Tomorrow Titans – The Next Generation
Saga Arc #1: Charnel House
Chapter #4: "Old Friends"
Disclaimer: As usual, I'd like to say 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. Any other character that appear that I don't indicate who owns them, and they're not mine, then their respective owners will know who they are, if that does happen, though it probably won't..
Author's Notes: Same warning as from the previous chapter.
In Downtown Jump, the portion of the urban area that had been involved in the previous altercation between the two speedsters had been cordoned off, until Damage Control could get there and begin rebuilding. There wasn't a person around, and the only sounds were the flapping of cordon tape, and the sound of the dust and dirt blowing along the ground as, in explicably, a fierce wind began to blow. Then, as the wind began gale force, a ripple in the area of space where the two had first emerged appeared, then reality itself appeared to tear open as large blue claw tore through it, and if there was anyone there, they would see a dark, shadowy figure emerging from what looked like a shattered city behind the portal it emerged from. The massive figure's demonic feet slammed into the ground as it emerged, and it drew in a large, earth-shaking breath.
"I…live!" the creature roared, throwing its head back and screaming aloud, startling all of the animals that were still in the area, who promptly ran off, something the creature could sense. "Hah…time to get to work…"
There was a sense of impatience at the Tower, as a number of guests were going to arrive. The leader of the team was the most impatient, since he felt there wasn't any need to have more guests who were probably going to join the team anyway show up. They already had more than the original line-up, and that was more than enough for Death's Head. He was getting tired of all the kids he was being stuck with, especially the ones who didn't act like they were assumed to. It was rather annoying, yes?
Mar'i and Terri were squealing a bit as they sat down at the breakfast table, waiting, especially impatient, while waiting for their friends, while Gehenna was also waiting for someone, but reading a book rather than sitting with the others. Oddly, it was a book called 'Faces of Evil', written by a journalist named Ben Urich decades ago, on the subject of the supervillain the Green Goblin, someone who had been casting a shadow over her family for all those decades. She had a somewhat personal interest in the novel, considering the nephew of the author to be her uncle, and having been raised alongside the original Goblin's grandson. She was thoroughly engrossed in the novel, a thin smile on her face, her long hair hanging over one shoulder, occasionally batting it to the side, before checking the slim watch she was wearing on her wrist.
"Azar, this waiting is so boring…" she mumbled to herself, still reading. Finally her cellular phone began to ring, and she smiled softly again, answering it. "You there at the airport yet? Thank God…I was beginning to think you'd never get here…oh, Alice is with you too? That's great. No, don't worry, I'll be by to pick you guys up. The team bought a car last night, and there's an underground tunnel connecting us to the city. I'll be there in like, half an hour. Great. Bye, hon." She closed the phone, and got up, whistling. "The car keys are where, Mar'i?" She held out her hand, and the half-alien girl tossed Gehenna the keys, and the older girl caught them, smiling a bit. "Thank you. I'll be back with my friends in a bit, okay? Don't wait up though."
"Sure, G." Terri waved to the other girl, smiling. "Have fun."
"You know I will."
And with that, Gehenna was gone to change out of her costume into casual clothes. Mar'i gave her green friend a look, and smiled.
"She seems happy about her friends."
"I can guess how she feels…I'm just surprised she's so open now…I mean, remember when she was a shut-in back when we all met when we were younger?" Beast Girl tilted her head a bit, and scratched behind one of her elf ears, smiling a bit and laughing, to which Mar'i nodded and clasped her hands together, setting her elbows down on the table surface.
"Yeah…but she spent a lot of time with us, you know…learnt mostly from my mother how to act and control her emotions, which made her a lot different from her own mother…"
"Meaning Gehenna turned out almost normal?"
"Something like that."
After about half an hour of driving through Jump City, and indeed going through the underground tunnel, which had its own opening on an apparently dead-end tunnel – which actually just required a DNA and retinal scan to open – the pale girl was enjoying herself. The car was a somewhat expensive convertible, and she had the top down, driving with one hand and with her eyes seemingly closed. However, as she drove, she new exactly when and where to turn, when to slow down, when to stop, and when to speed up, as though something was telling her what to do…or perhaps a sixth sense. She had a big grin on her face as she pulled into the parking area of the Jump City airport, driving through it and parking next to the exit of the building, and waited patiently for about five minutes, before hitting the trunk release button, and motioned to the two girls exiting the airport. "Bags in the trunk, ladies…" she grinned as she stood up a bit in the car, waving them over. She was wearing a blue blouse, and blue jeans, and had her hair in a ponytail.
The two girls that came out were old friends – One of them had long, platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a white sweater, a black vest, and black jeans, and matching boots, and the other had short dark hair, dark eyes, and wearing an outfit that was mostly dark blue. They dumped their luggage in the back of the car, then the platinum haired girl got into the seat next to the Titan, and the other girl got in the back seat. "Hey, May…miss me?" the white haired girl grinned, leaning in with her head tilted to one side. The purple haired girl tilted her head the other way, and kissed the other girl, prompting a sigh from the dark haired girl in back.
"Of course I did, Felicity…"
"Hey, guys, knock it off. People are staring…" the dark haired girl grumbled some, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her seat.
"Oh, come on, Alice. You know we don't care if people stare…" Felicity grinned back at her friend, who kicked the back of the chair she was in. "Hey!"
"You know that stuff makes me uncomfortable…and no, not in that way, you raging perv," she said the last part to cut off the expected reply, the platinum haired girl grinning a bit, then pouting.
"Awww, come on…do you always have to cut me off?"
"Yes, I do. Especially since I don't have to tolerate the crap you give me whenever May's not around…god, its like you're obsessed with her." That made the gothic-looking girl blush deeply.
"Guys, come on…behave already. It's been months since I've seen you guys; don't ruin it by fighting…" she said, snapping her fingers and closing the trunk with a nudge of telekinesis, then started up the engine and began to drive, heading back towards the tower. "Besides, there are other guests here besides you two, so please try to behave."
"Oh, that's something to say, 'Gehenna.' You haven't even told everyone your real name yet, have you?" Felicity snickered a bit, leaning back in her seat and putting a pair of mirrored shades on as she relaxed.
"Well, it's not like everyone knows who my dad is. That little bit of information is still private. Just like you don't go around without your mask on when you go out at night…or have you started doing that now?" At that the other girl went red in the face, and slouched a little, as if trying to sink into her seat.
"Alright, I know you have a point. Just don't make me eat my words anymore, okay? It gets old."
There was some laughter from the other two girls in the car, as they drove down the streets of Jump, and headed for the secret underground tunnel entrance.
Back at the Tower, Death's Head had plugged himself back into Cyberspace, to carry out a few last minute changes to the training schedule, as well as to program a 'special' training program that would get the team ready to face anything anyone would throw at them. He was having a bit of guilt over doing it, but that was easily quashed and he went on his merry cyber-way, programming the most complex and overall 'big' programming job ever done for a VR-simulation, beating out anything the X-Men could do.
Beast Girl and Nightstar were still giggling and waiting, until finally the entrance doors slid open, and in walked one Peter Allen, son of the current Flash Bart Allen and Carol Bucklen-Allen, Bart's first love interest, and lacked a connection to the Speed Force, or so it was said, to explain his lack of powers. Following him was Lian Harper, in her costumed identity of the Red Arrow, based on her 'uncle' Oliver Queen. Dark Mercury was sitting down on the couch, and turned around to see who had come in, a mild look of surprise passing over his face as he saw his 'normal' counterpart enter the room, in regular casual clothes. He was then nudged by Ranko, with whom he was playing a video game.
"What?" he asked her, somewhat annoyed, as it wasn't like him to take part in things with others much now, as he was far more serious than his other counterpart in that other reality, but found he had no choice right now, as they'd stuck a device on his ankle that would set off an alarm if he left the building, judging him to be a greater danger to people than Speed Demon or Ghost Rider.
"Keep giving me that look and you'll know how it feels to get hit with lightning, sparky-pants," she gave him a glare that would make her mothers proud, and hit pause on the game, slouching back in her spot on the large couch. "Feel like trying out the training simulator? Anything's better than listening to these guys giggle all th' time." The redhead stood up, grabbing her mace as she went by, and exited the all-purpose room, closely followed by Dark Mercury, who cast a glance back at his other self, as well as back to Terri, who just blinked as the two left. Death's Head soon unplugged himself and got up as well, coughing a bit.
"I'm going to go watch those two, have them try out a few of my new training exams I set up…you guys get the day off today because all the team isn't here. And tell Jonni when she's done in the garage that she has to call for the takeout. I don't trust either of you to not run up the bill." The blue cyborg waved one hand as he exited the room after the others, leaving Peter and Lian confused, and Terri and Mar'i embarrassed.
"What was that about?" Peter finally asked. Terri laughed a bit, nervously, lacing her fingers together and trying to look innocent.
"Uhm…last night we had some take out, and we ended up spending…around a hundred dollars on stuff we didn't really have to get." Lian whistled in appreciation at that.
"Man, that's a lot…"
"Tell me about it…but we had more guests than we thought we'd have, so we had to get more than what we agreed on…didn't realize how much that A-ko girl would be able to eat…" Mar'i giggled a bit at that, before covering her mouth a little and finally laughing louder.
"A-ko?" Both visitors didn't know who that was. Fortunately, the owner of said name at that moment walked in through the main door, running a gloved hand through her hair and panting a bit. She had a towel over her shoulders, and workout clothes on, and made a bee-line for the refrigerator to get something cool to drink.
"Her." Terri simply pointed as the redhead began downing bottle after bottle of bottled spring water, tossing each one back over her shoulder when she was finished.
"Ah."
A-ko finished her drinking finally, and went over to the couch, falling down on it and closing her eyes. "I'm gonna take a nap…wake me up when it's dinner time, 'kay?" Without waiting for a response, the half-Kryptonian half-Amazon fell asleep, snoring somewhat as she rolled onto her back. Everyone still in the room had a collective moment of mild disbelief before sharing a chuckle.
"So…where's the rest of the team at?" Lian finally asked, running her own hand through her own shorter, straighter, and lighter-colored red hair, removing her red domino mask and tilting her head to the side. Mar'i shrugged a bit, and leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table, as many people seemed to be doing lately.
"Well, let's see…Valkyrion wanted to sightsee, Jonni went down to the subbasements to work on her motorcycle, Speed Demon – a new guy from another reality – went to help her for some reason, Pietro and Ranko just left, Mary's off doing who knows what, and Gehenna went to pick up her friends at the airport…"
"Oh, that's ni—w-wait, did you just say Gehenna?" Lian did a double-take, eyes going wide. Mar'i and Terri nodded, smiling pleasantly, the smiles faltering a bit as the redhead groaned and slouched in her seat. "Man, I was hoping really hard I wouldn't run across her again…not after that last Christmas party…" The other three teens at the table all shared a look, then glanced back at the blushing Lian – it was no secret that Lian was a bit promiscuous, to put it mildly, and was just as sexually outgoing as her father and 'uncle' (which was a nice way to say they slept around, but with some restraint, and with use of protection), except she didn't stick to the one gender – and wondered what their other friend had to do with this. Finally the redhead spoke, still a bit embarrassed. "Well, at that party we…uh…had a bit much to drink and started to make out, and…ugh…Dad walked in on us."
"Oh my," was Mar'i's response, while Peter laughed a bit, and Terri gave Lian a pat on the shoulder
"Man, that had to be embarrassing for you."
"Tell me about it. Dad just gaped like a fish out of water, and Gehenna just lay there, trying not to laugh at me…which she did anyway. She was such a jerk about it…"
"That probably explains why people don't like her around too much…but did you ever wonder why she acts that way?" Peter posited that question, a curious look on his face as the others all thought on that, occasionally being interrupted by A-ko's snoring on the couch.
"I always thought she was doing it to annoy her mother…from what I've seen, they haven't really gotten along much…" Terri finally said, breaking the mostly-silence, prompting a bit of conversation between the small group.
"You know, I've always wondered why she never became a superhero like her parents until now, unlike the rest of us who could…and she doesn't seem to have much grasp on magic either. All I've ever seen her do is fly, and fire mystic bolts and some telekinesis…" Lian looked thoughtful, rubbing her chin a bit as she leaned back in her chair, her quiver and bow resting by the side of the table. "I mean, it's like she's doing it half-assed on purpose…"
"Or she's hiding something…" Mar'i cut in, crossing her arms under her chest, and hmm-ing a bit. "I mean, why did she even join the team in the first place? I don't doubt she wanted to help people, but…it just reeks of a cover story…"
"Well, why don't you ask her when she gets back…should be about…five minutes if you told us right…" Peter nodded a bit, smiling as he ran a hand through his white hair, and blinked a few times. Everyone else shared a nod, and at that point Mar'i's stomach could be heard growling, which caused the half-alien to blush with embarrassment, and the others to laugh good-naturedly, Lian producing a cell-phone from her belt.
"Why don't I call us a take-out place? Who wants Chinese?"
"Chinese is good." Peter nodded, leaning back and looking up at the roof. Terri raised a hand with one finger pointing upwards, and was about to say something before Lian interrupted her, a smile on the redhead's face.
"And don't worry, Terry, I'll make sure there's an order of Tofu there too for you." Satisfied, the animorph dropped her hand, and slouched in her chair as well, one arm draped over the back.
"Man, it sure is quiet in here, huh?" Peter finally said, breaking the quiet again. Everyone nodded, and sighed.
"How long you guys in town for? And you could stay here if you want…we have plenty of rooms…" Terri offered, blushing softly as she pushed some of her hair out of her eyes, batting them shyly at Peter, who blushed as well, while Lian snickered softly, but not in a mean fashion, and leaned back in her chair. "Lian…you're as bad as everyone else…" Mar'i giggled softly, and stretched her arms back over her head, sticking her chest out a bit, prompting Lian to mock-wolf whistle, to embarrass her friend, which worked.
"Lian!"
"Heh heh…sorry, Mar'i."
It was about the time that the takeout arrived and was paid for that 'Gehenna'/May and her friends arrived at the tower, and entered the All-Purpose room. May, for one, was surprised to see yet another large group assembled for a meal of Chinese food, amongst other things, while her two friends were gaping a bit.
"Holy…that…is a lot of food." Felicity said, blankly, pointing forward with one finger and staring, while Alice just nodded. May sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose, and headed over to the large table, seating herself down, and shooing some of her teammates away so her friends could sit down.
"I see you broke out the large table, boss," she remarked, to which everyone looked towards Death's Head, to see his response, as he began drinking a soda.
"I figured since we were going to have so many guests, I might as well get the big table out…I have a feeling we're going to need it, with this team constantly getting so big on us." There was a smattering of commenting on that, where basically everyone agreed, and at which point Alice and Felicity sat down, and joined in on the eating. "Everyone, help yourself before A-ko begins to cram it in her mouth like last night. I am NOT paying for a second ordering of this crap." There was a bit of loud laughter at that, mostly from those with a sense of well-adjusted humor – which was nearly everyone – and at which point the team and their guests began to eat ravenously.
On the outskirts of the city, there was a three story, large building, with many underground levels. This building proudly bore the Lexlabs logo on the outside sign, with the wording 'A subsidiary of Lexcorp' beneath the lab's logo. This lab was supposedly there to create new medical technology and advanced prosthetics for those who had lost their limbs in accidents, though in truth the reality was far more sinister – the lab was actually host to a series of super-soldier experiments on both homeless people, volunteer subjects, and even test-tube grown subjects, all of which were put through genetic enhancements, then at some point had cybernetic augmentation done. This was Lexlabs' little dirty secret of the month, though they couldn't take all the credit for the heinous deeds that were performed there.
No, the lab was actually funded by Advanced Idea Mechanics, the creator of the Minion series of cyborgs/artificial humanoids, and they were trying to rebuild all of their work, using the files and plans of Doctor Evelyn Clarice Sarah Necker, from her time in 2005 when she presented A.I.M with the prospective Minion Project, which was from her time in an alternate 2020, which ultimately became altered, though those who experienced time travel back to 2005 still remembered every bit of it, though they hadn't seen Necker since the defeat of Charnel's second incarnation, as she was caught in a time blast, and propelled somewhere through time, though the truth was somewhat obvious, given how well the project was going – Necker was alive and well, in the year 2030, having only been thrust about twenty-five years into the future, to resume work on her Minion project, to create another cyborg that could defeat Death's Head II…except now she was being far more careful with her choices of subjects, doing her best to ensure none of them would turn on her.
She was at work now, converting one of the test tube creations of Lexlabs into a cyborg, her and her team wearing surgical greens. This subject would be their first success, the body similar to the one she had made in 2005, into which the 'mutant' Kite had been surgically grafted, only for her to find out that she had actually give Kite the means to find and fuse with his future 'self'/half to become Charnel again. However, she liked the body design, as it put Minion's to shame – she still addressed Death's Head II as Minion, the name of the project that created him. This subject had been used in the cybernetic testing because it had been programmed to obey its creators, in a far more efficient and reliable manner than her previous creations, of which the only loyal one was the dim-witted and drunken Minion Prototype Death Wreck, who had only recently returned to her after she brought it to this time, along with the girl he had been with, and kept them both in the installation, away from the experiments, using Death Wreck as a way to test out the new cyborgs as they were mass-produced, each one with a hidden command to protect Necker above all else.
You see, Doctor Necker was a paranoid, terrified woman – ever since Minion became Death's Head, and learned that he had actually once been a living person (who wasn't so living after the procedure had grafted the cybernetics and replacement organs into the fleshy shell), she had been terrified that he would return for her, and kill her for her presumed sins against Nature and God. So she wanted to create a bodyguard, to protect her. She had tried before with Death's Head III, the name she had given to the cyberised Kite, who had also turned on her. Just like Minion had, and Death Metal after him. Nothing she had done worked with these cyborgs, so now she was more willing to use less-lethal but indeterminately more obedient creatures Lena Luthor provided her with, and with Lena and A.I.M's backing, she was creating a far more efficient force of cyborgs, which were all secretly created to obey her, overriding every command that tied them to Luthor and the other A.I.M scientists on the project. She knew she was far too valuable to both parties, as only she knew the way to create more Minions, which had became a necessity since the first successful Minion had joined the superheroes in the new 2020, at the behest of a near-immortal alien time traveler called 'the Doctor'; a contingency plan was needed, and this was it – the perfect, most powerful cyborg 2030 had ever seen.
However, outside that lab, a spatial rift open, and the massive blue figure that appeared in Downtown Jump emerged, setting off a series of security alarms, and alerting heavily armed guards to its presence. As they began firing their not-so primitive projectile weapons, the bullets bounced off its external shell, and it advanced, its right arm transforming, morphing, adapting itself to the shape of a large, blunt, metallic hammer, at which point it began to run, its loud footfalls echoing on the paved ground as it ran faster and faster, and then, with a battle roar, it lashed out, slamming the blunt instrument into the first guard's chest, knocking the air out of him and breaking a few ribs., the second guard flinching and radioing for backup, just in time to be have the skull-faced creature's morphing claws slice open his armor, and drawing blood, making him fall down, screaming, which filled the radios of the other security officers. The security doors to the lab hissed open, and more and more, wearing complete body armor and carrying much bigger, much deadlier weapons, and began firing.
As each rail gun shell connected with the beast, they exploded. More and more were fired, and more and more explosions rocked the ground, the tremors echoing all the way through the building, felt even down in the basements and subbasements.
"Hold it!" the man in charge of the force cried out, and the shelling stopped. The smoke began to clear, and to their horror, the blue, gold, and red monster was still standing there, hardly a scratch on it, though a close examination would revealing dripping orange goo/fluid sealing up what few damages were made to the shell the malevolent force they were facing inhabited. It laughed, a booming, dark, evil sound, that chilled these men to the bone, for they were hardly innocent, yet each one of them prayed to a savior long-abandoned, pleading silently that this would not be the night they die. The blue right arm was raised, and began changing shape again, turning into a large pulse beam-based weapon, the twin barrels snapping open and the energy charging through the weapon, which began humming loudly.
"DIE, WORMS!" the thing cried, its first actual spoken words, firing off a massive pulse of energy that struck the centre of the ranks of the security troopers, nearly vaporizing those it struck, and wounding and maiming those it didn't directly strike, sending charred and smoking, dying bodies all over the place. The weapon began to hum again, and it took aim, this time at the sealed front doors of the lab, and fired again, the beam bigger this time as the energy was collected for a longer period, the beam striking the sealed door, melting it and causing it to explode. The beast chuckled darkly, its arm reforming into a clawed hand as it began to stalk forwards, footsteps booming with each forward motion. "Pathetic."
It left the dead and dying, and entered the lab, looking for its next victims, a hungry look on its 'face.'
End Notes: And here ends another chapter, this time on an actual cliffhanger. I don't really care how this makes me look; this chapter called for a cliffhanger, which may become a common occurrence in my stuff, you never know. Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And as for the identity of the monster in this chapter, you'll find that out in the next few chapters, or at least in the conclusion.