am uncertain," Starfire said, "if I like this."

"I don't. I hate feeling small and insignificant." Savior jumped from the table and used the Shimmer to latch onto a light fixture in the middle of the room and swing across to the kitchen's counter. He landed next to a huge steak knife.

Starfire followed at a distance, flying up to the area around the light fixture to get a good view of the room. There were no electrical appliances at all—the corner housed an ice box, and the only oven in the room was a tiny (proportionally—it was actually the size of a small house) fire stove, probably powered by gas, near the middle of the room. A smokestack went up all the way to the ceiling.

"See anything up there, Starfire?" Savior asked.

"I do not!" she replied… Though, she continued to look.

Gradually, both Titans realized the unnatural darkness of the Atrium was descending on this room as well, and even the lit candles in the light fixture weren't able to conquer it.

"What is with this darkness?" Noel asked himself aloud. "It's like she doesn't want us to see beyond our faces." By this time Noel was on the floor, and Starfire was flying directly above him by about 300 feet. Both were feeling rather hopeless; the only way out of the room was the way they had come in, and, there was a deep foreboding about going back.

Starfire only shrugged to Savior's question and comment, which Noel of course couldn't see, but she wasn't really in the mood to care. "I simply wish to find our friends and…" Suddenly, Starfire felt her skirt rustle slightly, and then felt a hand close around her butt.

"NOEL!" she barked, immediately turning over and hurling a series of Starbolts directly downward…

"What?" he asked, confused, and looking up—only to see the green bursts of energy falling down at him.. "AAAHH!" Noel threw up a Shimmer shield at the last minute, and the bolts slammed into it. He felt the shield almost give before the flurry was over..

As it vanished, he saw a figure retreating, a floating hand following it towards the icebox. "Progeny?" he asked.

"WHY DID YOU PLACE YOUR HAND ON MY BUTT?" Starfire screamed, suddenly in his face, scaring Savior so bad his heart skipped a beat. When Starfire was really mad at you, things tended to get unpleasant really fast.

"I didn't!" Savior shouted back. "It was Progeny! The little punk tried to get me vaporized!"

"I see no Progeny here!" Starfire retorted.

"He ran behind the Icebox!" Savior said, using the Shimmer to wrench Star off of him and take off in pursuit. Star followed him, and they arrived near the icebox…

Progeny had seen better days. It was like May-Eye had tried to dress him in what might have counted as a young child's 'Sunday Best' in the early 1920s, but then it had been half torn off, removed, then hastily put back on. Tacky to say the least. "Ha, ha!" he started. Progeny slapped his knee and began laughing harder. "I totally got you. But you've betrayed Mother. You deserved it!"

"That witch is not my mother, punk." Noel barked at him, jumping forward in order to attack Progeny…

Suddenly, a black shadow formed around him—and turned into a Raven. When it dissipated, Raven stood there in a red and white checkered dress, her cheeks rouged and lips covered in bright red lipstick. And her hair… was in pigtails.

"RAVEN!" Savior shouted. He clenched his fists. "That witch… I swear I'm going to rip May-Eye's eyes out and scrambled her brain until she doesn't know left from right."

"Oh, dear brother," she said. "You will not harm Mother in such a way. You may have betrayed us, as has Sister Starfire. And you're not the only one who has been naughty."

Raven's grip on Progeny's head tightened. "Brother Progeny has been very naughty."

"Indeed he has!" Starfire stated emphatically, raising a Starbolt

Good, Noel thought. At least she's not blaming me for it anymore. He lashed out a Shimmer line, hoping to grab Progeny and Raven, but the shadows surrounded her again, and the two were gone…

"Great… Now what do we do?" Noel asked. "That witch has Raven and probably everyone but the four of us left in the atrium under her control... Kory?"

Starfire's head was moving at light speed, looking to see where Raven had gone to...

"I don't think she's still here, Star. Raven probably took Progeny straight to MME herself."

Suddenly, a portal opened up above Starfire's head, and four mechanical legs—the legs of Gizmo's backpack, snapped out and grabbed Starfire, then jerked her up into the portal. "Koriand'r!" Noel shouted, running towards the portal…

But it closed just as Star's feet passed through it, and Noel was alone…

"ARRGH!"

In a rage, Shimmer lines shot out, and began tearing apart the kitchen tiles, the chairs… everything he could find. He jerked out the two legs nearest him from under the table, and it fell forward, the basket of fruit and oven mitt falling off, the former with a resounding crash…

Noel did a double take, his rage vanishing, when he saw the fruit roll out, though… Were those… Was that what he thought it was?

Savior walked over a giant apple, and with slowly turned it around, careful not to bruise it… Sure enough.. The fruit had a face. A human face.

"Okay. I have now officially seen everything," he said. He reached out with this white-gloved hand, and gently tapped the face on the fruit… "Hello?"

The eyes suddenly snapped open, and the expression went from sleep to fright. "AAAHH! Ohnoohnopleasedon'tkillmeIDON'TWANNADIE!"

"Please, calm down, ma'am!" Savior said… At least, he assumed it was a ma'am from the voice. How do you figure out the gender of a giant fruit with a face?

"Ohnopleasedon't… please… just… go away!"

"Calm down!" Noel barked. "I'm not going to kill you… Who are you?"

The crying fruit sobbed a few times, then looked and saw Savior's Titan communicator, and sighed… "You're a Titan. Oh, thank God! M…my name is Shelly. I was working here—at the bank.. is that still where we are?"

"Sort of," Noel said.

"Those awful Hive kids came in and said they were robbing the place, and tied up all us tellers and shoved us in the elevators… and then…" The woman—as it now seemed this giant apple was—sobbed again, and looked worried. "Why can't I move my legs and arms… what did they do to me?"

"They… they didn't do this to you…" Savior said. Though it was their fault the Pie ever got into the bank, they hadn't meant for this to happen. "The bank has been taken over by a dark entity—a witch called Mother May-Eye…"

"What, is this some kind of bad comic book joke or something?" Shelly asked. "Mother May-Eye?"

"I'm not joking, ma'am," Noel said with a sigh. He didn't get paid enough for this… "I couldn't say this stuff with a straight face if I was."

"What has happened to me?"

Noel gulped. He might as well come out and say it. "Shelly, I'm sorry, but… you've been turned into a giant apple."

Shelly must have fainted or something, because her face suddenly went limp, and she began breathing in a slow, steady rhythm. "I'd probably have reacted similarly if someone had said that to me," Savior said. A quick check let him know that indeed, all the fruits he had spilled were former humans… And he probably would have started laughing out loud at the inhumanity of it all if this hadn't indicated to him—rightly—that Mother May-Eye had intended to EAT this people.

Noel made a shimmer-net and scooped up all the fruits, then began to shove them into the vent that would lead back to the atrium…

Suddenly, as the last fruit went through, he heard something behind him, and looked back to see the room vanishing around him and transforming into what looked like a giant little kids playground sandbox… "What now?"

Suddenly, a whirlwind of dust and sand exploded into the center of the room, and Noel ran towards the center of it, already knowing what he would find—or more accurately, who he would find.

Cursing the fact he was right, Noel stared into the glowing yellow eyes of Terra, who was now in a ballet outfit, and knew she must have been sent by big three-eyes herself to take him down…

"You and me both know," Tara said, "how this is going to end. Mother has seen it in your mind, Brother Noel. You lost to me before, you'll lose to me again!"

"NOT IN MY WORLD!"

Noel pulled his jacket closed and activated the auto-zip sequence—extra protection incase she tried to impale him.

"You won't surrender, so you must be punished. Mother May-Eye? May I teach our dear rebellious brother a lesson?"

YES,YOU MAY. Hehehehehehehehe!

Back in the candy room, Billy and Gauntlet were feeling sick.

"Ugh…" Billy said. "I feel like a rodeo clown with bull's horn up his butt."

Gauntlet groaned. "That is disgusting, but quite accurate."

Jinx, however, shook her head derisively. "You shouldn't have eaten all that candy. Too much sugar does this to you. Morons."

"Not that," said Gauntlet. "Weren't you paying attention during Noel's scene just now? Those fruits were people—which means the candy we ate earlier might also have been…"

Gauntlet threw up just thinking about it…

Jinx glanced over at INSTIGATOR, who, had asked to be called Ed, and grimaced. "What are we going to do with them?"

Ed shrugged his massive mechanical shoulders, and shook his head—which was really his whole body, too, hopelessly…

Next chapter: Tara and Noel—the REMATCH… (For real, this time. Honest!)