It didn't seem like that serious of a fight. Katarou came up to the newly-formed team after a press conference and demanded they fight him. None of them had heard of him, but Titans East had told them stories of civilians not trusting them to be "real Titans" at first and wanting to see "proof" of their skills, so the team agreed that must be what the man wanted.
With the rest of their team ushering away any remaining civilians, Herald held out a hand towards Katarou. "What kind of fight are you hopin' for?"
Katarou clutched onto their hand, not even shaking it. "Three turns. You may strike first."
Herald pulled away, unnerved by his actions. They briefly considered turning down his offer, but decided against it. They had a feeling he would fight him anyway, or worse, take his rage out on another civilian. "Right."
Fortunately enough, the press conference had taken place at the local park, so they had enough empty space to battle in. It even gave the rest of the team a place to sit down and watch the fun.
"Make your move, Titan!" Kataoru taunted, opposite of the group. "I'm waiting."
As much as they wanted to, Herald knew they couldn't just kick him in the face and be done with it - superheroes don't beat up civilians. So they decided to just knock him off his feet instead.
They darted forward, and then dropped down and swung their legs towards Kataoru's ankles.
Kataoru jumped over their attack, and grinned as he watched them go immediately into another spin to try again. Too easy. His reflexes were faster, and with just one hand, he grabbed their ankle to stop them in their tracks.
Before Herald could fully realize what was happening, they had been hoisted into the air upright, like a twisted cheerleading routine. Unable to break free from Kataoru's grip, they instead focused their energy on staying balanced as possible, knowing that something would break if their body went one way and their leg the other.
Kataoru kept grinning. "My turn." He clamped his other hand on Herald's ankle and began spinning them around. It was much smaller circle than Herald had been in earlier, just to increase the likelihood of giving them whiplash.
Their teammates decided to get involved at that point. While the other four stayed behind to come up with a plan, Gnarrk dashed towards the fight, planning to free Herald from Kataoru's grasp.
Unfortunately for him, Kataoru was faster. He flung Herald towards him, and laughed when Gnarrk, clearly not prepared to catch them, was unable to bear the momentum and was also flung back a few feet.
This caused Kole to abandon the group discussion and rush over to see if the two of them were hurt. She was relieved to see that Gnarrk barely had any scratches, and Herald could sit up with minimal dizziness. She still had to help them fully get up, though.
"Clearly a direct attack isn't going to work," Jinx hissed, internally berating herself for not taking the fight more seriously in the first place. "But-"
"I'm waiting for your next move!" Kataoru began taunting again. "Unless you want to admit defeat."
"But," she started again, "I wonder if he can hit someone that isn't directly in front of him. I'm going to attack from behind while you two distract him. Just, don't run up and punch him." With that, Jinx went off, not sticking around to see if either of her remaining teammates had disagreements.
Jericho did have disagreements, however, for je had the same plan as Jinx. Je wasn't going to stick around and be a distraction, but did sign jems plan to Hot Spot before also running off, albeit in the opposite direction. "I'm sneaking up on him. Good luck."
This left Hot Spot to be the one to distract Kataoru. He grumbled slightly, but still marched forward to the man. He supposed he should have expected this to happen, given that he and Jinx were the only ones on the team that didn't need to be up-close-and-personal to fight.
"Your teammates ran like cowards," Kataoru sneered. "You think you alone can defeat me?"
"Depends if you have other tricks up your sleeve," Hot Spot replied. "You'll find that you can't throw me around." He began to form a small fireball - easier to aim than full fire blasts, and could be dragged out for however long it took his teammates to enact their plans. He hoped it would be soon, whoever it was.
Kataoru wasn't a patient man, and did not appreicate Hot Spot taking his time to take his turn. "If you insist on standing there, then I will take my turn first. Be prepared." He jumped into the air and landed back down in the same spot, the ground shaking on impact. Part of it cracked underneath him, and he placed a foot on one particular crack.
Hot Spot stumbled slightly, but easily balanced himself again, the fire ball he was creating not affected in the slightest. Out of the side of his eye, he could see Jinx nearby, ready to strike. A smug look spread across his face. "Is that all you got?"
"Nope." Kataoru stomped down on the crack, and a large chunk of earth flew upwards, accompanied by a shriek.
Jinx's hexes went flying as she was thrown into the air. The first few crashed in front of her, so when she landed back on the ground, she fell into a dust ball. She coughed and began trying to get dirt out of her eyes.
The rest of her hexes hit Hot Spot. The magic made him recoil back, his fire ball flying out to the side.
Jericho had snuck up on the fight just in time to narrowly avoid a fire ball scorching jem. Je twirled on jems heels, only to bump into Kataoru while doing so. In the first lucky moment of the fight, it seemed that he was content to just laugh at jem, giving jem the opportunity to keeping going past him towards Jinx.
"Friendly fire," Kataoru continued laughing. "A waste of a turn." He then turned and ran towards one of the hills in the park. He wanted to see all six of his opponents at once for is next move, and being above them would do the trick.
"Hey!" Hot Spot shouted, running after him. "Get back here!" It didn't take long for him to catch up, but it did bother him that he now had to look up to see the man. "Hiding up there, huh? Who's the coward now, Kataoru?"
Kataoru didn't respond verbally, and instead simply pulled out the necklace from under his shirt. He held it up so it gleamed in the sunlight, in hopes of showing off just how powerful of a tool it was. And lucky for him, he was showing it to the one Titan on the team who actually knew what it was.
Hot Spot instinctively took a step back from it. "How did you...?"
"How did he what?" Jinx asked as she and Jericho came up behind him.
"That necklace," he responded, more concerned with warning his teammates than replying, "It can trap people inside of it and steal their powers. That must be why-"
"I'm so powerful?" Kataoru finished, his menacing grin returning to his face. "And with all of your powers, I'll be even stronger. I was hoping you all would be more impressive, but power is power. Now if the rest of your little group would arrive..."
"Hold on, Kataoru!" Kole shouted, she and Herald finally rejoining the team. Gnarrk was not with them. "We still have our final turn!"
With that statement, Herald opened up a portal above Kataoru's head. And then nothing else happened.
The rest of the team first eyed the empty portal, then nervously looked over at Herald and Kole, wondering what they had been planning this entire time.
Kataoru, for his part, again laughed at them. "Now that your little performance is over, I'll take my final turn." He lifted the necklace even higher into the air, and his lips began to move.
Nobody could hear what he was saying, because it was drowned out by Gnarrk dropping out of the portal, screaming the whole way down.
Gnarrk grabbed onto Kataoru and pulled him down the hill, away from the rest of the Titans, not realizing that the necklace slipped out of his hand. However, he did realize that the man was significantly weaker once he hit the ground, easily crumpling under Gnarrk's metahuman strength.
"My necklace...!" Kataoru choked out. There was no way he could win a fight, now. But that wasn't his only plan. "You'll want to check on your friends, caveman." His sneer was less prominent with a hand pressing on his chest, but it was still there. "Who knows what happened to them since you interrupted my chant?"
Gnarrk snarled and swiftly punched him across the face, knocking him out. He watched him for a second to make sure he didn't move, then looked over to the hill separating him and the rest of his team. Anxiety washed over him as he started climbing it, not knowing what he was going to see on the other side.