Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners and not me with some exceptions. Only this story is mine, nothing else. Please read and review. Helpful reviews welcome, really bad flames shall be ignored and/or deleted. Enjoy
Mistress of Arms
By Demonabyss
Chapter 2: Will You Join the Dance?
Terra made her way through the city, running and jumping tirelessly across the rooftops with the help of White Rabbit. True it wasn't at full power, just the first stage actually, but it was more then enough to get across town in record time. Running at speeds and jumping distances that only those in spandex and crazy costumes were known to do. The night wind whipped-by her head as she jumped from one rooftop to another. 'Heroes, villains, they're all the same, just different sides of the same coin.' She then smirked to herself as she flew over the few people who were out this late. 'And I live on the edge of that coin.'
Terra landed a tall street lamp with ease, her now metallic legs spewing out jets of steam below her. At the moment they were much thicker, looked like they were made of metal, and covered in intricate circuitry with two vents on the side of each leg. This was the first stage of the White Rabbit. This power was focused in her legs, giving her unmatched mobility. True she wouldn't be able to outrun the Flash or out fly Superman, yet, but in general she'd be more than able to out maneuver any other superhero or villain, especially with her tactical skills.
Right now she was heading towards the shopping district in order to obtain some supplies and hopefully a computer. She needed more supplies and she needed to see what was on that flash drive if she was going to get anywhere. True she might run into the Justice League, the Titans, Slade, or even CADMUS, but none of them would recognize her now and she had plenty of dirt on Slade and the Titans she could trade without consequence. Wasn't like she cared what happened to either. Besides, she could cause some havoc while searching for what she needed, which were answers. She needed to know how and why she was revived, who revived her, and why did they give her these weird sentient powers. Where these powers came from would be another question she wanted answered.
Terra stopped for a moment and turned, scanning the landscape for any sign of trouble using the Queen of Hearts. This power, focused in her eyes, allowed her to see anything in multiple views. Heat vision, night vision, echo location, and many more were all open to her to view the world. Right now she was using heat vision to detect anyone or anything following her such as one of the Titans or one of Slade's flunkies. So far nothing, but that didn't stop her from being paranoid. Oddly enough, none of her powers objected to her paranoia, suggesting that she wasn't quite as out of her mind as some might think.
While she didn't see anyone following her, that didn't shake off the feeling that someone or something was watching her. It was an instinct she had developed during her travels and she would bet her life on it, hell she had done so more than once. The only problem was she couldn't pin point where the feeling was coming from. Cycling through the different sights she had, Terra wanted to make absolutely sure that nothing was following her or watching her. Again nothing, and yet the feeling wouldn't leave her. 'Best to keep moving,' she thought as she continued towards the shops in order to "procure" what she needed.
High above, father then anyone, even the Queen of Hearts, could see, a satellite kept watch on Terra as she moved. In a control room linked to the satellite, a woman watched the girl make her way across the city with the confidence of one who was used too much harsher conditions. The woman was in her late thirties, with back-length blonde hair, blue eyes, and was dressed in a violet business suit. 'So the girl has activated some of her Arms, specifically White Rabbit and Queen of Hearts. I didn't think she'd be able to learn to control any of them, let alone this quickly and on her own,' she thought as she watched the girl gracefully jump from roof to roof. She then frowned, 'But what about Knight and Jabberwock? Those two Arms wanted to kill each other last I saw. How are they reacting to being in the same body?' she thought worriedly. The woman shivered as memories of those two particular Arms came to mind. She had faced Knight herself, and while lacking the raw power of some of the other Arms, Knight had shown to be a deadly force when used by a competent mind. Jabberwock on the other hand … was not something she wanted to see manifest again, ever.
Terra ripped off the locked door with ease using the first form of Knight. This power manifested in her right arm, turning it metallic and more of a silvery-color than her legs had been. Her fingers were all sharp silver talons now with a blade sticking out of the circuitry on her forearm. Knight had been made for close-quarters combat, manifesting any type of non-projectile weapon, especially blades, as well as few throwing weapons. The shop the girl was currently in was a hunter and outdoors store, the perfect place to get clothes and supplies for a drifter like her. Having scouted this place beforehand, she knew exactly what she wanted and where it was, thus allowing her to move quickly before the cops came. 'Or worse, the Titans. Yeah, that's all I need, a reunion with those hypocrites,' she thought disgustedly. She shook it off and quickly packed what she needed, some clothes, water bottles, food packets, a couple hunting knives (though she really didn't need them with Knight, it wouldn't hurt to have them on hand), and other such items. Once she was done she quickly headed out the back door, just before the Titans showed up at the front. 'This is a little too close, better wait before hitting the electronics store,' she thought as she started over the rooftops again with her supplies. Unfortunately, she was spotted.
"Halt, cease and desist please," Starfire said politely as she floated down in front of the white-haired girl, star bolt ready to fire. The Tameranian watched as the teen set the items down and got into a fighting position, completely unafraid or surprised by the alien, which was quite strange.
The other Titans came and surrounded the girl, again, none of the usual reactions that thieves normally have when meeting superheroes. It was odd that the girl didn't seem nervous or afraid at all. Beast Boy was the first to speak. "Man, we came out here in the middle of the night just for a single thief? This stinks, I need my beauty sleep," he whined.
Terra narrowed her eyes at the green-skinned superhero. "Trust me pal, there aren't enough hours in the day to make you worth looking at," she said snidely. She remembered thoroughly how much Beast Boy betrayed her, thinking she was at fault for everything. Never once did he laid the blame on Slade and his manipulations, never once did he consider the fact that if Slade could get Robin of all people to be his apprentice that he could easily get someone like her, and never once did he attempt to understand things from her point of view. Unlike him, she hadn't had full control of her powers and had seen the kind of death that only comes from natural disasters as a result. Beast Boy had no idea of what it was like to see such destruction, knowing it was your fault but being helpless to do anything about it. Raven probably had a good idea, Starfire as well to some extent, though she doubted Cyborg and Robin would. In any case, she was broken out of her thoughts as Robin started speaking in that superior tone of his.
"Stand down! Five to one are not good odds," he threatened while holding his staff in a ready position while ignoring Beast Boy's indignant cry at the her comment.
Terra just grinned. They hadn't recognized her and thought her just a common thief. 'Fools.' She had several advantages over them. One, she knew all their moves and weaknesses already as well as how to counter them. Two; with the Queen of Hearts active, she could ready their bodies, energy, and movements easily, allowing her to predict their every move. Lastly, she had the element of surprise as none of her other Arms were active just yet. 'I doubt I'll need them,' Terra thought with a grin. She turned to the other Titans. "Well, aren't you going to stand down? You heard your leader; five to one are not good odds. If you had thirty or fifty to one then maybe fighting would be a good idea, but as it stands, you won't lay a finger on me," she said in a simple matter-of-fact tone as if reading it out of dictionary.
The Titans were obviously shocked by her laid back response. Usually thieves were wetting themselves at this point, not brushing off the Titans as if they were insects. So in response, they attacked … and found out just how right the girl had been. Robin had attacked first, swinging his staff with expert precision only to find that she had dodged each move with ease. Cyborg attempted to pound her into the ground, only to have her leap easily over his attacks. Raven attempted to grab her with her magic, only to have the girl avoid it easily, jumping up and using her head as a spring board to avoid Starfire's attack which hit Beast Boy instead. The fight continued in this fashion for ten minutes, with the girl in question dodging the Titan's attacks with a smile and a casual attitude. No matter what combination they did, she always seemed to se it coming. Finally Robin spoke up, "Titans, regroup!"
The teenaged heroes did so as the white-haired girl stood away from them, not even breaking a sweat. She smirked at them. "Well, that was fun, care to go again?" she asked confidently.
"Dude, we're getting our butts handed to us," Beast Boy whined as he rubbed his shoulder from Starfire's attack.
Raven narrowed her eyes at the girl who stood casually before them. How could a common thief be able to do all that? It was like she could read their minds or something, but she would know if she was doing that, so how? The demoness stared hard at the girl, catching her sight and locking them into a glaring contest. It was then she noticed the girl's eyes, there was something weird about them, almost as it there was circuitry. "Robin, it's her eyes! There's something going on with them," she stated.
Terra laughed, partially surprised and partially amused that one of them actually figured it out. "Very good, leave it to the Titan with the most common sense to figure it out. Yes it is my eyes. With these eyes I can read every one of your movements easily. Every muscle twitch, every heart beat, every minute change in energy is magnified a hundred fold. I can see where a bullet will hit and ricochet by the time you idiots realize its left the chamber. I know your moves before you do," she explained as she walked over to pick up the supplies, still keeping her eyes on them. She didn't care if they knew about her sensory abilities; those were just the beginning of what she could do, if those foreign memories were anything to go by. Terra smirked, as more data came through her eyes. "Don't even think it Robin. A smoke screen won't work on me," she said amused at the Titan leader's surprised expression at her knowing what he was going to do, despite barely moving at all. "Well, this has been fun, but I have better things to do," as she reached for the supplies. However, she stopped instantly.
Raven watched the newcomer blow them off but remained still. If what the girl said was true, and from her demonstration with Robin it was, then attacking would do them no good. The demoness and the other Titans watched as all of a sudden the girl stopped dead in her tracks as her whole body seemed to react to something. For few moments she was convulsing as her eyes leaked fluid but not as if she was crying but as if her eyes were also convulsing just as violently as the rest of her. 'No not convulse. It's more of some type of vibration. What is this?' she thought.
"Uh, is she having a seizure or something?" Beast Boy remarked as the girl's body went nuts for a few moments before settling.
The thief looked shocked and worried and immediately started looking around, as if trying to find the cause of her reaction. "Yo, what's the deal?" Cyborg asked confused as the rest of the Titans. The metallic teen got his answer when a large, energy disk came flying right at the thief only to her jump away at the last second. Everyone's attention turned to a neighboring rooftop to where a group of soldiers were standing along with a tall, blonde, short-haired man. He looked completely normal, dressed in standard solder ware, except for his right arm. It was thick and metallic, with the forearm looking like a cylinder with five movable spikes at the end for fingers. Attached to it was a large, circular shield about a meter in diameter. The thief's eyes widened at the sight as the man chuckled.
"Well, we finally found you experiment AU3228. You did well hiding from us and probably would have had you not used your ARMS to change yourself like that. We had no idea they were capable of such things. Very interesting," he remarked, seemingly ignoring the Titans who were watching the discussion with interest.
The girl scowled at him, not back down but not attacking either. "My name isn't experiment AU3228. If you wish to call me anything, call me Lorina. Anyway, who the hell are you? I was pretty sure your series was dead by now," she stated spitefully. That vibration had been intense and the only reason for her body, for her ARMS to react like that is if this guy had ARMS too. 'But that's impossible. All the other ARMS were destroyed weren't they?' she asked her own ARMS.
"I do not know child. It is possible that new ARMS were created after the Egrigori were disbanded and we were deactivated. All I can tell you is that this is not an ARMS that we have encountered before, so be weary," the Queen of Hearts cautioned as Lorina (Terra) stood ready for this guy, recognizing him from the few scraps of memory she had received so far, ignoring the Titans completely in favor of this far greater threat.
The man chuckled. "Yes and no. I'm what you would call version 2.0. My name is Keith Gray and I've been instructed to capture you and return you to the labs. Now then, will you come quietly or will I have to beat you into submission with my own ARMS, Mock Turtle," Gray asked calmly as he raised his metallic arm in readiness.
At that point, both Beast Boy and Cyborg burst out laughing. "Oh man, Mock Turtle? What are you some kind of soup freak?" Cyborg laughed. Despite this, Robin, Raven, and Starfire were a little wearier and their weariness was proven well founded.
Keith Gray narrowed his eyes. "Worthless insects," he snarled just before aiming his metallic arm at them. In a flash, a disk of energy shot out of the shield right at the Titans, who immediately scattered. The teen heroes retaliated with their various attacks, only to be surprised. Gray raised his arm and a massive energy shield appeared, dissolving their attacks with ease. "Humph, pitiful. As you can see, my abilities allow me to cancel out any force directed at me with ease, especially such slow and weak ones like yours," he chuckled again. However, he was cut off as shots rang out. A nanosecond later, his left arm had transformed to match his right with an identical shield. The Titans could see multiple large bullets trying to dig their way through it for a moment before falling to the ground. Gray turned and gave a half-grin. "Well, it seems Jabberwock's powers have not dimmed despite their inactivity or being transferred," he remarked casually. "So, I take it you will not be returning quietly?"
Lorina stood, her right arm transformed into a dark, blood-red claw with a massive gun integrated into it by Jabberwock. The Titans stared in shock at the transformation. It hit them that she could've done that at any time and was just playing with them before. Lorina scowled at Keith Gray. 'Damn it, what the hell is going on? He's only a couple dozen meters away and I shot him with an EM rail gun and he still blocks it. How is that possible?' she thought as she absently activated Knight and White Rabbit. The moment she did however, she could feel the different ARMS reacting to one another, each vying for dominance against each other and her self. The girl narrowed her eyes in concentration, forcing all of them back and putting them on short leashes with the will she had built from trying to control her geokinesis and dealing with Slade. She had seen what happened when a person lost control of one ARMS. She did not want to see what happened when you lost control of four at the same time. "You can take your offer and cram it up your ass. I will not be anyone's lab rat!" she yelled before unleashing another volley of bullets.
Again, Keith Gray blocked with his shield. However, as soon as Lorina had fired the bullets, she had used both Jabberwock's and White Rabbit's abilities to move at blinding speed behind Gray, Knight's blade fully extended and ready to chop the guy into little bits. As the blade came in for the kill, an energy shield sprang up just before it made contact. An energy pulse propelled Lorina into a water tower that was on the roof with them. Gray turned around, smirking at the girl. "Nice try my dear, but as you can see, my shield protects me even from unknown and surprise attacks. I could be at ground zero for a nuclear blast and it wouldn't do squat to me. You take care of those pests and leave the girl to me," he ordered the soldiers before turning to face Lorina, bearer of the four original ARMS.
Lorina was worried. While she had no doubt Jabberwock could break this guy into little pieces with either its EM rail gun, vibration powers, or if worse came to worse, its anti-matter powers, she had to factor in the fact that this guy knew exactly what he was dealing with. There was also the fact that any of her ARMS' "big guns" could attract more attention than she wanted. She already had the attention of the Titans, the last thing she needed was for the Justice League to show up. 'Okay think; there's got to be a weakness. His shield can't be as effective as he says it is,' she thought as she dodged his energy blades. Keith Gray smirked at her as he continued to fire, knowing she couldn't fully transform with all four ARMS in her body active at the same time.
"He is nothing! Let me have control and I will annihilate him!" Jabberwock howled in her mind with her right arm vibrating violently in rage.
"Do not let Jabberwock have control! Allow me to take control and defeat this cur," Knight protested as her left arm started to vibrate as well. The two were vying for dominance while White Rabbit and Queen were occupied with staying ahead of Keith Gray.
"Having a little trouble are we? You know you can't beat me in your current state, so just surrender and we'll all be happier," he said calmly. He knew she couldn't use the full power of her ARMS, not when she had more than one in her body at the same time. Those four ARMS, while powerful individually, mixed together couldn't function anywhere near full power, they were simply too different. The Queen of Hearts was based around sensory abilities and defense, White Rabbit around movement, White Knight around close combat, and Jabberwock around pure power. Even if she did transform, none of the forms had the capability to break his shields. He would win and drag her back to base.
Lorina shook her head, silencing both Knight and Jabberwock. 'Not now! Come on think! How do you break a barrier of any kind? You find a weak spot and exploit it, but he has no weak spot. Then … pick any spot and concentrate a lot of force on that one point, like cracking an egg,' she thought and then looked down at her left arm. She narrowed her eyes. 'Knight, I need you to form the Mistilteinn Lance,' she ordered.
The girl could feel the mental equivalent of a frown coming from Knight. "Lady, I would advise against that. Your current form doesn't have the power necessary to sustain the Lance for very long. You would need to transform in order to do so," he advised, semi-hoping that she would indeed allow him to transform her and thus take partial control.
Lorina scowled. 'Forget that. I am not transforming, now create the fucking Lance or we're all screwed!' she ordered again. This time, Knight obeyed. She watched as out of her silver clawed hand formed a long, conical lance that immediately started to glow white. Despite the thing being almost as big as her, she was able to heft and wield it with ease. Keith Gray was shocked to see it and in that moment of hesitation, the girl shot forward with the full speed of White Rabbit and Jabberwock's acceleration abilities.
Robin stuck down another of the soldiers, wondering what the hell was going on. This was supposed to be a routine assignment, catch a thief and bring her in, simple. Instead the Titans had come across a girl who could predict and avoid their attacks with ease. Then these weird soldiers show up with their leader, who could transform partially into some sort of robot, apparently after the girl who can also transform. 'What in the world is all this about? ARMS? Mock Turtle? Jabberwock? What is going on?' he thought as he turned towards the fight between the girl, who had named herself as Lorina, and the self proclaimed Keith Gray. Her other limbs had also transformed, though they looked different in color and style to her right arm. The Titan leader watched as she transformed her left arm into a massive lance that glowed bright white. Instantly, she shot forward, hoping to pierce those damn shields. They connected, energy bursting from the point of contact. After a few tense moments, the girl was thrown back by the shield, looking pissed while Keith looked smug.
"Most impressive, creating the Lance without having to fully transform. However as you can see, not even that has the power to break through my shield," Keith boasted as Robin watched with interest, wondering what he meant by fully transform. Lorina looked ticked until she seemed to get an idea, looking at her red, transformed right arm for a moment. She then did something that surprised Keith again. She jabbed her right hand into her upper left arm, the claws digging into her metallic flesh, causing her to grimace in pain. "What are you doing?" Keith asked worried. Then everyone stopped and watched with various faces of surprise and horror as the lance started to change. Around the base, blood red spikes appeared, similar to the claws on her right hand, and immediately started to feed a crimson energy into the lance, creating a blood red spiral around it all the way to the tip. "What in hell?" Keith asked just before the girl charged again. Like before he attempted to block, only this time the lance started to punch through the shield. Keith's eyes widened as he reflexively moved to the side to dodge the fatal attack, instead getting it in the shoulder. She passed by and landed on the other side of him, transformed spear ready to make another attack.
Keith scowled as he clutched his shoulder. They had not counted on this girl being able to COMBINE the powers of the different ARMS, not like this. This changed everything. "All units fall back and regroup. The situation has changed," he ordered into a communication device before he and the soldiers all jumped off the building and onto the street below, only to disappear.
Lorina looked at where they had been and then looked at the Titans. For a moment, she looked as if she wanted to say something, but stopped and went perfectly still for a moment before falling flat on her face in a dead faint, her limbs changing back to normal. This left the group of teenaged superheroes confused as to what to do now.
AN: For those wondering about the name change, from now on Lorina is Terra and vice versa. The name itself comes from the original Alice in Wonderland. Lorina as I understand it was Alice's sister in the book and I thought it fitting for this story.