"Teen Titans: Future Storm"
Story: "Hell Trigger"
Chapter 4: "How the Other Side Works"
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters present in this story, nor do I claim ownership over any of the locations, either. The characters are largely the property of DC Comics and Capcom. Most of the primary Titans characters are created by Black Panther's Knight, while Nightstar is solely DC, and Mercury is co-owned by Marvel and DC as part of their Amalgam imprints. Dante, Trish, Lady, and any other Devil May Cry characters and locals belong to Capcom of Japan and of the USA. I'm just borrowing them – in the case of BPK's Titans, with permission – to tell this story to you, the reader(s). And for any reference, I'm pretty much going to copy and paste this thing for future installments, because I really hate writing disclaimers.
Author's Note: This story was written with the consent of Black Panther's Knight/Whatever penname he wants to go by in the future, and uses his characters and continuity, and is set in the 'missing year' period that was left up to our imaginations when we read it. Keep reading…you may be pleasantly surprised.
Mercury was hard at work, so to speak, placing the Devil Arms that had been relocated to a seemingly-abandoned warehouse onto storage racks, getting an odd feeling from each and every one. He was attuned to supernatural phenomena, had been for quite some time now, and each of these weapons thoroughly spooked him. He paused when seeing one that was…yes, it was…a guitar."Now how do you use a guitar as a weapon...?" He said to himself, picking it up and running a hand along it idly. Suddenly he felt something quite familiar – the sensation of a demon entering their realm…and it was coming from the guitar.
There was a sudden flash of light, and when the spots cleared from his eyes, he was pressed up against an empty spot on the rack, a pair of pale grey hands on his chest. His eyes ran up those hands, widening considerably when he saw a bare chest, covered only by long pink hair, an attractive face, glowing pink eyes, and what looked like sleeves and the lower part of a dress around the torso of a very shapely, attractive demon. "Mmm…thank you for releasing me, child…" The demon spoke in a sultry, seductive voice, her slender fingers trailing down from his biceps and down along his stomach. Before they could get too far, his shot down and grabbed them, pulling them away from him rather firmly, but not enough to harm the demon woman. He could tell she didn't mean any harm, partly because she allowed him to touch her without doing anything…and judging by the dark energy she was giving off, she was quite powerful. She eyed him back, amused, and tilted her head, leaning in to peck him on the lips. "You're a good boy, young Peter…you love the green girl very much…"
"How do you…"
"We're not insensate as Devil Arms, you know…we're fully aware of everything around us…she has nice hands…" the demon purred, before the sound of someone stomping their foot interrupted her.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Beast Girl screeched as she stood there, a look of shock and anger on her face. Mercury hastily detached from the demon, who cocked her head at the green girl with a curious smile on her face.
"Mmmm…the other woman…" She said, teasingly, reclining back on a box of guns, hands on the edge of said box, grinning softly. Mercury had to restrain the animorph to keep her from rushing the demon. The commotion, of course, had attracted the others, Lady rushing into the room and grabbing the nearest weapon, a shotgun and leveled it at the demon, prompting her to tsk with a grin. "Oh my…that sort of behavior won't win you any points, little girl…" The demon waved a hand, and a number of bats appeared, rushing at Lady and striking the gun, exploding in a burst of electricity and sending a mild shock through the gun.
"Nnnph! Damn!" The Hunter didn't drop the gun, but a pained expression flashed on her face. However, the charged caused the gun to go off, and, unprepared, Lady's arm jerked back from the recoil, and the pellets hit the wall just to the side of the nearly-nude demon. "Hmph…smart-ass bitch…" the dark haired woman grunted, narrowing her eyes at the demon. Before anything else could happen, Trish entered the room, and pushed the gun to the side, and motioned as well for the demon to stop. "What now?"
"We're not fighting her…she's one of Dante's Devil Arms…"
"What?!"
"Her name is Nevan…but I've never heard of a Devil Arm reverted to its demon form on its own…" Trish gave the long haired demon woman a puzzled look, and Beast Girl nudged Mercury hard in the ribs, making him 'ooph' as well as getting him to speak.
"Yeah…uh…that's my bad. I'm sort of attuned to the supernatural…I'm a bit out of sync with this world, so I know where demons are gonna show up, I can feel their energy…and I guess I can bring them here." He explained, rubbing the back of his head nervously, Lady giving him a harsh glare before sighing in frustration.
"Just…don't touch anything else…we have enough demons to deal with as it is."
"Agreed," Trish nodded, crossing her arms over her chest before exiting the room. "Your friend should be here any minute now…"
In another part of the warehouse, which happened to be another storage room, this one for large caliber guns, Ravager, her mask off, had Bladefire pushed up against a blank wall, and was kissing him passionately, a seductive grin on her face as she reached down to fumble a bit with his pants, his hands on her hips and tugging a bit at the grey and black top of her costume. However, just as she was about to lower the pants, a voice from an unseen source cleared its throat and said, rather sternly: "You're not back in the cave. I don't think our hosts would appreciate you two 'playing' in a weapons storage room."
"Oh, for Christ's sake, Ibn…" Rose groaned, pulling her top back down and fixing him with a glare, as the detective came into view, the stealth function deactivated, a sour look on her face. "I know you're repressed, but come on! I was just about to…"
"Rose!" Bladefire interrupted, blushing a bit and motioning for the silver haired girl to be silent, a grin passing over her lips.
"Was I about to embarrass you, Joh'n honey? Hehe…" she snickered a bit, leaning in to nip at his nose, making him blush brighter. Ibn cleared his throat again, the red eyes of his cowl narrowing along with his real ones.
"I'm being serious here…come on…before I tell someone," he said, firmly, crossing his arms over the hollow bat symbol on his chest. Rose sighed in disgust, pulling away from Bladefire, and walking past Ibn, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Narc," she said simply, wearing a bit of a smirk. Ibn shared a look with Bladefire, then sighed in annoyance and left the room after Rose had. Bladefire just sighed, and tugged on his shirt collar.
"X'hal..." he muttered to himself, finally leaving the room after the other two, and walking down the hall, bumping into someone…wearing a tuxedo and top hat. "Zatara?"
"Hello, Bladefire…I heard the commotion…not very professional of you…"
"I think that's something you and Mar'i would agree on…" the hybrid grumbled a bit, rubbing the back of his neck a bit. "I hope we didn't put you out by having you come out here…"
"I don't mind coming out here to help you…I came to Jump to help you last time, after all. This is bad news…and I hope it doesn't get any worse…"
"Right…well, the other half of the time is in Europe right now, trying to warn someone about what happened here…someone that might be attacked next…Mar'i's with them...though to be honest, I'm not entirely comfortable with the team split up." Bladefire sighed, and crossed his arms over his chest, giving the magician a look. "We need help finding Samara before anything happens to her."
"Right. Just lead the way to the others, and I'll get to work. I'll need something of hers, of course." Zatara nodded, as Bladefire began walking down the hall, the magician following him closely. "Tell me…how's things been treating you since the whole…Watchman thing?"
"…Tough. That's why we're on the road right now…getting some perspective…before the work starts."
"Right…I don't envy you that." The two walked in silence for a few moments, before Lady exited the Devil Arms room, motioning for them to follow her. They did, and soon everyone was filling into a meeting room, Zatara raising an eyebrow when Nevan sat herself on one side of Mercury, and Beast Girl on the other. "Wow…what lovely company you guys keep…" he said, somewhat sarcastically, Mercury wearing an uncomfortable look on his face, Beast Girl still looking pissed, Nevan still amused, Ravager snickering, and the Devil Hunters sighing. Ibn, for his part, was as serious as ever. "I'm gonna take a wild stab at this and guess Mercury here summoned the demon we have in our company, probably by mistake--"
"Mhmm…or so he says!" Beast Girl replied, angrily, prompting Mercury to give her a plaintive look.
"Terri, it was an accident…honest! If I had known touching those things would do that, I wouldn't have tried helping!"
"And leave me to do all the work?!" Clearly, Mercury was in a no-win situation at the minute.
"Terri, I think you can go easy on him…" Bladefire said, a small smile on his face, the green girl sighing in annoyance, and nodding a bit.
"Yeah, you're right…it's just really annoying to find your boyfriend in the arms of a nearly naked woman…"
"Hehehe…" That came from Nevan, who received a dirty look from Lady, quieting her down with a rather pointed glare. "Hmph…"
"Anyway…" This was an attempt by Trish to change the topic into something less counter-productive. Then, before she could continue, the warehouse was shaken by what seemed to be an earthquake…or an explosion. "Oh, what now?" The blonde snapped, irritably, as she got up, and walked over to a closed window, opening it and sighing as she looked outside. "Titans? I think this is for you."
In the docks and harborfront area where the warehouse the Titans and company were 'hiding out', the remaining members of Tartarus had simply strolled up, and proceeded to cause mayhem in their own unique ways: Black Flash was 'running' about, traveling through time as it were to throw people about, while Doctor Blaze threw – at first – bolts of fire and other simple constructs, blowing up any cars and whatever other vehicles he could find, igniting the fuel sources and sending people scattering, as well as setting fire to other warehouses and the docks themselves, a roaring inferno soon springing to life. After several minutes, rescue services appeared, and firefighters attempted to put out the fires, only to find their hoses and fire retardant exploding in a shower of carbon courtesy of Hex, Tartarus' resident entropy magic user. The pale girl grinned evilly, watching the people scurry about in fear.
"This is fun," she said, looking over her shoulder to look at Sorrow, who was mostly just standing there, soaking in all the negative emotion, especially the fear everyone was giving off. Then, just as the police began to open fire, a black blur attacked, claws slashing through their body armor and knocking them aside, in bloodied heaps. "It's about time you got in on the action, Panther…"
The blonde, black-furred catgirl replied, snarkily, to her teammate, "Well, I'm not the one who had to be bailed out, am I?"
"Oh, be as smart-mouthed as you want, you're still pretty much useless without the rest of us…" Hex replied, smugly, prompting Panther to growl dangerously; before a catfight could break out between the two, as it were, Black Flash carefully interposed herself between them, and began to speak.
"Caaaaaalm down…weeeee've gotcompany…" she said, her voice at first slowing, then picking up speed, like a tape played at low and high speeds and motioned to the Titans, or rather, the half of them that were present.
"What's this? This is only HALF the team!" Hex said, eyes narrowing. "The hell is this? We're not good enough to face them all?"
The mood of the Titans present was grim, as they all had one big thing against Tartarus – the destruction of Jump City. They were all giving harsh looks to the villains, the silence beginning to unnerve them, Hex especially, fidgeting in place until Mercury began running, attempting to ram into the villains, causing them to separate as he came to a halt in front of them, moving fast enough to create a sonic boom and blow them off their feet, most of them landing on their backsides, Panther flipping in midair and landing in a crouch, snarling a bit.
"Crap!" was all Hex could say, eyes wide as she sat up, groaning a bit from the harsh impact of her backside with the paved section of the dock, literally. "I don't know if you guys noticed, but they looked pissed…real pissed…"
"What's your point?" Doctor Blaze said, frowning a bit himself as he stood, fire rippling along his hands.
"I'm pretty sure they're gonna beat the literal crap out of us if they get their hands on us…"
"Then fight back, coward!" Panther snarled, lunging towards Bladefire, jumping off Hex like a springboard, causing the pink haired girl to squeal in pain.
"Agh! You whore!"
Panther just snickered, and latched onto the hybrid Tamaranean, digging her claws into him and hissing. He promptly gripped her by the tail, and yanked, making her yowl rather annoyingly, in pain, and then kicked her off when she released her grip, sending her crashing down into Sorrow.
"You 'people' aren't getting away this time, I hope you realize that. Not even Slade can protect you now," Ibn said, flicking his wrists and producing his batarangs, both explosive versions, and with perfect accuracy, threw them in the midst of the recovering villains – the only one to be unaffected was Black Flash, who moved out of the way using her variant of 'speed', eyes narrowing as Mercury ran at her, the two beginning to trade punches, though clearly Black Flash had the upper hand after a few moments, due to her being able to exist in her own timeline and move faster than Mercury could with his more natural super-speed.
Hex, sighing a bit, began flinging entropy waves at the Titans, causing them to scatter, before barking "Where the hell's Fray?! That lazy--"
Their teammate, Fray, was seated on top of a warehouse, smirking a bit as he watched the team he'd been assigned already start to get their asses handed to them. He figured they could learn a bit of humility…and it wasn't like he had anything to worry about from these guys. Then he heard the sound of someone walking behind him. He turned, hopping up, and smirked as he saw a tall, statuesque blonde walking towards him, a soft smile on her face.
"Well, hello there…"
"You really should be with your 'friends'…"
"And why's that, cutie?"
"Well, because then you wouldn't be up here…getting your butt kicked…"
Before Fray could reply, in a smarmy fashion, the blonde extended her hands, and bursts of lightning shot from her palms, striking the metahuman and knocking him down, the shock enough to cause him to black out. Smirking, Trish stepped off the roof, floating in the air, and lowered herself to the ground, holding a hand out and summoning the Sparda blade Dante had taken with him – and left in the ship, forgetting it, as usual – and grasping the hilt in her hands, before throwing it, hard, the blade shifting into the form of a scythe, flashing out and striking Black Flash, cutting into her back and making her cry out in pain. Mercury flashed a thumbs up to Trish, the blonde nodding in response as she walked into the midst of things, to be joined by Zatara and Lady, each preparing in their own way. However, during the short battle, Tartarus was losing some of their courage, not used to dealing with the Titans – even though it was half the team – with such rage being expressed in their attacks…and Ibn had that psychological effect on everyone, especially criminals.
At the moment, the young man was trading blows with Panther, his metallic batsuit highly resistant to her claws, and Ibn's greater variety of martial arts techniques and superior training easily outwitting the angry blonde, who soon resorted to dirty fighting, only to find Ibn ready for that as well, punching the former Kitten in the face, knocking her back a foot, and following up with a hard upwards kick to her ribs, causing her to yowl, her eyes closing in pain. He responded by doing an series of upwards kicks, striking her in the chest and face, knocking her down and disorienting her.
"Stay down if you know what's good for you…otherwise you can get up again and I'll knock you back down," He warned, in a stern, rough voice, eyes narrowed beneath his mask. The villainess responded by meowing weakly, and passing out.
"We're losing, we're losing…why the hell are we losing?!" Hex dodged one of Ravager's sword strikes, doing cartwheels and backflips, avoiding the more-lethal sword strikes and lashing out with waves of magic, causing the ground beneath the grey, black, and orange garbed Titan to crack and fall apart, Ravager always one step ahead and finding a solid patch of land before renewing her assault. Hex responded by gritting her teeth, and then playing her 'trump card' – she began moving at superspeed, lashing out at Ravager with a series of kicks and punches. While Hex didn't have the strength or toughness of Ravager, she certainly could use her speed to her advantage. Hex continued to strike at the former Tartarus member, running around her in circles, before she suddenly stopped, like she'd been hit by something, falling forward, rolling, and landing in a crouch, shaking her hair, her pompoms waving about wildly. Ravager was recovering already, and was about to make a strike when the ground beneath her cracked again, and she dodged to the side. "That wasn't me…oh no…oh noooo…" Hex groaned as a very familiar figure approached, a scowl on the person's face.
The person had a familiar pink hairstyle, sculpted into two horns, wearing a pair of platform boots with thigh high purple and black striped stockings, and a gothic-style short-skirted dress with long, flaring sleeves, fingerless lace gloves, a black choker, and a furious look on her grey-skinned face, her pink cats-yes flaring. "HEX! JUST WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOUNG LADY?!"
"No way…that can't be…" Mercury did a double take, before bursting out laughing, as Hex whimpered, and looked around, trying to find a place to hide.
"Jinx?" Ravager blinked rapidly, realization dawning on her, as was a grin, as Hex's mother just stormed up to her daughter, glaring with every big of rage her small form could contain – an impressive amount of rage, enough to make Sorrow flinch a tad as Jinx raised a hand, and slapped her daughter across the face. "Oh man, this is priceless…"
"O-ow! M-mom, I can explain…" the spellcaster began, her mother crossing her arms over her chest, a stern look on her face, Hex rubbing her red cheek.
"Oh, of course you can! You can always explain! Well, not this time!"
"B-but mom--!"
"YOU BLEW UP MY CITY! YOU MADE IT UNIHABITABLE! WHY IN THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU'D GET AWAY WITH THAT?! AT MY WORST, I WAS JUST A THIEF, NOT A F MASS MURDERER!" After a few moments of visibly shaking with rage, Jinx seemingly-calmed down…before grabbing her daughter by the wrist and dragging her off.
"Mom! Come on! I'm too old for…yeek!" Hex was yanked behind a car, and a loud slapping sound could be heard echoing about, everyone present and conscious wincing as it became apparent from the cries and yowls that the villain was being spanked. Black Flash took this an opportunity to evacuate, grabbing Sorrow and Panther, while Doctor Blaze took off on his own, grumbling a bit as he ducked in the crowd that had formed, Fray abandoned for the moment.
"How humiliating…" Beast Girl winced, feeling a small bit of sympathy to Hex, though it was hard to muster up much, all things considered. It was then that something hit her, as she looked at everyone else. "Hey, wait a sec…where's Gemini?"
"Terri's right…I haven't seen that psycho at all since we came out…" Mercury nodded, while Bladefire looked thoughtful. Then he pulled out his communicator, and activated it.
"Mar'i? Mar'i, are you there? It's Joh'n…"
"Brother…it's good to hear your voice…" on the other end, Nightstar sounded tired, and battered as well. Immediately Bladefire was concerned.
"What happened?"
"We ran into more of the demons…the person Dante came here to warn was already beaten by the time we got here, and the demons got what they were after…what's that noise?" She was referring to, of course, the spanking.
"Uh…we were attacked by Tartarus…or most of it, anyway…they've run off now…except Hex…uh…her.."
"What? Spit it out already…"
"Her mother showed up…and is spanking her from the sound of it."
"…X'hal."
"That'll teach the little witch…" Ravager sneered a bit, sitting down on the hood of a smoking car, a wide grin on her face. After several moments of waiting, Hex soon emerged from behind the car, her face red and stained with tears, followed by her mother, whose rage had subsided over the display of parental authority but was still giving off a vibe of being royally pissed. Ibn was the only one who approached at first, the police staying several feet away, producing a pair of batcuffs.
"Hold on there, cowboy," Jinx held a hand up, growling at him. "She's not going to jail THIS time. She's coming home with ME…she'll learn the hard way that I'm a lot more scary than anything you guys can do."
"That's highly doubtful…" the young man replied. Jinx began prodding his hollowed out bat emblem, giving him her best threatening smile.
"If you put her in jail, she'll just escape with her friends, right? Whereas if I'm in charge of her – and don't forget, I'm a registered metahuman – and place her in my custody for as long as I see fit…she won't be able to get involved with any of her 'pals'…and if she tries, she'll be punished a lot worse than she was today…you follow me?" She said, as sweetly as she could, though the look in those eyes would terrify almost anyone…except Ibn, of course, and anyone trained by Batman. Though they would concede those eyes didn't belong to a superhero, but were something that would make even the Joker fear for his life."
Before even Ibn could say anything, Bladefire walked up, and put his hand on the other's shoulder. "We'll consider it….on one condition."
"What's that?"
"Her father has to be involved." Came the simple reply. Hex's eyes widened, and she began to shake her head furiously, but before she could say more than "N--", her mother's right hand clapped over her mouth.
"Sounds fine to me. Someone has to teach this girl how to behave, and it's probably not gonna be me, as much as I hate to say that…I do love her too much to be as harsh as she needs me to be…and she has to learn that there's nothing wrong with her father…hopefully I can convince him to help…if Peter there doesn't mind sharing the Flash spotlight with her."
Mercury grumbled softly, eyeing his black-sheep cousin suspiciously. "Oh, come on! She's one of the worst of the worst!" he said, finally, causing Jinx to scowl at him, and fix those eyes on him, growling dangerously and snapping her fingers, causing him to fall as the ground beneath him gave way before he could react. "Hmph…fine. I'll take it back…if she can prove me wrong!"
"Hear that, honey?" Jinx said, sweetly, finally removing her other hand from her daughter's mouth, a plaintive look on Hex's face.
"Mom, don't make me do it…I'm not like them! I can't be good!"
"Hex...you're misunderstood and a rebel. And while I can appreciate that, if you don't do this, I'll see to it that you go to jail for the rest of your natural life…" Jinx was totally serious when she spoke, and Hex could tell that this would be it for her, as embarrassing and humiliating as this was. Sure, jail was practically nothing when compared to her mother, because at least she could escape from prison…but her mother was her mother…
"…Fine…you win, happy?" She said in a small voice, all her bluster lost as she realized this was how her villain career would end…her being spanked by her mother and people laughing at her. The only reason no one was approaching was because Jinx was there, glaring and growling at anyone who came close, and frightening them off. She sighed, and in desperation considered running over to the police…but remained where she was.
Satisfied, Jinx turned to the Titans, who were all dumbstruck and unsure of what to say. Grunting, she tilted her head to them, grabbing Hex by the arm, and motioned for them to move. "C'mon, let's get out of here before someone asks too many questions…I need to talk to Wally in private – get your mind out of the gutter, Miss Wilson, or I'll spank you as well – and we need to handcuff my dear daughter here to something."
Snickering a bit, the team moved into the warehouse, followed by Jinx and the unwilling Hex, though not before Trish told the nearest officer where they could find Fray, a pleasant smile on her face – the police here learned years ago not to ask too many questions when Trish or Dante was involved, considering Dante had been, quite accidentally, cleaning out the criminals in a fairly rough fashion until most of the gangs decided to go into hiding and stop bothering the half-demon swordsman.
"Mar'i's head is gonna explode when she hears about this…" Beast Girl mused to Mercury, who himself looked like he was about to explode. In fact, most of the present team seemed to be taking this rather poorly – Beast Girl was the only one who had a bit of humor about it, and Ravager was still snickering at Hex, who shot her a dirty look until she received a harsh twist of the wrist, making her squeal in pain.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow!"
End Notes: Strange point to end it on, I know. But I thought it was good like this.
And if anyone's curious, every idea in this chapter has been discussed with BPK, so that I could portray his characters properly. If there are any discontinuities, I apologize, and will attempt to rectify them in the near-future. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all enjoying this project of mine.