Chapter 24
Disclaimer still applies I own nothing with the exception of ideas/situations/plots I have the audacity to place the characters in. Also the ocs running around in this belong to me. Also I know what you're thinking: its about fucking time Zire. With out further ado chapter 24.
Ba Sing Sei; Day 1
He sat perch atop the wall separating the lower portions of the city from the higher portions; it was his turn for sentry duty. A heaviness settled within him and no matter the progress they'd made invading the conquered city, it would not leave him be. We cleared the first two rings with virtually no resistance, as simple as Raven appearing before Dr. Light. What are they planning?
As his thoughts circled endlessly, his eyes narrowed trying to distinguish the hidden trap from the hallucinations and shadows that dusk brought with its transition from day to night.
"Hello, earth to Featherbrain, I almost mistook you for a rock." Her voice disrupted the seamless flow of his circling thoughts. "It's NightWing."
"Whatever." His lackluster partner in crime was none other than the blind earthbender who'd taken a shine to Jinx. "Look I may not be a Titan or your friend, yet. But I can tell something has been eating away at you. And if you ask me how I know this, you've barely moved or spoken to anyone. Not even the new Sugar Queen."
She released a huff of amusement at his reaction. "Oh yeah, I could tell you and Starfire were an item. As much as I could tell Gargoyle and Grass Stain are together even if I had eyes to see it with. Now stop avoiding and tell me what's been eating at you since that night you spoke with Raven."
Alarmed and on guard his white sightless gaze met dull green, as he determined what to tell her and what would best remain unsaid, "Shen is after Roku, Lily, and or Azula; anyone of them will work but Azula would only be a sort of plan B, should plan A go all pear shaped. That's why I tasked Raven with protecting them, all three of them.
She's the mos-" A solid thwack against the wall was his only warning as his position trembled, threatening to unbalance him. "No shit NightWing, that was obvious from the moment Katara and Starfire returned with a near dead Azula and a blood covered Lily."
She's stopped using the nicknames…this can't be good.
"Stop avoiding the issue and tell me what bottomless spirit-hole I've willingly fallen into." He gulped at this display of her palpable fury; it reminded him of a certain mission that took place during an unprecedented Russian winter. "Jinx informed me that the few soldiers we've fought with thus far were being controlled; mind control to be specific. Cyborg confirmed her hypothesis and theory of who it is; Brother Blood.
And unlike the methods Long Feng utilized with the Dai Lee; Blood's methods are absolute. The only person proven to be immune is Cyborg which is why he's been shut down to conserve battery power." He paused to let out a frustrated breath, "It's why I ordered Jinx to send the Terrible 3 back home. If Blood got his hooks into Melvin and in turn, Bobbi, no one but Raven could take them down in one fell swoop. In addition to the mind controlled Dai Lee who are no doubt waiting for us further in, we have General Immortus's giant mechanical robot soldiers, as well as Brother Blood, Warp, and Teether swears he spotted Psimon."
His tension had returned but he couldn't stem the tide of his thoughts and worries. "Terra and Changeling are hanging on by a thread, Cyborg is off-line, Jinx has always been impossible so it's no surprise that she's still going strong, I'm out of gadgets barring my grapplers, and Starfire is reverting back to the harsh warrior princess that many of us have forgotten she was. Raven-"
His laughter held a hysterical edge to it as he said her name "Raven has to protect not only herself but an entire island of people from the Brotherhood of Evil, a rogue faction of the fire nation army, being led by the brother of a murderous blood thirsty psychopath, and Plasmus; she probably doesn't even know about him yet. All the while butting heads with the suspicious, paranoid, and childish older brother of a person she's willing to become a demon for.
We're grossly out-numbered and Slade and his brother Shen have had years to plan all of this; everything from dividing our forces between two locations that require a far bit of travel to reach one or the other, by the time Aang and your friends get to Kyoshi it will be much too late to stop whatever end game there is, and somehow I just know part of Slade's plan is to rid Jump city of the Titans once and for all."
Instead of stunned silence meeting his outpouring of stress it was instead met with sass, "That wasn't so hard, now was it Featherbrain?"
Slack jawed he watched flabbergasted as she headed off into the shadows of the night. He called out, "Where the hell are you going?"
"I'm going to see about reinforcements." She said cocky grin plastered across her face and purposeful gait taking her to her destination.
He shook his head at her retreating back. Whatever she's got up her sleeve won't be enough. It won't be nearly enough.
Her gait slowed when she was far enough away from NightWing and his restlessness. Making several sweeping gestures with her hands toward a cluster of stone buildings to her left, she waited only long enough for the layer of the inch thick slab of platinum to retract before resuming her purposeful walk. Five…four…three…two…one…
Even mentally prepared for the sudden empty space she still couldn't keep her distress from appropriating her facial muscles for its use. The tunnel she'd begun sliding down was one of her 'special projects' or 'the network of metal tunnels that led to the secret underground facility that would have Snoozles drooling'.
This network served several purposes at once and one of which was refining the art of metal bending while seeding the metal networks throughout the entire Earth Kingdom and even the land claimed by the fire nation; although when the blacksmiths she'd hired discovered and refined 'platinum' it took her months to develop the method need to bend the metal. It was more of a gentle coaxing than iron hard shoving.
Its second less nefarious purpose was to attract those with the aptitude for metalbending; more often than not she discovered one or two earthbenders wandering through her network; that all happened to be blind or had been blinded by the one hundred and four years of war and turmoil. As she slowed and once she'd stopped moving altogether, four separate sets of feet approached her. "Commander Bei Fong."
She waved his offer of help off and practically jumped up, "Slick I'm here to assess enemy troop placement and numbers within Ba Sing Sei.
"Already way ahead of you commander, I had Kukken and Juk monitoring the seismic activity since the attack; they weren't practicing like you'd instructed. So I got creative." She heard the pride enter his tone as he finished and was about to speak when he pressed on, "I also had maps of troop movement routes, troop numbers, and I even sent June to ferret out where their leaders are holed up, for an accurate map of the location."
"Kiss ass." The lazy and foreign drawl drew the negative attention of the four lieutenants, while their commander simply stood motionless. Taking note of the malicious glares directed to her, her eyes flashed pink from the shadow filled tunnel. "Darling-" Oh merciful spirits she's talking with that accent. Now my concentration is really going to be shot. "-would you be a dear and tell them to bugger off."
A hearty chuckle broke from her control, "You heard the lady, bugger off."
From the sarcasm in her tone they knew she was joking but it didn't take the edge off of their surprise. Finally the one addressed as Slick mustered up the courage to speak. "Commander is this intruder with you?"
"Give the lad a prize." She said answering his question as she stepped from the shadows. Being the only four sighted earthbenders to find their way into the tunnels they all shuffled hurriedly away from the strange creature before them. Pink hair and eyes notwithstanding they were beyond wary of her. "Bubbles you're not helping."
"Spoilsport." She blew her girlfriend a raspberry and snatched the aforementioned Intel from Slick.
"Toph I hope your reinforcements will be enough." The four lieutenants watched as the pink haired intruder's face paled at the number of troops listened. Moments later and they looked on as the pink haired woman read off their Intel to General Bei Fong. Outnumbered is an understatement, Featherbrain.
Ba Sing Sei: End game or day 2
Outnumbered had been an understatement. The Titans had failed, he had failed again. But still there was a chance he could think of something, all he needed was time to think. Gritting his teeth against the swimming sensation he was experiencing on dry land he forced out, "What's your end game Blood?"
Sebastian Blood was many things; greedy, self-serving, and a complete utter bastard but stupid wasn't something that he could be described as anymore. Not since his tango with Titans East. "I'm honored but dear juvenile little boy, you give me far too much credit. This isn't my end game."
To NightWing's frustrated mind Blood divulged no more information. Time for a different tact then.
"Of course only Slade could devise a plan as intricate as this. You're just a lackey now; expendable even." It was slight but Blood's eyebrow had twitched. The anticipation was palpable as he watched the seething Blood fight the impulse to monologue.
Blood's agitation was so extreme that the unflappable villain had begun pacing. In the growing haze of pain surrounding him, it took a minute for his ears to pick up Blood's muttering. "Warp, Psimon, how hard could it be to track down a blind girl? There's only so much needling I can take."
"You haven't even made our evidence room again, Blood." At this voice his head snapped up and met a red and blue gaze. "We needed the space for Kitty."
Blood had spun to face his nemesis only to splutter as Cyborg's words registered, "S-Surely not Killer Moth's little harlot of a daughter?"
"Times are a changing and little harlots grow up to be vicious conniving hags." Changeling piped up having caught on to what NightWing and Cyborg were doing. He was about to further fuel the fire when Terra interrupted him, to the surprise of everyone even Blood. "Naturally with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn as role models we can't expect much improvement with age."
"Not even the finest wines can improve with age if they are already bad." All eyes shifted to Starfire. She shrugged at the scrutiny, "Tamaranean philosophy with the editing."
At his wits end and ready to spill, the muffled sounds of a scuffle filled the empty space. A struggling Toph was dumped unceremoniously on the floor by a silent purple specter. At the man's sudden appearance Blood spat, "What the hell have you been doing? And where is Warp?"
Charged silence as well as a gut wrenching glare was the only response from the physic man. "Relax Blood. There's time enough to explain in the future."
Everyone gathered swiveled to locate the speaker and four of the six people present comprehended the noise dive their situation just took. The gangly adolescent with a high ear splitting voice was none other than Warp. "My preparations are finished. I think it's time we rid the world and all the rest, of these meddlesome goody too shoes."
The grin that Warp turned on them would have made Raven turn tail and run. "Dimension traveling is such a tricky venture." His grin got even more terrifying than before and his voice brimming with glee as he added, "Couple that with temporal displacement and things will get very interesting."
"Tempa-what?" her voice sounded more confused than angry at being caught and man-handled.
"It's an illness suffered by those who've time travelled and it's often fatal." All color drained from the Tamaranean princess's face as she was well aware of the illness; Raven was able to heal Starfire after the Titans first tango with Warp.
Blood's agitation had peaked and angrily he spat, "Stop fucking around Warp and send the brats through the time portal."
"Can it Pops, before you blow a gasket." the adolescent Warp huffed out as he threw a circular whitish yellow disc; the disc flashed with a light that was brighter than the sun, casting long shadows throughout the trashed throne room. The resulting portal was huge, big enough for an elephant to fit through with room to spare, and blindingly white.
"Toss them in, Psimon." He uttered no words as their captives were lifted off the ground and just as they were about to enter the white portal all hell broke loose as the doors to the throne room blew apart; standing in the door way was the strangest man the titans would ever see.
Before the crazed earthbender could blink, Psimon was tossing the last of their captives through the wall of white. "The order of the white Lotus is too late. Run or fight either way you'll all die today."
"Ha, ha, the rocks are shifting." The crazed earthbender was unperturbed at the events he was just witness to. As the three brotherhood villains attempted to decipher his words no one spotted the hex caster until it was far too late.
"Psimon, stop her!" screeched Blood while Warp sped to collapse his wormhole. Psimon's intelligence far outstripped either of his counter parts and he remained where he was. This proved to be life-saving as arks of pink energy exploded outward from the wormhole causing an implosion of energy that caused Ba Sing Sei's throne room to blast apart, rocks, body parts, and cutlery from the kitchens were only some of the debris they would later find.
As Brother Blood was the closest to the point of detonation he was vaporized instantly and Warp fared no better as half of his body melted. Because of Psimon's inaction the energy by passed him entirely he considered himself the luckiest bastard in the world. That was until a bolt of lightning struck him dead were he stood.
"King Bumi, sword master Piandao, the palace and the upper rings of Ba Sing Sei have the worst concentration of mechanical soldiers; I leave them to you." One of the two men nodded and the other let out a half laugh, half snort and dived into the floor of the throne room.
"Master Pakku and Master Jeong Jeong the lower rings were the heaviest hit, evacuate the injured and stop any firebenders that are still fighting with the machines." Before he'd finished speaking both men were off as if Koh himself were chasing them.
"Dragon of the West, Raven is unconscious and Princess Azula has sent me for reinforcements. The avatar's group is headed for Kyoshi." Piandao turned at the voice and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth upon seeing his former pupil.
"Sword master, the Liberation of Ba Sing Sei in your capable hands." With that the Fire lady and the Dragon of the West left what was left of the palace at a run.
Wan Shi Tong's Library; Different Dimensions Archive
"Rorek how much longer? Ash is doing her level best to distract them but…" he trailed off as he entered the archive. All along the walls were strange runic symbols and circles. The professor was quickly discovering just how vast Rorek's knowledge truly was. The mage was even aware of bending and had taught one of the avatars how to perform magic.
"Not long professor, perhaps four hours or so. Targeting a specific dimensional space is difficult, I really wish Raven was here; after all dimension hopping is her forte." The mage muttered in answer to his question.
"F-four hours?" A nod was the only indication he got from the mysterious Rorek who'd gone back to the painting the walls with runic symbols. "I'll go and see if I can't assist Ash in some way or another.
Rorek didn't register the professor's departure as the mage got a sudden epiphany that would see the four hour prep cut in half. I hope this works and if not then Raven will never let me hear the end of it.
Jump City; Institute for the incurably insane.
"Night shift is exhausting but at least its honest work." He spoke softly as to not wake the more dangerous patients.
"I will and I love you too babe. Give the little guy a hug and a kiss from me." As he hit end on his new phone the doors at the end of the ward swung open. Quick as a flash he turned and he froze to the spot upon seeing the assembled force of men making their way down the corridor towards him.
A woman with a strange outfit stopped a couple of feet shy of him and her eyes seemed to look through him entirely. "Are you the Doctor in charge of the night staff?"
"Yes Ma'am." He nodded to her to precede him down the ward. "You're the contingent from the H.I.V.E then? You're here for our newest and most baffling case?"
"That's correct Dr. Stoneworthe. We will handle the moving procedures and see that the patient is properly processed." He watched as the men efficiently did as the woman dictated.
"Dr. Stoneworthe I'm going to need all relevant files and all documentation of any and all treatments that the patient has received. The originals will suffice." She paused long enough to take a breath. "We will see that copies of these files are sent back to satisfy this Institute's policies."
With that he bid them farewell and he left. An insistent buzzing had the woman bringing a phone to her ear. "Yes Sir, Dr. Stoneworthe is complying with all requests."
A short while later and the last words that she said before hanging up were "Yes Sir, I will personally see Ozai, codename Phoenix, to the H.I.V.E facility."