Chapter Nine: The Plot Plays Twister
Somewhere in the dark recesses of the bank, a single yellow jewel stood in the middle of a circular room. All around dead grey licorice tentacles hung, destroyed by one teenager's Shoryuken…
And near the base of the gem, a small metal spike poked out. Gauntlet thought he'd created a paradox. He thought wrong… What was really gone on was much more… sinister.
The Gem began to crack, slowly but surely… It wouldn't be much longer now. The Seal Spell would be broken, and then, it would all be over. Mother Mae-Eye would be no more..
Like a fleet of dreadnaughts heading into a tempest, the eleven Teen Titans and ten Hive Five-Times-Two members charged ahead into the flood of Mae-Eye's soldiers. They were out numbered by double digits; it didn't matter. One Titan could take down a hundred Gingerbread soldiers. A few could take down thousands alone. The Hive members similarly outclassed their cookie-based opponents. Even Angel and Shimmer proved more than a match for the Gingerbread soldiers.
Those were not the problem, they were just a nuisance.
A nuisance that Tim Drake and Noel Collins were currently tearing through to get to the true threats—the AT-ATs and Licorice Warriors. Them, and Nigel. That one of their own was still with Mae-Eye was bad enough. That he was a military man, believed himself to be Mae-Eye's husband, and was clad in gaudy Victorian clothing just made it worse.
"I hope you didn't happen to kill anyone while we were separated," Robin barked, punching his way through a duo of Limedrop Legionnaires before drawing his bo-staff and stabbing it through a Sugarcookie Commando.
Savior, annoyed by Robin's snarky attitude, jumped over an attacking soldier and let its candy cane stave hook Robin's leg and pull him down before killing the soldier and helping Robin up. "You've got a real attitude problem, you know that?"
Robin shot a glance at him. "So I've been told. Mostly by you. But Savior, you've not been the same since Slade broke your mind. You've been getting more and more violent and it has to stop before you go overboard."
"Look who's talking!" Savior blurted, jump-kicking at Robin. Tim ducked in time for the kick to fly over his head and slam into the Oreo Ogre behind him, just as intended. Savior then lopped the Ogre's head off with an S4. "The Joker once broke your mind just like Slade broke mine. In another universe, you killed him for it!"
Robin bashed another group of soldiers. "Savior, you know me. I'm not that Tim Drake."
"Yeah, and I'm not Christmas!" Noel shot back, hitting a second Oreo Ogre, bringing it down. "And I never will be."
Robin nodded as both came to a mutual understanding that their little co-leader spat would have to wait.
"So, Boy Wonder, what's the plan now?" Savior shimmer-leapt over an attacking Snickerdoodle Specialist and sliced him in half with an S4 blade. Another soldier rushed at him with a candy cane, but Savior blocked it, then parried and cut him across the midsection.
"We have to focus on getting Scalpel jarred out of his brainwashing," Robin said. "He's strong enough himself to take down the AT-ATs for us." Robin deflected a candy cane with his bo-staff and delivered a powerful kick to the soldier's face, shattering it.
"So I'm not the only one who noticed the resemblance," Savior smirked, tearing through another group of soldier's with his S4s.
Three more came up behind Robin, and he quickly reversed his staff, slamming it into the ground and using it as an axis to swing around and take out all three, then using a low sweep as soon as he landed to trip up several more behind them.
"Okay, but that's easier said than done," Savior said, then briefly recounted the bonk-proofing that Mae-Eye had given to Terra. "If I can force him to remember Sophie, we might be able to jar him out of it."
"And just how do you plan to do that. By the way, do you have any projectile weapons? I'm empty."
A soldier hit Savior in the gut, and he returned the blow harder, and grimaced. "You could borrow Adam's piece," he said.
Robin narrowed his eyes. "Not my style, Savior. You know that. Besides, I doubt a 9mm will do much good against these things."
Savior decapitated a third Ogre. "Point taken. I've been saving this for a rainy day; never thought you'd be the one to break it in."
"Huh?" Robin looked back to see Noel hand him a small staff with twin scythe blades on the end of it.
"Press the button on the handle to key it to your vitals. It will work like a boomerang."
Tim nodded. "Where did you get this?"
"Wayne Tech makes it. I hid the purchase in Beast Boy's tofu budget. It's…"
Robin cut him off. "Bigger than I'd think."
"Yeah. So, what is the plan then?" Noel asked finally.
"You go after Scalpel, try and jar his memory. I'll take your toy and try to stop those Licorice Warriors."
Savior nodded. "Titans Go?"
"Of course. And Savoir…"
Noel turned back. "Yes?"
"Consider your demotion rescinded."
Noel smirked. "I'd already forgotten about it."
Jinx and Billy Numerous were respectively the brain and nerve center of the Hive Five's war machine. Jinx gave the orders, and Billy relayed them via his ability to be in many places at once. Jinx was satisfied with this, for now, though she knew it couldn't be too long before the orders got disastrously misinterpreted between one Billy and the next. Jinx smirked. Savior had always said wars were mass psychosis. It was time to put that theory to the test.
The pink haired charmer turned to the Billy next to her. "Angel and Gizmo need to grab any projectiles they can and stay airborne. Mae-Eye doesn't have anything that can fly on her side…"
Just then, a massive burst of bubbling-hot maple syrup exploded from one of the graham cracker AT-ATs, almost hitting Jinx and Billy1, but barely missing. "Did you get that?" she asked her Billy.
"The order has been reeeeee-layed," he said, struggling to take down a Gingerbread Soldier. "Whut now?"
"Baran and Donavon," Jinx said, then blasted a group of soldiers with her Hex Blasts. "Tell them both to head for that nearest AT-AT and take it down. Kid Wykkid can teleport there via its own shadow, right?"
"Yer a'askin' me?" Billy1 said incredulously. "I reckon so." The Billy turned and relayed the order to another Billy, who sent it on down the line.
"Good enough for now," Jinx said. "Everyone else just needs to keep on doing what they're doing."
Had Jinx known exactly what Private Hive was doing, she might have rethought her statement. What he was doing was trying to stay alive. His personal Billy had been melted by the AT-AT, and then he'd been knocked down by a Snickerdoodle Stormtrooper. When he looked up, there was an Oreo Ogre smashing down at him with a giant lollipop.
Leonard rolled out of the way, but the Ogre kept coming, striking the ground where he had been whenever the Private moved.
"Oh, I wish I still had my shield," he whined, even as the Ogre attacked him again.
Suddenly, a large green raptor dropped in and smashed the Ogre, then turned back in to Beast Boy. "Dude, a real soldier doesn't need to hide behind a shield. Just fight!"
Private Hive stood up and glared at him, even as Beast Boy took out a Gingerbread Soldier with his fist, grabbing its gumdrop grenades. "Take these," he said. "And whatever else you can find. Just start smashing stuff, and quit acting like a drill sergeant jerk!"
Leonard took the grenades and the giant sucker the Ogre had tried to clobber him. "I will show you, cadet. I'm not to be insulted by those I outrank!"
Shaking his head with frustration, Beast Boy transformed into a rhino and charged away towards a group of soldiers, leaving Leonard alone.
Private Hive stood up, placed the grenades on his belt, and leveled the sucker in his hands. He'd show that little grass stain!
Near the legs of one of the Graham AT-ATs, a black blur flickered out from the shadows; Mammoth and Kid Wykkid appeared, preparing to attack the sugar-filled death machine.
Suddenly, a blue and white blur crashed into the nearest foot, causing Mammoth and Wykkid to scatter. Graham exploded from it into a cloud of dust, and when it cleared.. Cyborg sat in the hole his body had made in the AT-AT's foot.
"Oh, hiyah, fellas," Cyborg said, shrugging off his disorientation. "That was unexpected."
"What are you doing here?" Mammoth barked at him.
Cyborg stood up and dusted himself off. "Starfire threw me over here to take this thing down," he said, indicating the AT-AT. "I guess you two can help."
"Ha!" Mammoth pushed Cyborg out of the way and charged forward. "Maybe you'll be the one helping us!" Mammoth started to climb the AT-ATs massive leg; as he climbed he began muttering, "Good fer'nothin' Titan."
Cyborg glanced at Kid Wykkid, who just shrugged.
"Alright then," Cyborg said. "How about I send you up top and you take out the driver?"
Again, Donavon just shrugged.
"I suppose that's a yes," Cyborg said, grabbing the young shadow master. "I lifted a building once, so you should be no problem…" And with that, Cyborg hurled Kid Wykkid into the air, far past Mammoth, all the way to the top of the AT-AT, where he twisted in the air and landed with a crunch, the graham-cracker surface of the vehicle breaking under his feet. Immediately, he saw on of the drivers leave the control centre.
Kid Wykkid's eyes widened when he saw that the driver was a Snickerdoodle Samurai, his sharpened rock-candy katana looking as though it could slice through polished diamond.
He charged at him, his shadow-blades armed and dangerous…
But down below, Cyborg saw something else. He had just begun blasting the leg joints of the AT-AT when it happened, and since he had only been doing cosmetic damage anyway, he immediately stopped.
Because Scalpel was on the move. He had seen Kid Wykkid land on top of the AT-AT and leapt from his own towards that one… And Cyborg knew that the kid was no match for an angry Blacktrinian…
Dashing out from under the legs of the walker, Cyborg charged his sonic cannon as high as he could get it and still get the shot off in time, then blasted. The blue-white energy beam of sound so compressed it glowed arced out and slammed into the leaping Blacktrinian in mid-flight, sending him flying across the Atrium… Towards the rest of the Titans and Hive members.
"I hope he doesn't land near Savior," Cyborg worried aloud. And then he thought of Metatron's gun… And the Blacktrinian weakness to bullets.
"Or worse… Adam."
At that moment, Adam was diving into a pile of Gingerbread Soldiers, tearing them apart with his demon strength and speed. Claws lashed out, and Metatron thought of spreading his wings, but decided they'd likely just get punctured if he did, in all the chaos and what not.
Three anti-tank rounds blasted loudly near him, and he turned to see Viridian, wielding the big gun over her shoulder. Metatron smiled, realizing that this android alone could level the playing field a lot.
Suddenly, Metatron was hit in the back with a lollipop mallet and knocked forward. He rolled as he landed and turned as he got up, blasting the attacking cookie trooper with a burst of yellow fire. His foe disintegrated under the heat of his blast, and Metatron picked up the lollypop to use for himself.
He ran into a group of soldiers, and began going to town like that guy from Project HAMMER, breaking every one of them he could find with his sucker of death…
Until another burst from one of the AT-AT's syrup cannons doused the part-demon teen in a glob of scalding hot maple syrup. Thankfully, Met's resistance to heat allowed him to manage not to die as he was hit, but it sent him flying and then rolling backwards.
Met got up covered in sticky syrup. He immediately burnt as much off of him as he could with his yellow fire, and started gunning for the nearest enemies. Sure, it was the big walker-thing that had blasted him, but it was dangerous-looking and far away. Metatron proffered to take his anger out on things that probably wouldn't be able to kill him.
He drew his gun and unloaded three rounds into a nearby Oreo Ogre, before deciding it was futile…
Then it occurred to him that Scalpel was still on the side of the enemies.
And Blacktrinians were weak against bullets… A horrible thought of murder crossed his mind, and he forced it out. "I'm not a monster!" He barked at himself, even as he sliced up the Oreo Ogre that had just taken three rounds.
Another anti-tank round echoed out from Viridian's rifle; nearby, the head of a Licorice Warrior exploded into a million tiny chunks of candy confetti.
This gave Metatron an idea… Darting over to where Bliss was, he flipped his gun over and held it by the barrel. He extended it towards the android, even as she switched to her machine gun and mowed down a line of Gingerbread Soldiers.
"What is this for?" she asked him. "I already have firearms far superior to that one."
Metatron frowned. "I know that, Bliss, but if I have it, I might end up using it on Scalpel. You know how I am."
Bliss smashed Adam over the shoulder, forcing him down even as she brought her machine gun around and tore through an attacking line of Soldiers. "You are often impulsive and reckless, acting on emotion rather than tactical analysis of the situation."
"Right, all that stuff," Adam said, rubbing his bruised trapezius muscle. "It's got twelve rounds left in it. I want you to hold on to it and only use it on Nigel as a last resort."
More machine gun rounds exploded from Bliss' gun, deafening the young man further. He still managed to hear her when she next spoke. "Define last resort."
"Only if he's like, disabled everyone else or if we can't make him snap out of his brainwashing. For crying out loud, Bliss, use that brain of yours—you'll know when it is last resort time!"
"Acknowledged," Bliss said, with a tinge of uncertainty in her voice. (Adam thought it strange, but then again, uncertainty was a scientific principle if you asked Heisenberg. Maybe it wasn't an emotion so much as it was a state of mind.)
Regardless, she took the gun and attached it to a magnetic clamp at her waist, then resumed shooting everything that moved.
Well, except Adam.
Even as Private HIVE and INSTIGATOR blasted their way through a barely-averted flank attack by the cookie army, Gauntlet collapsed onto his knees, then fell onto his back, breathing hard.
The wound in his shoulder hadn't gotten any better as the fight got rougher, and now, he was down for the count. He'd lost too much blood, and nobody noticed since his shirt was completely covered in vaguely reddish chocolate…
Nobody except Raven, at least.
It was a good thing she was actually someone who could do something about it. "Robert! Are you alright?" Raven blurted, bending over to find his chocolate coated shirt also partly soaked in blood.
"Idiot!" she hissed. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were wounded?"
Gauntlet muttered something about Miho from Sin City getting into a fight with his mother…
Completely delirious. Well, even more so than Robert normally was. Raven sighed, and began doing what she could to draw his pain into her body and close the wound. Savior still held a grudge for what had happened during the Old One's bunker debacle shortly after Rob had joined the team, but Raven refused to hold it against him. Gauntlet may have been an idiot, but he'd done the best he could at the time.
The wound went all the way through his shoulder, Raven realized as the pain seeped in. What was he thinking not getting that looked at immediately. "Idiot!"
"I didn't know you cared, Rae," Rob muttered, still lightheaded. "How about a kiss to make it better too?"
"You know, I could be doing all kinds of nasty things to you with this spell," she said.
Rob nodded, still not quite all there, but having got the point. "I'll be quiet."
After letting the pain dissipate from her shoulder, the Azarathian spoke again. "By the way…"
Raven trailed off, then placed her hands over the Gauntlet, which had retracted into its dormant ring form. "Xif Ruoy setholc!"
A flash of light pulsated out from the ring, even as the Gauntlet and dark energies mixed together, the liquid metal whirling in a tornado allover Robert's body, until suddenly his clothes were pristine, and the Gauntlet was back to normal, now covering not just his forearm, but up to his shoulder—the result of the extra energy from Raven.
"What was this all about?" he asked her.
Raven frowned. "Robert, we need everyone at their best for this. You're no exception, and you're also of no use to anyone bleeding all over the floor. Now go break things."
"Aye, Aye, moan sheri," Robert said in a horrible French accent, even as he got back to his feat. "And now, for something completely different."
Gauntlet energy surrounded the young man, forming two swords in both his hands and several more hands below those. Also with swords. Robert ran towards a group of soldiers, revitalized and still somewhat delirious from the blood loss.
Raven sweatdropped. "Well, he's less likely to get himself killed this way than he is lying on the ground painting the floor red."
Suddenly, the nearest AT-AT blasted another huge glob of syrup towards the Titans, and Raven moved into action quickly, using her powers to deflect the sugary glob of death away from the sentient beings in the Atrium towards more of Mae-Eye's soldiers…
Nevertheless, they kept on coming—this would be a long fight.
It wouldn't be much longer now…
The cracks in the unbreakable gem were spreading. Soon it would shatter… Soon it would all be over! Revenge and supreme power…
Soon.. Very soon.
Robin swung down from the top of the Licorice Warrior's head, dodging the creature's eyebeams as he went… Light flashed out and nearly severed the cord of his only remaining grapple. But he managed to get away and land on top of one of the ruined columns that held up the Atrium ceiling.
Thankfully only two of the sixteen had been damaged. Still, if the battle kept on, and all the columns fell, the bank might collapse. Which just added more urgency to finishing this fight. An urgency constantly frustrated by the sheer size of Mae-Eye's army…
Robin cursed, and jumped as the Licorice Warrior slashed at him with a huge candy tentacle. The Warrior let out a strange eerie growl and tried hitting the bottom of the column…
It didn't give, but Robin nearly fell over from the impact.
He glowered angrily at the Licorice Warrior, and the creature returned his glare with the red glowing orbs that it called its eyes. Robin dived as the thing smashed at the column again, but was knocked away from his intended landing area by the creature's fist.
Angered, Robin fired his bat-grapple at the first thing his eye's centered on…
The line lanced out and struck the Licorice Warrior directly in the eye… And it was immediately clear Robin had done something right. The red orb shattered, and the creature jerked back, in pain and apparently paralyzed by the attack, and slung Robin straight up via the whip-like motion of the bat-grapple line. Robin let go of the grapple and pulled out the Smart Scythe that Noel had given him, using it to clamp onto the hole in the wall that Terra had made in the president's office…
He glanced down at the Licorice Warrior, and realized he'd just discovered weakness, a flaw in the design. The creature's head was lolled back, not dead, but stunned. Light moved along the licorice lines, apparently transferring energy back into that eye—from the other eye.
Why would the witch make the only power sources external? Then again, the whole concept of a witch who lived in a pie and fed pies to youngsters so she could absorb their love and then eat them was out there enough that it sort of numbed you to such odd questions.
Robin decided to take advantage of the situation, kicking off the wall and backflipping down to the Warrior's head. Without a second thought, he jumped off and hurled the smart scythe into the creature's eye.
The second eye also shattered, and the Warrior fell to the ground, crushing part of Mae-Eye's army… Even as Robin landed on top of an Oreo Ogre, breaking his fall and shattering the creature.
He simply held out his hand, and the smart scythe came sailing back into it. "I'm going to have to ask Bruce about getting me one of these," Tim said to himself.
Pulling out his Titan Com, Tim immediately contacted everyone within earshot and told them what he had just discovered if they hadn't already heard. The tide, it seemed, was beginning to turn.
Savior was in big trouble. Scalpel, his target, had landed right behind him and to his left. This was bad because on average, Scalpel tended to be fairly quick. Savior also could be quick, but he was exhausted, and it took every ounce of will power he had to spin around and throw up a set of S4 blades to block the incoming claw attack from the Blacktrinian.
Clearly, Nigel was unhappy with having been made into a projectile by Cyborg, and was taking his frustrations out on the nearest bright blue and white target—Noel, in this case. Savior blocked two more vicious blows from Scalpel's claws before the Victorian-clad brainwash victim drew his spare glaive and began trying to eviscerate the sixth Titan from a distance.
Savior backpedaled, leaping atop an Oreo Ogre's head and letting Scalpel take it out for him before landing behind the alien and grabbing him around the shoulders and knees in a shimmer cocoon, holding with enough force—he hoped—to keep anything sharp away from the strands. Much to his relief, the lock he put Nigel in caused the Glaive to clang to the floor.
"Let go of me!" the Blacktrinian snarled. "I'm here to punish you in the name of your Mother!"
"Shut up, Nigel! That witch isn't our mother, not yours and certainly not mine. You're Nigel Hastings of Blacktrinia. You're not the kind to be brainwashed!"
"The only one brainwashed here is you!" Scalpel bellowed. "Mae-Eye is my wife… She is your mother, stupid child!" Nigel hurled himself and Noel into the air nearly ten feet and falling so that Savior landed on his back and he landed atop Savior.
Noel cursed, gritting his teeth as the weight and shock of the blow coursed off of him. Risking his concentration, Savior managed to slide a strand of shimmer into his massive pointy ear as he rolled over top and tried to pin Scalpel down. All the while, he bringing up hidden memories, those buried by Mae-Eye's magic.
"Sophie! Remember her? Your girlfriend, your lover?" He forced images of the coroner into the Blacktrinian's brain.
"Lies!" Scalpel protested. "My only lover is your dear Mother!"
"No," Noel muttered, "that's just gross."
Scalpel writhed, Noel's aching body unable to resists, and managed to dig a claw barely into the shimmer. It was enough, though, to force Savior off of him.
Scalpel slashed out with his claws, sheering the fabric of Noel's jacket in several places, then attacking again with a powerful punch. Savior barely managed to make a shimmer barrier in time to prevent his organs from being rearranged inside him, but was sent flying back several feet, as he did not have time to form a proper anchor.
Then, Savior noticed something… from the tattered remains of his jacket a small billfold had fallen.
Savior didn't carry any significant money with him out on the job, and never in such an obvious place. No, this was something he carried for other reasons—interrogations, worst case scenarios… the usual. He dived for it, only to be kicked away by Nigel, who followed up with another vicious assault that Savior tried to shimmer-spring over. Unfortunately, Blacktrinians also have powerful legs, and Scalpel met Noel in the air…
Just as Savior had expected. Using the rubber band motion of the Shimmer strand he'd left in the ground, Noel jerked himself down and away from Nigel's attack, and rolled across the ground, picking up the wallet. He unfurled it…
To reveal an assortment of pictures, heroes and villains, allies and enemies all alike. Missing persons, too, though those he had little hope for and took more out of courtesy to the family than expectation that they'd be any help…
But the one he was looking for had significance to all the Titans, except maybe Jinx. It was a simple photo of Sophie, taken by Scalpel when he was first learning how to use Earth cameras—a gorgeous, if amateurish, photo by any standard… It had to work, because Savior was out of better ideas and the Blacktrinian cranium was way too strong for the bonk-treatment.
Diving back towards him with an S4 blade ready to defend, Savior shoulder slammed the alien in the equivalent of a human solar plexus, and staggered him back a bit. Nigel roared and slashed down with his claws, but Savior was able to defend with the S4 and slide a shimmer strand into the alien's ear once again, doing all he could to disable the creature's motor functions..
Nigel's wild struggling subsided into a mild twitching, and Savior shoved him against the leg of one of the Graham Cracker AT-ATs, using the shimmer to lift the 400lb metal-clad alien off the ground by a few inches. Then he shoved the photo of Sophie Matthews in the Blacktrinian's face.
"Get that vile rag away from me, mortal!" Nigel demanded, trying to avert his eyes away from the photo. He gnashed his teeth at the shimmer strands, hoping to cut them, but Savior was too fast.
"Remember her!" he demanded, forcing Nigel to look at the photograph. "She's your girlfriend, your life-mate. She took you in when the rest of the world thought you were a monster! That is love! Not this stupid magical fake crap Mother Mae-Eye gives you!"
"No…" Scalpel muttered, clearly fighting something within himself. And Savior saw it, and pushed all the harder on his brain, forcing the memories of Sophie to rise to the forefront.
"Yes. Remember who you are, Nigel! You're not that stupid witch's husband…"
"YES… I…" Nigel started scream, almost forcing Noel out of his mind. But Savior wasn't so easily daunted, and forced the photo even closer to Scalpel's face.
"Remember, or the next body she prepares for burial will be yours!" Savior's eyes reflected the intensity of his words.
Nigel responded by biting his tongue and spitting the blood onto the photo… It immediately caught fire and Savior dropped it… Even as a horror spread across Nigel's face. "No… Soph…ie…"
"That's right. You just destroyed the first photo you ever took of her!" Savior shouted.
"NO!" Nigel bellowed, and with a feral roar, he threw Savior away from him, nicking the shimmer with his claws. Savior landed hard, gritting his teeth from the pain of the landing and the worse pain of the shimmer being cut. Further pain followed as Nigel's roar got louder and louder, until the Blacktrinian collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily…
Groggily, Savior got up and staggered over to the alien, forming an S4 in preparation for the worst… With Nigel this mad, he'd have probably an eight of a second where he could kill the alien or die himself. And considering how bad Noel was feeling, he didn't think he would be able to react that quickly.
But it seemed fate was on his side today, as Nigel immediately tore off the Victorian petticoat he was wearing, rage hissing through his teeth… But the hissing subsided as he stood up.
Noel was shocked to see that Nigel was now a picture of serenity on the outside, but with an intense well of emotion—all of it anger—just below the surface.
Calmly, Scalpel spoke. "She attacked a bank full of innocent people, turned the Titans against each other, and tried to steal me away from Sophie—to make me her husband." Even more calmly the Blacktrinian warrior casually stepped forward, brushing Noel aside. "There will be violence."
And with that, the alien ran forward and hurled himself skyward…
Gizmo and Starfire flew back to back, strafing the approaching gingerbread forces, even as the heavy hitters INSTIGATOR and the hot-syrup drenched Metatron pushed forward, blasting and smashing everything that came near them. Raven hurled the meat hooks her evil self had un-lodged, tearing through the Oreo Ogres.
Shimmer and Angel tag teamed the Snickerdoodle Stormtroopers—Shimmer transmuted bits of cookie-soldier into explosive substances and threw them up to Angel, who then dropped them on platoons of the enemy….
Billy Numerous had single-handedly (well, you know) brought down a Licorice Warrior, and Jinx had finished it off, following Robin's advice to take out the eyes….
And still the HIVE and Titans were losing ground, being pushed back by the sugar-coated onslaught towards the civilians they were trying to protect. Metatron dived in front of Viridian while she was reloading and blasted away her attackers with his golden fire. "Hey, Bliss, didn't you say something about making your tank form portable?"
"Affirmative," Viridian responded. "I was able to devise a way to negate its mass and volume until needed. Unfortunately, I have yet to determine away to bring it back to normal size. So it is worthless at the moment. Perhaps Dr. Ray Parker can be of assistance."
"Just great," Adam muttered, blasting away at another set of attackers. Viridian stepped forward and blasted a line of soldiers with her machine gun. "And how many more rounds do you have of that?" he asked.
"One hundred thirty," answered Viridian without emotion.
"How many does one burst consume?" Adam asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Fifteen," came the somber reply. She fired another round into the attacking soldiers. "One hundred fifteen." Two more bursts reduced her remaining armament to eighty-five. She'd be out soon, and then she'd be in trouble.
Suddenly, Gizmo flew overhead and blasted several more enemies. "Crud! They just keep on coming. No end to these snot heads!" The exhaustion in is voice was obvious. A strange mechanical sound caught Metatron's attention, and he looked up to see Gizmo draw yet another weapon from his nullspace backpack.
A light bulb appeared above Adam's head. Even as Gizmo began shooting again, Metatron jumped up on his shoulders, forcing them both to fall to the ground. "What the snot are you doing you kludge-eating Titan?"
"Sorry dude, I need this thing!" Adam ripped the backpack off Gizmo's back and turned around handing it towards the android. "Viridian! Here, this thing knows how to make things bigger again!"
Casting a calculatedly skeptical glare at Adam, Viridan scanned the device before trying to interface with it. Then she turned to Gizmo. "Your anti-hacking systems leave much to be desired, Mikron."
"You snot-eating android!" he screamed diving at her. She grabbed him out of the air by the scruff of his shirt and threw him towards Raven or Starfire or somebody soft. Viridian nodded as the pack was integrated into her system.
" Thank you, Adam Matthews."
"Alright! Now you have another reason you have to worship me!" Met celebrated. "Because I rule!"
Bliss ignored him, stepping forward even as her body vanished in a flash of light and was replaced by her massive tank-form. Heavy artillery didn't even begin to describe it. In her hands were a massive chain-gun and a massive rail-gun, and an artillery cannon rested on her right shoulder. Her feet had been replaced by two huge mechanical 'boots' with tank treads on the side.
"Holy kludge!" Gizmo intoned from where he was, before he went back to blasting soldiers…
Meanwhile Viridian Mark II rolled forward, tearing swaths of destruction through the hordes of cookie soldiers…
The die was cast, the tide was turning…
Unfortunately, evil was about to get some reinforcements.
Scalpel bounded off the side of the Graham AT-AT he'd just eviscerated and landed atop the one where Mother Mae-Eye rested, where he had once been at her side.
"Witch," he said with a calm, dangerous tone in his voice. "End this sorry facsimile of war now. You have no idea what real war is." Scalpel would not let his rage make him a monster. He'd take the high road—and then beat the stuffingout of her.
"Oh, so it seems the game is up," the witch sighed. "Well, it was fun while it lasted… But it will all be over soon… And I do mean all!" Mae-Eye broke out into a chaotic fit of laughter, and Scalpel was unable to contain himself. He threw his body at the witch feet first, kicking her from her perch atop the AT-AT and landing atop her massive nose. He dug into her flesh with his feet before bounding off and grabbing the Lollipop Mallet of a fallen soldier, then turning and smashing the recovering Mae-Eye over the head.
"You insolent brat!" she shouted, blasting the Titan with a burst of blue magic. Scalpel, too mad to care, leapt over the attack and slammed the mallet into the witch's face again, sending her careening across the atrium towards the exist…
Scalpel charged again, Titans in the distance gasping as he delivered blow after crushing blow to the green three-eyed witch. Blue blood leaked from her mouth, nose, and several new egress points the beating had crated by the time Scalpel was done. "That was for Sophie!" Nigel growled at her. "This is for the civilians you've tried to dominate!" He raised the mallet again…
At that very moment, the Unbreakable Gem shattered into a million tiny jewel shards.
Inu-Yasha's ears perked up, but then he was hit by Sango's giant boomerang and told to sit by Kagome.
Not those kind of shards, moron!
This has been your random moment of the day. We now return you to Maternal Instinct.
Mother Mae-Eye began to glow before Scalpel's attack reached her, and she lanced her hand out as he swung, stopping him in his tracks. A blast of blue magic sent the alien flying backwards thirty feet.
And then came the laughing; the witch's infernal laugh echoed throughout the atrium, and then deepened to a voice terribly unlike her own…
"I suppose I have you, most of all, Robert Candide, to thank for this!"
Raven glanced at Gauntlet. "What did you do!"
"What?" Rob blurted, holding up his hands defensively. "I didn't do nothin'!"
"Which means you did something," Raven snapped. "What did you do!"
"Don't worry your precious little heads," Mother Mae-Eye intoned, as if she could read the thoughts of everyone in the bank. "I will explain… You see, the Unbreakable Gem was not to keep you all in the bank, though it helped serve that function dutifully. Its true purpose was to keep me—the true me—in!"
She chortled again, only angering Scalpel and Savior even more.
"When your Titan, the so-called Gauntlet, brought about the destruction of the Gem, it was only matter of time before the spell that has bound me for nearly one thousand years to be broken!"
Nigel swore. What was happening now?
Savior swore. What had Robert done now?
Gauntlet swore. What is Savior going to do to me now?
Even as the HIVE and Titans anticipated the worst, the three eyes of Mother Mae-Eye vanished, the hideous green visage melted away. What stood in her place at first made the Titans wonder if the Sorceress hadn't gotten a really good makeover. She stood twelve feet tall and hovered over the bank's battlefield, clad in armor and Victorian feathers. A shock of red hair rested on her head now, and her face was pail white. She was simultaneously attractive and repulsive…. She radiated evil.
And her voice was different. "I am the Queen of Fables!" she announced. "My imprisonment of one-hundred decades as at last come to an end, and the earth shall tremble as I unleash my rule onto the planet!"
And in a burst of energy, the bank suddenly shattered, its pieces soaring into the atmosphere, leaving the Titans, HIVE, and civilians sprawled across the floor of what had once been the atrium…
Savior goggled when he realized the civilians had all returned to their normal forms, as if whatever the so-called Queen of Fables planned now had nothing to do with the designs of Mother Mae-Eye
Robin and Raven immediately began getting them to clear the area…
And the newly-rechristened Queen of Fables hovered above the city, drawing the magic of fiction itself into her. It is so good to be back.
"This threat is more than we can handle," Robin observed… "We're going to need help."
Even as Raven got the last of the civilians clear of the bank, it quickly became clear that no place was safe. The skies over Jump City darkened once more. It was as though the End of Metal or Final Night was repeating itself…
"Ask and ye shall receive," came a familiar voice.
Robin turned, and to his surprise found himself at a loss for words.
"Robin," said Superman. "Batman sends his regards, but he couldn't make it."
The Man of Steel was there. But not just him. With him were the last assortment of heroes he had expected ever seeing together: Power Girl, Guy Gardner, Grace Choi, and Jessie Quick.
"Jessie Quick?" Gauntlet blurted. "Who invited her! I bet I have a bigger fan-base than she does?"
Jessie frowned at him. "Long story," she said, quickly repairing the fourth wall with her super-speed power. "I'll have Wally explain it later."
"Speaking of explanations, I assume you'll explain to us what exactly is going on," Power Girl said as she floated near the Titans co-leaders.
Robin shrugged… "Well…"
"Yeah, about that…" Savior trailed off…
"Ah, who needs an explanation?" Guy Gardner, one of Earth's five Green Lanterns blurted. "Evil witch, really bad. We smash her up and go home. Simple."
Robin trailed off. "As much as I hate to say this, Guy is right. Titans, move out!"
Jinx turned to see her former allies sneaking away from the battle field… "You coming with us, Llarenes," asked Billy Numerous.
She hung her head and sighed. "Go on. I'm needed here."
"Suit yourself!" Gizmo shouted. "Let's go!" The HIVE turned and ran off…
Right into Savior. The expression on is face let them know in an instant he was dead serious. "We really need to talk."