Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation
Saga Arc #1: Charnel House
Chapter #3: "Speed Demons"
Disclaimer: Well, I'm not quite sure what to say. It's no secret I'm not fond of disclaimers, as I believe that it's obvious that I do this not for money or any kind of gain at all, and that barring some exceptions, such as Nightstar and other DC/Marvel original characters, the rest are either mine or belong to my friends, as stated before. It'd take too long to go into detail, but some characters belong to, or are inspired by characters owned by, Black Panther's Knight/Whatever name he uses if he changes it at a later date, if that happens. I'll start listing out the ones that aren't mine in a later chapter.
Author's Notes: Same warning as from the previous chapter.
Deep within the extradimensional Speed Force, two beings were running through time and space, one trying to outrace the other with desperate need, trying to find the right place to 'jump out', as it were.
The first runner came from a parallel reality different than the ones our heroes hail from, a universe that was untouched by Larry the Titan's mistake, and wasn't fused together to create one universe out of two, with radically different heroes and villains. The first runner had hand that were literally bone, and a flaming, demonic looking skull with largish fangs, and wearing a blue, red, and yellow costume, every move forward leaving a burning trail of hellfire behind him. This was the heroic Speed Demon, Jace Lawrence, who, unlike some of his other counterparts, hadn't been corrupted by the evil influence of his other half, and continued to use his powers for good. However, the second runner had intruded into his reality, and had attacked him for no apparent reason, leading to this race through the Speed Force. A race for Jace's, and Speed Demon's, lives.
The second runner was Pietro Allen, wearing a body suit that was silver along the sides, and dark blue – bordering on black – along most of the torso, front and back, silver goggles, and silver lightning ear caps. He was known as Mercury in his universe, but in the last one he'd been in – before Speed Demon's – he was called Dark Mercury, a name that suited him fine. He'd lost the love of his life, Beast Girl, and became reckless, and vengeful, and began extracting a brutal justice on the villains of his world, not hesitating even if his attacks would lead to the death of another, unless that person was a civilian. As far as he knew, this Speed Demon was as evil as his own, and he hadn't bothered to ask, and even if he had, he wouldn't believe him anyway.
And now the two were running through the Speed Force, Dark Mercury slowly gaining on Speed Demon, until he rammed into the other speedster, the jolt knocking the two of them out of the Speed Force and into a certain parallel universe…
The two ended up colliding with a passenger bus in Downtown Jump City, tearing through the metal frame with ease, due to their speed and the amount of hellfire Speed Demon was generating to keep from going splat against the bus. As it was, he ended up skidding along the ground as he tried to come to a halt, stopping only inches away from a family. If he could blink, he would, and waved a bit, the child of the family waving back before his parents dragged him away, screaming in panic. Grunting a bit, Speed Demon picked himself back up, shook his head to get rid of any grogginess, and steeled himself as Dark Mercury recovered, and rushed him again…
The two began throwing rapid-fire, super-speed fueled punches at each other, most of them canceling each other out as their fists collided, before Dark Mercury snapped his finger at super-speed, sending out a sonic boom that sent Speed Demon hurtling through the air, spinning around and hitting the ground with a hard thud. "Ugh!" The demonically-empowered speedster pulled himself up, shaking his head again to get the spots out of his vision, and regarded this newcomer that wanted to put out his lights. "You play for keeps…whoever you are. You may look like Mercury, but you don't act anything like him. And after that crap with those imposter heroes, I'm sick of your kind."
"'My kind'?" The anti-hero regarded Speed Demon in an amused fashion, walking over to him slowly, and prepared to snap his fingers again. "I think you're confused, Gale Force of Hell. You're the bad guy, I'm the good guy. It's as simple as that." The 19 year old prepared to snap his fingers again, but let out a cry as a blast of hellfire struck his hand, singeing his bare fingers and making him pull his hand in close to his chest. Speed Demon let out a laugh, a rather immature one, and made an 'L' sign with his right hand and pressed his hand against his flaming forehead.
"Serves you right, copycat. And what's with this Gale Force of Hell crap? I'm Speed Demon, pal." He stood up, and brushed off his blue pants, and adopted a martial arts stance, as Dark Mercury paused to heal his fingers, and growled dangerously at the other speedster.
"Oh, you're going to regret that, asshole…" the young man snarled, just before Speed Demon snapped his own fingers, in Dark Mercury's face, setting off a sonic boom right in his face and sent him smashing into a car, the metal crumpling around his frame. "…Crap…"
Not too far away there was a young woman, of 18 years of age, with long black hair in a ponytail, with natural red streaks through it, wearing a dark purple leather jacket, a dark purple pair of PVC pants, dark purple riding boots, dark purple leather gloves, and a pair of black shades with a chain wrapped around her upper torso, leaning against a light post, where she had just parked her motorcycle. It was a chopper-style cycle, chromed and with expensive upholstery, with an oddly placed shotgun holster sporting a sawed off double barrel. She had paused to get a hotdog from a vendor, and was eating it when she heard the first of the sonic booms. "Oh, this just had to happen on my day off…" she muttered to herself as she chucked the half eaten hotdog in the garbage, and got back on her back, hitting the kickstand up and speed off, the air around her beginning to shimmer with heat, until…
Her body burst into flame, the skin charring and melting away, though she felt no pain, the flesh completely gone from her skull now, leaving it empty-socketed and clean, spikes rising up from her shoulders and the knuckles of her gloves, the bike changing as well, gaining a skull-like front, and the tires turned to fire. This girl was Jonni Blaze, and she was the newest incarnation of the Ghost Rider, driven by an uncontrollable urge to punish the wicked and protect the innocent as best she could, and now, to do that, she had to face whoever was causing the mayhem before her.
Speed Demon rammed into Dark Mercury, the two of them rolling across the street at superspeed, tearing up the asphalt as they punched and kicked at each other, the platinum haired speedster kicking the other off of him and sending him flying up through the air, to smash down onto the roof of another car, shattering the glass windows and eliciting a groan from the demonic hero. "Holy hell, that hurt…" he groaned, sitting up and rubbing his lower back with one bony hand – if he had a face, it would be twisted up in pain. Dark Mercury smirked, and zipped over, ready to lay out a finish blow when…
A long chain wrapped around his neck firmly, causing him choke violently, his eyes beginning to swim. He grabbed the chain and tried to vibrate through it, but was stunned to see he had no effect on it…the chain was composed of pure hellfire when Ghost Rider was transformed, and nothing in Heaven or Earth could destroy it. He looked back, and was surprised to see the flaming, featureless skull of the Ghost Rider staring back at him, before she spoke, speaking in a deep, throaty, growling, almost animalistic voice.
"You shall suffer for your endangering of these innocents, villain!" She snarled, yanking on the chain and dragging Dark Mercury back, her powers of a kind of empathy allowing her to know that Pietro Allen had a black, miserable soul, and no matter how justified his actions were, he still had taken life purposefully, he still chose to endanger the lives of others, no matter how wicked they were…for that purpose was the Ghost Rider's. It made no difference to her if the deaths didn't happen in her world…he still had the darkness in his heart, the darkness she had to punish.
For his part, Speed Demon was stunned for a number of reasons. One was at how lucky that save had been – he was sure that the other speedster would've killed him with relative ease, considering how the fight had been going…it was harder for Speed Demon to recover from stronger impacts than other, more living speedsters. It was complex, though. The second reason was that he could tell this stranger was like him, also cursed with demonic powers of a similar type - She even had a flaming skull similar to his. And so, for those reasons and others, Jace Lawrence found himself at a loss for words.
And during all this, the alarm had been sounded, both to the local police force, and the newly activated Titans Tower.
A loud alarm went off throughout the Tower, though the entirety of the team was in the All-Purpose Room, most on the couch, though Death's Head was off to the side, sipping another cup of tea, the only beverage he wanted right now, considering nearly everyone else present was a minor. Which meant no beer for him. Sighing, he finished his cup and set it down, and headed over to the others, and hit a switch that was located on a device he wore on his non-transforming arm, which patched him into the Tower's systems. A map was now being displayed in place of the image on the screen, which had been from a movie everyone was watching, which caused some sighs of both disappointment and relief from the various members of the team. Death's Head didn't have any particulars, as none of the fighters were in his records, except for the newcomer.
"Oh my, this is unusual…there's already a superhero there. I think." A-ko perked up, and looked over at him.
"Who? Who's there?" Death's Head checked his information again, and blinked a few times.
"Ghost Rider…or at least a version of Ghost Rider that hasn't been seen yet…whatever the case, we should get there soon…fights with Ghost Rider tend to get…messy. Okay, Beast Girl, you're with me. Turn into something big that can fly that can carry Mary to the location on the screen. Everyone else who can, fly there under your own steam!" Already barking orders, Death's Head exited the room in a hurry, everyone following after him, the fliers already flying. When he had gotten to the roof, he broke into a run, then dived over the edge of the building, one hand upraised. As he fell, A-ko flew down after him, grabbed him by the hand and wrist, and carried him over to the Downtown area as fast as she could, straining a little under the weight. Death's Head looked up at her, barking a bit. "Come on, girl! You can do it!"
"You don't…have to yell…pal," the redhead grunted softly as they grew closer, the rest of the team following behind them in their own unique fashions, Mary standing on Beast Girl's Pterodactyl form's back, her sword drawn, Valkyrion and Thunderstrike being propelled through the air by their weapons, Gehenna and Nightstar floating through the air with ease. Death's Head laughed a bit, and tilted his head a little.
"Don't worry…as soon as we get over the site, drop me. I can survive the fall." When they reached the spot in question, A-ko indeed dropped him, and the cyborg plummeted to the street below, smashing into the ground and creating a rather large crater. "Blaster formation," he said, calmly, his arm morphing into a rather large energy weapon, and he advanced on the scene ahead, Dark Mercury spinning in place and dislodging the Ghost rider finally, only to see the approaching Death's Head. With a bit of a snarl, he blurred forward at Mach 2 and collided with the blue cyborg, sending Death's Head flying through a wall rather fast, the speedster bouncing back after the impact and nearly sprawling on the ground. "Ugh! Little brat…" DH groaned a bit as he stood, blaster still ready, and exited the building he'd been knocked into, while the rest of the Titans landed. Right afterwards, Beast Girl transformed into an octopus, and caught Speed Demon, Dark Mercury, and Ghost Rider in her tentacles, restraining them. Pietro would've fought back, but then he realized exactly who it was that was restraining him, feeling a familiar, wrenching pang in his heart.
"Terri…" he whispered, something Death's Head picked up as his blaster turned back into a hand, and he paused when he made it over.
"Okay, who's the bad guy here? I'm confused…" A-ko spoke, fixing her t-shirt a bit as she regarded the three captives. All at once they each pointed to the other, Ghost Rider and Speed Demon singling out Dark Mercury, and he pointed to them. "Wonderful. Aagh! It's this kind of stuff that makes me wish I stayed home!" It was then that Mar'i spoke up.
"Uhm, this is your first day on the team…" A-ko went red in the face, and rubbed the back of her head with one hand.
"Oh yeah…heh heh." Death's head just sighed, and rubbed his forehead a bit.
"Let's just take them all to the local police station, or S.T.A.R, or something, and figure out what to do from there. Terri, think you can hold them for a bit longer while I call for reinforcements?" A tentacle was raised, and made an O-shape for okay, and Death's Head nodded, getting onto his wrist communicator and calling the authorities. "Yeah, I need a metahuman containment team here…two speedsters, and a hellfire user. And for the love of all that's good, don't mess this up."
It was hours later, and in one of the city's specially equipped precincts, the two instigators and Ghost Rider had been locked up. Speed Demon remained in his transformed state, while the Rider had changed back into Jonni, who was sullenly sitting on the cot in the cell, legs up to her chin and a fierce look on her face, grumbling under her breath as she would occasionally look out to see those watching her, which was the entire team of Teen Titans and police officers, including a visiting officer and representative of the cross-country police force known as Code: Blue, Michael Badilino – secretly the former vigilante and demonic hell-biker Vengeance – who was merely there to try to get Jonni off the hook. No luck so far, considering the regular police wanted to press charges against all three. As Badilino and the other cops argued, the Titans all shared a look, and a collective sigh, before Death's Head finally spoke up.
"We can take care of them, if that makes you all feel better."
"Huh?" was the general sentiment from the law enforcers, prompting the 'bounty hunter' to sigh in frustration.
"I mean we can add them to the Titans so they can work off their debt to the city, and if they step out of line, you can throw 'em in jail with no regrets. Easy, yes? Then we're agreed."
"Hold on, mister." One of the cops spoke up, regarding the cyborg suspiciously. "Who are you guys anyways?" Nightstar gave them a stunned look, then laughed a bit.
"Isn't it obvious? We're the Teen Titans." The team all nodded, save for Death's Head, who just put a hand to his domed forhead and sighed.
"I hate that name…" he mumbled, loud enough for everyone to hear. This earned him a bit of a smack from Gehenna, who was the only member willing to annoy the crap out of the killer cyborg/robot. "What? I do. I'm not a teenager. It should be 'Death's Head and the Teen Titans'."
"Oh yeah, like that'll ever happen…" The half-demonic pale girl snorted. It was then that A-ko decided to speak up again.
"But basically, that IS what we are…"
"Oh hush." Gehenna sighed, her turn to put a hand to her forehead. "I'm just kidding…mostly."
"Oh."
Death's Head sighed again, loudly this time, and pushed the two girls apart. "Quiet, both of you. This isn't helping things any." During this little 'discussion,' Beast Girl approached the middle cell, which was keeping Dark Mercury locked inside, and leaned in close, pressing her gloved fingertips against the 'glass'. To her surprise, the anti-hero did the same, and, curious, she pressed her forehead against the glass, to which he did the same. Then she squinted at him, and finally her amber eyes glinted with recognition.
"No way…Peter, is that you?" She whispered to him, not wanting to alert anyone else to her discovery. The older boy just shook his head, smiling a bit.
"It's Pietro, actually…" he whispered back, tilting his head to regard the green girl. Unlike the last Beast Girl he'd met, she didn't seem afraid of him, but then, he hadn't given her any reason to be. However, some of the other people with her puzzled him, as he'd never seen some of them before, and Ghost Rider in particular puzzled him. "Where are the others? Who are these guys?" At first he thought he must be in his past, but then he saw that there was no Mercury with them, Beast Girl called him Peter, and he certainly didn't remember any skull-faced large cyborg with horns and red 'hair' being the team leader.
"What others?"
"Raziel, Bladefire…"
"Who? And who?" She was genuinely puzzled by those names, having never met anyone using them…yet. She shrugged helplessly, and smiled a bit. "Well, don't worry about that…like Death's Head said, you're gonna be one of us now. And I guess you'll meet the version of you here tomorrow…Peter's coming over tomorrow…"
"Oh really? And you're telling me this why?"
Beast Girl giggled a bit. "Well, because here he doesn't have any powers…some kind of lab accident or something cut him off from the Speed Force." When he heard that, Dark Mercury was surprised.
"No powers…?"
"Yep. But I still lo…I mean I still like him…" she went red in the face at that, and there were a few snickers, as some of the team had overheard her. "Hey! Stop laughing, you guys!" Gehenna stuck her tongue out at the other girl, snickering more.
"When you stop swooning."
"Grrrr…" Terri bared her teeth at the other girl, who just reached out and poked her in the nose, making her face skew a bit and a bead of sweat forming on her forehead. "Stop dat."
"Make me." Definitely very Un-Raven behavior. And nearly everyone there noticed it. Jonni banged against her cell 'wall', and was steamed.
"Oh, for the love of…let me out already! I'm sorry for ever getting involved in this mess, don't make me suffer this angst!" She yelled, still banging. With a sigh, Death's Head regarded Nightstar.
"I'm starting to think we should leave her in there…"
"But she was only trying to help."
"She's very noisy."
"Yes, but she is adorable…" A-ko spoke up, blinking a few times at the stares this earned her. "What? She is." Death's head sighed yet again – something it seemed he would never stop doing, apparently.
"Yes, very well. We can all agree Beast Girl is adorable AND noisy. I'm not sure if we can all reconcile those two points, but let's just take the prisoners, fill out all the paper work, and get back to the Tower so I can start training you all to be a real team, yes?" The blue cyborg nodded a bit, getting a groan from all the Titans he had already sparred with, though A-ko and the three imprisoned 'recruits' had no idea what they were in for.
After what seemed like hours, the Titans finally got Jonni, Speed Demon, and Pietro out of the cells, and were driven to the city's docks, which was as close as the police could get to the Tower. Dark Mercury took off over the water, Speed Demon chasing after him to make sure he didn't try to run, taking the terms of their release rather seriously, while Jonni sighed and willingly transformed into the Rider again, in order to drive her hell-cycle over the water. Death's Head raised his hands, and A-ko and Nightstar each grabbed a hand, and lifted up the heavy cyborg, sharing the load, as everyone took the skies in their own fashion, Thunderstrike carrying Mary this time.
"You're heavier than y'look, y'know," the redhead commented, with a wry grin, earning her a glare from the silver-haired girl.
"Just keep talking, Red, and see where it gets you."
"Bring it on," the demigoddess grinned more, while Mary grinned back.
"I could take you."
"Keep dreamin'."
"My, this team is so high-strung…" Death's Head commented, the two fliers carrying him nodding some in agreement. "Anyway, faster, ladies. We have a long night ahead of us before you all get to sleep."
"Ugh…" Nightstar groaned, resisting the urge to facepalm, while A-ko stuck her tongue out in an expression of distaste.
"Man, I thought this would be a fun team to join, not a boot camp." That earned her a chuckle from the cyborg she and Mar'i were carrying.
"Oh, come on, it'll be great. It's just in our best interest to work cohesively. I've been on enough teams to know that myself. And frankly, now that we have four new members, I have to make sure they can play along. And I have the perfect exercise in mind, too…" he grinned, laughing almost darkly, and certainly in an amused fashion. When he saw the looks he got from the two teenagers carrying him, he rolled his eyes a bit. "Oh, it's not that serious. It'll be easy…more or less. I'm not going to coddle you – you deserve to be trained properly now so that you'll have more free time later." That caused the two girls to smile softly.
"Well, free time would be nice…I haven't been to the city that long, but I'd love to see the sites…hey, Mar'i, would you mind going out with me?" A-ko smiled to the girl she was flying next to, her cape flapping in the wind. The half-Tamaranean nodded, and laughed softly.
"Oh, sure. I'd love to. I haven't been here enough myself, but just long enough to know where everything is. We could get Terri and Ranko to go with us too…I don't know about Mary. And I'm sure that new girl, Jonni, isn't the type for sightseeing."
"Heh…tell me about it. Did you see those looks she gave us?" The two girls shared a laugh, while down below, the Rider grumbled softly – if she had ears, they'd be burning right now.
End Notes: And the team grows bigger. Of course, it can only get bigger now. But that won't be too much of a problem – that's what a mega-series is for, right? Proper character development. Please review, if you feel the need or want to.