These Black Eyes

by P0ST

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

124. Fear the Black Tempest part 5

124. Fear the Black Tempest part 5

Praetor Ivan's room imploded from the crashing submersible.

Water rushed in like a wall of concrete.

Robin barely had a chance to dash towards the doors.

Ivan rushed over and gripped the Boy Wonder's body in a blink. With his hydrophilic, Atlantean body he took the brunt of the torrent's impact and guarded the boy's limbs.

But the water and debris were unstoppable. They shoved at the dark-eyed ocean-dweller's back and forced the two men into the wall.

SMASH!!!!

SPLOOOSH!!!!

Frigid waters exploded all around them.

Robin gasped for the half second he still had oxygen available. In a bubble of air, he surged violently outward and into the murky body of the great abyss of the Hidden Valley.

And this time he didn't have a breathing mask or thermal bodywear.

Ivan saw the Boy Wonder's drifting body and gasped with an explosion of bubbles. He made to swim towards him--

WHAM!!!!

Fryte pushed forward on the controls and slammed the bow of the banged-up sub against Ivan's chest, forcing him hard against the interior wall of the now-submerged room.

Ivan struggled with his Atlantean strength, but he couldn't get himself free.

Gritting his teeth, the Idyllist leader looked through the front windshield of the craft and saw the child of the Black Tempest inside.

Fryte glared with zombie furor. His eyes flickered purple.

FLASH!!!!

Ivan squirmed. He looked down at his arms and saw himself bleeding in two dozen places at once. Slowly—like protruding fangs—bone marrow started ripping out of his flesh. He let out a bubbling howl and tightened his entire body. His eyes clenched shut, and when they reopened there was a flickering of violet energy. The blood and compound fractures were gone.

"Your mind tricks don't work on me, Fryte!!" Ivan telepathically projected—though he knew full well that Fryte couldn't respond. He decided to speak with his hands. "I am of the same pathetic spawn as you!! Let us commune!!"

Ivan tightly gripped the hull of the submarine shoving up against him, let out a scream into the murky depths creeping in, and glowed his eyes a bright orange.

Fryte gritted his teeth, glowing violet.

"RAAAAAUGH!!!!" Ivan melted the front of the submarine and pushed it away with a pulse of pure Plasma.

FLASH!!!!

The submarine drifted back against its rear propulsion.

Ivan turned his right hand into a flaming fist. Water boiled around him as he streamed towards the cockpit with a heavy strike.

CLANG!!!!

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

Starfire gasped. She stood up from the bed and floated across the room, wringing her hands nervously. "What is that dreadful shaking?? It is as if the whole building is quivering upon its foundation!"

Nova'm floated after her. "M-Maybe Robin was discovered and....um....they're having a fight?"

"I would greatly hope not!" Starfire exclaimed. She floated besides the huge stretch of window. "Besides, surely he is more than capable of looking after himse—" She glanced through the glass at something and her eyes went wide as saucers. "Robin!!!" she pressed against the window. Further down along the building, debris was flying outward from a fresh crater in the structure's side. And Robin's limp body could clearly be seen drifting away from a writhing submarine against the side.

His body was all alone....unprotected....dead adrift.

"Oh man!!" Nova'm uttered as he too saw the peril. "Not good!!" He looked up at Starfire, sweating. "How could he have---??"

She interjected: "I cannot remain here!! I must go out there and save him—"

Just then, a beady black eyes of gigantic proportion rose against the window outside.

"EEEP!!" Starfire jumped back. She and Nova'm hugged each other instantly.

A gigantic, pale squid hovered outside. It leered menacingly at the two Tamaranians through the window, drew its body back, and lashed forward with a forest of writhing tentacles.

WHAM!!!!!

The entire half of the building shook.

The window started to fracture instantly.

Criiiii-iiiiick!!!

"Wh-Wh-What is that?!?!" Nova'm stammered.

Starfire protectively held him as she hovered the two back from the window. "A creature of terrible malice, I sense! It does not mean us good!"

WHAM!!!!

The squid rammed the window again.

Craaaaaa-aaack!!"

"You think?!?!"

The door to the bedroom flew open.

The two guards rushed in. "Danger! Our building is under attack! We fear the Praetor may be---GREAT POSEIDON!!!"

'Sliiuuuaaathhh!!!' the squid squirmed and whipped its tentacles against the window again.

WHAM!!!!

The room shook.

The Atlantean guards stumbled and nearly dropped their tridents.

"What'll we do?!?!" Nova'm quivered.

Starfire looked past the squid at the free-floating figure of Robin. She glanced at Nova'm. She glanced at the two helpless guards. She glanced at Robin again.

She bit her lip....

"We must make haste!!!" the Tamaranian girl exclaimed. With a firm expression, she held onto Nova'm with one hand, flew towards the doorway, hooked her arm out, and caught the two Atlanteans by their wastes just in time to swoop them out of the room and down the hallway.

And that was when the squid finally broke through.

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

CRASH!!!!!

Starfire grit her teeth. Her eyes and limbs glowed bright emerald.

The guards shrieked in horror and Nova'm clutched tightly to her in fear a she flew down the hallway like an asteroid in a dark alleyway. Behind her, an increasing torrent of blue and green foam thundered. The mind-controlled squid's rupture caused an endless cascade of water to burst through the ensuing chambers of that wing of the building.

"Locate for me a pressure hatch!!" Starfire shouted.

One of the two guards in her grasp nervously spoke above the chaos: "Up one tier! The central residency ring!!"

Starfire zipped around a corner in a jerk, taking a sharp left turn. The water slammed into a wall behind her, denting it. It splashed at her like liquid fire.

A set of stairs shot up.

Starfire took a breath and hoisted all three bodies with her up...up....up....

SPLOOOOOSH!!!! The water thundered into the stair steps.

The alien girl made it to a thick doorway. She tossed the two guards through and dropped Nova'm down onto his feet on the safe side.

Nova'm spun around. "Kory!! What about Robin??"

"I shall attempt to attend to him....," she said firmly. "But first...."

She slammed her fist into a console on the wall.

CRACK!!!!

The door's air-tight hatch started to close in on itself.

Nova'm gasped. "Kory!!" he rushed at her. "No---"

She forcibly shoved him hard into the hallway.

WHUMP!!!

He landed on his rear, winced, and looked up at her with jaw agape.

As the last of the gap was closed by the door, Starfire managed to look at him and say: "I must attend to this beast. Do your best to protect yourself....prince."

"Kory!!!"

SLAM!!!

HISSSSSSsssssss...

The door was shut.

"Nnghhh!!" Nova'm ran towards the door and slammed his fists into it. Wham! Wham!! No effect. He hadn't honed in his Tamaranian strength well enough. He slumped against it and sighed, his green eyes shut against the thunderous vibrations of the torn building. "Kory....."

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

Starfire turned around and looked down the stairs.

Bubbling, frothy seawater climbed up the steps at a jogger's pace. The lights of the ascending hallway started to flicker. Frightening, ambient noises emanated upwards from below.

The girl Titan took a deep breath. She momentarily closed her green eyes and clutched her graceful hands over her chest.

"Imbiveret'm salme sedsu niul Robin de X'hal...."

And with that uttered, she ran, dove, and plunged into the rising pool.

SPLASH!!!!

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

Raven crouched and rolled across the shard-littered floor of the Main Room in Titan's Tower. Rainwater rushed in from a high altitude wind, pouring through the window and splashing off the backs of the six darkly-clad assassins.

The Atlanteans brandished a pair of miniature tridents each. CHHIIING!!! CH-CHING!!!

Three of them acrobatically spun across the soaked carpet and pounced at Raven from three different sides at once.

Raven exercised great speed and verbal dexterity in spitting forth: "Azarath-Metrion-ZINTHOS!!!" She gritted her teeth and practically exploded a dome of black telekinesis outward from her body. FLASH!!!

TH-TH-THWUMP!!! The three leaping attackers were knocked back.

ZZZT!!!

Raven's last-second telekinesis flickered into nothingness.

The girl stood, panting.

She was open for two nimble attackers from behind her.

SWOOOSH!!! They leapt, flipped, and came down onto her shoulders with tridents searing--

"RAAAAUGH!!!" WHAM!!!! Cyborg rushed in with a hulking, titanium fist.

The two oceanic ninjas tumbled off as one.

The sixth attacker leapt and perched himself on Cyborg's back. He silently stabbed down with his miniature tridents.

SWOOOSH!! Cyborg lightning-quick reached a hand up and gripped one wrist. He swung his head to the side just in time for the other wrist's trident to deflect off the metal half of his skull with sparks. CLANK!!!

"Next time try ringin' the doorbell...PUNK!!!" Cyborg gripped the throat of the man on top of him. "YAAAUGH!!" He flung him hard into a faraway wall. WHAP!!!!

Raven stood to her feet and raised a streaking wall of black energy in time to block the flurried stabs of a pair of assassins. FLASH!!! Cl-Clank!!!

"These are Atlanteans!!" Raven exclaimed, panting. She backed up and kept rapidly deflecting the razor-sharp advance. "They've come a long way! I can sense it!!"

A third assassin jumped back up and dashed towards Raven's blind side.

The dark girl freed one of her deflecting hands, pointed it at the coffee table, and telekinetically flung the splintery object at the incoming offender.

SMASH!!! He fell back hard across the Main Room floor.

"Why didn't the Tower's Security system detect them?!?!"

Cyborg gritted his teeth as he punched one of his three opponents and blocked the jabbing of two others with his forearm. "Let me get back to you on that, Rae," he gritted his teeth and charged with a heavy elbow of metal. WH-WHAM!!!

Two Atlanteans sprawled across the floor.

The punched one jumped, flipped, and landed in front of Cyborg.

Cyborg swung hard to pummel his face.

The attacker nimbly slid underneath the android's legs, vaulted up into the air behind him, and reversely tossed a trident into the Titan's power cell like a shuriken.

CLANK!!! ZAAA-AAAAP!!!

"AAAUGH!!" Cyborg's body sparked all over. He fell down onto his knees. Rainwater struck his short-circuiting limbs and broke forth steam.

Raven gasped and turned to look. "Cyborg!!"

Just then, a silent attacker crept up stealthily and slashed at Raven's shoulder.

SLIIINK!!!

The trident broke blood which flew in the air from the girl's limb.

"Augh!!" her eyes glowed as she winced in pain.

Cyborg saw it out of the corner of his eye, and his flesh boiled red.

"RrrrrRRAUGH!!" he pointed his arms out. His robot eye flashed. Beep-Beep-Beep—P-POW!!!!! Both of his arms detached. Tiny rockets flew out of the elbows, guided the limbs around like missiles, and sailed them with kamikaze fists flying into the chins of two of Raven's attackers.

WHAM!!!! THWACK!!!

The two fell down hard, their faces leaking blood.

Raven clutched her shoulder and stumbled to her knees.

A pitter-patter of footsteps.

She looked up and saw an assassin charging her.

She winced and flicked the wrist of her wounded arm.

FLASH!!!

Black energy encased the floor beneath the assassin's legs and lifted up. CRAA-AACK!!!

The man was flung into the ceiling—WHAM!!!—and fell down with littering tile. THWAP!!!

In the meantime, Cyborg's arms were circling the room and returning back to the android Titan just as two of his attackers rushed him.

Cyborg stood up. He saw the incoming sea-ninja with his glinting trident. SWOOOOSH!!! The blades went for the teen's head.

Cyborg dodged.

His arms returned.

He held out one shoulder.

SWOOOOSH-CHTUNG!!! The first arm reattached.

The ninja swiped again.

Cyborg sidestepped the swing.

The second arm rocketed in.

Cyborg pointed his shoulder away from the thug.

SWOOOOOOSH-CLACLINK!!! The second reattached in time for Cyborg to grit his teeth and bitch-slap the assassin across his skull. THWACK!!!!

The man tumbled across the floor like a spinning toy. The other two hopped over him and pounced on Cyborg.

WHUMP!!! THLUMP!!!

"Nnnnghh!!" Cyborg wrestled with them. He stumbled backwards across a sofa and all three bodies sprawled across the floor. WHUMP!!!

Lightning flashed from the wind and rain outside the shattered window.

Cyborg sat up, panting.

The two ninjas jumped up. They bore down on the Titan.

Cyborg aimed his right arm at them like a gun. "Guess what, kids?! It's feeding time!!" KL-KLACK!! KLACK-K-KLACK!!! His sonic cannon was alive and ready. "Eat blue shit!!" he snarled.

The assassins pounced on him, relentless.

He squinted his human eye and fired.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

One ninja took the brunt of the impact. The sonar blast propelled his ragdoll body straight out of the shattered window and out into the churning waters of the storm outside.

The blast also propelled Cyborg's awkwardly grounded body across the floor, grinding on his metal rear, and tumbling into the open elevator. CL-CLANK!!

"Mmmff!!"

Cyborg shook his head.

Raven was in the middle of telekinetically wrapping a towel around her shoulder as an impromptu pressure bandage. She glanced over at Cyborg just as two shadowed bodies rushed past her, causing her blue hair to toss in the wind.

She gasped.

"Huh???" Cyborg looked up.

Two Atlantean ninjas were pouncing at him like tigers.

He gritted his teeth and aimed his sonic cannon again---

ZAAAAP!!!

The first of the two nimbly twirled around the blast in mid-air, sailed down, and rammed his trident straight through Cyborg's robot eye.

CRKKKK!!!!

"AAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg's human eye clenched shut as his cranium sparked like mad. He fell blindly onto his back....not once cutting off his sonic cannon. The blue beam shot straight up into the roof of the elevator car, violently snapping it from its hinges. CRACK!!! CL-CLANG!!!! Cyborg and the two attackers plummeted thunderously down the shaft.

"Cyborg!!" Raven ran across the main room. She skidded to a stop just as the remaining three attackers hopped up to her knees and surrounded her.

She frowned. She chanted. With an invisible wind whipping at her body, she lifted herself up in the middle of the room and held her black-charged hands above her flowing robe. "If you strangers were wanting to 'meet the Titans'...then prepare yourselves to meet every bit of us....starting with me."

The guards silently readied their tridents.

Raven gritted her teeth. Her eyes glowed a hot gray. "Haaaaa-AAAAAA!!!!" she stretched her arms out wide like an x-shaped crucifix and flying shards of black serration flew at the ninjas.

They dodged to the best of their ability and charged at her with blades glinting in the rain.

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

"Rrrrrrghhh!!!" Cyborg struggled to hold the wrestling attackers at bay. It was difficult enough that he was half blind now. It was even more difficult knowing that the elevator car that they were in was presently falling and careening like mad into a gravity grave.

But just then, the shaft's breaks went to work.

SCRAAAAA-AAAAAPE!!!!!

Sparks flew all around the car as it grinded to a gradual, trembling stop halfway down the Tower's descent.

As it finally rocked still, Cyborg flexed his metal limbs—"RAAAUGH!!!"—and tossed the two thugs hard into the walls.

THWUMP!! THAP!!!

He jumped up and charged them with a heavy fist. "RGHH!!!"

WHAM!!! He dinted the wall.

They ducked, twirled nimbly around him, and kicked him in the already-pierced power cell.

CRACK!!! ZZZZT!!!!

Cyborg sparked all over. He grunted in pain and anger before spinning around and sailing his fist into one hapless attacker's chin.

CRACK!!!

He fell back, bleeding.

The second gripped the android Titan's titanium arm, swung up it like a parallel bar, perched, and swiped his leg across the Titan's face.

THWACK!!

"Mmmff!!" Cyborg exclaimed, tumbling back.

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

SMASH!!!

Cyborg fell backwards through the elevator doors and landed haphazardly on the tile floor of a hallway.

The thugs regained their composure. In coordinated motion they twirled and dove at the android.

Cyborg raised his two feet just in time and kicked them back against the doorframe of the elevator.

WHUMP!!!

They quickly regained their footing.

Cyborg stood onto his feet. Shoulders heaving.

He frowned with clenched teeth, reached up, and yanked the sparking trident out of his shattered red eye.

CRACK!!!!

He tossed it onto the floor and spit on it. He then wiped his chin with a titanium sleeve and put up his dukes. "That all you got, fruitcakes?!?!"

The athletic assassins coiled their bodies like two springs and dove at the Titan, who was ready for them with a metal fist.

"RAAUGH!!!"

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

SPLOOSH!!!!

Miist toppled onto the water-treading Aqualad. Aqualad grunted from the impact as the two plunged deep into the pool. Miist's body morphed into underwater steam. He twirled the two and somehow managed to get the Atlantean into the position to be propelled out of the body of water with a merciless kick.

SPLASH—CRACK!!! Aqualad's weak body flew out of the water, smashed through a section of the fiberglass siding, and tumbled painfully across the floor.

Miist leapt out of the water and landed—dripping—before the Idyllist prince.

"Too freakin' easy...hehehehe," Miist evilly chuckled. "Chasma's cannon really did its trick, didn't it??"

Aqualad propped himself up on his knees. He sputtered up blood and wiped his chin.

Miist eyes were wide and hungry. "I was expecting extra-credit for following Lord Slizzath's bidding in this department!! But some effort! Pfft...you're no stronger than a tadpole now! Where's the fun in that?"

Aqualad stumbled to his feet. He smiled tiredly. "Congratulations. You caught me with my shirt off."

A blink.

SWOOOSH—Aqualad lightning charged Miist and—SMACK!!! Uppercutted him with a flying fist and—THWACK!!—punched his gut with four knuckles and—SWOOSH-WHAM!!!-spiraled kicked the Black Tempest child across the cheek.

Miist's body literally spun vertically three times before crashing through a poolside bench. CRACK!!!

Aqualad landed from his kick. He wobbled a bit...but straightened his balance in time to get into an athletic fighting pose. "So what's your elemental power granted by the 'almighty Slizzath'?? Passing gas?"

Miist glared. He rarely got angry. He rarely had his fun spoiled. "The name is Miist...," he finally bore a smirk as he licked at the blood trickling out of his own lips. "...and I've come to steal a prince. Even if it means skinning him of his flesh as a trophy. Hehehehe...I so do love trophies..."

FWOOOOSH!!!!!

Miist blurred at him.

Aqualad's dark eyes twitched. He sidestepped--

SWOOOSH!!! A fist materialized passed his cheek.

Aqualad ducked.

THWOOOSH!! A cloud-blade ripped through the air above his head, severing a few long strands of hair.

Aqualad backflipped.

CHIIIING!!! Miist's steam blade flew forward.

Aqualad stood up and bend backwards. His eyes widened as the blade barely stopped between his eyes from the villain's lunge.

Miist smirked. "Tell me, prince...is your blood boiling yet?"

Aqualad blinked at him. He twirled, fell to the floor, and shot his leg out in a sweeping kick.

WHUMP!!!

Miist fell to the floor.

Aqualad nimbly dove at him.

The two bodies grappled, spun, and ended with Miist flinging Aqualad off of him in a blurred explosion of energy.

Aqualad slammed hard into a pair of metal lockers besides the pool.

WHANG!!!

"Auugh!!" he winced...but not because of the impact. Instead, he fingered red, scalded skin...burned by the proximity to Miist's steaming limbs.

Miist materialized into a laughing stance across from the Idyllist. "Ha ha ha ha!! Once burned...twice screwed!!"

Aqualad frowned and raised his fists. "I'm not going to fall to a pathetic lackey like you."

"'Pathetic lackey'?!?!" Miist grinned like a joker. "You forget. You're the same as me!!" His fists turned into steaming blades as he hopped into a fighting stance. "Use the gift of black energy given to you as well....and you might even be a challenge worth fighting!"

Aqualad sneered: "I do not play with toys of evil."

"And that is why you're going to be ACHING in the morning!! HA HA!!!" Miist dove at him.

Aqualad readied himself. Some hidden flicker of purple fought to dance across his eyes. But he resisted. And while resisting, he was open to Miist's plunge.

WHUMP!!!

The two flew through the air from the collision and fell into the pool again.

SPLOOOSH!!!

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

In a cavern underneath Atlantis, Beast Boy dove across the expansive pool of water besides the wall of ice. He leapt back up in time to dodge a glob of acid landing at his feet...boiling and draining the water as the rock gave way to corrosion.

The changeling panted and looked fearfully at the green-haired girl pacing across the cavern from him. Her hands dripped with burning juices. Her eyes glowed an angry violet as she snarled. "You are in the way of Slizzath's plans. You must perish! Every waking piece of your flesh must go!!" She shrieked and flung another stream of ooze.

Beast Boy jumped into the air, morphed into a dove, and flew away from the blast. He perched on a stalagmite and reverted back to elf form as the rock wall behind him burned with a brand new hole.

"Who are you?!" the Titan panted. "What do you want with us?!?!"

"The name's Acyd...," the girl stomped forward menacingly. Her hands still raised. "And I work for my lord Slizzath."

"You're on his side?! Come on....the dude's long dead!! Just face it! At least back when I was Presbyterian, I believed in a God who was alive."

"Silence!!" Acyd hissed. Her eyes flickered violet. "Your insolent existence ends now!!" She charged up two more globs of corrosion.

Beast Boy sighed. "Just my luck with the ladies."

SLOSH!!! SLOOOOSH!!!!

Beast Boy leapt, turned into a mongoose, dodged the two blasts with a furry twirl, struck the ground, morphed into a snake, and slithered agilely towards the Black Tempest child.

"Raagh!!" Acyd shrieked, flinging glob after glob at the morphing animal. "Raagh!! Haaa!!"

The snake spun around—avoiding fresh, smoking craters of impacting acid. It leapt up in the air, morphed into a bat, and glided around Acyd's body just in time to avoid a point blanc blast of burning goo.

SLOSH!!!

Beast Boy dropped to the ground behind her, morphed back into elf form, and raised his fists. "Don't make me hurt you---"

Acyd spun around and opened her mouth wide. The corner of her jaws quivered with green foam.

Beast Boy's eyes bugged. "Eeek!!" He turned into an armadillo and rolled away in the cavern's water.

SPLOOOOOOSH!!!! A thick stream of green acid vomited forth out of Acyd's mouth. It struck the ground where Beast Boy was, cutting a deep, smoking ravine.

The jade armadillo leapt onto the wall, clung—trembling—to it, and returned to elf form.

Beast Boy groaned. "Heh...I bet Noir's fighting some Snow Goddess, and here I am stuck with Linda Blair..."

Acyd wiped her chin like it was merely drool. Her skin seemed immune to the juices. She frowned with narrow eyes of violet. "Soon you shall be alone...cold, hopeless, and alone..."

"Something you're familiar with?" Beast Boy cackled. "Just what good does Slizzath do for you?? Do you even know or care?!?!"

"Quiet!!! RAAAUGH!!" Acyd flung her hands to the floor. She spewed a stream of acid from her fingernails that cut a burning canyon deep I the cavern floor and rocked the foundation Beast Boy was clinging to.

"Wh-Whoah!!!" he slipped and fell into a freshly made tunnel. "WAAAAAaaaaaaa-aaaaaaa!!!"

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

The tunnel was splashing all over with water cascading down from the burnt cavern above. Beast Boy shrieked and cried out as he spun and tumbled all around the smoothly cut corridor like a slip-n-slide. When he rocketed out of the bottom, he splashed into a pond of an underwater lake.

SPLOOSH!!!

He came sputtering to the surface. He looked around, gasping.

The many different holes Acyd had burned cast light from the cavern above. Flickering rays danced off of cascading waterfalls lining the interior...like a secret spring.

Beast Boy had no time for sight-seeing. He began desperately breath-stroking towards a dry cliff on the far side.

"YAAAAA!!!!" a warcry sounded from above.

The soaked elf looked straight up.

Acyd came sliding down after him. She dove out of a hole, flipped, and charged two handfuls of acid as she plummeted down at his bobbing figure.

He gulped. "When it rains, it pours......acid."

He swiftly turned into an emerald porpoise and dove into the currents just as she was upon him.

SLOOOOOSH!!!!

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

I blurred my feet and ran up the wall, backflipped off, and twirled in the air just in time to avoid a stream of blue energy.

FLASSSSH!!!

The ray struck the wall and exploded in a veil of ice.

I slid to a stop across a thin pool of water and balanced myself on the surface with murking feet. I raised my fingers into a meditative stance...panting....facing my enemy across the way.

Fraust stood, panting. Wisps of snowy breath filtered out from her lips. Though the violet was strong in her eyes, the natural blue sorrowfully dominated as she paced her way across from me. Each step she took in the water produced a clump of surface-ice.

"I will not spare you....you know that....you must know that....," she uttered coldly....very coldly. "The princess must come with me. But you must perish."

I glanced across the wet cavern at Tula's grounded body. Not moving.

I glanced back at Fraust.

"You have powers of your own...," Fraust murmured. Her hands glowed blue. "Surely you can escape with your life and leave her to me."

I clenched my fists. I wasn't about to do that.

"Or maybe you can do me the favor....by ending my life," she whimpered. Her eyes burned violet and—"Rnnnnghhh!!!" she pointed both wrists at me.

A spiraling flurry of snow and ice flew at my body.

I pulsed murk through my legs and vaulted upwards.

FWOOOOSH!!!

Ice solidified beneath me.

I flipped and landed on the horizontal column. On nimble feet I slid towards Fraust.

She gasped and backed up with hands ready.

I took a breath and teleported forward off my slide—SWOOOSH!!!

"Ynnnghh!!" she flung a shard of ice at me.

I blurred through it and solidified in the air beside her with a jump-kick across her chest.

WHAP!!!

She stumbled back.

SPLASH!!

I landed—took a breath—twirled and flung my leg at her head.

GRIP!!!

She grabbed my ankle.

I stood, balancing awkwardly on one sole. "!!!!"

"I-I'm sorry—"She grunted. She slammed her palm in my chest.

CKKKK!!!! A wring of ice formed around my torso in an instant, pinning my arms to my side.

SMACK!!!

She elbowed me with the other arm.

SWOOOSH!! I went sliding across the cavern floor and landing against a wall.

I shivered and struggled to get out of a frosted strait jacket.

Fraust reluctantly raised her hands and charged an orb of blue destruction. "Rnnnnghhhh......"

I gritted my teeth and tried to break loose.

She flung the orb at me. "RAAA!!!!!"

The walls of the cavern were laced with frost along the path of the incoming pulse of energy.

I meditated, summoned murk through my upper limbs, and--

SHATTER!!!!!

Flung my smoking arms out.

The pulse was upon me.

I took a cold breath and rolled out of the way.

SPLASH!!!!!

The orb slammed into the cavern wall and leapt out onto the pool of water. Frost shot everywhere like crystal spiderwebs. I found myself outrunning a solid sheet of ice trailing my blurred feet.

It didn't help that Fraust was constantly tossing chunks of fresh, blue ice at my feet during my sprint. "Raaa!! Nnghhh!!"

I leapt, dodged, and side-stepped the projectiles while running. I met the wall of the cavern on the far side, ran up it, flipped, and deflected a last chunk of ice with two blurring arms criss-crossing outwards.

SMASH!!!

Tiny ice cubes shattered and flew across the air at Fraust like frozen shrapnel.

"Aaaak!!" she shielded herself.

I landed in a crouch, took a shivering breath, and sprinted towards her in a blur.

She held her hands up with a sad expression and produced a three-foot long 'club' of ice.

My specked eyes bulged. I tried to come to a complete stop, but I was sliding across the cold floor helplessly.

"Slizzath....," she whimpered. "H-He will consume us all..."

And she swung the chard at my incoming chest.

WHAP!!!!

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

"RRRRGH!!!" Ivan shouted again into the water. His eyes flickered violet and he flung a burning fist at the hull of the submarine.

WHANG!!!!

Fryte pulled at the controls.

The submersible backed up, propellers bubbling.

Ivan treaded water, his shoulders heaving. He glanced over and saw Robin drifting alone towards the ocean floor. He tried to swim towards the helpless land-dweller.

Fryte saw it. He fingered the controls on the submarine's dashboard.

WHURRRRRR-CLING!!!

Two mechanical arms came to life. With loud, electronic whirring they stretched out and clamped down onto Ivan's legs.

The man let out a bubbling gasp.

Frowning, Fryte flicked a switch.

Electric currents coursed through the metal limbs of the submarine...shocking the life out of Ivan.

ZZZZZZZZTTT!!!!

A blue aura surrounded the Idyllist leader's agonized body.

"NNGHHHH!!!!" he twitched and cringed. He opened his eyes....flashed violet...and aimed two hands at the front of the submarine. "Dark spawn......leave my land ALONE!!!"

FLAAAAAASH!!!!!!

A stream of burning, orange energy splashed out from Ivan's wrists like churning lava.

SSSSSSSsssssss!!!

Fountains of bubbles exploded upwards towards the distance surface. The hull melted more. Water began squirting in at half a dozen pressure points all around Fryte's cockpit.

The Black Tempest child gritted his teeth and yanked at the controls.

The submarine spun around. Ivan was flung like a stone against the building side.

WHAM!!!

Before he could recover--

The submarine backed up against him in reverse. The propellers spun in a deadly fashion towards his cranium.

Ivan focused and—with superhuman Atlantean reflexeds—grabbed a propeller and held it still just an inch from his nose.

The submersible lurched and rocked in its effort to spin the blade.

Ivan struggled...grunting...forming bubbles. He looked helplessly across the currents at the Boy Wonder.

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

All that time, Robin had been conserving his oxygen with one huge breath. He calmed himself down the best that he could and reached a hand through the freezing water to his utility belt. He pulled out a remote device and clicked a few buttons on it. His chest felt like lead was pressing in on it at all sides. Cold lead. He wanted to implode.

Still...he meditated. Spinning in the water, he clenched his eyes shut under his mask and focused on fingering the remote....

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

Inside the hangar of the ship, an alarm was sounding. Red lights flashed over the docked T-Sub. Atlanteans panicked and rushed from station to station, trying to combat the depressurizing of the building on multiple decks. Children and families rushed about—sobbing—under the steady guidance of guards and other Atlantean authorities.

Amidst all this chaos, the bright lights of the T-Sub turned on in the inside. Slowly, the craft submerged as if on its own...and chugged away through the water.

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

Robin's eyes bolted open under the mask.

In a hazy fog, he saw a set of headlights coming his way.

The water churned up as the T-Sub approached.

Robin's chest shook....ached...

He fingered the remote but his hands were turning numb under his gloves.

Bubbles started streaming out of his lips.

He jammed his thumb onto the remote.

A chamber in the T-Sub slid brightly open.

The craft thundered his way.

The boy twirled in the water.

His vision blocked out.

The T-Sub arrived...the chamber yawning open.

And Robin—

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

THWUMP!!!

The Boy Wonder tumbled inside.

He jammed on the control once.

The door closed—WHURRRRR-CLANK!!!

He was stuck inside the claustrophobic, brightly-lit interior.

He jammed on the control again....

FWOOOOOSH!!!!

The water was sucked out and air rushed in.

Robin opened his mouth and practically exploded in air intake.

"!!!!!!!!!!!"

His body twitched. He curled up. He straightened out. He curled up again.

He heaved and heaved, oxygen invading his lungs. And once all that was done, he wetly sputtered and coughed salt water out from his throat and wheezed.

He shivered all over. Nearly freezing to death. He reached over and pressed a console with a shaking hand.

Beep!!

SWOOSH!!!

The door to the interior cockpits opened.

Robin began the arduous process of climbing inside. The first thing he reached for was the heating system....

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

Starfire surged through an underwater corridor. Currents were still rushing inward from the building's hull rupture and kicking at her wet mop of hair. The girl used Tamaranian endurance to survive submerged with one single breath, and with glowing green eyes she peered around for a safe exit to the Hidden Valley beyond.

Unfortunately....she had gotten lost.

Starfire hovered to a stop in a junction of three hallways.

She looked around. The electric lights all around her were flickering against the currents. Shattered pieces of wall structure and debris danced all around her in the ambient chaos.

"..........."

A rumbling noise.

Starfire spun to look.

She stared down an empty hallway.

Nothing.

"............" Her green eyes narrowed.

Then....

SMASH!!!

From behind her.

The girl spun around. She nearly gasped—an act that would fill her throat with water.

The wall beside her had broken apart. A myriad of tentacles jabbed through and squirmed towards her, followed by the bulbous body of a hissing, possessed squid.

'Sliuuuuattth!!!'

Starfire bit her lip and streaked down the hallway in a rush of green-lit bubbles.

The squid streaked after her.

Tentacle after tentacle jabbed, lunged, snapped, and twirled after her ankles.

Starfire throttled herself down the hallway. She spun around a bend in a green blur.

SMASH!!!

The squid dented the hallway walls as it barreled after her.

Starfire glanced back.

Three tentacles were flung at her neck.

She 'ducked' in mid air, spun about, and tossed a starbolt beyond her legs.

FLASH!!!

Water boiled as the green pulse flew into the forest of tentacles and singed a handful of spongy limbs.

'Sliuaaaathaa!!'

The beastly mollusk shrieked and slowed down some.

Starfire blinked and looked ahead. Her eyes twitched.

An iron door was in her way.

She gritted her teeth underwater, charged a starbolt with two hands, and launched it at the last second.

FLASH!!!

SMASH!!!!!!

The door burst apart.

Starfire soared on through...and found herself in a dead end.

WHAM!!! She flew into a wall. She spun around.

The squid—and its ring of tentacles—was upon her.

Starfire held her hands out defensively.

CLUMP!!!

The squid closed around her.

She grabbed two of its tentacles.

It grabbed four of her limbs...and her waist...and her throat...and her thighs....

Starfire twitched and struggled under water...under the pressure of the tentacles...under the churning currents.

The squid churned and quivered and tightened its gnarled grip. The flesh at the center of the converging tentacles opened up. A razor sharp beak appeared....snapping hungrily at Starfire. CL-CLAP!!! CLAP!!!

Starfire bit her lip.

CL-CL-CLAP!!! It snapped more and more ferociously. The tentacles started to drag her in.

Starfire struggled some more. She eventually straightened her body. Her eyes glowed a bright green and--

FLAAAAAA-AAASH!!!! Two streams of emerald fire shot out and burned into the creature's rubbery hide.

'Sliuaaaath!!!'

The squid hissed and drew back.

Starfire pulled herself free of the tentacles...and suddenly realized she was in desperate need of oxygen. At the limit of her Tamaranian lungs, she merely tensed her body and skirted straight up.

SPLOOOOSH!!!

She met the ceiling of the submerged room...

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

SMASH!!!!!

Starfire broke through the floor of the room above, a darklit science facility with windows facing the Hidden Valley. Starfire flew to the ceiling, gasping for air. Water spurted up in a fountain from beneath her. And up from the fountain shot two tentacles.

GR-GRIP!!! The limbs wrapped around the Tamaranian's ankles.

"Eeek!!!"

The squid pulled itself up after her. Its limbs spread. The beak reappeared.

'Sliuaaath!!'

CL-CLAP!!!!

Starfire grit her teeth and flew straight up, pulling the tentacles taut.

The squid kept retracting its muscular limbs, dragging its body—and its hungry beak—up towards the girl's legs.

Starfire snarled, lifted her arms, and grabbed ahold of a pipe above. "NNNNGH!!!" She pulled down hard with alien strength.

SNAP!!!

A sharp section of the pipe broke free. She let the squid pull her down to his beak. At the last second she spread her legs, anchored herself against the width of the squid's body, and jammed down hard into its mouth with the pipe.

"YAAUGH!!"

CRAA-AACK!!!

The beak snapped bloodily apart.

The squid shrieked and quivered all over. Its twitching limbs painfully tossed Starfire across the room.

"AAAAAUGH---" WHAM!!!

Starfire flew hard against the window, cracking it slightly from the inside out. She groaned, rubbed her face, and looked out.

The girl gasped.

She could see Ivan wrestling with some damaged, foreign submersible.

But there was no Boy Wonder...

"Robin....," she murmured...dripping.

'Sliuuaaaath!!'

CRASH!!!

Starfire spun with a gasp.

In murderous vengeance, the squid pulled itself into the dry room. The floor split open wider and water gushed in from below as the giant mollusk closed in on the girl, tentacles whipping forcefully. WH-PHISSH!!! WH-PISHH!!!

Starfire charged to starbolts--

WHAM!!! A tentacle flew across her face.

"Aaaugh!!" she fell to the floor.

The squid hissed and drew upon her.

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

Nova'm ran through the hallway of another level in the building. He panted. Idyllist ocean-dwellers all around him were panicking, flooding to evacuation rings, trying to meet up with family members. Guards barked orders to each other while children sobbed in their rushing parents' arms. And beyond it all was the constant, never-ceasing rumble of a building being flooded one floor at a time.

The redheaded boy skidded to a stop, catching his breath. He held a hand over his heart and swallowed.

The burning......he could still feel it......

"Kory.....you're still safe...."

A beat.

"But what about Robin?" he murmured to himself.

CRASH!!!!

Nova'm gasped. He looked across a corridor and saw a burst of shattering debris in a room full of Atlantean children. They had been huddled there, waiting for an armed group of guards to escort them to the nearest hangar....but suddenly the wall had collapsed beside them. A piece of the floor also shattered explosively. The two adults minding the children pushed them back against the wall and faced something beyond with terror.

Nova'm's lips parted. "Why isn't there water rushing in...."

A flurry of tentacles rose from the ground and wall, twitching dangerously in the people's direction.

Nova'm's green eyes widened. "What?!?! A-Another?!?!"

The children shrieked and the adults vainly raised their fists and tried to bat the tentacles away. The squid's limbs merely struck them hard across the torso and knocked them back against the wall. The beast was blocking the gap over which the group barely had a chance to escape over. It closed in on them with rubbery malice.

Nova'm sweated. He looked around for guards.

There were none nearby at the time. Just panicked, rushing citizens.

Nova'm glanced at something glinting at him from across the floor.

A battered trident lay on the ivory ground. Alone.

Nova'm took a deep breath. "Think, Nova'm....what would a Titan do?"

He rushed over, scooped up the trident, held the huge bludgeon awkwardly in his tiny grasp, and dashed towards the scene.

He charged the rear of the squid just as it began to encircle a little girl's leg with its tentacle...causing her to scream.

"Nnnnghh!!" The young Tamaranian boy jabbed the weapon into the squid's back.

SLASH!!!!

'Sliuaaaath!!' the beast angrily flung a tentacle back and struck the boy hard across the chest.

WHAM!!!

"Mmmf!!" Nova'm fell against the door frame of the shattered room. He winced and blinked his eyes open. He gulped.

The tentacles rose high above him—towards the ceiling—and curled with menace.

"Um.....," Nova'm blinked. "X'Hal???"

SWOOOOSH!!!

The tentacles converged on him.

"Ackies!!" He rolled across the floor.

WHAM!!!

Bits and flakes of tile flew into the air.

Nova'm panted. He reached across the floor. He grabbed the trident by the long end.

Another tentacle slapped towards him.

He rolled again—with the weapon this time—and jabbed upwards with the trident in question.

SLASH!!!!!

He ripped a nasty tear in the rubbery skin.

'Sliaaauuaath!!'

The tentacles swept the ground.

Nova'm bravely leapt up, forced a joyful thought in his young mind, and flew with a green aura near the ceiling.

The shivering children and two adults watched helplessly with wonder.

The tentacles drew back, coiled, and whipped up at Nova'm. SLASH!!!!

The boy winced and held the trident out at arm's length.

GR-GRIP!!!!

The tentacles wrapped around the metal weapon. They shoved against him.

"Aaaugh!!"

WHUMP!!!

Nova'm was planted against the wall. He lost his hold on the trident as well as his hold on flight. He slumped down hard to the ground. THWUMP!!!

"Nnnghh," he winced.

WHIP!!!!

"Snkkkkttt!!" Nova'm wheezed as a tentacle spun tightly around his neck. It slowly, mercilessly constricted while lifting him up towards the ceiling.

The boy gripped the appendage around his neck with shaky hands. His legs thrashed about beneath him.

The rumbling and the shrieks continued behind him in the corridors.

The endangered children shivered as they watched his plight.

Nova'm reached out beyond his mental constraints. Again, he sensed Koriand'r. The burning in his heart intensified. He gasped for breath. His eyes lit up. His hands started to grow.

"You.....," he wheezed into the air. "....are harming....inn-innocent children...."

The tentacle tightened.

"Nnnkkkkt!!" Nova'm winced and squeaked. "And that means.....you are evil...."

A huge starbolt glowed in his hand suddenly. Brighter than the Sun.

The squid suddenly began to quiver.

Nova'm's teeth clenched. "And K-Kory....taught me what to do....with evil things...."

He raised his hands over his head, focused the energy, and flung it at the bulbous bulk of the squid's body.

"Yaaaaugh!!!"

FLASH!!!!

Three of the tentacles melted away in an instant.

'Sliuuaaaath!!!'

The squid bloodily dropped Nova'm and quivered in the gap in the floor through which it had emerged.

Nova'm stood up. Grinning. His eyes on fire. "Woo yeah!!! Feel that righteous fury?!?! There's plenty more where that came fr—"

WHAM!!!!!

A fresh pair of tentacles slapped Nova'm into a nearby wall.

THUMP!!!

A few children gasped.

He fell to his knees, wincing. "Okay....," he stood up and readied another starbolt. "Let's do this one tentacle at a time, sushi breath..."

The squid angrily lunged at him.

He even more angrily tossed a volley of fiery fury at it. "YAAAUGH!!!"

FLASH!!!!!!

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

WHAM!!!

"NNNGH!!!" Ivan was thrown hard into a mountain of coral. Wearily, he tried to swim away--

GRIP!!!!

The metal arm of Fryte's submersible once again clamped around his torso.

Ivan panted underwater. He tried charging another pulse of bright orange plasma...but his old strength was leaving him.

Through the windshield, Fryte's eyes flickered violet. He knew that just as much as the dark-eyed Idyllist that Ivan would be unconscious in a matter of minutes from this endless, mechanical punishment.

The second arm raised and sparked with dancing electricity.

Ivan wheezed...expecting the finishing blow.

The arm reached towards him and--

BLAM!!!!!!

Fryte grit his teeth and balanced himself as the entire submersible rocked back and forth from a torpedo blast.

Ivan's eyes widened. "What???" He glanced over.

Fryte looked through a side porthole.

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

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

A dripping, shivering-wet Robin pushed hard at the T-Sub's steering mechanism.

The underwater vehicle lunged at Fryte's craft.

Robin snarled through clenched teeth: "Better buckle up, asshole."

He throttled it.

VRRMMMM!!!!!!

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

The T-Sub barreled in.

Fryte attempted evasive maneuvers, but it was too late.

WHAM!!!!!!!!

The T-Sub rammed hard into the submersible's side.

The arms shattered off.

Ivan was freed.

He flinched and swam away from the thunderous collision.

CRUNCH!!!!!

The hull of Fryte's craft dented violently inward from the impregnable metal of Cyborg's engineering. Robin hit the thrusters, grinding the T-Sub harder and harder into the submersible.

Soon the two crafts were being pushed across the coral and into the buildingside.

SCRAAAAAAA-AAAPE!!!!

Shards of ivory flew everywhere. Sparks danced in the water.

Fryte shook violently inside his craft as it twirled about and crunched up from the increased pressure on its battered hull. The submersible spun off into the open ocean. Fryte covered his human body with a protective layer of violet energy just as---

Robin jammed his gloved fist over a button. The sonic blaster emerged from the top of the T-Sub, charged brilliantly in a blink of an eye, and fired on the spiraling enemy vessel.

ZAAAAAAP!!!

The blast struck dead on.

SCHRUMP!!!!!!!!

The submarine imploded. The fuel tanks ruptured. It then exploded...sending shrapnel and plasma everywhere.

PHWOOOOOM!!!!

Robin shielded his eyemask inside the T-Sub.

When the smoke and underwater flame dissipated....the Boy Wonder had to gasp.

Ivan the same...

Fryte was still alive. He treaded water, his body glowing violet. His eyes most of all. He glared at the T-Sub hideously.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Three bikers finally rode up from behind Fryte.

Glaring, Fryte turned towards them.

The bikers swooped in on their underwater craft. They let out a warcry and aimed glowing tridents.

Fryte merely waved a hand. His eyes flickered.

FL-FLASH!!!

The bikers suddenly gasped—all three of them—and clutched their heads, screaming in terror underwater. They tumbled off of their bikes—which careened explosively into the coral around them.

SMASH!!!

BOOOOM!!!!

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

Inside the T-Car, Robin winced as shockwaves flew through the water and rocked his craft.

He looked up and gasped.

Fryte was swimming blindingly fast towards him.

The Boy Wonder jammed the blaster again.

ZAAAAP!!!

ZAAAAAAAP!!!

Fryte nimbly swam around the energy streaks with violet force.

Robin gritted his teeth...uncertain...

Fryte swam directly towards the windshield of Robin's cockpit and perched on it.

CLAMP!!!

His eyes flickered.

FLASH!!!!!!

Robin twitched.

Fryte was sailing through the windshield in a cloud.

Only, he wasn't Fryte anymore.

He had a metal face of bronze and black.

One emblazoned eye stared Robin down.

"Robin......it's been a long time......you disappoint me......"

Robin gasped. "You......n-no.........you're......you're dead......what are you doing here?!?!"

"I've come to collect my prize......," Slade spoke as he sat before Robin. He stared the Boy Wonder in the face. "And you are such an excellent prize, my apprentice."

Robin clenched his fists. "I am NOT your apprentice!! You're dead!! What is thi—"

"You've served me well, Robin," Slade spoke. "Leaving Starfire and her brattish little friend behind to fend for themselves in an underwater building overrun with giant squid and pressure-implosions. Your tenacity for getting the job done is priceless. They are good as dead now."

Robin gasped. "N-No......they can't be......"

"But they are. You know it. Deep in your heart," Slade's one eye narrowed. "And you enjoy it......"

Robin was hyperventilating. Images of Starfire's bloated carcass bobbing at the ceiling of some submerged room filled his eyes. Then Nova'm's throat being ripped apart—meaty tendon by meaty tendon—from a tentacle full of suction cups. Tamaranian blood floating in the water.

"No......"

Slade extended a gloved hand. "Come with me, apprentice......"

"No!!" Robin looked at his hands. They were no longer gloved in green...but instead black and brown metal mesh.

"......and we shall finish off the rest of the Titans......as naturally as you finished off the aliens."

Robin sweated cold bullets. He looked in the shiny surface of the dashboard. In the reflection he saw himself in the apprentice outfit. The eyemask Slade gave him.

The apprentice.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Robin clutched his head and screamed into the T-Sub.

And outside....Fryte glared through the windshield...

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

"Leave this Tower....NOW!!!" Raven shouted as she flung a handful of black energy 'daggers'.

SWIIIIISH!!!!

Two assasins ducked.

A third twirled about the telekinetic projectiles and pounced upon Raven.

WHUMP!!!

"Nnghh!!" the girl was shoved towards the shattered window of the Main Room. Lightning flashed and rain flew in around her dark figure as she wrestled with the Atlantean ninja grappling her from behind.

CHHIING!!! He brandished a trident and threatened to slit her throat.

The dark girl's eyes glowed. Her body morphed into the silhouette of a black bird. The darkness enveloped the assassin and dramatically 'spit him out' with a cawing, black beak.

His body flew towards the open window. He grabbed onto the frame before he could fall out.

Raven materialized, panting, staring at him.

SWOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!

The other two charged from behind and kicked her hard in the rear.

"Ugh!!" she plummeted out the window.

She fell amidst bullets of rain. Lightning flashed, illuminating the hard rock crags below.

Raven remained calm. She held her hands together and spoke into the biting wind of the world rushing up to her petite figure: "Azarath....Metrion...Zinthos!!"

FLASH!!!!

Black wings extended from her person. He cape billowed as the wings 'flapped' and turned her body upright. She pivoted into a vertical position and slowed her ascent.

SWOOOSH!!! SW-SWOOOSH!!!

She looked up with quivering, violet eyes.

The assassins were suicidally diving down towards her.

She braced her midair body....

WHUMP!!!

All three grabbed onto a separate limb and dragged her down.

Raven grunted and strained.

Her telekinetic wings broke apart in the plunge, one energetic 'feather' at a time.

And soon, all four bodies collapsed hard in a cleft of sand between bluffs.

THWUMP!!!!

Raven immediately shouted and unleashed a pulse of black energy from her torso. "Nnngg-YAAH!!!"

The three thugs were thrown back.

Two slid across the sand into a standing position.

One planted his feet against a rock bluff and vaulted up into a flip, landing behind Raven and grabbing her shoulders.

"!!!!"

The ninja flung her hard against the rock-face.

WHUMP!!

"Oof!!" she slumped halfway to her knees.

She looked up, eyes glowing fiercely through a tangled curtain of soaked, blue hair.

The three ninjas blurred towards her, tridents brandished.

CHIIING!!! CH-CHING!!!

Raven meditated. She held her black-encased hands up and pulled a Terra.

The rockface behind her cracked in three places. Black energy circled three large shards of granite...which she flung at the charging figures.

"YAAAAAGH!!!!"

THWUMP!!! WHAM!!! Two figures fell.

The third leapt over the last boulder, flipped, and dove trident first at Raven.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Raven held her hand up at the last second.

As if having air-breaks, the last ninja froze in mid-air. His jabbing trident barely touched the chakra stone on Raven's forehead.

The Atlantean attacker blinked....showing fear for the first time.

Raven glared at him as she held him at bay in mid air. "That was not a good idea....," she droned. A flick of her wrist downward and---

WHAM!!!!!

The assassin is plowed violently into the sand.

Raven raised herself into the air like a goddess.

Her hair whipped about and her cloak danced in the soaking wind as she lifted her arms and raised the soggy sand of the beach in two funneling tornados of concentrated telekinesis.

The two dizzy attackers got up and gasped as wet dirt devils churned murderously towards them.

Raven snarled under glowing-gray eyes. "You had better stick to the ocean...."

She raised her hands with a shout.

THWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The Atlanteans didn't have a chance to shriek. They flew high into the air with exploding puffs of sand before plummeting far out into the churning waters of the Bay.

A last roll of thunder...and Raven calmed down. She landed gently on the sand and straightened her soaking wet hair in the rain. A gentle sigh. She glanced at the last unconscious thug beneath her...then at the exposed parts of her arms from the recent scuffle.

"Hmmf," she huffed under the gray clouds and rain. "I think I'm getting a tan."

A beat.

She spun around and cast a concerned glance at the Tower....

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

SWOOSH!!

SWOOOSH!!

CL-CLANK!!!!

The two assassins dove across the hallway with miniature tridents swinging, but to no avail.

Sparks merely flew off of Cyborg's titanium skin and made the android defender more and more pissed.

"Oh no you don't!!" he snarled and shoved them back with a fist. "I just buffed myself this morning!! RrrrAAAUGH!!" He flung his wrist out. A panel opened up, shooting out a grappling hook that wrapped around the ankle of one thug. Cyborg yanked back hard with a growl. The assassin was flung hard into the ceiling and then slammed down into the ground like the unlucky end of a tether ball.

The other ninja rushed in, stabbing at Cyborg's fleshly side of his face.

Cyborg retracted the cord and side-stepped just in time to avoid the sharp jab.

The ninja kept lunging menacingly, forcing the android to back down the hallway.

At one point, Cyborg crossed his arms in a 'shield' in front of him. Jets opened up in the back of his shoulders and fired.

PFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cyborg's body was propelled forward in a bright orange streak. He slammed into the body of the main attacker. Sparks flew as the sliding android shoved the thug back towards the smashed elevator doors.

The other ninja on the ground stood halfway up, twirled his trident, and flung it into the ground. CLANK!!!! The blade embedded directly in the path of Cyborg's rocketing feet.

CLAMP!!!

"Augh!!"

Cyborg tripped forward.

The thug he was entangled with shifted his body and used the jets on Cyborg's uplifted back to vault him across the hallway and through a nearby wall.

SMASH!!!!!

The android Titan plummeted into a bathroom, collapsing onto the floor.

The two nimble Atlanteans flipped through the fresh wall and dove at him.

Just as Cyborg stood up, he had a massive kick to the chest—THWAP!!

Followed by another thug's uppercut to the metal chin. SMACK!!!

Cyborg teetered back from the last blow.

One of the two thugs jumped him again.

Cyborg gritted his teeth and raised his hands, catching the airborne thug. He growled and spun around, slamming the ninja's body through a toilet.

SMASH!!!

White ceramics littered the floor. The plumbing was smashed and a fountain of water gushed into the air.

The second thug charged Cyborg, trident first. CHIIING!!

Cyborg ducked.

CRAACK!! The trident embedded into the wall mirror, shattering outward in spiderweb fractures.

Cyborg lunged forward and punched the Atlantean in the chest. WHUMP!!! He grabbed his shoulders and tossed him harshly through the doorframe of the shower stall. CRUNCH!!!

The other thug got up, strung a garrote around Cyborg's metal ankle, and pulled with a YANK!!

"Augh!!" Cyborg fell hard to the floor.

The thug perched on his body and prepared to stab down onto the Titan's face with his trident.

Cyborg tensed his ankles. Two compartments in the soles of his metal boots opened up and rocket thrusters appeared. PHOOOOOOM!!!!

Awkwardly, the thug 'rode' Cyborg's body as it soared along the bathroom floor, smashed through another wall, and tumbled out into the main atrium of the building. The two fell three stories down the deep entrance before tumbling madly onto the tile floor.

THWUMP!!

WHUMP!!

The two stood up at the same time.

The Atlantean brandished two more tridents....lungs heaving.

Lightning flashed from outside.

Cyborg cracked his knuckles as he murmured: "Gonna help us redecorate after this??"

They charged each other.

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

Aqualad and Miist wrestled in the pool.

The Atlantean was nimble in his underwater element.

But the human—imbued with dark powers—was godlike.

Miist's steaming body seemingly slid between the water molecules surging all around them. Consequently, he slipped from Aqualad's grappling grip and flung himself at the Idyllist's body, slamming into him repeatedly. WHAM!! THWAP!! SMACK!!

Aqualad cried out in pain, bubbles rising from his mouth. He swung bravely with his fists and kicked with all his might, but all he could do was send ripples of water through the indoor pond.

In the meantime, Miist was unrelenting. And it was only a matter of time before Aqualad sought a desperate escape from his combatant.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Body streaming with water, Aqualad leapt desperately onto the dry poolside. He immediately collapsed to his knees....heaving for breath.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Miist's white essence shot out from the water and clipped the prince from behind.

THWACK!!!

"Aaaugh!" Aqualad fell forward hard across the concrete.

Miist solidified into a proud, condescending pose. He smirked down at the battered Atlantean and giggled. "So in the end...this is what you choose to be! Hehehehe! A fish out of water!!"

Aqualad coughed and sputtered. "Do not tempt me...."

"To do what??" Miist bent over, smiling. "Wanna fight on equal terms now? Or should I just beat the daylights out of you and get it over with?! Face it...in either defeat or victory, you're nothing more than the spawn of Slizzath!! You serve my master in strength and in weakness!! Hehehehe...you should just be like me, Garth! Embrace that which empowers you!"

"My power.....," Aqualad raised his head. As he glared, his dark white-on-black eyes turned to a burning, purple haze. ".....My Power is mine to choose and mine to choose alone...."

Miist's smile faded.

"You want a Tempest, Miist??" Aqualad stood up and raised his hands. With a violet glow, the entire body of water from the pool rose magically behind him like a giant, warbling sea-wyrm. "You'd sure as Hell better grow gills quick!!"

Miist gritted his teeth and raised two 'blades' of steam.

"RAAUGH!!!" Aqualad flicked his wrists.

FWOOOOSH!!!! The water magically shot forward, parted around Aqualad's body, and converged like a wall of transparent stone on Miist's figure.

WHAM!!!

"OOF!!" the human flew up against a wall.

Aqualad dramaticly flung his hands back.

The water flew as a giant blue blob in the air. It coagulated at the far end of the room.

Aqualad's eyes flickered and he lunged his body forward.

The water blob turned into a giant, rectangular solid and rocketed at Miist.

The boy had barely recovered when the torrent struck.

SPLOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The entire length of the watery 'rectangle' pummeled into him. As it splashed off, it broke back into two 'tentacles' that wrapped around and turned into a giant liquid mallet that slammed mercilessly into the Slizzath-Spawn's body.

WHAM!!!

Miist tumbled across the floor. He got halfway up to his feet and then collapsed, moaning.

Aqualad leapt into the air. As he did so, he commanded the water to surge towards him. The Atlantean's body flipped and plunged into the airborne mass of water. SPLASH!!! A huge 'leg' shot out from the water blob. The rest of the water congealed over it and stretched wide around Miist with Aqualad bobbing inside like a cell's nucleus. At just the right moment, the water surged forward and Aqualad leapt out of the liquid wall with a torrent-propelled flying kick.

SWOOOOSH-SMACK!!

Miist's body spun through the air and smashed through a set of double-doors.

CRASH!!!

He tumbled onto the floor of the nextdoor room, the Titan's gym.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Aqualad slithered mercilessly after him inside the belly of a liquid snake. The huge rope of pool water wrapped around Miist, enveloped him, then 'spit' him out across the gym.

SMASH!!! "Augh!!!" Miist slammed through training bars. He stumbled painfully to his feet, frowned with clenched teeth, and turned his arms into blades.

"I am Lord Slizzath's most loyal subject!! I SHALL NOT LET YOUR WRATH WIN HIS RESPECT OVER MINE!!!"

Aqualad broke surface at the top of a water 'pyramid' and smirked. "Everybody hates the teacher's pet..."

"Rrghhhhhh...," Miist's body blurred as he flew hotly towards the Atlantean. "RAAAUGH!!!"

Aqualad ducked down into the water pyramid, which morphed into a dome just in time to duck Miist's leap.

Miist contacted the wall, teleported his body in reverse, and kicked a fresh pair of feet against the structure...propelling himself directly into the blob of water.

SPLOOSH!!!

Aqualad swam in a jerking motion, twirling his body to barely avoid Miist's plunge.

Miist splashed out of the other side, rolled across the floor, jumped nimbly to his feet, turned half of his body into steam, and blurred back towards Aqualad again. "HAAA!!!"

SWOOOSH!!

Aqualad darted across the dome of water.

Miist pierced through the liquid body.

As the villain emerged on the other side, a violet-eyed Aqualad flicked his wrist.

A tentacle of water reached out and—with perfect timing—wrapped around Miist just as he solidified against the wall again.

"!!!!!!!!"

The tentacle flexed, slamming Miist up...down...up...down...and plowing him through a weightlifting bench.

SMASH!!!

"Nnnghh...," Miist stood slowly up to his feet.

"Unlike you....I'm not bloodthirsty....," Aqualad broke surface and spoke from the watery shape. "I'm giving you and whoever you brought with you one last chance to leave the Titan's abode."

Miist's eyes glared.

Aqualad frowned. "I may have Slizzath's essence....but I don't have his treachery. I do not wish to destroy you."

Miist merely grinned. "Yes....," he winked. "You do."

SWOOOOSH!!!

Miist charged.

Aqualad ducked into the water and floated in a 'ready' stance.

"HAAAA!!" Miist ran into the water, charged up blades of steam, and started hacking...slashing....ripping...shredding...and altogether lacerating the body of water with burning arms of white.

SPLASH!!! SP-SPLASH!!! SPLOOSH!!! SP-SP-SPLASH!!!

Aqualad 'rolled' the dome of water back...but the dome was getting smaller as more and more sprays of liquid were being shredded off by Miist's relentless jabs and swipes.

And in such a fashion, the hysterical Miist carved his way deeper and deeper into the watery apple to get at its Idyllist core.

"Hehehehehe....," the fiend giggled. "Come out of the pool, Garth. Your time is up!"

Aqualad grinned. "I'm not done yet." His eyes flickered purple and he raised his hands to the ceiling.

"H-Huh???" Miist glanced up and slowed his attacks.

One by one, the emergency sprinkler pipes started the wobble and the sprinkler heads popped off. Pow!! P-Pow!! Clank!!!

Wide sprays of emergency water rained down, coagulated in mid-air, and then streamed towards Aqualad like a long, long, flying snake. At the same time, puddles of water slashed off from the liquid dome by Miist started rising in the air and floating magically back to Aqualad.

The Atlantean's floating body glowed a furious purple. His body heaved as if his lungs were breathing while the various floating streams from every water and plumbing source in the room surged into his dome and made the blob of water nearly twice as large.

Miist stumbled back, panting.

Aqualad glared at him. "There is......no second chance."

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

The Atlantean and the body of water surged straight forward.

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

SPLOOOSH!!!

The green swordfish leapt out of the water, morphed into a wet-streaming otter, twirled to avoid a sailing glob of acid, and plunged back into the pool in the form of a penguin.

Agilely, Beast Boy dove and swam and thrust and plunged all around the cavernous pool, avoiding the burning streams of juices coming from the stationary Acyd's limbs.

The green haired girl treaded water in the center of the underground lake. Pinpricks of light shimmered down on her as she panted and struggled to perfect her aim as she launched stream after stream of acid at the Titan changeling.

At one point, Beast Boy leapt again out of the water and clung to a low-hanging part of the ceiling. He reverted to elf form and panted: "Come on!! Can't we just talk it out?! What is your deal?!?!"

"You don't deserve to know the truth, infidel!!" Acyd hissed. Her eyes danced purple. "Slizzath's days of imprisonment are to end!! After many millennia, his destiny shall be made known!! RAAUGH!!!" she flung a green glob.

Beast Boy leapt into the air and flew with eagle wings across the cavern as the rock burned behind him. He perched on a wall on the other side and returned to his elvin look of concern. "Look....it's that Senator Chasma guy you work for, isn't it?!?! Do you really think he's gonna benefit this world?? Or Atlantis for that matter??"

"Nothing matters to me...," Acyd heaved. "Save for the honor of Slizzath!!"

"Just listen to yourself!!" Beast Boy shouted. "It's almost as if you're....as if you're....." He blinked as his own words lingered between his lips. "....hypnotized. You're hypnotized, aren't you?"

"I.....I......," Acyd sweated.

"Look...j-just calm down," Beast Boy gestured with a hand. "We're Titans! We're good guys!! I've fought people before who were.....f-forced to be evil." He gulped at a painful memory that stabbed his brain stem like a dagger, but continued: "You don't have to be so angry. Just calm down, lower your frothiness, and let's talk—"

"N-No....," Acyd had a look of pain. She clutched her head and shook all over. "NO!!!!!" She again bore a violet glare of anger as she snarled up at the shape-shifter. "Stop trying to deceive me with your lies!! That is Fryte's job!!" She pointed a shaking figure and frowned. "You should DIE for trying to emulate the awesome power of Slizzath!!"

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Eh heheheh......g-guess that bombed..."

"RAAAUGH!!!"

SPLOOOOSH!!

A wave of steaming acid fountained up at the changeling.

He had no choice but to dive back into the waters and resume the battle.

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

WHAM!!!!

I fell back and slid to a stop across the fresh ice.

"!!!!!!!" I winced all over. My nose was bleeding, ruining the immaculate 'Aqualad' façade. My skin was too numb to feel it.

"Nnnnghhh!!"

A bright blue aura.

I gasped and vaulted upwards with a flip of murk.

FLASH!!!

A horizontal cylinder of smooth ice materialized where my body was.

I twirled in the air and landed in a low, nimble crouch on the cylinder. I took a breath—my limbs smoking—and blurred at Fraust.

SWOOOSH!!!

She flung an ice beam at me.

I teleported through it and ran over the water with blurring feet.

She flicked her other wrist and flung a huge chunk of ice.

I sidestepped it, twirled, and charged her.

Fraust flinched and held her elbow in front of her petite body...forming a 'shield' of ice.

SMASH!!!!

I collided with it—and thus with her.

"Aaaugh!!" she fell back.

I tumbled to the side.

Shards and shattered ice crystals littered the floor around us from the impact.

Slowly, we got up to our knees...facing each other.

I was shivering...quickly catching cold from the frosted battle.

And Fraust was....

"You....d-don't underst-stand....," she sobbed. Snowflakes fell from her eyes. Mist wafted out from her lips. "Or if you d-do...you are as misfortunate as I am to kn-knowow the truth...." She slowly stood up and her hands glowed sapphire as she approached me. White flakes of snow clung to her short blonde hair. "The world as w-we know it...is a cold, frozen place of death. And it's about to get a lot c-c-colder. Nothing that we can do will stop Slizzath's reappearance. I only wish...I only hope...you have the st-strength to do the cold-hearted thing...and kill me before I'm so c-cursed as to see that world."

She slowly raised her hands. Sharp icicles rose large and threatening out of the wet floor all around her like a halo.

"So then...mimic who doesn't speak...," Fraust sniffed and formed a tiny frown of bitterness. "Embrace whatever warmth you have left. It is but an illusion..."

Crnkkkttt!

I blinked. I looked beneath me.

I saw a tip of an icicle raise from the floor between my feet.

Fraust's fists clenched. "Start freezing. HAAA!!!"

CHIIING!!

The icicle shot up at me.

I backflipped just in time to not get skewered.

Fraust's eyes danced purple and she flicked her blue wrists again and again. "Nnnghh!! Yaah!!"

Icicles magically shot up all around me where I stood and leapt.

CHIIIING!!! CH-CHIING!!! CHIIIIIING!!!

I acrobatically jumped, dove, and spun about all across the cavernous floor...barely avoiding the icy spikes shooting up all around me. I eventually resorted to running the length of the cavern. As a result, an entire line of icicles shot up behind me like a serrated backbone. CHIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIING!!!

I blurred my feet and ran up the wall.

Fraust flicked her wrists.

The icicles shot out horizontally.

CHIIII-IIIING!!

When I reached the ceiling, I teleported momentarily, throwing Fraust's aim off.

The icicles shot across the rocky solid overhead by themselves.

I materialized right-side-up in midair. Before I could fall, I grabbed onto a low-hanging icicle besides the wall with one hand, twirled my feet, and kicked at another hanging shard of ice with a grunt.

SMACK!!!

CRAAACK!! The icicle snapped and flew with murk-propelled ferocity down at the girl. SWOOOSH!!

"!!!" Fraust grunted and barely shielded herself with a sheet of ice. CRACK!!

SNAP!!!!

The icicle I was hanging on broke. I fell to the floor, landed on my feet, and found myself holding an icy-blue bludgeon. Without thinking, I twirled it expertly like a sword and charged at Fraust.

The girl recovered at the last second.

I reached her, crouched low, and swung.

SMACK!!!

The icicle cracked halfway.

Fraust fell onto her knees.

I swiped my foot up to her head.

THWAP!!

"OOF!!" she fell down onto the ground.

I took a deep breath, jumped to my feet, and swung down at her.

SWOOOSH

She palmed the icicle like it was merely a toy and shoved back at me. "Nynnghh!!"

I stumbled back, nearly slipping on the fresh ice.

Fraust jumped to her feet. She shivered and hoisted her arms to her side. FL-FLASH!!! Two curved and very-sharp scimitars appeared in her grasp. She spun them around like double nunchaka and rushed me. SW-SW-SWISH!!!

I gritted my teeth and blocked with my ice shard held horizontally.

CL-CL-CLANK!!!! Fraust's spinning scimitars of ice deflected off of my weapon. She spun around, twirled the blades, and sliced at my neck with two converging swipes.

I blurred out of the way.

CLANK!!! Her blades truck each other.

I fell on my rear and kicked up with both feet.

WHUMP!!!

Fraust stumbled back. The scimitars in her grip loosened.

I rolled forward, stood up from my somersault, and slashed upwards with my icicle club.

THWACK!!!

I knocked one 'scimitar' out of her grasp.

Fraust gasped.

I immediately spun around and swung the club at her head like a bat.

CHUNK!!!!! She stopped it with her scimitar embedded into its center.

I winced.

She frowned and pointed her free hand at me.

FLASH!!!!!!!

A rush of snow, ice particles, and frost slammed into my chest. The breath left me with a shuddering chill. I fell back and slid across the frozen water, landing in a pond of bone-wracking sleet in the far corner. The whole cavern was covered with falling, downy flakes of snow by now. I was numb all over....shivering.

Fraust ripped her scimitar out of the club and tossed my impromptu weapon away across the ice. She stepped menacingly towards me...and yet with a sag of her shoulder that suggested the boundless melancholy of her personality. She sniffed a huge inhale and pouted.

"You.....Y-You have disappointed me...."

I shuddered to breathe. I looked helplessly at her, hugging myself. I missed my normal combat fatigues. It's downright freezing in a damn jumpsuit!!

"At least Chasma would have had the gall to end my life if he wanted to...." Fraust murmured.

I raised an eyebrow.

"I wonder if this is what 'good people are like'.....," she spoke. A wisp of blue or two from her lips....then: "....how depressing......now go to sleep." She pointed a glowing hand of sapphire at me.

I prepared for an eternal refrigerator existence.

WHAM!!!!!

"Ugh!!!" Fraust exclaimed as she was clipped sharply from behind with an icicle to the head. THWUMP!!!! The Black Tempest child collapsed on the ice.

I panted. I glanced up.

Tula stood above the fallen mage, her hair tossed and her silken dress soaking wet. She took a deep breath and palmed the icicle. "And I thought I was the ice princess of Atlantis..."

I smirked crookedly.

Fraust limped onto her feet, clutching her head and wincing. "Pain!! You are so qu-quick to inflict it!!"

"Uh.....yeah," Tula blinked. "You need therapy or something?"

"What I need....I will never get," Fraust panted. "If only you could understand!!!" She aimed her hand at Tula.

I whistled.

Tula jerked her body at ready, expecting anything---

FLAAAASH!!!

---but that.

"Whoah!!!" Tula's body vaulted.

To my undeniable shock, her Atlantean strength sent her spiraling upwards at a height of fifteen feet. She agilely dodged the blue stream of ice, landed behind the girl, and elbowed her hard in the back.

THWUMP!!!

"Augh!!" Fraust stumbled forward.

Tula spun her body around and—skirt twirling—she raised a foot and gave Fraust a fierce kick in the shoulders.

THWAP!!!!

Fraust ran into a wall.

Tula twirled the icicle and ran towards her. "Pin the tail on the party pooper!!"

Fraust spun around suddenly and aimed a wrist at Tula's upper body.

The princess gasped and barely came to a sliding stop.

FLASSSSH!!!!

A cylinder of ice circled Tula's torso and chest.

Tula shivered and grit her teeth. "Okay....okay....one corset is enough, girl. NNnnnghhh!!!" With a burst of strength, she spread her shoulders and snapped the circle of ice off of her. She marched forward and flew a fist across Fraust's cheek.

WHAM!!!!

Fraust fell down, rolled in reverse, hopped up, and launched a huge chunk of frost at the princess.

Tula dove out of the way.

CRASH!!!!

Bits and pieces of ice showered down on her.

She lay across the floor in her wilted dress, wincing.

Fraust parted her fingers and formed four crystal shurikens. "You are almost a blessing..."

FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!!!!

The spinning stars of icy death flew down at Tula.

The princess winced.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred between the two girls.

In slow motion, my smoking fingers gripped all four shurikens in mid-air. I then blurred up to the wall, stepped up it, jumped off in a twirl, and flung the four projectiles directly back at Fraust.

The ice girl gasped.

Time resumed.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!! The shurikens gleamed.

Fraust formed two protective 'bracelets' of ice around her wrists. She twisted her upper body and fanned her forearms around, deflecting one—CLANK!!—two, three—CL-CLANK!!!—but missing the fourth projectile.

SLIIIINK!!!!

Blood splurted out from her shoulder.

"Aaaugh!!" She gripped her wound. Blue frost drifted out of the gash. She winced and looked at me with instant tears. "Please....don't torture me."

I hesitated. My only downfall. I panted and looked at her with sudden concern.

"All the others do....."

I gulp.

".......," Fraust blinked. SWOOOSH!! She had her hands aimed at me.

I gasped---

FLAAAAASH!!!!!

A huge beam of blue energy caught me directly in the chest. I was blown back halfway across the cavern until the ice collecting around my body met the ceiling and floor. Soon I was encased in a solid column of crystal. Frozen solid inside.

Tula gasped. "Noir!!"

No response. Not even a twitching arm. My Aqualad-garbed body rested inside a translucent prison.

Fraust spun to face the princess. She took a deep, sad breath and shuddered: "He isn't cold enough..."

Tula frowned, picked up a nearby shard of ice, and paced across from the snow mage threateningly. "You're lucky he wasn't my real boyfriend. Or else I'd tear you limb from limb."

"And now??" Fraust asked.

"I think I'll settle for disemboweling you," Tula growled and charged with the sharp icicle. "YAAAAUGH!!"

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

"Fryte!!! Let him go!!!" Ivan telepathically projected. Teeth gritting, the dark-eyed Idyllist soared through the waters and charged a huge pulse of plasma to incinerate the dark-haired mage on the hull of the T-Sub.

Concentrating on Robin inside the craft, a violet-glowing Fryte flicked a free wrist towards the side.

As Ivan rushed in through the water like a torpedo, he became vaguely aware of a shadow to his right.

He glanced over. He gasped and tried to pivot his underwater flight--

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!!!

A huge, white shark plowed into his side. Its eye rolled back and glowed violet from Fryte's telepathic manipulation. The creature bit down at Ivan's hands.

The Idyllist snapped his arms away and wrestled with the mad fish. He tried shoving it off him, but the flicking of the shark's tail kept pushing the carnivore harder and harder into the man's chest. Ivan lost his control of plasma and was plowed into the coral below. He could only look helplessly at the Titan Leader's tortured battle as he fought with the heavily-teethed creature in the Hidden Valley.

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

WHAM!!!!

Nova'm tiny body wracked with pain as he was tossed against a nearby wall.

He winced in pain.

GRIP!!!!

Two thick tentacles wrapped around his neck.

He gasped for breath and was lifted his hands. They glowed brightly green. He charged tiny starbolts and flung them like burning daggers rapidly up the two tentacles gripping him.

The squid squirmed in pain and lowered through the hole a bit....then burst on through, shoving Nova'm hard against the wall.

SLAP!!!!

Nova'm quickly—agonizingly—learned the extent of his Tamaranian resilience and physical prowess. He could withstand pain....lots and lots of pain....

And he didn't exactly like it.

"Nnnnnnghhhh!!" he winced. Out of desperation, he charged a basketball sized starbolt and flung it into the bulbous body of the squid.

FLASH!!!!

The squid's limbs shook an dropped Nova'm to the floor.

He grabbed a piece of debris and flung it at the tentacles. THWACK!!!!

The squid backed off a bit.

"Go!! Save yourself!!" an Atlantean adult guarding the children called out from the shattered side of the room beyond the giant mollusk. "You can't ward him off!! You're only human!!!"

SW-PISSSH!!! A huge, waving tentacle smashed down at Nova'm.

He dove out of the way. His eyes glowed a bright green.

"I am not human......"

The tentacles angrily converged on him.

Nova'm's whole body flexed. An orb of green fury exploded from his figure. "YAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

Nearby Atlanteans shaded their eyes at the birth of a hero.

'Sliuuuuuaaaath!!!!' The squid shrieked as it started to burn from the furious green aura....

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

"HAAA!!! YAAAGH!!! RrrrrRRRGHH!!!"

FLASH!!! FLAAAASH!!! FL-FLASH!!!!

Starfire flew backwards across the science wing, flinging starbolts behind her at the perusing beast. Tentacles thrashed at her. She held them back with pulse after pulse of green desperation. Water spurted up from the damaged floor below. The darkly-lit interior danced from light filtering in through the chaos outside. Starfire was too busy with the giant squid and the flooding torrents to so much as glance outside and see the T-Sub....or Robin....

Slowly, the Tamaranian began to get exhausted. Her lungs heaved. Her wet red hair tossed before her eyes and distorted half-black vision. A sense of dread overcame her as dwindling adrenaline mixed with the sickening pit in her stomach at the thought of a waterlogged Boy Wonder and--

GRIP!!!!

The tentacles wrapped tightly around her neck.

Starfire wheezed and gripped at her throat.

The squid yanked her towards a table full of vials and glass containers.

SMASH!!!!

It then whipped her towards the ceiling.

THRASH!!!

Finally it began to slowly squeeze the life out of her.

Starfire merely dangled and wheezed: "X'Hal......"

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

"I always knew you were capable of it, my apprentice. It didn't have to take brute force. But simple negligence was enough."

Starfire bobbed at the surface of some hidden pool. Her eyes were bulbs of ivory. Her face bloated blue and frozen.

"You were never fit for being a leader. It is in your veins to be a thief. To steal away the lives of your dearest friends when they were least expecting it......"

Nova'm fell to the ground, his loose neck bouncing after a steady string of suction cups snapped his vertebrae apart.

"And that leaves you with one option. To serve me. To serve me as you truly wish to do. As you always wanted to do. In bloodlust of your friends lives."

"I.......I don't believe......I-I don't believe it......"

"Say it, Robin. Say that you're my apprentice. Give in and serve me......and I shall give you a quick death the soonest you ask for it......"

"I know this feeling......."

"Cease with your tangents! Obey me!!"

"The Scarecrow......."

"I'm warning you......!!"

"The Mad Hatter......"

"Must more of your friends die from your pathetic existence, Robin?!?! OBEY ME!!!"

"It is all a trick......"

From the corner of obscurity, dark forms flitted in. Like a throng of leathery bats. Shrieking off into the blackness of night. Murky......currents......everywhere......

"The wind.....where is it??"

Flying between buildings. Tethered to a cord. A red sky.

"I know who I am......"

"You're my apprentice, Robin. You are evil to the core. You are—"

"No!! NO!!! I am not!!!"

"Silence----!!!"

"You are dead, Slade!! You hear me?!?! Dead!!! It took the loss of my dignity, the trashing of Terra's life, and the mutilation of Noir to rid you from our lives forever and you...are....not....REAL!!!!"

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

FLASH!!!!

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!" Robin howled as he broke through the psychic mold.

SWOOOOSH-SLAM!!!!!!

His green-gloved fist plowed onto a red switch on the dashboard.

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

CHTUNG!!!! CL-CLANK!!!!

The front cockpit portion of the T-Sub in which Robin was seated detached from the rest of the craft in a flurry of bubbles. Thruster rockets extended from either side, glowed, and exploded in hot-orange propulsion.

SHOOOOOOOM!!!!

"!!!!" Fryte flickered purple as the detached vehicle flew off the body of the T-Sub and knocked his submerged body aside.

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

"Nnnnghhhh," Robin sweated and gripped the controls....panting heavily. Moisture clung to the edges of his eyemask like a freshly squeezed orange.

The Boy Wonder jerked hard at the controls.

The tiny submersible skirted about acrobatically.

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

"......." Fryte glared at the distant image of the soaring submersible.

FLASH!!!!!

The magically-charged human looked aside.

A burned, bleeding shark drifted past him.

"..........," Fryte glanced down.

Ivan swam up to him and charged two bright fists of plasma. He frowned. "Hello, Fryte."

Fryte angrily grit his teeth....eyes flicker---

FLAAAAAASH!!!!! A stream of fire struck his body and plowed him into the building.

Ivan rocketed after him mercilessly in a flurry of bubbles. "RAAAAUGH!!!!"

In the meantime, The tiny sub Robin was in spun around and balanced itself in the currents.

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

Robin panted.

He was shaking all over.

He clutched hard to the controls...very hard.

Underneath his gloves, his knuckles were blue.

He still hadn't stopped shivering from the freezing sensation of the ocean.

And then Fryte....

The Boy Wonder gulped.

His eyes under his masked opened....and the first thing he saw was a Tamaranian girl battling a giant squid through the long, stretching windows of the capitol's science wing.

Robin gasped. "Starfire....." It was practically a whimper.

Starfire's body twitched helplessly under the grip of the giant mollusk.

Robin panted. He glanced all around. He looked at a compartment in the dashboard. He punched it, forcing it open. CLANK!! He pulled out a yellow communicator and jammed his finger over the switch.

"Starfire!!!" he shouted into the device. "Do you hear me??" While holding the communicator up with one hand, he pulled at the controls with the other...lining the submarine up with the stretch of glass looking in onto the science wing. "Starfire, it's me!! Robin!! Listen to me....when I tell you to, I want you to fly out of the way, got it???" He charged up the rear thrusters of the tiny T-Sub detachment."

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

"You got that, Starfire??" Robin's voice filtered through the communicator on her chest. "Star?"

Amidst struggling, the Tamaranian's glowing green eyes opened and she gasped. "R-Robin...." Her voice whispered.

After an initial wave of perplexion, a strong bolt of strength rose in her being.

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

Robin kept charging the thrusters.

He flipped a few switches, buckled up, pressed two buttons...and braced himself.

A strong breath.

"NOW!!!"

He unleashed the thruster.

FWOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VRMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

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

Starfire—her breath thin—glanced over the bulbous body of the squid in front of her and saw the incoming reflection of Robin's watercraft across a slate of glossy metal.

She bit her lip, grunted, and lifted her lower body upward...clinging to the body of the tentacle strangling her from above.

'Sluuuuuaaaath!!'

The squid shuddered in surprised.

Its blubbery black eye darted towards the window.

The front cockpit of the T-Sub was screaming straight towards the room.

The black eye twitched.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glass and water formed the cape of the vehicle as it soared its way in—beneath Starfire's fetal body—and slammed bloodily into the mass of mollusk. RIIIIIIP!!!!!

Dark, inky blood splashed everywhere.

The squid screamed...if that was even possible...

The tentacles snapped loose in a dozen places, and Starfire floated freely...her breath back.

She hovered close to the ceiling just as the split-second rush of ocean water surged in and collapsed on top of Robin and the bloody beast.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!

Like a horizontal fountain, the wall of water shoved the vehicle and the squid across the science wing and through a nearby wall.

SMASH!!!!!!!!

Lights flickered as the chaotic mass of mollusk flesh, metal, and foaming water pierced through a nearby hallway—SMASH!!!—a living quarters—CRACK!!—and a commissary.

With a loud CREAAAAAK and sickening GROAAAAN, Robin came to a battered stop atop the silent corpse of the sea beast. Water was still rushing in like indoor rapids.

Alarms sounded.

Lights flashed.

Two water seal doors were gradually closing behind the path of destruction, succinctly sealing off the oceanic rupture from the rest of the dry building....but not before Starfire safely flew on through and landed—panting—in the commissary. The doors closed behind, and the waters stopped rising at about Starfire's ankles. The liquid was ever-increasingly stained with dead squid blood...turning a dark crimson.

The Tamaranian girl panted, shakingly parting wet strands of hair from her forehead.

In the meantime....

THWACK!!!!

Robin broke his way out of the collapsed cockpit hatch of the tiny sumbersible detachment. He knocked the glass away further with his staff and agilely leapt out. He stood halfway on the dead carcass in the center of the commissary and panted.

A beat.

Both Titans looked at each other.

"..............."

"..............."

To Starfire's surprise, Robin was the first to beat her to the punch. He ran over to her and hugged her so dearly, the girl had to fight for her own breath this time.

She eventually encircled the Boy Wonder in her arms and murmured: "Robin...I am so glad that you are safe. How did you ever get in such danger?? And where did these tentacled beasts come from?"

Silence.

Starfire blinked. She nudged his head. "R-Robin?"

He was holding to her desperately...with such intimacy that the Tamaranian had never known before.

"St-Star.......," Robin managed. Suddenly his voice sounded very shakey. "Please tell me.......have I done anything to hurt you??"

The girl leaned her head to the side. "N-No, Robin. You have not hurt me in any way. Why do you inquire?"

He shuddered against her....then sighed long and hard.

"Robin??" she felt worried now. "What is it—"

"Just stay for a moment, Star. Please...."

"Stay where, Robin?"

His arms seemed to be tighter. "Here......"

With a soreness in her throat, the Tamaranian girl gladly oblidged. The two Titans remained in embrace for a good thirty seconds before Robin finally parted the hug and uttered: "Okay....," he managed a weak smile.

Starfire's eyes thinned. She could have sworn she saw moisture at the edge of his Eyemask.

"We gotta get going," the boy said, the leader having returned. "There are people who need our help in here! Where'd you see Nova'm last?"

"I sent him to the interior of the building—"

"We gotta check on them all! Come on!!"

Robin ran, tugging her. Starfire floated in tow.

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

Miist found himself ducking and dodging the attacks of a veritable mountain of water.

And floating in the center of that water was a demonically glowing Aqualad.

Prince Garth's eyes flickered as he flicked his wrists and shot out two tempests of water.

SPLOOOSH!!!!

"Mmmf!!!" Miist flew back across the gym.

The blob of water stretched out and slithered towards him.

Miist gritted his teeth, formed two blades of steam, and leapt into the liquid mass.

SLAAAAAAAAAASH!!! He sailed at Aqualad, arm first.

".............," Aqualad blinked. He jerked his body to the side magically inside the water blob.

Miist flew past him.

Aqualad 'flipped' inside the water and slingshotted himself at Miist's rear with a heavy kick.

WHAP!!!!

Miist spiraled through the water, swam around, and propelled himself with Steam with a huge bludgeon of white foam.

Aqualad acrobatically ducked the swipe, bent back, twirled around, and added to Miist's propulsion with a punch to the back of his neck.

WHUMP!!!

"Oof!!!" Miist shouted bubbly into the water before rocketing out of the liquid 'wall' and sailing through a punching bag.

SMASH!!!

Aqualad squirmed his watery 'mountain' into the center of the gym.

Miist rubbed a bleeding cheek, shouted a war cry, and blurred at the Atlantean.

SPLOOOSH!!! He dove back into the water and swam murderously towards him.

Aqualad's eyes flickered. He treaded backwards and pointed a finger.

Water torrents rose around a benchpress. The magical waves picked it up within the 'cytoplasm' of the watery mass and flung it at Miist.

Miist twirled in mid stream and slashed the bench in half with his blades. CRACK!!!

Aqualad floated backwards past a balancing beam, which lifted up from his controlled currents and surged towards Miist.

The fiend ducked it and approached Aqualad closer.

Garth smirked. He raised his hands. A rack of dumbbells behind him exploded, gathered in the currents like a stream of metal meteorites, and soared rapidly at Miist.

Miist snarled and slashed repeatedly at the incoming weights with his outstretched blades. CR-CR-CR-CR-CRACK!!!

But he couldn't stop the two one-hundred pound weights on the lifting bar.

WHAM!!!!!!!!!

Miist twirled back painfully through the currents.

Aqualad flattened the water mountain, stretched his hand up, snatched a faraway basketball with the currents, and sent it soaring through the medium and across Miist's skull.

WHAP!!!!

Miist floundered.

Aqualad charged at him, reloading his cache of dumbbell shards, bench splinters, and punching bags. He flung all of them at Miist in an armada.

SPLOOOSH!!! SPL-SPLOOSH!!! SPLOOOOOSH!!!!

The various objects slammed repeatedly into Miist from different angles until a heavy swing of a metal locker knocked Miist up and entirely out of the body of water.

SPLASH!!!

He tumbled towards the dry, gymnasium ceiling.

Aqualad grit his teeth and focused his violet energies.

The entire blob of water formed into a huge 'hand' that grabbed Miist and tossed him straight out the gymn doors and into the hallway.

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

THWACK!!!

"Ugh!!" Miist tumbled bloodily onto the hard floor.

He struggled to get up.

He heard a rush of deadly water behind him.

He spun around, gasping in horror. The grin was long gone.

SPLOOOSH!!! Aqualad sank through the door....the blob of water morphing thin and low to accommodate for the new interior.

Miist grit his teeth.....and ran. He sprinted down the hallway as fast as his human legs could take him.

"Cowardly waste of breath!!!" Aqualad frowned.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!! Aqualad soared after him.

Miist found a churning, wrathful waterfall literally chasing him down the dark corridor of the Tower. Splashing currents foamed outward and recollected in an endless, self-propelled current.

Miist panicked and blurred his feet. He became the epitome of steam, speeding down the dim avenue. His flesh turning into white fury.

Aqualad wasn't about to let him get away. He churned the waters surrounding his throttling figure as if they were mist themselves. He flicked his wrists and whipped tendrils of water out towards the target.

THWAP!!

WH-PHISSH!!

Miist yelped and tried to avoid the liquid tentacles.

Aqualad gained the distance. He readied himself with a condensed stream and exploded outward. SPLASH!!! The Atlantean soared out of the front of the torrent and landed with his feet on Miist's shoulders.

THRUMP!!!

"Augh!!" Miist half-stumbled and desperately tossed the prince off him.

Aqualad flipped back and caught himself with four 'arms' of water reaching telekinetically out from the torrent behind him. He ran his legs in mid air and kicked them along the sides of the hallway with a hand stretched into the water. Thus, Aqualad was practically 'running' along the wall with one hand grabbing a watery tentacle like a merry pole flag. When he was again close enough, jumped out on the liquid bungie cord and kicked Miist hard in the rear.

WHACK!!!

"Mmmmff!!!" Miist finally tripped, grinded along the floor, and came to a stop in front of the Tower's elevator.

Aqualad slowed the water to an immediate stop. He settled down to the floor on an extended platform of liquid while the rest of the watery body surrounded him and Miist's body before the elevator like a hollow cocoon, allowing no exit.

"I gave you your chance for retribution....," Aqualad glared. "You decided to laugh it off. What am I to do with you now?"

"Heheheheh........," Miist laughed again. The jester had returned.

Aqualad raised an impatient eyebrow.

Miist looked up weakly and grinned at him. "You could try cutting my throat and ripping my heart of my shell.....like my friends and I did with your Renzukka buddies on the way over here......"

Aqualad's eyes widened. A breath escaped him.

"Heheheheheheheh," Miist demonically laughed and held his fingers up. "Could have used some butter dip though....ahahahahahaha—" WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aqualad kicked Miist upside the chin. A bloody tooth or two flew. Miist gargled warm blood in his mouth while Garth seethed.

"You want to see the essence of Slizzath, Miist? Well guess what...I have it reserved for you and only you, you murderous worm!!!" Aqualad hissed. He raised his hands and the water closed in. It encircled Miist's cringing body. It pushed him into the elevator shaft.

Aqualad still wasn't mad enough. He raised his body up in a vertical torrent. His black hair waved in the water. He stretched his hands out like a crucifix. He started to glow brighter....brighter....and brighter violet.

The walls cracked.

Pipes burst through and vomited water in his direction.

Emergency sprinklers exploded and streamed down on him.

Every source of water on that floor of the Tower and the adjacent floors squirmed towards him like a huge army of gravity-defying ants.

And Aqualad kept glowing...glowing....

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

Outside of the Tower...alongside the beach....the Bay Waters churned. The tide came early, with surf rushing up the beach, over the dry sand, and 'cascading' uphill towards the body of the Tower itself.

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

"RAUGH!!!" Cyborg jetted forward and punched the last waking attacker hard.

THUMP!!!

The Atlantean ninja fell back. He struggled to his feet and clutched strongly to the trident in the center of the atrium.

Cyborg raised his scraped metal fists, panting.

The assassin was about to charge one last time when the huge doors of the Tower gave way behind him. He looked around. "???????"

SMASH!!!!!!!!

The door burst down and a wall of water surged in.

Cyborg gasped and dove out of the way.

The attacker wasn't so lucky. The rocketing stream caught his body dead on and slammed him into the stairs as it rushed up the next floor of the Tower.

Cyborg watched from the sidelines...confused to see a river-worm of water slithering up a narrow path up towards the high point of the room.

"What the Hell??"

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

Raven floated to a top of the nearby rock bluffs. What she saw made her freeze.

Underneath the torrential rainfall, six separate streams of water were gathering at the base of the Tower and slithering inside like worms to an apple.

A creaking sound.

Raven looked up.

Rainwater started collecting exclusively over the top of the Tower...rushing in through the top elevator hatch....bending the metal structure apart.

And then the rainwater...

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

At the Bayside Plaza of the City, two pedestrians walked out with umbrellas and pointed at the Titans' Tower in the center of the Bay.

"Look!!"

"Oh my god..."

"What's happening??"

Dry people under the protective awnings of storefronts murmured with awe.

Their eyes were wide.

Lightning flashed as the rainwater over the distant Tower bent and curved inward to rush inside both the top and the front of the Tower. It was like a giant magnet adjusting clear iron filaments to both poles.

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

"RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!!!!" Aqualad angrily warbled. The pool water, the plumbing water, the Bay water, the rainwater....it was all surging together in one magnificent Tempest about his figure and plummeting murderously into the elevator.

Miist was drowning...thrashing about....overrun with fear and madness.

Aqualad's head arched back with a last howl, and he shot himself into the elevator shaft. One gigantic fist of water shoved himself and Miist up, up, up the elevator shaft.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miist screamed, shrieked, banged around the inner lining of the elevator shaft.

They smashed through the collapsed elevator car, sending debris flying. The cables whipped around—somehow avoiding Aqualad from side-tentacles of water and hitting Miist with each quake instead. And sooner than the hellish moment could prophecy, they were smashing through the top of the building.

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

CRUNCH!!!!!!!!!

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!!" Aqualad screamed as he came to a floating stop on the rooftop. But his punishment didn't end there. He surged the entire collected arsenal of water up through him and high into the gray air of the storm....carrying Miist with it.

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

The Tower vomited the Tempest upward like a pulsing laser beam of blue and gray. The spectacle could be seen from miles around.

And on top of it was Miist's body. He never stopped flying skyward. And he never stop screaming. Not when he pierced through the lightning-dances of the thunder clouds. Not when he soared on the watery fist above the storm itself. His voice began to leave him as the air thinned and turned drastically cold. The steam of his body started breaking down. He gasped and his eyes widened...what ever was left of them.

"Oh Lord Slizzath!!!"

Frost crawled down the mage's face as he pierced the upper troposphere.

"My Lord...my Liege...save me!!! SAAAVE MEEE-E-E-E-E-e-e-e-e------" His shrieking voice turned into the crackling sounds as his body broke into a thousand tiny clouds of mist, which promptly froze into ice flakes in mid air and scattered outward and back down towards the earth.

They melted into oblivion on the descent.

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

Aqualad panted.

The rushing water dissipated around him. His eyes returned to the normal white on black.

With one last sigh, he lowered his arms.

There was no more fountain to lift him upward...and he fell.

FLASH!!!

A black hammock caught him and gently lowered him to the soaking rooftop.

Raven floated over and knelt by his side. "Aqualad...."

The Atlantean winced and rolled over on the ground, coughing. Sputtering. The violet glow within him died.

"Are you injured?"

He clenched his eyes shut and grimaced. "Unfortunately.......no......"

CLANG!!!

Cyborg burst through the top door of the stairwell. Panting, he ran out onto the rooftop. "Raven!! Are you okay??"

"Of course I am," she droned. A beat. A sigh. "And so is Aqualad...it seems..."

Cyborg squat down beside them. "Man....how did you do that?"

Aqualad didn't answer.

Cyborg rubbed the human side of his head. "Well...it tore up the inside of the Tower pretty bad....but we got rid of those creeps."

"Miist is dead."

"Who??"

"Miist...," Aqualad coughed. He turned back over and reopened wounded eyes. "One of the carriers of the elements of Slizzath. He was sent here, but he's gone now. Were there any others?"

"Yeah, assassins," Cyborg nodded. "Real badass guys. Atlantean tumblers...heh. We had a handful of them and couldn't get to you."

"How did Miist die?" Raven asked.

Aqualad swallowed. "By me...."

Raven bit her lip.

Aqualad stumbled up on his feet. He looked around at the storm, which had stopped raining....as if the Atlantean had stolen all of the moisture out of it.

"Cyborg," Raven gasped. "Your eye---"

"Nothing I can't repair," Cyborg gestured at his smashed, red optic. He looked at the two of them. "Well I did a quick diagnostic after the last of the ninja dudes were taken down. Someone was definitely here before to sabotage our security. Could that Miist guy use stealth?"

"Most definitely," Aqualad nodded. He hobbled tiredly towards the stairwell. "But there's another way that they all got here."

Raven squinted her eyes. A beat. She sensed something. "N-No....," she gasped.

Cyborg looked at her...then at Aqualad. "What??"

"I have to go see something." Garth ran down the stairwell.

The Titans followed.

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

SWISSSH-SWISSSH-SWOOOSH!!!

Beast Boy agilely twisted and turned under water as a sailfish, avoiding the burning streams from Acyd's fingers.

The girl was beginning to tire. Her angry resolve was fading and her corrosive arsenal was thinning. As the rough exterior faded away, a sense of dread came over. It melted her face and sagged at her green hair. She treaded up at the surface of the underground pool one too many times, giving Beast Boy ample liquid volume to move around in underneath her.

And it was about time that he took advantage of it.

He morphed into a sea lion and throttled towards her from below.

She shouted and streamed two squirts of acid out of her toes.

Beast Boy skirted past the water, morphed into an octopus, darted behind her back, flung green tentacles around her from behind, and morphed into elf form. The two bobbed in the water with Beast Boy hanging from her shoulders. In such fashion, the two combatants struggled.

"Let me go!!!"

"I don't want to hurt you!! How many times do I have to tell you that?!?!" the soggy changeling uttered as they splashed about. "I'm not so kosher about taking out kids my own age!! There's gotta be a reason why you're doing this!! There's gotta be someone making you!!!"

"Let me go!!!" Acyd shrieked, trying to shake him off. "I'll burn you in half!! I'm evil!!"

Beast Boy put her into a heavy headlock and hissed into her ear. "None of us are born evil!!" He swallowed and added breathily: "We only choose to be!!"

"N-NO!! SILENCE!!!" Acyd growled. "I mustn't disappoint Lord Slizath!! You have no idea what h-he'll do to me!!!" That said, she flung her hands straight towards the ceiling and shrieked: "YAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!" Two huge splashes of green acid surged towards the top of the cavern.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

SSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!! Steam exploded everywhere. Pebbles and tiny crags started to litter the pool around them. Then.....

"!!!!!!!!" Beast Boy gasped.

The ceiling started to give way.

The changeling was distracted just long enough for---

"NRRGHH!!" Acyd gripped him hard and tossed him off her body.

"Aaack!!" Beast Boy flew hard into the wall on the far side. WHAM!!!

A watery shadow appeared in the currents around Acyd.

She looked at it....gasped...and looked up.

Her eyes widened. She covered her green head. "Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!"

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!

Beast Boy covered himself.

RUMMBBBBBBLEEEEE!!!!!!!

A large splash of water from the center.

Then..........

Silence.

"...........," Beast Boy looked up. His heart fell.

Where Acyd was, a huge clump of boulders now rested heavily in the pool. There was no sign of the girl.

Beast Boy sighed painfully. ".............." He slowly morphed into a giant sloth and climbed up the rock face to the snowy cavern above. He stopped once to glance back at the morbid scene.

"It always ends in stone........"

He was gone.

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

"NNGHH!!!" Tula twirled across the floor and elbowed Fraust hard.

WHUMP!!!

"Augh!!" Fraust stumbled.

Tula added in a side-blow of the icicle club in her grip.

WHACK!!!

Fraust slid across the ice.

Tula rushed her, lungs heaving.

Fraust balanced herself, frowned, and ponted a hand down.

FLASH!!!!!!!

She shot an ice chunk.

Tula hopped it.

Fraust shot another.

WHAM!!

It clipped Tula's side.

"Ugh!!" the princess merely winced and continued charging.

Fraust spun, produced an ice sword and slashed it down hard at the combatant's legs.

Tula dove out of the way, the sword ripping a huge tear in her skirt.

WHUMP!!

She tumbled across the ground, panting. "Nngh....I need to have a word with Chasma about his employment these days..."

SNKKT!!

"........" Tula was silent.

Fraust held the ice blade to the royal girl's throat.

Tula frowned up at her. "So.....cry baby....will kidnapping me make Slizzath love you any more?"

Fraust rowned....but suddenly her face exploded in a look of transient pain and horror. "!!!!!!!" she gasped and cupped two frosting hands over her lips. CL-CLANK!! The ice sword fell to the floor as Fraust stumbled backwards. "The essences....m-my companions.....they're dying..........th-they're all dying.........," she hugged herself and sobbed pitifully. "Fryte....Miist...Acyd.....what have they done to you???" Violet flickered across her face, slowly being replaced by snowflake tears as Fraust shook and heaved. "The pain.......it has caught up. It is hurting us and everyone else at once.....oh why are you dying?!?! Why can't I join you?!?!"

Tula watched. Panting. Confused.

Across the cavern, the cylinder of pure ice rested. A dark figure inside of it gradually blurred. A slight vibration—then—SHATTER!!!!!!!! I flexed my arms outward with a silent howl, my body covered with murk from head to tow. I fell to my knees amongst the shattered remnants of my icy prison. I shivered and gasped for breath. I looked up and saw—with great concern—the cowering, sobbing figure of Fraust.

"Oh friends............you are gone...............you are all gone............," she fell to her knees. Blue mist rose all around her. She was like a melting ice sculpture. "I can't do this alone........I-I can't do this alone........."

Slowly, Tula stood up. She clutched hard to the icicle club and walked towards Fraust.

Fraust collapsed on the ice...seemingly out cold.

".............," Tula took a deep breath. She gritted her teeth and raised the club to smash over the girl's head--

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!

"Huh???" Tula looked over. She gasped. "Noir!! You're out!!"

I nodded, shivering. I held the club in mid-descent.

"What are you doing??" the princess exclaimed. "Now's our only chance to---"

I put a finger over her lips. With a soft gaze, I slowly shook my head.

Maybe it was from seeing her 'boyfriend's face' up close....but for whatever reason, the strong-willed Poseidonisian relented.

We dropped the club down together and looked at the exhausted body of Fraust.

"Why did she just give up??" Tula remarked. "If she and the others are working for Slizzath...they shouldn't be hesitating to end us!"

I scratched my head.

"If they were Atlantean, we might all be dead now."

I gasped. The both of us spun around.

Beast Boy climbed through a melted hole in the ice wall that first separated us. He walked our way. "But they're not Atlantean...."

"...........," Tula glanced down at the body.

I walked over. I knelt beside Fraust. I fingered along her neck. It was cold and covered with a sheen of ice...but somehow she could handle it. But that wasn't what confirmed what I needed to know. No matter from what angle I examined her skin...even Tula and Beast Boy could see.

"She's....a surface-dweller....," Tula remarked. A beat. She gasped in sudden horror. "Oh Neptune.....can it be? Could Chasma be so heartless to have used them???"

"Huh???" Beast Boy panted. "Who??"

Tula took a deep breath. "I'll explain in due time." She managed a slight smile and looked at me. "I think it's d-due time that I show you gentleman the reason I took you down here to begin with..."

I nodded. With Beast Boy's help, we hoisted Fraust's frail body into my arms...and followed Tula down a dark corridor underground.

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

The alarms inside the Idyllist Capitol had ceased. People were no longer running about and screaming, trying to get to emergency stations. Things had reached a level of safety, balance, and normalcy.

Except for a huge cluster of onlookers encircling a space in the central ring of the underwater building. Bodies of Atlantean citizens, families, and guards alike flocked around a spot of interest.

Starfire and Robin walked in on this, dripping wet.

"What is going on??" Starfire asked.

Robin shook his head. "I don't know." A beat. "Hey...I think I see Ivan's head!"

Starfire gently grabbed Robin's shoulders and flew the two of them over and into the center of the crowd.

At sight of them, the ocean-dwellers humbly parted for some reason.

Robin and Starfire raised their eyebrows at that....but once they reached the center of the crowd, their attention was stolen by a body lying on the floor.

Ivan turned to face him. His expression was sad...regretful, with a touch of fading violet.

"I....h-had no choice......," he spoke. "As a leader of my people...and as a soldier....."

Starfire clasped her hands together nervously.

Robin walked over and knelt besides the body lying limply on the floor. "................," Robin stared. He blinked under his mask and asked in a bizarre balance between firmness and gentleness: "Who do you work for?"

The body of Fryte twitched. He had plasma burns all over. A few of his limbs were broken. With his dying breaths, he turned his head towards Robin. His eyes were no longer violet....but instead a deep and very human brown. He shuddered with a dry throat and said: "I....I have been 'made' to work....w-work for Slizzath....and his second c-coming...."

Atlanteans around the circle murmured and gasped in fear.

Ivan urged them silent.

Robin took a breath and spoke: "Did Senator Chasma send you??"

Fryte twitched. He uttered: "Yessssssss.........."

More murmurs...quieter this time....

Robin leaned in more. "What is the next plan of his? What does Chasma want to do on the day of Junction??"

Fryte gasped. His whole body convulsed. His time was short.

People twitched uncomfortably.

Starfire held a hand over her mouth.

Fryte convulsed again. He gritted his teeth and jabbed a hand up, gripping the neck of Robin's tunic.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed.

Fryte slowly raised his head. Shaking...blood drippling from his mouth....he managed: "My name.....i-is not Fryte.....My n-name is Wesley.....an-and today I shall be leaving this dry and wet world to its own devices. For wh-when Chasma has his way.....it won't b-be me that you must be afraid of." He coughed. More blood. His eyes thinned. "Fear.....F-Fear the Black Tempest........Fear the Black T-Tempest.......it will consume you all......." His pupils rolled back. His mouth hung open. His body slowly drifted back and his hand stiffly fell away from Robin's tunic.

"...........................," Robin stared. He ran a hand over the boy's eyes.

Fryte's lids closed.

"...........," Robin then ran a hand down the boy's neck. ".............no gills." A beat. He looked up at Ivan.

The dark-eyed man folded his arms and looked off into space. He sighed. "I am....never going to change. The essence of Slizzath...the threat of evil....it shall always live inside of me and my closest kin." He glared Robin's way. "I will go with my strongest men to approach the Senate at Atlantis. And I will take you with me." He bit his lip. He added: "Before any more horrors taint our beautiful land........"

Robin nodded. He slowly stood up and walked past Starfire. "Come on....nothing left to see here...."

She sadly nodded and hovered with him out of the crowd.

The people gathered around in muted fear as they bagged Fryte's body up and carted him away.

In the meantime, the two Titans drifted across the interior until Starfire gasped:

"!!!! Nova'm!!!"

"What? Where??"

Starfire flew over towards a small group of people and two children. They were huddled about the red-headed Tamaranian boy. He sat with his shoulders to the wall. He hugged his knees and rocked back and forth.

Starfire landed beside him. Her lips parted in concern. She looked up with round green eyes at the Idyllists, young and old. "What transpired here??"

"There was a second squid," one of the adults said in some sort of somber pride. "This young man here fought bravely against it. We owe him our lives......"

Robin walked into a shattered little room and saw the burnt carcass of a huge mollusk. His fists clenched.

Starfire turned to look at Nova'm. She pressed a hand on his shoulder, gently holding him still. "Nova'm....Nova'm, it is Kory. What.......wh-what are you feeling right now?"

Silence.

Nova'm swallowed and shakily spoke: "I-I had to k-k-kill it......."

Starfire's eyes fell. She saw black blood on the boy's hands.

Nova'm smiled weakly and looked up at Starfire. "G-Guess that makes me a hero now....r-right?"

She bit her lip.

Emerald tears welled up in Nova'm's eyes. His lips quivered.

"Oh Nova'm.....," Starfire gently held him tightly to her chest and stroked his red hair. "You were always a hero........"

He shivered and sobbed quietly against her.

Robin walked over and stood above the two.

Silence.

He slowly dropped down to his knees and joined the embrace.

Starfire sniffed and held Robin close as the two of them solaced the sobbing little boy. She leaned her head against the Boy Wonder's shoulder and closed her moist eyes.

The three were silent like that together.

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

Aqualad's feet stopped at the end of a long spring.

He panted, staring ahead of him.

Cyborg and Raven haulted beside him.

Silence.

Aqualad swallowed a sore lump down his throat. He jumped off the rock bluff and onto the top of the Renzukkan watercraft. The hatch on the top was still open and eating rainwater. In a flash, he jumped down inside of it.

Silence.

Raven and Cyborg exchanged worried glances. They slowly crept over and entered the hatch after Aqualad.

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

Cyborg dropped down first. He held a gentlemanly hand upwards and helped Raven down to her feet. He then switched on the shoulder flashlight and swept the light beam across the interior.

Raven gasped.

"No....," Cyborg breathed.

The bodies of the Renzukka lay in pieces...scattered abroad the interior. Dried blood in the shapes of Miist's steam blades splashed across metal crossbeams, seats, portholes, and control consoles.

Cyborg's light finally crossed over Aqualad.

Prince Garth knelt, cradelling Tram.

As the light illuminated him completely.....it turned out to only be the severed head of Tram.

Cyborg bit his lip.

Raven was silent.

"..................," Aqualad seemed to be staring more through the remains in his hand than at it. He barely breathed as he droned: "Raven.....you once told me.....that you understood what it meant to be liken unto a demon......"

She gently nodded.

"................tell me....," Aqualad's gaze rose to meet her. Like stone. "If you are possessed with evil.......whose responsibility is it.....to make good of it?"

Cyborg glanced at Raven.

The dark girl said: "Nobody's but my own......."

Aqualad slowly nodded. "I have....a great responsibility to live up to.......," he gently set the skull down. He stood up, his arms resting to his side. He said: "And that responsibility will take me to Atlantis........and straight into Chasma's twitching heart......."

Cyborg was about to verbaly object, but a glare from Raven stopped him.

Aqualad glared the Titan's ways. His dark eyes flickered a distant violet as he said: "We leave....tonight."