These Black Eyes

by P0ST

The ongoing adventures and experiences of the Teen Titans, as witnessed through the eyes of a silent newcomer.

63. Full Circle part 10

63. Full Circle part 10

It was a playground in the center of a curve of apartment buildings.

The sky was crystal blue and the spring air clean.

Children climbed the jungle gym in a gang of athleticism. Agile little limbs balanced themselves and stretched over the metal bars as the young ones played games and made up pretend names for each other.

At least five parents sat on various benches surrounding the playground. Two of them were reading a book. One was on a cell phone. Two more were watching their offspring and smiling.

Two dark-haired twin girls were playing in a sand box in the shape of a green seaturtle. Faye and Fiona were their names. They giggled as they made castle after castle in the sand, only to smash it and start all over again. Every time a castle was built, it was perfect and smooth in every way. They had a secret power—even at such a young age—of keeping things constant. A secret power that they giggled and smiled at having.

Just a few feet away, dangling her thing legs over the edge of a bench, Jean sat with her small nose in a book. It was a tale about sorcery and magic spells and medieval adventures full of splendor. Every now and then she would look up from her book and smile at her young, twin sisters. They waved at her and she nodded her head with a smile. A cool breeze rustled down and kicked at her long, exotically pink hair. She wore it down in a ponytail and had dark sunglasses over her eyes.

Her eyes……Unlike the hair, Jean would never show her eyes out in public. She tried once, and people her age who couldn't understand who or what she was only hurt her. She wasn't about to let herself get hurt again. Not in front of her little sisters. She was in charge of looking after them while her Mommy spent the Saturday working at the nearby diner. Their father……well……he was hardly ever around much for the three of them to call 'Daddy' to begin with.

After watching her little sisters play for a while, Jean dug her nose back into the book. Her feet dangled playfully. She dreamed of being a powerful sorceress and bringing evil kings down to their knees and saving distraught families from tyranny.

So engrossed was the older sister, she barely noticed the pair of black vans ambling up the side of the parking lot until they were nearly within arm's length of the sidewalk. When the two vehicles stopped, they did so abruptly. There was a harsh Screech! that awoke both the children and adults out of their senses.

Jean glanced up, blinking behind her shades.

The sliding doors of the two vans opened swiftly. A total of a dozen strangers in black suits rushed out. They were carrying gray rifles of some sort……and they were heading straight for the playground.

Jean's jaw dropped.

ZAAAAAP!!

The first row of invaders fired. Bolts of blue electricity flew out and struck an adult standing up from the bench. She yelled out in pain and fell down to the grass, smoking.

Children shrieked.

Adults jumped up and gasped.

ZAAAAP!!!

ZAAAAP!!!!!

Electric streams flew rapidly. Two more adults fell. Children rolled to the ground, out cold. One bolt struck the jungle gym, and tiny bodies went flying hard into the mulch bed of the playground.

Jean dropped her book and flattened herself to the ground with a cry as the tasers went off without mercy. Blasts of blue fury danced all around the scene. Children ran everywhere, sobbing. Two youngsters shook their mother's body and cried for her to wake up.

And then the dozen strangers marched in through the mulch.

Jean gasped. She looked behind her and realized that her sisters were still in the sandbox. They hadn't been zapped. They froze in their spot, hugging each other and shivering as the strangers approached……and marched right up to them.

"Faye!!!" Jean exclaimed. "Fiona!!!"

"J.J.!!" they shrieked. They were yanked up and wrangled into vicious arm-holds and carted straight back towards the vans.

Jean grit her teeth. She got up to her feet and ran after the kidnappers. "NOOO!!!"

Two of the invaders spun around. They fired their tasers immediately.

ZAAAAAP!!!

ZAAP!!!

Jean gasped. Both bolts of blue struck her hard in the chest.

She flexed her arms up and shifted back a few feet…but amazingly, she was still standing. Unaffected.

ZAAAAP!!

Another blue stream flew.

Jean raised up a hand and shielded herself. The jolt caused her sunglasses to tumble off. She shook her head and frowned at the invaders with pink cat eyes of fury.

"You……leave…them…ALONE!!!" She raised two hands out and the earth started to rumble as her fingers glowed a bright pink. "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGHHHH!!!!"

The strangers in black wobbled on unsteady legs.

The two sisters clenched their eyes tight.

Overhead, a powerline shook and a telephone pole leaned over, cracking down the middle.

Jean unleashed her secret power. She flicked her wrists in the direction of the pole as her cat eyes glowed hotly. "HAAAA!!!!!!"

The wooden pole shattered and fell in a shower of splinters down at the attackers. A few of them tumbled hard to the ground, clutching broken limbs. Her two sisters were still in custody.

That's when a single stranger wandered around and sneaked up behind Jean. The person raised the butt of his taser rifle and smacked the girl's pink head of hair hard.

WHACK!!!

Jean grunted and fell forward. She looked up, her nose bleeding from the impact.

Fiona and Faye were being dragged into a black van through the sliding door. "J.J.!!!!" they sobbed.

Jean reached a hand out towards them. "Stop!!!!! Please!!!!"

The stranger behind the little girl recharged the taser, aimed at the back of her aching neck, and pulled the trigger.

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx gasped and sat up straight in her berth on board the frigate. She sweated heavily. Her mouth hung open and she panted.

From the suspended cot's mattress, she saw nothing but a barren, metal room. Dull and lifeless.

Everything was bobbing.

On seas.

She looked down and saw herself dressed as she truly was. The Third Apprentice.

She ran a hand over her face, took a shuddering breath, and lay back down.

Silence…..

Then….her communicator squabbled.

"Apprentice…," Slade's voice said. "Come to the cabin. Dagger is here."

Jinx sighed. "Y-Yes, sir…."

A beat.

She pulled out the locket from the front of her outfit.

Clip!

She looked at the pictures of her two sisters. 'Fate' and 'Fortune' were their aliases now.

Now that H.I.V.E. still had them in custody in some secret, dark place since day one when all three of them were dragged away from their natural lives…

Jinx sighed.

Flip!

Snap!

She pocketed the locket away, swiveled her thin legs off of the cot, and jumped down to the floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When Jinx entered the dark cabin through the pressure hatch, she could see Dagger and Slade facing each other. The two criminals were much closer than she had ever seen them before. They seemed to have just finished talking about something, and now Dagger was handing Slade something.

A cylindrical remote.

"What's this?" Slade asked, glancing at the remote in his gloved hand through his mask.

"A failsafe," Dagger replied.

"A failsafe?"

Dagger nodded, twirling an ornamental knife through his fingers. "And if you had any sense left in you, Slade you would use it. It will stop him if there's no other option left."

"It will stop Wyldecarde?"

"The trigger on the remote sends a signal to the chip implanted in the boy's left arm. Immediately, a special toxin will be released into the bloodstream that—when carried to the heart—will cancel out all cardiac muscles. His circulatory system will fail, and in a matter of minutes his body and brain will lose the necessary amount of oxygen to function and he will perish."

Jinx cocked her head to the side, listening.

Slade lifted the device closer to his mask. He eyed it closely.

"But….," Dagger uttered.

Slade and Jinx looked at him.

The knife-twirling despot spoke: "It will only work if Wyldecarde gets within a radius of ten feet from the device. Thus, it is a failsafe. If you are to run into Wyldecarde in person…Slade…then and only then will you be allowed to exterminate him through the best devices I have available to offer you."

Slade's eye narrowed. "I would not have to resort to such tools of yours if you had been so merciful enough to eliminate the boy from the start!"

Dagger's unblinking eyes barely twinkled with a glint of scorn.

He leaned forward and spoke firmly to Slade: "In all of your motivational speeches of 'fate', in all of your endless chanting over the sacred absolution of the 'Experiment', in all of your grandiose and epic promises concering the 'Balance of Morals'…it is most surprising to me that your stamina and fervor has not been enough to eradicate Wyldecarde on your own. I provided the assistance from the beginning, Slade. I tampered with the data inside the Titan Tower's mainframe, I provided the system of events from Anderson to Viper as the perfect backdrop of this battleground of yours, and yet when it was your time to take stage—you failed. You failed miserably so. Now you are days past the scheduled implementation of your greatest dream, the Titans are still alive, and Wyldecarde is laughing at you. And in spite of all this, you have the gall to insult me as if the manifestation of your plans failed on account of my persistent diligence? Understand this, Slade, that I have no qualms about our meeting this morning being final and lacking of an encore."

With that, Dagger swiftly swiveled about on his heels and headed back towards the hatch/doorway of the dark cabin.

Slade spoke after him. "Is this an end to our partnership, my good friend?"

"It is the end of a disaster, 'friend'," Dagger spat. "Whatever the fate of your exploits may be from hereon out, I do not care. Just do your finest to not cross paths with mine."

Slade was silent.

He glanced over at Jinx. He slowly nodded his head.

Jinx nodded back. She frowned and raised two glowing hands of pink. She walked in front of the hatch/exit, blocking Dagger's path.

The man came to a stop.

"Seriously you did not believe that I can let someone with as much power over information and knowledge as you to walk away with having been extensively throughout my lair?"

"Amusing, Slade…," Dagger simply responded. "Now do me the favor of telling your little monkey here to move out of my way."

Jinx grit her teeth. Her eyes glowed pink.

"My apprentice has a greater grasp of cause-and-effect than you ever did, Dagger," Slade spoke. "While you're sitting behind your desk and forcing minions to alter data by code and keyboard or the transient ambiguity of bureaucracy, my loyal follower is out there in the field, bending reality to shape into my intentions through an unsettling force that neither one of us can describe. I would hate to see what her powers could do to your frail existence. Actually, on second thought, I would love to see what her powers can do."

"Is this a threat or a joke?"

"Both….'friend'."

A beat.

Dagger stared down at Jinx.

The sorceress grinned. She charged her pink hands brighter.

Without blinking, the crimelord spoke to her: "You must be very lonesome."

"Save it for a time when my Master does not want you torn apart, creep…," Jinx sneered.

"Such anger…," Dagger's eyes narrowed. "I suppose it does get so…entirely frustrating to look for sisters you can never find."

Jinx's eyes widened. The pink faded. "W-What??"

Slade immediately took a step forward. "Dagger….."

"All those years oppressed by H.I.V.E…," the knife-twirling despot continued, "…and now that you're on your own, you felt that you could scour the secrets of the hideous underworld and there Fate and Fortune would be. Like magic. Right before your eyes. But karma itself---as it ironically seems—let you down."

Jinx's lips parted. She stammered: "What…d-do you know??"

"Dagger," Slade had crossed the distance and had his hand firmly placed on the criminal's shoulder. He insisted in a strangely hushed voice: "I think it is now time for you to leave us peacefully…."

Dagger glanced an eye back behind his shoulder.

Jixn—mouth wide—stared at Dagger, at Slade, and back at Dagger again.

The knife twirled to a stop. The man nodded. "I was hoping you'd say that. Farewell." He marched out through the hatch and was gone.

Jinx trembled. She gulped and looked anxiously up at Slade. "Wh-What did he mean by saying all that?? D-Does he know where my sisters are?!?! H-Have you two b-been working on it?"

"Dear child…," Slade sighed. He reached a hand over and patted her pink hair. "Your sisters are a mystery that is gradually being solved each day. I promised you from the very beginning that I would find them wherever they are. And I am still sticking to that. And I am still working on it."

"But…B-B-But the things Dagger s-said…"

"He is a manipulative man with no respect….and certainly no redemption. You know that very well, Apprentice. After all the times I have warned you."

Jinx sighed. She stared down at the floor of the cabin and slowly nodded her head.

Slade held the cylindrical trigger up. He looked at it a little bit, then pocketed it away. He turned around and faced the distant, circular window before the mysterious frigate's bow.

"I have come to realize—Apprentice—that it is most difficult to stamp out a ghost. Especially one with the fervor and resolve strong enough to match mine. Perhaps…I have focused too much on stifling our little adversary. After all, his despair is enough to consume him all by itself. For us to intervene only distracts him from running himself into the proverbial ground of reality. And that reality is that he is alone. He is truly, disastrously alone. Our conflict with him has distracted him from that. To heckle him anymore would be to add fuel to the fiery limbo which prevents us from reaching our goal."

Jinx nodded listlessly. Her head was in another time and place. Regardless, she looked up and tried to pay more attention as her Master went on:

"Regardless…it is in our best interest to hold Wyldecarde back. Even if it's prudent that our focus shift back to the Titans themselves. Dagger—in his parting words—has given me the final key in eliminating Wyldecarde. I now realize how foolish I was to ever believe in that fool's potential threat to our resolve. The fragility of his life…of his quest to save that which is beyond salvation…is all the more clear to me now."

Slade walked over towards the windows and looked out with his arms folded behind him.

"Tonight….tonight is a night of celebration. The anniversary of the founding of a political empire that still persists blindly in our midst. Tonight is the celebration of a society's freedom from invisible monsters of an Ancien Regime and theocratic ideology. People will be parading the streets…setting the streets and skies on fire…reveling in something they hold blind trust in. Among them will be the Titans—unknowing of the struggle of our resolve or the sufferings of their former teammate. Already, I can sense our strong grasp of their consciousnesses weakening. Lessening. Being replaced with a waking doubt as to the way Fate has treated them over the past weeks. Our chance to strike deep into their hearts and lure them into our clutches is fading. At the same time, our reserve of carbonite is running low. In essence, everything hinges more or less on one last pull. One last cast of our line into the pool of reality in hope of catching the biggest fish of all. The competition is fierce…and he will rather die then see us win over his former teammates. We have no choice but to keep on hunting. In the meantime…we could give him much bigger fish to tackle with."

He slowly turned around and faced Jinx. "Apprentice…"

"Y-Yes, sir?"

"I need you to pay someone a visit…"

She gulped. "W-Wyldecarde?"

He slowly shook his head. "Not this time, Jinx. I will not force you to take him on alone again."

"Then who do you want me to see?"

"Who….what….there's no exact way to pinpoint it…," Slade uttered. "Rest assured. You will not be alone in the field on July Fourth."

She smiled at that. "J-Just tell me what I need to do, Master."

"I need you to make a trip to Prison…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City was basking in the glow of red, white, and blue passion. Flags unfurled from every other apartment window located on the bottom three stories or the very top ones where the wind was strongest. City organizers filed to and fro in luxury cars, delivering the last messages to directors in charge of the parades, confetti, and—most of all—the Independence Fireworks Show.

By late morning, crowds were already gathering in the streets of Downtown to view the July Fourth Parade that was to proceed down the avenues, complete with floats and marching bands and the City's greatest celebrities. Radio stations sent vans full of DJs and representatives to cover the event and add to the festivities. In the City Park, tents were set up with arts and crafts and simple games put together by the local populace, visiting from the countryside on that most festive of days.

In the Bayside Plaza, a stage had once again been erected for a famous band or two to play hit singles from the radio. Minutes later, the crowds would all surge to the beach facing into the Bay. The floating platform of cannons would launch the greatest splash of fireworks in the region.

A fine tradition. And as its construction went into high gear for that afternoon and evening, all fears of terrorism gradually dwindled.

Gradually…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stood in front of Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire in the Main Room of the Tower.

"There's been a pattern emerging. I didn't think much of it at first, because there was no ounce of conviction in my heart that could possibly have supported Noir's actions. But the first time I noticed the pattern was at the freighter. We had just come across what looked like a deadly aftermath of a battle on board the ship. There were scorch marks everywhere. The carbonite explosive was missing from its shell. My R-Cycle was blown to pieces. Beast Boy thought it was all 'good karma' for us…since we were not the brunt of Slade's ambushes that time. It was a little hard for me to believe that at the time—because we were attacked so viciously by Wyldecarde and all. But then later—after the explosion at Phaser Labs—Cyborg and I were forced to a stop when the T-Car's tires suffered the punishment of Wyldecarde's playing card, and the only thing on our mind was how much Wyldecarde was kicking our asses, not Slade. And just last night after all five of us took Wyldecarde on--only for him to chase every single one of us out of the building before it blew up--the pattern reappeared. The reason why Slade's attempts to finish us off has been awkward and unsuccessful—I believe—is that Wyldecarde isn't trying to help him at all. In fact, Wyldecarde is most likely working against Slade…and Slade isn't willing to admit the conflict between the two for some reason. What's more…in foiling Slade's attempts to destroy us or lure us into a deathtrap, Wyldecarde is…….well….more or less saving our butts."

A beat.

The Titans were silent.

Beast Boy hunched over, his hair in his hands.

Starfire bit her lip.

Raven looked off out the window.

Robin took a breath and continued: "Think of this scenario. You are a new member of an elite team of freedom fighters. You keep your past a mystery from others for reasons only you know. Ironically, your joining of this team is identical to a new member of the past. A member of the past…..who spelled disaster for your new teammates in days gone. Now pretend that a series of events take place that remind your teammates of the treachery done before you arrived. Would you not feel it difficult to convince your companions of a truth they may readily deny in favor of finding a pattern of reborn evil in you?"

Further silence.

"Wh-What are you getting at, Robin?" Beast Boy muttered.

Robin clinched his fists through his gloves and sighed. "I think….I-I think that some sort of bad karma…some sort of chain reaction of events….some sort of order of cause and effects has triggered among each of us an epiphany of paranoia, panic, and distrust. I think it's very probable that….th-that we have overreacted to a mysterious stimulus. A stimulus made up of the conglomeration of falsified information, negative happenstance, and improbable coincidences that have forced us to…t-to make Noir what he is now."

"You mean…he's not Wyldecarde of his own choosing?" Raven remarked.

Robin stared at her. "You said it better than I ever could."

She blushed slightly and looked back out the window.

Silence.

"Friends….h-have we done a terrible thing?" Starfire stammered.

"I dunno…," Beast Boy muttered. He looked up. "But think about it!! We found transmissions between Noir and Slade!! Slade addressed Noir as his 'apprentice'!! Wyldecarde was even broadcasted across cable t.v., delivering Slade's threats about Phaser Labs!"

"And then when we encountered the carbonite explosive of Slade's…," Starfire added. "Wyldecarde was there to attack us!"

"Everywhere Slade has had a hand in things…Wyldecarde was there!"

Robin nodded. "That's very true." He lifted a finger and then said: "But in that is where another pattern lies. And I think that pattern is most accurately summed up in saying that 'everywhere Wyldecarde's been, Slade has had his hand in'."

A beat.

"Huh???" Beast Boy cackled.

"The only reason why Wyldecarde is evil to begin with is because Slade's somehow 'involved'," Robin exclaimed. "And the only reason we find that treacherous is Slade's presence to begin with. Now….what if that 'presence' was merely implied??"

"Meaning….," drone Raven.

"A fabrication. A lie. A ruse."

"To what purpose??" Starfire remarked.

"Yeah!!" Beast Boy shrugged. "What for?"

Robin stared. "To get us to hate Noir to begin with."

Beast Boy blinked.

Starfire brought a hand to her lips. "You mean….it is possible that—"

"Noir is innocent," Robin blurted. "And if my assumption is right, he always was."

"Then why is he attacking us?!?!" Beast Boy remarked, standing up and gesturing wildly. "If he's as much a goody-goody as he's always been, why's he been giving us bruises all over?! It's insane!!"

"No, Beast Boy," Robin shook his head. "It's not insanity. It's ignorance. Our ignorance." He looked at everyone as he gestured and said: "We've been so wrapped up in our own suffering…in our own history of pain…in the tragedy of Terra and what she did to us. We've been so…so absorbed in that feeling of betrayal and deceipt…we were too afraid to look up to some dark, desperate truth. And I believe the victim of our arrogance—Noir—is aware of that truth. And since we won't listen to him in any other way…."

"He has been playing the part of the villain…," Starfire gasped. "He has been deceiving us even more."

"Because ignorance is bliss…," Raven mumbled.

The others looked at her.

She slowly glanced back. "We banished Noir, remember? If he is still—in theory—the virtuous boy we all once believed he was, then his only incentive is to let us have our way. And if he could, he'd protect us in the meantime."

"By beating us up?!?!" Beast Boy again cackled.

"That's what I did when I was coerced by Slade," Robin said bluntly.

Starfire swallowed a painful lump down her throat.

Beast Boy blinked. "But…b-b-but…Terra!! When she kicked our asses, she meant it!!"

"Did she in the end?" Raven remarked. "If I remember right…even she was wise enough to counteract the exploitation of her powers by Slade. She gave her last recorded breath in the effort of saving us."

Beast Boy's lip quivered. "But….that…..this….th-th-this is insane!!" He pulled at his hair and once again slumped to his seat. "He's had to have been a bad guy all this time!! It's not like us to totally disregard his role in all of this insanity and kick him mercilessly out of our circle of friendship!!…………….i-is it??"

Starfire lowered her eyes. "It would appear so…"

"No way….," Beast Boy shook his head. "No way. I can't believe it. I won't believe it!"

"Believe it," Raven spat.

Beast Boy was silent. He almost bit his nails.

Robin shuffled over and sat in a chair opposite of the others on the sofa.

A beat.

"What Terra did to us…it was unforgivable. It was treacherous. It was without any room for redemption or sympathy. And yet…when she turned around in the very end…and suffered the fate that she did….who now among us would turn her down a roof to live under or a bowl to eat from if she was to magically crawl up our front steps and beg for acknowledgement?"

"But….N-Noir….he's different…..he's……..," Beast Boy trailed off.

"Is he??" Starfire remarked.

The others looked at her.

She looked at each and every one of them with sad, rounded eyes of green. "It was not very long ago that I went out with Noir on an excursion through Town. We stopped by a place where the memories of the dead are honored. It so happened that the reception that very evening was for a deceased person Noir once knew before he joined our ranks. He was moved to tears in front of me. I realized he was still very sad and regretful for the part he inadvertently played in Trigon's manifestation outside of Raven's body. So I solaced him with what—at the time—I believed to be the fervent truth. I informed him that he was an avid partaker in the saving of citizens everywhere as well as each and everyone of the Titans themselves. I told him…I told him that he had received our forgiveness for whatever transgressions Trigon made him commit. And he was relieved emotionally to hear that. But just days after that…wh-when the results of a secret search into Noir's supposed treachery turned up positive, it was not the foremost desire in my mind to question such 'evidence'. But rather I fell upon the instinct to condemn Noir upon the spot. I-I believe I was not alone in such an act…."

The other Titans nodded silently. They gazed away from each other.

Starfire added: "As far as I am concerned, I am horrified at the prospect of my own actions. I was impulsive and emotionally charged. Worst of all, I was a hypocrite. I am the lowliest of everyone in this room in such regards."

"You may not be so alone, Starfire…," Robin said. He leaned forward from across the way. "If this is all true…if Noir is innocent…then we're all guilty. Because we all betrayed a Titan. Ourselves. Out of paranoia. Out of pain. And worst of all…out of pride."

"It is my fault….," Raven uttered. "If I wasn't so quick to follow my meager premonitions so soon after my emotions recovered from the magical camera…."

Robin looked up. He sighed. "Raven, now please—"

"I'm serious!" she exclaimed with a glare. "I can't believe I was so foolish that…..I-I almost listened to what my father said." She hugged the cape around herself, trembled suddenly in some betraying fashion, and looked away.

"Raven??" Beast Boy breathed, concerned. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"B-Barely….," she admitted in a low voice. She looked back at the other Titans. Her face was deadpan. "He almost got loose again…."

"Who?" Robin asked.

"Your father?" Starfire remarked.

Raven slowly nodded. "Sometime in the battle with Wyldecarde last night. Trigon almost made it out in a rupture of rage and fury. I-I think it happened at the one point when I fell unconscious."

"You told us you woke up on the rooftop across from the imploding building," Robin said.

"Wyldecarde must have relocated you somehow…," Stafire remarked.

Raven looked off into space again.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened and Cyborg marched solemnly into the room.

"Hey…," Robin simply uttered. "What did you find?"

Cyborg sighed heavily. He dropped a computer pad with a CLANK! onto the table between the seats and slumped back down in a lonely love seat.

"See for yourself…," he breathed.

Beast Boy and Starfire leaned in. Raven looked over their shoulders from her remote location as they all read the schematics.

"I was running a scan for certain properties common in the old transmissions between Noir and Slade," the android explained for them. "Robin didn't even need to suggest it to me. I found exactly what we're all probably looking for."

Starfire looked up. "These strings of data….they are somehow familiar."

"They should be…," Cyborg nodded. "We've found them in our computer data base before when the Tower had been hacked into."

"You mean….wh-when Terra sent her transmissions and lowered the security system?" Beast Boy remarked.

Cyborg shook his head. "No….more like when my Uncle Simon was here and working for Anderson."

"They're identical….," Raven admitted. She looked over at Cyborg. "Noir's 'transmissions' have the very same technique of computer hacking that appeared during Stone's access to our system."

"And if Anderson had a hand in the hacking then…and he is dead now….," Starfire spoke, "….then that means we may be looking at—"

"Dagger," Cyborg spat.

Beast Boy gulped.

Starfire gently set the computer pad down and folded her hands in her lap.

Raven exhaled.

"For all we know….Noir may or may not have had transmissions," Cyborg said. "But the truth of their subject matter and who they were addressed to is now up to conjecture. The same computer hacking force prevalent when my Uncle was here was also there to mess with Noir's computer usage. The Tower's memory banks have been lying to us. Our core piece of evidence in suspecting Noir of his planned betrayal is now negligible. In all terms of practicality, we should be back to square one in convicting Wyldecarde."

"But we're not at Square One…," Raven droned. "Are we?"

Cyborg shook his head.

Robin leaned forward, sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose below his mask with two gloved fingers. "Well….," he said. "This development couldn't come at a worse time. Just twenty-five minutes ago, I got a call directly from Commissioner Decker." He looked up at the Titans and spoke firmly: "He wants us there for the July Fourth festivities. And when he says 'there', he means 'everywhere'. The parade. The park. The fireworks show. All over the place. He doesn't want to take any chances, especially with Slade's threats as of late. We need to give all our all tonight to ensure the safety of the people. Chasing down Slade, Dagger, or Wyldecarde can wait. Let's just get through this evening. Let's just survive and then think of what to do from there. Sure, there may be some sort of frightening and ambiguous 'Experiment' or 'Balance of Morals' looming over our heads in pure, conspiratorial fashion…but it is not our place to act upon supposition when there are ordinary citizens to be looking after."

"And what if we run into Wyldecarde?" Starfire exclaimed. "Do we engage in battle with him?"

"More than likely he'll attack us!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "I mean…th-that seems to have been the pattern as of late."

Robin took a deep breath: "If any one of us…any one…runs into Wyldecarde………" A pause. He finally gave in: "Then ask questions first."

"Shoot later?" Raven remarked with an eyebrow.

"I prefer we don't 'shoot' at all. At this point, it's only fair we….g-give Wyldecarde……………..give Noir the shadow of a doubt. Maybe if we don't react to him as we have in the last few days—"

"You mean ass kicking?" Cyborg asked.

Robin nodded. "We might break the cycle if we're peaceful. If we hold back. If we give him a chance to say something…."

"Heh…," Beast Boy folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "Fat chance of that happening!"

"You know what I mean," the Boy Wonder emphasized. "As much as he may not try to admit it…Noir isn't lashing out, he's reaching out. He's trying to save us in what he's doing. Much like I was forced to once."

"It is all so very confusing," Starfire said. "I wonder if he would be willing to explain it all to us?"

"Would he even be willing to talk to us, period?" Raven added.

Starfire bit her lip.

Beast Boy looked depressed.

Cyborg stood up. "Well…nothing'll get done if we sit here feeling sorry for him and ourselves. Let's get going, shall we?"

"Why such a hurry?" Beast Boy remarked, eyebrow raised.

Cyborg managed the first smile in a while. "Because I freakin' love July Fourth, that's why, little man!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the afternoon drew into fruition and the festivities readied themselves for a gala occasion, the Sun began its gradual tilt towards the horizon. It was a very exotic sky. The approach of thundercloud cells in the distance stretched high and gathered the first of the falling Sun's slanted rays. Meteorologists all over the News predicted that the summer rains and thunder would come well after the July Fourth celebration and the fireworks—most of all. But the presence of the gray, Sunlit clouds could not be denied. They loomed on the approaching horizon like some dark prophecy untold. The clear sky between them and the East turned a haunting orange hue. Like a dying flame running out of ashes. Dry and sparkling with the vain joy of driveway fireworks that were now being set off all across the streets in front of apartments of families doing their last-minute shopping for Chinese explosives.

The sidewalks of the main streets of Downtown were filled to the brim with spectators, families, parents with daughters or sons sitting on their shoulders and holding sparklers. People with camcorders, people with umbrellas, people with coolers full of drinks and sandwiches and electric fans. The streets were buzzing with chatter, laughter, fish stories and patriotic stories and the occasional grumble in between.

Far away in the dark alleys where the ambiance drifted and dripped into lonely puddles, the orange-amber of the sky softened into burgundy silence. In one such shadow sat I, curled against the wall, struggling once again as I had so many hours—back to back—that day with memories I did not want to harbor any longer.

WHACK!!!

Starfire flew off from my kick and sailed—shrieking—out into the open air beyond the scraper.

I flinched. My black eyes clenched shut, free of the goggles. I gripped my head hard and shook it.

CRACK!!!

Splinters flew.

Beast Boy frowned at me with a bleeding nose.

I bit my lip.

Tears welled up in the corners of my eyelids.

Cyborg's hand exploded.

His face gasped in horror as I sent him tumbling overboard with the crane.

CRASH!!

I rocked back and forth.

I wheezed.

My lips opened and a shuddering breath came out.

Raven's body lay in my arms.

She was so still and unconscious.

Almost like she was dead.

I hyperventilated.

I shook my head.

A lump of pain formed in my throat.

"I hate you, Noir…," Robin uttered.

His face was wounded.

The leader was stripped of dignity.

I swung Myrkblade at him.

SLASH!!

I gasped wide, hyperventilated, and shook my head. Teardrops flew.

I took a deep breath, wiped my face, and leaned back with my wounded body against the wall. I strained for a clean inhale…but could salvage none.

"I'm not much of a card player….b-but…."

I gasped.

I looked up with round black eyes.

The Messenger stood at the end of the alley, he was leaning against the wall and his face looked exhausted. "….y-you look like you're at the bottom of the deck."

I sniffed. I blinked.

He stared at me with tired, almond eyes. As if in some form or another, he shared my anguish. I knew he couldn't…and yet….I knew he could all the same.

Regardless, he was there. And I was there.

And somehow…that brought order to chaos.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat, shirtless, with my feet dangling over the buildingside above the alleyway. Behind me, the Messenger stood and wrapped a series of white bandages tight around my chest and backside. The three scratches from a green animorph disappeared under the gauze. My mysterious friend had brought a first-aid kit with him. He was resourceful.

My face and black eyes were blank as I stared into the winds of the coming cold front filtering down the alleyway with the amber glow.

"Maybe it'll sound like cheating……but…..I-I've been searching for the answer myself…," he said slowly while fitting the bandage on. "Just what is the sound of one hand clapping?"

I didn't respond. I just sat there as he patched me up.

"If you think I knew the answer to that question when I asked it of you way back when, what would be the whole point in raising it to begin with?" he uttered.

I sighed.

"…..," he went on. "Could it possibly mean the sound of someone banging against some….sort of….m-metaphoric wall? Like a figurative translation of frustration?"

Silence.

"Or….," he pulled the bandage tight and fastened it to the rest of the gauze. "….maybe it means the lonely fight of one diligent soul in the darkness. Clapping on his very own, ya know?"

I took a deep breath.

Silence…

He sat back and handed me back the top metal-mesh of my outfit. "Either possibility could apply. Whether or not it could be the answer, I dunno. What I do know is that you're full of despair right now, Noir. And that's a rather unfortunate thing."

I quietly slipped the outfit over my head and tightened the metal strips. My black eyes were thin and tired.

"Well…after all…," he leaned back against an a/c unit in the rooftop and spoke casually: "…you are in a limbo. You're in a perpetual state of equality with your adversaries. No matter how hard you fight, Jinx and Slade fight back just the same. You have foes out there on a parallel rung of the celestial ladder. Every time you try and save your best friends, Slade and Company do something of equal and opposite reaction to repel your attempts. In the end…the Titans are equally in danger and equally safe. And things stay that way until either you or Jinx and Slade bite the dust. And as is obvious…Slade's group has the majority of resources."

I blinked. I stared down at the alleyway.

"Sounds very Newtonian, huh? Action and reaction? Dichotomies canceling each other out?" He crawled over and sat on the edge of the building side next to me. "But what about Einstein? He took Newton to school, didn't he? What if there was something you're doing that could curve the perception of reality in this figurative model of ours and make the idea of one hand clapping worthwhile?"

I looked away from him. I sighed again.

His Asian eyes blinked. He leaned forward. "Noir…"

I looked at him.

He smiled. "Remember back when I asked you if you believed in something like a God?"

I nodded.

"You shook your head, right?"

I nodded again.

"Still shaking your head?"

I was still.

"Heheheheh," he stared up at the July Fourth sky. "For once, I think I have you baffled!"

I glared at him.

"No really. Look at yourself! Beaten to bejesus and back! And yet…you're not half as miserable as you look!" He thinned his eyes and gave a thumb's up. "You're A-Okay in my book, Noir. Ya know why? Cuz you have faith in stupid things. And one of the stupid things is what I told you before you started this whacked out Wyldecarde stuff. Friends are all that matter. And you have a moral edge over Slade by sticking on your friends' side throughout this. You both may be in limbo; Slade and you. But you're fighting for the righteous side. You're fighting for the side that matters. And no matter what existentialists and other liberal-minded philosophers in this world think, I'm convinced of one thing. As long as you're on the side of Virtue, there is a chance to bend reality, break the limbo, and come out victorious by doing the very same thing that you've been doing all along. And….guess what, Noir?"

I raised and eyebrow.

He winked. "Slade hasn't tipped the Balance of Morals yet. The Experiment is still—and has always been—in yours and the Titans' favor."

I looked off into space. Thinking….

"Slade…..heh….he makes me laugh," the Messenger honestly confessed. "He thinks he knows everything about the fabric of the universe. I've been to many universes." He leaned back against the rooftop and stared straight up with his hands behind his back. "I know what it's like to see the laws of reality, the balances of morals, and the structure of structures themselves change and switch on the fly. It's not so much that everything's relative, but rather that relativity's everything. Even in one universe alone—this one for example—things are so complex and so perceivably different and yet so perceivably the same from different angles of the playing field. My universe feels so stiff and dull in comparison. I'm rather envious, Noir."

I gave him a doubting look.

"For one thing," he winked. "The general population of females in this dimension is eleven percent more likely to produce Gwen Stefani look-a-likes than approximately thirty other realities I've been to."

I couldn't help it. I chuckled breathily.

"Heheheheheheheh!!" he seemed tickled pink. "You KNOWWWW what I come to this dimension to do!!"

I shook my head.

He chuckled some more, sat up, and took a deep, grinning breath. A beat. He looked at me with an added layer of solemnity over his lingering smile: "I wish….so very much…that I could help you out more, Noir."

I slowly nodded.

"But…alas….," he motioned to the clunky metal watch on his arm. "My time here is always limited…and always fragile. I'm here and I'm gone again. I'd help you kick ass…but all I can afford to do is be my same old quasi-informative, mysterious, and fairly androgynous self whenever I'm called upon to give you a hand."

I looked at him.

He blinked. "You've found….a chip inside you, haven't you?"

I bit my lip and subconsciously clutched my left forearm. I slowly nodded.

He glanced at my limb. Slowly he said: "All I know….all I could possibly know…is exactly the same that you do, Noir. The chip is Slade's doing. Or—at least—he had a part in it. You know more about your past than you're ever willing to tell anyone. Heck, you probably know it all but just don't let on about it."

I had no expression in response to that.

The Messenger went on: "I have no idea what it's for. Obviously he tracks you with it. And that may be your most important piece of revelation yet."

I cocked my head to the side in curiosity.

"If he can track you with that thing….," the Messenger uttered, "…who's to say you can't track him back with it?"

I blinked.

He raised a finger. "But…it isn't exactly that simple. You'll need a spring board to find out whatever signal that thing operates on. And I suspect such an item of assistance would be another piece of technology. Something else that Dagger may be linked to, but not have such a firm hand in. Something that could have been used in at least close conjunction with the technology of the chip itself. Something just as equally integral to his, Slade's, and Jinx's quest to accomplish the Experiment. Find that link, and you may find the key to hijacking the return signal of the chip. And you may find Dagger. If ever you're that lucky….well….then it'll all be up to you. Cuz I frankly have no damn clue what to do if I was to meet Dagger. But it's going somewhere at least….right?"

I looked at my arm. I nodded listlessly.

Suddenly, the Messenger flickered green. The both of us looked at his watch. It started sparking as if it was made to do so.

He looked up at me with his brown eyes and green-tipped hair twitching in the breeze. "Well…," he uttered. "Good luck, Noir. If you start tearing some ass…save me a piece for a souvenir, kay?"

And he disappeared in a final flicker of green.

I was alone.

I glanced back at my arm.

My mind wandered.

And the first thing that came to my mind was like a thundering epiphany.

I leaned back...staring up at the amber sky.

Jinx…………

My black eyes squinted.

Her earpiece……the one she communicates with……

My lips parted slightly.

If she uses that to communicate with Slade……maybe Dagger could be reached on a slightly different frequency. And if so……

I gasped.

I have my link!

I jumped up, slipped on my belt, and fastened it. I pulled out my goggles and slipped them over my eyes. Finally, while fastening my metal-laced bandanna, I thought to myself…

Find Jinx. Grab the communicator. Hunt down Dagger.

A beat.

And then on to Slade……

But geared up as I was with my equipment and Myrkblade and all…I couldn't help but face the orange obscurity of that July Fourth. I know the saying is that 'red at night, sailor's delight'. But I couldn't shake the fact that—as frighteningly exotic the weather felt and looked—something was looming over the horizon. Whether it be apocalypse or someone's forgotten birthday, I don't know. It sorta felt like something right in between. It chilled me to the bone and started my feet moving so that sooner than naught, I blurred down the alleyway and zoomed through the streets.

I was on a witchhunt.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POW!!!

SKREEEEEEE-POP!!!!

Kids cheered and danced around on a sidewalk as another bottle rocket flew up.

Cyborg cruised by in the T-Car. Raven sat in the passenger's seat.

Evening was falling, and as the sky turned to a dark orange aura from fireworks glowing all across town, the flanks of the street shined in the strobe of multiple sparklers and waving flags of red white and blue and camera flashes.

"I hate celebrations…..," Raven mumbled.

"Relax…," Cyborg said, gripping the wheel. "Take it easy and enjoy the view. Cuz if Slade pops up somewhere, there's gonna be no time for us to take this day at leisure."

"We have a City wracked with terrorism, hundreds of patriotic citizens obliviously thrown into ecstasy all around us, and the ever-so-weighing guilt of a banished former team member on our hands. What's there to be leisurely about."

"Uhhhhh," Cyborg sweatdropped. "Th-They're handing out free hot dogs in the park?"

Raven stared at him.

"Ahem…," he cleared his throat and whimpered. "I miss Noir too…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Blocks away, Starfire and Beast Boy floated from building top to building top. They patrolled just above the roadway where the parade of floats, marching bands, and celebrity cavalcades was about to begin.

"So…like….what do we say if we see him?" Beast Boy uttered, keeping up with Starfire. "Look, Noir, sorry for kicking your ass out of the Tower and abandoning you like pure, tyrannical morons….wanna come back and talk sports?"

"I seriously doubt he is interested in discussing recreational activities at a moment such as this."

"Come onnnn, Star!" Beast Boy uttered with a shrug. "I was only joking."

Starfire paused. She turned around and looked at him….blinking.

"Are you feeling bad, Beast Boy?"

"About what?"

"About wishing Noir to perish?" she inquired with a cock of her head.

"Huh??" Beast Boy did a double-take. "Hey, I didn't---"

She stared at him.

He sighed and looked down at the rooftop. "Okay…so maybe I did. I got angry. We all did."

"That is true," she nodded. "And unfortunate." She flew off.

Beast Boy blinked. "Sheesh…why do nice girls have to be so bloody honest?"

He hopped after her as they continued their patrol.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin perched on the top of the theatre at the Bayside plaza. His cape billowed in a gust of cold wind. Dark clouds came closer over the horizon. Besides that, things were in full swing with the Independence Fireworks Show. A huge crowd had gathered before the makeshift stage. Throngs of people chattered and cheered as a popular band made their appearance and a famous rock song sounded off through the mega speakers.

Robin scanned the horizon through his eyemask. He sighed.

"I almost want him to show up…."

He shot out a grappling hook…and swung to a higher vantage point.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back in the streets, the T-Car ambled along.

From a dark alleyway, the crowd could be seen gathering around the parade route, waving sparklers and cheering.

As the blue and white car of titanium passed by, two ovals flickered in the darkness…reflecting the sparklers. I quietly leaned forward and stared out from the shadows. Obviously…I was not the only vigilante out that evening.

I looked up the alleyway wall. I took a breath, blurred up it with murk, and rounded onto the roof. I swiftly crept along the rooftop in a crouch. I kept myself parallel to the position and speed of the T-Car.

If Jinx was to show up somewhere…it'd be where her Master was most likely fishing. And the bait was not too far off…

I slinked along, pausing when the T-Car paused, jumping across alleyways when the T-Car throttled along, avoiding the gaze of the vehicle and the throngs of celebrating people below. The street glowed with gold from all the sparklers. Every now and then, a bottle rocket shot up and exploded with shrieking glory. One or two nearly even hit me as I jumped from building to building and blurred out of danger.

I was aware of two shadows rushing over me.

I glanced up.

My black eyes widened under my goggles and I gasped. In an instant, I went into stealth mode and blended in with the texture of the rooftop as Starfire and Beast Boy soared overhead. I could practically feel the glow of Starfire's eyes and smell B.B.'s cologne as they passed within an arm's distance. Once they were gone, I agonizingly came out of my stealth mode, twirled about, and scrunched to the rooftop floor with my back against an a/c unit.

I panted momentarily, wiped my brow, and decided to continue along.

Though….I took it much more slowly this time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin swung down to where the parade was starting. Confetti of red, white, and blue fluttered down from rows of windows and formed black silhouettes against the amber-lit sky. Three local high schools contributed to the blaring horn sections preceding a series of floats depicting Washington Crossing the Delaware, Betsy Ross and the first flag, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The high school bands thundered forth rough approximations of 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', 'God Bless America', and 'Hail to the Chief'.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed. He had been the watchful eye over parades before. Back in the days of Gotham City, no public event was ever safe. It was amazing such a city kept its culture in tact with all the threatening psychopaths running amok. In theory, this July Fourth was to be a cakewalk.

But it didn't feel like one…

Robin sighed and swung to a rooftop on the other way to continue his surveillance.

He was unfortunately oblivious to a slight touch of pink glow on the other side of the block. An agile shadow blurred in and out of view from the rooftops in a pink strobe…and was gone again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy yawned. He and Starfire perched lackadaisically on the window sill of a hotel building overlooking the parade.

Starfire couldn't help but smile and exclaim over the noise and fanfare: "This is a remarkable occasion. Is it a celebration of the beginning of the world?"

"Almost," Beast Boy blinked. "Beginning of America."

"Ohhhhh….America." A beat. The Tamaranian's eyelashes fluttered. "Where is that, Beast Boy?"

"…………………."

There was a flash of pink overhead. Three flashes of pink, actually.

Starfire glanced up. "Huh???"

Beast Boy looked. "Hmm….WHOAH!!!"

Three heavy, metal flagpoles…which were jutting out of the building up on the tenth floor…were now sailing down heavily past the Titans and towards the sidewalks full of people below. They were like silver comets with tails of red, white, and blue.

"Think fast!!" Beast Boy exclaimed. He dove after one of the flagpoles, fell past it, landed on the street in the form of an elephant, and reached a green trunk out over a gasping crowd to snatch one of the flagpoles in mid-air.

In the meantime, Starfire flew after another flagpole, gripped it, and used her alien strength to lift it up and away from its arc of descent. Her eyes glowed as she tossed it harmlessly into the middle of the street. "RrrrrRRAAUGH!!!" CLANK!!! She looked over. She gasped.

A third flagpole was falling and about to crush the heads of two families of onlookers.

"Beast Boy!! Behind you!!"

Beast Boy turned and looked. He turned into elf form and ran into action.

But both Titans were too far away. And there were only two of them.

The last flagpole sailed upon the innocent skulls of the victims.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Something black and brown blurred over, jumped, and---

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!!!!

The flagpole was ripped into ribbons and tossed piece-by-piece out into the middle of the street and safely away from the bystanders.

People gasped and covered their heads instinctively as the last piece was shredded away.

I drifted to the ground on a plume of smoke, the flag preserved and draped over my arm. I handed the stars and stripes to a random civilian who took it in bewildered hands. Everyone around him took one look at me, gasped, and backed off in fear.

I took a deep breath and looked up. There was a shadowed figure against the horizon of the building tops. Petite, catlike, and laced with a pink aura.

My fingers tightened around Myrkblade.

"Noir!!!"

That wasn't a name I heard in a while. At least not in that voice. I glanced behind my shoulder through my goggles momentarily.

Starfire and Beast Boy were running towards me. The Tamaranian was gasping and had her hand outstretched.

"Y-You are here!! Please, could you—"

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I leapt over the flinching crowd, blurred up the buildingside, and chased after the disappearing figure.

"Noir!! Wait!!" Starfire was about to fly up. "We just desire to converse with you---"

Beast Boy held her down with a hand on her shoulder. "Let him go, Star."

"But---!"

"We've got a duty to do here," the changeling said. "Robin, the City, the people…they're all counting on us."

"Noir is obviously not a villain!!" Starfire exclaimed. "You saw how he just saved the people!! He could be of assistance to us!!" Beast Boy slowly shook his head.

"No, Star. I wish he could, but he can't. It doesn't take a genius to tell he's not ready to help us out…….or simply t-trust us."

Starfire looked down, sighed, and uttered. "You are right. Let us continue our patrol before more flagpoles fall for no apparent reason."

"Yeah…..," Beast Boy scratched his head and looked up at the top of the hotel. "What's up with that anyways?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I chased Jinx across rooftops, gritting my teeth and blurring as fast as I could.

She hopped, skipped, and jumped from building to building to telephone wire to lamppost to building again and so on.

She was a dark figure of intermittent pink beneath an amber sky full of the smoke of domestic fireworks and the rise and fall (but mostly fall) of confetti from the building tops around us. Searchlights danced up in the background where Bayside Plaza stretched. And beyond that was the Bay with the grandstands erected momentarily on the beach to house viewers of the Independence Fireworks Show. In less than an hour, the skies would be on fire.

So people may have seen my heroism with the flagpole. I didn't care. I didn't care what my image was anymore. Everything in my system was honed in on one act and one act alone. Catching up to Jinx and yanking one of those communicators out of her ears.

It was almost like Jinx knew of my singular desire, for she hopped, evaded, and blurred along with wild abandon. And yet, she was moving slowly enough—giggling—to taunt me and torture me.

I was not in the mood for it.

I dragged Myrkblade alongside me and pursued her quicker and quicker.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A light blinked on the computer console of the T-Car.

Cyborg glanced at it…then at Raven.

The girl paused for a second before opening the computer console and performing a keystroke. Data splashed across a miniature computer screen.

Raven's blue eyes narrowed.

"We're detecting some residual carbonite."

"Where??"

"Somewhere in the City."

"Pfft!! That helps!"

"Hold on…," Raven typed some more and brought up more specific information. "Somewhere in this district. It's hard to tell with all the chaos happening where the carbonite emissions are coming from."

Cyborg looked out the windows…at all the waving, sparkling crowds waiting for the parade to pass.

"Not a pleasant time or place for a bomb to show up…."

"I'll run a scan using the T-Car's remote access to the Tower. Hopefully it'll only take a few minutes…but we'll get a positive reading."

"Better report this to Robin…," Cyborg said, reaching to the communicator in his arm.

Suddenly, the console beeped again.

Both Titans froze.

Raven inspected it.

"What now??" Cyborg remarked.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Better report this to Robin too…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Was anyone hurt??" The Boy Wonder asked, perched on a building side over the passing parade and noise.

"Negative…," Starfire exclaimed. "And soon after all three flagpoles were taken care of, Wyldecarde dashed away towards the East of Town."

"And what did you say about just right when the flagpoles fell?"

"Beast Boy and I both swore we could have seen a strobe of pink light out of the corners of our eyes…"

"Pink….," Robin thought aloud, his eyemask narrowing.

"I am sorry, Robin. I must cut short the communication. The parade is reaching us and we must keep a sharp look out."

"You do that. Thanks Star. I'll contact you as needed. Robin out."

No sooner had the Boy Wonder cut off his transmission with Starfire, Cyborg hailed him.

"Robin! Come in!!"

Robin flipped his communicator back open with a Star Trek sound. "You sound excited. What is it?"

"Two things. There're traces of carbonite emissions around this side of Town!"

Robin gritted his teeth. "Where exactly?"

"We're working on that. In the meantime, something else has come up."

"What is it?"

"There's been a breakout in prison."

"What??"

"A hole's been smashed in the Omega Wing!"

"Omega Wing?!?!" the Titan leader's eyemask bulged. "Th-That's where they house—"

"I know! What should we do??"

"Stick to the parade and fireworks area," Robin commanded. "See to it that these people are safe. And track. Down. That. Carbonite!!"

"Understood. But what about the prison?"

"We'll deal with that later…and hopefully it'll be later. Unless Slade has freed someone somehow to make things miserable for us."

"I miss the July Fourth when patriots were dying and bleeding in the virgin fields."

"You and me both, pal."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gritted my teeth, summoned murk in my legs, and leapt mightily after my target.

Three sets of building tops flowed beneath my flailing body as I honed in on the pink target, dove my body forward, and tackled--

WHUMP!!!

Jinx effortlessly rolled the two of us, vaulted her legs, and flipped me off of her.

I sailed off the side of a five-story building at an awkward angle. I pivoted myself in mid air and landed on the asphalt below with blurring feet. I slid back about five feet, Myrkblade held at ready as I looked up and saw the pink streak of my foe swan-diving, flipping, and landing in front of me.

Jinx crouched, looked up, and smiled with a girlish wink.

My brow furrowed.

WOOOOSH!!!

Without saying a single thing, she blurred over me.

I slashed with Myrkblade, but she was too fast. She sent me sprawling as she sailed straight into a large car lot behind me.

We were just at the edge of Downtown. Here, the streets were literally empty. Businesses were closed and sidewalks barren as the crowd of citizens congregated westward where the parade meandered its way to the Bayside Plaza. The car lot rested silently under the amber sky. Long strings of multicolored, plastic flags flipped and flapped in the cool breeze coming from the distant thunder clouds. The empty shells of crystal-clean cars reflected orange hues in the windows between bright signs displaying dealer prices and handling specs. It I hadn't known this was July Fourth, I would have guessed a plague had hit and desolated the populace.

I slowly headed into the lot. I walked through rows upon rows of vans, cars, trucks. All from the same manufacturer. The wind kicked at my black hair as I looked behind every aluminum shell for Jinx. I held Myrkblade up high. My breaths were steady as I traversed this ghost town of industry.

In the distance beyond the reflective roofs of shiny, painted bodies…the main building of the dealership curved concave around the nook of the asphalt lot. It was a transparent clamshell of a building, filtering the orange sunset through rows upon rows of windows lining the outside frames of metal as well as the translucent cubicles housed deep inside. It looked like some sort of tiffany glass experiment Frank Lloyd Wright would have made in kindergarten. To the side of the building was a huge, oblong propane tank surrounded with rusted aluminum fencing—perhaps the leftover component of a remote industrial facility once residing on that very same slab of concrete.

My black eyes thinned under the black goggles. I looked left. Nothing. I looked right. Nothing. I looked---

FLASH!!!!

Pink exploded above me as Jinx vaulted over and flipped to a landing behind a minivan.

I hadn't realized it till I hit the asphalt that she had hopped on my shoulders.

WHUMP!!

I winced and jumped up—rather embarrassed—and held Myrkblade at ready.

"Chasing after me?" she flirtingly smiled. "I'm soooooooo flattered, Ghost Boy! Hehehehehe!!"

I frowned and approached her slowly with my blade.

I. Had. To. Get. Her. Communicator.

"You and I…we'd make a perfect couple," she girlishly tiptoed backwards and gestured with graceful hands of pink. "Think about it!! What if you and I were to wed in holy matrimony? We wouldn't have to worry about quarreling! Cuz both you and I know that—no matter how much we fight—we always end up right back here." She gestured at her and I. "Together. Facing off. Having fun. The thrill of the chase. The sword and the hex. Jinx and Wyldecarde, the eternal card game of luck and bluff and overall absurdity!"

I frowned and approached her further.

She twirled backwards like a ballerina, jumped in reverse, and stood on the top of a pickup truck. "Face it, Ghost Boy. You never die, and I never run out of fortune. We're a stalemate. On this chessboard of a City, we're constantly bumping into each other. The pawns of good and evil. The only difference---though it hardly seems to matter anymore---is that I have friends moving my pieces around. You don't. Hehehehehe!"

I frowned and slashed at her.

CLANK!!!

A huge chunk was shredded out of the truck.

Jinx effortlessly backflipped and landed by the side of the dealership's clamshell building. Her back was to the only solid piece of cement wall the building had.

"The Titans…they've been long claimed by the chess player on my side of the board," Jinx smirked. "King Robin, Queen Starfire, Knight Cyborg, Bishop Raven and---hehe—pawn Beast Boy. They're all flipped over and lying on Slade's side of the table. They all just have to look beneath them and realize the black and white squares are gone. If chess pieces had eyes, then they'd be much better off…wouldn't you agree?"

I didn't respond. I approached her with Myrkblade outwardly stretched.

"But what do you know?" Jinx grinned like a Cheshire Cat, her back to the wall. "You never play by the rules…cuz you have eyes, Ghost Boy. Frighteningly black eyes that see far more than you should. And that turns you into a smarty pants who thinks he can outwit Slade. Well maybe you have outwit my Master…but the fact remains, Wyldecarde, that he has far more pieces on his side of the board than you ever will have."

I narrowed my black eyes.

I froze in place.

She giggled. "And it's about time Slade uses his rook!"

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!

Jinx flipped up as a huge bulge smashed through the concrete wall and thundered straight at me.

I didn't even have time to gasp--

WHAM!!!!!

A wall of stone knuckles flew into me. My whole body sailed back like a bowling pin and slammed hard into the side of a van, literally denting its side.

CLANK!!

I fell down to my knees, aching all over. I panted and looked up. My black eyes widened.

THUD!!!

One granite leg stomped into the asphalt.

WHUD!!!

A second leg formed another crater.

"RrrrrrrRRRGHHHH!!!!!" Cinderblock stood before me, flexing his craggy muscles and growling with thick, Gibraltan jaws.

I stood up, wincing. My lip quivered. I fearfully looked a few feet above Cinderblock where Jinx was perched above the shattered hole in the building's wall.

"He's on parole," she winked and smiled. "Oh…and he's also on my side. Have fun playing, you two! Ciao!!"

I gasped. I prepared to blur towards her when--

WOOOOSH—WHAM!!!!

Cinderblock's massive fist slammed once again into my gut.

I fell back, struck the top of the van, tumbled over it, and landed on the asphalt aisle between cars.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-SMASH!!!!

Cinderblock effortlessly charged through and knocked the van to the side. He………………it………….Cinderblock growled and swung again at my prone figure.

I gritted my teeth and rolled to the side.

CRASH!!

A wave of asphalt literally warbled outward like water from the fresh crater. I was lifted up off the ground and thrown onto the hood of a sports car.

I shook my head and looked up just in time to see the monstrosity coming at me again.

"RRRRGHHHH!!!"

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-SWOOOSH!!

Two fists—jointed together—swung down.

I vaulted myself up with a pulse of murk and flipped off the car.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!

The hood shattered. The engine crunched. The front end of the car flattened by a factor of ninety percent in two thirds of a second. The back end lifted up and interrupted my backflip. WHAP!!

I landed awkwardly on the asphalt between two vans and tumbled hard to a stop.

Cinderblock brushed the half-sports car away and ran at me. His eyes glowed yellow and soulless as his jaws opened and closed like Pac-Man on steroids.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!

His two arms flexed and came together on either van to my left and right.

I vaulted upwards in the nick of time.

CRUNCH!!!!!!

The two vans sandwiched beneath me in a shower of hot aluminum.

I backflipped, landed, and slid back a dozen feet.

I clutched hard to Myrkblade, panting, gritting my teeth. I looked up as sweat came down my goggles and saw Jinx perched against the amber July Fourth sky atop a lamppost in the center of the lot. She blew a kiss down at me, waved, and blurred off towards the West.

I had to follow her.

I made a run for it, but Cinderblock was on me again. He smacked me hard with his stone elbow and I was sent flying across the lot, landing atop a car, rolling off, and clutching my side in pain.

How could I get out of there??

Not a second afterwards, he was coming at me again.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-"RAAAAUGH!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx's path back to the parade was more of a dance than a sprint. She swayed back and forth from one side of the street to the other. She vaulted off buildings, flipped acrobatically, and giggled her way down to rooftops where she repeated the joyous excursion. Her aura was a free, victorious pink.

She had shaken the ghost off her.

And as the crowds and the sparkles and the confetti drew closer and closer beneath the orange world, she grinned her cat-like villainy in full glory.

"The rook is in place…," she hissed happily with a hand over her ear. "Wyldecarde has his hands full of concrete. I'm heading back to the quarry…"

"Good," Slade's voice replied calmly. "A job well done, Apprentice. Now complete the circle. Infect the Titans……and bring them to me."

"Affirmative." Jinx's eyes glowed brighter. She leapt straight over the parade and soared down with streaming hands of pink…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!

I flew back from the impact and slid to a stop. I clutched hard to Myrkblade, panting.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!

Cinderblock came to a stop. He growled and shook his fists threateningly.

I swallowed. I summoned smoke warbling through my blade.

SWOOOOOSH!!

I blurred at him and slashed up at his right leg.

SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!!!!

Sparks flew.

I didn't even make a scar.

"RRRRAAAUGH!!!"

Cinderblock shouted and swung a fist down.

SMASH!!

I side-jumped, rolled, hopped back up to my feet and jabbed a Destructively charged blade tip straight into the monster's left side.

CLANK!!!!

He didn't even budge.

He hissed and backhanded me.

WHAM!!!!

I was sent back ten feet. I landed atop a car at the beginning of a line of parked vehicles and poised ready…panting.

This was no robot impersonation of Cinderblock. This was the real McCoy.

And the Real McCoy was charging at me.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!

I panicked. I spun around. A row of car rooftops stretched before me. I hopped across them to get away.

SMASH!!! SMASH!!! SMASH!!

Cinderblock plowed through them like dominoes. Aluminum, tires, and glass shattered in a constant spray like painted water. The bodies of the cars tumbled loudly behind them and spun and swiveled to grinding stops of vehicular ruin.

I reached the last rooftop. A luxury car.

I spun around and let loose a fan of razor-sharp playing cards.

SWIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!

"RAUGH!!" Cinderblock flicked his wrist and effortlessly deflected them. Two flew back in my general direction. One popped the tire (POW!). The car lurched and I lost my balance right as the second car soared at my head. I ducked quickly, loosing a few strands of long black hair. SNIIIP!!

Cinderblock reached me.

STOMP-STOMP-SWOOSH!!

His fist crunched the luxury car in two.

I was already vaulting into the air. My free hand grabbed ahold of a branch suspending a light from a lamppost. I swung myself up and perched atop the metal 'tree' high over the lot. I tried to catch my breath.

Cinderblock would have none of it. He grabbed the front half of the luxury car in two stony hands, snapped it loose, spun, and flung it at me with a growl.

SWOOOOSH!!

"!!!!" I blurred and jumped off.

SMASH!!!

The car piece shattered against the top of the lamppost, sending the metal branches showering to the floor with shredded car parts. CRASH!!! CRINKLE!!

I landed on another lamppost two aisles away and crouched in my perch. Panting.

Cinderblock grabbed the back half of the luxury car and threw that too—but this time at the base of the post I was perched on.

WHACK!!!!

The lamppost wobbled, groaned, and started to lean over.

I inhaled. I looked up and saw a string of flags stretched over me. I made a mad dive as the lamppost started to fall over and gripped ahold of the colorful banner's cord.

CREEEEEAK!!! Below me, the lamppost careened over and smashed straight through five SUVs in a row. CRUNCH!!! Glass and aluminum flew. Sirens went off.

In the meantime, I was shimmying madly down the cord with two hands gripping the ends of Myrkblade stretched over the top. The sharp edge of the wooden sword ripped the rainbow-colored flags off and snowed them down in a plastic trail behind me. My shimmying speed increased and I realized—at the last second—that I was sliding straight down towards the concave, glass front of the dealership building.

My body tensed.

I hated this part……

CRASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx jumped down and perched on a windowsill.

Lights of gold and red danced across her grinning face.

She emanated a pink light that swallowed all other celebratory strobes up as she reached a hand out through the confetti and aimed a pink hex at the lumbering parade between the throngs of people below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Cyborg glanced aside.

Raven leaned forward and pointed at a map on the dashboard's computer console. "There!!"

"A location?"

She nodded. "I found the carbonite signature!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where is it??" Robin exclaimed into his communicator above the noise of the parade. He was perched atop an awning on a second floor building.

"This may sound crazy…but…"

"Just tell me where it is, Cyborg!!"

"Right behind you, Robin!! Right behind you in the middle of the street!!"

Robin's jaw dropped. Slowly he turned around. Across the air full of sparklers and confetti, he squinted his eyemask and zeroed his vision in on a lone, remotely operate float covered with a paper mache recreation of the battle of Bunker Hill. The patriot soldier standing in the very center was uniquely tall and slender compared to all the other manufactured figures. And the way the float moved along with the parade….it didn't even seem to touch the ground.

"Titans!!!" Robin blurted into his communicator. "The seventh float from the front of the cavalcade!! It's the bomb!!"

Almost immediately as he said that, a pink stream of energy struck the float. It suddenly gained speed, curved a path out and away from the parade, and down a dark alleyway.

"Shit!!" Robin grunted. He jumped down from the awning, landed in front of the sidewalk of people, and sprinted in pursuit. He ran across the parade, hopped over a float full of city officials waving at the crowd, meandered and shoved his way through a high school marching band, and streaked down the alleyway as fast as his legs could carry him.

The float picked up speed, the paper mache figures on it wobbling and shaking. At some point, a trash can or two brushed against the side of the float and ripped some of the décor off. Then the float grinded against the sides of the alley's brick walls, and the paper mache got stripped off completely. A hovercraft--complete with a blinking obelisk and carbonite detonator—soared into an adjacent street and took to the skies.

"It's heading Northeast!! Repeat!! A hovercraft with the carbonite detonator is heading Northeast!! I need backup!! Now!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg winked at Raven. "So much for a lazy drive."

She blinked back at him. "Please don't do the swerve-thing…"

He did the swerve-thing.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!!!

Raven flinched and clung hard to the Jesus bar as the car spun a one-eighty in the street, revved its engines, and sped down the barren road away from the parade and towards Robin's coordinates.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Surrounded by a sea of shattered glass, I looked up from the middle of the showroom floor. I shook my head and did a double-take as Cinderblock charged at me—growling.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!

The low clearance of the window frames shattered and bent from his lumbering neck.

CRUNCH!!!

He let out an ogre cry and swung down hard at me.

SMASH!!!

Tile and plaster flew.

I flipped back and slid in reverse on the glass. The inside of the dealership building was dark, save for the sparse amber light of the dying Sun filtering in through the rows of glass windows.

Cinderblock thundered over and lifted his foot at me.

I dodged to the side and vaulted over an behind a 'C' shaped desk. I rested my back to the wooden structure and panted…trying hard to catch my breath.

THWUMP!!!

The entire desk was lifted up effortlessly. Cinderblock's eyes narrowed as he peered at me like he had lifted a rock over a scrumptious bug.

I sweatdropped and made a dash for the large windows opposite me in the building.

SWOOOOOSH!!

The desk flew over me, slammed into the metal frames, and showered into violent splinters that blocked my path.

I skidded to a stop and turned around.

But just as soon as I was facing in reverse, Cinderblock was upon me.

He effortlessly gripped my torso with one hand. I struggled for breath. I couldn't lift Myrkblade out from under.

"Rrreeaaaugh!!! RHAAAA!!"

He spun around on grinding legs of granite and tossed me straight into a translucent cubicle against the barren wall.

SMASH!! I slammed through a computer station, slumped against the wall, and draped limply down the edge of a desk.

I wheezed.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!

He came at me.

I looked up. I swung my head to the side. I sent a channel of murk through my sword and dove straight through the translucent cubicle's divider. SLASH!!!

SMASH!!!!

Cinderblock's lunging fist occupied half of the office space. Meanwhile, I bore a hole and leapt into the next cubicle. I rolled on the ground, jumped up, and ran Myrkblade first to the next compartment--

SMASH!!!!!!!!

The space behind me shattered to pieces from Cinderblock's fist. He chased me through cubicle after cubicle alongside the wall. Splinters and shards and shrapnel of office equipment and glass and computers flew all around us in a fountain. Soon I reached the last cubicle, beyond which was a wall that curved upward. I blurred, ran up it, backflipped, and landed on Cinderblock's shoulders with my legs dangling around his neck. I lifted Myrkblade up with two hands gripping the hilt, clenched my teeth, and jabbed straight down into his stone skull.

CLANK!!!!

A spark or two flew, but I couldn't penetrate. I forced and forced and forced Myrkblade, my entire body shaking.

Cinderblock merely grunted, lifted an arm of mountainous muscle and gripped the back of my black and brown outfit.

I gasped as he gripped me, raised me up in the air, and tossed me clear across the interior with a monstrous yell.

I flew, bounced painfully off a desk, and landed in an office hair that wheeled me a good ten feet before I crashed straight into a spilling water cooler.

I shook my head dizzily.

"RRRRRAUGH!!!"

I looked up.

Cinderblock had his leg raised up from afar. He brought it down heavily and slammed it hard into the ground.

SLAM!!!!

A ridge of crunching tile swam its way through the building's foundation and thundered straight at my grounded body.

I gasped…and was then jolted nine feet into the air.

RUMBBBBBLE!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

"Skreeeee!!!!"

Starfire and a green-feathered Beast Boy soared down over the City with its glowing earthworm streets full of sparkling citizens and lavish parade cavalcades. Below them, the blue and white dot of the T-Car throttled down the streets in an awkward pursuit. An even smaller dot of yellow and green hopped from building top to building top in the same direction.

And that direction was aimed at a silvery hovercraft that glinted in the orange sunset and rocketed Northward towards the edge of the City's Park.

Hidden and alone, a pink dot was blurring across the City…taking the leftmost flank of the chase.

Matching the speed….and even mastering it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx hopped from buildingtop to buildingtop, grinning. She didn't even break a sweat. Her black and brown limbs moved effortlessly. Like skimming over water. Pink hair fluttering in the breeze of adrenaline.

Acceleration…

Fate in action, rolling off some precipice of inevitability and crashing into everyone and everything that dying evening of celebration.

The end of an era. The eve of a Revolution in Karma.

Jinx kept the hovercraft in her sights. Every now and then she shot a weak—nearly invisible—band of pink hex across the rooftops and into the flying vehicle, forcing it to maneuver strategically to keep the Titans on their toes and drag them towards the Park…

Towards the Master of the chess board.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My body vaulted upwards from the sudden fissure in the floor.

I came back hard on the tile, almost dropping Myrkblade, wincing.

Cinderblock let out another warbling shout and stomped his foot straight down again.

THUD!!!

Another fissure swam at me.

Lying face forward, I looked up with clenched teeth as an invisible rabbit burrowed at me through the tile and plaster.

This time I was ready…

I sent waves of smoke through my limbs.

RUMBBBBBBLE!!!!!!

I flexed my arms and legs. I launched myself upward, using the exploding fissure as a ramp. I flew up, latched onto a light fixture, and swung forward. In mid swing, I whipped out two razor sharp playing cards in one hand and threw them with an exhale.

SWIIIIIIISH!!!!

They soared straight into Cinderblock's face.

He closed his yellow eyes.

CL-CLANK!!!

The projectiles stuck hard into his stone eyelids.

He grunted in frustrations and fumbled with chubby fingers to yank the objects out.

At the end of my swing, I leapt off the light fixture, flipped, landed with my feet implanted on the wall over the smashed cubicles, blurred my legs, and shot back out across the 'arena' with Myrkblade jabbing towards Cinderblock's pelvis.

STAB!!!

The force of my blow sent the two of us sliding across the floor with dust and plaster flying beneath Cinderblock's legs. He blindly reached a hand back and grabbed me lengthwise.

I gasped as he screeched to a stop and threw me forward.

I flipped and barely landed inside. My back rested precariously against a slate of glass forming the window of the building's front.

Cinderblocked gripped the playing cards, growled, and yanked them out.

CLUNK!!

He shook some loose pebbles off his eyelids and opened his yellowish peepers again. With a sneer, he tossed both cards at me.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

I twirled Myrkblade.

CL-CLANK!!!

Both projectiles shattered to pieces.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!

Cinderblock quickly charged at me soon after that.

I had no choice but to hold up my sword, tense my muscles, and flinch….

"RRRRRRAAAAUGH!!!!"

SMASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHOOOOOOM!!!!

The thrusters of the hovercraft glowed as the vehicle burned its way through the air and towards the green expanse in the center of the crater of urban glory that was the Park.

As the last layer of buildingtops came up ahead, Robin took a breath and pushed his legs into overdrive. He leapt off the rooftop into open air—and with the street and park's sidewalk yawning beneath him—he whipped out a grappling hook and fired at the hovercraft above.

POW!!!----CLANK!!!

His device attached, and he hung on a twenty-foot-long cord. He retracted slowly, closing the distance between him and the thundering vehicle overhead.

In the meantime, Cyborg and Raven ran out of road.

The T-Car screeched to a stop. The side doors flung open and Cyborg and Raven popped out. Immediately Raven's eyes glowed a bright gray as her body lifted up. She flicked a wrist to her left side, and a circular platform of black solidified under the android Titan. Together, the two shot up towards the hovercraft at air-whipping speed.

Starfire and Beast Boy caught up, hair and feathers flapping in the July Fourth air.

The thunderclouds boiled in the distance. The air began to rumble slightly. Any second now, and fireworks would rack the night and crack the world in two.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx hopped off a building, sailed through the air, and landed with graceful pink light on top of a tall oak tree on the edge of the park. She looked up. She grinned. She extended a hand and shot the hovercraft from afar with her hex.

FLASH!!

She giggled.

Her cat eyes sparked.

"Checkmate…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Hovercraft's thrusters glowed less.

The vehicle slowed in mid-air.

The Titans caught up with it.

Beast Boy was the first to touch down. His flings flapped as he perched onto the side of the careening vehicle with razor-sharp talons. He then turned into a large, green gorilla that tipped the hovercraft to the side with his weight. The hovercraft tried calibrating, but only caused it to fall gradually towards the earth.

With white eyes narrowing, the changeling flexed his gorilla arms and pulled at the cord Robin was dangling from. He slowly yanked the Boy Wonder up and onto the body of the rocketing hovercraft.

Next, Starfire touched down and gripped ahold of the obelisk, steadying herself on the vehicle's surface.

Then Cyborg and Raven levitated up and hopped onto the platform.

All five Titans had caught up….and their bodies reflected the green glow of the strobing, carbonite detonator.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From some mysterious location, Slade stood still with his hands behind his back.

Wind blew leaves and bits of grass past his statue-like form.

Orange sunset glinted off his smooth helmet.

A single, emblazoned eye tilted up towards the sky.

Calm.

Waiting….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!

I flew out of the front of the dealership building, soared over open asphalt, and smashed through another set of glass.

This time, the windshield of a huge pickup truck.

CRASH!!!!

I collapsed against the driver's and passenger's seat.

Panting.

Wincing.

Bleeding in a few places.

I looked up with thin black eyes through my goggles as Cinderblock slowly ducked through the hole in the front of the building and glared at me.

I wheezed and looked out over the dashboard.

I gasped.

The propane tank was straight ahead of me. Thirty feet off. Guarded by a flimsy fence of aluminum.

I swiftly swung my head to the left.

The placard showing the vehicle specs had half collapsed on my shoulder from my impact.

Upside down, I read the unmistakable text: "HEMI Engine."

I looked back up.

Cinderblock slowly stepped straight towards the hood.

The propane tank rested far behind him.

I inhaled, blurred to a sitting position, and went to work.

SLASH!!!

With Myrkblade, I ripped apart the casing for the steering wheel.

I fumbled with aching fingers with the wires.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's no use!!" Robin exclaimed above the noise of acceleration, fumbling with the controls on the obelisk. "I can't disarm the thing while we're in mid-air!! We gotta bring it down!!"

"But we keep increasing altitude!!" Starfire exclaimed. "The thrusters are gaining strength against our combined weight!!"

"I can become heavier!!" Beast Boy smiled and waved.

"Not advisable…," Raven shook her head. "We want to ground this hovercraft. Not squash it."

"You have any better suggestion?!?!" the changeling cackled.

"I do!!" Cyborg exclaimed. "Starfire!!"

"Yes?!?!"

"You and I are gonna blast the thrusters on our side simultaneously!!"

"Good idea!!" Robin nodded. "Beast Boy!! Smash the rear thrusters after they're both done and we've drifted close enough to the ground!!"

"Roger!"

"I'll guide our descent!!" Raven said.

"Okay…," Cyborg turned his right arm into a laser rifle. "On the count of three!!"

Starfire raised a glowing hand of green.

Beast Boy flexed his green muscles.

"One……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sparks flew as I connected and reconnected wires.

I grit my teeth.

I glanced up.

Cinderblock came closer and closer.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!

I took a deep breath.

Concentrating…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Two….."

Raven's eyes glowed gray. She held two hands up and prepared to use her power.

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZAP!!!!

Sparks flew.

I sweated.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!

The windows started to rattle and shake as a wall of stone enveloped the sight through the windshield.

FLASH!!

One last flurry of sparks.

My fingers burned as an electric current shot through and I successfully hotwired the truck.

The HEMI engine thundered to life, shaking the truck and warbling up my spine as I gripped ahold of the wheel, gritted my teeth, and raised my foot over the gas pedal.

"RRRRRRAUGHHH!!!" Cinderblock came down on the truck with massive arms of destruction.

I frowned.

Up yours…you damn oversized brick!!

SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!

The tires burned on the asphalt.

The engine screamed.

The RPM meter spun laps.

I shifted gears.

VROOOOOOOOOOOM-CLUNK!!!!!

The engine plowed hard into the midsection of Cinderblock. The monster growled as I shoved him across the lot and straight towards the propane tank.

I sheathed Myrkblade with one hand, whipped out a playing card, and tossed it straight down.

SWIIISH-CLANK!!!

The projectile stabbed into the gas pedal, pinning it hard to the floor of the vehicle.

"RRRRAAAAUGH!!!!"

Cinderblock shrieked. He turned around. His yellow eyes widened.

The giant propane tank flew at his back.

CLANK!!

The metal fence gave way.

I took a deep breath…

Relaxed my limbs….. And turned into smoke.

WOOOOSH!!!

I teleported to a stand still as the body of the truck flew through me and shoved the monstrosity straight into the tank.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"THREE!!!"

Cyborg fired. ZAP!!!!!

Starfire launched. FLASH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOMB!!!!

A veritable mushroom cloud of fire and shrapnel danced upwards at the edge of the ruined car lot.

I solidified in a backwards flip, landed, and slid backwards across the asphalt….panting and watching the flaming chaos.

Flame and orange light danced across the black surface of my goggles. There was a sudden smell and thunder of explosion throughout the air…because above the fiery grave of Cinderblock, bright splashes of red white and blue lit the sky.

The Independence Fireworks had started. As the plume of propane eruption stabbed into my eyesight in the foreground, branches and splashes of multi-colored carnage formed the background over the Bay.

There was celebration in the air, and it reeked of death. Of the destruction and deterioration of something great, strong, and pumping with familiar spirit. Like the last breaths of friends. Warm on the verge of pain, and laced with cold sorrow.

I inhaled heated air of leaked propane and smoking Cinderblock.

The Titans!!

I spun around in the opposite direction.

My heart beat.

My hands had been too full to do anything!!

What had Jinx done?!?!

I blurred across the City as fast as my murking legs could carry me. I left Cinderblock to burn to ashes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POW!!!!

The thrusters exploded.

The hovercraft lurched.

Robin and Beast Boy almost lost their balance.

Raven enveloped the base of the vehicle with her black telekinesis and slowed the descent.

As they came to the level of treetops and fountains in the park, Beast Boy leaned over as a giant sloth and shredded the large, rear thruster of the hovercraft apart with long claws.

CRACK!!!!

The hovercraft was powerless now.

Raven gritted her teeth and strained.

She managed to lower the craft to a grinding slide through the grass and earth.

SCRAAAAAPE!!!

"Eek!!" Starfire exclaimed.

Cyborg wobbled.

Robin gritted his teeth and clung hard to the obelisk.

The carbonite glowed against him.

Against all of them…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Robin's bloodstream—as in everyone else's….

Nanoprobes materialized from a short-distance energy transfer.

They swirled in the plasma with microscopic motors before bumping into a blood cell, suddenly spinning and rocketing towards it, and clinging on with tiny claws.

Across the tiny shells of the probes, emblazoned 'S''s spun and twirled with the throttling cells through the arteries and veins.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

GRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIND!!!!

The hovercraft plowed up a hill of earth between sidewalks and ended with a lurch against a patch of high grass, unattended to by negligent landscapers.

The point was high enough to catch the surrounding cityscape and the splashes of fireworks to the south where the Bay was.

All five Titans sighed and jumped off the hovercraft…somewhat dizzy.

"Good! We stopped it!!" Robin exclaimed. He spun around and studied the obelisk up close. "Okay….now all we need to do is find a way to carefully peel this thing open and get to the carbonite core inside. Cyborg, can I get a little hand?"

Silence.

"Cyborg??" the Boy Wonder spun around and soon realized why all four of his teammates were suddenly quiet.

His jaw dropped.

"Hello, Titans…," Slade's helmet nodded. The masked terrorist stood calmly in the high grass. A phalanx of robot henchmen stood behind him in a line. Wind kicked at the high grass beneath their still legs and glaring eyes of gray and emblazoned mystery. Far off in a distant corner, a hauntingly familiar figure leapt down from nowhere and perched atop a lamppost with a green glow. "How nice of you to drop in….," he added. "A force stronger than gravity has pulled you into my lap. The fireworks…they scream and laugh for you. This is a great time to be alive. To be alive to die…"

"Titans!" Robin shouted as his cohorts readied themselves into fighting positions and frowned. "Get ready—"

"Get ready for what, Robin?" Slade gestured with his right hand. "You've already fought all that you can fight. You've already suffered all that you can suffer. What is there left for you to be ready for but the act of not being ready for anything? In short…this is the end. This is the end that I promised you from the day that the Sakura Scraper fell. But you were too ignorant to pay me much heed then. Perhaps things are a lot clearer now."

"What are you getting at?" Robin sneered.

"There's nothing to get at anymore. Don't you see, Robin? Don't you feel it? Swimming through your arteries and pumping through your heart like the very life force prodding you into that everlasting darkness we all must face at some time or another? It is all a matter of inevitability. Of cause and effect! Weights and springs of the celestial clock. Everything pulling and pushing together to drag you and your friends to where you are now. Borrowing from the past and creating a new future. Maintaining old rules and inventing new ones all the same. And in spite of it all, there's the same old pull. The same clutch of fate. The same energy of helplessness that fills your heart with dread and a realization that the Experiment is no longer tomorrow or yesterday but infinitely now."

"You gonna make sense?" Cyborg growled. "Or should we blast you a new mouth to talk with?"

"There'll be no blasting here, dear child…," Slade's eye narrowed. "And the only sense left for you five is pain. A pain much like the anguish I've dealt with all these months in trying to concoct a way to eliminate you and claim the City for my own. But like all other souls exposed to the triviality of life and all of its finite materialism, I've realized the greatest power there'll ever be is power itself. If I could never achieve what I needed in this universe…the only thing left to do was change the universe. To deconstruct reality and rearrange it with a transverse dichotomy. A reinvention of Morals, and the shattering of whatever Balance once governed their checks and balances prior till now. It's not that complicated, Titans. The structure of the universe is much like a broken heart. It's infinitely vulnerable to pain and shock…much like your hearts when you so eagerly rejected the innocent companionship of Noir. For once, I feel less than the supreme villain of this dramatic domain."

Beast Boy frowned.

Raven spat with glowing eyes: "What did you do to Noir?!?!"

"If you insist on knowing…," Slade's helmet tilted. "I freed him. It was never him that I was after. Nor was it the City. All I wanted…were you five. And all it took was a simple prod…a shove to the back of fate to set things in motion towards the Experiment. It was so easy…until the freedom I granted your Noir came back to haunt me, and for a while there was an impervious limbo that made me reevaluate the vulnerability of this fickle universe of precarious Balance of Morals. But in the end, my perseverance won out. And I once again have the five of you in my clutches like it was in the beginning of this trifold Experiment."

"You have nothing in your clutches but an ass-kicking!!" Robin grumbled with a strong finger pointed at the terrorist and his henchmen. "So give it up or we'll rip it from your bleeding heart!!"

"Such strong words…," Slade's eye glared. "You sound just as vicious as you did back when you were all infected last."

The Titans' eyes widened to that.

"But of course….all life has done to you—dear Titans—is repeat itself! You are back at where things started!! On the eve of the turn of the First Apprentice! The only difference now is evident in two ways. One: I care very little for Robin's pathetic neck. Two: I care very little for the whole five of you as a matter of fact…."

"I-Infected?" Beast Boy gasped.

"Why…of course the carbonite was not there only to blow this City apart in pieces and bring people down on their knees!" Slade exclaimed. "It was a lure…the most obvious lure. And the biggest fish of all bit at once. All five of them. And the hook is settled in so deep, no amount of struggle will yank it from the meat. The carbonite transferred its venom for the third and last time. The gradual process of contamination is complete. Once again the five of you know no destiny than the simple flick of my finger. It is the coldest and most ironic manifestation of Full Circle in our Age yet…."

Cyborg gasped. "Nanoprobes….."

The other Titans' faces fell as chills of cold horror ran up their spines and splashed down through their skin.

Slade held up a trigger in his left hand.

His eye narrowed.

His voice hissed.

"De………ja………vu……"

-click-

Somewhere in the distance of the night, a dying woman screamed like falling rain against a sheet of rusted copper. Or so that's what it sounded like in the remote corners of the Titans' eardrums. Like steam exiting out of dried bones and clanking down the tubes in their heads till it exploded in a missile that fell down their chests and melted hot, molten lava over their hearts. Their eyesight and bodies glowed with an orange fury that matched the celebratory sky. Fireworks exploded with bangs, pops, and hisses that melted against their skin and constricted all muscles around their necks and squeezed out the only thing comprehensible to their aching needs:

Unabashed screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!"

Robin fell to his knees.

Starfire toppled over.

Beast Boy curled up.

Cyborg slammed to the earth.

Raven wilted.

Five glowing bodies…forming a ring around the smoking hovercraft in the tall grass.

The glowing pain of their agony reflected off Slade's helmet.

He watched, his emblazoned eye twitching once or twice with a heartbeat like he was aroused.

The henchmen watched silently…emotionlessly. They were looking more through the halo of tortured teens rather than at them.

In the distance…as the screams turned into thundering echoes, Jinx's cat eyes thinned.

The sorceress slowly smiled…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blurred across the landscape.

I panted.

Fireworks boomed behind me.

The resounding waves of their concussions skimmed the asphalt, pavement, and grass blurring beneath me and giggled up my heels.

I streaked a smoking path out of the City blocks, into the park, and up a hill.

A lonely hill.

A lonely hill with the dilapidated remains of a hovercraft.

I gasped.

My blur came to a slow, sluggish step of heavy feet.

My jaw hung open wide.

I approached a halo of yellow objects.

I stripped my face of the goggles and stared with wide, blinking black eyes.

Five communicators.

Alone.

Discarded.

And the footsteps of androids all around the grass and dirt.

I was too late……

I hyperventilated.

I was……too late………

I fell down to my knees.

My whole body shook.

I hugged myself.

I hiccupped.

Slade had them…he had them all…he always had them.

I clenched my eyes shut and let loose a silent howl into the sky.

Arteries pulsed in my neck.

A numbness crept up my extremities and vibrated me into agony as the tears flowed.

Full Circle……Full Circle……Full Circle……

I panted.

I shook.

I teetered and tottered on my knees. Dizzy. Empty. Needing food. Needing sleep. Needing sanity.

Needing friends.

Defeated and wilted and melting into oblivion……

First there was the horror of Robin, the First Apprentice. Then there was the Betrayal of Terra, the Second Apprentice. And now there was the defeat through Noir, the Third Apprentice.

Full Circle.

Everything had come Full Circle.

Slade had won.

Slade had won and I couldn't do a damned thing.

I had tried and tried and tried and tried. I had thrown my dignity into the fire. I had raped my name before public with every swing of Myrkblade, every toss of the wildcard, and every cowardly dash into the night after senselessly beating the friends I loved and tried to 'protect'.

Over and over and over and over and over… Full Circle. Full Circle and I was alone again. And I was helpless again. And I was……without redemption again.

The irony was so dark. So hideously wrong, that it was hideously right. A chuckle ran up my spine. It exploded out of my mouth in an insane giggle. And it wasn't until halfway through the maniacal cackling that I remembered that I had no voice and I looked over and saw a pink skeleton of a sorceress perched alone atop a lamppost, leering down at me, clutching her gut as he Cheshire Cat mouth hung open in an eternal bellow of contempt, haughtiness, and banal victory.

I bit my lip till blood formed. My teeth grit into a red sauce and smoke warbled down my eyes.

In one jump….in one single jump….I put my goggles back on, unsheated Myrkblade, and slashed hard in front of me. I didn't realized I had miraculously crossed the distance between me and Jinx until I saw her flying back from the blunt impact of my wooden sword.

CRACK!!!!

Her body went sprawling with a good half of the lamppost reduced to violent shards of superheated, smoking metal. I came down at her in a shower of shrapnel. I lifted the blade over my head—screamed silently—and slashed for all that 'all' was worth.

FWOOOOOSH!!!

The earth and sidewalk parted. Jinx agilely rolled to the side and a fountain in the distance literally exploded in a spray of stone and reclaimed water from my Destruction.

CRUMBLE!!!!

Jinx jumped up to her platform shoes and let out a gothic giggle, clutching to her bruised side from my sword as she grinned at me and winked. "Hehehehehehe!! What's the matter, Ghost Boy?!?! Letting back?! Hit me again!! I've been a bad girl!!"

I gritted my teeth till sparks flew. I had one thing on my mind and one thing only.

Communicator……

I twirled Myrkblade and flew at her.

Communicator!!!

SWOOOSH!!!

Jinx easily jumped back from my slash. She zapped me with light flicks of pink hex. Toying with me. Reveling in the afterglow of her victory. The cat and her dark little mouse of a chess playing adversary.

"You should have been here, Ghost Boy!!"

I slashed.

The ground shattered.

She backflipped and perched on the back of a bench.

"Tears rolled down everybody's eyes!! They were in sooooooo much pain!! Even the blue one you hung around with so much had a face sopping wet from the torture!! What's her name…..Risty? Raver? Ah, it doesn't matter. She was a bitch anyhow. Hehehehehehe!!"

I exhaled and dove at her.

SMASH!!!!

I flew through the bench as Jinx flew up.

She hung on the side of a lamppost and leisurely 'inspected' her fingernails as she added:

"Oh…they're gone. Gone for good. Gone off to shift the Balance of Morals. You see, Ghost Boy, when you become the fulcrum upon which the very matter of the universe's structure hinges upon…the pressure builds up intensely. And all you know…and all you are…is 'pain' itself. That's what your Titan friends are. They're the fulcrum! And once my Master crucifies them in any fashion he sees fit, a hole will be torn in the Machine of life and everything will come crashing down for him to rebuild according to his own rulebook! It will be the start of a brand new Creation!! And Slade shall be the one articulating the draftboard!! He'll have his macrocosm. I'll have my sisters. And you, Ghost Boy, you'll have yourself!! Which is just as well!! It's all you ever freakin' cared about, isn't it?!?! Hehehehe!!"

I ran up the lamppost and stabbed at her.

She flipped off, landed in the sidewalk, and twirled off a few feet—giggling—and performing a graceful curtsy at the end of her spins.

"Enjoy the universe you helped formulate, Wyldecarde!! Your bluffs made it alllll possible!! Now if you don't mind…I have a future to attend to. It's been fun dancing with you. But you're not my type. I prefer boyfriends with souls. Ciao!!"

She blurred south towards the Bay in a pink stream.

I heaved. My goggles shook above a fountain of smoke pouring out from my eyes.

So maybe I didn't have a soul. Maybe I was just a machine that fitted into Slade's equations. I frankly didn't give a shit anymore. I was an animal. My eyes narrowed and my neck throbbed with smoke filling my bloodstreams. The sprockets burst and were replaced by hairy muscles sprinting across some unseen prairie or meaty ligaments pouncing through a dark jungle in some metaphysical abyss of nature. The numbness of my body mixed with the exhaustion of my mind and formed a parallax, between which my resolve squeezed through and popped out the other side, screaming forth a warcry with blood-stained blades swinging, thirsting, cutting the air and whistling with the same speed that blurred through my legs and pushed me along in some sort of hazed sprint directly following the pink stream of sorcery streaking meters ahead of and away from me down a cutting path through the South of the City.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

As the grass beneath me turned to pavement and asphalt, I gradually caught up closer and closer with Jinx. She looked back at me, giggled, and flung pink hexes to either sides of her. Parking meters, stop signs, and newspaper vendors flew at me. I slashed each and every hulking object away with calculated swings of my Myrkblade. The girl skirted over building tops, around dark alleyways, up and over cars and past semis and gradually through the sparkling tunnels of citizens and onlookers congregating in a bulbous body of humanity trailing after the parade cavalcade and towards the exploding horizon of the red, white, and blue-against-amber sky beyond.

As I chased her with every fervor matching her own sporadic bursts of speed and direction, my world was submerged in chaos. Sparkling gold blinded me between strobes of darkness—inside which the skies laughed with colorful flowers of noise and grandeur. The bleachers beyond the Bayside plaza embraced the chaos from afar. It was the Revolution of a Revolution. Past, Present, and Future forming one giant orgasm of social obliteration as the citizens of this virgin City imagined a world with safe Titans, happy heroes, and cowardly criminals. And for a second there amidst the running and the panting and the cold-hearted obsessing I had the urge to turn around and laugh venomously at the pathetic organisms I tried so desperately to save with the swing of an antique sword day in and day out, only to see them laughing and smiling back at me with the full understanding that they did not understand just what Hell my former teammates were going through and that it was all my fault and that if I died tomorrow it would be of no little cost as long as I expend every waking shred of lingering metabolism in my emaciated, bleeding, and beat up body to leap forth and grab…Jinx's…communicator!

And that was when I realized I had lost her.

I skidded to a stop at a pair of docks just half a mile beyond the bleachers and overlooking the lapping waters of the Bay.

I gasped and spun around. My black eyes shivered under the black goggles. In an instant…I saw the last hope of my former teammates fall.

….and then something else fell.

"YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAA!!!" A petite, pink body pounced down from a building top, saddled my shoulders, and gripped two glowing hands over my eyes.

"Guess whooooooo!!" Hex charge and—"Hehehehe!!"

FLASH!!!!

I went blind.

I let out a silent, painful scream. A pink Sun was in my eyes. I had no strength to even lift Myrkblade to stab Jinx off of me.

She laughed louder and rode me…flashing pink strobes of magic into my eyes over and over again like spurs digging into my retinae.

I twitched, teetered, and stumbled.

I realized she was trying to blind me into the ground.

But I was more than the typical stallion. I was mad with disease. The disease of heroism. And what a damn good disease that is.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

"Whoah!!!" she exclaimed, gripping hard to my cranium as her body tilted back.

I blurred blindly forward. Just as I expected, my feet started splashing into salt water surf. I added smoke to my limbs and ran over the waves. Straight out into the Bay. A streaking, visionless form of brown and black with a pink girl riding desperately on his shoulders.

Jinx panted. I sensed fear and I lapped it up thirstily. I could have run us into the waters…grinding us into the bed of the Bay and through the earth's crust to emerge as smoking skeletons in China. I could have run into a boat and let our blood mix together as the impact with the hull squeezed our guts out of our epidermal layers. Truth be told, all I did was run. I let my powers warble above and behind me and act as a sail. It was up to Fate and Fate alone to determine where I went.

Explosions from the fireworks rocked directly above us, booming into our ears and silencing the shrieks and giggles and taunts of Jinx till she once again became that fearful, lonely little henchgirl in my blinded eyes like I had faced off against before on the Westhaven and seen her vulnerability strip her down to nothing but a skeleton that hides behind a shallow resolve and sporadic piety to one notorious despot after another.

The world returned to me in a blur of fading blindness as the water below me suddenly turned into dry ground.

THWUMP!!!

I went sprawling forward across a wooden floor rocking in the waves. I felt the body of Jinx fly off me and I heard her tumble hard to the floor ahead of me with a soggy gasp. And then I heard the world exploding directly in my ear.

PHWOOOOMP!!!

A blaring, shrill whistle and then--

KRA-POW!!!!!! Directly above.

I opened my black eyes…blinked…and rolled over.

Ashes and sparks sailed down from me amidst stars and an amber glow.

I blinked.

The sky….

PHWOOOOOOOMP!!!!! Something exploded aside me.

I gasped and sat up.

I was surrounded by black cannons aimed at the troposphere.

Jinx and I were in the center of the Bay. Atop the floating deck full of cannons. The launch site for the Indepence Fireworks Show.

KRA-PING!!!!!!!!

A half-mile wide flower bloomed above us in red white and blue. The concussion in the air warbled down—literally kicked at my long black hair—and flattened my eardrums into my skull.

I winced, hobbled up onto numb legs, and rushed towards the sides of the deck and away from the myriad of cannons.

SMACK!!!!

A platform shoe swung around from the side suddenly and knocked me back. I flew seven feet, collapsed on the ground, and knocked my head square back against a cannon….which fired.

PHWOOOOOMP!!!!

The vibration of the fireworks launch shook down my skull, my neckbone, and rattled my spine.

I gasped, gritted my teeth, and looked up as a pink sorceress giggled, leapt, and came down at me with a sailing kick of death.

I twirled to the side.

SMASH!!!

Her kick bent the now blank cannon.

I jumped up, twirled Myrkblade, and jabbed at her.

She sidestepped and a cannon in front of me launched—PHWOOOOOMP---almost knocking up straight through the length of Myrkblade.

KRA-POW!!!

BANG!!!!!!

I gasped and leaned precariously back. Colored ashes fell all around us and the deck on the waters in a distant halo.

I heard a twirling sound and didn't even need to turn and look to see the ballerina sorceress swinging a kick upside my back.

WHAM!!!

I tumbled forward—flipped over a firing cannon—and teleported just in time to avoid the blazing contact with the streaming projectile.

PHWOOOOOMP!!!

SWOOOOSH!!!! I materialized in reverse and slid to a stop down a live row of cannons.

Jinx hopped from cannon top to cannon top effortlessly…fearlessly…every other step she took, the cannons immediately launched right as she hopped away from them. Three blazing streaks of fire rose up into the air and exploded as Jinx found one tall cannon with the tip of her platform shoe and twirled slowly about with her hands outstretched and her face a crescent moon of Cheshire as mountain-sized, brilliant splashes of psychotic jubilee splashed and cascaded maniacally in the amberlit sky, silhouetting the absurdity of her pink-hued, petite figure as she aimed her cat-eyes down at me with amusement.

The world was a play and this was her encore.

For a split second the exhaustion lifted from my body as I stood there…panting…marveling.

Things were coming full circle….in that the circle itself was giving me another chance to break it. Jinx was Slade's most deadly apprentice yet. But she was still a girl.

She was still young. She was till immature.

And I could still get that damn communicator out of her friggin' ear……

She winked.

I smirked.

Jinx's cat-eyes widened in shock as her smile fell.

SWOOOOSH!!!

At the end of her twirl, I blurred over and plowed into her. In slow motion we both zoomed over the length of the deck's array of cannons as the red, white, and blue ashes waterfalled around us and reflected in the Bay.

WHUMP!!

Time resumed as I slammed her to the ground back-first. I jabbed down and reached for her ear under a tuft of pink hair.

She vaulted her legs up with a growl.

I went spiraling down an aisle of cannons, some launching on either side of me.

PHWOOOMB!!! PHWOOOMB!!!

I slid to a stop, twirled Myrkblade, and came at her with a snarl.

She jumped up and blocked with criss-cross wrists, glowing pink.

CLANK!!!

KRA-POW!!!!

Red white and blue.

I spun and stabbed low.

Jinx jumped back.

I back-kicked her straight in the chest.

WHUMP!!

She stumbled backwards.

I spiraled my body around and struck her ribcage hard with the blunt side of Myrkblade.

WHACK!!!

She went flailing over cannons firing haphazardly up past her figure. Streams of sparkling light whistled until the concussions boomed off above us and shrouded the rushing sound of wind as I teleported over in smoke form and literally caught Jinx at the end of her flight from my previous impact.

WHAM!!!

I brought her back down onto my knee.

WHUMP!!!

And kicked her in the side.

She went tumbling painfully across the deck. She curled up against a cannon and clutched her ribs….eyes tearing.

I had no mercy.

I dove down for her ears.

She gritted her cat like teeth and swung a platform shoe up at me.

WHACK!!

My chin flew back as stars hid against the splash of a golden flower above us.

"RRRRAUGH!!!" Jinx pounced up, pounced me, and pummeled my head up against the edge of a cannon. She gripped my chin with glowing pink fingers and forced my cranium further and further against the barrel of one cannon that hadn't fired yet.

Not quite yet….

"I think it's about time you went to Hell, Ghost Boy…," she sneered. "Don't worry. Your friends will be joining you shortly."

I frowned. I didn't like hearing that. So I kneed her hard in the mammary glands.

WHUMP!!!

Jolted, Jinx stumbled back and hugged her chest in pain.

I jumped up in an instant---PHWOOOOOMB!!!!

The cannon blasted right as my cranium left its aim.

I rolled forward, blurred, teleported under and through Jinx's legs, and materialized behind her. I performed a reverse kick.

WHUMP!!

She stumbled forward, tripped, and gripped the one thing she saw in front of her to support her fall. It turned out to be the steaming hot barrel of the freshly blown cannon. The metal singed her skin.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Jinx shrieked, her voice hidded by the-KRAPOWWWW!!!!!—fireworks screaming above us.

I turned around.

She turned around.

I jabbed.

She blocked with pink, burnt hands.

CLANK!!!

She yanked the tip of Myrkblade away. Her eyes burned with fiery pink as she stretched both palms out at me and launched the biggest hex of her life. "HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

A humongous sphere of light flew at me.

I was literally plowed backwards with a gasp as the hex flowed overhead, burning at my nose and forehead red.

I fell back onto the deck and slid down an aisle of fresh cannons. I thought fast and twirled Myrkblade across my chest, slashing left and right and striking the cannons one by one so that they bent and 'aimed' at Jinx. CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

As Jinx advanced upon my sliding figure, I vaulted up, backflipped, and landed with a skidding stop. I twirled Myrkblade, aimed for a jumble of electric cables below me, and stabbed down into it.

STAB!!!

Smoke replaced electric currents, chased the lengths of the wires into the cannons, and set them all off prematurely. Seven fireworks shot up at once.

PHWOOOOOMB!!!!

…and they were all at a forty-five degree angle aimed at the empty stretch of Bay…and Jinx.

The girl shrieked. In slow motion and surviving by a glow of pink hex alone, the sorceress jumped up and twirled in mid air as seven distinctly different plumes of sparklight warheads flew around, under, and past her flailing limbs. She literally spun a vertical three-sixty in the miraculous dive.

But she was nowhere near the point of landing it when I charged murk, blurred forward, and jump kicked her airborne body hard in the gut.

WHUMP!!!

KRA-POW!!!

BANG!!!!

BOOOM!!!

Time resumed as Jinx's ragdoll body tumbled hard to the opposite side of the deck, against a horizon of exploding flowers close to the surface of the distant waters. From the bleachers of the bayside way behind me, a loud rushing sound of thousands of citizens watching and gasping at something evidently going wrong lit my ears.

I didn't care…

SWOOOOSH!!!

I dove for Jinx…for her ears….her communicator.

She rolled to the side, jumped up, and limped backwards. Limping.

I had no compassion.

I gritted my teeth and slashed at her.

She loosely blocked with a pink hand. Gasping. Collapsing. Panting for breath and no longer the cocky, victorious apprentice that she was mere minutes ago when she had taunted me in the park where I discovered the Titans' horrible fate.

She was now a prey…and she had met the animal she and Slade had inadvertently created.

I bore my fangs and slashed at her repeatedly.

SWOOSH!! SLASH!!! SWIISH!!!

CLANK!! CLANG!!! SMACK!! She blocked with her hands and wrists which were glowing less and less dim. The pink was fading away as the fervor of the fireworks above and around us took over with their booming intensity.

And I knew that I was winning.

And—as always—when I know I'm winning I find out I'm loosing.

There was a loud, haunting series of splashing sounds just behind me.

Splash—Splash—Splash—SPLASH—SPLASH—SPLASH!!!!!

Jinx's panting face brightened.

I spun around.

My black eyes twitched.

"RAAAAAAA-AAAAAUGH!!!"

A charred, smoking Cinderblock leapt out of the Bay Waters and slammed down onto the deck with a swinging fist.

SLUMP!!! CRUNCH!!!! Ten cannons smashed and exploded fireworks underneath his stone feet as he landed and literally upended half of the deck of fireworks.

Naturally, his fist smacked he hard in the side and I went flying to the opposite side of the imbalanced deck. The screams of fireworks above us dwindled into the shrieks and screams of frightened bystanders of the Show beyond in the bleachers. I got to my feet, panted, and faced to enemies now. A hulking piece of half-blown-up granite and a rejuvenated sorceress.

Full Circle….Full Circle…

Cinderblock charged at me.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!!

Cannons on either side of him spouted off and exploded fireworks high above. One or two fired and deflected off his impervious limbs, sailing off and smoking to silence directly into the Bay Waters.

As Cinderblock came, I blurred up and vaulted over his shoulders---only to meet the jump kick of Jinx.

"HAAAA!!"

SMACK!!!

I swirled form the impact and landed between a fresh bed of cannons.

Cinderblock turned around, roared, flexed his muscles, and stomped towards me.

I stood up and spun Myrkblade at ready.

Cinderblock's fist came down.

SMASH!!!!

I jumped back, took a breath, and ran up his arm. I trailed Myrkblade to my left side…scraping a long and hard scar of sparks and slicing murk along his stony limb.

SNKKKKKKKKK!!!

I slid down his rear, met the ground, hopped up, and was in the right position at the right time to grace a fireworks rocket sailing up out of a cannon directly in front of me.

PHOOOOMB!!!

I batted it directly into the backside of Cinderblock.

CLANG!!!

Jinx shrieked as a flower of sparks and fire sparkled all around us.

Cinderblock went tumbling forward, off the deck, and splashing hard into the Bay Waters.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

Salt water rained down.

Jinx sheltered her head.

I came down from my mid-air batting, twirled Myrkblade, and blurred at the sorceress.

SWIIIIIISH-THWACK!!!

I struck her hard across the shoulders.

She tumbled over.

I ran for another strike.

WHAM!!!

Cinderblock jumped back onto the deck. The cannons on the far side lifted up at an awkward angle from his landing as I flew. Fireworks exploded dangerously close to the cityscape.

People started fleeing from the bleachers.

I landed square with my back against a cannon.

STOMP!!!!

"RRRRRGHHHHH!!!"

Cinderblock leered over me. He held two fists together above his head and prepared to bring them down.

I sensed an electric field behind me.

I took a breath…and rolled off the cannon.

PHWOOOOMB!!!

Immediately, the cannon shot up a fresh rocket.

CLANK!!!!

It uppercutted the stone monstrosity right up the chin.

Cinderblock lumbered backwards, his head tilted straight up.

I took a deep breath, teleported, materialized at the base of Cinderblock's feet, and immediately shot upwards with Myrkblade jabbing sky-high.

THWACK!!!!!

Time slowed down as my impact was so freakin' intense, it literally lifted Cinderblock off the ground as two cannons shot up along his flank simultaneously, struck his shoulders, and caused him to flip backwards amidst a shower of red, white, and blue sparks.

Into this storm of blazing lights I soared, twirled about, stuck my feet into the midair fire, planted my boots into his upside-down stone skin, and vaulted away in a flip.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Time resumed as I soared towards the dizzy figure of Jinx.

I landed beside her, skidded to a stop, grabbed her arm, and flung her straight into a launching cannon.

PHWOOOOMB!!!!

Her body literally struck the sky-soaring rocket and bounced off.

WHACK!!

"NNGH!!" she cried.

As she flew by me, I twirled, blurred a hand, reached into her ear, and yanked out the trophy.

SWIIISH!!!

Her head—and her body—soared beyond me and collapsed on top of Cinderblock.

KRA-POWWWWW!!!

Sparks showered around us and littered the bay.

I took a deep breath and blurred over towards the far side of the deck to make my getaway.

That's when Jinx stood up, gritted her teeth, and fired a hex at a cannon besides her and Cinderblock. Instantly, the launcher bent, aimed at me, and fired its rocket.

PHOOOOOOMB!!!

I twirled Myrkblade. I did two things. First, I slashed down at a cannon at the very edge of the deck before my feet. CLANK!! It bent outwards at an angle towards the bay. Second, I spun around and jumped off the deck in reverse. In mid-flight, I slashed Myrkblade horizontally and deflected the sparkling projectile straight back at the two villains.

SMACK!!!

PSSSSSSSSHHHH!!!!!

With a golden comet tail, the rocket struck the floor of the deck, tumbled across the ground, and lay sparkling in between a throng of fresh-unfired cannons fool of explosives.

Jinx's cat eyes widened and Cinderblock whimpered.

In the meantime, I was sailing off the edge of the deck. I relied on perfect fate and struck Myrkblade out to my side…

PHWOOOOOOOMB!!!!

My bent cannon shot forth a large rocket. With Myrkblade, I literally skewered the center of the rocket with my smoke-encased-tip. I let the projectile literally carry me off like a meteor out across the Bay in a curved arc.

In the meantime, Cinderblock scrambled to his feet, grabbed Jinx with a shriek, and jumped off his end of the deck with a SPLASH!!!

The rocket's comet tailed died. It flicked once on the deck…then exploded.

POW!!!!!!!!

In quick, apocalyptic bursts…all the cannons surrounding the situated explosion caught fire and went off one by one.

POW-POW-POW-POW-POW!!!!!!

The entire deck of fireworks erupted into a fireball of red, white, blue, and gold sparks. Whistling and howling and streaming thunder up into the orange air.

And in the meantime, I spiraling with my grip onto Myrkblade which was skewered through the rocket. The two of us came down and I gasped to see a twenty-meter-long, luxurious yacht moored straight dead ahead in our path. The rocket—and I in tow—skimmed the black waves of the Bay once—SPLASH!—twice—SPLASH!!!—and sailed straight into the hull of the yacht. At the last second, I summoned murk, pulsed it through my whole system, and launched myself up off the rocket and over the yacht as the projectile mercilessly ate its way into the centermost guts of the boat and exploded.

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

My body flailed as it 'flew' over a splintery, shrapnel-spewing fireball of a cruise-ship-no-more. Seconds later, the explosion met the fuel reserves of the boat…and the fire increased in a tenfold burst.

PHWOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

A pillar of fire separated me from the horrified world…the ruined celebration….the insecure Revolution as I came to my feet against the waves on the other side, blurred, and regained my balance as a new energy overtook me and I streaked across the waters with Myrkblade in one hand and Jinx's communicator in the other and a thick ceiling of dark thunderclouds moving in from the Southeast promising a dark tomorrow of joyous anxiety as I burned my way eagerly towards the Tower and its supply of computer technologies I would need to find Dagger and regain the lost track of my friends' endangered whereabouts…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyes opened under his mask.

The other Titans woke up at the same time.

They were strapped in metal chairs.

All lined in a row.

Wired. Monitored. Electrified.

Before them stretched a black, expansive interior. Against the blackness was a circular window looking out on a dark-orange night made darker by thunderclouds, complete with the distant rumblings of foreboding. The still and cold silhouette of Slade stood in the mirror. Looking out onto the waves of some forsaken Sea.

He slowly turned around.

"Greetings…Titans…..destiny calls."

"Where….," Robin winced. "Are we?"

"You are in the Experiment….," Slade said. He marched towards them and held out a remote. "To finally overthrow the Balance of Morals…"

"Do you plan to kill us?" Cyborg grunted.

"Something like that…," Slade mused. "Observe…"

He clicked the remote once.

The familiar, torturous pain entered each of the Titans' bodies. But this time—somehow—it was different. The glow wasn't quite there…and yet it was. It levitated up and down. Almost with….almost with….

"Titans!!" Robin exclaimed. "Concentrate!! The nanoprobes….s-somehow they are…fused into our psychobiological network!!"

"Dude!!" Beast Boy winced in pain. "I'm not feeling too good. Could you talk with LESS syllables for once?!?!"

"Allow me to paint the picture for you, Titans…," Slade leaned forward. "The nanoprobes are programmed to release pain-inducing toxins in your body. Every drop of the material into your body is equivalent to the digging of a serrated blade through your abdominal muscles. The only purpose of this chemical application is to kill each and every one of you. And—indeed—in due time each and every one of you will die. But not yet. Not quite so fast…"

"What….i-is the catch?!" Raven grunted, her brow sweating like all the others as the torture agonizingly lingered on. "There is always a catch…isn't there?"

"The nanoprobes are linked directly into your electromagnetic signatures and hormonal release systems…," Slade said. "A super computer monitoring the individual nanoprobes keeps a record of the level of malignant feelings and thoughts cast at me and in response to my words and actions. To make a long story short…the more you hate me while you five are in here…." And he clicked a remote as he added, "…the greater the level of toxin. See for yourself."

-click-

"AAAAAAAAGH!!!!" Starfire was the first to shriek.

Beast Boy followed.

Then Cyborg.

Raven clenched her teeth tightly.

Robin sweated profusely.

"Those of you who are suffering the most now…dying the quickest now…means that you are most resistant to my cause and my plans….," Slade said, pacing around the tortured Titans. "Already, the Tamaranian is experiencing pain equivalent to that of an electric chair."

Starfire's face brimmed with emerald tears. She panted and let out shriek after shriek as the pain endlessly wracked her body with each heroic thought transferring through her brain.

"In the meantime…Robin—on the other side of the spectrum, which I certainly predicted---is merely feeling something liken unto a scalpel across his wrists. It speaks volumes, Boy Wonder. Right now in your head…you are forcing yourself to like me, Robin. After all…it's the least you can do to stay in this world and try and figure out a way to rescue your friends who are in the same condition as you…."

"I….d-do not favor you….Sl-Slade….," Robin grunted, sweating.

"Is that so?" the terrorist leaned his mask to the side. "Why is it that you can still manage to talk while your Tamaranian sweetheart screams her head off?"

Robin bit his lip and looked over at Starfire. The alien girl twitched, convulsed, and let out shriek after shriek of wailing pain.

"Oh…she will quiet down eventually…," Slade said. "Her resistance to me is not so great that she would die. Instead, she will learn to appreciate me. To love me. And to deconstruct her entire perspective of 'Evil' so as to diminish the pain infesting her system. Likewise, Robin, you too on the other side of the spectrum will learn to appreciate me…if only it'll mean lessening the torture you and your friends are going through."

"I….I w-wouldn't….I…."

"Would you….Robin?"

The Boy Wonder sweated. His pain increased as he thought maliciously against Slade. It felt like a grenade had gone off in his chest. He bit his lip and twitched.

"Ohhh how the Balance of Morals will change. For in an instant…five superheroes will become five supervillains…," Slade hissed. "It is a shift in power the likes of which the dichotomy of this universe has never seen before. It will upset the entire fabric of order in this reality…and things will finally be weighted over to my side. The side of greed and totalitarianism. The universe where there is no hope but the constant struggle against an unforgiving machine of a system that dominates and capitulates the meandering lives of the confused innocent. You Titans will go through with this test to manifest this shift because I….want….that….reality!!!!"

"You're wicked, Slade….," Robin exclaimed. His body caught on fire inside out and he screamed. "I HATE YOU!!!! AUGHHHHH!!!!!" The Boy Wonder arched back in his chair and screamed at the top of his lungs. The other Titans—caught up in the passions of hatred and remorse—soon joined him in the endless wail.

Slade watched the writhing five…shrieking and screaming in their restraints. He sat down on his rusted throne and leaned his metal chin on his gloved hands.

"This will be a marvelous Experiment indeed…………."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It took me fifteen minutes to reach the Tower.

Ten minutes to burst my way in through the entrance's doors.

Five minutes to shatter the defense systems I knew so well into nothing with my sword.

Eight minutes to ascend the stairwell.

Two minutes to disable the sirens in the Main Room.

One minute to pull at my hair in frustration and stab my sword into the computer console to bypass the access codes in a ghetto fashion.

Then an agonizing twenty-five minutes to cross-reference the data from my left arm's chip with the signal frequency of Jinx's communicator.

Two minutes later, I realized I needed to use a greater technology to actually find Dagger while he was finding me.

Eleven minutes…and I had switched on Control Freak's vibrating apparatuses.

Four minutes later, the Tower's sonic vibrations zeroed in on the source of Dagger's transmissions to my chip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thirty minutes is what it took for me to reach the dark alleyway….facing the street…facing the entrance to a skyscraper on the end of town. Gothic and foreboding…Hyde Tower stretched twenty-five stories up into the skyline of the City. Many lavish windows and balcony shouted out: 'expensive hotel'. But it was more than that. It was Dagger's center of operation.

I knew it had to have been. Because from across the street, I saw the dark men in suits congregating around the glass entranceway. A limousine was parked nearby. They all looked shifty and anxious.

Thunder rolled overhead.

One drop came…then another.

Then a torrent.

Rain poured through the alleyway, dripping and echoing out into a grand puddle that slid down the post-July-Fourth aura of depression that was the lonely asphalt of the City beneath the dark shoes and slacks of the unsuspecting thugs.

I stepped out—the ultimate Wyldecarde.

CHIIIIING!!!!

I held Myrkblade out to my side. My bruised and bleeding body dripped in the rain. My black hair ran back down straight…soaked. Myrkblade collected moisture and dripped similarly.

When the thugs looked up at me….that look of shock…that look of fear….

I knew that this was it.

This was the beginning of the break. The breaking of an Experiment of a Circle. Like rain, everything was cascading and collapsing around me. I was alone and I was pissed off at being pissed off and being alone.

With my former teammates' probably dead and my past catching up to consume the bitter parts of me, all that was left was the animal. The bloodlusting bandit that I always denied until that very, damn second.

The dozen or so thugs in dark suits swarmed out of the exit. They cocked shotguns, uzzis, and pistols and all marched slowly…menacingly at me.

I gripped Myrkblade and frowned under my goggles.

It was time to end this.