Chapter Nineteen
A message from Nightwing, formerly known as Robin to the Titans Central:
"Fellow Titans, there's not enough time to explain everything that's happened to me… Needless to say, I'm in no danger. In addition to obtaining several new members of the Teen Titans, I was infected recenty with something called Blacklight.
"Again, do not worry. I'm no longer ill, but I have attained a slew of new powers, all connected to the virus. An ability Slade has called Biological Manipulation. I have enhanced my fellow Titans, and now, I intend to enhance all of you.
"Do not be alarmed. The enhancements will not give you the virus I got. They're physical and mental enhancements that will make you better suited to combat the threats that we will likely soon face, if Raven is correct. When you start to feel that your powers have been enhanced, wait for it to circumnavigate the tower. It will tell you when it has. Then simply swat it. When you do, it will transform into bottles of biomass pills for each of you.
"The pills have superficially similar effects to normal steroids. However, they are pure biomass, programmed to further enhance and stabilize your abilities. In addition, they are labelled for each of you and the first pill will give you each an intuitive understanding of your currently enhanced abilities and any enhanced abilities you may have received. You will also get the optimal schedule for taking the pills. Thank you for cooperating with this program. Nightwing out."
"Hey, Jinxy…"
"Don't call me that, Wally!" Jinx muttered, blushing.
"Okay… Jinx, then… What do you think? Is this whole thing on the up and up?" Kid Flash asked. Jinx shrugged. "Dunno. Either way, how can we refuse more power?"
Do you wish to accept this power? You have every right to refuse if you like. The machine said.
The Titans looked at each other.
"What do you think, Jinx? Go for it?" Kid Flash asked. Jinx nodded. "And the rest of you?" Kid Flash asked. They all nodded.
"We'll go for it. Wait… Will we know what our powers are or will we have to figure them out on our own?"
You will have an intuitive understanding of your powers. That will not equate to an intuitive mastery of them, though. You will be aware of them, but must work to master them. The insect said. They nodded.
"We'll take them."
Good… 3… 2… 1… the machine counted down. Suddenly, a dense spray came out of the insect and several of the Titans sneezed.
Powers granted. Now, crush me and your enhancement pills will appear. Thank you. The Insect said this, and Jinx walked over, grabbing the mechanical insect and crushing it in her palm, wiping it on the table. Suddenly, 15 bottles of pills appeared on the table, each one labelled with the individual Titan's name on it. Each one took their bottles and noticed that one said First Cycle, the second said Second Cycle and the third said Third Cycle.
They each took a pill out and swallowed it. After a moment, Jinx turned to Wally.
"Hey, did you get a sudden flash of a schedule for these pills?" He asked. Jinx nodded.
"Yeah… Nightwing really went all the way with this. He even programmed knowledge of the effects of the pills into the first one and a little bit of information.
"Apparently Raven is having some nightmares about her father, and is concerned that he may come back." Jinx said. Herald spoke up.
"Who's her father?" He requested. Jinx laughed humorlessly.
"Satan." She said, looking away from the rest of the Titans.
"Whoa… Her father is the Devil?" Kid Flash exclaimed.
"In a manner of speaking." Ravager said. "Father told me once that Raven is the product of a bizarre union between a Demon named Trigon and Raven's mother. Raven's mother became involved in Black Magic, and they did a summoning. They didn't expect it to work, but when it did, the demon, Trigon impregnated Raven's mother.
"There was a situation a while ago when Trigon came to Earth and destroyed the world. The Titans were able to defeat him and sent him back to his pocket dimension. I'm sure that Trigon hasn't given up, though, and if anything when he comes back, he'll be enraged that he was betrayed by his own daughter." She said. The rest of the Titans looked at him.
"Why don't we remember any of that?" Speedy asked, seeming angry.
"Because time was quite literally frozen. Everything was destroyed and all people were turned to stone except for the Titans and my father, who had a bargain with Trigon, but was betrayed by him. Honestly, I'm shocked that my father thought he could force the Devil to comply with a deal. Father may be powerful, but he's only human." Ravager said.
"Yeah… So your father is really the Deathstroke?" Supergirl asked.
"Yes. Why do you ask?" Rose requested. Supergirl sighed.
"Even my cousin has trouble fighting Deathstroke. Superman is nearly invulnerable, and yet somehow, Deathstroke always manages to humiliate him in combat."
"Superman relies too much on his physical invulnerability. That's why even someone with no superhuman abilities like Batman can beat him. Batman has trained most of his life in almost every known martial art, is incredibly intelligent and cunning…" Ravager said.
"And super rich. Bruce can spend unlimited money on finding Kryptonite or making a machine that will let him beat Clark. It's not an equal fight against a man who lives on a reporter's salary." Kara snapped.
"Perhaps. That doesn't take away from the fact that Clark relies heavily on his superhuman abilities rather than on his ability to fight. He may have skill in combat, but Slade and Bruce have training and cunning that easily dwarf your cousin's. You could humiliate your cousin in battle too if you wanted to. You have all of Clark's abilities and more. You've been trained extensively in martial arts and if I remember correctly, you were trained by Batman himself."
"Yes… But I have no need to fight Clark. Why would I want to humiliate him?"
"I dunno… It's kinda fun to deflate someone's ego sometimes. Though Bruce could stand to have his ego deflated a bit as well… I guess it's a common trait for superhumans."
"Yeah… Try telling that to Wally… His ego is so big it would probably explode if you tried to deflate it."
"Ouch, jeez, Lucky! You have a sharp tongue, there! Ease up a bit." Wally said with a good natured laugh. Jinx scowled, blushing. She actually liked his nicknames for her. It was cute. But she couldn't admit it.
"Don't call me that!" She snapped.
"You're really cute when you blush, you know…" Wally laughed. Jinx turned an even deeper shade of pink, grumbling and stalking off, not saying anything in response to him.
"Let's contact Nightwing." Ravager said, typing in the coordinates of Titan Tower and commanding the screen to call them. The screen rang three times, then Nightwing picked up.
"Hey, Titans Central! I see you got the package I sent you guys."
"Yes… But why did you send it? Are you expecting a situation where more than our current power is needed?" Ravager asked. Nightwing looked at her seriously.
"I'm not sure, Rose… Raven has been having nightmares lately. She says her father has been contacting her when her mind is most vulnerable, namely in her sleep. I've programmed a few defense mechanisms that activate when her mind slows down while she sleeps, but there's no telling if they can keep Trigon out indefinitely and it's hard to know how effective they would be even if it wasn't one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse trying to invade her mind." Nightwing said.
"I need to prepare as if Trigon is coming back and if he doesn't we can consider ourselves lucky. But until we're sure, we all need to get ready for such a potential outcome. After all, I doubt very much if Trigon will be as complacent next time he comes back as to simply assume that he doesn't have any enemies left. Last time, Raven used magic to protect us from Trigon's world destroying powers and we weren't turned to stone like the rest of the world was.
"We fought and because we found Raven and she surprised him, we were able to beat him the first time. I can't count on that happening again." Nightwing said. "So I need you to go down to your basement. You'll find a training chamber that will get as big or as small as you need it to be without changing its outward dimensions. It will be able to slow time within the chamber so that you can get in days of training in mere hours.
"I based it on the training chamber that I designed under Titans Tower. Ravager should have an intuitive ability to control it as the leader of your branch of the Titans. She can pass it on by touching the rest of your heads and thinking about it. Don't forget to take your biomass pills. They further enhance and stabilize your powers, though at a slower and steadier rate than the immediate enhancements that the package just made. Wait. Where's Jinx?" Nightwing asked.
"Oh! I complimented her and she got embarrassed and stormed off." Wally said with a laugh. "It's really cute how shy she is." He finished. Nighwting nodded.
"Okay… Thank you all in advance for continuing to develop your new powers and preparing for the chance that we may have to combat the end of the world again. Nightwing out." Nightwing said, shutting off his end of the connection.
"Raven… How long have you been in here?" Nightwing asked, turning around to see Rachael standing watching him.
"Oh, about since you were explaining that I was having nightmares." She replied with a smirk. "It's fine… They needed to know anyway. After all, they need to be as ready as possible if we want to have any chance of beating Trigon." Raven said, kissing Nightwing.
She grabbed him with deceptively great strength, pulling him over to the couch and kissing him passionately again. Nightwing was a bit surprised by the passion that Raven was showing these days. After all, most of the time he knew her, she suppressed her emotions to control her powers. Raven looked at him with a smirk.
"I can see your thoughts, you know. You imbued yourself with anti-telepathy defenses, but because you never had telepathy yourself, you're terribly ineffective in its use. My powers are better controlled now that you've given me such heavily enhanced willpower. I still need to control my emotions, but I can stand to let myself go occasionally…" She said. Nightwing nodded.
"I love you, Raven." Nightwing said. Raven blushed slightly.
"I love you too, Dick. But I am worried. What if my emotions due to our relationship cause me to lose control, and Trigon uses that to come back. I don't think we can defeat him in our current state. We can't even beat those three criminals who named themselves after goddesses. What chance do we have against the lord of all evil?" Raven asked, shivering slightly.
Nightwing pulled Raven closer to him, kissing her gently on the forehead.
"We will be ready for him. It's not even a question. We have no choice. We have to be ready for him. Night or day, if you feel him coming back, tell me. I've programmed the other Titans with automatic teleportation on my command. They'll all immediately appear at Titans' Tower. I didn't tell them because I didn't want them to feel their independence was being violated.
"But if it comes to it, I think that they'll forgive the slight inconvenience of being forced to come here if it means saving the world from the ultimate evil. Don't you think?" Nightwing asked. Raven nodded.
"Maybe you can help me with something. I programmed the ability to do Alchemy into myself. I wondered if maybe you could help me get a bit more skilled in it before I try using what I make in combat. I wouldn't want to hurt my own team, right?" Nightwing asked. Raven smiled.
"Yeah… I know a bit about Alchemy, and I think I have some books on the subject. Your alchemy would probably be more intuitive than my own, but I'm sure I can be of some help." Raven said. Robin nodded, taking her down to his lab, where he had the ingredients set up.
