243. Break the Circle part 3
"Hckkkkk-snkkkttt—clik-clik-clik-clikkkkttt……hckkkk…..clik-clikkkt-clik-clik……."
Waving trees.
Leaves pulling off of withered branches.
Skeletal bark stripping…jabbing into the air.
The death of winter.
A red sky.
Red vapors and freezing mist.
"Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Click-Clickkkkktttt—Snnnnkt……."
North of the City, the mountains sloped…rose….fell….stretched on and on and on……..
Clouds reflected the crimson aura.
The moon disappeared behind the hze.
Flakes of white snow were born, killed, and recycled in red puffs.
Emanating from his cowl's breathing slits.
"Snkkkkt—Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkttt……"
A head turned southward.
Towards the Atlantic Seaboard's edge.
The speckled gray haze of a City looming beyond.
"………………"
A cold rush of wind.
Leaves were plucked from the nearby branches and spun off into oblivion.
An object pierced the vapors.
A vehicle.
Traveling it's piercing way north.
"HCKKK!"
He turned.
He tensed his muscles.
With a red eye strobing, he uncoiled his legs, leapt, and blurred in a streak of red directly eastward.
Down the mountainside….
And towards as forested highway…..
T-T-T-T-T-T-
CRRKKK!
Metallo's titanium hand plowed into the pile of bricks.
He pulled a limp, dangling Starfire out from the debris.
"Nnnngh…," she stirred.
Her cheeks and wrists were bruised.
Her pink shirt and gray jeans were scuffed and tattered in a few places.
Her eyes remained weakly shut as her Tamaranian eyebrows fell limply across her features.
"Hrmmm…..oh how I have forgotten the succulent smell of sleeping girls….," Corbin electronically uttered.
His metal skull head leaned to the side.
"….usually, the scent of blood too soon ruined things. HA!"
"Nnnngh….mff…"
"Eh…the Hell with it." He tossed her limply behind his shoulder.
Starfire flailed through the air and came crashing straight down through the center of a jungle jim.
CRNNNCHH!
CLAA-AAA-AANG!
Crkktt-tt…
Crkk…
A spaghetti-noodle mess of cracked and collapsed bars fell down and closed atop of Starfire.
She was trapped like a little doll beneath pick-up-sticks.
She lie limp…her breath wheezing out of her softly deflated body.
A bruise and a cut stretched across her cheek.
And she became more and more still…..
Metallo marched over towards her.
His fingers curled as he retracted the laser rifles on his wrists and chuckled:
"Heh…heh….heh……I do say, this was far easier than I imagined."
Crnnnch!
He planted a foot up onto the collapsed bars like a conquistador setting proudly ashore.
He leaned over and saluted a metal wrist towards the girl beneath the criss-cross mesh of mangled bits.
"Sleep softly, my ill-fated lady. I suppose we can't have those alien eyes of yours watching the unfolding night. Perhaps your earthly, more irascible friends will entertain me with the challenge of a real fight. Assuming—of course—that Dagger gives me the pleasure of ripping them asunder on my own….heheheheheh…."
"Nnngh…," Starfire stirred with sudden life. "Mmmm…dnng….d-dagger….."
"…...," the android leaned his head to the side. Silently curious.
"…………!" Starfire's green eyes flew open. And they were glowing. "Dagger!"
"Uhmmmm…."
A hot, emerald light shone kaleidoscopically upwards from beneath the frame of splattered, metal bars.
Metallo electronically gasped and scrambled to get off of the jungle jim pile—
FLAAAAAAAASH!
A stream of starbolt energy soared upwards. The collapsed jungle jim exploded in a sky-raising splash of metal bars, aluminum joints, and pieces of the courtyard itself.
PPPOWWW!
Hot, green-streaking debris sailed into walls, balconies, and windows of the inner apartment building faces surrounding the courtyard. Amidst the shrapnel, Metallo's body flailed towards the red sky for about twenty feet before falling back down and slamming hard into the concrete.
WHAM!
"Ooof!" he uttered.
He tried to sit up, but found a thick bar of metal stuck into his synthetic rib cage.
He gritted his metal teeth and tried to yank it out of his body. "Nnnng….Nn-Nnngh!"
"F'mberatta sendclut Dagger thriul sembrak!"
"……," the android's head whirred and glanced up. "The Bloody Hell?"
Starfire soared up in a fiery-green comet, came about, and plummeted straight down at Metallo, fist first.
WHAM!
"AAAUGH!" he shouted as the Tamaranian girl slammed into him and shoved him sparkling against the concrete and tumbling across the courtyard.
He smashed through two see-saws of the playground (SMASH! CRACK!) and slammed straight into a wooden play-fort.
SHATTERRR!
As the splinters and wooden debris shattered and fell around them in a halo of burning embers, Starfire gripped Metallo by the titanium collar bone and hoisted him up with her alien strength.
Her teeth were clenched.
She hissed as her eyes burned a flickering hot green.
"Chloragon! Chloragon de saclaata! You….You would possess the GALL to bring Dagger's evil back to this sacred City?"
"Heeeey…," Metallo electronically wheezed and waved an arm while dangling in her grip. "Face it, lass. Things were a lot more exciting last time he was here."
"NNnnngh!" Starfire body-slammed him into the floor of the playground.
WHAM!
He jolted in a fresh crater. He tried to get up--
SLAM! Starfire's foot came down onto his chest, pinning him to the ground.
FLASH!
She charged a starbolt in one hand—GRIP!—and enclosed his metal neck with her other hand.
She leaned over, about to toss the burning projectile into his white, robotic eyes.
"V'nefena de X'hal! Filth of your caliber hardly deserve mercy!"
"Well…aren't we the l-little spitefire all of the sudden?"
Starfire hissed down at him: "Silence…..your….words….CRETIN!"
Metallo's jaw pivoted in a sideways 'grin'. "You first…" He gripped her ankle and shoved back. "HAAAUGH!"
She gasped and launched her starbolt at an awkward angle.
FL-FLASH!
It melted a piece of ground just a few inches from his titanium skull.
"Raaugh!" he sat up and rammed her in the chest with his metal forehead.
She wheezed and bent over.
WHACK!
An uppercut from the titanium android sent her flying back and collapsing against the little merry-go-round.
"Nnngh!" Metallo leapt up. STOMP! He landed on his heels.
Starfire struggled to her feet.
"Rrrraaugh!" Metallo charged her.
She clenched her teeth, seething at him.
She gripped the merry-go-round and pulled at the circular wheel. "Nnnngh!"
CRKKKKK!
Her alien strength snapped the wheel off of its supports.
She lifted the flat merry-go-ground behind her, snarled, spun her body, and flung the thing like a huge, deadly Frisbee into Metallo's chest.
CRAAACK! The thing flew apart in bars and splinters.
Metallo rightfully stumbled back. "Ugh!"
SWOOOOOSH! Starfire flew in a streak right into him, two joined fists flung across his chest. "RAUGH!"
CLANGGG!
Metallo flew across the courtyard and smashed through a basketball pole. CRK!
Starfire charged up two starbolts and flew at him.
She snarled and flung them. "Raaugh! Haaugh!" FLASH! FLASH!
Metallo stood up and raised both of his fists expertly to deflect the blasts.
CL-CLANG! SMACK!
Starfire soared at him like a bullet.
Metallo grinded his metal teeth and loaded an arm-rifle. Cl-Clak! He aimed the laser rifle at her--
"VENDRYK DE X'HAL!" WHAM! She plowed into his chest.
"Augh!" His rifle awkwardly shot into the courtyard floor. ZAAAP!
Starfire shoved the two of them straight into an apartment wall---
SMASH!
through the interior itself—
SMASH!
--sailing blindly through rooms and closets and hallways—
SMASH!—CRUNCH!—CRASH!
and soaring out into the City street on the other side of the apartments.
CRAAACK!
Metallo tumbled head over heels and collapsed against a street lamp—CRUNCH!—dinting it.
"Nnnngh!" Starfire floated out into the middle of the street, levitated, and summoned a huge burning orb of green above her. "Rrnnnnn-RAAAAUGH!" she flung it down deathily at the android.
Metallo rolled to the side at the last second.
FL-FLASH!
The huge orb of alien fire left a burning crater in the streetside.
Metallo shouted and flew from the concussion into the side of a commercial bus. CRUNCH!
"RRRRGHH!" Starfire mercilessly soared down at him, fists first.
Metallo crossed his arms again, shielding.
PLOW!
The two contacted.
Starfire shoved him through the commercial bus.
SMASH!—SMASH!
And into the fountain pool of an office building across the way.
SP-SPLOOSH!
The two stood knee-deep in water, grappling each other's shoulders. Wrestling with the unearthly strength of each other's arms for dominance.
"I will not….let you….damage my FRIENDS!" Starfire shouted.
Metallo hissed back: "They're as good as dead already, bitch!" He shouted and slammed his knee up into Starfire's gut. WHUMP!
The alien girl wheezed and bent over.
CLANGGG! Metallo slapped her skull with a metal back-hand.
She stumbled back.
The android aimed two laser rifles at her lower body.
Wriiiiii! -- ZAAAAAP!
At the last second, she flipped over him.
POWWW! The sidewalk beyond exploded.
He gasped as he felt the upside down alien girl's arms grip his shoulders. Starfire finished flipping, yanking Metallo's body up into the air. She planted her feet down into the waters—SPLOOSH—and flung him straight towards the metal statue and fountain of the pool. "Rrrrgh!"
SWOOOOOSH! Metallo flailed and slammed through the metal design. CRASSSH! He fell limply into the shrapnel laden waters beyond. He groaned and tried to get up…
Starfire charged. Sploosh-Sploosh-Sploosh-SPLOOSH-WOOOSH! She dove into a full-frontal flight.
The pool's surface parted on either sides of her soaring figure as she blurred past the damaged space of the shattered fountain and slammed into Metallo.
SMACK!
Metallo fell onto dry ground before the glass doors of the commercial building.
Starfire flew down to scoop his body up.
He positioned his foot out expertly, caught her left arm with his heel, and shoved it back and out.
Starfire twirled awkwardly in mid-air.
Metallo then rolled, vaulted himself up, and landed with his hands sneakily grabbing the alien girl by her ankle and swinging…swinging….swinging her around in a circle.
"Nnnnnnnngraaaugh!" Metallo shouted and flung her straight into the office building.
SMASSSSSH!
Starfire sailed through sheets of glass, a wall, and landed in a tile-shattering crater within the lobby of the closed, darkened establishment.
SMASH! Metallo ran through a wall and ran straight at her. Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!
Starfire stood up, frowning. She charged a starbolt.
He charged a laser rifle.
They met at the center of the lobby.
"HAAAUGH!" Starfire's wrist stretched out, unloading the starbolt.
"DIE!" Metallo's fist met hers, the armband's laser rifle firing.
FLASH!
ZAP!
POW!.!.!
The resulting explosion of the convergence of the fiery twain sent both robot and alien flying yards apart and collapsing against opposite walls.
CRUNCH!
CR-CRACK!
"Nnnngh….," Metallo shook his skull.
"Mmmf….," Starfire rubbed her head.
He struggled to his feet.
She blinked and hovered.
They faced off against each other from a long distance.
The alien girl catching her breath.
The android loosening his joints.
"Now….this is certainly engaging….," Metallo's voice said in electronic pleasure.
Starfire frowned. She charged her hands with a fiery green again. "How dare you take joy in this….Dagger is an evil, evil man. I must rip you asunder if I need to. Anything to prevent another nefarious attack on this City!"
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Metallo's skeletal body doubled over. "Haaaa ha ha ha haa!"
"………," Starfire blinked.
"Ohhhhh how they come denser and denser these days!"
"Stop being cryptic!"
"Cryptic? Who's being cryptic, girl? Don't you know that this 'nefarious attack' you fear is already underhand?"
She gasped.
Green eyes wide.
Her starbolts weakened a bit.
"N-No…."
"But it all makes sense, doesn't it?" Metallo gripped a metal pole with the American flag on it from a corner.
He lifted it as a weapon and walked slowly across the lobby's tile floor.
Slowly towards her….
"The death of Robin…the weakening of this City. The devastating blow to the Titans. It was all just a precursor! THIS is the main event, Miss SlutFire! Ha ha ha! Ohhhh how I revel in the look that'll be on your kiddy faces when everything…EVERYTHING you delinquents took for granted comes burning down under the swift hand of merciless HUNGER! You brought this all upon yourselves, in a way. For being too naïve…..to fearful….and WEAK. Alas…the only true reason I work for Dagger is because I like seeing stupid lambs like you suffer. Why? Because there's no better way to build………character. Hmmmmmheheheheheheheh-hah hah hah hah hah!"
Starfire quivered.
Her green eyes deflated and she looked towards the floor.
Her lips parted and her breath thin.
"Wh-What have we been doing….?" She murmured to herself. "My friends and I….we have been so blind…."
A beat.
She bit her lip.
"Cy-Cyborg…..if he could not have foreseen this as Titan leader, then that must mean he was…."
Her emerald optics widened.
"I intend to see a WHOLE LOT of CHARACTER built tonight! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Starfire clenched her fists, recharged the starbolts, and snarled at the android.
"I do not know in what heinous ways Dagger may have polluted our minds and spirits, but while I am still living on this planet and am devoting myself to the protection of Terra Firma….the Titans are ALIVE! And the Titans are strong! And we will NOT let you or any of Dagger's evils enter this sacred City without so much as facing a heated contest!"
"Hmmm…well then, milady…," Metallo raised the flagpole over his head like a staff and electronically chirped: "Let's have a go, shall we?"
And he charged.
"Raaaugh!"
"Haaaugh!" she flung both starbolts at him in a single volley.
FL-FLASH!
He snarled and batted them off with a swing of his flagpole. SWOOOSH-CL-CLANK!
He then raised the 'weapon' over head, gaped with glinting metal teeth, and swung it down hard.
"RAAUGH!"
Starfire held her breath and spun to the side.
CRACK!
Tile exploded where his bludgeon struck the ground.
Starfire growled and shot a starbolt directly at his head.
Metallo ducked.
He swung the flagpole's end at her torso.
Starfire backflipped, flew into the air, dove, zipped around, and launched her entire body at Metallo. "Nnngh!"
WH-WHAM!
Clank! He dropped the flagpole and grappled with her. "Nnngh!"
"Rgghh!"
They fought hand in hand.
Arms grappling and hooking around each other.
At one point, they got face to face.
Upon which….Starfire's eyes flickered and zapped to green beams into Metallo's forehead.
FLAAAAAAASH!
Two burn marks ate into Metallo's skull.
SSSSSsssssss!
"Aaaugh!" he shouted.
Instinctively, his ankle rockets extended.
Cl-Clik!
And then they fired.
PFTOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!
Arm in arm…struggling….the two propelled via Metallo's rockets straight up towards the ceiling of the lobby.
SMASH!
And through the second floor above.
SM-SMASH!
And then the next floor.
SH-SHATTER!
They burned and crashed their way through floor after floor after floor of the skyscraper, wrestling and punching and grappling and kicking each other the whole time.
"Nnngh!" Whap! Pow! Wham! "Aaugh!" Smack! "Ugh!"
CRASH! SMASH! CRKKM! SHATTER! CRASH!
SMASSSSH!
Finally, they burst through to the rooftop with the cold red sky looming above them.
SWOOOSH!
It was an empty City beneath them. With empty streets and blank lights and a cold redness settling around it all.
But it had very little impact on the Tamaranian girl at the moment.
She was busily shifting her weight, positioning her legs between his thighs, and flexing, tensing-KICKING!
THWOMP!
"AUGH!" he found himself kicked off in mid-air.
His ankle rockets sent him spiraling off at a forty-five degree angle towards the sky.
Starfire held her breath, charged two starbolts, spun around, and flung them with deadly accuracy at the flailing, metal man.
FL-FLASH!
FLASSSH!
The two bolts of green flew dead-on and shattered Metallo's ankle rockets.
CRKK!
POW!
He gasped, twirled, and screamed as he fell over thirty stories down towards the street below.
"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!"
"…….," Starfire hovered in place.
The wind blowing coldly at her hair.
And she glared…….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH-CRUNCCCH!
Metallo landed through the body of a parked, abandoned pickup truck in the street.
A pickup truck that promptly exploded…..
POWWW!
Thwoosh-Plant! Starfire sailed down and landed in the middle of the street.
She stood, her fists clenched, gazing at the fire.
A metal frame limped out of the blaze.
Smoking from every joint.
Metallo panted, sneered at her, and pointed a hot finger. "You are starting to get me royally pissed…"
She raised green-glowing hands and hissed at him: "Keep the urine to your villainous self."
"I'd laugh if I wasn't going to kick your arse so royally."
Starfire spat and tensed her whole body. "Dead machines do not laugh."
"Heheheheh! That almost sounded like a threat---"
SWOOOOOOOOSH! The alien girl suddenly rocketed towards him in a green streak.
Metallo's robotic irises 'dilated'.
"RAAAAUGH!" Starfire charged her right hand with green fire and slammed it so hard into Metallo's chest that the titanium surface dented.
CRKKKKK!
"Aaaaughhhhghhg1101001010100111!" Metallo shouted, winced, and sparkled. Blue bolts danced from his optics as he grinded his metal teeth and shoved against Starfire.
TH-THWOMP!
The Tamaranian girl stumbled back.
"RAAAUGH!" Metallo slammed his foot down into the concrete.
STOMP!
The middle of the street shook. Cracks formed and gravel rattled. Starfire gasped, lost her foot, and fell back on her rear.
Metallo jumped and landed with a drop-fist of thunder. TH-THWOOOSH!
WHAM!
Starfire somersaulted backwards and flew in reverse to the other side of the street.
"………….," Metallo slowly stood up from the crater he had formed with the impact.
He flexed his metal fist, sparked a bit more from Starfire's impact to his chest, and growled: "Someone needs to slow you the Hell down…."
THWOOOOSH!
He blurred at her.
She blocked.
WHAM!
A metal fist slammed into her arms, forcing her back in a reverse slide.
Starfire winced and stumbled back to the sidewalk.
Metallo charged.
Starfire glanced aside.
A street lamp.
She melted the base of the metal 'stalk' with two eye beams, flew over, and snatched the metal pool.
"RAAAUGH!" Metallo was upon her, swinging.
Thwoosh! Starfire agilely spun to the side, gripped the lamppost by its burned bottom, and swung the full length of it at Metallo.
Metallo turned to look at her—
CRACK!
He fell to his knees from the slamming impact of the pole to his back.
The weapon now bent, Starfire took a deep breath and prepared to swing it again.
Metallo lifted his hand just in time and palmed the end of the streetlamp before it could impact his skull.
CLAMP!
His skull glared as he opened tiny holes in the digits of his metal fingers and snaked out five wormy wires that stabbed into the metal stalk and emitted a burst of electricity.
ZZZZT! The electrical current coursed through the length and body of the lamppost before exploding at the end Starfire was holding. POW!
"Ughh!" she flew back and tumbled down the sidewalk.
CL-CLANG! Metallo dumped the lamppost aside.
Eyeing Starfire the entire time, he picked up a nearby post box and launched it at her. "RGHHH!"
Starfire stood on her knees.
She flung a starbolt, shattering the post box before it could hit her. FL-FLASH!
Next, Metallo picked up a newspaper stand next and flung half of it at her.
Starfire stood up on her feet and launched two starbolts.
FL-FLASH!
The wooden structure burned in mid air.
Metallo stomped over to a taxi cap and gripped it.
Starfire let out a warcry and soared straight at Metallo.
The android shouted—"RAAAAUGH!"—and launched the car headlights first at the Tamaranian.
SWOOOOOSH!
With a charging head of green energy, Starfire shattered through the entire length of the car. CRRRRRRAAACK! And soared out the back end of it with a snarling punch straight across the robot's face. WHAM!
"Daaah!" Metallo stumbled back.
Starfire flung a kick at him.
He winced, but managed to block her foot with a raised eyebrow.
She then jabbed a punch low at his ribs.
Wh-Whap!
He absorbed the blow, but came back with a round-house punch to her face.
Wham! "Ugh!"
Then an uppercut.
THWACK!
Starfire flew out into the middle of the street, above a rattling manhole.
Metallo took a breath. He leapt up with super strength, flew into a buildingfront four stories up, kicked off against it in a vault, and came down at the Tamaranian girl with his signature drop kick. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
Starfire tried to get up. She looked up. She gasped—
SMACKKK! The kick slammed into her chest and—
CRUNNNNCH!
punched a hole open in the street.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
THWOOSH! WOOOOOSH!
The two combatants plummeted into the sewers beneath the street.
SPLOOOSH!
Metallo collapsed.
Starfire went rolling.
Metallo recovered…and ran at her. Feet splashing in the sludge.
Starfire was floating on her back in the underground current. She opened her eyes once, saw Metallo's approach, and launched two starbolts at the ceiling of the sewer tunnel above him.
FL-FLASH!
CRUMMMMBLE!
Bricks and mortar fell down and pelted his metal frame.
Th-Th-Thrump!
"Augh!" He stumbled. "Dammit!"
"RAAAAAH!" Starfire charged and leapt up with a green-glowing fist slammed across his metal cheek.
WHAM!
Metallo went flying upstream the current.
He ricocheted off the walls of the sewer tunnel and landed hard on the otherside of the fresh hole they had made.
Starfire hovered up and launched more starbolts at him. "Haah! Haah! RAAAH!"
Metallo struggled up to his knees.
He blocked….blocked.
He got to his feet.
He backhanded…blocked.
FL-FL-FLASH! FLAAASH!
The starbolts flew from his arms and impacted the ceiling of the sewer tunnel behind him.
CRRRRACK!
A new hole formed. Wide….gasping with cold air. A huge metal object groaned and slid down. A parked semi truck. A truck with a huge petroleum rig.
"Good Godwin!" Metallo ran forward, sloshing.
SCRKKKKKK! The semi truck slid down a sharp incline in collapsed street and landed hard in the sewer.
The petroleum tank cracked and started leaking directly behind him.
Metallo 'panted' and tried to move forward.
"HAAAAH!" FL-FLASH! Starfire launched a starbolt into him.
He gasped, absorbed it, and slid back through the waters.
He snarled at her. "A-Are you mad? This is a powder keg!"
"M'Beratta de X'Hal!" Starfire hissed. "Feel my righteous fury!"
"Enough of you….," Metallo picked up a chunk of fallen asphalt and launched it at her.
She shattered it from long distance with a starbolt. FL-FLASH!
Shouting, Metallo angrily stomped at her.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Starfire tensed her arms by her side, pulsed her eyes a flashing green, and shot two heated, optic lasers straight at the android.
Metallo ran against it, his arms crossed.
FLAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAASSSSSH!
The laser streams lit up the entire sewer with an emerald shimmer.
Fire splashed around the fiend's android body as he struggled, shoved, and pushed against her dual streams.
Starfire's teeth were clenched and her body tightened as she focused….focused……..focused the energy discharge on him.
FLAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAASSSSSSH!
Metallo quivered.
He struggled, his metal joints hissing from the fiery exposure.
Sparks.
Flickering electrical splashes.
He groaned and found himself being pushed back…back….back….back down the tunnel.
"Rrrrrrghhhhh!" Starfire growled, shoving him back with her energetic fury.
Metallo looked over his shoulder while bracing himself against the streams.
He gasped.
The petroleum truck loomed closer….closer…
"Nnngh! Bloody Hell! Knock it off, you dumb-arse alien!"
"Desist to exist, you infernal automaton!"
"Nnnngh! NO!"
Metallo collapsed….was shoved back against the petroleum truck….
And the green heat splashed with the everything---
BOOOOOOOOOM!
PHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A wall of flame and sewer acid enveloped Metallo, flew down the tunnel, and rushed straight towards Starfire.
The alien girl clenched her teeth, crossed her pink-sleeved wrists, and braced herself—
FWOOOOOOOOOOOMB!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
From high above, a river of fire could be seen erupting from beneath a district of the City.
Asphalt and concrete exploded upwards in a line.
Like spewing green and amber lava.
The flames splashed up to the seventh floor of the surrounding buildings before falling back down.
And smoldering….
Rumbling……
From the sewers and up.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"NnnnnnnnnNNNNN-NNNNRAAAAAAUGH!"
CRACCCCK!
A slate gray shield shattered open on the middle floors of Titan's Tower.
Various parts of his clothes singed and tattered, a weary Garfield stomped out into the cold hallway.
His hair was disheveled. The ends split and smoking from close calls with all sorts of flames.
He limped in his gait, mainly because one of his legs was stuck in velociraptor mode and one of his arms had feathers on it. A pair of rams horns glinted on his head as he entered the hallway, took a deep breath, and shook his body like a canine would dry off from a bad day in the rain.
"Nnnnnngh!" He 'shook' the limbs back into elf mode, also losing the horns. "Ughhh…," he leaned over and panted. "The Tower has issues…."
Whurr-Chting!
Whurrrr-Chting!
"……….?" The changeling turned his head and looked.
Down one far end of the hallway he had ascended two, panels were opening up one by one and exposing over a dozen gun turrets that aimed at him and charged up.
Beast Boy looked at the part of the wall closest to him. He swiftly spun, morphed into a stegosaurus, and slammed his spiked tail directly into the wall.
WHAMMMM!
The shockwave sent a crack spilling along the wall, down the hallway, and straight into the opening panels. The gun turrets shattered and exploded in sparkling fury.
Changeling spun again and morphed back into elf form. Arms tense….panting.
"Okay….NOW let's play!"
Whurrrrrr-Chting! Chting!
"!" Garfield spun around.
The opposite wall—still in tact—produced a gun turret right behind him. The barrel aimed squarely at his head and fired.
ZAAAAP!
With a gasp, the elf shrunk down as a crab, scurried over to the wall, and flatted himself against the metal as a gecko, avoiding the pot shots and laser blasts from the exposed guns in the walls alongside him.
ZAAP!
Z-ZAP!
ZAP!
The green gecko slithered up onto one gun, morphed into a hippo, and sent the thing slamming down to the ground from his weight…but not crushing it.
ZAP! Z-ZAP! The grounded gun twitched from its end of a bundle of sparking wires and fought awkwardly in random directions.
The changeling morphed into a huge bear, gripped the gun turret in two paws, and repositioned it so that the randomly firing turret aimed at the other turrets along one end of the hall.
ZAAAP! POW! Z-ZAAP! POWWW!
And then the other end.
ZAAA-AAAAP! POW! P-POW!
Both sets of guns were shattered to bits.
The bear then roared and slammed the gun straight down into the ground before turning into an ostrich and pecking the wires out of its base.
Zzz-ZZT! SNAP!
All guns in the room were silenced.
Back to elf form, Garfield shuddered.
"Right…..the NRA won't be happy about that."
He cracked his joints and ran down the nearest, smoldering hallway.
"Now…..Cy's room or bust…."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The doors to Cyborg's laboratory were tightly shut.
But that didn't stop the changeling.
As soon as he ran up to the last chamber, he looked around, found a wall console, spliced his forearm into that of a gorilla, and slammed it into the metal.
CRUNNNCH!
Garfield drove his hand into the wall, fiddled around, found the power converter to the laboratory doors, and shattered it.
CRKKK!
Sparks zapped Changeling, forcing him to leap back into the hallway and waving his smoking hand…back to elf form.
"Grrrf….," he shuddered and rubbed his hand against his chest before looking at it. A cold, exhausting irony washed over his face. "…..funny….things don't quite hurt they way they used to…."
CLNGG!
He looked up at the laboratory doors.
They sparked, jolted, and slid open with a nasty…grating noise.
Garfield winced. "Yeah….I'm sure he'll forgive me later….."
He stepped up towards the doorframe.
He gazed in.
Green eyes narrow.
It was dark inside. Very dark.
A few of the computer instruments and monitors in the far corners of the metallic interior flickered, but nothing else out of the ordinary.
Garfield took a deep breath.
He concentrated.
His eyes spliced into those of a canine.
He stared into the darkness and found in the faint touches of light a spotless interior with nothing seemingly awry.
Only…..it was simply dark and stale inside.
"Strange…..," the elf murmured at himself.
The wolf eyes returned to normal as he blinked.
"This has got to be the center of the security overrides. But…nobody could possibly have done all of this except….."
Silenced.
Garfield shook his head. "Pffft….dude….stop thinking wyrd things." He sighed. "Just…gotta…..shut this crap off."
And so he bravely stuck a foot forward….and stepped inside—
ZZZZZzzzzz!
A sudden flash of gold.
"…..!" Garfield gasped. He glanced right.
A vertical laser bar was searing a path right towards his limb.
"Nnnngh!" he swung his body back into the hallway.
ZZzzz!
The gold laser swept past where his leg was a half-second ago and vanished instantly.
"……………….," he gulped. He slowly raised a hand….morphed it into an octopus tentacle….and stretched it into the room.
ZZZZZZzzzz-zzzzz!
Three vertical bars and two horizontal bars criss-crossed and swept across the room like a golden cheese grater.
Garfield swung the tentacle back and morphed it into a hand before any of the cobweb lasers could rip it asunder.
Zzz!
The bars instantly vanished.
"Phweeeee……," Changeling shuddered. "Yeah, this is cute. How much is this worth it, Garfield?"
Whurrr-Chting!
Whurrrrr-Chting-Chting!
The changeling jolted. He glanced down the hallway towards where he heard the gun turret noise.
"I can think of a lot sexier places to die….," he turned, faced the dark interior of Cyborg's laboratory, and took a deep breath. "But even sexier places to live!" He then dove madly into the center of the room. "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"
Zzzz!
Zzzz-zzz!
ZZZzzz!
A wall of four horizontal bars and two vertical bars swam across the metal surfaces towards him.
Changeling held his breath and leapt over two low sweeping lasers.
ZZZZ!
The bars reformed. Four vertical. Two horizontal. They shifted about and swept across the room.
Beast Boy hopped towards the security console on the far side of the room. When the lasers came at him, he spun, twirled, and leapt-one legged to fit through a 'square' made in the air of criss-crossing lasers. "Nnngh!" he landed in a break-dancing squat on the floor.
Zzzzz!
Six verticals and six horizontals came at him from opposite sides of the room.
Still squatting, the changeling's green eyes bulged. "Crap cakes!"
ZZZZZZzzzzz!
He vaulted his body up, spiraled, and fit through a thin 'rectangle' in the air, the corners of his clothes being singed. He reached the floor and rolled forward just in time to fit through a thinning box of bars that swept past him. He jumped up to his feet, leapt a bar, bent back and twirled aside to miss a second, and spun twice to dodge two more. As the bars receded…he posed in the middle of the room like a tango dancer. Panting….sweating.
He gulped: "G-Guess this is where all those hours of DDR come in handy…."
ZZZZZZzzzzz!
Twelve bars. Criss-crossing. They formed a cube around him and closed in on all eight sides.
Garfield twitched…frozen for a half second. He clenched his eyes shut and screamed. "AAAAAAAAAAH!" he shrunk down into a snake and swiftly darted in and out and in and out and in and out the criss-crossing bars of gold.
ZZZZZZZZzzzzz!
Two bars chased after his reptilian tail.
He morphed into a mongoose, scurried around two vertical bars, leapt over a horizontal one, rolled along the ground, morphed into a cat, ran towards a wall with a bar at his tail, ran up the wall as a squirrel, leapt off as a monkey, and twirled through the air as a feathery swallow through two solid rectangles of criss-crossing bars.
ZZZZZZzzzz!
Twenty-four bars. The entire room was a spider's web of moving, flexing, sweeping gold lasers.
The green bird flapped his wings and dove, arced, and spiraled around the maddening quadrant. Changeling dropped through a square 'hole' in horizontal bars as a turtle, landed on the ground, shrunk into a cockroach, scurried beneath half a dozen burning lasers aimed low, and jumped up as a flying fish in time to leap over four solid bars. His fins glided him towards the far-off console across the room.
In mid-air, Garfield angled out as a lizard, rolled along the ground, somersaulted over two sweeping lasers, leapt forward, dove in elf form, landed through a square of bars, slid across the smooth metal, ducked his head beneath a laser, spiraled up to his feet as a gorilla before the security console, and stood with thirty-plus bars retracting and burning a shrinking box path straight into him.
"GRRRRRRRFFF!" the gorilla reared its fist slammed it straight into the conduit.
SMASSSSSH!
The room's lights flickered on just as all the imploding lasers flickered off.
ZZZZZZZZZzzzzz—zzzttt!
The fiery gold vanished, and the large green primate stood unharmed….though singed on the far corners of his hairy body.
"Grfff…..," the gorilla frowned and stood for a second before morphing into a slimmer, leaner elf.
Taking a huge breath, the changeling rushed over to a computer console and hurriedly typed at the input device.
"Okay, Cy. What in the Hindu Hell did you have going on with this program?"
He typed…typed…typed…………but merely came up with an error message.
"What?" Garfield's face twisted in indignant confusion. "What the Hell do you mean 'illegal operation', you stupid clunkatron? Doesn't the phrase 'access denied' work in this case?"
He blinked.
He rubbed his chin.
"Hrrrm…..unless that isn't the problem."
He glanced up at the computer screens sickly.
"That would mean…….that defense matrix aimed at me was—(gulp)—deliberate?"
'I'm afraid it was, Mr. Logan.'
"!" Beast Boy spun around, his fists splicing into large lobster claws. "Who's there? Who said that?"
'As far as you're concerned, Logan, I am the Tower.'
"……," Changeling blinked.
The speakers in the corner of Cyborg's laboratory and in the ceiling were 'speaking' to him. Crackling.
"Uhmmm….w-wait!" He gasped. Horrified. "Simon? Simon Stone?"
'Snkkkttt—The very same. I am sorry to do this to you, Garfield. Then again……I have always been silent. It is the only freedom honestly afforded what's left of my 'spirit'.'
"…….," Garfield blinked. His lips quivering. "Dude….you……y-you're one of the good guys!" He clenched his teeth and raised his claws. "Cyborg got you fixed up! You were clean!"
'Cyborg hasn't been in the Tower for a month, Changeling. I've been vulnerable all that time.'
"………," Garfield blinked. "Wh-What?"
'I would gladly love to explain it all to you, but that is not my programming.'
"Then just what is your programming……," Changeling sneered, stepping back to the wall and looking all around for……something. "Or better yet….who programmed you?"
'Dagger.'
The elf gasped. His eyes wide. "N-No……b-but….he's—"
'Busy with Terra? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Dagger never left this City. His eyes have been more on the Titans than ever they have been on that poor girl in stone. Always………has that been the case.'
"…….."
'Now I must follow through with my programming, Garfield.'
"M-Mr. Stone!"
'I must kill you….'
WHURRRRR! Panels in the laboratory ceiling slid open wide.
"Wait! Stop!"
'I will attempt to make it quick and painless."
"Don't do this! For crying out loud! I'm your nephew's friend, Simon! CYBORG'S friend! Vic! We're a family!"
'We are but code, metal, and plastic. I wish that I could have been honest with him from the get-go, but the honesty died with my soul.'
Whurrrrrr! Two skeletal bodies lowered from the ceiling panels.
Robot limbs attached to the metal skeletons pairs of Cyborg's arms, spare Cyborg boots, and a laser turret on either head.
CH-CHTUNK!
Clang! Cl-Clang!
The two robot skeletons landed on the floor and animated to life.
Their hands and boots and turrets glowing 'alive'.
'I lost it all with Anderson on the yacht……'
Beast Boy drew back, his whole DNA structure tensing and getting ready to morph into anything and dive forth anywhere.
Though the changeling found himself at a loss as to exactly where to go.
The featureless, skeletal robots closed in on him and prepared a sonic cannon each. Cl-Cl-Clak! Wriiiiiiiii!
'Close your eyes, Logan.'
"N-No….."
'It will be quick.'
ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!
Z-ZAP!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"HRESSSSHA!"
Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-STOMP-STOMP!
Killer Croc charged across the sand of the beach.
He raised his serrated fist, snarled, and swung it mercilessly down at the Messenger's skull.
THWOOOOSH!
The Messenger backflipped and dodged the swing.
Killer Croc lunged forward with another jab.
The asian teen twirled to the side, grabbed onto the lunged limb with both hands, and pulsed a green flare behind him.
ZAAATA!
He streaked with his lower limbs swinging up beneath Croc's limb and slamming up across his face.
THWACK!
Croc stumbled back.
"Nnngh!" the Messenger flipped up, fell down, and landed in a nimble perch on the mutant reptile's chest.
He then leapt up in a breath and flared constantly with teleportation powers so that he 'levitated' right above Croc—Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAAT-T-T-TA!—and repeatedly kicked and pummeled him with the soles of his boots. WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAM-WHAP-THWAP-WHAM!
Croc jolted, danced, jerked, and wobbled from the constant strikes.
The Messenger clenched his feet, coiled both feet to his levitating chest, and slammed them both down in one green-flaring blow into Croc's skull.
ZAAATA! THUDDDD!
Croc fell back head over heels and plowed a ten-foot trench in the sand.
Th-Thwish!
In the meantime, the Messenger backflipped and landed in a nimble squat on the sand. "…….."
"Nnnnghhressh….," Croc rubbed his head and struggled back to his feet. "Nnnngh…frickin' varmint….down in the Bayou, I would have had you roasted and skinned by now!"
The Messenger grinned. "Ya know, Croc….," he pointed. "I'll admit, you're a lot more eloquent than some other Cajun rats I know…."
"Laugh it up, kid! You may be a fart-porter, but you ain't invincible!"
"Let's leave it to the ladies to decide that," he winked.
"Hresssha!" Croc charged across the sand.
The Messenger teleported.
ZAAT!
Croc skidded to a stop. He sniffed the air. He squinted his eyes, spun, and blindly swept his leg straight out across a space.
ZAAT! The Messenger unluckily materialized right in the path of the reptile's foot. He gasped and tried again to port away--
WHAM!
The scaly blow sent the asian teen ragdolling across the sand.
Drier…..wetter…..splashing.
Sp-Sploosh!
The Messenger flopped to a stop in the surf of the nightly tide.
He winced and sat up, dripping.
"Heh heh heh hresssh….," Croc cracked the joints in his neck….and charged to the edge of the shore.
The Messenger stood up—
GRIP! Croc's gnarled hand closed around his neck.
"Snnkkkt!" the asian teen winced.
Croc leaned forward and hissed. "Welcome to my element….punk. HRESSH!"
He tossed the Messenger into the deep waters.
"Aaaugh!"
The Messenger flew.
SPLOOSH!
The Messenger plunged.
In the meantime, Croc ducked and swam into the currents.
He disappeared beneath the waves, barely making any wakes.
In the meantime, the Messenger bobbed to the surface.
Sputtering.
Treading deep water.
His green-tipped hair rested soiled and wet over his brow.
He looked around and shuddered.
"Ah…..great. Where's Kate Winslet when you need her?"
Silence.
"……..or Alan Hale Jr……"
Bubbles.
"…….?"
More bubbles.
The Messenger looked down. "Hmmm……cute."
SPLOOOOSH! "HRESSSSH!
Killer Croc leapt out of the water like a dolphin and swung a clawed fist across the Messenger.
The teen gritted his teeth and spun his shoulder to the freak—
SWIIIIPE!
A clawed set of fingers sliced into the Messenger's back, ripping the black spandex and forming three red scars.
"Aaaugh!" the Messenger shouted.
SP-SPLOOSH!
Killer Croc effortlessly leapt out of the water on the other side with a bicycle kick and slammed his foot into the asian teen's abdomen.
The Messenger flew out of the water, bounced like a skipping stone, and plunged hard and deep.
Killer Croc swam at him like a torpedo, snickered, and dove down.
SPLOOSH!
The Messenger shuddered…sputtered for breath.
He gritted his teeth in pain and swam through the salt water in futility for the shore—
SPLASSSH!
Killer Croc rose up behind him, hugged the Messenger from behind, and dragged him under.
"Hresssh!"
"Aaaug—blblblbllbbb!"
SPLOOOOSH!
The waves receded.
The water's surface rested placidly.
Silence.
……………
…………….
…………….
…………….
…………..a bubble.
…………….
…………….another bubble.
….a slight torrent.
Then.
A green flash(!) beneath the waves.
A beat.
ZAAAT!
Wet and limp, the Messenger appeared in thin air above the waves.
He fell and landed on the water's surface with a grunt.
"Ooof!"
…………
He stirred.
His almond eyes squinted as he shivered and found himself lying flat on…..the water's surface?
No……
A sand bar.
"Nngh….," his black uniform torn and draped about his limbs, the Messenger struggled up to his feet and stood in the ankle-deep water twenty meters away from the shore.
The cold waters of the Bay stretched around him beneath the red, December sky.
He panted…looking around.
SPLOOSH!
Croc came to the surface meters away.
Treading water effortlessly.
He sneered, his mutated jaws curved in a grin. "Well….ain't you the lucky shrimp!"
"You were born coming up through the toilet, weren't you?"
Croc pointed a wet finger. "You're ripped, wounded, and stranded…punk! I'M the one who should be making the wisecracks!"
"……….," the Messenger suddenly smirked from where he 'stood'. "Righto…."
He reached a hand to the rear of his uniform's green utility belt.
"…..come wisecrack my head off."
"Hresssh….NNGH!"
Killer Croc kicked his legs and swam maddeningly at the Messenger.
The asian teen took a calm breath. He opened a pocket in his utility belt. He took out a bundle of tasers.
"I'm…..gonna….bit…..your….filthy…..little….HEAD OFF!" Croc snarled.
"Remember to blow on it first. Five second rule!"
"HRESSSSSHA!" Croc leapt out of the water like a salmon and shredded his way through the air towards the sandbar.
The Messenger's body jolted as he flung the tasers straight up in the air. "Jambalaya, muscle-head!"
"Hressh?" the descending Croc blinked in mid-air.
And just as the mutant reptile landed, the Messenger teleported. ZAAAT!
PL-PLANT! Croc landed on the wet sandbar, grabbing mid-air.
"Huh?" he looked up.
He saw the tasers.
He saw the tasers falling back down.
He saw the tasers spark to electrical life and plummet into the waters.
The waters he was ankle-deep in.
"!" Croc gasped. "NOOOOO-OOOOO!" he spun and tried to leap away---
Sploosh!
ZZZZZZZZZZTTT-ZZZZTTTTT-ZZZZZZZTTTT!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!
"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAAAAUGH!" Croc convulsed and twitched and screamed as blue plasma literally ate its way up from the salt-water pool surrounding him and enveloped his scaly body.
Meanwhile on the shore…
ZAAAT!
The Messenger materialized in a crouch.
He squatted, panting.
Dripping with sea water.
He took a breath and calmed his nerves…staring at the blue fire that lit up the red night….and Killer Croc—the living light filament—burning and twitching within.
As the electrical shocks climaxed in an explosive pulse, the twitching, smoldering reptile was tossed mercilessly into the boiling currents.
SPLASH!
"……….hrm…."
The Messenger stood up straight, smirked, and dusted his hands off.
"If only that was worth the brownie points. Burnt brownies that is."
Smiling, he turned around—
WHAM! Dagger's fist flew into his face.
"!" the asian teen wobbled, teetered back, and fell back with his butt in the sand.
"……..," Dagger glared.
Behind him rested a hovercraft moored ashore with half a dozen armed thugs.
The icy despot reached into his jacket, produced a knife—CHIING!—and flung it deathily at the Messenger's skull.
Thwisssssssssssssssh! The blade sang through the air and sailed between the asian teen's eyes.
The Messenger gritted his teeth and clapped both of his hands in front of his face and over the blade.
Thwissssh! Snkkkkttt! The double-razor blade grinded to a stop in the Messenger's grip.
"Nnnnngh!" his face tightened and he winced.
Two rivers of blood trailed out from the inside of his palms and down his wrists.
He panted in icy pain, despite having saved his own life.
"Hmmmm…..," Dagger droned.
He paced around the Messenger in the sand.
"You're an elusive soul, Teleporter. Quite the challenge…."
"Yeah….and you're twice the charmer I imagined you to be…," the Messenger wheezed as he pried the knife out of his bleeding hands.
He stood up on shaking knees and got into a breathless fighting pose.
"So….," he weakly smiled.
The fire ever-alive in his weak but persistent eyes.
"…I hear you're pretty badass."
"You talk more than you listen….," Dagger said. Staring deadpan as he paced around. "I know. I've eavesdropped."
"Hmmm….stalker ho."
"Call me what you want."
CHIIING! Dagger produced a hand of daggers and posed in an icily threatening fighting stance as he paced slower around the asian teen.
"I'll worry about declaring my real name once I own this continent."
"Yeah…uh huh..," the Messenger idly nodded. "Say, when you buy Florida, could you hook me up with the Little Mermaid?"
"Always the joker….that makes us the polar opposites."
"Comparing us dichotomously now, hmmm?"
"You're right…," Dagger nodded. "Completely pointless. Die now." Thwish! Thwish! Thwissssssh!
Three daggers flew and sang at the Messenger.
He took a breath and teleported—ZAAT!
Dagger kept a straight face as he spun and readied himself—
ZAAT! The Messenger teleported where Dagger was now facing.
THWISSSSH!
The boy gasped and leapt over the first thrown knife.
Dagger knelt and flung two more, both hands outstretched.
The Messenger backflipped over the sand. But move as he might, one knife grazed his right thigh through the black uniform.
SLIIIINK!
"Nnngh!" he landed in an awkward crouch, clutching his side and wincing. Bleeding from both palm and thigh. Panting….
Dagger stood in the sand above him. CHIING! Two handfuls of fanning blades appeared. "Honestly, Teleporter….nobody's ever seen you so true…."
The bloodied, haggard teen looked up. He smiled goofily and shuddered forth: "S-Since when did you……...g-go through m-my bedside Chobits collection? Heheheheheh…"
"Tell me, do you incessantly pester the Titans to amuse them out of their grim fate? Or do you think a simple, extra-dimensional waif like you can change the world?"
"Th-This is not my world….," the asian teen struggled to feet. Bleeding wrists raised in a fighting stance. "…th-thus…wh-who am I to save it?"
"Then why are you here? To die?"
"I m-made a promise…..to Noir and Robin…," the Messenger gritted his teeth. "A p-promise I intend to keep…since I am very good at…..distracting people. Yourself included, Mr. Ice-Nuts. So….." He smiled weakly and gestured with a bloody set of fingers. "Are we gonna dance or what?"
In the background, a wounded….groaning Killer Croc clawed his way out of the surf and onto the sand. He stared breathlessly at the scene. Reptilian eyes thin.
Dagger glared at the Messenger and uttered: "I seriously doubt your mutant abilities can keep you from bleeding to death. Perhaps you would like to return to your dimension and visit an infirmary?"
"And cut off our first date early, Dagger?" the Messenger shook his disheveled head. "Not in your life."
"Forget my life….," Dagger sprung back. "I'd worry about yours." He sprung forward. Th-Thwissh! Thwisssssh!
The Messenger spun and dodged both streaking blades.
Dagger flipped sideways.
In a mid-air cartwheel he tossed knife after spinning knife at the teen. Fwoosh! Fw-Fwoosh!
The Messenger held his breath and—ZAAT!
The knives stuck deep into the sand where he was.
Dagger landed….and froze in a crouch.
"……"
Z-ZAAT! The Messenger solidified behind him and grabbed Dagger's lowered shoulders from behind.
Dagger gritted his teeth and reverse-kicked his leg up.
Th-THWUMP!
The Messenger jolted from the blow to his lower waist.
Dagger shot his arms up, gripped the asian teen under his armpits, fell back, and flung him over his head judo-style.
The Messenger flailed through the air, uprighted his body, and landed facing Dagger.
Dagger spun up to his feet, launching three knives at the Messenger from his tornadic dance.
The youngster in black ducked a knife, sidestepped another, and snarled as he shot his hand forth and gripped the third by the hilt just inches from his face. CL-CLUTCH!
Dagger spun to a stop glaring. "……."
The Messenger held the knife. "…….." He smiled.
Beep-Beep-Beep!
The Messenger gasped. He looked at the hilt.
A light was blinking from within. The knife was holding a concealed charge. An electronic device that beeped, pulsed, and—
FL-FLAAAAAAAASH!
A green bubble of sparks and dancing beams enveloped the Messenger.
The asian teen twitched and jolted inside. His almond eyes widened as he saw all the lights and bolts converging on one spot.
The bulky black watch on his wrist….
"Behold….," Dagger gestured. "The simple….far-reaching efficiency of the electromagnetic pulse….."
"….n-no….," the Messenger stammered.
Dagger folded his arms calmly and droned: "Something tells me that your 'promise' hasn't been fulfilled yet, Teleporter…."
The Messenger's lips quivered. He stared from his sparking communicator to the despot. "NO!" He clenched his teeth and charged the man. "Nnnngh!"
The straight-standing Dagger didn't move. Not one inch. "And something tells me that your promise won't be filled…..either…."
Zzzzzt! ZZZT! The black watch pulsed, short-circuited, and exploded. POW!
And the Messenger disappeared in a green scream of frustration.
ZAAAATTTTT!.!.!.!
An emerald flare splashed into the Dagger's chest and faded away in faint trails.
He breathed deeply…as if inhaling the last essence of the extra-dimensional intercessor. He lowered his arms, sheathed what was left of his readied knives back under his sleeves, and turned towards the hovercraft.
"Take your positions!" he shouted to the men.
The elite thugs saluted Dagger back, cocked their machine guns, and ran to the extreme edges of the Titans' island.
"Nnnnngh….," Killer Croc stumbled to his feet. He limped to his boss' side. "Hressh…."
Dagger didn't even look at the freak. He folded his arms and gazed at the Tower. "A job well done, Jones…."
"…….?" Croc blinked confusedly. "Shucks, all I ever did was get my scaly hide whipped!"
"……..," Dagger's stone-cold eyes glanced aside at him. "And what are you better at?"
"……………..," Croc cleared his throat and gestured towards the Tower. "You figure greeny-boy's wasted already?"
"On his own?" Dagger stared up, unblinking. "On his home turf?" A beat. "There is no definite possibility either way." He glanced at Croc again. "But his fate is irrelevant," he droned. "For now at least."
"Huh? I thought we wanted all the Titans and their friends dead!"
"Not when they're still useful to us….," Dagger said. He reached into the inside of his jacket and produced a communicator. "And they are useful…."
"How so?"
"They'll be the stepping stones for Red Aviary. They will bring him to the center of the…..'crucible'."
"………….."
Dagger took a breath. In the cold Bayside wind, he flipped the communicator on….paused….then droned icily into the device: "Hagan? It's time……"
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"……the first lamb must be slain."
"………..," 'Cyborg' drove with one hand at the wheel of the T-Car II. His other palm momentarily cupped over his right ear.
Silence.
His human eye squinted.
He took a deep breath, lowered his other hand to the wheel, and drove on.
"……………"
He glanced his robot eye aside at Raven.
She was still.
Silent.
Her features hidden beneath her hood.
"…………," he gazed back at the road. His right eye—which she couldn't see—glazed over with amber-brown smoothness for a swift moment before returning to the human norm.
He gently…softly….pressed firmer on the gas pedal.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Vrmmmmmm!
The T-Car II rode along the highway.
Alone.
Piercing the currents of cold, red-shadowed air.
…………..
Above….on a higher slope of the forested mountain side….
A shadowed figure perched.
Staring…glaring….
With a strobing eye.
"Hccccck-clik-clik-clikkkktt-snnkkkktt……..Hckkk……"
Red vapors.
And…..
He leapt.
Swooosh!
Silence……………