Crisis Point

by Legend Maker

There can be no better way of knowing, in a world beyond controlling...are you going to deny the savior right in front of your eyes? Are you, heroes? Titans? Alien? THEN YOU WILL ALL FALL.

9. War: Smells Like Teen Spirit

War, Part 4: Smells Like Teen Spirit

Earth-2.

"…So…anyone have any idea of just what happened?" Wildcat asked, as he looked around. A few scant moments ago, he had been watching the Elementals seemingly being mashed together with other people, while reality seemed to melt around them…and then suddenly things had snapped back to normal, and they were back in Keystone City.

As for the Elementals…results varied. Rocko had completely collapsed into a pile of unmoving stone, Scorched was sitting on her rear looking dazed, Floral was actually standing over her calling her 'Mommy', and Zippy seemed least affected, though she was holding her head.

And the Air Elemental was down on the ground, its strange body of wind and motion barely visible in its unconscious state. Apparently its lack of substance meant it hadn't handled the forced merger as well as the other Elementals: Scorcher was already getting up.

"I think…that was the second most unpleasant experience in my life." Scorcher said.

"Really? What was the first?" Sand asked.

"That would be when her freak boyfriend died in her arms. My doing, I'm afraid. But he had it coming." Came the voice of the Scientist, and everyone's head jerked towards the villain, forgotten in the chaos…and he was taking advantage by running for his life.

"It's been fun! We must do it again soon!" The Scientist said, one hand on his waist as he ran backwards, preparing to activate his personal defense shield: once he had it up he'd be untouchable and easily able to escape. "But he who fights and runs away, lives to win another day! And he who laughs last…!" The Scientist said as he turned around.

Right into a metal fist.

The blow rang through the air as Platinum Blonde leveled the Scientist, who had delayed too long in activating his shield. He crashed down on the ground a dozen feet away.

"Thanks slowest." Platinum Blonde said. "You know, I never got you Scientist. Such a big brain, such remarkable intelligence, and what do you use it to do? Torment others. Like us. How can someone so smart be SO STUPID?"

The Scientist groaned…and then vines lined with sharp thorns suddenly sprang up from the ground and over him, digging into his skin but not piercing it, a very strong incentive not to struggle. He tried a bit anyway, as he cranked his head back and found himself looking at the upside down face of Scorcher, her features tight with barely restrained rage.

"You killed Henry. I should burn you where you lie…but I won't Scientist. When this is all over I'll let the system punish you. Because the day we sink to your level is the day we may as well give everything up. As long as you're around, there's something worth fighting for. Including YOU, until you finally end up in oblivion." Scorcher said.

And then a large pebble dropped on the Scientist's forehead, knocking him cold before he could reply.

"Amen." Rocko said, her form still very slipshod but in better shape then it had been before. "Magic seems to be a bit more stabilized. Maybe for good now."

"Speaking of magic…Antoinette?" Scorcher said, as the French Elemental walked up to them, pulling the bandages off her face…her normal, undamaged face, no longer smashed to ruin from a devastating punch.

"Anniewhattheheckyouwerebadlyhurtwhat'sgoingon…" Zippy said as she ran around.

"Was I hurt? Last thing I remember was gathering for that fight…and then I woke up and found the Scientist running towards me. I think I'm the one who should be asking what's going on."

"You got me." Scorcher replied.

"Um…" Sophie piped up, as everyone looked at her. "I have a theory…"

"Spill it."

"Well…it looked like some force attempted some kind of, well, combination of this planet with another one, and those who had counterparts on the other planet were almost merged in turn. But something interrupted the merger, and when it came apart both sides were, well, snapped back to their natural state. So I'm guessing Platinum Blonde was, well, reset in some way. Hence no more injury to her face."

"My face? They hurt my face? Thank god for this reset." Platinum Blonde said, rubbing her cheek.

"Oh please, even if there'd be no reset you'd have gotten by on other assets." Rocko said. Platinum Blonde punched him in retaliation, as the Justice Society members approached as well.

"Well miss, you say this was a forced merger…you think it will happen again?" Jay Garrick asked.

"…I don't know Mr. Garrick. I'm just taking things as they come. I have no idea if I'm right or what's around the corner." Sophie said as she looked out onto the many Earths in the sky. She wondered where Scalpel was, if he was alive…and if he was, if he was going to die. In a situation like this, he'd fight until his heart gave out. And that might not be much longer.

She sensed it was coming to a climax.

"Well then. Lacking any idea of what's coming, what should we do?" Wildcat asked.

"…Pray." Scorcher said.

"To who?"

"To any gods that might be listening." Scorcher said, as she and her family looked up onto the Multiverse, wondering if it would be the last great sight of her life.

---

Earth-1.

"…Titans." Slade said as he stood fully upright, his sword as his side. "And to think I thought I'd see this day end without seeing you."

"We had some other tasks to handle. But for you Slade, we'll always make time." Robin said, his bo-like staff fully extending as Robin spun it under his arm, his team spreading out around him. The voice they had all heard had been Raven's, calling to them, whispering that she could bring them to the place where they were needed most…and then opening portals that had taken the Titans there, pulling Robin and Co from Detroit even as it carried away Starfire and Cyborg an instant before the backlash from the combined attack in space would have struck them, as Raven, using herself as a guide, had reached out and seized on Noel as a beacon. The fact that he had been confronting Slade was just coincidence…or fate. But as Raven had found Noel, even as she pulled her fellow Titans along with him, she had found Slade by default, and warned them all. Thus, not only had they arrived, they had arrived ready.

For a moment, Slade almost told them that this world didn't have much time left…but he didn't.

Because he recognized the sentence for what it was: an excuse. While the Titans and he held a deep grudge, the sense of responsibility that drove them would quickly turn them away if they felt he was the lesser of two evils. And if they left, Slade could withdraw and more properly prepare himself for such a fight.

But in Slade's mind, he'd never be able to rid himself of the underlying reason for such a tact: he was retreating.

To contemplate such a thing made him realize he had to consider the Titans a grave threat, possibly even one that could do him in…and Slade Wilson would not accept such thoughts, especially when it came to these children.

True, they were skilled, they were powerful, they were determined, and they did not compromise. In them, Slade saw much of himself.

But they were still children. And Slade would not flee from children. He would show them their place: at his feet, their respected elder. If he had to, he'd send them all to early graves to do it.

"So you would rather all die then let your foolish teammate pay for his mistake?" Slade asked as he raised the sword.

"No one's dying today Slade." Robin said.

"We're going to settle this." Cyborg added.

"Once, and for all." Starfire said.

Slade chuckled again, as the Titans spread out a bit more.

"So, you wish this to be it?"

"It WILL be it." Scalpel replied.

"Then so be it." Slade said, as he slipped his hand under a section of his shoulder armor and pressed a button. He swiftly pressed buttons located on his wrists as well, and then stabbed his sword into the ground as he reached for his belt.

"What's he going?" Terra asked, as Slade removed two large canisters. They weren't grenades, they were…

Slade hit a button on both, and they popped open.

And they came, a swarming mass of black and gray, surging from the canisters as Slade dropped them on the ground, as they swirled around him, as his eye narrowed.

"What the…" Robin said, even as Cyborg's eyes completed their scans and it widened.

"Oh crap! Neurological-reactive combat nanomachines!" Cyborg said.

"Titans, get ready!" Robin said, as all the Titans around him assumed combat poses.

"It ends, as you wish, Robin. You and your Titans have caused me nothing but grief. And sweet is a grief well ended!" Slade said, as the nanomachines swarmed around his arms…and formed into a giant machine gun. "DIE!"

Bullets exploded through the room, as the Titans scattered away from the shots, even as Raven waved her hand and formed a black dome over her and Noel that the bullets ricocheted off of, slamming into the ice as Raven dispelled the shield.

Despite his immense pain, Noel found himself chuckling.

"And just when I think I rolled a snake eyes…my dice did one last turn and one came up five." Noel said.

Raven slapped her lover, jerking his head to the side.

"You saw our future child, and you endangered her existence by doing something as stupid as attacking Slade alone? How could you?" Raven snapped.

"…Heh. Maybe the fact I had a child had something to do with it…maybe I just knew today wasn't my day…"

"Don't speak so soon." Raven said, as she turned: despite the incredible power her mother had given her, warping all her teammates, including two across interstellar distances, to save Noel had once again drained her severely: she couldn't even muster the power to heal Savior's injuries. So she settled for kneeling near him, watching, letting herself rest.

She had brought her team here. It was up to them.

And she knew absolutely none of them would let her down.

As Robin swung down from his leap and whacked Slade's machine gun aside…as Slade flipped backwards, even as Nigel's glaive buried itself where Slade had been, as the master assassin flipped away, his machine gun exploding back into a swarming mass of nanomachines again, as he came back to his feet.

Nigel hit the ground and sprang forward, grabbing up his glaive as Robin joined him at his side, as Slade landed, yanked his sword out of the ground, even as the nanomachines formed a twin blade and he brought both before him.

Sparks flew as the weapons clashed, as Slade battled his opponents, the glaive and staff slamming into his swords, as the two Titans pressed forward, their weapons blurring around them as Slade matched their duel offense with a peerless defense…

And turned it around, as he slammed both weapons around Nigel's glaive and abruptly shifted its motion, slamming it into the ground, and as Robin stabbed his staff Slade whirled away from the blow and brought his foot in a roundhouse motion down on it, slamming the staff down onto the glaive as Nigel was about to lift it, as Slade's foot flashed off the weapons and buried itself in Nigel's throat, and then snapped over and smashed Robin across the face, both Titans reeling away from the blows as Slade leapt back again…

A sonic cannon blast and a flurry of Starbolts slammed into the ground where he had just been, and even as he landed a green jaguar pounced on him, but Slade went with the motion and abruptly jerked forward in a deep lean, turning Beast Boy's momentum against him as he slid over Slade and landed on the ground, a moment before Slade buried a fierce kick into his ribs, knocking the wind and a meowing whine from Beast Boy's throat as Slade spun up a blade and lanced it down, Beast Boy dodging as he turned into a mouse, as Slade immediately abandoned the attack and flipped away again as another rain of Starbolts slammed into the ground where he had been, even as Starfire flew to the side and took aim again, Cyborg mirroring her on the ground…

"Starfire! Cyborg! Be careful!" The voice said, not in the air but in their heads, as the two stopped and glanced over to Noel, who was holding onto Raven, using her to project his thoughts. "Be cautious with blasting! This chamber isn't the most stable location."

Cyborg looked back at Starfire, and then gave her a thumbs up, even as he turned and seized a giant chunk of ice, lifting it up, even as Gauntlet landed nearby and also gave Cyborg an affirmative signal.

Robin was back on the attack, clashing with Slade's duel blades, and getting nowhere he leapt away, sending twin Birdarangs swirling at his mortal enemy. Slade slashed them from the air…

And Cyborg hurled the massive ice chunk skyward, as Gauntlet leapt, seized it with gauntlet power, and hurled it in a way that would have done Cy Young proud, the ice striking the ground before Slade and hurling him backwards as it pelted him with shrapnel, as he lost his normal sword and his nanosword exploded back into a swirling insectoid mass.

And then Starfire was there, swinging her fist. Slade blocked it, but the impact clearly hit home, his block barely holding.

"Perhaps you forget, but I am no slouch in the hand to hand, Slade, and as you are surely realizing, my strength is considerably higher then yours!" Starfire yelled as she shoved through the block and repeatedly punched, forcing Slade back to avoid the full power of the blows…a strategy that cost him anyway as Starfire lunged forward and slammed her palm into his chest, and even as he agonized she swooped back and slashed out her foot.

Slade ducked backwards under her roundhouse kick, and as he reared back up the nanomachines clustered around his right fist and he lashed out.

"Not this time alien!" Slade yelled, slamming his fist into Starfire and sending her flying backwards with a yell. "These devices are top of the line. Weapons, enhancements, anything I can muster…I was going to save them if I needed to humble any fools who wanted to stop me from controlling the reformed Society but I think this way is far more satisfying."

"Enjoy it then!"

And then Cyborg crashed down near Slade, the assassin having dodged to the side to avoid his punch, as Cyborg went after Slade.

"I'm not so easy to knock around!" Cyborg yelled, as he fired off more punches…and watched to his horror as Slade grabbed one hand, then another, stopping him dead.

"What? Surprised your electronic attempts to disable them have met in failure? You disappoint me Cyborg. One of the first things I collected was the schematics from Blood…"

Cyborg slammed his head forward, ramming it into Slade's mask: using his head one way to deal with Slade's nanomachines had met in failure, so he'd just use it another way and deal with Slade himself, as he slammed his knee into Slade's torso, then his other knee, and as Slade recoiled Cyborg reversed the grip on his hands and yanked backwards, hurling Slade over him…

Only to find Slade reversing his momentum and landing behind Cyborg, in a perfect bridge, their hands still locked, as Cyborg found himself looking upside down into Slade's face, as the nanomachines swarmed around Slade's body…

And gave him the strength to lift himself straight up using just his legs and hurl Cyborg over his head. He flew through the air and slammed into a wall, falling down to the floor with a loud crash as several hundred pounds of ice broke off and fell towards the teen machine…

And stopped, encased in black power, as Cyborg shook his head, looked up, and then rolled aside, the ice crashing down where he had been, as Raven moaned and collapsed into Savior's arms.

"Not easy…" She whispered.

Even as Raven saved her teammate, a green triceratops was charging at Slade's side, but Slade just leapt and flipped over the giant dinosaur, as Beast Boy crashed through several ice chunks before stopping, shaking his head.

"Gar! You ok?" Terra asked.

"Yeah…Tara, are you?" Beast Boy asked, as he realized Terra had not done anything in the battle. Terra raised her hands helplessly.

"There's no rocks! Nowhere nearby! It's all ice! I can't find anything to control!"

"HAHHHHHHHH!" Starfire yelled as she swooped in and punched Slade across the face, throwing him to the side.

"All right, just stay back then!" Beast Boy said, as he turned into a hawk and took to the air.

Slade leapt and came down near the wall, and then Starfire flew in, bouncing off the wall and then a chunk of ice as she lashed out, kicking him backwards. Slade flipped to recover, only to find Scalpel landing in front of him and charging in, as Scalpel lashed up his foot, slicing up across Slade's chest before slashing it down in an axe kick, cutting another wound as Scalpel stepped in even as he finished the kick and leapt, flipping backwards and kicking Slade under the chin, throwing him back farther. Slade stopped as Scalpel landed, bringing his glaive to bear and charging.

The nanosword formed again, and Slade blocked the blow, as Scalpel bore down on him, using his immense strength even as he snarled into his face.

"Not bad…not good either!" Slade snapped even as he snapped backwards, his nanosword exploding again as Slade went under Nigel's guard and punched him, throwing him backwards several steps as the nanomachines reformed into a submachine gun that Slade seized and opened fire with, forcing Scalpel to dive for cover…

Even as Starfire came in from the side again and slammed into Slade, tackling him, and even as Slade's feet left the ground Starfire pulled herself up as she leveraged a foot against Slade's chest and pushed, slamming him downward and into the ice with a thunderous cracking noise as she flew up and on…

As Slade flipped off from the impact, his gun instantly breaking down and reforming, and even as Starfire turned around he snapped out his new weapon and fired…a grenade launcher, as Starfire's eyes widened.

The explosion consumed her, her cry echoing around the room.

"STARFIRE!" Robin yelled, and charged in again, even as Starfire's wounded body fell from the cloud of smoke and Slade took aim again…

Robin slammed the weapon aside, and the grenade went wide, flying away from Starfire, across the room…and exploding against the ice directly above Savior and Raven, as the two looked up.

"Oh fiddlesticks." Savior said.

The wall partially collapsed, and the rubble bore down on the pair, as Raven raised her hands and sent out her power, the ice becoming encased in black…and then falling anyway as her power broke, her body too drained…

The ice buried them both, tons of it crashing down on their forms.

And perhaps denoting the intensity of the battle, no one noticed, as Slade leapt away from Robin's attack and snatched up his lost normal sword, transforming his grenade launcher back into another sword as Robin attacked again, extending his staff out even more as he swiped for Slade's legs, but Slade swiftly dodged and was ready when Robin zoomed in close, spinning his staff around him as the two weapons clashed.

Robin did a split to avoid one sword slash as it cleaved through another ice chunk and then rolled and flipped backwards to avoid a stab, as he landed, flexed his knees, and leapt forward again. His staff slammed into Slade's crossed swords, but Robin was ready and kicked off the assassin, flying some distance away as Slade recoiled from the blow. Robin landed, and Cyborg came to his side, as the two glanced at each other.

And then Robin was hurling his explosive disc, as Cyborg snapped out his sonic cannon and fired after it.

As Slade formed a laser cannon from his collective nanomachines and fired his own blast.

The interrupted Sonic Boom exploded through the room, catching both Titan and villain as Robin and Cyborg were hurled through chunks of ice and Slade was thrown backwards, albeit in more control then the Titans as he flipped and landed…and then Gauntlet was there, swinging a yellow energy frying pan.

Slade deflected it away and spun away from Gauntlet, switching from laser cannon back to sword, as Gauntlet then tried his equivalent of a sack filled with nickels, then a rolling pin, and then finally just a generic fist…that Slade leapt off of and kicked Gauntlet in the face for, driving him backwards.

"It always amazed me, that even with your friends dying around you, you continue to play the fool." Slade said, as Gauntlet leapt for him, as Slade slashed for the energy…only to find it splitting and reforming around the slash, as Gauntlet's blow slammed into Slade and threw him backwards, HARD, as he slammed into a wall…and then pushed off it and lanced back, stabbing for Gauntlet's head.

Yellow energy grabbed Slade in mid air, as the two hit the ground and tumbled a bit…before Gauntlet grabbed ahold of said ground and hurled himself high into the air, still holding Slade.

"You know Wilson, if you actually study the works of Shakespeare, you'll find a recurring theme: the fool always speaks the truth." Gauntlet said. "I'm the good guy. You're the bad guy."

As Gauntlet then did a tight spin and hurled Slade towards the ground.

"DO THE MATH!"

Slade hit with another intense impact, but his battle-hardened body, protected by the best in armor and the nanomachines, shrugged it off much better then a normal human would, as he leapt away as Gauntlet slammed down where he had just been, as he reformed his sword into a sub-machine gun and opened fire at point-blank range, the nature of his weapon negating any need for a clip, as Gauntlet was driven backwards, his artifact still damaged and not in the best of shape, as the bullets slammed into his shield in an intense barrage and finally forced him behind some ice to recover…

As a green gorilla dropped from the sky and slammed into Slade, knocking him to the ground.

But his nanomachines couldn't be removed from him like a normal gun could, and hence Beast Boy was forced to leap off and turn into a cat to flee as Slade fired at him, rolling back up…

The Birdarang bit into his shoulder, and he snarled and turned as he saw Robin hurling more at him, even as Cyborg charged at him.

Submachine gun returned to sword, as Slade had somehow held onto his normal sword the whole time, as he slashed the Birdarangs out of the air. Cyborg closed in, swinging his fist, but Slade blocked the blow with his nanoblade and shoved Cyborg away, kicking him in the side even as he continued to slash away Birdarangs. Cyborg leapt in again, swinging around and kicking with the heel of his foot, a blow that Slade blocked again. This time he was staggered though, even as Cyborg moved in, ducking and weaving like a boxer, as Slade's blades met his fists, Slade fending off the attackers as he tried to switch tactics…

And then Cyborg got through, flooring Slade with a punch to the ribs. Slade flew, but like always he flipped over in mid-flight and landed on his feet, sliding on the ice somewhat before stopping.

He did not hesitate in his next move, as he immediately leapt forward to slash at Cyborg: at farther range Slade was open to the sonic cannon, he had to close the range…

Unfortunately, Cyborg had the same idea, as jets opened from his legs and back and he dashed forward, and as Slade's eyes widened Cyborg managed to slip right under the leaping assassin.

As he turned around and punched him, turning his leap into a crash as he hit the ground.

As a green wolf jumped on him and dug his teeth into his calf. Slade yelled and lashed out, kneeing the wolf in the head and knocking him away, as Slade slashed and barely avoided cutting off one of Beast Boy's feet as he scampered away, as Slade flipped back up.

Robin flew through the air, his staff slashing down. Slade blocked it with a sword…only to find the blow sliding off as Robin went with the move, landed, ducked, and thrust out a foot at an upward angle, catching Slade in the chest and knocking him backwards. Slade righted himself even as Robin's hand blurred and another spray of Birdarangs flew at Slade. Slade began slashing them from the air, and then sensing movement from behind he leapt to the side as he barely avoided Cyborg, as Slade landed, his nanosword shifting into a shotgun that he gave both barrels to the half-robot teen, the nature of the weapon letting him fire it one handed without losing any of the kick that slammed into Cyborg, knocking him down, even as Slade switched back to the sword and leapt at Robin, who blocked Slade's slash with his staff and whirled away, and as Slade pursued Robin stopped, then moved with precise timing as he zipped back to avoid Slade's sword, and even as it hit the ground he moved forward, stepping up and on the blade as he ran up and leapt over Slade, and as Slade turned around Robin landed and fired off a reverse roundhouse kick that sent Slade flying backwards, this time landing on his side.

Robin spun his staff around, and as Slade pushed himself up he leapt through the air.

His eye narrowing to the slit, Slade slid his normal sword into the side sheath as his nanosword exploded and flowed to both hands, turning into twin handguns that Slade opened fire with on Robin, as Robin, forced to abort his leap, spun his staff to defend himself as he landed and flipped away…

As Beast Boy leapt from behind Slade, a gigantic tiger…

Slade's backhand slammed into Beast Boy's upper face, Slade somehow avoiding the teeth, stopping the leap's forward momentum as pain interrupted Beast Boy's concentration, as he started to fall…

As Slade brought his hands down, his nanoblade reforming, as he spun it and jerked it back.

The sound of metal going through flesh filled the whole room, plunging it into silence.

The shock was so great Beast Boy lost concentration, turning back to human form, as he stopped and stared down at the sword sticking out of his chest.

As blood, his blood, slowly began to leak from the wound, dripping down onto the cold, hard ice.

---

Some people theorize that had the United States not entered World War II, Germany would have eventually conquered the world. But some well versed military strategists believed that even if the United States had stayed out and Germany had conquered Britain, it would have eventually lost anyway to the Soviet Union, simply due to the fact that when the war began, the Soviet Union had disassembled all the factories facing Europe and moved them all the way across the country, setting them up as far away from the Germans as possible. This, combined with the fact that German progress with nuclear warfare was often far less then believed, allowed military minds to see a Soviet victory by attrition, forcing Germany to build incredibly long and vulnerable supply lines in the most hostile weather on Earth, a fact that may have eventually combined with the Soviet Union's sheer numbers to bring down Hitler's Third Reich.

Whether this would have happened is a matter of much debate that most likely can never be settled. The theory from it is simply this: sometimes even the most skilled warriors can crack and break under the weigh of numbers.

The Titans had smashed and disabled thousands of OMAC's, but thousands still remained: the way they had backed off in order to avoid engaging the villains had given the false impression their numbers were thinning: now the villains were beaten or had fled, and the OMAC's had returned, attacking from all angles. Boxing the heroes in. Heroes already tired and worn from their efforts.

But none of them were giving up the ghost yet.

"Hahhhhhhhhhh…" Nightmare growled, as she called upon the shadows and formed a pair of chakrams. "Burn!" She yelled, as she hurled off her weapons, blazing with black flame, as they bounced and tore through several OMAC's, coming back to her hands.

"Here's a memo: you can't beat me! Got it MEMORIZED?" Mary taunted. "That's 54 for me!"

"Please, I'm at 81!" Kyra yelled as she formed a squad of tanks and blasted apart another group of OMAC's. "88!"

"Oh you cheater! You're fudging your numbers!"

"Says you!"

"EXA-ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mary screamed as twin OMAC's hit her with beams of solar power, blowing holes in her.

"Mary! I got your back!" Kyra said, as she swooped it and blew away the two OMAC's with a blast of force. "You ok?"

"Can't go…much longer…"

"Yeah, feeling's mutual. Where's that no-good boytoy of yours?"

A gigantic crashing noise sounded, and the next thing Kyra knew Potent was flying at her, as Kyra caught him in a giant baseball glove.

"Speak of the devil." Kyra said. "Say EJ, why don't…"

"BACK OFF!" Potent yelled, as he pulled himself free and leapt off in the distance, and Kyra saw him come slashing down on the General, who looked considerably fresher then Potent had been. Kyra thought she saw Brick too, getting up from a fall, before OMAC's cut her field of vision off.

"Leave it to the men to hog the last villain." Kyra said, and formed a wicked-looking glaive. "Watch Mary, I can even use your own weapon better then you!"

"Oh you…!"

Ragnarok sent a blast of fire against an OMAC, and then threw up a shield of darkness as several more tried to blast him. His arms tingled strangely again, and he withdrew about 20 feet so he could finally concentrate on his visor and take a look at just what that effect was.

Scorched Earth, in the vein of his mother, was raining down Scorch Bolts on more OMAC's, and even as he did Metatron jumped over him and added a few of his own blasts. Scorched Earth frowned as the demon landed nearly.

"Are you suggesting I couldn't handle this myself?"

"Buddy, NONE of us could…" Metatron said.

The OMAC's descended from the sky, as a rain of small orbs fell before them. Scorched Earth and Metatron looked at each other, and then they both ran for it.

The explosions were mighty, forcing both of the Titans to take to the air…but Metatron had one problem Scorched Earth did not: he needed wings to fly.

And that finally cost him, as an OMAC flew from the smoke and fired a piercing energy blast from his hand, blowing a ragged hole in one of Metatron's wings as he fell to the ground with a scream.

"Adam! Are you all right?" Yin said as he stretched over.

Metatron let out a violent roar and blew away another OMAC over Yin's shoulder.

"This is why…I really hate…having wings…" Metatron said as he folded them back up.

"You want me to get…" Was as far as Yin got before another group of five OMAC's came in blasting from the side, and the two were forced on the defensive, Metatron fighting through the pain and using it as fuel for his rage.

Hex flipped over to where Ragnarok was standing, still looking at his visor.

"Hey! Bad time to surf!" Hex said, as she concentrated hex power in her arms and then zapped four OMAC's at a distance, as she lowered her arms, panting. Who'd have thought she'd have so much misfortune within her? Maybe it had something to do with the world she came from.

"Huh?" Ragnarok said, as he lifted his visor. "…Oh. Right. Surf. Like I'm on the net."

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Um…I'm performing a head count…where's Savior?"

"Don't know, don't care!" Hex said, as she flipped away to lend a hand to Metatron and Yin.

Ragnarok wondered why he hadn't told the truth.

Then he realized it probably didn't matter.

The battle was just as fierce around the Golden Tower: most of Alexander Luthor's 'keys' may have been freed, but there were more then enough OMAC's to give them attention, as well as the original four of Superboy, Wonder Girl, Donar, and Nightwing.

Only one hero was focusing on the mastermind: Power Girl, as she smashed two OMAC's aside to get at Alexander Luthor, as he tried to stumble away. Her eyes glowed red.

"Where's my cousin!" She yelled as she fired blistering beams of heat vision at Alex, blowing up the ground beneath him in a rage. "Where's Lois!"

Alexander clenched his fist as purplish energy erupted on it.

"They are no longer needed alive." He replied coldly, and thrust out his hand. "And neither are any of you."

The blast of positive energy slammed into Power Girl and threw her backwards, her outfit slightly singed. But the point of the blast quickly became apparent, as OMAC's quickly swarmed her, cutting her off from Alexander as she was forced to fight her way free…a fight that swiftly became harder after three of them blasted her with kryptonite rays. In agony, she counter-attacked, tearing into the OMAC's with the fury only certain women could muster.

Alexander didn't care: out of sight, out of mind. He found his floating platform, having called it back down as he'd tried to escape from Power Girl's wrath, and he swiftly used it to pull himself back up the Tower, keeping an eye out for Nightwing this time. He was engaged, and so Alexander returned to his rift unmolested.

Not that it mattered: his 'work environment' as it were had gone to hell. And he and the Tower were linked. If he couldn't focus on what he was doing…

He'd just have to drown it out, as his eyes went to the void again, trying to find Earth-2, the pain where his right index finger had once been a strong motivation.

But it wasn't enough to drown it all out: the noise, the explosions, the smells, everything conspired to interrupt him. And he was running out of time.

He grit his teeth and got to work.

---

You could almost hear each individual blood drop as it fell and struck the ground, ringing through the air like a bell, as Slade stood there, almost stock still, his blade still impaled through Beast Boy.

"And suddenly you seem to realize it." Slade said. "You teenagers always were fools. What did you think this was, a game? Some kind of trifle for your amusement? This is life, AND DEATH. And that is how they will all end."

"Guh…" Beast Boy said.

And the silence exploded.

"GAR NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Cyborg screamed, on his hands and knees from where he was getting up, as Robin broke from the paralysis he was in as the rage came over him, and he screamed a wordless sound and charged at Slade, staff out. Slade's eye narrowed once more as he came.

"You let your feelings overtake you!" Slade said as he drew his normal sword from his sheath, still holding Beast Boy behind him as he parried Robin's swipe, easily blocking Robin's mad swings. "Let it blind and lessen your abilities! You have to learn to grow up, Robin!" Slade said, as he ducked under Robin's roundhouse swing and lashed out, arcing his foot up as he slammed it into Robin's face in a powerful thrust kick, throwing Robin backwards as he crashed over the top of an ice chunk.

"Not that you will. A pity, you might have learned to pay attention. This isn't a game." Slade, and then his eye widened in turn, as he heard the sonic of Cyborg's sonic cannon powering up.

"YOU'RE DEAD YOU SON OF A…!" Cyborg bellowed.

Slade whirled and threw his normal sword with an unerring eye. It crashed through the metallic side of Cyborg's head.

"ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Cyborg screamed, reeling backwards as his sonic cannon fired off and went wide, slamming into the wall above Slade, firing into the air, and then tearing down and across the wall behind Cyborg as he fell, as the whole ice tower shuddered, and then began to break apart, as the wall behind Cyborg collapsed under the damage done to it, breaking off and falling outward towards the ground, crashing down on the snow below.

"Still haven't improved the armor on that side I see." Slade said, as he finally turned around to face Beast Boy, still limp on his sword. "My, you still draw breath. Your small frame holds considerable strength."

Slade yanked the sword out as he grabbed Beast Boy by the shoulder, the blood falling off the nanoblade as it disassembled and reformed into a handgun, as Slade aimed it at Beast Boy's head.

"But that's won't matter."

The arm grabbed his and yanked it aside as the gun blared, shooting past Beast Boy's ear, as a small fist slammed into the side of Slade's head, and as Slade let Beast Boy go to see who was attacking him another hit him in the face, though it barely staggered him.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Terra yelled, as she tried another punch.

Slade caught her hand.

"Ah, my would-be apprentice."

Slade's kick threw Terra backwards with a gasping scream, and as she hit the ground Slade's gun, having gone back to nanomachines when he'd been blindsided (who'd have though Terra could catch him off guard), reformed into a refined handgun as Terra got up, her eyes wide with fear.

"We could have done so much together." Slade said. "Instead, you're just another victim."

The handgun blazed, the bullets slamming into Terra's frail form, throwing her backwards in an agonized stumble…

As she ran out of room. A minute ago she would have hit the wall, but Cyborg's errant blast had blown off one whole section of the ice structure. There was no more wall.

Her scream echoed once more as she fell off the edge and into thin air, disappearing from Slade's view.

"Goodbye, child."

And then Slade flipped away as Nigel's glaive slammed down on the floor where Slade had been, as the snarling alien drove him away from Beast Boy.

"Gar! Hang on!" Scalpel said as he knelt by the changeling. "I'll…"

And then Scalpel snarled again and brought his glaive up as Slade came crashing down with his nanoblade, barely blocking the blow.

"This is not a hospital alien! I suggest you worry about your own life then the last remnants of his!" Slade taunted, even as he flipped away. Scalpel's eyes darted back and forth between Slade and Beast Boy: he couldn't leave Gar here but if he tried Slade would just keep attacking, if he didn't just form a gun and shoot Scalpel in the back, he had…

He had to fight. He couldn't help.

"…Oh Gar…forgive me…" Scalpel said, as he gripped his glaive tightly.

Slade saw the alien's muscles tensing, and he quickly leapt to the side, his nanosword shifting into some kind of hand weapon…a taser, as he came down near where Cyborg was trying to recover and slammed it into him, drawing another scream as thousands of volts slammed through Cyborg's systems, rendering him helpless and smoking. Slade retrieved his normal sword as Scalpel reared up and leapt for him again. Slade dodged with another backwards leap, as Scapel's glaive scoured another wound in the ice where Slade had been.

"Victor…" Scalpel said, looking at Cyborg's motionless body. Beast Boy, Terra, Cyborg…

NO MORE.

"RARRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Scalpel bellowed, as he lanced through the air.

Slade seemed more amused then anything, as he flipped backwards and, with a mighty leap, sprang high into the air, his taser exploding into a nanomachine swarm even as more machines flew from his body armor to add to the mass, forming a giant gun over Slade's shoulder, as he aimed and fired, a spray of six mini-missiles flying towards Nigel.

Scalpel's eyes narrowed to slits, as his claws tensed hard on his glaive.

Slade was starting back towards the ground as he saw it.

Scalpel's speed and technique were extraordinary, as he slashed out with his glaive, the weapon a blur, as he somehow swatted every missile out of the air, avoiding the pressure trigger warheads despite the small size of the weapons, as they all flew to the side, crashing and exploding against the ice walls, as they groaned and began breaking apart more, the glass shape of the battlefield beginning to turn back into the wide area that Slade and Savior had battled in.

Scalpel landed.

And the bullet exploded through him. He screamed and collapsed.

"It's not the ones you avoid, it's the ones you don't." Slade said, looking over the smoking gun.

Scalpel coughed, jerked…and then got back up, his glaive before him.

"Then it's a good thing I finally switched to bulletproof clothing!" Scalpel snarled, and charged in, as Slade's eye widened, and then narrowed as his nanogun turned back into a sword and he prepared himself for Scalpel's attack.

---

Metatron pounced on the OMAC, ripping its chest apart, and then turned and blasted another into submission, as he hunched over, panting and looking for his next opponent.

Right as he saw the ice tower explode off in the distance, giant pieces of the frozen monolith collapsing towards the ground. It drew Metatron's eye, because it hadn't been destroyed by any type of outward attack he had seen. So what had destroyed it…

"Hey!" Ragnarok said as he dropped down nearby. "You all right?"

"Well I…" Metatron said, distracted: he could see movement up there, where the explosion had been, but it was too far away to make out details…for his eyes. "Hey Collin! You have a binocular option on those goggles right?"

"Uh yeah…"

"Scan in! Who's up there? I got your back!" Metatron said, as he turned and blasted down two more OMAC's, as Ragnarok stared for a bit, then did as Metatron had asked.

"…Holy glomp, I think the Titans are up there." Ragnarok said.

"What?" Metatron said. "You mean this timeline's Titans? Up there? When they could…"

"Slade." Ragnarok said. Metatron went silent. "Slade's up there too. He's fighting with them."

Ragnarok pulled his visor back up as he looked at Adam, whose hands had clenched into fists. He knew why. In his timeline Slade had done Metatron and those he had dared to love a lot of wrongs.

"…Go." Ragnarok said.

"You're sure? Even if I could get my hands on the bastard I don't want…"

"Don't worry about it." Ragnarok said, as he slipped his visor back down.

"…Thanks." Metatron said, as he slapped Ragnarok on the shoulder in a comradely way. "See you in a bit."

"…Yeah." Ragnarok said, as Metatron took off across the ice, heading for the tower.

---

Slade and Scalpel met in the air, twin blades meeting glaive, their weapons crashing together, before Scalpel's superior strength won out and sent Slade flying. Slade corkscrewed through the air and flipped over, landing with a slight slide as Scalpel himself landed.

Flipping his sword over so it was mostly pointed away from Scalpel, Slade charged in again, Scalpel meeting him as the two clashed again, Slade expertly blocking all of Scalpel's attacks with his backwards sword. Going with what had brought him to the dance, Scalpel danced back a step and slashed his blade up to bring it down with his strength…

Too slow, as Slade flipped his blade back rightwise and ran in, zipping around Scalpel's attack as his glaive crashed into the ground, as he slashed out and sliced open Scalpel's side. Scalpel yelled and clutched the wound, as his blood began dripping on the ground, the napalm like liquid hissing as it ate into the ice, Scalpel turning to glare at Slade as Slade twirled his sword a few more times.

"Come on alien. You're forcing me to only using one hand." Slade said.

Scalpel swung his glaive wide: Slade leapt away, doing multiple flips before stopping, as Scalpel jumped after him, slashing down with his glaive, as Slade dodged to the side, and as the staff weapon buried itself in the ice once more he stepped on it and leapt. Scalpel yanked his glaive backwards and performed a rolling backwards somersault as Slade slashed down with a foot, Scalpel barely avoiding it as he flipped up and narrowly avoided the follow up attack as Slade landed and whirled, slashing for Scalpel's head, knocking his hat off as Scalpel barely dodged in time, as the alien stood up and slashed out with his glaive again in a wide roundhouse swing, but Slade ducked just in time as well, and as the glaive swung away Slade zipped in and slashed, slicing another wound across Scalpel's front, making the alien stumble back again.

"Your survival so far must have been pure luck." Slade said: he STILL was only using one sword. Scalpel's eyes narrowed as he growled. Slade gestured. "Come on. Give me at least something memorable."

Scalpel charged, slashing his glaive repeatedly, as Slade blocked the blows and leapt back, and then as Scalpel charged again Slade leapt backwards, did a one-handspring press on a chunk of ice, and flipped over it, landing on the other side…

As Scalpel swung the glaive behind him and punched, his claw slamming straight through the ice chunk, the tips piercing into Slade's chest as he yelled, having finally erred: he'd expected Nigel to either go over or around the piece of ice, not THROUGH it. Angry, Slade slashed at the arm, but it jerked away as the blade swished past it, as Scalpel yanked his arm free and then reared back, slamming his foot into the ice chunk and breaking it clean off as it slammed into Slade, carrying him backwards before crushing him up against a remaining section of wall, as Scalpel coiled up his legs and leapt high into the air.

Slade shoved the remains of the ice piece aside and rolled forward as Scalpel slashed out, slicing through the whole wall as it crumpled and broke off, more of it collapsing towards the ground far below as Scalpel landed, whirled around…

And Slade's sword pierced through him, drawing a bellow, even as his other blade swung down and knocked the glaive from Scalpel's hand.

"I am disappointed." Slade said, as his nanosword broke apart and swarmed around the arm that held the normal sword stabbed through Scalpel. "The green one I could expect…" Slade said, as he lifted the blade up, forcing Scalpel up along with it. "But you're as simple to kill as he."

Scalpel's eyes went dark with fury.

"REALLY?"

And Scalpel slashed out, his claws carving a deep groove across Slade's mask as Slade recoiled with a yell, as Scalpel fell to the ground and snapped out a foot, throwing Slade across the room again. Slade didn't land as well as he could have, and hence took a few seconds to get up, as Scalpel slouched forward, Slade's sword still impaled through him.

Until he seized it and yanked it out, his virulent blood sizzling on the blade (it was holding up very well, this was a superbly crafted sword…)…and then throwing the sword back to Slade. Not at him, BACK to him, as Slade caught it with some confusion.

"Get ready. When I beat you, I want the world to know it was at your best." Scalpel said, kicking his glaive back into his hand even as more of his blood ran down his body and ate into the ice.

Slade's eyes narrowed.

"You want my best?"

The nanoblade shattered, as Slade reformed it…into another sub-machine gun, as Scalpel's eyes went wide.

"The best win at all cost! Remember that on your way to hell!" Slade snapped, as he aimed. "Say goodbye alien!"

The gun blazed, and the bullets flew at Scalpel…and slammed into a yellow energy shield.

"Goodbye's so generic. You should try something new. Try saying it in Basic. 10110!" Gauntlet yelled, as he reformed his power around the caught bullets and snapped them back at Slade. Slade growled as he flipped backwards to dodge.

Even as Gauntlet grunted and saw his yellow energy dissipate. Damn. It was happening more often. His artifact had taken a hellacious blow in the battle against that would-be Superboy and Gauntlet hadn't give it time to recover with all his running around playing the good guy, and now the power could only retain a charge for short periods of time.

Fine. He'd make do with what he had.

"Ah, the clown once more." Slade said. "Your bit of trickery around the artifacts back when we met almost makes me reconsider…but no, you're not even worthy of a blade." Slade said as he slid one sword behind him and dispelled the other.

"Oh really." Gauntlet said. "Well here's some Basic even you can understand Slade: 00101 YOU!" Gauntlet yelled as he leapt in, swinging his badly ravaged artifact.

Slade blocked the punch, the nanomachines swirling around his arms helping him to deal with Gauntlet's enhanced strength, as he blocked Gauntlet's follow up punches.

"Marine style boxing. Your grandmother I assume!" Slade said as he slipped to the side and lashed out, kicking Gauntlet into a chunk of ice…which he bounced off of, leaping into the air, as his yellow power returned. Slade dodged away…

Only to find the power vanishing as Gauntlet abruptly changed direction, zapping straight for Slade.

"And here's a trick from my mother!" Gauntlet yelled as he slammed his fingers into Slade's injured-by-a-Birdarang shoulder. Slade hissed, but he swiftly brought his other arm up to block Gauntlet's side roundhouse kick, and then got his other arm back into the fray as Gauntlet jumped and delivered three flying snap kicks in rapid succession…a move that was more pretty then effective, as Slade blocked and dodged backwards and then, as Gauntlet landed, buried his fist into Gauntlet's stomach, and then slammed an elbow into the back of his head, knocking Gauntlet to the ground.

"She apparently didn't teach you well enough." Slade said, as Gauntlet gasped for air at his feet. "I said you children always treated this like a game, like I was here for your entertainment. You perhaps embodied that more then any of them. So, Mr. Candide, having fun yet?"

"THE TIME OF MY LIFE!" Gauntlet snapped, as he surged up and swung his foot around, catching Slade in the shoulder and face with a rising backwards roundhouse, then spinning to his feet and swinging in with a downward arcing hook that Slade barely dodged. Gauntlet pressed the attack, swinging his Gauntlet arm at Slade again and then whirling and slashing out with another roundhouse, as Slade did a backflip to dodge. As he stopped Gauntlet ran up and fired off an upward thrust/snap kick at Slade: Slade blocked it and retaliated, throwing a roundhouse kick that knocked Gauntlet's armored arm aside even as Slade spun with the move and followed with a backwards thrust kick that slammed into Gauntlet's face and sent him flying backwards.

But Gauntlet landed on his feet.

"I see Nigel scratched your mask, let me buff that out for you!" Gauntlet snapped as he charged in and swung his fist at Slade again: Slade leapt backwards, using the nanomachines for a boost, and landed on a rather large chunk of ice that had once been part of the wall before the battle began breaking the whole arena.

"Still saying irreverent things, even as he desperately battles for his life. You're more then a joker, you're just a joke." Slade said.

"Really? Then why am I still standing? And who you calling desperate!" Gauntlet yelled as he leapt onto another chunk of ice as he called up another energy surge and leapt for Slade, flipping over and slamming his fist down where Slade had been, sending cracks shooting through the entire piece of ice. Gauntlet had hoped Slade would lose his footing, but the bastard kept it, so Gauntlet went to Plan B: Keep Attacking, as he ran and furiously punched at Slade.

Slade's arms blurred as he blocked the blows, even when Gauntlet threw in another side snap kick to try and catch Slade off guard. He blocked that too, and dodged the follow up punch with Gauntlet's armored arm, sliding backwards as Gauntlet's face tensed with frustration: this was so damn hard with his damaged artifact!

Not that that slowed him down.

"It looks to me like YOU'RE desperate. Did you really think I'm not worth any nanomachines, or are they running low on power and hence you don't want them shorting out? If that's the case, then we'll settle up on the asskicking account!" Gauntlet yelled, as he charged in again: Slade dodged to the side, blocked Gauntlet's whirling roundhouse punch, and dodged his follow-up punches.

"Only one thing will be settled here: the debt you Titans long owe. You will all die, just like your green friend."

"SHUT UP! Gar Logan was worth 1000 of you!" Gauntlet yelled as he lanced at Slade.

As Slade brushed past his blow.

"Then you can go JOIN HIM!" Slade yelled as he whirled and kicked Gauntlet under the chin, his nanomachines enhancing the attack and sending Gauntlet flying away, as Slade jumped from the large and badly damaged ice chunk down to the 'floor'.

"You're even more of a waste of space then…" Was all Slade got out.

As Scalpel leapt into the air, holding his glaive out, as Gauntlet flipped and grabbed onto it, and even as Slade watched Scalpel swung the glaive around, Gauntlet holding onto it even as Scalpel twirled it in mid-motion, and lashed out with it, hurling Gauntlet back the way he came like a bullet.

"That's the great thing about being on a team!" Gauntlet yelled as he thrust his fist out and yellow power bloomed from it. "Fastball Specials!"

The yellow energy fist slammed into Slade and smashed him back through the giant ice chunk, the whole thing shattering to splinters due to Gauntlet's earlier blow, as Slade flew off the blow and bounced along the ground, as Gauntlet landed among the icy dust of the giant shattered chunk.

"Variant 7, Patent Pending." Gauntlet said, as Scalpel landed next to him.

Slade growled, as he called his nanomachines back to him and formed his sword, even as he drew his other one.

"Oh now am I worthy of weapons?"

"You tell me!" Slade snapped as the nanosword reformed into his laser cannon and he fired, a piercing ray that zapped between the two and blasted into another part of the wall, as that broke off as well.

Nearby, a fist broke through a pile of ice.

Gauntlet charged in, swinging out with an energy charged punch, as Slade rapidly reformed his sword and crossed them before him, taking the blow, but even as he was thrown backwards Gauntlet also thrust out his arm, and Scalpel landed on it, perching on it like he was a bird.

"Variant 11, Patent Pending!" Gauntlet yelled as he swung out his arm even as Scalpel leapt off, lancing at Slade with his glaive out. Slade brought up his sword and the weapons slammed together, Slade stopping Scalpel's charge as the alien flipped off the impact, landing next to Slade's side. Before Slade knew it Gauntlet was on his other side, and he snarled as they both attacked him, glaive and gauntlet slashing and swinging, as Slade was forced to divide his muscle power to try and fend off each offense. This would not do.

And he let the Titans know it as he shoved Gauntlet's blow aside and went low, kicking Gauntlet in the kneecap even as he dodged an overhead slash from Scalpel's glaive, as he whirled up and kicked Scalpel across the face, sending him sprawling as Slade kept turning and stabbed for Gauntlet's head. Gauntlet got his armored arm up and deflected the blow, hissing low as it sliced across the exposed underpinnings of his weapon, but he still managed to twist around and grab the sword, as he tried to yank it from Slade's hand, but Slade went with the movement and the two spun around a bit before Gauntlet let go, spinning around and elbowing Slade in the midsection, and then diving to the ground as Scalpel leapt in and planted both his feet in Slade's chest, sending him flying backwards.

He flipped to recover, growling at the pain, even as Gauntlet charged in again, punching rapidly, as Scalpel took a mighty leap and flew over the two, landing behind Slade as he whirled and stabbed backwards…

And Slade dodged to the side with insane speed, leaving Gauntlet wide open.

The glaive stopped an inch from his face, both the teenager and alien's eyes wide as saucers.

"…Whew." Gauntlet said, as Scalpel whirled around as Slade flipped back and stood in a combat pose, both swords ready. "Didn't work Slade! Your attempt at friendly fire failed!"

"Oh?" Slade said.

And then he went low on the ground as the Starbolt flew over his head.

"…00101." Gauntlet said, and then the explosion consumed him and Scalpel, blowing them backwards.

"NO! MY FRIENDS!" Starfire cried, her attack having gone horribly wrong, as her distress swiftly morphed into rage. "ARGH! SLADE! YOU CLORBAG VARBLERNELK!" She shrieked as she flew at Slade, emerald rage blazing in her eyes.

"Temper temper princess!" Slade chastised, as he dashed at Starfire, even as she thrust back a hand to fire another Starbolt…too slow, as Slade zipped around her, leapt up, and kicked her from the air, and even as she slammed into the ground he was on her, slamming a fist into her face, his nanomachines enhancing his strength again as he lifted her up and slammed her into a chunk of ice, and as the nanobots concentrated around his fist he lashed out again, slamming his fist into her so hard the ice behind her shattered. Starfire let out a mournful cry, as Slade hurled her through the air as his nanomachines re-formed into a laser cannon that he unleashed on the alien, blowing her across the room and into another wall, which exploded and collapsed on her as she fell.

"It's unfortunate for you that your species still has pressure points, or worse, that I know where they are." Slade said: his devastating attack had been made possible by the precise place he had kicked Kory to start with, stunning her enough for Slade to follow up.

"Not as unfortunate as YOU'RE ABOUT TO BE!" Scalpel roared as he leapt back to attack, burned and battered but still going…

Until Slade turned around, his laser cannon still armed and charging.

"I don't need such things for you." Slade said, and fired.

"No!" Gauntlet said as he leapt in front of Scalpel. Come on Gauntlet, I need you NOW…!

The yellow energy erupted before Gauntlet, as the intense beam slammed into it, and though the shield blocked the shot it couldn't fully stop it, as Gauntlet was thrown backwards into Scalpel, blasted across the whole room…and into another wall.

Gauntlet's shield energy shorted out just in time for the ice to collapse on them in turn.

Slade made a low dismissive noise and disassembled the laser cannon, reforming it back into his second sword, as he looked around, the Titans fallen and beaten.

All except for one. Robin stood there, battered but stoic.

"Somehow I'm not surprised." Slade said. "I didn't quite think I had won yet."

"As long as one of us still stands against you Slade, you will never win." Robin retorted, his force tight with anger, dripping with righteous rage.

"If you haven't noticed Robin, you are the only one still standing." Slade said.

Robin didn't reply, as he reached down to his utility belt and unsnapped three Birdarangs, his hands bringing them together as they locked up and expanded, forming into his red sword, which he brought to one hand as he twirled his staff in the other.

"And so you come to die as well. You would think that what happened to your friends would convince you this wasn't a game."

"I knew that from the moment I saw you Slade. And all through our battles, you've never beaten us."

"Excuses, Robin. You had some fortune in taking advantage of failed plans, but when it came to the battle that mattered you see the result." Slade said, as he twirled his swords around him. "Come. The day won't be complete until your blood soaks the ground. Come Titan, and go, straight to oblivion."

Robin took to the air, his battle cry ringing through the ragged remains of the arena as he came down with his weapons.

---

Terra's eyes fluttered open, and she was briefly confused before the intense pain hit her, as she groaned and retched, curling up somewhat…and nearly slipping off her precarious perch as she gasped, and then groaned again, her chest on fire.

She managed to sit up a bit, looking at the black marks on her shirt. Son of a bitch, it had actually worked. She'd had to listen to various male Titans telling her to switch her shirt with armor, and had to deal with the armor's uncomfortableness, itching, shrinking when it was wet, and various other problems…but in the end it had come through: it had taken the bullets as well as any Kevlar vest had. Cyborg really was a genius in his high-tech defense weaves.

Not that that had made the impact of the bullets go away: it was what was causing her so much pain in the chest. She had several cracked ribs, at least…which she supposed was better then death, which is what should have happened with her heading on a straight plunge to the ground with no rocks or dirt to break her fall.

But she hadn't fallen all the way: she'd fallen about twenty feet onto an ice protrusion. Not that that had been any fun either, as she shifted a bit…

And so did the protrusion. Her eyes went wide as she looked back at the end stuck in the ice, and she gulped slowly.

Ok…trapped on a small piece of ice, no way off and nowhere to go but down, no powers or may as well be no powers (normally she wore a jacket filled with stones and pebbles, but it had been lit on fire during a rescue mission in Bludhaven and she'd lost it, and hadn't had time to have it replaced)…this was where she really proved she was a Titan.

…After ten seconds all she could think of was yelling for help. Which might bring help…or attract one of the many OMAC's she could see in the distance, as they battled with figures Terra couldn't quite make out. She gulped again: there sure were a lot of the robots.

"…Ok girl, think. What would Robin do…or Savior…wait I know, Savior'd go "I'd have never gotten into a situation like this in the first place you silly twit hee hee hee hee hee…!" At least I never tried fighting Slade all by myself you pretentious…" Terra muttered.

And then the ice tower shuddered violently: unknown to Terra Slade had just dealt with Starfire.

And the ice chunk lurched, shifting so it was facing slightly downward, and Terra's own heart filled with ice as she found herself starting to shift down, as she tried to scramble back, which just made it move more, oh God, not this way…

And then Gauntlet and Scalpel slammed into the wall, and shards of ice fell down past Terra…as hers broke completely off, sending her tumbling back off into the void.

Terra couldn't help it: she screamed, screamed in pure terror, as she plummeted down towards the ground, the ground that couldn't help her, as it wasn't warm earth but cold, uncaring ice, the ground buried far too deep under aeons of accumulated frost for her to reach, as it rushed up…

As did Metatron, as he ran up a large chunk of the ice and leapt high into the air, grabbing Terra and coming down with a loud snarl as chunks of ice crashed into the ground around them.

"Ow. OW. You just HAD to reach near-terminal velocity, didn't you?" Metatron said, lifting himself back up as he felt his knees pop explosively.

"…Who are you?" Terra asked.

"A friend." Metatron said as he set Terra down. "Ok Terra, I saved your life, your turn. Is Slade still up there?"

"…As far as I know…do I know you?" Terra asked.

"In another life. All right Slade, time to-ARGH!" Metatron yelled as he unfurled his wings and realized one was still disabled. "DAMN! Why didn't I have Collin take a look at this…damn, too late now…"

Terra was staring at the strange man, pondering him…and then realizing something.

"…Sir! Mister!"

"Name's Adam. What?"

"Give me your shoes!"

"…WHAT?"

---

In the way villains did, Alexander Luthor was having great difficulty keeping grace under fire as he stood before his rift, trying to both relocate Earth-2 and find elements for his perfect Earth, if not his perfect Earth itself…even as the supposed superheroes raised hell below and around him. The OMAC's were keeping them off his back…for now…

"Should we free Black Adam too?" Wonder Girl asked as she blocked a shot with her bracelets, Conner and her next to the Tower.

"Are you kidding?" Superboy replied: Black Adam was far more villain then hero (though he'd danced back and forth a bit), but he also wielded the power of the deceased wizard Shazam, putting him on par with Captain Marvel. And Marvel's title of "The World's Mightiest Mortal" wasn't just hyperbole. "Hell yeah!" Superboy said, as he began to tear into Adam's restraints.

"CONNER!" Came Wonder Girl's cry, and Superboy jerked away: in the seconds since he'd turned to trying to free Black Adam Wonder Girl had been swarmed by nearly a hundred OMAC's, and more were coming to join them.

"Hang on Cassie!" He called, as he flew after them, tearing through their ranks, even as Wonder Girl fought back furiously herself, as their battle strayed away from the Golden Tower.

That was probably very fortunate for them, as beads of sweat popped onto Alexander's face: damn it, everything was going wrong, his carefully ordered plan was falling apart, and the machine reacted to his distress and discord, as his rift began to crackle dangerously, his vision of the worlds distorting as bolts shot from the rift and began striking his tower, and he tried to get it under control but damn it there was so much noise and destruction it was like someone had jabbed a dagger of everything that was wrong with this world into his head DAMN IT…!

"ARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH I CAN'T…CONCENTRATE…!" Alexander yelled.

And then power surged from his rift and exploded, throwing Alexander backwards and off his platform again with a low curse of fury, as the power around the void arched around the Tower and it began to rumble ominously.

And then it exploded from it, a strange black energy with white points burning in it, like space itself, as it erupted from the tower and coiled away like a snake. One strand went into the air, another went in a direction completely away from the battle…and another, the surge of strange power the size of a truck, barely avoided the metahumans and cyborgs fighting around the Tower and streaked towards the wargrounds.

Fortunately for the innocent people inside them, the OMAC's saw it coming.

"Extreme dimension field distortion field detected. Activating evasion maneuvers." The OMAC's said as they flew and dodged away before the gigantic twisting tendril could tear a hole through their ranks.

"WHOA!" Kyra said as she flew backwards, the black and white power missing her by several feet. "Holy…moly."

"What the hell…?" Hex said as she saw the tendril miss her comrades. "What on earth is that?"

"…Kyra, that energy scares me, darkness should not scare me, what the hell…" Mary said.

"Stay away!" Ragnarok yelled as he dropped down, his visor having immediately analyzed the strange energy. "That's chaotic antimatter! Don't touch it! Don't even go near it or attack it!"

"What? Antimatter? Then why aren't we blowing up?" Scorched Earth said.

"There appear to be variating degrees of antimatter…the most stable one just makes it the opposite of what we're made of. Remember what Noel said, about Alexander's powers? He didn't blow up…but this is far more unstable! Anything it touches that's made of positive matter, kiss it goodbye!"

"Will it blow up?" Kyra asked.

"…I don't think so, I think you'd need PURE chaotic antimatter for that…but still, don't go near it!"

"…My god, where's EJ?" Mary asked.

---

He was currently being thrown into Brick Wall, both of them going down in a heap.

"Good thing you made me break a sweat, or I'd consider both you maggots TOTALLY useless!" The General snapped, as he stomped towards the two. "But this is growing repetitive and derivative! Allow me to put you on PERMANENT leave."

"Ugh…bucking fastard…" EJ slurred, as Brick helped him up…and saw it.

"What the…"

"Hey soldier! Pay attention!" The General said, as he charged. Brick Wall jumped backwards, helping Potent, as the General crashed down where they had been…where it was headed.

"General, look out!" Brick Wall said, as he pointed.

"Oh please, you REALLY must have suffered brain damage to try as lousy a trick as that." The General said as he stomped towards them.

"Look! It's some kind of energy! Just look!"

"Sorry kid, I was born at night, but it wasn't last…"

And then the chaotic antimatter washed over the General, bathing him in black, and Brick Wall got to look as the General's eyes went wide in utter surprise…and then just flew apart, as his body completely broke down and ceased to exist.

"…Oh man…" Brick Wall said. Potent had recovered his senses, and had seen the sight as well, as he stared at the twisting snake of antimatter that had sideswiped the General and ended his war, forever.

"Crud." Potent said. "Just when you think it can't get any worse, the frickin Langoliers show up."

And then shadow consumed the two, and before they could say or do anything they were dumped out in front of the group of future Titans. Brick took it much better then EJ, who nearly screamed in surprise.

"Ah! Dammit! Don't do that, I thought it had somehow gone underground!" Potent cursed as the shadows reformed into Mary. "What the hell is that stuff we were cutting off our enemy's head and he kept going oh no big deal he just kept growing back and then that stuff comes along and boom he falls apart like wet cardboard WHAT THE HELL…!"

Mary slapped EJ, HARD.

"Get your head together Elijah." She said tersely.

"Hey. EJ." Potent said.

"It's chaotic antimatter. Don't touch it or go near it." Ragnarok said.

"Gee, really! I was thinking of bottling it and putting it on sale! I'd give those lemonade selling kids a REAL run for their money!" Potent snapped. This time, Mary slapped him on the back of the head. "Ow! Stop that!"

"We can trade barbs later! Incoming at 2 o'clock!" Scorched Earth said.

"Roger. What should we do until then?" Kyra asked.

"How about not getting pushed into the antimatter, which is what these OMAC's seem to want to do. Titans, GO!" Ragnarok yelled, and the newly rejoined group charged forward to meet the OMAC's.

No one seemed to notice how Ragnarok, despite calling for the charge, seemed to lag back behind the group.

---

Slade gave his dual swords a brief twirl, and then brought them in front of him as Robin came down.

Their weapons slammed together, as Robin and Slade traded blows so fast Robin actually seemed to be hovering in the air, as he assaulted Slade with a brilliant sword and staff combination attack, twisting and whirring, even as Slade countered with an even more brilliant defense, deflecting every blow.

As Robin did a super-tight mid-air somersault and swung both his weapons down, even as Slade swung them back up in perfect sync. The weapons slammed together, and Robin went with the impact as he bounced backwards, landing on his feet.

His hand blurred through the air, and Birdarangs flew, as Slade charged, slashing through them in mid-run, as Robin leapt back a bit more and hurled explosive discs. Slade transformed his nanoblade into a gun in mid-run and shot them in mid-air, running through their explosions as his gun returned to a sword, as he leapt high into the air and Robin leapt to meet him.

Their weapons clashed once more, and since Robin wasn't super strong neither could come out a victor, as sparks flew from their weapons and rained down on the ground as he continued to defy gravity and clash in the air.

A duel Slade won, as he knocked Robin's sword away and spun before Robin could renew his defense, kicking Robin in the chest and sending him flying backwards, as Slade pushed off the blow and spinning back around to face Robin as his nanosword shifted to a gun again and he opened fire. Robin whirled his staff to deflect the bullets, which they did, but the impact wrenched the weapon from Robin's hands and sent it spinning away, where it impaled into one of the remaining walls.

Robin flipped as he neared the ground and landed on his feet, as Slade landed…as his gun shifted to a grenade launcher again.

Robin did a giant flipping leap backwards as the grenade exploded where he had been (apparently Noel's worries about the stability of the chamber's floor were unfounded, but that didn't help Robin now), as he landed…and found a laser beam shooting straight for him. He leapt up and back again, and landed on his staff, balancing perfectly on it (thank you Dick for the acrobatic training), before Robin fell off and grabbed it with his hands, as the laser swept over where he had just been and sliced the entire top section of the wall off, as Robin swung back up and even while doing so his hands blurred to his belt, sending more razor-sharp Birdarangs flying at Slade. Slade slashed them from the air again…only missing one: it sliced off the end of his laser cannon. His eye narrowed as Robin flipped back on top of his staff and gave him a thumbs down.

The laser cannon disintegrated and reformed into a sword as Slade ran at Robin, leaping off two ice chunks as he flew towards the teenager. Robin blocked his slash as Slade flipped over him and landed on the length of ice that had once been solid wall before Slade had sliced it off, as Robin whirled and the two clashed again, swords ringing through the chamber.

But the ice ledge that Slade stood on wasn't very stable, and he swiftly leapt off, flipping over and past Robin again, his skill so great he was able to keep dueling with Robin all the while, but as he fell past Robin his nanosword exploded back into its base state again, swirling around his fist as he landed.

And punched the remaining piece of ice wall as hard as he could, shattering it into pieces and forcing Robin to leap off, unable to retrieve his staff as it went with the ice, and even as he landed Slade charged in another enhanced punch, but all he hit was Robin's cape as Robin whirled away and slashed with his sword, going for Slade's ankles: Slade flipped backwards and actually slammed a foot into Robin's face, making him stumble back as Slade landed and swung back up, his nanomachines reforming…back into the machine gun.

Robin ran for it, as Slade tore the ice apart behind him, Robin jumping and leaping, wishing he had something to grapple on, as he bounced off onto one of the two remaining walls and briefly ran across it, the bullets raking across it behind him as Robin dove behind a piece of ice and huddled there as bullets exploded through it…

And stopped.

Robin leapt from behind the ice chunk…

And Slade blew a giant hole in him with his switched-to shotgun.

Or rather, blew a giant hole in the hologram that had leapt up, as Robin leapt in to the side, his blade slicing across Slade's forearm and drawing a grunt from him as he whirled away and got his sword up, Robin clashing with it. Slade deflected his blade and aimed the shotgun again, only to have Robin leap up on top of the weapon and kick Slade across the face, throwing him onto the ground as Robin flipped away.

His staff was there, sticking out of the ice remains, and Robin grabbed it and yanked it free as Slade flipped up and switched from shotgun to pistol, firing at Robin as he spun the staff and deflected the bullets, even as he leapt at Slade. Slade got his sword up and the two dueled yet again, Slade proving just as formidable with one sword as two, before he leapt backwards, reformed the nanosword, and leapt into the air.

Robin soared up to meet him, as Slade slashed down and Robin took the blow, but even as his upward momentum was interrupted he twisted and grabbed Slade's leg, flipping himself up and over Slade so he was actually above him, as he slashed his sword down. Slade blocked it, and blocked the staff in turn…and didn't block the kick that struck him in the face and threw him away.

His eye now terse with anger, Slade hurled his sword towards the ground as his nanomachines reformed into dual guns and he opened fire on Robin in mid-air as they both fell. Robin spun his staff, as usual, but this time there were simply too many bullets…

One tore a chunk out of his upper thigh, while two more slammed into his body armor and gave him the sensation of being rammed by a bull, while a final one tore across his shoulder. He hit the ground hard and painfully, while Slade landed on his feet.

Slade picked up his normal sword and called back his nanoblade as Robin slowly, painfully, got up, his weapons limp in his hands. Slade chuckled.

With a yell of rage, Robin hurled his sword at Slade.

Slade made another dismissive noise and brought his swords up…

As Robin hit a button on his belt and the sword exploded back into three Birdarangs. Slade's eye widened, as he tried to change his stance…

He got one.

The second slammed into his right knee, while the third clipped his mask and tore a chunk of it off, as Slade recoiled and nearly fell down.

He looked back at Robin, bare skin exposed above his eye now, as blood began running down from it. Even with the mask, Robin could tell Slade was pissed, as he whirled his staff up.

And charged, as Slade swung his swords around and made them ready.

The weapons clashed once more, as Slade and Robin dueled in the center of the arena of ice.

Robin knocked one sword away and stabbed his staff at Slade: Slade dodged and clamped his arm over the staff. Robin immediately shoved the staff forward and flipped over Slade, avoiding his other sword in the process as he grabbed the staff extension from the other side and pulled it free, whirling and slashing for Slade's head. Slade blocked it, as Robin rebounded and spun again, kicking out with an armored boot that deflected off Slade's sword again…as Robin brought the staff down and knocked the sword to the ground, then pistoned it back and forth, ramming the tip into Slade's sternum and driving him back with a grunt.

Robin leapt and swung down, and Slade, instead of blocking, leapt up and around Robin, swinging his leg around…as Robin did another insanely tight-flip and brought his staff around at a 270 degree angle to block the blow, as Robin spun away from the attack and landed on his feet, swinging the staff up…

Slade caught it, his nanomachines back into his enhancement swarm mode, and swung around it, shifting the weight as he hurled Robin through the air, holding onto the staff as Robin hit the ground. He leapt and lanced down, aiming for Robin's head, but Robin rolled away and came up next to Slade's sword, which he stared at for a second before he snatched it up and whirled to block Slade's blow.

The duel started up again, as each fought the other with the other's weapon, each trying to deal with the fact said weapon wasn't properly weighed for them. They did admirably anyway, as they slashed, stabbed, and swung, neither giving an inch…

Until Slade flipped away…

And by some sixth sense Robin knew something bad was going to happen, and as Slade came up Robin tossed the sword at him, even as Slade hit a button on his wrist…

Electricity exploded on the sword, even as Slade saw it coming and let go of the staff with one hand to catch it…as Robin ran up, leaping and kicking Slade even as he kicked the staff into the air, grabbing it in mid-disarm as he landed and spun it. Slade's eye narrowed again as he dispelled the electrical charge on his sword.

Robin gestured towards Slade: a bring it on gesture. So typical of a child, as Slade called back the nanoblade once more and leapt.

They clashed as if they were tireless, as if they could duel for eternity.

But nothing lasts forever.

Slade dodged away from a slash and lashed out, kicking the staff free, but as he moved in Robin leapt for his weapon and rolled, bringing the staff up and around as it knocked Slade's nanosword from his hand. Slade spun with the motion and slammed a kick across Robin's head, and as he went down Slade flipped over to his blade and snatched it up, even as Robin leapt from the ground and stabbed at Slade. Slade slashed his weapons down, knocking the end of the staff into the ground…as Robin used the sudden upward shift on the other side of the staff to flip over Slade, and as Slade turned around Robin lashed out with his legs and kicked Slade twice across the face, landing and grabbing his staff up as Slade staggered back and then stopped, growling again, blood running into his eye as he slashed towards Robin. Robin turned the staff vertical and blocked, and then pole-vaulted off the weapon and kicked Slade in the face. Slade flipped backwards, cartwheeled to the side, and charged in, slashing rapidly at Robin, who blocked his slashes, their weapons blurring around them, it seemed like even their wielders couldn't see what they were doing…

And then with a mighty clang, Robin's staff knocked Slade's sword high into the air.

He still had one though…for a moment, as his nanomachines abruptly disintegrated and swirled around his arms, as Robin pressed his advantage and furiously attacked Slade, who blocked the blows with his arms. He retaliated with a kick, but Robin blocked it with his own foot and continued furiously attacking Slade, beating dents in his arm armor, driving him back, as his eye slowly grew wide with desperation, unable to mount an offense lest he be destroyed by the blistering attack Robin had unleashed, as the staff came faster and faster, hitting Slade all over his upper torso, the assassin unable to form something from the nanomachines, barely able to block…

As Robin roared and spun, throwing all his might behind a final swing.

As Slade yanked his head backwards.

The staff whistled over his head.

And Slade came back as he thrust up his palm, knocking the staff loose, even as he swung with his right hand and struck it again, knocking it away as he whirled with the motion, his foot slamming across Robin's face and knocking him back…

And the sword came down, as Slade finished his spin and caught it.

"Game."

The tip was as cold as the ice, as Robin felt the blade pierce through his body armor and through the flesh below.

---

The good news was, the OMAC's hadn't been able to push the Titans Tomorrow back into the antimatter.

The bad news was the antimatter threads were clearly moving, and while at the moment it was moving AWAY from the Titans Tomorrow that didn't mean it wouldn't abruptly change direction and start heading back. And new ones could very well pop up.

Oh yes, not to mention there were still thousands of OMAC's, and the group was getting to the point where they were running on fumes.

"You know, I never did like Dynasty Warriors!" Kyra tossed over to Mary as she ran a green lawnmower over a group of OMAC's, while Mary settled for just blasting them. The group had formed a rough circle and was doing its best to defend itself, but by now the OMAC's had evolved the instinct to carry away its disabled, and there simply weren't enough heroes to stop this: so for all they knew they were facing renewable numbers. And even if they weren't, they still seemed endless.

And for one, time was running out.

Ragnarok blasted one group with a fire blast and then another with a reality blast…and then stepped back as he sucked in air.

Potent tore through OMAC's, still having a hefty amount of rage. Brick Wall was serving as a shield and support aid for Hex and Yin. Scorched Earth was throwing Scorch Bolts at whatever moved.

And he was getting pretty tired, as he flew backwards, punched out another OMAC, and flew over to Ragnarok, who was staring at his hands.

"Hey Collin, you think those Catalysts could give me some kind of artificial sunlight? I'm running low."

"…What?" Ragnarok said.

"I said…"

"Ragnarok." Brick Wall rumbled, as he stepped over to the hero. "Yin's starting to freeze up again. He needs some heat."

"I…well…" Ragnarok said, as he looked around…

And then his head lowered.

"…I'm…sorry guys…"

And he threw back his arms and yelled as dark power erupted from him, consuming all the OMAC's around the group and sending them crashing to the ground, disabled, greatly startling the heroes around him at the suddenness of it.

"Wow, nice move Collin, but are you sure you should be doing that?" Kyra asked.

"…No…no…" Ragnarok said, in a strange resigned tone. Kyra arched an eyebrow.

"Hey! That won't keep them off us long! They're already regrouping! Just in case you wanted to know!" Potent said, and then ran off to attack a still-moving OMAC.

"What do you mean no Collin?" Yin said.

"…I'm sorry guys…" Ragnarok said, as he put his hand on Yin's shoulder, as red and black energy flowed through his gauntlet and over Yin, warming him back up.

"Sorry? You're doing fine." Kyra said.

"…No…I should have said something…too late now…"

"What?" Hex said. Ragnarok raised his arms.

"Look."

The Titans looked at his arms…and saw a strange thing.

The Catalysts were…pulsing. They almost seemed to be vibrating in their containers, as if they wanted to escape.

"Okkkkk…I'm guessing that's not good." Kyra said.

"No. It's not." Ragnarok said. "…They're going to overload."

"What? Collin, you never said the Catalysts could overload!" Yin said.

"I didn't know. No one has ever used the Catalysts, in this number, to this length, as I have Davis…I never would have had this not happened…but it's not just that. Delirium…he used them as a pure force, and you saw the damage. I can't use them as a pure force, I have to keep their powers focused. But it's like running water through a dwindling hose: it works for a while, but eventually the hose starts shrinking to the point where it can't handle the pressure. The Catalysts weren't meant to be used in a focused way. They're like a force of nature…and you can't exactly guide a hurricane. It goes where it wants to go. I tried to keep them under control…and it's finally catching up. The hose is going to break. They won't last much longer."

"Why didn't your suit tell you something was wrong?"

"It did…many times…but I couldn't just leave you guys hanging. There had to be a reason that I was brought here to this fight…and I couldn't run. I tried to reign it in…I did everything I could…but there's nothing left I can do."

"Collin…" Kyra said.

"It's all right…and I'm not done yet. I said there was nothing left I could do…except one thing. If they're going to blow…they're going to do it where I want to."

"Wha, no Collin! Don't be stupid! Just take them off! Or remove your armor or…"

"No time." Ragnarok said. "…Once, I ran away from my responsibilities. I won't run again. Not when I can do something." He glanced at Yin. "Davis…if you ever make it home…tell Aurora and my parents I love them."

"Collin…!" Yin said: they weren't exactly friends but they were still comrades and…

"Gentlemen, ladies…it has been an honor."

And Ragnarok leapt through the air, away from the group.

"Collin wait…!" Kyra yelled, as she tried to grab him with her ring, unwilling to let this be the only option…

As a wall of rock exploded from the ground and covered the group, forming a tight seal. He must have been calling the rock while he'd been standing around explaining what had happened.

"Goodbye…" Ragnarok said, and sped off.

He broke through the OMAC lines, pushing through them, going deeper into their mass, as the OMAC's turned around and tried to get at the metahuman that had dared come so close, their scanners trying to process the strange glowing lights that were coming off his arms and chest.

The rock cover exploded as several sets of powers were directed against it, but it had held the Titans Tomorrow too long already.

As Ragnarok stopped, the glow growing brighter, as he did one final mental command over the power that was going to be unleashed. Better this way.

He actually found himself smirking, as all the OMAC's around him turned towards him and targeted him.

"EXECUTE."

"Glomp off, Arnie." Ragnarok said.

And then he threw back as his hands as his body was consumed by brilliance.

The explosion blasted deep in the center of the OMAC's, waves of energy blowing off the detonation and throwing all the Titans Tomorrow off their feet, the force waves washing over the Tower and everything around it.

And then silence.

"…Rag…" Kyra said, holding an arm out helplessly.

As her ring hand clenched into a fist, as green sparks began spitting from her ring.

"That's IT. I'm going to make Alexander Luthor's ego and madness a tangible thing so he can CHOKE ON THEM!" Kyra screamed, and charged.

But sadly, despite his sacrifice, Ragnarok had only taken out about half the remaining OMAC's, having directed the blast so it would act like his former disrupting shields. The remaining OMAC's, no longer sensing a threat, had turned back to Kyra and co.

They found out her wrath was a terrible thing indeed. As was the wrath of her teammates.

But…their numbers, despite all that had happened, were greater still.

---

Metatron hated being this close to ice. Even with the special suit Ragnarok had made (and that was holding up great, he barely felt the cold at all), he didn't care about digging his claws into ice and climbing up it. But his wings were out of the question, and that damn girl, what right had she…well, she'd probably been right. That didn't change Metatron's immense irritation as he clambered his way up the side of the ice tower.

And then the shockwave hit him.

"HOLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…!" Metatron yelled as he lost his grip and fell, plummeting down a few hundred feet before he finally flipped over and dug his claws back in, coming to a screeching stop after dragging a few dozen yards.

"Gragh." Metatron cursed: and now he was losing ground. But that wouldn't stop him, as he began climbing back up, glancing out at the battlefield: where had that shockwave come from? The Titans were still battling OMAC's, the Tower was still standing…and what the hell were those giant black threads?

---

Slade and Robin didn't even notice the shockwave, as Slade looked down on his killing strike, as Robin looked down at the sword that had pierced through his body armor and what lay beyond…

Pierced…an inch in.

As both looked at the white energy wrapped around the blade, grabbing it at the last moment, having stopped it from going any further, as Slade's eye went wide and he followed the white tendril to where it came from.

"COLLINS!" He roared, looking at the trashed as hell Savior, standing nearby, his face a mask of pain, his broken right arm done up in a Shimmer brace…but his legs were holding him, and his hand was out, the Shimmer having extended and blocked the killing strike.

"What, not Stu?" Savior said.

And then he yanked the sword out and slammed it backwards into Slade's face, sending the assassin backwards as Robin stumbled away, quickly finding his feet and checking the wound. Just a shallow chest cut.

He quickly leapt over to his staff, grabbing it back up as Savior recalled his Shimmer to him, having managed to knock Slade down.

"Savior! What are you doing!"

"Helping my leader."

"You can barely stand!"

"Still standing."

"NOT FOR LONG!" Slade yelled, as he flipped back up and re-summoned his nanoblade, charging at the two.

"Robin, you're right. Even with what Raven managed to heal, I can hardly fight. So do you trust me?" Savior asked.

"…Yeah."

"Then fight. I'll be with you."

"If you say so. HAHHHHHHH!" Robin said as he ran to meet Slade.

Nearby, Raven walked with a careful step, trying not to slip on the ice. Having a few tons of ice dropped on her when her shielding talents weren't up to snuff wasn't fun, but she and Noel had managed, through a combination of talents, to survive and finally get free. Raven had even fixed him up a bit, though not all the way as he told her to save some strength for the others.

And she was heading to one of those others, because of the terrible wrong she'd sensed. A terrible absence.

She didn't want to believe it.

Until she came to it.

"…Oh, Gar…" Raven said, falling to her knees beside the body.

Robin was hurt and worn out, and that had been before he'd been warped here and engaged in this battle with Slade. But he found new strength once more, as he once again met Slade's twin swords with his staff, the two picking right up where they'd left off…

Except Robin's exhaustion was clear, as he blocked too low on one side…and left his flank open, as Slade slashed his other sword towards the opening…

Only to have it deflected into the ground by a Shimmer strand. Slade's eye went wide, even as Robin took a step back and whacked the sword aside before Slade could recover, spinning his staff and resuming the duel, more sparks flying from the weapons as Slade's blades flew up in a cross shape…

And another strand flew into them and knocked them backwards, throwing Slade off balance and letting Robin get a devastating blow to Slade's midsection he could have never gotten otherwise.

"Collins!" Slade yelled, as he slashed for the Shimmer strands, but they swiftly retreated, as Robin leapt backwards and hurled a Birdarang at Slade. He was forced to deflect it, as Robin looked back at Savior, who was standing nearby, barely, but doing his part as an extra arm, as Robin gave him a thumbs up and turned back to Slade, bringing his staff up as Slade's blade slashed down against it…and then a strand darted around Robin and hit Slade in the middle of his left shoulder, throwing off his balance as Robin slid the blades off his staff and whirled, slamming a mighty blow into Slade's other shoulder.

But Slade was relentless, as he furiously attacked Robin again, his emotions finally starting to come through, but Robin didn't give him an inch, as he blocked and deflected and ducked…

And Slade flipped over him, leaping off and jumping for Savior, whose eyes widened.

"DID YOU REALLY THINK…!"

A Birdarang slammed into the back of Slade's head, stopping his attack cold as he hit the ground and stumbled.

"Pay attention Slade!" Robin snapped: he hadn't been as caught off guard as he had given the impression off.

And neither had Savior.

"This isn't a game!" Savior added, as he jumped forward and smashed a Shimmer-reinforced fist across Slade's face, sending him staggering back, as Robin ran to the side, bounced off yet another of the ubiquitous ice chunks, and spun, lashing out with his staff.

And with a mighty cracking noise Slade's mask broke off, the black and orange covering flying away as Slade flew off his feet and came crashing down to the ground, as Robin flipped over to Savior.

"He labeled us children, and dismissed our skills, our intelligence, and our past because of it. It's kind of sad when your adult foe tries to hide behind the reality by saying we're idiots who think this is a game. Got a quote for that Savior?"

"Yeah, an apropos phrase from a dead man's throat." Savior said. "I feel stupid. And contagious. Here we are now. Entertain us."

Slade got to his feet, the rage clearly edged across his face, his hair soaked with sweat and his trimmed white beard streaked with blood as he wiped at the corner of his mouth, looking at the blood that collected on his glove. This was impossible. He had manipulated and disabled them perfectly, as easily as an adult should be expected to, how were they still going…

Up until now, as his nanoblade disassembled once more as the nanomachines streaked from the rest of his body and formed into his multi-missile launcher.

"As you wish." Slade said, and fired.

Robin and Savior threw themselves backwards, but the explosions still caught them, as they vanished in smoke and fire, as Slade reformed the missile launcher into a handgun and waited.

And then, sensing movement behind him, he whirled.

"…Heh." Slade said, as he looked at Terra, who stood on the edge of the arena, having finally made her way back up. "Not very bright child. You narrowly escape death by some means, only to come back here and throw your life away again."

Terra didn't say anything, and Slade only briefly noted the blood on her hands, slowly dripping from them, as Slade aimed the gun at her.

"This time, it's your head." Slade said.

"How appropriate." Terra replied.

And opened her hand, as the tiny stone, made from the dirt she had managed to scrap out of the grooves of Metatron's boot, dirt and tiny pieces of rock gotten from running around Ragnarok's rock platform, about the size of a fingernail, that she'd been forced to use to carry herself up on, the tiny platform digging deeply into her hand with no way to spread the pressure, flew from her bloody palm.

Right through Slade's eyepatch.

"I'm not going to blind you. I want you to see it coming." Terra said, and thrust her hand out as her eyes glowed gold.

None of the Titans had ever heard Slade scream before, but they heard it now, as Terra bounced and smashed her tiny rock all around Slade's empty eye socket, digging into some areas like a screw as Slade dropped his sword and tore at his face, blood streaming down from the empty hole, as he jerked and agonized over the terrible pain, tearing his head apart.

As Terra gestured again and the rock flew back out, as Slade collapsed to his knees, holding his bleeding face as the blood-slick pebble flew back into her hand.

"I could have gone all the way into your brain. Turned it into Swiss cheese. But I didn't Slade. Because I know better. Here, I know better. And besides, I'm much rather see your brain after it's been forcibly beaten out of your head."

Slade screamed and aimed his gun again, only to have Robin's staff come down on his wrist and disarm him, as Robin whirled and smashed Slade across the chest, knocking him backwards, as Savior rode Shimmer strands to him and spun, kicking Slade in the face and sending him flying, even as pain shot up his leg…as Slade flipped and leapt towards Savior, sword slashing…into yellow energy.

"Hey there!" Gauntlet said, as the yellow energy expanded and grabbed Slade, throwing him backwards…into the grip of powerful claws.

"Salutations." Scalpel said, and kicked Slade across the room, smashing him through another chunk of ice…but despite all those blows, Slade still flipped and landed on his feet, his body in pain but his mind as sharp as ever and burning with the need for vengeance, as the nanomachines returned to him, having broken apart as soon as his gun hit the ground, as he reformed it into a sub-machine gun and opened fire, sending everyone diving for cover, as Slade backed up, gun blazing.

And felt the hand come down on his shoulder. He whirled and aimed…

The giant gorilla hand knocked it from his grasp.

"…No…you're dead." Slade said, as he looked into Beast Boy's simian face.

"Maybe as a human." Beast Boy replied, as he thought of what Raven had found, a tiny green form lying on the ground, a last ditch attempt to survive, but not properly designed for the environment and hence slowly freezing to death anyway…until Raven had placed him in the proper conditions and given him a boost, as the form he had chosen genetic gifts pulled him back from the brink. "NOT AS A STARFISH!"

Beast Boy put every bit of aggression into his punch, throwing Slade backwards again, as he hit the ground, and Robin and Scalpel leapt up…

Their weapons hit nothing but ground, as Slade rolled away, his nanomachines swarming back once again as he formed the nanoblade and furiously defended himself, deflecting Robin's attack and kicking him aside…as Gauntlet and Savior replaced him, all of them slashing, punching, and striking at him. Slade was swiftly overwhelmed and retreated backwards, as he flipped over to where he'd left his normal sword in his pain and yanked it up, and then leapt over the group, only to have them crash into each other as they tried to turn around.

"Watch it Rob!"

"You watch it!"

"No arguing, attack!" Scalpel yelled, as the three Titans went after Slade again, once again armed with two swords as he defended himself, his arms a mad blur as he tried to fend off three difference offenses at once…

And finally had it, as he leapt backwards, sticking his sword in his back sheath as his nanomachines reformed into twin handguns and he opened fire on the three, as they fled from him, the alien catching a bullet in the side as he roared in pain, as Slade swept the guns over to Savior as he collapsed due to his previous injuries, but Gauntlet got in the way and used his yellow energy shield to block the shots…

And then Cyborg charged in from the side, shoulder-ramming Slade nearly out of his boots.

"Well HOWDY!" Cyborg said in false angry cheer, the side of his head a partially repaired wreck, and floored Slade with another punch, sending him flying backwards. "Thanks for zapping me Slade! Just what I needed to get a proper reading on your nanomachines…I think this is the right frequency to disrupt them!" Cyborg said as he formed his sonic cannon. "Say goodnight, Gracie!"

The sonic blast threw Slade backwards even further, even as his guns fell apart, a nearly invisible trail of microscopic machinery being left behind him as the infinitesimal robots all shorted out, as Slade tried to recover, finally stopping…

As Beast Boy bear-uppercutted Slade into the air, his claws tearing a deep gash across his front, as he flew up…

Right into the hands of Starfire.

He found himself looking into her glowing, angry eyes.

"Hello Slade." Starfire said, in an icy whisper Slade would have never expected to hear from the alien.

And then beams of green power exploded from her eyes, slamming into Slade and carrying him all the way down into the ground with a thunderous crash.

And perhaps showing his amazing gifts, Slade was back up after a few seconds, albeit in a staggering lurch as he tried to get his wits back around him…

And every single remaining ice chunk was suddenly seized by black power, and as Slade's eye widened one more time, they all took to the air and towards one central target.

Slade Wilson.

The impact washed over all the Titans as all the ice chunks slammed together on Slade, and he vanished in another spray of icy dust.

Raven lowered herself down, setting herself down delicately, as the Titans gathered around the remains of the ice.

"Is it over?" Scalpel asked, limping some.

"…No." Raven said.

The view finally cleared, as Slade Wilson, the ice little more then minor pieces around him, somehow rose to his feet again.

But the calm poise, the body tensed with amazing battle skill and ability, was long gone. This was a man on his last legs.

Those legs might yet win the race, but the fact that he was on them perhaps shocked Slade deeper then any of the tricks or comebacks he had seen the Titans use today. How…he had planned it perfectly…everything…it was almost like leading them through a dance…how could he have ended up here…

Unless…

No…

Unless the Titans had had their own plan. Unless they had attacked him singularly and in small groups not because of a lack of skill or experience, but as part as a carefully timed and orchestrated maneuver fraught with immense risk (Beast Boy's very close call an example) so that they could take the best he could offer and spread it around, not letting any of them get too hurt or crippled, able to adapt on the fly to continue the plan, and keep it perfectly hidden in the fog of supposed inexperience…

When he thought he was slowly taking them apart he was really falling into their plan…because now they were all together and could attack all together…

But they COULDN'T have…it was IMPOSSIBLE…

"Impossible…" Slade whispered. "You're children…you're children!"

"We prefer chronologically impaired." Gauntlet said.

Slade's eye, eternally shifting to narrow and wide and back again, shifted to narrow once more, as he looked around, at all the Titans surrounding him, all capable of fighting…

And so was he.

"Slade…" Robin said, and let the offer stand unsaid.

Slade looked at Robin.

And then he gave his answer silently, as he slowly slid his sword from his back sheath.

"…So be it." Robin said, and brought his staff out again.

"This will NOT HAPPEN! YOU ARE CHILDREN!" Slade yelled.

"Titans, GO!"

Slade met Robin's staff swing, even as Gauntlet's fist punched into his side, and Slade spun away from that and flipped up and away from the sonic cannon blast, only to fly into Scalpel's leaping kick. He hit the ground on his feet anyway and slashed several times as a velocirapter tried to bite and claw him, only to trip when the dinosaur turned into an armadillo and rolled into his feet. Slade spun up and flipped away from the Starbolts, and then Robin's staff slammed into him and he was down on the ground again, where a black-encased Shimmer strand met him with several powerful lashes that sent him staggering back, as Cyborg punched him in the back and Slade flew into a tiny rock which exploded against his forehead, pitching him backwards. He got up, as his vision blurred and then cleared…

Gauntlet slammed a punch across his face, and then Cyborg blasted him from the side, as Robin leapt through the air and kicked Slade into the ground again. Somehow he got up AGAIN, only to find a green lion running past him as it clawed open a deep wound on his leg, even as a glaive flew by and sliced another bleeding gash across his side, as a Shimmer strand smashed him into the air, aided by a black energy push, where a pair of Starbolts blew him into the ground.

And as the Titans landed around Slade, he somehow, somehow, got back up, as Robin landed in front of him, and Slade's eyes focused on him, as he aimed his sword towards him and Robin charged.

"Impossible. You're children. CHILDREN!" Slade yelled.

"We're not children." Robin said, as he swung back his staff, as Slade swung back his sword. "We're a legacy."

And the weapons swung towards each other.

And Slade's sword shattered as Robin's staff broke through it, pieces of metal spraying the grandmaster assassin as he stumbled back, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"And you Slade…you're history." Robin said, as he leapt, spun, and lashed out.

His foot connected right between Slade's eyes and sent him flying backwards.

He crashed down near the broken off part of his mask, his broken hilt sliding off into the distance.

And…he got up.

As he looked at the Titans gathered before him, battered, bruised, bleeding…and ready to fight on.

And Slade looked at them.

Even as he fell to his knees.

And then his eyes went dull as he fell forward. He did not get up again.

Robin stared for another few seconds, and then let out a deep breath.

"And THAT, Slade, is game."

"A denial." Savior said, as he looked at Deathstroke the Terminator, the greatest in the world…and beaten by them. The Teen Titans. Children. "A denial. A denial."

---

Just for a moment, the Titans forgot what danger the world was in.

But Alexander hadn't forgotten, as he finally got back up to his rift, his teeth clenched, unable to believe it had come this far. His antimatter powers combined with all his manipulations combined with the giant mess this had become had resulted in raw streams of antimatter exploding from the tower and sweeping off into the surrounding areas. True, his Tower wasn't broken yet, far from it, but the fact that it had happened at all drove Alexander mad. He had to get it under control, or at least turn it to his advantage. Damn, why couldn't it wash over a few of those blasted heroes…

And then he felt the rumbling, and he braced himself. Not AGAIN…

Another pair of streams exploded from the Tower. Another went off into the distance, harming nothing but some ice…while the other streaked into the battlefield, but nowhere near where the heroes out there were battling. Blast!

Calm, Alexander thought: if he didn't calm down he'd completely lose control. This wasn't over yet, and he was the master. He'd turn it back. He'd find the perfect Earth yet. Even now, more and more worlds were being born, before his eyes. He WOULD find it. And he'd still make Superman pay…

If only he knew Kal-L's words…

"The Multiverse is unstable. The Earths will become weaker and weaker as they're divided…if they aren't brought back together soon, the entire universe will explode in a new Big Bang. EVERYTHING will be destroyed…"

But he did not.

And even if he had, he'd have paid them no heed.

As down below, Power Girl finished smashing the last of her OMAC's into submission. She'd wished she'd had some help, but there were so many OMAC's that even the freed 'keys' (Breach, Lady Quark, The Ray, and Nightshade) had all they could handle (they weren't ALL the keys, but Power Girl could only see them), though she could see the Ray had finished off the ones attacking him…

And then she felt it, like a slimy hand in her skull, and she winced and groaned, grabbing her head…

Nightwing saw it, but he was too far away to do anything: he'd lost his backup. Superboy and Wonder Girl had been drawn away from the Tower fighting their own legion of OMAC's, and Donar was out of sight too. For the moment he was trying to help Breach and Lady Quark as best he could…which meant he couldn't help Power Girl.

The Ray also noticed the strangeness that Power Girl was demonstrating, and flew over…as the Psycho-Pirate emerged from the chaos, having finally seen his opening, as he reached out with his powers into the mind of his precious, Power Girl.

"I'm going to make you ANGRY, Power Girl." The Psycho-Pirate said. "So angry you're going to beat the Ray to death. Beat the light right out of him."

"Like Bizzaro did to the Human Bomb?" The Ray replied, as he remembered seeing his fellow Freedom Fighters slaughtered by the Society, a memory that brought back anger…anger that was abruptly replaced by near-paralyzing fear.

"And you…you will do nothing. Just die. Power Girl, make him…" Psycho-Pirate said, as he manipulated both Power Girl and the Ray's emotions…

"Turn, knave."

The voice, right by Psycho-Pirate, made him jerk and turn to the side, as Donar stood there, Mjolnir in hand, as Halston's eyes went wide in fear.

"No! Keep away! You're afraid! Afraid! Why aren't you afraid!" The Psycho-Pirate shrieked.

"Your mask is magical…so is Mjolnir. Mine is much older. Its magic trumps yours." Donar said.

"NO YOU'RE AFRAI-"

Donar slammed Psycho-Pirate into the sky, a screaming reverse comet…who abruptly disappeared about 120 feet into the air.

"…By Odin?" Donar said.

"He moved too far away from the Tower. He went back to his Earth. And I bet he's hurting." Power Girl said, with a tad too much relish for Donar's taste.

"Indeed." Came a new voice, and the three looked up to see Black Adam, finally free himself, floating nearby. "Thank you young man, you saved me the messy business of directing his mask out through the back of his head with my fist."

"Would that be necessary Adam?" Power Girl said.

"Absolutely." Black Adam replied. "But I suppose…"

Donar never quite knew what happened.

He was pretty sure he might have heard a sonic boom.

He thought he might have heard a voice say "Hello, Kara".

And he thought he might have seen a blur of color as the form slammed into them.

But he definitely felt the punch.

It may have been the hardest he took in his entire life.

---

Metatron was about ¾ of the way up the ice tower when he saw it, as the black snaking thread of antimatter exploded from the Golden Tower and tore through the air…right for him. Or rather right for the tower of ice he was climbing.

And as much as he wanted revenge, and despite not knowing exactly what it was, Metatron knew he had to get away from it before it touched him.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-!" Metatron screamed as he leapt away, the mass of destructive energy slamming through the ice monolith's body…as Metatron suddenly found himself in freefall with no parachute.

"Argh!" He yelled, and with no choice unfurled his injured wings. "Come on wings, you're never anything but trouble, COME ON WINGS…!"

They managed to give Metatron enough air so instead of splattering into the ground he just hit it really really hard, as he bounced along in a near bone-breaking tumble before coming to a stop.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow." Metatron said as he stood up, his whole body aching. Well, at least he'd escaped the weird energy. And survived the fall. And…

Had to avoid the gigantic shards of ice that were falling towards him, as he yelled and ran, cursing long and loud as he folded back up his wings and sprinted away.

---

"…You know, somehow I felt like this moment would be more, you know, significant." Beast Boy said.

"On my planet, there is no joy in finally defeating a bitter foe. There is great joy in redeeming one…but even I know this will not happen." Starfire said sadly.

"We did what we had to do." Savior said, as he turned to his team. "…Thanks for the save."

"Oh you have no idea how much you owe us now buddy." Gauntlet said.

"We can work it back out at the Tower." Robin said. "Just because we…"

And then the chaotic antimatter tore through the shaft of the ice tower, vaporizing a gigantic hole in it…and rendering it unable to support its own weight, as the impact shook the Titans.

"What was THAT?" Terra asked.

"I don't know, but I bet it's nothing good!" Cyborg said.

"Actually, there are statistical happenings where loud noises are shown to be a good thing. Really. Here's a pamphlet." Gauntlet said, as he offered one to Cyborg.

And then giant cracks began springing up through the floor of the area, as the last remaining pieces of the wall broke off.

"Titans, MOVE!" Robin yelled.

A moment later the floor cracked it half and pieces began to fall off. Terra found herself in freefall again, before Starfire swooped down and grabbed her, as Beast Boy became a dragon and Gauntlet and Scalpel jumped on his back, as the other Titans ran to the fliers.

And Slade's eye blinked open, and he looked up just as his ice section tilted from under him and he found himself sliding down. His eye went wide, and he tried to grab onto something, anything, as the section broke more and he found himself slipping off the edge.

He got a grip just as his legs went off the end, and he jerked, looking behind him as his mask slipped past him and fell…

Right into the shifting black trail of antimatter beneath him, as the mask tumbled into it and swiftly turned to nothingness.

Slade's eye somehow went even wider, and he turned and tried to drag himself back up, but he had no leverage, no more handholds, there was nowhere to go…

But down.

The ice broke under his grip.

He began to fall.

And Robin's hand jerked down and seized Slade by his collar, his staff slammed into the ice at the precise angle to keep him from slipping and Robin showing incredible strength as he held onto Slade, who looked at Robin in disbelief.

"What? You're surprised?" Robin said. "If I've learned one thing from you in all our war Slade, it's this: I am not you."

Slade's eye blinked…and then he actually smirked a bit, letting out a dry chuckle.

"Then…my once-apprentice…" Slade said.

As he began to draw the concealed dagger from inside his forearm.

"It is time for me…to teach you your final lesson."

And he jerked the knife up.

"LEARN WHEN YOU'VE WON."

He could have slashed Robin's throat. He could have stabbed through Robin's eye. He could have rammed it through Robin's ear and into his brain.

And in the end, Slade cut…his own outfit, slicing himself free from Robin's grip.

And as he began to fall, Robin locked eyes with him…and in his own way understood. To escape from such a defeat was perhaps tolerable…but to have to be rescued…that was it.

And so Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator, fell.

His time was done.

And as he fell, he raised one hand, and even as Robin watched, he gave Robin a slow salute.

And then he plunged into the blackness, as the antimatter claimed him, and Slade Wilson was no more.

"ROBIN!" Starfire said, as she flew over and grabbed up Robin even as the ice began to break under him. "Robin…"

Robin said nothing, staring after Slade.

"…I see." Starfire said, as she lifted Robin up, making sure she grabbed his staff.

And as Robin was pulled away…he raised his hand and saluted Slade back.

That, he felt, even he deserved.

---

And on a shard of ice, which he'd leapt up to to try and figure out a return trip, Metatron saw Slade fall from his perch and to his final doom below, ceasing to exist right before Metatron's eyes.

He stared for a bit, and then gave a dismissive noise of settlement. That would do.

Metatron leapt off the ice tower and sprinted back towards the OMAC's. He was no longer needed here.

---

Starfire carried Robin away from the final collapse of the ice tower to another ice tower nearby (it was actually the one Dr. Light had been standing on, or what was left of it after he and Mary had clashed near the top), where all the Titans were.

"What about Slade?" Cyborg asked as Robin was set down.

"…Death before dishonor." Robin replied.

"Good riddance." Terra said.

"Well…at least until he comes back." Scalpel said.

"He's not coming back." Robin said. "Not from that."

"…Not with a bang, but with a whimper." Savior said.

"A lot of things end that way." Raven said.

"How are you Raven?" Robin asked.

"Feeling a bit better, but still pretty drained…wish I could have helped more." Raven said.

"You did your part. Let me do mine." Savior said, as he offered a Shimmer strand. Raven stared at it. "You fix them up, I'll take the pain. I owe it to them."

"Savior…"

"I can take it."

"…All right. But don't forget…" Raven said, as she let the strand flow in. "Get close everyone."

"I know I-ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Savior screamed as he was briefly filled by phantom but extremely intense pain, as Raven took the Titans' pain and in doing so fixed up the Titans as best she could, smoothing over wounds and soothing very worn muscles.

"Ugh." Savior said, collapsing. "Always forget to never do that again."

"…Hey wait, you can't claim that as what you owe us!" Gauntlet said.

"Why Robert, that thought never entered my mind until you said it." Savior said as he stood back up.

"Are you all right Friend Noel?" Starfire asked: Savior's broken right arm was still in a Shimmer brace, for one.

"I'll live. Raven fixed me up a bit earlier. Besides she needs…"

"Guys…" Came Beast Boy's weak voice, and everyone turned to look at the changeling.

Beast Boy had wandered away from the group to look off into the distance…and he'd seen something.

Something that had turned him as pale as a ghost. And considering he had green skin, that was really saying something.

"Gar! What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"…He's back."

"Who's back?"

Beast Boy didn't say anything. He just pointed.

---

The Ray had been merely brushed by the blow: that had been more then enough to knock him senseless. Power Girl had taken a more solid hit and nearly been knocked out as well.

Black Adam and Donar had born the brunt of the attack though, and had been thrown out onto the ice beyond the Tower. Donar tried to get his senses back: Black Adam recovered more quickly and was on his feet when he came.

"I thought you were supposed to be one of the tough ones." Superboy-Prime said.

The Flash, whoever it may have been, had been right. Superboy-Prime had returned. Now clad in blue and gold armor, done in the style of the Anti-Monitor, armor that covered his chest, arms, hips, and legs, his formerly yellow S symbol now emblazed on a background of black, the young god-like teenager had found his way back to Alexander's tower and the battle raging around it, and he'd immediately picked out targets.

Donar had only had Noel speak of Superboy-Prime briefly. Even that little let Donar knew who he was, and made his blood run cold.

Such fear was not mirrored in Black Adam's face: he had been sucker-punched, and he wasn't a nice guy in the first place. And he had no idea who Superboy-Prime was, but he had a good idea who he was related to.

And that kept him from being afraid, because his own great powers were magical. And Superman's lone weakness besides kryptonite was magic. And while their occasional battles had been back and forth, Captain Marvel had always been theorized to be on the level of Superman, if not better. And unlike Captain Marvel, Black Adam was not a nice guy who held back.

"You don't look so tough." Superboy-Prime added in Black Adam's direction.

Especially when he was being taunted.

"You with the hammer, you said it had great mystical power. Aid me." Black Adam.

"Oh, you'll need it." Superboy-Prime said. Black Adam's face twisted in rage.

"Child or no child." Black Adam said, and leapt to attack.

And Donar followed, simply because he couldn't think of anything else to do.

"YOU DIE TODAY!" Black Adam roared as he pounded Superboy-Prime with a mammoth punch, follow a second later by a mighty blow by Mjolnir, knocking Superboy-Prime back.

"ARGH! THE MAGIC!" Superboy-Prime yelled, as the two furiously hammered on him with blows that would crush buildings and cause earthquakes. "The magic…the magic hurts!"

Black Adam punched Superboy-Prime across the face.

"IT HURTS!"

Donar slammed Superboy-Prime with Mjolnir, and then Black Adam slammed another punch across Superboy-Prime's face…

As he snapped back with a red glean in his eye and a wicked smirk on his face.

"Actually." Superboy-Prime said, his distress gone like a switch had been flipped. "It tickles."

"What…?" Black Adam said.

Superboy-Prime's casual backhand sent Black Adam flying like he'd been shot into the sky like a rocket, as he flew past the tower, barely missing one of the antimatter streams, and then vanished, just like Psycho-Pirate had.

And then Donar was attacking again, swinging in Mjolnir…

As Superboy-Prime grabbed it.

And yanked it out of his hands.

A second later Superboy-Prime's whole arm tensed up, like every muscle was suddenly engaged in a task, like say, holding something…but the hammer stayed in his grip, as Donar's eyes went wide with shock.

"No…that's impossible…"

Superboy-Prime floored Donar with his own hammer, sending Donar flying across the landscape and crashing into an ice cliff, where he remained, unconscious.

"Feh." Superboy-Prime said, as he tossed Mjolnir aside and flew back to the Golden Tower.

---

"…Oh man…" Beast Boy said, still an odd shade of white as the Titans watched Superboy-Prime dispose of one of the strongest men and teenagers on Earth without the slightest shred of effort. (Cyborg and Starfire had been in the dark of just who this was and why he was so scary until Raven had touched them and shown them her memories, then Cyborg had nearly thrown up and Starfire had brought her hands to mouth with one of the deepest expressions of fear Robin had ever seen).

"…Ok…ok…" Gauntlet said. Scalpel was gripping his battered glaive so tightly it threatened to break. Needless to say, none of the Titans were all smiles.

And then, much to his surprise, Robin turned to Savior.

"Ok Noel. You have some inside information. Did that include a weakness?" Robin said.

"…No." Savior said.

"…Ok then…do you want to offer any tactics from your knowledge, as in your want?" Robin asked.

Savior slowly licked his top lip and thought it over.

"…Well. We could stay on this tower here, where we are currently unobserved. Raven could use some of her remaining power and perhaps we could combine some kind of attack and hurl it at the golden Tower. If we're lucky, such a tactic will result in enough damage to disable it, if not destroy it. Theory suggests that if we destroy that tower, we may be able to fix that problem…" Savior said, pointing to the sky filled with Earths. "Which is the most immediate one. Once that is done, we could retreat and frantically summon help that would be more qualified then us dealing with a foe like that, after the results of our last encounter."

Silence.

"Or we could go down there and avenge the death of our fellow Titans, our allies, our friends, and keep him from harming or killing anyone else in his ignorant rage. On a side note we could possibly get another title battle to add to our list."

Savior looked at Robin.

"So, what do you want to do Tim?"

Robin stared out at the Tower, at the form of Superboy-Prime.

And then he turned to look at his fellow Titans.

They all looked scared. Some looked sick. But with the fear…was determination. Was the link of courage and hope that made them who they were.

"Do you even have to ask Noel?" Robin said, as he turned and whipped out his staff.

"Hmmmmm, no, I suppose not." Savior replied.

And the Titans leapt from the ice, heading for the Golden Tower.

---

The battles are almost done…

But one war is still left to fight…

To be continued.