The Tamaranian's cry echoed throughout the emptied streets. Even the other fighters were silenced. In a violent burst of green light, Starfire freed herself from the muddy clutches and soared skyward.
"You will release my friends!" she firmly stated. She raised a starbolt-charged fist at Petey's gigantic face. The monster roared ferociously, loosing bits of saliva. Starfire flinched, and that was all the moment needed. The side of the tentacle closest to the alien warrior let loose with a flock of tentacles, all aiming to wrap about her. She saw this, however, and fired green blasts from her eyes into the oncoming threat.
The tentacles burned and writhed under the heat, and shriveled up into its origin. Petey roared once more, but instead spat an enormous blob of mud at the girl. She fell with it, landing hard on the concrete and covered by sticky brown saliva.
Cyborg cried from his muddy confinement, "Star!"
Raven growled as she chanted once more, "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" The sorceress' eyes glowed white as her hands extended outward. Blades of black energy whipped like a cutting whirlwind into the flocks of tentacles, freeing each hero, even Starfire.
Beast Boy morphed into a Tyrannosaurus, roared, and charged the mountain of mire with his head.
Samus charged electric shots and fired them alongside Cyborg's sonic blasts.
Mario, still winded, jumped back up to his post, throwing fireball after fireball. Starfire did likewise from an aerial standpoint, while Fox sped along nearby, firing lasers.
0=0
The ten-foot silhouette next to Slade trudged out behind the throne, towards the captives. "Slade, you're sure the fact we have these nitwits locked up is going to help any?" he growled.
The despot folded his hands and narrowed his eye. "All things come into play sooner or later, my scaly friend. But perhaps you'd like to speed things along?"
Pointed teeth glinted in the amber lighting.
Without even looking back, the masked villain coolly replied, "Then begin Phase 2."
0=0
Starfire charged at the giant plant repeatedly with a starbolt-shrouded fist, but each time was hindered by a collection of mud. The concoction shielded the plant perfectly. Even the blasts aimed below at the base proved largely ineffective, as the mud was seemingly unharmed after the greatest attempts to smash it apart or blow it away. It was a battle of attrition, and the plant with its battalion of mud had the obvious upper hand.
The tentacles lashed out, striking at air and ground, on and off-target alike. Their movements were growing wilder as the battle raged on. Its gigantic, muddy base sloshed towards Titan's Tower.
Cyborg enthusiastically cried from the ground, "Let's bring it down!" He fired a small grappling hook from his forearm at the monster, remarkably unnoticed. Even as Cyborg began to pull, however, strands of mud began pulling opposite the android. He strained and strained, servos and wires beneath the translucent blue plating glowed violently. Starfire ceased her bombardment and just like a previous fight with the monster Ternion, the two Titans began to pull. Unlike their previous bout, the powerhouse Titans won the tug-of-war with this behemoth… though not in the way that they would have preferred. Instead of pulling the entire beast to the ground, a sizable section was ripped clean off, revealing very plantlike, green skin beneath it.
Everyone stopped for a brief moment. "It's just a shell…" Fox murmured.
As if it heard, the creature began spinning like a top. The ground rumbled from below, and it sprouted far too many tentacles to count. Beast Boy charged in as a Triceratops, but was promptly knocked aside by the whirling shield of mud. Even the longer ranged shots of the other Titans were deflected from the high-speed spin.
Its body twirled like a tornado once more, with the overgrown Piranha Plant atop it nonchalantly. It roared, and mud inched its way up its body. Its giant green lips curved as it was covered from eyeless head to… toeless feet with the substance. It stopped its whirling, and in a sickening sound, the creature became one with the mud, and the tentacle grew an enormous, bulbous head, easily capable of swallowing each and every fighter in one gulp. It had lips like its previous form, dripping with that same ooze.
Roaring, it reared its head back with its maw agape.
"Everybody move!" Cyborg shouted.
Several of the fighters were in harm's way, and immediately dove aside to avoid the creature's crunching jaws.
Slowly bringing up its head, the fused monster left in its wake a huge crater the width of the street and sidewalk. Ooze pooled at the very bottom and dripped from muddy lips above. It swallowed the debris, and promptly uttered a sickening belch.
Beast Boy found it within himself to laugh. "Nice!"
Samus calmly walked over and batted the changeling aside. "Now's not the time."
"Dude, I thought only Raven hits me!"
As the named sorceress floated down, she mused, "I don't have to, I suppose." She levitated up to the giant Piranha Plant and summoned a giant wave of dark energy. As the creature moved in to clamp its jaws down, she urged her hands forth and telekinetically shoved it back. With a shout, Starfire threw a flurry of starbolts at its approaching head. Several explosions clouded the alien's view, and she paused to examine. Several tentacles spurted from the smoke and grasped her, and soon the remainder of the creature emerged.
It prepared to make a snack of Starfire, but Samus somersaulted up with serrated energy, plowing into the beast's head. The energy dug into its muddy skull, and the warrior backflipped off. As she descended, she fired a grappling beam at a building side while charging up purple energy. As she swung, she let loose her cannon. Pulsating purple waves emanated across the surface of the creature, which caused it to momentarily halt.
Mario came plummeting down with a fiery, white-gloved fist. He pounded it into the goo, calling on the power of gravity and his own weight to cause the creature to bend down slightly from the strain. It whined and growled, and loosed a flock of tentacles to whip the Italian off.
Beast Boy morphed into an armored dinosaur, an Ankylosaurus. Cyborg stood nearby, and grasped the changeling's clubbed tail. He swung the green dinosaur round and round, launching him like a giant rock from a sling. Beast Boy flew through the air and heavily impacted the giant head with astounding force. The creature was plowed down to the asphalt, where it lay motionless. A large patch of bright red skin could be seen where Beast Boy impacted the creature's head. Surrounding the "wound" were caked edges of mud.
As she was released from the muddy grip, Starfire inquired, "We are victorious?"
Just as she asked, the beast rose up once more, its skin still exposed.
Sarcastically, Raven quipped, "You just had to ask."
The monster extended its stalk higher, pulling its head up and issuing a mighty roar from its gaping jaws. Large, pointed teeth were exposed beneath the slimy lips, dripping goo.
Fox dashed in, jumped up towards the exposed red skin and began delivering a rapid series of kicks, rotating his body like a pirouette in midair. The monster flinched at each strike, yet extended a number of muddy appendages again to strike. They whipped the animal down like he was a ball. Fox careened down at the concrete, forming a crater. Both his breath and his consciousness were taken from him.
0=0
"Three Titans down. This is rather disappointing," Slade mused. He moved from his throne to directly in front of the screens. He had every angle in view. "Perhaps this Petey of yours was too much for them to handle, Bowser."
Lumbering, stomping steps urged their way towards the brazen mask. "I didn't think Petey was going to transform."
"I thought you had a job to do."
A growling chuckle came from the darkness. "I may be slow of step, but the job's taken care of."
Slade made no response.
A few moments of silence passed, and Slade muttered to the darkness, "Your minion will need saving."
"He's doing fine! Can't you see—?"
"Go."
Bowser grumbled something incoherent.
0=0
The creature howled victoriously. As it prepared to slam its head down to make a snack of the fox, slime dripped from its lips like drool. It charged. Mario began to move.
Just as suddenly as it started to move, it stopped. Mario did likewise, confused. The creature shook and shuddered. Then, without warning, it coughed up the green-clad swordsman and the Titan Leader. Link's feet were covered in different boots than previously seen. They shone with metallic luster along nearly every point. In his hand was a gauntlet-like device with a tripartite claw fixture at the end. The two heroes were covered in thick saliva.
Starfire was the first to rush in. "Robin! You are unharmed!" she squeezed him in a crunching embrace, which the Boy Wonder knew was heartfelt, but nonetheless cringed at his human bones being fractured. His left arm—humorously—was bent at an awkward angle. The alien was simply happy, yet would be caught unaware at her friend's lack of response.
"…Robin?"
Unfortunately for the heroes, both Robin and Link were incapacitated. Short three members, the group found itself pressed to hold its advantage over the slouching creature. It coughed up globules of saliva, dripping down just like its own muddy armor. It grumbled and growled, lurching forward with impressive speed towards the recently spat-up victims. Glinting fangs drew closer and closer.
Time slowed down as Cyborg stretched his titanium hand out, lunging towards his leader and his new comrade. Beast Boy morphed into a cheetah and dashed with the wind. Starfire, where she was, could only stand with eyes widened in fear. Her arms and legs were locked; a paralyzing force pinned her down. She could not even scream. Raven's eyes glowed as her hands pulsed. Mario charged up fire in his hands, jumping towards the beast.
No one made it to the rescue in time. Jaws clamped around Starfire, Robin, Fox, and Link. The ground caved in further around its head as it trudged its fangs through the concrete plate.
Something rumbled.
The noise came again. The giant Piranha Plant was forced upwards slightly, then a little more, then completely off the ground. The noise was clear now; it was a violent scraping. It was being pushed back.
Starfire looked above her to see a vicious torrent of orange energy. The creature yelped in pain, trying to fight against the new threat. It was in vain, however, and the energy was beginning to slice through the unarmored mouth.
Cyborg grinned in relief. "You go, girl!"
An airborne ripple shuddered behind the creature. Time resumed its normal course as the giant was being pushed into it, and suddenly relented. Petey lifted his head upwards, letting the orange energy saw buzz through the air. The creature's bulbous head fell backwards through the portal, but severed the tentacle from it in the process. The muddy armor lost its cohesion and collapsed into a wave of browned liquid.
Unfortunately, the Titans and their comrades were left in the wake of Petey's sudden disappearance. The force compressing the armor must have been unimaginably great, as the liquid exploded into the streets. However, there was a good side to this mess: the fact that all that remained was simply a mess.
As the muck grew more and more shallow (and by extension, more widespread), the heroes found themselves at last in relative safety. They looked on at the scene, and simultaneously sighed.
Reportedly, mud is easily cleaned.
0=0
Once the assembled crew of nine heroes returned to Titan's Tower, Robin stood in front of the main room's large black sofa. His comrades stood and sat before him, alert. His face held a slight grin, bursting with certain eagerness. "Now," he began. "We don't normally do things this way. However, seeing what you all were capable of doing today, I'd like to ask all of you to remain here as a part of our team."
Raven's eyes shot up, but said nothing.
Starfire clasped her hands together and jumped in glee. "Glorious!"
Beast Boy and Cyborg both held similar opinions, laughing and high fiving each other.
Samus, however, beneath her helmet formed a barely perceptible frown. "Sorry, I work alone." She turned for the door. "Thanks anyway."
The Tamaranian was instantly distressed. She rushed up and hovered before the armor suit. "Please! You must stay! We are all eager to work alongside one another, are we not?"
"Yeah," Beast Boy chimed. "Besides, you totally kicked that Piranha-whatever the heck it was' butt with that wicked spin attack of yours."
"We could definitely use your help," Robin added.
Samus was obstinate. "I'll be on my way." She gently pushed the alien aside. In moments she was out the door.
"What's her deal?" Beast Boy muttered. "We're trying to be friendly and she goes and shoves us around."
"Drop it, Beast Boy." Robin responded sharply. "If that's how she wants to work, then that's how it'll be."
The three who remained of the newcomers sat silently.
"What about the rest of you? Are you in?"
Mario and Link looked at each other from across the sofa. Neither said a word, though their silence betrayed an answer.
From behind those two Fox casually stated, "I'd think we prefer doing things our own way."
Steadily the five Titans' gazes turned more and more downward. Mario's and Link's followed suit, although theirs was more out of realization than any other emotion. They had to leave. There was no other course to be taken. If they stayed, the whole of Jump City would be in jeopardy to an entirely new threat. If they left, the dangers were more likely to follow them instead.
"I had a feeling you'd say that," Robin said sadly. With a somewhat brighter countenance, he extended his hands. In his grasp were four bright yellow Titan communicators. They were circular and bore an emblazoned T on their casing. "Please take these with you, then. If there's any trouble at all, you know who to call."
