Creation began on 01-07-21
Creation ended on 01-08-21
Teen Titans Go!
You're not worthy to be heroes: Finish It
A/N: To those that have read this and waited for an update, I apologize for taking so long to give you a new chapter.
There was no time to mourn the loss of their friend and leader. There wasn't any time to let the man that killed him get away. They had to settle this now. Once it was done, they could end this nightmare and grieve the loss of friends.
Brightburn was still a threat to the world that remained, and they still had the means to defeat him…and they couldn't let him escape to recover.
BLAST! A grenade thrown by Beast Boy had exploded in front of Brightburn, exposing him to the atomized metal particles that left him vulnerable.
"Aaurgh!" He groaned as he tried to fly away.
Bash! He was hit in the face by a fist.
"You're not the only one with powerful eyes, Brightburn!" Starfire told him, and then used her laser beams against him, burning sections of his tattered costume and leaving second and third-degree burns on his arms, back and knees. "Haaurgh!"
She grabbed him by his left leg and swung him against a wall hard enough to shatter it.
He quickly got up, but saw chunks of the wall rise up, covered in dark matter.
"No!" He grunted, and the chunks were sent flying towards him, passing his limbs, but cutting him on his sides. "Aaurgh!"
"Grrr…" A growling was heard as the smoke cleared in front of him, and he was face-to-face with a…green tyrannosaurus.
Beast Boy tail-whipped him away before his strength returned, sending him flying away from where he, Starfire and Raven were, and right to where Cyborg was.
Slam! Brightburn crashed onto the street and felt his strength returning.
"I'll kill them," he swore to himself.
Thunk. Something hit the ground in front of him…and exploded, releasing more of that smoke before he could use his heat vision to destroy it once he realized it was another grenade.
"Aaaaurgh! Aaaurgh!" He yelled as his heat vision seared his eyes once more.
"When I look at you," he heard the voice of that man-machine hybrid, "I see the story in your eyes. But the night does not shine here. Haaaurgh!"
Bash! He felt a metal hand connect with his face, sending him flying backwards.
Brightburn fell to the ground. These four were attacking him with more coordination, more ferocity, and being relentless against him after he had killed that boy with the spiky hair and cape. But he was stronger than all five of them put together, so he should've been able to take them out…and yet, they were attacking him in random areas with these smoke grenades that weakened him. He had once heard an old saying that there were strength in numbers, that those that worked together were greater than the sum of their members, but he ceased believing in the all in favor of the one that was himself. He was the strongest person on Earth, the unstoppable and taking the planet was his right…and he would do all that he could to keep it.
Pierce! A blade penetrated his chest and left him feeling blood pooling in his throat.
"Aaaurgh!" He groaned.
Slice, slice, slice! He felt his hands and left foot get cut off, sending agonizing pain to his brain.
"Aaaaaurgh!" He howled as he felt the severed limbs heat up; whoever severed his limbs had cauterized them to prevent blood loss.
"Do you feel fear?" He heard a female voice ask him as he looked up and saw the other four teens looking down at him, holding three blades that had his blood on them, and saw it was the pale-skinned girl with the blue cloak speaking to him. "You know what fear does to those that know they're beaten?"
Then, the man-machine aimed his right hand at his body, opening it to form an energy cannon.
"This world no longer belongs to you, Brightburn," said Starfire, and Cyborg let him have it before the effects of the atomized metal wore off on the alien and he regained some considerable strength to face them with whatever he had left to throw at them.
Now, with gaping hole where his heart used to be, the being known and feared as Brightburn…had fallen, defeated by the Teen Titans.
"Take…the…world…" He uttered as the light in his eyes faded.
"We did it, Robin," went Starfire. "We stopped him."
They turned to walk away from where the alien menace had fallen, but Cyborg stopped them.
"Hold on," he told them. "I think he's dead…but we need to make absolutely sure of it."
He took one of his knives and made sure that Brightburn was not going to cause further discord in the only logical way possible: He severed his head from his shoulders.
"If he can't recover from that, he's as good as gone now," he told them.
Raven looked up at the sky and saw a bright wave approaching where they were.
"What's that?" She pointed at the wave.
"A bright light," Beast Boy stated simply.
FLASH! The wave enveloped them…and the next thing they knew, they were standing on a platform above the ruined planet (A/N: Picture the arena made by Cell for the Cell Games in Dragon Ball Z), and standing just a few feet away from them…was Brother Correction.
"Were you…watching us the whole time?" Cyborg asked him.
"Yes," he answered back. "I had to be certain that you five were willing to do whatever it took to convince me. And you didn't disappoint. Real heroes are willing to sacrifice themselves to save others. Real heroes use whatever means necessary to stop the bad guy from hurting others. Robin threw his own safety aside to protect Starfire, and the rest of you defeated Brightburn before he had a chance to recover his strength and deal with the rest of you, thus ridding the Earth of his reign forever."
"But…Robin didn't make it," Starfire told him.
"That is the dark side of the life of a hero; nobody is eternal. Everyone, including those that have been around for a long time, longer than others, has a beginning, middle and end. Still, you what you had to do to stop Brightburn…and that victory should entitle you to a small reward. Look behind you."
They did…and they saw Robin fall to the ground of the platform.
"Robin!" Starfire gasped, and ran over to him. "You're here!"
"Did y'all do it?" He asked her. "Did you beat him?"
"We did it," Raven answered. "You were dead?"
"Yeah. I was. It was different from before. It was…for good that time. Real heroes…they don't get a do-over. They just…don't."
"So…what happens now?" Beast Boy turned to face Brother Correction.
"Now," he uttered, "the people will know that he's no longer alive to torment them. After that, they move on. They gather their dead, mourn their losses, rebuild their homes, their towns, their cities, countries. It's a long road to recover from. Years long. Decades long."
"Because Brightburn destroyed everything he got near," Robin realized.
"Yes. But there are pockets of survivors scattered across the globe. Men and women that can lead the people into a new future. They'll recover. They'll rebuild. They're endure."
"How many people are left on the planet?" Starfire questioned; they only knew there had been a few survivors where they were when they fought with Brightburn earlier, but those were mere handfuls, barely even sixty.
"Less than three-million," he revealed, "so their road is long."
"What if they had us to help them?" Cyborg suggested; he was being serious when he asked, feeling that he had some part in the devastation caused.
"Heroes also perform community services to the people, helping in the aftermath in any way they can provide assistance, be it in the time they spend helping to clean up or in the offering of resources. But if they had you five to help them…and others with strange powers were to suddenly rise from the ashes and be shown a way they can contribute to the rebuilding efforts…then the road wouldn't be too difficult. The question is…are you five up to it? Do you five really want to devote your lives to helping them rebuild…or would you rather walk away and pretend that their problems don't concern you?"
The five turned face one another, unsure of how to answer him. If they were asked in the beginning before hearing about Brightburn, they would've looked the other way and let someone else do the hard jobs due to their spoiled behavior and laziness. But after facing Brightburn, seeing people get killed by him, see that it took real effort and true teamwork to stop him, they knew that it was a difficult ask, but an ask that had to be answered. They stopped a real villain…and yet the job was never over, even when they thought it was over.
Cyborg could aid in the technological and science fields, Raven and Starfire could assist in the gathering of debris and rebuilding efforts, Beast Boy could also aid in the rebuilding efforts and possibly aid the animal species preservation and revival efforts, and Robin…could help the regular people do whatever they could.
"The only way for evil to succeed," went Raven as she sighed, "is when good people choose to do absolutely nothing."
"We have the power to help," added Starfire. "Can we really call ourselves heroes and do no less for the people that have suffered?"
"As much as I would love a vegetarian pizza right now," said Beast Boy, "it wouldn't taste the same if it wasn't really earned."
And with Robin… He still needed to wipe his old slate clean. He wanted to prove that he could still be a hero, not to Brother Correction, but to himself…for real. If he could let go of his arrogance and ridiculous need to prove himself superior to others…and learn to trust them as they wanted to trust him…then he could go back to his grave with that comfort, knowing that he didn't lay down his life for anything less.
"We're supposed to be heroes, right?" He spoke. "Real heroes…don't look for the easy way out. They stand and they help the people, no matter how long it takes. Right?"
"That's right," Brother Correction told them. "Wise decision."
-x-
A little girl and her brother climbed out of a sewer and looked up at their ravaged world. It was different from what they knew before the destruction of everything they ever loved.
"It's all gone," she uttered, holding her brother close.
Behind them came out two adults, either their parents or guardians. They, too, were crushed by the desolation of their home.
"Hey," the man uttered, pointing toward the sky, "what is that?"
Up in the air, they could make out a military helicopter, and it was heading towards a nearby field. There might've been people from the military sent to look for survivors.
From the shadows, Brother Correction watched as the four headed towards the field. It was only the first step towards a better tomorrow happening today, but he had to hope that the five new residents of this world could measure up to the people that were heroes every day by doing all that they could to help make others feel better about themselves and their future in the world.
I better head back to Titans Tower, he thought as he turned away. Small rewards are the best ones when the effort to help others is proven.
To be continued…
A/N: I hope y'all like this chapter. I saw a new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and it helped to motivate me a little in writing this. What do you think Brother Correction is heading back to Titans Tower for?
