Teen Titans Legends
Maternal Instinct Chapter Seven

Angel arced down towards Robin, her razor wings threatening to slice him to ribbons. But the Boy Wonder was faster than the villainess, and backflipped out of the way just as Angel arrived. The girl managed to push up with her wings at the last minute, giving herself enough thrust to not slam into the ground.

Robin took advantage of the girl's momentary preoccupation and jumped forward, then kicked her and sent her hurtling away from him with a scream.

"Nice," Cyborg said, leveling his sonic cannon at Shimmer and firing off a round. Shimmer dodged. Then Mammoth smacked Cyborg's arm down so hard that Vic thought it was about to rip off.

"What do you think you're doing! That's my sister!"

Cyborg jumped away just as Shimmer got there and let her slam into Mammoth with all her body weight knocking him backwards. She followed this by transmuting his shirt into caustic acid.

"Yeah, she's all yours, Baran!" Cyborg shouted, running towards Angel.

Suddenly another patrol of Gingerbread soldiers materialized next to Cyborg and hurled themselves at them en masse. They weren't enough to take him down, but they caught him off guard and Cyborg plummeted with them off the high shelf and down into the sea of soldiers below.

"Cyborg!" Robin shouted, even as he arrived at Angel, swinging at her with his bo-staff. Unfortunately the distraction allowed Angel to catch him off guard with a sucker punch, and then the villainess followed it up with a kick to the stomach.

Robin didn't really feel it through his armor, but he was driven back enough to lose his advantage. He dodged over a swipe of razor-wing and hurled a birdarang at the other one, pinning it to the wall behind her.

Angela let out a scream and then retaliated by tossing a gum drop at Robin. Sensing the danger, Robin dived underneath it, only to have it explode as it slammed into Mammoth's now-bare back. The massive oaf snarled, already in pain from the acid and the beating his sister—who he was unwilling to harm—had been giving him.

"Watch it, Bird Boy!" he shouted over his shoulder.

Robin ignored him and tried to block another swipe from Angel's uninjured razor wing with his bo staff, only to have the weapon sliced in half at an angle, making the staff into two very sharp escrima sticks.

Okay, time for a new plan.

Robin lunged forward as she drew the wing back again, and stabbed one of the sticks into her other wing, and then into the wall. Then he bounded away and performed a spinning reverse crescent kick in the air, kicking the edge of his staff so hard with his steel-toed boot that it bent down.

It also sent a massive jolt of pain through his leg, forcing him to roll away from Angel's second gum drop grenade. Thankfully, both wings were impaled in places far out of the reach of Angel's arms, so Robin had plenty of time to get away from her and recover…

Suddenly, a weakened Mammoth toppled off of the shelf, even as his sister Selinda watched him fall, a sadistic grin on her face.

"Brother Baran has been bad. Bye bye Brother Baran."

"Ugh!" Robin snarled running forward and hurling his remaining escrima stick at Selinda, then jumping off the shelf and using his cape's memory cloth to glide down to the bottom… He'd fare a lot better against gingerbread men than he would against this new super Shimmer that May-Eye had created…

He hoped…

Terra felt like the chess game had been going on for an eternity, and had no idea how to respond to Noel's aggressive strategy. She was used to playing against Beast Boy, who normally played defensively if he played at all. But… perhaps a touchy subject with Noel.. perhaps if she brought it up, he would be distracted enough to make stupid mistakes.

"So," she started tentatively… "Why exactly did you blow up the base in Paris?"

Noel veinthrobbed. It was working. "Because," he said evenly. "They're criminals. I wanted to take their home away. No different than what the Titans did with Slade's first lair before I became a Titan."

"But… You killed a bunch of people…"

"There was nobody there to kill in Slade's lair, Terra," Noel said, clearly growing more annoyed.

"So, you think the Titans would have killed a bunch of people had they been there?" Tara asked, straining every ounce of acting talent she had to make it sound like an honest question, but rhetorical and disbelieving…

Noel bought it, it seemed.

"I'm not saying THAT!" He barked. "You're smarter than that Terra, so quit putting words in my mouth. You know I don't kill intentionally."

"Well, fine, but… You did end up vaporizing a third of our rogues gallery and—Well, you wouldn't have if you'd just kept your temper reigned in."

"Now you're just pushing my buttons," he muttered. "First Tim, now you. Yeah, I ACCIDENTALLY caused the deaths of a bunch of villains. No civilians got hurt, but that doesn't really matter because this blasted superhero morality that says even if a villain dies ACCIDENTALLY the hero has committed an unpardonable sin."

"I'm not saying that, but I still think you went overb—"

Savior cut her off. "Terra, you escaped getting caught. I didn't. The Brain wanted to EXTERMINATE us. Like we were rats. I had to stand around, frozen in ice, and listen to them make plans, gloat. Do you have any idea how these people can talk around their own? What they want?"

"Wait," said Terra. "You were conscious while you were frozen? How?"

"Shimmer."

"Oh." Terra, forgetting what she had started this conversation to accomplish, dived in. "I guess it's not the fact they died that bothers me so much, or even that it doesn't bother you that they did. It's the fact that they died because you were careless."

Savior didn't respond, but dodged the implication. "He wanted a war. I gave him one. And wars are mass psychosis. We all escaped alive. There was no damage to Paris except what the Brotherhood did themselves. I'd say that negates my carelessness."

" What if some of us had died? What if innocents had?"

" But they DIDN'T." Savior killed another of Terra's pawns.. she didn't have many left. Terra glanced at the board warily. "Tara, it's good to think of your mistakes. But navel gaze too long, you'll get lint on the brain. I made my choice, and every single hero can condemn me for it, no one's tried to arrest or charge me. No one's going to. So it's done."

After a moment, Terra made her movie.

Then Noel spoke again. "Besides, half the supervillain community is terrified of me now. They know I don't mess around."

"If it lets you sleep at night," Tara said absently.

Noel thought aloud. "Oh so that's the tact you want to adapt, hmmmm?"

After a beat, he continued. "Ok, answer me this: when I came down into the kitchen Thursday and found the chocolate sauce and the whipped cream everywhere, was that you and Gar or Tim and Kory? Because that was a MESS, Tara."

Suddenly, Terra felt the blood drain from her face. She had to answer this question cautiously or blow her big secret. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said.

"You're lying."

Tara gave a nervous chuckle. "Am not. It sounds like Sophie was trying to get fatter or something!"

"When lying, watch your eyes, Tara. They betray you." Noel moved his remaining knight forward. "The left side of your brain is where information is stored. The right side is the 'creative' side. The side you use to lie. The side to which you just looked."

" I'm.. I'm…. Not lying," Tara said, forcing herself to look to the left. She wasn't lying—she didn't know who had made the mess… but Noel was prying into PERSONAL matters, darn it!

" When you try and remember something, your eyes flick up, ever so briefly…"

Suddenly, Tara totally lost it at the accusation Noel wasn't even thinking about making. " IT' NOT MY FAULT I'M STILL A VIRGIN, NOEL! DON'T JUDGE ME! DON'T JUDGE ME! YOU AND YOUR LUCK! BLASTED SKANK RAVEN BLAH BLAH BLAH I'M NOT LISTENING!... It's not my fault even! It's all Gar's fault! Every time I'm in the mood he goes on and on about how Rita and Steve wouldn't approve and tells me to just fake it and pretend like we've gone all the way! He's driving me crazy! Everything you think you've heard since Light City was ALL A LIE! And a lie I'm SICK OF! ARUGH!"

Noel blinked after the childish rant had ended. "Terra. Too much information."

" Your right is my left!" Terra blurted, still covering her ears and closing her eyes. She opened them long enough to move a piece.

"I swear I have no idea about the chocolate. Like I said, it must have been Sophie making herself fatter…. Or something."

"Tara...I was insinuating whoever used it used it for...games."

Terra veinthrobbed. "I KNOW what you were insinuating... But that would have been heard by someone... Or recoded on tower security. What do you think the tower is? A Dodge Durango?"

"The doors were closed, and security was disabled…" Noel said, trailing off. "Which means it was Tim and Kory. Well hope he had fun. I didn't. I had to clean it up."

Terra shrugged.

"And we're young adults Terra," Noel said, turning his attention back to the chess board. "As long as you're using protection I don't care what you do."

Tara frowned. "I think we both need to forget this conversation ever happened."

"My thoughts exactly," Savior said, moving his knight one last time. "Checkmate."

"NO!" Terra shouted, staring at the board for any way out of check and finding none. "No, no, no!"

"When I was discussing the sensitive stuff Terra, you paid too much attention to me," said Savior. "Classic misdirection, my dear." He knocked Terra's king over with a finger…

And Terra, beaten by the strategy she was trying to use on Savior, walked to the other side of the safe and began to sulk.

Gauntlet and Progeny stood back to back next to the Venus-statue fountain, even as the possessed Beast Boy and Private Hive closed in on them… Beast Boy shrunk down and came back up, now a menacing grizzly bear, while Private Hive approached with his shield… which was nowhere near as menacing.

"Oh, man," Gauntlet said, "this isn't good. I hope my parents don't have to see my body. My mom doesn't handle violence well."

Progeny glared at him. "Your mom's a freaking NINJA, Candide."

"She's a sensitive ninja," Gauntlet protested. "Poisoned shuriken, a cracked neck, sure, but blood makes her freak."

"I don't believe you," Progeny said evenly.

Gauntlet just shrugged. What did he care whether or not Progeny believed his veritable mendacities? No skin off his bones.

Suddenly, Beast Boy leapt forward, trying to rip the skin of Gauntlet's bones with his razor sharp teeth. "You're ripping off jokes from Ed, Edd, and Eddy now?" Gauntlet whined. "You're really digging the bottom of the barrel."

"Shut up and fight!" Progeny said, grabbing a piece of the fourth wall and hurling it at Beast Boy. The changeling reeled from the blow and Progeny jumped on the bear's head, then hurled all of his body off, but left his feet there, pressing them telekinetically against Gar's neck, hoping to cut off the flow of blood to his brain.

The rest of his body, meanwhile, hurled itself at Private Hive, trying to bury Leonard in a flurry of punches, elbows, and knees… But Hive was able to block most of the blows, and bashed Progeny back with his shield. Gauntlet jumped in, grabbing Hive with his energy and hurling him across the room.

Beast Boy transformed into a massive gorilla and caught Hive, then threw him back at Progeny, which distracted the body dissembler long enough for Beast Boy to pry the feet from his neck, restoring blood flow.

Now really angry, Gar charged forward, gunning for Progeny. Rob jumped in between them, however, to intercept. Beast Boy raised both Gorilla arms up and made a hammer smash down towards the Titan. Gauntlet responded by holding up a massive broad shield made of Gauntlet energy. The resulting blow sent Gauntlet flying backwards through the Venus statue—but instead of knocking off the arms to make it look like the Venus de Milo as the cliché goes, he plowed through everything else, leaving only the base and the arms in tact.

Then he slammed into the wall and stopped caring about the statue. Now he had a massive headache…

Meanwhile, Progeny and Private Hive slammed into the railing of the false balcony they were fighting on, causing it to become less and less stable as their wrestling match continued along the precipice of the balcony, causing each other minor pain but neither really getting anywhere.

Gauntlet retaliated against Beast Boy by forming a dual set of giant hammers with the gauntlet energy, then slamming them into his head simultaneously. Gauntlet attacked again with a series of hammer strikes all over the changeling's body. Gar angrily dived forward, but Gauntlet was able to get up a shield in time to stop him.

Beast Boy then transformed into a wolf and dive tackled Gauntlet, going through a duo of hammer attacks that the boy-blunder had screwed up. Beast Boy roared, the sound hurting Gauntlet's ears even as he closed his eyes and prepared for the possessed shape-shifter to tear his throat out.

Suddenly, the smell of wolf vanished and he heard a familiar voice speak. "Would you stop it already, I'm on your side again!" Gar shouted.

"Oh…" Gauntlet said, his face turning red with embarrassment. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Yeah, you oughta be. These bruises are going to—"

"Up your street cred," Gauntlet cut him off.

"Yeah," said Gar, not disguising his annoyance.. "All, thanks to you, they're gonna up my street cred… I mean…" Gar shot a narrow-eyed glance at Rob, but then his expression soften, and became one of curiosity. "You really think they'll up my street cred?"

Taking his way out, Gauntlet nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yeah. Most definitely. You'll be the talk of the town, Gar. Terra will dig it."

Suddenly, a cry of fear and pain from Progeny alerted them that the fight wasn't over. Gar and Rob turned to see Private Hive, Holding Progeny's head above his own, while all four of the young man's limbs were scattered across the floor, covered in pieces of statue or fourth wall and unable to come to the head's rescue.

"Surrender, soldiers!" ordered Hive, "Or I crush this man's head between my bare hands."

"You're wearing gloves," Gauntlet observed.

"DROP AND GIVE ME FIFTY!" Private Hive shouted. "You will not question authority, private. As long as you are rebelling against Mother, you are the enemy. Is that clear?"

"Crystal." The voice was not Gar or Rob's, but Progeny's. Suddenly, Progeny's torso, which had apparently gone over the edge of the balcony in the scuffle flew up and slammed into Private Hive's back, knocking him forward. Gauntlet jumped over the mind-controlled youth and used a Gauntlet-energy crow-bar to pry Hive's helmet off, and Beast Boy finished the job by smashing him over the head with one of the Venus statue's arms…

"Mission… Complete…" Private Hive said as he passed out from the concussion.

Thanks to Billy and Libre, carrying the block-people around was easy enough—Libre and INSTIGATOR could carry several, and Billy could carry one per duplicate. The hard part (for Jinx anyway) was getting them to shut up and just do the job. Unfortunately, being around her old associates was starting to wear on her. Thoughts questioning why she should care about these block people, what did they matter, kept popping into her head.

She tried to shut them out, and insist that she was different now… But in the presence of her the HIVE 5, all sorts of old memories were coming back to her. If only Cyborg were here. Everything seemed so obvious and clear when she was with him.

"Just keep on going," she called back through the narrow hallway. "I think we're almost to the next… room…?"

The room she entered was totally the opposite direction of from where they had come, and yet somehow they once again found themselves back in the giant candy room, complete with INSTIGATOR's discarded teddy bear outfit on the floor.

"Well tarnation," Billy3 said. "This is juuust great. Now where to, Miss Truth and Justice?"

Jinx veinthrobbed. "Well, in any event, we're not going to starve as long as we're here. Put the blocks down and rest for a minute while I think about what to do next."

All the Hive members complied, and separated into two camps—Billy and Kid Wykkid on one side, and Ed, Llarenes, and Carlos on the other. The second camp, while certainly not composed of good guys, trusted Jinx enough to get the job done. Billy and Kid Wykkid may have had other plans in mind. Problem was, with Billy on that side, they were outnumbered 2 to 3.

"This unit," began Ed, "suggests that we take no action that could potentially incite distrust within this group."

"They already distrust me," Jinx said. "I doubt you two really do."

Libre glanced at her. "Te confiamos como lider. Es suficiente."

Jinx gave him a weak smile. "I didn't understand a word of that, but thanks." She looked over towards one of the room's windows, and stared out into the blackness… Until suddenly, that void was filled by a massive green eye.

Starfire and Raven hovered through the MC Escher-esque maze of illogical corridors and special impossibilities that the bank had become under the influence of Mother May-Eye. Gizmo, his ability to speak temporarily sealed off by Raven after he'd given her too much lip, tagged along behind silently.

Suddenly, Starfire's head turned towards what appeared to be a tiny gingerbread house and hovered over towards it, her head titled to the side in curiosity.

"What is it, Star?" asked Raven.

"It is strange. I could have just sworn I heard the voices of Billy, the Kid Wykkid, and Friend Llarenes coming from the amusing little edible dwelling."

"That's not probable," Raven said. "Unless we've been grown to massive proportions, or unless they've been shrunk."

"Magic is capable of this, yes?" Starfire asked.

"Well, true," Raven said, "But would May-Eye have that kind of magic?"

The question hung in the air for a bit. "Shall I look?" Starfire asked at length.

Raven frowned. "Knock yourself out, just don't eat the whole house in one bite."

Smiling broadly, Kory hovered over to the house and examined the interior, placing her eye up to one of the small windows…

Inside, it was a wonder land of delicious earth treats—the walls, floor, everything were all made of sweets. There was also a large stack of strange building blocks, dividing two groups of action figures…

No, not action figures… PEOPLE!

The Jinx figure suddenly saw the eye about the same time Starfire realized that it was really Jinx and not just a toy, and both gasped.

"Friend Jinx!" She blurted. "What has happened to you? You are so small!"

"Starfire!" Jinx gasped. "How the… What… made you so.. big?"

"I was unaware that it was I who was large… I merely assumed that you had been shrunk…"

Billy Numerous stepped forward. "You know, us being the ones shrunk would make a lot more sense than her being the big'un. I mean, it would explain that their giant crib we fought in, and why these here play blocks are big as a spittoon can."

"My gosh…" Jinx exclaimed. "You're right, Billy!"

Billy smiled broadly. "It's been a dream of the fam'ly to be right f'rt near three generations. Grandpa and mah Dad/Uncle would be proud."

"Billy fue correcto? Es el fin del mundo!" shouted Libre.

Suddenly, Raven's voice boomed from outside the room the miniature heroine and villains were trapped in… "Who are you talking to, Kory?"

"It is our friend Jinx and our... not.. friends, Libre, the Kid Wykkid, INSTIGATOR, and Billy the Numerous."

Suddenly, Raven's massive violet eye appeared in the window next to Starfires. "Oh. You were right."

"Indeed," said Star. "Raven, do you think you can help our fellow victim's retain proper size?"

"Maybe. Hold on." Raven closed her eyes and began meditating. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

Gizmo began poking on Raven's shoulder, and groaning something.

"Not now, Mikron. I'm busy."

The tapping got more insistent, but Raven continued to ignore him.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Gizmo fumed, flying over to Starfire and poking on her shoulder. Starfire turned to see what Gizmo wanted. "How may I be of service to you?"

"MMM! MMM! MMM!" Gizmo 'shouted' through his unworking lips, pointing off in another direction… Starfire followed his finger… Suddenly, her face grew alarmed.

"Raven…" she began, tapping on the younger woman's shoulder. "Raven…"

"Starfire, I'm busy. This is a really delicate spell. I can't be interrupted…"

Starfire began to sweat as she nervously hummed a few bars of Ruthga Bumgorf. "Raven, I really insist that you must turn your attention away from the small ones momentarileeeiiii…."

Starfire's last word transformed into a squeal as a she jumped out of the way, a red tentacle lashing by, shocking Raven out of her focus…

"What in the name of Azar…?"

Raven looked up to find her answer. A massive beast that resembled a lovecraftian entity.

Made of pure red licorice. Its head and gaping maw were like the Sarlaac of Tatooine, but without the Special Edition 'beak' attached. This was surrounded by a gaggle of licorice tentacles that waved ominously, even as the creature drew closer.

"Why didn't someone mention we were being attacked?" Raven asked.

"We tried," Starfire said. "But you were preoccupied by your spell-weaving."

"Remind me to tell Noel how much I don't appreciate his traits rubbing off on me." The Azarathian turned back to the floating gingerbread house. "Sorry guys, I don't have time to do this right. This should make you big again, but where you'll end up, I can't say. REKAMD NEGEL!"

The spell surrounded the gingerbread house, and in an instant, it was gone. Raven turned and waved a hand, unlocking the speech center of Gizmo's brain.

"You crud munching Titan!" he shouted.

"Mikron, shut up and fight." Raven floated forward, her eyes glowing black. "Where is Savior?" she demanded of the monster. "Azarath…"

Starfire swooped forward, peppering the creature with Starbolts, while Gizmo, down to just a few weapons, used his classic low-yield energy beam to blast the tentacles away.

"Metrion…"

The creature charged forward, its tentacles a flurry of motion…

"ZINTHOS!"

Elsewhere…

Deep underneath Jump City, there is quite a complex system of pipes and sewers. It was the perfect place for Slade to hide his second lair, and it would have served the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or perhaps their foe the Rat King, quite nicely.

Right now, only two beings inhabited this area, one the descendant of a demon, the other an android…

Metatron and Viridian.

"And," asked Viridian, "How exactly did this flame war get started?" Her voice was completely without emotion, her question asked without any evident curiosity.

"Well, I just commented on his movie," replied Metatron, "saying that it was pretty good but he needed to mute the sound effects in the starship bridge scenes because they were distracting. He replied by saying that they 'set the ambiance' and he'd leave them in if he wanted to."

"And then you lost your temper," Viridian observed.

"Well, pretty much," answered the demon. "But he was the one who acted like a jerk to begin with."

"It seems strange that ambient noise in these online facsimiles of real movies is so frowned upon. Did not most old science fiction have such unrealistic onomatopoeia?"

"Well, yeah," said Met. "And it was annoying as hell there, too."

"I trust that is hyperbole," said Viridian. "I find it unlikely that any medium of entertainment, no matter how poorly made, could be as annoying as hell in the literal sense."

"You'd be surprised, Bliss," Metatron said. "Hell can't be as bad as they say. I must have been there five years and I don't remember a thing."

Viridian shook her head. "From the report I downloaded, your soul never even left your body in the first place. Your 'death' was essentially a prolonged death-like coma, not entirely unlike what Superman suffered after his first battle with Doomsday."

Metatron scowled at her. What did she know about dying? Sure, she'd had her body destroyed a few times, but she was a machine. She didn't die like a person would. Then again, it was that attitude towards her that resulted in most of her negative opinions of humanity… And he didn't actually remember anything in the five years between his death and return… So where had he been? Perhaps he would never really know. Perhaps he'd be better off without such knowledge.

Met quickly changed the subject. "Hey, here we are. Unless I'm reading the map wrong, this pipe directly ahead will lead us right underneath the bank."

"If the heroes up on the surface were incapable of breaching the shield around this facility, what makes you so certain we can get in down here?"

"Simple," said Metatron. "If you can't go through a dome-shield, go under it."

"But what if the shield is not a dome, but rather fits the entire building—including all possible points of entry—in a form-fitting manner?"

"Nonsense," Met said. "No supervillain is that sma---"

KRAKOW

Metatron's sentence was cut off as he walked into an invisible magic barrier identical to the one on the surface, which threw him to the ground.

"As I suspected," Viridian said. "This entire venture was a complete waste of time."

Metatron's face transformed into an expression of sheer determination. "I'm not giving up that easily."

"Suit yourself," Viridian said. "I believe I will shut off and recharge while you expend precious time and energy on futility."

As the android did just that, Metatron summoned his yellow fire energy, and began blasting at the shield. He'd get in there, even if it sent him back to an early grave.

"Waste of energy," Viridian commented. "I am going to shut down until you concur. Restart me with the word 'affirmative'."

"Affirmative," Met said absently.

"Was that an attempt at humor?" Viridian asked, as she began shutting down. "Remember that your audience is currently devoid of emotion."

"Yeah, yeah," Metatron said. He went back to blasting, hoping he could get the two inside before the Titans were all dead…

If they weren't dead already…

0000

Some time later, Private Hive had finally come to, and was now trying to regain his bearings with the help of the rather unhelpful Progeny. Still, it was better than having to admit to needing the help of one of the blasted Teen Titans. "Now what will we do, soldier?"

"Well, as long as the bank is like this, a bank heist is out of the question. Best case scenario is that the Titans get themselves killed or at least beat up in the process of fixing this mess and we get away, preferably with some loot."

"That would be dishonorable conduct for a soldier. No man left behind, not when they're our only ticket to freedom."

"We're not soldiers," Progeny protested. "We're criminals. We can do whatever we want once we're out of here, and we can do whatever we need to to get out of here."

"Ahem."

The two HIVE members turned to see Gauntlet standing over them. "If you two are done plotting against us, we might have a job for you."

"What… do you mean…?" Progeny asked, gulping.

Beast Boy chimed in. "Rob said you told him about some sort of crystal that was keeping everyone sealed inside the bank, and everyone outside sealed in, right?"

"He says I did," replied Progeny. "I don't have any memory of it."

Gauntlet reached into his pocket removed the... script. How he had the script to a story he was participating in is anybody's guess. Perhaps he perchasedi t off eBay. Nevertheless, he had it, and thumbed through the pages until he got to the right spot. "Ah, here it is."

"Because," Progeny started, almost giddy with glee. "Mother has placed a massive impenetrable field of magic around the whole building! The only way to get in is to shatter the Indestructible Gem of the Ultimate Seal Spell, which is INSIDE on the top floor and guarded by…"

"So," said Beast Boy, "we just go to the top floor and take down whatever is guarding this indestructible crystal, which we then must destroy. Simple enough."

"See, Logan," Rob said. "I told you Chaltab was the fair one! I may have lost at the video game, but now we get to be the big heroes."

"Yeah, right," Beast Boy said, trailing off. "It almost seems… too easy."

"Shut up or you're going to jinx us," Gauntlet said. "Just let me grab my bag of books and let's be off. Besides, I have a score to settle with that witch for making me dig through a pie for body parts."

"My body parts," Progeny reminded him. "I mean she was gonna flippin' eat me!"

"And that is why we have to shut her down," Rob said. "Now come on, Arturo, Leonard. You're going to be the Big Heroes with us--whether you like it or not!"

As Robin and Cyborg continued to tear through the masses of Gingerbread men, dodging the tentacles of the Licorice Warriors, Tim's mind began working…. As he noticed something.

Jumping atop a Snickerdoodle Samurai, Robin got a good enough vantage point to see that indeed the forces were emptying out of the giant kitchen, going elsewhere as if they were preparing for a battle. The Licorice Warriors had all but one left, and that one was more acting as a guard than combatant, smacking at anyone who got too close to the massive door the exodus was happening from.

His suspicions were further confirmed when he noticed they were arming themselves to the proverbial teeth with candy cane staffs, gumdrop grenades, and lollypop mallets. Quickly removing a birdarang, Robin dug it into the Samurai's neck, tearing the head off and back flipping away as it collapsed…

"Cyborg," he shouted. "That oven is producing more soldiers by the minute. Shutting it down gives us a tactical advantage."

"Right!" he shouted back. "How should we go about it?"

"It's a gas oven," Robin observed. "Tell Mammoth to smash open the door, then we'll sonic boom it."

"Sounds like a plan, but you might have to take on his sister while he's working!" Vic's words were emphasized when Mammoth flew over and landed on the pile of Gingerbread Soldiers that Robin was just about to thrash.

"Baran, go smash a hole in that giant oven, trust me. I have a plan."

"Sure, if you say so," he said. "But if I find out you hurt my sister…"

"JUST GO, I'll take care of Shimmer."

"Right," Mammoth said… "Be gentle."

Robin shook his head. Shimmer could be just as deadly as anyone else in the HIVE—scratch that, more deadly. She could transmute the blood in Superman's veins to kryptonite given the chance and a good reason to do so. It would turn back to blood eventually, sure, but by then the damage would be done.

Tim had all this in mind as he charged forward, his bo-staff ready to strike, ready to do whatever was needed to take Shimmer down--because Mammoth wouldn't.

Shimmer saw Robin coming and grabbed a chunk of a destroyed solider and transmuted the Gingerbread into acid. Robin rolled away from the caustic liquid and swept Shimmer's legs from under her with his staff, then jumped forward as she got up, striking her in the face with his palm. (That was his brand of gentle.)

Shimmer retaliated by trying to reach for his chest and transmute it into something awful. Robin blocked her hands long before they got close enough, however, knocking her arms aside with his bo and then taking a step back as he brought the staff down on her shoulder and neck, striking major nerve cluster.

Destabilized, Shimmer staggered back then knelt down. She had apparently been weakened severely by the blow.

At the last minute Robin remembered that appearances can be deceiving, and jumped away as Shimmer's hands it the floor, and the floor where Robin had been standing became hot tar.

"Rebellious little boy!" Shimmer shouted, leaping over the tar pit she had just created and slamming her elbow into the Boy Wonder's face. Tim took the blow in kind, falling backwards and thrusting his leg into Shimmer's gut and lifting her off the ground with a thrust of his leg. Shimmer's flight was cut short, however, when Angel, riding on Cyborg's sonic cannon beam, sailed over Robin's head, slamming into Shimmer and the two of them flying off into the distance where they slammed into the refrigerator…

Robin and Cyborg both darted over, throwing a precursory glance back at the oven to see that Mammoth was having trouble getting there. He might need help, but that would come after the girls were subdued…

As the Titans approached, a confused and panicked look stretched across the face of Shimmer. "STOP! Wait…!"

She looked fearfully at the Titans. "Before you arrest me, please tell me why my head hurts so bad, and why I'm in such a stupid outfit."

Angel glanced at her, and gave a shrug that indicated she was wondering the same thing.

Cyborg and Robin looked at each other, the former shrugging. "Well?"

"We need all the help we can get," Robin said. "Selinda, Angela, consider yourself honorary Titans for the time being."

"Whoopee," said Angel, as she began to massage her aching temples.

Well, that's it for chapter seven. I've thought of a new plot twist, so things are going to be moving a bit faster than I'd originally planned. Stay tuned for the next chapter. It should come faster than this one.