superpierce: great chapter was kinda hoping for an explanation as to what he heck was up with the sky.
Re: My money would've been on a mix of Holograms and Hypnosis.
LoamyCoffee: Fabulous!
I had wondered how you would handle this one.
Did you turn Vent into Ford from Gravity Falls?
Love every bit, especially the King Bumi bit , that nice bit between Kitten and her dad, the Pink X outfit from the original Teen Titans Go! comics, and the Improvements to Mod's precautions.
I never actually knew his real name as I had thought he was original to the cartoon.
Re: As Kalbario pointed out, Ventus wound up looking like Jonathan Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. That with some unused dialogue from "Meet the Sandvich" of Team Fortress 2 fame~
That bit with King Bumi from Avatar: The Last Airbender always stuck out to me given how shocking it probably was to first-time watchers for that old man to be so fucking RIPPED! I'm so glad I could finally make that happen, I waited literal years to finally get around to that episode! Making Kitten a Teen Titan and having her dress as "Pink X" was a fun little nod to the Comics, and I've had a ton of fun expanding on her personality where her father is concerned, which was inspired by NU: RedX Rising where Killer Moth appeared to help stop Harley & Poison Ivy from taking over the city with a giant plant kaiju. That was one of my earliest inspirations for getting into writing.
As for Mad Mod, I never knew that was his real name was either until I did the research for the previous chapter.
danielsnow: gotta say, I'm wanting the more adult version soon.
I believe you said that it will eventually progress to that point. Where vent can't be with the teen titans because he actually has the guts to kill the villains. I'm hoping he can take the girls with him and do his own thing with them while taking out the villains.
Re: Love the energy, but once I'm done with my long-form Teen Titans story, I'll probably set this region of the DC Comics Universe aside in my works. It's not that I don't love it anymore, I do, but I love storytelling, not a specific IP or studio.
My Young Justice story was born from a desire for "more-mature storytelling", and that's a long-form in of itself, and massively ambitious in scope...
*TEEN TITANS*
"I still can't believe you were able to make Mumbo turn over a new leaf like that…" Robin sighed a few days later over breakfast.
"All I did was make a sound argument," Ventus hummed.
"You pointed out that he didn't know anything about 'long-form tax evasion' and how all that money he was stealing would be useless!"
"What's your point?" the wind-wielder blinked.
"So are things always like this?" Blackfire hummed as she drenched her breakfast in ketchup.
"Villain reform seems to be a new policy," Cyborg hummed.
"I can tell," the former dictator hummed eyeing Terra, Kitten, Eugene, and Wintergreen. "Given everything that's happened, I'm surprised your city bounced back the way it did," she said looking out the window.
"What do you mean?" Kitten asked.
"I mean, I've been all over the place, not just the Vega System, so take my word for it when I say that this super-villain infestation of yours… It is not a common occurrence, even on pre-space-faring societies."
"Are super-criminals really that rare?" Terra blinked.
"What about the guys the Green Lantern Corps. fight?" Kitten asked.
"Those are more along the lines of inter-planetary terrorists than your run-of-the-mill super-criminals-with-a-gimmick," Blackfire shrugged. "Suffice it to say, it usually takes a lot less for whole cities to be abandoned."
"I have learned that Humans can be quite resilient," Starfire hummed with a nod. "Their democracy is not merely about voting. It is about compromise. Out of many different people, is made one country. Out of many flawed ideas, they create one that works," she said with a beautific smile.
"She does know democracy is a rarity on this planet, right?" Eugene whispered.
"I don't have the heart to tell her otherwise," Wintergreen returned.
"Speaking of democracy, are you guys pumped for the Titans Appreciation Day Parade?!" Beast Boy asked excitedly. "It's about time we got our own holiday~"
"This feels a little premature…" Raven hummed.
"Perhaps, but it was always going to feel like it was 'too soon'," Robin hummed. "What's important is our relationship with the people of this city is to the point that they express their appreciation like this."
"Erm… Maybe I should sit this one out…?" Terra gulped. "I mean, I did commit acts of domestic terrorism and attempted murder…"
"Terra," Raven spoke up. "Take it from me, if you let other people's opinions of you dictate when and where you go out, you're going to be in for a bad time. Sure, solitude sounds good and all, but eventually, you'll want to come up for sunlight."
"Says the girl who never leaves her room," Beast Boy hummed, Raven's ire causing his fake eggs to explode in his face.
"And anyway, if you flake on this, everyone will just smear you worse than if you did show up," the mage continued without missing a beat.
"Well…" Terra hummed awkwardly.
"Don't worry. We'll be right beside you the entire time," Beast Boy said scraping fake eggs off his face.
"If anything, the two of us will have it way worse," Kitten said gesturing to her and Blackfire. "Hell, I almost turned the city into a moth-eaten sweater after holding Robin hostage."
"I thought the city was the hostage in that story," Blackfire hummed.
"Robin was my hostage in all but name," she clarified.
"Hey guys, I'm back!" Kid Flash said zipping into the room. "So, what's for breakfast?"
"Where've you been all morning?" Beast Boy asked.
"Running an organ transplant cross-country," the speedster answered.
"Ah… Who for?"
"Does it matter?"
"No, I guess not," the changeling admitted. "Anyway, you stoked for the parade today?"
"That's today?" Kid Flash asked as he turned an apple into a core.
"For the fastest boy alive, you're certainly slow on the uptake," Kitten hummed.
*TEEN TITANS*
"I'm Benjamin Abernathy."
"And I'm Sheela Sujatha. And who's passing the reviewing stand now but the Veterans Legion honor guard, followed by the Murakami High School marching band."
"Trailing overhead is the Teen Titans' T-Ship, once a submarine, now a space-faring vessel that's gone as far as Teen Titan Starfire's home world, being held by officers from the police department's 4th Precinct," Benjamin anchored as a giant parade balloon was carried aloft.
"And next up, more heroes; some of the brave policemen, firefighters, and emergency workers who serve Jump City every day."
"And riding with them on the 'T-Float' are the stars of today's show, the Teen Titans in person, followed after by their numerous fan clubs in their full regalia."
"Man, this is some turnout," Cyborg hummed as he 'smile and wave'-ed. The parade was in full swing, and the turnout for everyone being honored was rather impressive.
Mod had gotten in the way of the 4th of July festivities and had been in power long-enough for the 4th to become the 5th, so to make up for that, the Titans' show of appreciation was bundled together with the passed holiday's sentiment. "Titans Appreciation Day" had been in the workings for quite a while with all the good the Titans had done, doubly-so after they routed Slade's forces, but the parade being pushed forward was because the present time seemed as good of one as any. Other than a few isolated cases, half a day's exposure to Mad Mod's hypnoscreens hadn't caused any long-term side-effects, but the people were still reasonably disappointed that their merriment was interrupted right before the big fireworks display.
"I thought a giant float styled after the T-Car would've been tacky, but I have to admit, it's growing on me," Robin admitted as the giant tiered float in white, gray, and cybernetics' blue rolled down the street.
"Veeen. They're staring at me…" Terra said through her forced smile as she and those of a criminal reputation received a somewhat mixed reception.
"It was always going to be an uphill battle," Ventus said as he raised his hand and gave it a twirl, bathing those around them in a refreshing breeze. "All you can do is keep trying to make up for your mistakes. They'll forgive you eventually."
"And if they don't…?" she asked, voicing the concerns that'd long plagued her.
"You and I can go on a road trip. Find somewhere new."
" . . . I don't want that for you. And besides," she said letting up a genuine smile. "The team would fall apart without you. You're the glue holding the Titans together too, you know."
*FWEEEEEET!*
*BOOM-BOOM!*
"That's odd… The fireworks aren't scheduled to start yet…" Robin hummed contemplatively, his eyes going wide a moment later. "Everyone! Scatter!"
The Titans springing into action, grabbing as many of those around them as their physiques allowed, only Kid Flash, soaking up the revelry from the adoring public, remained to get struck by one of the energy blasts that peppered the float from above. The speedster trapped within a semi-translucent sphere and falling onto his face, a moment later a hulking figure descended from on high, impacting the "T-Float" with a deafening *CRASH!*, chunks of parade float sent in every direction, the people scrambling while Kid Flash cried out as he was launched down the street in his bubble.
"Is everyone alright?!" Robin asked setting a female officer down.
"We're down a speedster!" Cyborg said dropping a cop and a first responder.
"Alright… who's got the balls?!" Blackfire demanded, the dust settling to reveal-
"Atlas?" Beast Boy blinked as the yellow, black, and red-armored hulking robot revealed himself.
"So, you here for a rematch?" Cyborg smirked with a crack of his knuckles, the hulking robot weirdly… silent. "What's the matter? Cyborg got your tongue?"
Instead of verbally responding, Atlas raised up his arm cannon and fired out more energy blasts, Raven and Terra raising up walls of darkness and asphalt to intercept, containment spheres enveloping the obstacles; Raven's energy dissipated, while Terra's drawn-up asphalt remained upright.
"Citizens, unless you want to win the Darwin Award, I suggest you scatter!" the anchorman announced, everyone fleeing for their lives, save a few who took out their phones.
"Hey Atlas!" Ventus called out, lobbing an air-ball at the robot's face. "Over here!" he taunted, conjuring an Air Scooter beneath himself. A look of consternation coming over his face as he strafed the red-and-gold Iron Man rip-off, with a swipe of his hand he split the Air Scooter in two, a cry of- "Air Gear!" -leaving his lips as he mounted each half with a foot.
Swinging back into the crowd with the greater maneuverability of his "Air Gear", those that were spectating were swiftly captured in Ventus' place, half the Titans passing the ball-bound onlookers for others to roll out of harm's way, while the other half peppered the stoic Atlas from all sides with projectile attacks. A birdarang catching Atlas on the ammo plate for his arm cannon, a powerful explosion blasted it off. The robot looking down at the ruined ammo stock before tearing it away, to the other Titans' surprise a manipulator arm on a large backpack they hadn't noticed yet extended a fresh refit in place of the old one.
"Well that's new…" Cyborg hummed as Atlas began firing more slug-like rounds. "Watch out! He's firing concussive rounds!"
"Yeah! We noticed!" Blackfire swore as she was blasted into a parked car.
"Titans! Group up!" Robin shouted as everyone cleared out. "And someone find Kid Flash!"
"I've got point! HRAAAAGH!" Cyborg shouted as he bulled forward. Atlas' forearm spinning like a drill, Cyborg leapt up and fired a sonic cannon blast from his foot, launching up and over the humaphobe's back. Before he could fire into Atlas' backpack, the robot swung around at the waist and clocked Cyborg with an epic backhand that sent him barreling through a nearby building a block away.
"Titans, don't underestimate him!" Robin ordered. "He must've been studying our moves all this time!"
"Like the Omni-Droid from-"
"Don't!"
"-The Incredibles!" Beast Boy whooped, Raven palming her face.
"Focus!" Robin shouted as he sent out more birdarangs. Atlas backpedaled to dodge, but the road opening up beneath his foot caught him flat-footed, the robot sent sprawling onto his back. Optics momentarily compensating for the sunlight overhead, the next moment a deluge of UV energy bombarded him from above, Starfire and her sister dive-kicking him from above and slamming the robot into the ground, damaging his backpack.
"He's getting back up!" Kitten called out as the robot began to rise, despite the massive pair of dents in his torso.
"Not for long! Hold him down!" Terra said as she leapt on to the robot's bulbous shoulder. Pressing her fingertips to her lips, with a series of finger jabs she punched holes in the armor plating before ripping it apart with her metal manipulation, and then rolling out of the way as Robin threw an explosive Birdarang into the delicate components within. Atlas' left arm failing him a moment later, Kitten conjured a chainsaw construct with her Power Ring and cook the other arm off at the elbow, dropping the arrogant machine back to the ground.
"Yes! We are victorious!" Starfire whooped.
"Hmph. I should've known that cast-off wouldn't hold you back for long."
"Huh?" Starfire blinked before a massive figure leapt out from behind an overturned truck and send her and her sister flying with a powerful double-lariat.
"Ugh, what now…?" Beast Boy groaned as a hulking rampart of solid, story-tall gray-skinned muscle stood atop Atlas' ruined body post-strike.
Robin and Ventus both on the other hand, recognized him from the League's files. However, instead of tattered Dress A uniform pants, ex-General Wade Eiling was now clad in appropriately-sized combat boots colored tan, cargo pants in green, and a sleeveless top colored in tan with dual shoulder holsters for massive plus-sized weaponry.
"Wade Eiling…" Robin bit out.
"Ex-General Wade Eiling," Ventus chastised as he looked into the inset eyes of the once-elderly American general hopped up on Axis-era super-soldier serum.
"Ah, so you've done your research," the now-identified meta-human replied. "Well then…" he said unholstering two high-powered pistols that looked more at home atop tank treads than in a man's hand. "You must know why I'm here, then?"
"Yeah! You're here to reign on our parade!"
"Rain."
"What's the difference?" Beast Boy asked, causing Raven to sigh tiredly.
"I always did find it distasteful how-much weight in things you 'kid heroes' are given," Eiling said as he opened fire, the Titans scattering as the objects that were hit got blasted to bits. "Especially with how dumb some of you are."
"Hey, I resemble that remark!" Beast Boy griped, changing out of his cheetah form to make that comment.
"Beast Boy don't-!"
"GAH!" the changeling cried as he was caught head-on by one of Eiling's blasts.
"Two down, eight to go," Eiling nodded.
"You got lucky. We still have you surrounded," Terra said as the Titans regrouped themselves around him, Cyborg, Starfire, and Blackfire joining the party.
"Well now, who's surrounding who?" Eiling asked as the backs of a couple nearby delivery vans and even a few walls were blown out, hulking grey-skinned figures with equally-bad teeth and inset beady eyes strode out into the open, armed with various weaponry.
"Oh great, there's more of them?" Blackfire growled counting three additional deformed super-soldier types with close-range weaponry, while farther back were four more with what were essentially vehicle-mountedweaponry that only looked normal sized in their giant meat-hooks.
"Titans, scatter! Don't get caught in the crossfire!" Robin ordered as he went for Eiling.
"Ven!" Raven called out, reaching into a portal she conjured before reaching in and throwing him his sword.
"Thanks!" the wind-wielder nodded as one of Eiling's cronies, wielding a pair of plus-plus-sized combat knives that looked like they could gut whales like trout, came at him, the teen parrying it with the flat of his blade.
"Don't mention it," the mage nodded as she backpedalled from another super-serum enancile wielding a giant shock baton, Cyborg grappling with another wielding giant electrified gauntlets.
"Shit! Sniper!" Terra swore as she dodged the round by a hair's breadth, her training from Slade the only thing that saved her. "Star-Girl! A little cover please!"
"I'm a bit busy here!" Kitten shot back as she projected a barrier from her ring, blocking a deluge of rounds from a massive assault rifle, Blackfire flying overhead and intercepting a barrage of missiles from a pod wielded on another enhancile's shoulder.
"Cyborg! You have hands-free! Call the Justice League on my authority!" Ventus called out as he coated his blade with rushing wind, the only thing stopping the blade from being chipped by what were obviously villain-made military-grade knives.
"Yeah, sure! Not like I'm not busy over here or anything!" Cyborg growled as he dodged another punch, the electricity arcing across his metallic chassis. "This is Cyborg to Watchtower! Cyborg to Watchtower, do you copy?"
"I don't recognize your ID Code. How did you get this number?" the man on the other end inquired.
"I'm calling in because one of your Reservists has his hands full! We've got a bit of a situation here!"
"Describe, please," he replied, sounding like he were either running through a list, or had just taken these sorts of calls too many times to treat it as anything but a job anymore.
"We've got a bunch of super-soldier enhanciles. Eight feet and change tall, grey skin, tusks, inset eyes. Their leader is ex-General Wade Eiling!"
"Eiling? Are you absolutely certain?" the man asked suddenly sounding invested.
"Guy doesn't have 'one of those faces', and he attacked our 'appreciation day' parade," Cyborg answered. "They're all dressed in plus-plus-plus-sized army fatigues and wielding giant weapons! We don't have the stopping power to go against Eiling, let alone eight people like him!"
"Hold out as long as you can. I'm sending out an APB for reinforcements."
"ETA?"
"No idea. Sorry-"
"GAH!" Cyborg cried as an electrified punch struck him in the face, his prosthetic eye flickering.
"You should really be paying attention~" the cocky enhancile with the shock gauntlets taunted.
"Hmph. You're a sprightly little guy, aren't you?" Eiling asked elsewhere as Robin flipped acrobatically around his hand cannon rounds, each one punching craters in the cityscape like on the moon. "Almost like the 'Flying Graysons', wouldn't you say?"
"Hff," Robin huffed, not letting the taunt get to him. As a former higher-up in Cadmus, he likely had memorized intelligence reports regarding most of the League members back when the Justice League and Cadmus were in the midst of their "Cold War". Batman had once confided in him that Amanda Waller knew-knew, but only kept quiet about it because that was the only thing stopping him from going after Cadmus with his whole might.
"So, I have to ask, are you guys minions, or goons?" Ventus asked as he fought off his enhancile's knife strikes.
"What's the difference?"
"Goons are in it for the money. Minions for the ideology."
"I'm in this to save my country from meta-freaks like you!"
"Minion. Got it," Ventus quipped as he blasted wind into the ground, kicking up dust before sending it up into the guy's eyes with a flick of the wrist. The enhancile letting out a cry as he rubbed at his eyes, the next moment Ventus slashed at his exposed body; for all the good that did him.
"Hey girls! Any of you want to switch?" Terra asked as she raised up walls of earth and pulled in sheets of ruined metal to shield herself from her sniper; the guy really seemed to have it out for her.
"Kinda busy at the moment!" Kitten snapped back as she continued to block AR rounds, making her shield concave to concentrate the ricochets into more of a forward cone. And it wasn't even that the rounds were all that dangerous, at least not to her, but the sheer volume was keeping her whole attention.
"Trying to keep collateral to a minimum over here!" Blackfire added as she stayed high so any missiles she dodged would just fly upward, all the others blasted with her energy bolts.
"Ugh… This is really gonna suck…!" Terra swore as the glow from her hands spread to her entire body, a long guttural growl heralding a massive wall of earth shooting up through the street between them and the sniper, blocking them all from view.
"Hm. That's gonna be a problem," Eiling hummed, once again shrugging off the exploding discs Robin sent his way.
"Eyes on me, Eiling. I'm the one you should be worried about," Robin said interposing himself between the two.
"No. Not really."
A thunderous footfall rattling the entire battlefield, all eyes turned to see Eiling opening up a massive fissure with a stomp of his boot, Robin letting out a shocked cry as he fell into the darkness.
"Ugh, not again…" Cyborg groaned as Robin fired his grappling hook, only for Eiling to shoot the end out of the air like a clay pigeon. "Uh-oh. TERRA! INCOMING!"
"Huh?" the blond blinked, eyes going wide as Eiling barreled towards her like an avalanche of muscle, his massive fist drawn back, the sheer malice rolling off him making her envision her own death!
"HANDS OFF, ARMY MAN!" Ventus roared as he broke away from his opponent, body alighting silver before he baseball slid between Eiling's feet, righted himself at Terra's side, and blasted the man with a monstrous gust of wind that made half the city howl. "WE WERE HAVING A PERFECTLY GOOD DAY BEFORE YOU AND YOUR CRONIES SWOOPED IN AND COCKED IT ALL UP!"
"Please. You call yourselves 'heroes', but you've let this city down time and time again," the hulking enhancile growled as he squared his feet after losing ground, bulling forward into gale-force winds. "You lot got this city invaded by aliens, ushered in a cavalcade of meta-criminal freaks, Deathstroke almost orchestrated a takeover, and just last week, Mad Mod almost claimed Jump City in the name of the British Empire."
"When has nonsense like that been anything new?!" Ventus demanded as he poured it on, blood dripping from his nose as every other one-on-one was forced to hunker down.
"And you… You're the worst of them all!"
The ground exploding underneath him as he bulled forward through hurricane-force winds, Ventus threw out his hand and blasted Terra away just-before Eiling broke through the storm wall, pinning him to the ground by his upper body.
"You're a killer. Just like Deathstroke," Eiling said raising up a monstrous fist.
"For the umpteenth time, I didn't kill UGAH!" he cried as Eiling forced him back-first into the road, blood and spittle flying from his mouth before he fired a blast of air from his lips.
"LET GO OF HIM!" Terra shouted as she launched a slab of concrete at Eiling's head. Though the slab struck him with a deafening *CRASH!*, that wasn't enough to stop Eiling from the following- *BOOOOOM!* of his fist coming down like Thor's hammer, a spider-web of cracks spreading from the point of impact. "Ven… Ven, no…" Terra gasped as Eiling's fist came away red, eyes on both sides of the battle going wide as smoke rose up from the newest crater, Ventus' unmiving limbs poking upward.
"Four down. Six to go," Eiling said as he stomped away from the downed body.
"Your math is off!" Robin shouted as he shot out of the fissure on rocket-propelled boots. "Cyborg!" he called out as he threw an Ice Disc.
"Got it!" he said firing off his sonic cannon sidelong across the battlefield, the two meeting at an angle and bathing Eiling in a glacier of ice.
"Terra! Terra, snap out of it!" Kitten called out, her Star Sapphire ring burning with indignant fury as she shot her barrier forward like a piston, catching her super-soldier wannabe in the face and burying him into the ground before she swooped down and carried Terra away.
"Ven… he… It's my fault… All my fault…" the blond whimpered.
"I'm pissed too."
"NOOOOOOOO!"
"But probably only close to as-pissed as she is…" she said as Raven's primordial fury exploded, eldritch tendrils rising up from beneath her cloak, the sky going dark and four eyes of crimson red snapping open before she began to drag her baton-wielding foe into the dark of her robe after one of her tendrils crushed his weapon like a bendy straw.
"EILING! EILING, HELP ME! PLEAAAAASE!" the mutated man cried as an animal terror washed over him.
"I've got you, soldier!" Eiling said as he broke free of the ice and ran over.
"STAY OUT OF THIS! YOU'RE NEXT!" Raven growled in a demonic tone as she bitch-slapped Eiling up the block and into an empty building before turning her full attention to her foe. "WHAT'S THE MATTER? AFRAID OF THE DARK?"
"HYAAUUUUUUUGH!" the super-serum enhancile shrieked, shudders running up the backs of Eiling's crew as the man was dragged into a darkness too-small to contain his bulk. The now-demonic Black Mage letting out a dismissive huff, she turned derisively from her foe and floated away. The fluttering of her cloak as she parted revealed her opponent who now lay on the ground in the fetal position, his body and clothes blanched completely white.
*BANG!*
The sniper from before having moved to a new position, fired a round into the mage's unassuming back, only for one of her tendrils to snap up and swat it away, her four eyes of eldritch evil snapping up to his sniper nest.
"MY NAME IS RACHAEL ROTH OF AZAROTH. YOU KILLED MY FRIEND. PREPARE TO DIE!"
The Black Mage shooting up the street and into the construction site that Eiling's sniper was now hiding in, the shadows therein grew incredibly dark and portentious, a terrified scream sounding through the Jump City air as the man experienced the fury of a half-demon woman scorned.
"Dammit, this is getting worse and worse by the second! Where the hell is that backup! We need medics down here yesterday!" Cyborg shouted into his communicator before lunging into his opponent's guard and clamping a sonic cannon to each ear, firing a point-blank pincer-blast that rattled his brain into mouth-frothing sleepitude.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Blackfire roared, brute-forcing her way through her own opponent's barrage of missiles, her costume torn to tatters before she wrenched the missile pod out of his hands and busted it in half over his head. The stunned enhancile reaching up, with a sickening *CRACK!* the exiled queen snapped his finger with a flick of her wrist.
"I think Vent getting killed… was like triggering a nuclear response…" Robin choked out as he watched the girls that had been romantically interested in him rip into their murderous foes with greater ferocity.
Raven had turned the baton-wielder into a simpering mess, and the sniper's cries of agony could be heard across the city. Blackfire had begun breaking arm-sized fingers from her own opponent, showing alien genetics superior to Nazi mutagenic science. Terra in her own somber fury had made the knife-wielder's weapons melt all over his hands before ripping a car in half and using each one as giant boxing gloves. Star-Girl had flung her own opponent head-first into Starfire's, and as she smashed each of them over the head with crystalline constructs suspiciously-resembling Thwomps from the Super Mario franchise, Starfire had flown over to cradle one of his hands in her own as she sobbed over him.
"Now hang on… There's a chance he's still alive…"
"Beast Boy!" Robin and Cyborg gawped as the changeling drunkenly shambled toward them, his hair singed like his costume and shot straight up.
"Am I missing… an eyebrow…?"
"Well, you wouldn't be the first one," Robin said as he and Cyborg got into a stance, Beast Boy whirling around and doing the same as Eiling strode toward them, brushing debris from his bunker-sized shoulders as he took in the complete and utter hellscape he'd been prior evicted from.
"Pft. Typical women," Eiling chuffed as he watched the goings-on, only for four pairs of feminine fury-laced eyes (five if you count Raven's secondary pair) to snap onto him with laser focus. "Uh oh."
"Yeah, no shit," Beast Boy chuffed as he turned into a bull and pawed at the ground.
"It's over, Eiling! Give yourself up, we have you surrounded!" Robin ordered as the remaining Titans got into fighting stances and formed a phalanx before the disgraced general.
"You've got a real over-inflated opinion of how-much that actually means," Eiling huffed as those that were able to among his own troops began to get back up.
"Geez, these guys just don't quit, do they…?" Kitten growled, righteous fury filling her Ring to bursting.
"I've already sent out the call. All we have to do is hold out long-enough for the League to show up," Cyborg nodded.
"For whatever good that does us…" Terra said as her eyes drifted back to the crater, only for them to go wide with shock. "What…-?"
Cue Mob Psycho 100 OST 2 – Explosion of Mob's Feelings
The next moment a practically cataclysmic wave of energy washed over them, capes and gun holsters fluttering like mad as ominous winds howled through the city, skyscrapers actually creaking from the sheer weight of it.
"Ven…?" Terra gasped as a body rose from the crater, Starfire looking dumbstruck even as she was blown away by the monsoon of silver energy pouring from him like a broken valve.
"Huh? That should've put you down…" Eiling hummed, part inquisitively, part in disappointment, as the wind-wielding Titan shambled toward them, his lowered face covered in shadows, his skin itself tinted a metallic black.
"Get him!"
"Wait! Don't break formation!" Eiling cursed as one of his men broke ranks, and like an apex predator responding to a sudden movement, Ventus, psychic energy pouring out of two circular eyes like portals to the great beyond, sprung into action, asphalt exploding beneath him as he shot past the Titans in a blur. With a force greater than an artillery shell, the risen wind-wielder struck the remainder of Eiling's men straight through to their diaphragms, their feet leaving the ground as they were bodily thrown into the buildings behind them, the shockwave so-great the other Titans were forced to cover their ears.
"Holy shit! It's One-Hundred Percent Question Mark Question Mark Question Mark!" Beast Boy cried in shock.
"One-Hundred Percent what?!" Robin gawped at what sounded like complete nonsense.
"It's an anime thing…" Cyborg said, the hairs on what was left of his original neck standing on end as waves of psychic energy continued to wash over them.
"Well… That's certainly an unforeseen development," Eiling said as he unclipped a grenade from his belt and threw it between them, thick smoke spilling out of it only for a sphere of wind to form around it, growing tighter and tighter until the smoke grenade was nothing but a crumpled tin can. "Well, you know what they say; no plan survives first contact," he said as he got into a stance.
"Vent… Not that I'm not happy to see you're still alive but HOW!? Also, WHAT?!" Robin gawped, saying what was on everyone's mind as Ventus tore the tattered remains of his shirt and hoodie, casting them into the wind as the metallic black sheen on his skin receeded.
"Man, you would not believe… how much this hurts," he said as the last of the metallic sheen retreated into his chest, those with weaker stomachs recoiling at the sight of hose-like veins spreading outward from the center of his chest, pressing out from beneath his skin.
"Not as much as what I'm going to have to do to you now!" Eiling roared as he lunged forward, his path of escape cut off.
Cue Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance OST – The Hot Wind Blowing
"PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!" Ventus shouted as he lunged forward too, his own fist drawn back.
The two colliding like an airburst bomb going off, a plume of dust was sent outward in all directions. With a wave of her gold-glinted hand, Terra swept the fine particles away, everyone's eyes wide as Ventus stood up to the discount Grey Hulk's monstrous blow, his arm once more sheathed in black metal, pulsing with silver veins.
"What?!" Eiling gawped in shock, the others completely stupefied.
"Ha ha… Hahhhh… You aren't the only one who's shocked…" Ventus nodded, feeling a chilling ache in his chest where his heart once was.
The metallic sheen retreating into his chest, Eiling threw out his other fist, Ventus mirroring to match, the nanomachines coursing through his veins in full force hardening in response to the trauma. That, combined with the next generation of Slade's own "Anti-Truth Serum", and the wind-wielder was impossibly matching Wade Eiling blow for blow, the sound like a bombing of Hamburg in Operation Gomorrah. The air pressure from their combined blows was so vast, the lighter Titans were forced back, Cyborg grabbing onto Robin and Beast Boy, with Terra kicking up a wall behind herself and grabbing onto Raven, Starfire and her sister catching Kitten before she could be blown back.
"Rrrrrgh! Why won't you die?!"
"Heh. Nanomachines, son!" the metallicizing wind-wielder smirked.
"Don't act so smug! All you've done is proven me right!"
"DO YOU EVEN HEAR YOURSELF!" Ventus shouted back as he continued to match Eiling blow for blow, even if only in principle. The ground beneath him exploded with every blow, but Terra acted as his rock, putting the asphalt back together and keeping him in the fight, the other Titans staying back to not only get out of his way, but also to keep an eye on the other enhanciles who were in the process of recovering from what would normally be a crippling blow.
"EVERYTHING I'VE EVER DONE, EVERYTHING I WILL DO, HAS BEEN FOR THE GOOD OF MY COUNTRY!"
"THE WORLD'S CHANGED, EILING! YOU DON'T HAVE TO BREAK EGGS TO MAKE OMELETS ANYMORE! YOU CAN ALWAYS POUR YOURSELF A BOWL OF CEREAL!" the wind-wielder shouted nonsensically as he slipped inside Eiling's next blow. Muscles straining against his skin, the next moment there was a deafening *BOOOM!* as he struck Eiling's chin, half his body gilded in hardened nanomachines, the resultant shockwave shattering windows around the block as Eiling was sent pinwheeling.
The ex-general's followers getting to their feet, not a moment too soon, shimmering columns of light peppered the battle-torn streets around them all, heralding the arrival of countless Justice League members.
"So. Cavalry's here. What're you going to do now?" Robin asked as Eiling hit the ground with a deafening *THUD!*
" . . . "
Even Eiling's followers, enhanced as they were, knew to put their hands behind their heads as soon as multiple of the League's "flying bricks" descended from on high.
*TEEN TITANS*
"I'm so glad you're okay!" Terra sobbed as she held onto Ventus for dear life.
"Terr, remember when I said 'you would not believe how much this hurts"? I kinda meant it…"
"Ah! I'm so sorry!" Terra said as she leapt back, warily eyeing the spreading growths pressing throughout his skin.
"Still, way to go beyond, Plus Ultra style!" Beast Boy grinned as he slapped the wind-wielder on the back.
"AIIIIIIIIGH!"
"Oops," the changeling cringed as his friend fell into a fetal position.
"My friend! Here is a shirt to replace the one you lost!" Starfire said holding up one of the Teen Titans' fan club's merch items.
"Titans."
"Su-S-S-Su-Superman?!" Beast Boy squawked as the Man of Steel walked toward them.
"Way to show up when all the action was over," Starfire huffed.
"Yeah, sorry about that," the Man of Steel replied bashfully. "The more things change, the more they stay the same, you know?"
"After Apokolips invaded a second time, you mean?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, that…" Superman admitted. "Anyway! You all held out quite well against Eiling and his forces, though I'm ashamed we let him get away from us the first time."
"It's no problem. Things happen," Ventus groaned as he pulled his shirt over his head, Superman staring inside his chest cavity.
"Are you sure that thing is safe? You are just swimming in nanotech," Superman hummed warily.
"Well, I'd be dead without it, so… I'll give Fixit the benefit of the doubt."
"Next time you see him, let him know the Justice League has deeply appreciated his prosthetics," Green Lantern: John Stewart, said as he came down next to them. "It's fortunate you were able to 'turn him' to the right side of the law. Cybernetics are always a turning point in a planet's medical and military development."
"We'll be sure to let him know," Cyborg nodded as heavily-reinforced military transports began to pull up, Eiling's forces in their monstrous plus-sized restraints being hauled away.
"Titans."
"Waller," Robin said warily as he and the other Titans defensively crossed their arms.
"You have my apologies for what you had to endure. Eiling was my associate, and I should've been able to reign him in," the corpulent woman offered. "That he was able to reach replicated doses of the Captain Nazi Serum… Rest assured, Cadmus will do all it can to keep them contained."
"Yes, speaking of which…" Ventus said as he stepped away from the others. "Mrs. Waller, do you mind if I ride along on Eiling's convoy?"
"Why the sudden interest in my work?" she asked with a raised brow.
"Call me paranoid, but I'd prefer to see this one through in person."
" . . . Very well," the corpulent woman shrugged. "Get in, just don't expect any pay for this."
"Not doing this for the pay."
Waller didn't like the sound of that… but at the same time, she couldn't think of a way to justify not taking him along to her new 'allies' in the Justice League.
*TEEN TITANS*
"Fixit, not that I don't appreciate the hard work you did on that heart transplant, but is there something you aren't telling us?"
"About what?" Fixit asked up from Robin's T-Comm., the others huddling around it.
"Uh, I mean, how the heck did he pull a Senator Armstrong," Beast Boy gawfed.
"Can all senators on this planet do as such?" Starfire asked with a tilt of her head.
"No, I'm sure this Armstrong guy is just an exception to the rule," Blackfire hummed.
"Armstrong is from a Metal Gear offshoot, and his heart was a nano-foundry that made nanomachines that hardened in response to trauma," Cyborg elaborated. "What exactly made you install that feature in an artificial heart prosthesis?"
"Well…"
*Past*
"Before we get started, Mr. Valentine, are there any particular features you would like me to add for this transplant?" Fixit inquired as he stood over his patient. "I have a diverse selection of product you can choose from, so I'm sure I can provide something to suit your unique… lifestyle."
"If you could make it do the thing as Armstrong from Metal Gear… that'd be greaaaat~" the wind-wielder slurred through his breathing mask as his eyes focused in and out.
*Present*
"Fixit… I think that was just the morphine talking…" Cyborg deadpanned.
"To be fair of my defense, given his constitution from Slade's super-soldier serum, I had thought he was completely lucid, and thus, was completely serious," Fixit said in his own completely lucid tone.
"Well, good thing you took him so literally, otherwise he'd be dead right now," Terra hummed, looking over her shoulder at the blood-stained crater Ventus had laid in before getting his second wind.
"I'd be willing to go under the knife if I could do something that badass," Beast Boy grinned, an 'Infinite Ammo' headband tied around his head.
"Inadvisable. The aforementioned 'constitution' is the only reason he was able to do as such. The sheer strain of the nanomachines would mutilate an un-augmented body," Fixit countermanded.
"Well, given how completely jacked Armstrong was, I guess that makes sense…" Beast Boy sighed.
"Anything we need to know about… this…?" Robin asked.
"As I said before, the super-soldier serum mitigates most of the health risks involved, but unlike the Senator Armstrong from the Metal Gear franchise, Mr. Valentine's threshold for damage absorption is far lower."
"Which doesn't say much since those guys throw around building-sized robots on the regular," Cyborg deadpanned, a little bit jealous of the cyborg ninja for his speed and strength feats, even if it did come at a (fictional) cost.
"I would advise that he not rebuild his fighting style around it, and instead treat it as a fallback option for those above his weight class. The prosthesis in question is still largely experimental, after all, and I do have something closer to 'stock' should the need arise for a… 'downgrade'…" he said as though the word hurt to put out.
"Huh… Maybe that was why he insisted on watching over Eiling?" Raven blinked.
"We'll be sure to let him know when he gets back," Robin hummed.
"You mean 'if' he gets back~" Beast Boy chuckled.
"Dude, don't even joke about that," Terra deadpanned.
"Yup. Realized it as soon as I said it out loud…" the changeling sighed.
*TEEN TITANS*
" . . . If you're here to gloat, get on with it already," Eiling ground out through his Hannibal Lecter-style muzzle.
" . . . Do you love your country?" Ventus asked out of nowhere, rubbing at his aching chest.
"What? What kind of question is that?"
"A simple yes/no question; do you, love, your country?"
"Of course I do. And I always have. When the war against the Axis Powers began, I enlisted as soon as I came of age."
"Weird. I'd have thought you'd have signed on with forged documents like Slade Wilson did."
"Back in my day, we had this little thing known as 'integrity'. I couldn't enlist until I was eighteen, or at least, I chose to wait, so I worked and trained to be the best that I could be for my country when the time came."
"And after that, you became Spy Smasher," Ventus nodded. "We didn't learn about you in school or anything, but after I became a Reserve Member, I started reading up on the League's casefiles so we wouldn't be caught too flatfooted by some of their trickle-down. To go all 'Captain America' on the Nazis without a super-soldier serum of your own… That took massive stones. I'm genuinely impressed."
" . . . I've read up on you, too. You have a nuanced view of things your compatriots in the Teen Titans and Justice League are sorely lacking. You took Deathstroke's most-powerful meta-human weapon and turned her against him, and you put two more of his kids in the ground before and after. You turned Killer Moth's daughter into a superhero, and offered asylum to an alien dictator. I figure, but don't want to assume how you're keeping them in line."
"Thanks for keeping it classy," he deadpanned.
"What does all this have to do with me loving my country?"
" . . . The world isn't the same as what it was during the great war. Alien attacks are becoming more-frequent, it's getting easier and easier to become a mad scientist, sentient AI are cropping up like weeds. From a back-then perspective, we're basically living in a science fiction novel," Ventus sighed. "What I'm saying is, the world could always use more heroes, and, well…"
"What, you want me to play nice with the Justice League?" Eiling scoffed.
"You're a soldier, aren't you? Those guys you doped up with the Captain Nazi Formula… That isn't going to go away from what I've read, so why not lean into it a little? You don't have to join the Justice League or the Teen Titans or whoever to help people. If you want to inspire the people to be better, be that change. Hell, if you become an army-sponsored superhero with pay and pension and a dental plan, you and Cadmus wouldn't need to do so much damn cloning," Ventus said rubbing at his butt.
" . . . Ah, you're the one that donated Wind Dragon's meta-gene."
"Donated my ass; literally. They stole it from me," Ventus huffed. "One of them got real handsy with me if you catch my drift."
" . . . Well, you know that whole saying about omelets," Eiling said after a moment. "Aren't you worried about the US having a super-powered army?"
"As opposed to what? The super-powered army up in space?" Ventus scoffed. "I mean, we've been invaded by Apokolips, the Imperium, Thanagar and the Gordanians… Not to mention there's seven Lantern Corps with Power Rings floating through the cosmos as we speak-"
"Wait, WHAT!?" Eiling gawped, tugging at his restraints.
"What, you mean they didn't tell you?" Ventus blinked. "The Green Lantern Corps. isn't the only game on the block. There's Sinestro's Yellow Lanterns, the Star Sapphires from Zamaron from what I've heard, then there's the Indigo Tribe who can copy other Lantern abilities… Point is, Earth is just one barely-habitable rock in the middle-of-nowhere-space. If you've ever played XCOM, then you know how-important it is to keep innovating, keep developing."
"What's XCOM?"
"Sci-Fi game where you do a mad scramble to reverse-engineer alien tech before the invaders completely overwhelm you," Ventus answered, realizing there was no way someone as old-school as Eiling played video games like that. "Point I'm making is, if planet Earth is going to last long-enough to reach its thirty-first century of recorded history if what all those time-travelling tourists say is true, we have to keep growing, keep adapting, keep learning. There's civilizations in the Vega System with thousands of years of recorded history under their belts, and the only reason they haven't washed over Earth yet is because there's so-many other 'big fish' out there."
" . . . Do you really think anyone would go for this crazy plan of yours? Army-sponsored superheroes?"
"You already have Captain Atom and the Green Lanterns in your pocket. Sort of. And besides, we're sponsored by the city to keep crime and super-criminal activity to a minimum. If it can work for teenage superheroes, I'm sure a bunch of grown-ups can avoid fucking up too badly. Just make sure no sleezeball in accounting starts taking a little off the top for their retirement fund, and I'm sure in a couple decades…"
" . . . It would be nice to see the people take some of the power back from the metas. No offense."
"Why would I be offended? If anything, it's the non-metas who will be outmoded the next time there's a massive alien invasion on our doorstep."
" . . . You think Waller or even the White House would go for this?"
"Task Force X."
" . . . "
"I heard about it on the Dark Web. Don't know if it's true or not, but I'm sure you can, 'hypothetically' of course," Ventus said making hand-bunnies, "incentivize people to use their superpowers for the good of the state without, 'hypothetically', sticking rice grain-sized bombs in the backs of their necks."
" . . . "
"Just don't let anyone sucker you all into pulling a Palpatine like what happened with Luthor, and I'm sure you'll be fine."
"What's a 'Palpatine'?"
"Good god you're old… Eh, whatever, I'm sure I can convince Waller to put a TV and some DVDs in your cell. Sure, you went off the rails with the whole… 'Captain Nazi' thing-"
"Don't call me that."
"But that doesn't mean all the good you've done for your country, or can still do, just up and goes away. Hell, you might outlive the Justice League altogether. There's no telling how long that super-soldier serum of yours will keep you going for. Hell, I don't know how-long mine will keep you going for."
" . . . If there's someone like you on the outside, even if you're just the exception to the rule, maybe I wouldn't mind so-much leaving this country… this planet, to the next generation."
"Don't sing our praises just yet. I'm sure we'll fuck up really fucking badly somewhere along the way."
"Hello, 'Pot', I'm 'Kettle'. Nice to meet you," Eiling chuffed.
*
THE END
*
AN:
Here you go, faithful readers! The Season Finale for Teen Titans: Two of Four Elements!
Don't un-Subscribe quite yet, though! We've got a "Stinger" chapter in the works that'll Simulpost alongside the first chapter of Teen Titans: Elements Clash!
Thanks to more than a decade of the MCU, "Stingers" are sort of a thing I have planned for my long-form stuff. Certainly more-fun to work with than something that EXPLICITLY says "Trailer" in the title card like I did in the prequel.
Don't know how-much-more of Earth-12 I'll delve into once I'm done with my Teen Titans series I started way back in… 2015? But I just know I've wanted to "tell this story", given how Teen Titans came to a somewhat-unsatisfying end (and me thinking Terra got a raw deal altogether), so I figure once this is done, outside a Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo off-shot I've been subtly building up to, I can refocus more attention onto my Young Justice, RWBY, My Hero Academia, Legend of Korra, and other works.
Don't know what my next long-form story will be, but… eh, you never know~