Zatrion presents…

Of Ninjas, Titans, and Specters

The Teen Titans belong to DC Comics, which is owned by Time Warner. Mortal Kombat is owned by Midway. The idea for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was originated by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The characters of Tek-NOS, Nekros, Talleon, and Zatrion are mine. Dragon Ball Z was created by Akira Toriyama.

Note: "Talking", Thinking, "Mind Speak, "Communicator"

Chapter 7: Titan Trouble Pt. 1

"Raven, snap out of it!" Beast Boy calls out to her. "Come back to us." The green teen ducks underneath a thrown trash can lid. Behind him, Robin preps his Bo, Starfire floats in the air, both eyes and fists glowing green, and Cyborg has his Sonic Cannon prepped to fire.

"You fools! The Raven you know is far gone." When one looks at her now, her argument could have merit. Gone is the pale skin and two amethyst eyes. In their stead are four red eyes and flesh a deep red. This red was not of embarrassment or anger, but her demonic heritage.

"We know better than that, and so do you. That Raven is as much a part of you as you are for her." Robin preps a Birdarang while speaking.

"Yet she denies me and holds me back. She will now know what she has done to me." During this entire instance, Tek-NOS remains pressed against a wall due to her mystical talent.

"The Raven we know would not say such mean things about herself, or you, or… I am confused. Still, this is unlike her normal actions." Starfire remains ready to attack.

"You may have swapped bodies with her, but yet you learned nothing about her. Pathetic, really." This darker, demonic Raven (Now called Dark Raven) readies more debris to throw at them.

"I surprised that you don't remember us, though. Both BB and I were inside Raven's mind, and we saw what happened. You lost to the real deal." Cyborg's shoulders open up, to reveal missile launchers.

"Only because her other emotions decided to band against me." Feeling a small struggle, she turns her head to where she has held Tek-NOS for the past few minutes. To her surprise (and the other Titans), Tek-NOS is no longer there.

"Emotions. A pointless flaw of flesh." Turning their heads, Dark Raven and the Titans find Tek-NOS, relatively undamaged. "In order to become perfect, I had to shed what made me who I was. This included any semblance of emotions that an opponent could use against me in battle."

"From what I could tell, you are far from perfect, Tek-NOS. And it seems that you still have some emotions left in that heap that you call a body." Cyborg retorts. Within Tek-NOS, he can see something akin to himself.

"Are you trying to bait me, Cyborg? If so, that is a really pathetic attempt on your behalf. It is true that I still hold some emotions, but that has a purpose. As for me not being perfect, that is also true. But, I never said that I was absolutely perfect. Such a feat takes time, and that time has yet to come."

Tek-NOS looks down at his right arm, remembering that his plasma cannon has been disabled. "You leave me no choice, Titans. I was going to spare you, but your constant meddling in affairs beyond your understanding will be your end. I will make sure that there will be enough for a memorial." With that, his right arm transforms from the flamethrower into something just as deadly; a modified Gatling gun. Without any need for warm-up, he opens fire.

"Titans, move!" Following Robin's cue, the other three move. At the same time, Robin throws the Birdarang to see if he can cause Tek-NOS' aim to err. Unfortunately, the trademark weapon of the Teen Wonder is shattered by the massive rounds of the weapons. Seeing this, he manages to pull out his grapple device and shoot it out to his side. He manages to get out of the way of the bullets by mere inches.

By this time, Cyborg has begun his own assault on Tek-NOS. He blasts the mechanical monstrosity with a fully powered shot from his Sonic Cannon, causing a massive dust plume around Tek-NOS' body. Staying prepared, he preps for another blast once the dust settles.

He is unable to do so due to being hit in the back with a powerful blow. The strength of the blow send him corkscrewing into a condemned building. "GAAAH!" Getting up, Cyborg notices that his right arm is beginning to spark. Checking his systems, he notices that his Sonic Cannon has been compromised due to a massive chunk of building lodged within it. He manages to remove the chunk of debris from it, and returns it back into his default fist form.

Where is he? Having his missiles on stand-by, he proceeds to looks around. After a few moments, he doesn't see Tek-NOS. Taking a breath, he shuts down his missile launchers and sits down. Taking out his communicator, he opens it. "Yo, Robin. You there?"

"I'm still alive, if that's what you mean." Robin's face shows up on the communicator. "How are things on your side?"

"Aside from a busted Sonic Cannon, just peachy. You haven't happened to have seen Tek-NOS, did you?"

"Not a sign of his metal hide, and that doesn't seem right."

Hearing a noise behind him, Cyborg gets up and grabs a nearby lead pipe with his open hand.

"What is it, Cyborg?" Robin's face is obscured by shadows, mimicking that of his mentor.

Approaching the noise, Cyborg raises the hand holding the lead pipe. Making a small leap, he finds… a rat skittering across the floor. Raising the communicator back to his face, he talks into it. "Just a little pest. I'll be…" His voice is interrupted with a loud pitched whine, followed by slow, repetitive beep. Looking around he sees nothing. Backing out of the room, he has the metal pipe ready. When he steps out of the room, the beeping increases in frequency. Looking behind himself, he notices a massive amount of explosives. Before they explode, Cyborg can utter only one word. "Shit." He is then engulfed in waves of concussive force and flames.

1111

"Cyborg!" Robin cries out for his teammate when he sees the condemned building explode. Rushing over to the remains of the building, he begins to sift through the rubble. After a few moments, he finds Cyborg. He is bloodied, battered, smoking, and sparking, but still alive. Robin tries to lift Cyborg, but finds him hot to the touch.

"Not a wise choice on your behalf, Robin." Turning around, he sees Tek-NOS. "You really should pay attention." He quickly looks down at Cyborg, then back at the Teen Wonder. "You see, this is why you will lose. You constant sense of 'compassion' makes you easy to manipulate, and as such, weak."

"You are sick, psychotic. Can you honestly say that there isn't anyone who you would risk life and limb for?" Robin pulls out two more Birdarangs and places them together to make a sword, the R-Blade.

"No. In fact, I tell the people who need my help to help themselves." Robin hasn't noticed this until now, but on the right waist of Tek-NOS is a katana scabbard. Getting into stance, Tek-NOS pulls out the blade with his left arm. Upon the hilt are glyphs, and the blade itself seems impossibly sharp.

"How were you able to escape Raven's grasp? We didn't even see you move." Robin is also getting into stance. He rarely used the R-Blade, feeling that using a sword goes against his style. Yet, he takes time to practice with Leonardo on a weekly basis. Feeling prepared, he goes into an overhead strike.

"I guess that you have yet to master teleportation." Tek-NOS casually places the katana into a blocking position and catches the attack. "It truly is a marvelous technology."

"Why is that boy so important?" Robin jumps back, then rushes forward, moving the R-Blade to create a horizontal slash.

"I have said it before; I shall not reveal it since it will not matter." Tek-NOS once again blocks the attack, not before he shifts it over to his right hand. Before Robin dodges out of the way, Tek-NOS backhands him. The power behind the blow is enough to send Robin staggering back a few feet. "Besides, you won't live long enough to do anything about it." With a dash, Tek-NOS draws first blood on Robin by cutting deep into his right forearm.

"GARGH!" Robin loses his grip on the R-Blade, instead grabbing the forearm to try and stem the loss of blood. He realizes that if he can't get some patchwork done on the wound, he could pass out, or it might become infected.

"Yet another weakness. Fleshy beings are far too easy to wound physically. If they were to be cut or shot, the effects would be apparent." Tek-NOS walks over to the Teen Wonder, who is trying to grab some medical tape and gauze from his belt in order to stem the bleeding. "Now, we can't have that." Grabbing his head with one hand, he lifts Robin off of his feet.

"Excuse me." Feeling a tapping on his shoulder, Tek-NOS turns to receive a fist on behalf of Cyborg. This blow was enough to loosen the grip on Robin who retaliates with a spin kick to Tek-NOS' head. This combination attack makes his stagger backwards a few steps. By this time, Cyborg has rushed over to Tek-NOS and grabs his shoulders. Tek-NOS replies by doing the same.

They both struggle to get an upper hand until Cyborg decides to pull a move he seen in one of his Dragon Ball Z movies. Releasing his grip, he knees Tek-NOS where the tip of the chin is supposed to be, causing sparks. Like Broly, however, Tek-NOS lowers his head, while the point of the knee is still on his chin point. However, Broly never had to contend with having more than a dozen missiles shot at him from point blank range.

This desperation move sends Cyborg flying back into a nearby brick wall. Robin rushes over to him, having bandaged up the wound to the best of his abilities. "You alright, Cy?"

"I'll be fine when he stays down. Let's just hope 16 missiles point blank makes sure that happens."

Famous last words.

Tek-NOS walks out of the dust, haze and smoke, various amounts of damage covering his body. "This is becoming quite tedious." His right arm shifts back into the Gatling gun mode, and he aims it at the two. Yet, the barrels do not rotate. Instead, the center of the gun widens as a missile is prepped. "It is endgame!" He fires the missile.

Before the missile reaches them, the two teenage boys are enveloped by a green energy and propelled onto the roof of a building. The missile misses them and flies through the nearby alleyway eventually hitting a nearby firetruck, causing the vehicle to literally disintegrate.

"Uhhh, are we dead?" Cyborg asks Robin.

"Not yet. The more important question is, how did we survive?" Robin looks down and notices a man wearing red standing in front of Tek-NOS. Who is that guy?

At the same time, Tek-NOS is thinking the same, only expressing it verbally. "Who are you? And what have you done with those two?"

The man in red answers, and his voice is strange. It seems as if the voice is echoing, although there are no possible places for echoes nearby. "We are the souls of lost warriors brought back to fight. As for the two teenagers, We removed them from harm's way. Now, allow us the opportunity to defeat you." With those last words, the man's eyes glow a bright green and he begins to levitate. Soon, the man in red slams down to the ground, creating a small tremor.

This staggers Tek-NOS, and he attempts to rush the man in red. He soon finds that he isn't capable of reaching him. Looking down, he sees why. Tek-NOS is enveloped in the same green light that covered the two Titan Boys just moments ago, and he is being levitated. Unlike Cyborg and Robin, Tek-NOS is slammed down to the ground with tremendous force. Tek-NOS is able to get back up, but is suddenly knocked back down due to a green energy blast from the man in red. Getting up again, Tek-NOS asks, "What is you name?"

The man in red replies, "We are Ermac. And he is Cyrax."

"What do you…" Tek-NOS is suddenly enveloped in extreme pain. Looking down, he sees a blade of energy emerging from his chest, and slick oil begins to spout from the wound. Tek-NOS drops to his knees, and is trying to claw out the weapon from the back.

"May I?" This voice is similar to that of Tek-NOS, except it seems to be more… cheerful. This voice belongs to a machine clad in yellow. It wears the trappings of a ninja, but looks far too bulky to be one.

"Of course, Cyrax." Ermac levitates himself up to the point of the Titan boys. "Relax. We are not your enemy."

"How can we trust you?" Cyborg is standing up, both hands are clenched.

"Take it easy, Cyborg. This guy just saved us from a missile. He can't be all bad." Robin is also ready to attack, but seems more lax.

"How do you know? He might just some lackey sent to complete this mission, whatever the hell it is." Cyborg looks as if he is ready to explode. His face is red, and the beginning of steam is coming out of his nose.

"We assure you that We do not mean any harm to you or your teammates. Let Us levitate both of you down." Ermac is still levitating after all this time.

"What about it, Cyborg?" Robin has a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Cyborg is brief and crass. Soon, both of them are enveloped in the same energy surrounding Ermac. Within moments, they too are levitating. Soon enough, all three are on the ground. "There is one thing I'm wonderin' about, Ermac. What's with 'We' and 'Us'?"

"It is difficult to explain now. We shall explain once the threats are defeated." Ermac then walks over to the prone body of Tek-NOS. Cyrax is wounded, slick oil flowing down from a wound on his side, and kneeling next to Tek-NOS. Cyrax then proceeds to remove his helmet. Beneath it is the face of a black man.

"Are the other two OK?" Without the mask, Cyrax sounds about the same as Cyborg, except about 15 years older. He holds his left hand out

"The one called Robin was cut across the forearm deeply. He was able to stem the bleeding, but there is still a chance that he might go into shock." Ermac grabs Cyrax's extended hand and pulls the cyber ninja back to his feet. "We suggest that you take him to a nearby medical facility."

"No can do." Robin is over by both of the ninjas along with Cyborg. "We still have friends that need help, and I, for one, intend to be there."

"You could become a liability to your friends. Let Us handle this."

"But the nearest medical center is over a mile away." Robin replies.

"No problem. We could just take…" Cyborg looks over and notices that the T-Car is in flames. "GAAAH!! My baby!"

"I take it he really takes great pride in his handiwork." Cyrax looks over at the vehicle wreckage.

"You have no idea." Robin says. "So, how are we going to get to that medical center? It's not like it'll come to us."

"In our case, it will." With that, Cyrax taps a few buttons on his wrist, and a portal opens up. "Come on, Robin. This portal will take us to OIA HQ. We'll get patched up there." Without a second thought, Cyrax steps through. Shrugging his shoulders, Robin soon follows. Ermac is about to enter, but stops.

"Cyborg, We must assist one of Our friends. Go through the portal to receive treatment." Ermac then levitates and rushes off.

Sniffing back sobs, Cyborg then proceeds to enter the portal.

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Wow, another 8 pager, and this one was whipped out in the shortest amount of time.

Now, some of the readers are wondering why Ermac refers to himself as 'We' or 'Us'. This is quite simple. Since Ermac is composed of many dead warrior souls, he sees himself as more than one, hence 'We' or 'Us'. As for Cyrax being black, this is canon in the MK universe.

Now, I know that Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire rarely showed up in this chapter. Don't worry, the next chapter is all them, plus 1 blind psychic swordsman and one ninja composed of many souls.

Next Chapter: Titan Troubles Part 2

REVIEW, AND REJOICE!