246. Break the Circle part 6
Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!
In the deepest, darkest corners of the Titan's Tower basement….
The vials of gold shined.
And the carbonite charges between them….
Blinked and beeped.
Blinked and beeped.
Blinked and beeped.
Onward into the tempestuous night….
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Outside Titan's Tower, Killer Croc and a dozen of Dagger's henchmen kept guard.
They huddled in the dark ravines of the rock bluffs.
Where the waves crashed into the shore with the high tide…….
Killer Croc stared up at the tower. He rubbed a bruise on his cheek….mixed with the burns dealt him by the far-gone Messenger.
"Hrrrsshhh….," his reptilian eyes thinned. "What's taking him so long?"
"Hagan's a professional…," a gunman hissed over to Croc. "And he deserves a lot more credit than you, you slimy low-life."
"………," Croc glared icily at the man. "And just what rankkkkking does Dagger give you to talk to me like that?"
The henchman smirked.
Two other gunmen along the beach's sand chuckled at Croc's expense.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" the henchman sneered at Croc. "Face it, Jones. The only reason Dagger—or Two Face or Anderson for that matter—ever chose to use you is because you make good cannon fodder."
"Hahahahaha!"
"Pffft…..stupid freak."
Killer Croc gripped his razor-sharp hands.
He stomped towards the loudmouthed thug.
"Do you…..hrsssh….have any idea, boy, just how many people I've bitten through the necks of for so much as looking at me like you're doin'? Much less half-assing their own epitaph out of their stinkin' throats?"
The thug fearlessly smirked smugly at the reptilian mutant.
"What are you doing to do? Break my back and shred me into quarters? Face it, Croc. You're Dagger's fifth wheel. Once we've taken over this god-forsaken City, it'll be back to the sewers with you. And if you so much as get angry about it and lift a finger against me or the rest of my pals here—" he gestured with the barrel of his gun "—Dagger will have Metallo turn you into a purse. Lord knows, you'd be a lot more useful then."
"Heh heh heh heh."
"You tell him, Rocko!"
"Hrsssssh……you're walking a thin line, punk. Getting a little bored waiting around for the big plunge, ain't ya? I've seen more than you'll ever set your eyes on, bigshot. I don't need to waste my time—or my teeth on you."
"Wooo….a badass, aren't we?" the thug leaned towards Killer Croc and cocked his gun. Cl-Clak! "Go on! Show me what you got! Show us all…."
Cl-Clak!
Clak!
The other two thugs readied their weapons.
Croc leaned his head to the side as he heard three other firearms cocking….announcing that even more of Dagger's men were ganging up on him from a distance.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" the one man grinned. "Tear us up!"
"……………."
Croc exhaled….but was suddenly surprised by the cold vapors coming out of his mouth and nostrils.
"………."
He shuddered from a sudden chill in the air.
Like a descending curtain of ice.
But instead of panic, he icily stepped back towards the beach.
"Hresssh….," he calmly hissed. "I don't think….it is this 'southern meathead'……that you half-asses have to worry about……."
That uttered, he boldly spun around, stomped towards the beach, and hurtled his scaly body into the water.
SPLOOOOSH!
"Ha ha!"
"Look at him!"
"Wuss!"
"Coward! Freakin' dandy, I swear to God!"
"Why the Hell did Dagger ever hire him anyways? Heheheh…."
The leader of the pack was merrily chuckling….until he saw the thick vapors wafting coldly out of his orifices.
He froze.
Blinking.
The other men were silent too. front, much?"
"Man….did an iceberg just wash ashore?"
"Shhhhh!" the ringleader hissed, a hand held up.
With thin, suspicious eyes….he glanced around.
"……………did you hear that?"
"……………"
"……………."
"……………..?"
"What?"
"Listen!"
Silence.
Gentle waves.
Gentler winds.
The quiet, dead City beyond.
And the red sky….that seemingly turned redder.
"……………….."
"……………….."
"…………………………………hckkkk-clik-clik-clik-clik-snkkkktt….."
"………………..," the thugs blinked.
They all looked at each other.
"What the Hell is that……………………………………………………………………….?"
SCHLIIIINKTTT! A two-edge sword sliced its way out through the ringleader's chest from behind.
"AAAUGH! AAAAA—SNNNNKkksktkrbrbrbrllbblblllskskkkkkttt…."
"HOLY SHIT!"
"THE PARASITE! THE PARASITE!"
"SHOOT 'EM!"
BL-BLAM! BLAM!
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
SLIIIINK! THWOMP! FW-FWOOOSH! SLASSSH!
"AAAAAAAUGH! MY ARM! JESUS! MY AR---"
SCHNKKKTT!
"GRLLLGGLLLGGLLlglglksnnkkttttt—KKT!"
"Waste them! WASTE THEM BOTH!"
"AAAAAAAUGH!" BL-BL-BL-BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
SW-SW-SW-SWISH! CLANG! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
"HCKKKK—snkkt! Clik-Clik-CLIK!" FWOOOOOSH!
"AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAUGH!" RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! SW-SW-SWISH! SCHLUNKKKK! "Snkkkktkkt-tkkktktkt!"
SL-SLUMP!
"Go! MOVE!"
"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! H-HE'S---"
"HCKKKKK! SNKKKT!"
SWISSSSSSSSH-STAB!
"NnnngrAAAUGHHH!"
"Joe! He's unplugging your grenades, Joe!"
"For Christ's sake! Joe! Stop him from—"
"Nnnraaughh-NNRAAAAUGH! GODDDD!"
"Hit the deck! He's loaded! He'll—"
"SHIT!"
BOOOOOOOOM!
A crater formed in the center of the beach.
Sand and rocky shrapnel flew.
When the cascading white powder cleared, Deathstroke stood in the epicenter.
Shaking…quivering.
His tight limbs hung at either side…as red vapors drifted down his body and danced softly over the splattered organs, scattered limbs, and skin 'shrouds' of the twelve Daggerites that were once the center of his attack.
"……….snnnkttt…..clik-clik-clik-clik-hckkkkt……."
He tilted his head upwards.
Red eye strobing.
He stared at the Tower.
He shakily eyed the slate gray shields lining the windows.
And one large hole where a hurtling metamorph of mud had carved his way through…….
"Snkkkktt—hckkk!…….. Daggerrrrrrrrrr………………………. SNKKKT!" Slade clenched his fists. FWOOOOOOSSSSH! In a crimson streak, he blurred his way across the bloodied beachfront and up the Tower's Body till he entered the shell of the structure himself…..
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Terra……I-I don't understand….," Beast Boy murmured over her shoulder.
Shuddering.
Cheeks stained with tears.
"H-How did you do it? How did you make it here and—?"
"Noir saved me, B.B."
"N-Noir?" Beast Boy uttered.
He smiled with his eyes clenched shut and breathed.
"God bless him. He's always saving our asses. He's always—"
"Shhh….," 'Terra' cooed into his pointed ear.
The brown tentacle with the knife-end remained raised over the changeling's prone shoulder.
"Just be quiet……be still and peaceful…….for oncccce….."
"Terra….," he murmured.
He brought a bare hand up…up….and ran his fingers through her golden hair.
"Terra, I….I-I….."
"Hmmmm?"
"……………..," his green eyes suddenly flew open. "……………." His lips parted.
He ran his hand through her golden strands.
Again….again….again….
"………..," his brow furrowed.
The feel of 'golden silk' was gone.
Everything was……coarse.
Gritty.
Plastic.
"………….Terra?"
"Be still, Beast Boy…..," the voice drifted into his ear. Firmer and more concrete.
He looked beyond them.
He saw an upside down reflection in the fish-eye lens of a security camera.
A stringy, muddy limb was stretched above him…
Ready to stab down.
A glistening blade.
Beast Boy gasped.
"Be…..absolutely…..still….."
"NNNNGH!" he shoved against 'Terra' and flew back.
"YAAAAUGH!" she stabbed down.
SWISSSSSH! SLIIIIIINK! The blade barely grazed Beast Boy's left shoulder.
"Aaaugh!" Changeling stumbled back, gripping his limb.
'Terra' stood before him, the muddy 'scorpion tale' leaking with his blood.
She looked at him wide-eyed. As if with shock.
Garfield clenched his teeth.
The tears from earlier still blanketed his cheeks as now he angrily sneered: "You…are not….Terra…."
"…………..heheheheheheheh," she grinned wide. Eyes angled menacingly. "No shit, Sherlock."
"………."
"Nnnngh!" she reared the 'tail' up again to strike….
He growled and rammed into her with the shoulder of gorilla. "You're NOT TERRA!"
WHUMP!
'Terra' flew back against the wall, shattering the fish-eye lens.
CRKKK! Her body sloshed muddily against it…squishing out.
Changeling stumbled back.
Bleeding.
Staring in shock and disgust.
"Nnngh…." Slplplplppplpllpp… Clayface solidified his 'Terra' body back into petite, feminine shape.
The tale-blade was now gone.
Garfield murmured: "Wh-What in the Hell are you?"
"What's the matter, B.B.?" the intruder's eyes glazed to amber and switched to brown and red as Terra's thin body expanded outward into Cyborg's girth. The android Titan marched forward a few steps, grinned, and pointed at himself: "Don't you recognize your tried and true, homey?"
"…………," Garfield's lips gaped. "You're….Y-You're the one who replaced Cyborg!"
"Heh heh heh heh…."
"……Cl-Clayface?"
"Call me your blind date of a lifetime!" Cyborg ran forward, leapt down the hallway, and morphed into a literal wall of bricks.
SWOOOOOOSH-PHWOOOMPP!
Beast Boy gasped, crossed his arms, and spliced the rest of his body into protective crocodile scales—
WHAMMMM!
"Nnngh!" Changeling was propelled back down the hallway, flopping over the ash pile from the laboratory.
He groaned and struggled to climb back up from his hands and knees.
In the meantime, the brick wall formed legs and arms that marched soggily towards the changeling in the legitimate shape of Clayface.
A mouth full of yellow teeth gaped and grinned.
"Heh heh heh….always the small ones are the funnest to snap in two. You should have seen your beloved blue bitch before she buckled and crumbled to pieces. Heh heh heh…."
Changeling gritted beastly teeth as he hobbled to his feet.
"Wh-What have you done with Raven….?" He stood tall and strong and raised his fists. "Tell me!"
"The same thing that's gonna happen to that alien bimbo once Metallo gets through with her!" Clayface 'winked'. "Leave it to the boys of this pathetic 'team' of yours to truly come to the ladies' aid in the long run. You're so reckless, it's pathetic!"
Beast Boy gasped. "M-Metallo…….a h-hologram!" His eyes widened. "So th-that's who was with Starfire when she—"
"Wow, aren't you a quick learner? Ohhh….how I hate having to teach you young blood the ropes! Back when I was in theatre, I had about enough of pathetic whelps like you! You're an actor, right, Mr. Logan? Hmmmm….heheheheheh. Might I say a 'would-be-child-brat of the small screen'? When are you going to wake up and smell the big picture? I did!"
"Working for Dagger, Clayface? Grff…," Beast Boy cracked his neck and got into a fighting position atop the ash pile where he stood. "That's a stupid dream in the making if ever I smelled one!"
"You speak like you're not on the losing side of this bloody night, Boy."
"Don't call me 'Boy'….," Changeling hissed. "And I don't care how much trouble my friends may be in….you're not taking this City without a fight. Not while there's still a Titan in this damned Tower to take you down!"
"Ohhhh….what are you now?"
CHIIING! CH-CHIING!
Clayface morphed his arms into two axe-headed tentacles.
He waved them menacingly as he marched towards the elf.
"The 'mighty' and 'powerful' Changeling that Raven gawked about?"
"I'm more than that…..," Garfield hissed. His green skin slowly spliced from the back to the front in emerald scales. "I'm the one who's gonna be kicking your ass….actor to actor…."
CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
Clayface dragged his axes with sparkling wrath and charged the scrawny elf.
Stomp!-Stomp!-STOMP!-STOMP!
"ENTERTAIN ME!"
….and the 'scrawny elf' turned into a stegosaurus and spun its spiked tail right into the metamorph's muddy skull.
SWISSSSSSSSSSSH!
Clayface's amber eyes bulged at the last second.
SPLUTTTTTT! A crater formed in his upper body from the blow.
"MMMMFmmfmmfmmfmmMMMFMmfmmffff!"
The shape-shifter thrashed about, warbling. Tentacles dancing.
The stegosaurus spun, took a deep breath, and then shape-shifted into a huge….green Brahma bull.
It grinded its hoof into the metal floor, snorted…and charged.
Clayface's head re-shaped at the last second….
THUDDDDD!
Changeling shoved and shoved and shoved the thrashing, screaming Clayface back down the hallway….
And through the wall.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
SHATTTTTERRRRRR!
The two found themselves plunging—Clayface first—two and a half stories down to the bottom of the Tower's gymnasium.
SWOOOOOOOSH-WHAM!
Their muddy and furred bodies slammed through a cluster of exercise equipment, sending metal shrapnel and weights and chains flying every which way.
Sh-Shattttter!
CL-CLINK! CRKK!
The bull rolled in one direction.
The mud sloshed in another.
Changeling morphed into elf mode, kneeling….standing up.
Clayface scrunched up as a ball of mud, sloshed upward in the shape of a column, and shot a phalanx of slashing, blade-wielding tentacles outward at the changeling.
Garfield gritted his teeth, flipped backwards over the air-slicing tentacles—SWISSSSSSSSH!—and morphed into a pterodactyl upon twirling upright.
With a shriek, the leathery beast swooshed downward and dug his talons deep into Clayface's muddy exoskeleton.
SLIIIIIIIIIIIICEEE!
Ribbons and straps of muddy 'skin' were sliced up.
Clayface's mouth appeared in the middle of his pulsating mass to scream: "Yaaaargh!"
He exhaled and flung a good third of his body matter out in a huge tentacle that formed a stone 'mallet' in mid-air and whalloped Beast Boy severely to the floor.
WHAM!
The pterodactyl shrieked, plummeted, and slammed through the center of the balancing beam.
CRK-CRKKKK!
Changeling stood up, solidified into his bipedal enormity, and shot both of his arms out as hungry tentacles. "Nnnnnnnghhh!"
Th-THWPP! THWPPPP!
Both wormy extensions flew across the gymnasium and wrapped around the leathery beast.
The ensnared Changeling struggled….scratching…pecking….
"Heh heh heh…." Changeling's tentacles started to constrict around the animorph.
The pterodactyl's pale eyes narrowed.
Glaring.
With a shriek, the birdlike organism's skin smoothed over and his body enlarged into a Giant Squid.
SW-SWPPPP!
Four times as many tentacles as Clayface's surged back in the direction of the muddy monster and wrapped around Hagan's body in turn.
"Mmmmmmfff!" Clayface struggled and wheezed under the sudden forest of suction cups.
Changeling shook, tensed his mollusk muscles, and swung Clayface via the tentacles straight around the gym—smashing through weights, equipment, and metal tools—and slammed him mercilessly into the wall of the interior. SMASH! WHAM! BAM!
CRNCHHHH!
The wall face crumbled.
The ceiling shook.
A basketball pole hanging above broke off, fell, and plummeted into Clayface's body.
SPLTTTT!
"Mmmmfff!" Clayface shook, morphed and spread a dozen tentacles outward, re-gripped the giant squid, and slammed him in turn against another stretch of wall.
SWOOOOSH-WHAM!
More metal and wall face fragments crumbled and fell.
The green Giant Squid struggled and convulsed as a mass of dominating, brown tentacles encircled his rubbery form, engulfed him like a psuedopod, and swallowed him up into the center of Clayface's mass.
Slpppsllslllspppp!
"Heh heh heh….heh heh….," Clayface grinned.
He tried to solidify himself back into the trademark, tall-standing mass he was known by in the papers….
……But something was wrong.
He went bug-eyed.
He shook.
He quivered.
He gasped---
POWWW!
SPLLLLORRRRCHHH!
Clayface exploded.
His muddy bulk shattered and splattered everywhere from the inside out.
"RAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHHH!"
Changeling shook and waved his arms in gorilla mode where Clayface previously resided.
A fine coat of mud blanketed the animorph's figure.
A coat that he swiftly vibrated off when he shrunk down into a dog and shook his whole body.
He then morphed into an elf form….kneeling….frowning and looking around.
Clayface had collapsed into four quivering puddles of goo across the gym.
Surrounding Changeling.
As if on cue…all of the masses quivered and shook.
Gelatin style.
"………." Chiiing! Changeling spliced his right hand into a large lobster claw.
Pllbbllbpslllsbbbbppbb……
Instead of forming together, the four separate masses merely rose up into four individual columns.
Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.
"Wait a minute….."
Splllpppbbbb!
Four bodies solidified around Beast Boy.
A dark girl in blue.
A red head in a violet two-piece.
A swordsman in camouflage.
And an Atlantean in black and blue.
Changeling's jaw dropped. "Dude….so uncool…."
"…..hrmphh….," 'Starfire' smiled. "You're where you want to be, Logan."
'Tempest' cracked his knuckles and stomped towards the elf, smirking. "In the center of the crowd…."
"Nnnngh!" Changeling jumped up and snapped his claw at 'Tempest'. SNPP!
The Atlantean hopped backward, smirking evilly.
"Stay…BACK!" Garfield snarled.
SWOOOSH-SMACK! 'Noir' slammed his sword into the back of the elf. "Surprise! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Th-Th-Thwump!
Garfield rolled painfully across the gym floor.
"Nnnngh!"
He twitched.
He looked up.
"Raaaah!" Swisssssh! 'Raven' flew down at him, her two feet planted together ankle-to-ankle to smash his skull in upon contact.
Garfield rolled over, raised his hands, morphed them into lion paws, and absorbed the blow of Raven's landing.
THWAP!
"Grfff!" He shoved back against her.
'Raven' went flipping across the room.
In her place, 'Starfire' soared down with a thunderous drop kick. "HAAAAAH!"
Beast Boy rolled out of the way.
SL-SLAM!
Dust and particles flew up from the gym room floor.
The other 'Titans' watched as Beast Boy ran to the wall, ran up it, flipped off, morphed into a rhino in mid-air, and landed in the center of 'Tempest' and 'Raven'.
SLAM!
The two doppelgangers were knocked aside from the concussion of the mighty green mammal.
The rhino grunted and turned to face---
SWOOOSH! 'Noir' slid in with his sword.
The rhino's eyes bulged.
He pivoted his emerald crown and matched the muddy swordsman's blade with his horn.
ThWP! ThWACK! WhACK!
A freakish fencing match.
"Heheheheheheheh….," Hagan's voice echoed from 'Noir's' lips. "You having fun, Mr. Valentino? Come on….it's your limelight!"
The Rhino grinded back on his hooves, snorted, and raised his horn one last time.
THWSSSSH! WhACK! 'Noir's' sword slammed into the rhino's horn and grinded against it.
Nimble weight pressing against armored mass.
Changeling took a breath.
Suddenly, the horn snaked out and wrapped around the doppleganger's sword three times.
"H-Huh?" 'Noir' did a double-take.
Changeling trumpeted as his rhino body morphed into an elephant.
With an agile trunk, he tossed the muddy double by his bladed extension into the incoming bodies of 'Starfire' and 'Raven'. TH-THWOMP!
In their place, 'Tempest' ran up, slid to a stop, smirked, and shot his two arms out into two morphing tentacles. "HAAA!"
TH-THWPPP! One tentacle wrapped around a forward foot of the green elephant each.
Changeling trumpeted in resistance.
'Tempest' sneered. With un-Atlantean strength, he screamed and yanked his tentacles upward with all his might.
THWPPPP! Changeling was effectively flipped up onto his back. He struggled with meaty legs to roll upright.
'Tempest' crouched, winked, and lifted himself up in a springing leap. "Nnnngh!"
Changeling sweated and looked up, trunk waving….
'Tempest' flew up into the air.
CH-CHIIIIING!
His arms morphed into dual swords as did his legs.
CHIING!
His entire body spun like a four-bladed dicer and descended mercilessly towards the animorph.
"NNNNNNNNHG-YAAAAAUGH!" SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH!
The spiraling blades reflected off of Beast Boy's eyes
With a grunt, the elephant morphed into a dog, rolled over onto its back, and shape-shifted into a limb-retreating sea-turtle.
THWOOOOSH! 'Tempest' landed with his four blades—CL-CL-CL-CL-CLNKKKK!—deflecting sparkingly off the hard shell.
"Nnnngh!" the turtle brayed as it morphed into a donkey and rear-kicked 'Tempest' hard in the stomach.
WH-WHAM!
"Ooof!" the Atlantean flew back.
'Noir,' 'Starfire', and 'Raven' flew forward.
All in cadence, they grinned and flung their arms forward as tentacles.
They wrapped around a separate limb of Changeling each as he returned to elf form.
THWPP! Left leg.
THWPPPP! Right arm.
THWP! Left arm.
"Nnngh..mmff..grff….nnghhhh!" Beast Boy struggled, squirmed, and fought the four in the center of the gymnasium as they pulled taut and yanked at his opposite limbs. "Nnnnghhhh!"
'Tempest' walked back to the fray.
Smirking.
"Hmmphh…"
He smirked, brushing a hand through his luscious black hair as he paced around Beast Boy.
Almost casually, he shot the final tentacle out and gripped tightly around Changeling's last offering.
THWPPP! Right leg.
"Nnnnghhaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaughhh!" the elf screamed as he felt himself being pulled apart from every pole.
The 'Titans' sneered and all spoke in the voice of Matt Hagan collectively amplified around the helpless Garfield.
"CCCCommmme onnnn, BBBBeasssstttt BBBBoyyyy! CCCCrrrracccckkkk a jjjjokkkke! LLLLigggghhhhttttennnn tttthhhhe mood. Heh heh heh heh heh!"
"Nnngh…snkkkkttt!" Changeling's entire face sweated and strained in torture.
"WWWWhhhhatttt'ssss tttthhhhe mmmmatttttttterrrr? LLLLost yyyyour ssssennnnsssse of hhhhummmmorrrr?"
"Nnngh….n-no…."
Garfield heaved.
Wheezed.
And growled.
"J-Just getting a new grip on things….NnnngHHHRAAAAAAAUGHHH!"
And with that, the changeling sprouted eight extra limbs out of his body….
Limbs that morphed into long, waving tentacles….along with his previous four.
The green elf turned into a green octopus.
A HUGE green octopus.
And with the extra limbs, he gripped the four 'Titan' doppelgangers off guard, lifted them up into the air, and released with lightning-quick flicks of the suction cups.
The four pieces of Clayface gasped and flailed overhead in the spacious gym.
The octopus shrunk its four extra limbs in, morphed up, grew hair…muscle….and roared as an arm pumping gorilla.
Its sharp teeth reared to the distant, metal-webbed ceiling.
"GRAWWWWWWWLLLL!"
Just as the four 'Titans' fell back down and hit the bottom, the gorilla too slammed its limbs down into the gym floor.
THUDDDDDDD!
Cracks formed in the gym floor.
Spiderwebbing outward in all directions.
Crumbling…cracking…
The dazed 'Titans' gasped and looked at each other with identical eyes of glazed amber.
It was too late to scamper or slither away when….
CRKKKK-RKKKKKK!
CRUNNNCHHHHH!
The floor gave way.
A huge hole gaped open.
The four doppelgangers fell and flailed as huge tear drops of mud.
The green gorilla fell in between them.
Showering downward along with the rain of metal and mortar debris.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
They plunged a full story—SMASSH!—broke down another—SLAMMM!--and landed in a rough stop in a wide hallway further down in the Tower.
Dust and shards and building pieces littered everywhere. The Titans' Home as in absolute chaos.
Beast Boy—back in elf form—stirred under the pile of dust and stood up. "Nnnghhh…" He shook his head, panted, and stared around.
"…………"
Slpppppslllsllssppppp!
"!" Changeling spun around, fists raised.
Clayface had just finished reshaping.
All four doppelgangers had morphed together, and the familiar yellow-toothed metamorph was rising up out of the ground like a mythological demon.
Beast Boy snarled, morphed into bear form, and picked up a huge section of steel and mortar. He flung it at Clayface.
"Heheheheh!" Clayface caught the flying chunk in a huge fist of mud, curled his meaty fingers around it, and shot it back at Changeling with added strength.
THWOOOOOOSH!
The bear turned into an ostrich and gracefully spun around to dodge the flying projectile.
He then morphed into a monkey and hopped to avoid two lashes of axe-ended tentacles.
"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Clayface shouted psychotically, formed his two meaty arms together into a huge tentacle, and shot it towards the animorph. "Ready for intermission yet, kid?"
Changeling hissed, spun, and blocked the tentacle---THWACK!—with a huge scaly tail.
Clayface's amber eyes twitched. "Wha-What?"
"Hskkkkkk…..," the tail belonged to a huge, thunderous Tyrannosaurus Rex. It twirled around….its meaty jaws opening wide and shrieking into the muddy face of the intruder: "RAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWRRRR!"
Clayface stumbled back, wincing.
"Rghhhh-RAWWRR!"
SNAP!
Changeling stomped forward and took a massive bite out of Clayface.
SPL-SPLORCCH!
"Aaaugh!"
Clayface stumbled back, wincing.
He hissed and re-formed the chunk of himself that he lost.
But when he paused thusly and looked at Changeling….
"……………"
He smirked.
Garfield again stomped menacingly towards the muddy metamorph…but stopped suddenly when a huge shadow in the hallway loomed up against his….
"Rghhh—RAWWWWWW-WWWWWRRRRR!"
A huge, brown dinosaur with amber eyes screamed identically back at the changeling.
A scaly 'grin', then the muddy Tyrannosaurus stomped mercilessly towards the emerald one.
Beast Boy merely snarled and rushed to the occasion.
Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!-STOMP!-STOMP!-STOMP!.!.!.!.!
WHUMPP!
The two dinosaurs grappled.
The green one bit the brown one through the neck.
They spun together, wresting.
The green slammed the brown into one wall of the hallway.
CRNNNCHHH!
Mortar and steel shattered in a horizontal crater.
The brown one shoved back, head butting.
THWMMP!
The green stumbled back, shaking its snout.
Brown screamed: "RAWWWWWWWR!" and snapped towards the green Tyrannosaur's neck.
Green ducked…
THWKKKK! Brown's teeth sank into the wall.
"RAWRR!" Green spun and lifted its meaty tail---
WHAM! --and bitch-slapped brown across the scaly cheek.
The huge dinosaur's body slid and flailed down the hall till it slid to a stop in front of the elevator's double doors.
"Rwwwwrrrr….," it struggled up to its meaty feet.
Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!-STOMP!-STOMP!
Brown looked up.
Changeling was storming towards him.
Jaw lunging forward.
A drooling double-row of teeth lunging. "RAWWWWRRR!"
Brown stood its grown, hissed, and prepared to strike--
TH-THWPP!
At the last second, the green Tyrannosaur leapt up, flipped into a smaller being, and flew as a velociraptor into brown's elongated face.
"HRSSSSSSS!"
The ravenous green dinosaur landed with its razor sharp talons digging into brown's eyes.
TH-THUNK!
With a jerk of its lower muscles, the raptor leapt out…ripping the brown's eyes to muddy splotches.
SPORCCCCH!
"AAAAAAUGHHH!"
Clayface sloppily screamed, half dinosaur and half clay blob.
He flailed and fell back through the elevator doors—CRKKKK!—before plunging maddeningly down the empty end of the shaft and smashing through a pair of doors somewhere far below.
Loudly.
CLANGGGGGGG!
"……….," Changeling returned to elf form and stood at the open elevator shaft.
Heaving.
Panting.
"………….."
He glared with angry eyes.
He cracked his knuckles, threw what was left of his shredded tank top away, and leapt shirtless down into the dark, vertical abyss after his foe.
Swissssh!
The wrecked, crumbling hallway was deserted.
And still……
………………………
………………………
……………………….
……………………….
……………………….
……………………….
"…………………….………….Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkttt………."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Vrmmmmmmm!
Robin burned.
Robin soared.
The joints in the harley were practically melting.
The belts and the chains and the wheels and inner gears.
The engine shook and heated up with a vigor just short of an enlarged hand grenade.
And the entire time, his gloved hands gripped icy-tight to the handles.
His eyemask thinned and trained his vision on the distant image ahead that….
No longer was distant.
He looked aside.
A deep breath.
He shouted. "Noir!" A beat. "Noir!"
"…..?" I looked aside amidst my cross-country blur just parallel to the highway he was on.
He pointed and shouted. "I see it!"
"……."
"I-I see the bridge!"
I looked up ahead.
I took a deep breath.
The toll gates could be seen.
And just beyond them….
The gates.
The wirings….
The concrete and steel complexion of it all.
The tall and Gray Suspension Bridge.
The second Trademark of our City.
And in spite of the haunting deadness of everything, it positively shined for Robin and I.
I took a deep breath as the red sky glossed over my shades.
Home…………
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The lower hallway of the Tower was dark.
Shattered from the elevator doors out.
With the walls crackling.
And the blackened light fixtures….
…….sparking!
……….sparking!
Darkness.
Silence………
……………….
Th-Thwpp!
Changeling landed down in a squat.
"……………"
He glared left.
"……………"
He glared right.
"……………"
Beaten and bruised….wearing only his long green gym slacks, he marched icily down the foreboding….decrepit hallway.
He paused and looked around.
Eyes thin.
Clayface was gone….
But the hallway showed the impact of his landing from the higher level.
Changeling spliced the inner network of his nose into that of a canine and….sniffed the air.
"Sniff….sn-sniff…..snifffff………….grfff……," he scrunched his face up.
He walked down the hallway.
Silently.
One quiet foot after another.
He stopped at a four-way crossing.
"…………sn-sniff……"
He spun to his right.
There were splotches of mud trailing down the stubby passageway towards a smashed door.
The room beyond was dark.
Emergency lights flickered on and off on the inside.
Like a strobe.
"………"
Changeling slowly…cautiously walked towards the mud-strewn, smashed entrance.
His deep, concentrated breaths matched his slithery pace.
Slowly….like a dancer.
His limbs tense.
"………….."
He came to the entrance.
He slowly….icily craned his neck in.
"……………"
He glanced around.
The Evidence Room…..
Rows and rows of glass displays where the evidence and weaponry of villains of all shapes and sizes rested in open view…..
All familiar….sinister images.
One display was toppled over, and the shards of shattered glass were cased with mud.
"…………."
Garfield glanced around.
Silently.
"………"
The emergency lights flickered.
Dark—bright!bright!—Dark.
"…………….."
He took one step forward.
A second….
He shuffled icily into the room.
His fists raised.
His nose sniffing.
His green eyes searching….searching…..scanning the shaded corners.
"……….."
Changeling proceeded forward.
Drifting between the rows of displays.
The sword of Viper, the hat of Mumbo Jumbo, a jet pack of the Buzzard Gang, the wristband of Blackfire.
Changeling shuffled forth till he came to a stop above the sea of glass from the turned-over display.
He glanced down at it, his pointy ears pricking subconsciously to the quiet extremities of the darkened interior.
"…………"
The display spilled forth some of Gizmo's tools.
But it didn't look like something that was deliberately in the way of a certain clay giant.
It was quite obviously in the center of the room….in the thick of things.
Sparkle!
The emergency lights flickered…only this time they stayed on.
And as they did so, Changeling caught in his peripheral vision the shadow of a tentacle whipping above the shadow of a petite elf.
"…..!" Garfield gasped.
CHIIIIIING!
As the axe-head came down, Changeling rolled forward along the ground and past the display.
CRKKKK!
The tile shattered from the serrated impact.
Changeling slid to a stop on his knees and swiveled around.
"RRRGHHH!"
Clayface dropped from a smashed hole in the ceiling.
He immediately flexed his other tentacle like a pendulum.
Changeling tried to get up.
But he stumbled---
THWPPPPPSSSSH!
Hagan's other axe lunged forward and—
SCHLUNKKKKK!
sliced Garfield's left ear off.
"AAAAAAAUGHH!...!"
Changeling screamed and clutched the blood-oozing gash against his skull.
"HRAAAAUGH!"
Clayface flew forward with a muddy mass of a shoulder.
Changeling dazedly dove to the side.
CRASSSSH!
Two displays were shattered by the weight of the huge clay beast.
"NNRAAAUGH!" Clayface spun.
Yellow teeth gritting.
Changeling tripped on one leg and slid against a wall.
Panting.
Dizzy.
Blood oozed out of his head.
A sharp brain pulsed through his brain and then went numb.
The world spun around an axis.
And swiftly that axis was ripped straight through by Clayface's lunging foot.
WHUMPPPP!
Changeling felt the air knocked out of him.
He lunged forward, head leaking.
A painful wheeze and…
He twitched.
"NNGHHHH!"
Two tentacles gripped him and swung him across the trophy room.
Changeling flailed, skipped across the floor, and shattered--
CRASSSH!-CRASSSSH!
through two rows of glass displays.
Th-Th-Th-Thwump!
Garfield rolled across the broken glass.
He ended with his back against a rack of seized weapons.
He twitched…cut and bleeding in a dozen places.
The left side of his head oozed a red pool onto the tile floor.
"Heh heh heh heh heh…."
Clayface marched towards him.
Stomp! Stomp! Stomppp!
He retracted his blood-stained axes back into a pair of meaty, brown fists.
Yellow teeth smiled.
"Guess that's one less thing for that stone bitch of yours to cuddle. Heheheheh…."
"………..," Changeling shuddered.
His face twisted.
His teeth gritting.
He winced and stared at the pointed scrap of flesh lying across the sea of glass.
He struggled to get up—
STOMP!
Clayface's foot slammed down in the path of Garfield's vision.
The young man gasped.
Shaking…he looked up at the looming metamorph.
"You know….Logan….," Clayface bent over. "You and I are quite similar.……we are both being held back. The Titans never gave into your full potential. And Dagger insists that I'm not the one to kill you……"
SWSSSSSH-GRIPPP!
The bleeding Changeling gasped and wheezed as Clayface's thick hand closed around his lean frame and lifted him up towards the ceiling.
Squeezing.
Constricting.
"Nnnnnnnnggg-nnghhhh!" the green one warbled.
"But it's sooooooo easssssy…..," Clayface hissed a nasty breath into the half-elf's face. "Isn't it? To extinguish your life? To end that which pitifully bleeds before me…..And what would be the cost, Mr. Logan? Your parents are dead. Your 'girlfriend' is a crumbling piece of mortar. And your worthless friends are being picked off one by one! Maybe I should just take the luxury that—quite frankly—I deserve at this point…."
"Ngnnnghh—Grffff!"
Changeling hissed and twitched.
Clayface squeezed harder.
Grinning.
"Welllll….? What will it be?"
"………," Changeling forced his green eyes open.
They slitted like a panther for a second before he snarled.
"I think….w-we should start over….."
"Heheheheheh….star what over?" Hagan sneered. "The fight, you little grass stain?"
"Grfff….y-yeah…..," Changeling winced….bled….and hissed: "From….Gene One….."
He took a deep breath and……disappeared into Clayface's strangling hand.
"…….!" Clayface gasped. "Wh-What?"
Silence.
Stillness…..
Clayface turned his hand over.
He felt his cruddy self all over.
He panted.
Amber face contorted.
Beyond confusion.
"What in the Hell? Where did he go?"
Silence.
"………..?"
"Snkkkt—Hagan."
"D-Dagger?"
"Give me an update."
"I….I-I….."
"Quit delaying! I just got word from Croc. Red Aviary is THERE. On the island. In the Tower."
Clayface panted.
He was sweating……
"Is Beast Boy maimed for the Parasite's attack or not?"
"I…..I….I-I don't know!"
"Snkkkt! Unacceptable. Is or is he not vulnerable? Snkkkt—Did you kill him yourself?"
Clayface was sweating harder.
"I-I don't know…the little shit just vanished and—"
Clayface froze.
Sweating?
He gasped.
The muddy golem examined himself.
Globs of mud were rolling off of him.
Melting.
Disintegrating into a liquid pool beneath his feet.
"What in God's name….?"
"Hagan? What's wrong?"
"N-No…..," the metamorph clawed at himself.
Thick clumps of brown goo slopped off of him.
Scoops of amber curd.
Putty….porridge….slime….
"No!"
"Hagan. There's no time for failure! Get out of the Tower! You have two minutes!"
"I….I-I can't--………….I'm--………..…nraaaaaugh!"
Clayface flailed around.
He was melting.
Crumbling all over.
Turning into craggly gravel and slime balls.
He flailed tentacles and arms and various limbs of hundreds of shapes around as he shrieked with many faces and many voices.
"Get out of me! Do you hear? GET OUT OF ME! YOU GOD DAMN….nnnngh—PIECE OF SHIT! NRAAAAA-AAAAUGHhhbllbbpblbplblblblbbbppppllpppppp!"
Soon, an amber puddle of fluid covered the entire floor of the trophy room…brushing up against glass displays like surf against transparent islands.
Hagan's electronic earpiece marinated in the center of the mess.
Dagger's voice hissed forth in a crackling squawk:
"Hagan……Hagan! Report!"
Silence.
"………Order Fox to activate. Clayface's job is done. Snkkkkt—"
Blip.
Silence.
…………
…………
…………there was a bubbling to the amber pool.
Gaseous compounds poured out of the liquid as a consequence of millions upon millions of unseen protozoa combining and morphing together as one.
After a couple of seconds, a humanoid shape rose out of the amber stew.
And as the figure grew bigger, the skin turned out to be green…as well as the face and the hair and the eyes.
"……………," Changeling returned from his microscopic trip, having broken Clayface's sulfuric body down at the cellular level.
Once back to his lean form, he lifted his head back, spat out a glob of amber, and inhaled….inhaled…inhaled.
"!.!.!.!.!.!.!"
He lunged forward.
Wheezing.
Heaving.
Shuddering.
His eyes clenched shut.
Tears squeezed out….for he was still bleeding from the gash in his left skull.
He grasped the spot of the missing ear and wandered dazedly forward…sloshing through the mud till he limped—aching and bleeding—out of the trophy room altogether.
And into the numbness of the cold hallway beyond…..
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Aboard a hovercraft in the Bay…
Safe in the shadows of the red night….
In the dark, electronically starlit cabin…
William B. Fox sat at a computer hub with three sets of monitors and keyboards.
A pair of armed Daggerite guards stood behind him in menacing proximity.
Fox was busily typing a flurry through the stations, assisting in the coordination of a massive invasion force with blinking points on a map of the City that surrounded the entire metropolitan area.
He kept a constant watch on the Lexcorp satellite, maintaining the counteractive firewall against digital take over.
And in the middle of all this…
A hired hand rushed down into the cabin with one communicator to his ear.
In a dark, low voice he hoarsely said: "Dagger gives the go-ahead."
One of the gunmen shoved Fox in the back. "That means you, hotshot."
Fox shuddered all over.
He put on a goofy grin and looked over his shoulder. "Say….you guys aren't offended if I let Jenna Jameson join in on this too, huh?" he pointed at the farmost monitor.
"Quit stalling, pal."
A guard nudged his shoulder. With a pistol.
"Dagger's given you an order."
"………..nngh….," Fox gave in with a sigh.
He punched a few keys, brought up a schematic of the Titans' Tower, and entered the fatal keystroke.
TAP!
"………," he simpered nervously back at the men. Tired eyes for once.
"Thar she blows……….."
His gaze fell somewhere to the shadows and he was silent.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Titan's Tower.
The Main Room lay silent. Its computer stations switched off. The DVD cases lying where they were last discarded. All manners of horrid leftovers looming in the fridge. The couch and T.V. set resting like still ghosts.
Cyborg's Room. The smashed lab table. The loading stations scorched and sparsely illuminated by flickering emergency lights.
Starfire's pink bed. Her happy drapes. The eccentricities of Tamaran lingering in the corners. The trunk with a mysterious, battle-worn helmet and visor hidden inside.
Noir's cellar. The lantern lights cold and dry. The shower stall dark and lonesome. Myrkblade's shrine abandoned.
Raven's Room. The cold blue drapes. The books….the gothic ornaments. A closet. A painting. Ana's face.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Changeling limped through the cold hallway.
Trying to find his balance.
Finding it a throbbing impossibility…
He clutched his bloody gash.
Wincing….
Wheezing.
Somewhere….in the deepest, hottest part of his being….
He could have sworn he heard an alien ringing noise.
Like a tuning fork that never ended.
Growing louder and louder and louder….
And there was nothing he could do to mute it.
Nothing he could do to shut it out.
He hissed and shook his head.
Things were growing dizzy.
Things were growing cold.
The ringing….the ringing….the ringing….
He 'heard'……
'Hehehehehe…okay, Garfield. Time to come in! We got dinner prepared!'
'Awwww, Mom! You an' daddy done with the experiments already?'
'You know we've been making progress ever since we moved here to Lanumba! Let's spend some family time together for once and—GOOD HEAVENS! Are you bare-foot, Garfield?'
'Uhmmm……'
'You are! Garfield, what have I told you--?'
'But I'm perfectly safe, mom! See? Hehehe……my feet like it this way!'
'And plenty of snakes and bad bugs will like your feet too! Come back to the bungalow this instant!'
'Awwww……but I'm okay!'
'I swear……you're impossible! Mark, come help me here!'
'He's right Marie. He is doing pretty well for himself, aren't you son?'
'Hehehehe! See! Daddy agreeees!'
'Mark! Hrmmph! I swear! I'm raising two children!'
'Heh heh heh……it's okay, Marie. Gar? Come on in. Your Mother's right. You're liable to be bit by something walking barefoot like that.'
'But Daddy—'
'You should know better.'
'…………yesssss daddddddy……'
'Come along now. That's a good son.'
'I was doing just fine, I swear……'
'Ohhhhhh, what are we going to do with him, Mark?'
'You gotta hand it to him, Marie. We've got us a regular beast boy!'
'Hehehehe……how horribly true.'
'Ick! Mom! Stop hugging me!'
'I just want you safe, hon. That's all……'
……………….
'I just………want you………safe………'
………………
"……………………Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkktttt……."
"………!"
Changeling snapped bloodily out of it.
His eyes widening.
He froze in a sudden chill.
Staring down the hallway.
"Hckkkk…….clik-clik-clik-clik-CLIK!"
Changeling didn't remember those words.
He shuddered.
He turned around.
And in slow motion….
He saw him.
In the frame of the trophy room.
Billowing red.
The piercing, crimson eye.
The two edged sword……dangling.
The red and black nightmare.
The reaper incarnate.
"…………..," canine hair instantly grew two inches on the back of Garfield's neck and stood on end.
"Hckkkkkk!"
FW-FWOOSH!
Red Aviary twirled the sword.
He held it two-handed at his sides.
He blurred….down the hallway.
Feet splashing red in slow motion.
Ice vapors of maroon floating in the air between the walls and his deathly frame as he stormed….stormed….stormed towards the animorph.
Stomp!……Stomp!……St-Stomp!……St-St-Stomp!
Changeling blinked.
An oozing thing.
Like the blood and tears leaking from separate spots on his face.
A puff of visible mist echoed from his lips and floated over to mix with the red clouds smoking out of Deathstroke's mouth slits as—
CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
With a red FLASH the two-edged swung through the air.
Straight at Changeling's skull.
"…….."
But Changeling was sinking downward.
A black portal had opened in the floor beneath him, and a pale hand was gripping his ankle and teleporting earthward.
Flaaaaa-aaaaaaash!
CLANKKK!
The sword slammed into the wall, cracking the structure into spiderweb fractures.
CRKKKKK!
"………….," Deathstroke lingered.
Red smoke hissing out of his upper body in a dozen places, he glanced around….and shook.
"Hckkk-clik-clik-clik-clik….."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
FLASH!
Beast Boy dropped down into the room coincidentally beneath the ruptured hallway.
Robin's room…
Th-Thwomp!
He bounced off the bed and rolled across the floor till he bumped into the book case.
"Nnngh!" he wheezed…then breathed sharply the warm air of the room….safe from the Reaper.
He winced, cupped his head again, and sat up.
"Wh-What in the world….?"
He looked up.
His green eyes widened.
"Raven!"
The dark girl stood limply before him.
Black energy trailed from her as with a vapor.
She hugged her arms to herself and retreated the pale hand that had grabbed Changelng's ankle through the portal.
Suddenly ignoring his recent wound, Garfield limped up and gripped her shoulders.
"Wh-Where were you? How did you get here?"
A pause.
He tilted his head up through the ceiling.
"Who was that?"
"……………," Raven shivered.
Garfiled leaned his head to the side.
"R-Rae?"
He gripped her blue hood and lowered it.
"Wh-What are you—" His eyes widened.
Her optics were glowing a hot gray.
And they were fluctuating.
A sheen of cold sweat poured down her brow.
She shook, hissed, and leaned into him.
"G-Garfield….st-stay close to me……something b-bad is about to happen to the Tower…."
"Raven!" Changeling gawked.
He looked down.
He reached and parted her arms some.
His jaw dropped at the sight of a big bloody spot in the center of her leotard.
"My god! What happened?"
"I-I've been h-h-healing myself ever s-since…."
"Ever since what? Crud….it l-looks like……y-you've been ripped down the center, Raven!"
The dark girl gulped and clung to Beast Boy.
She leaned forward and wheezed.
"It's n-not as b-b-bad as it looks. Nnngh…I-I was mainly my soul-self when Slade skewered m-me with his sword….."
Changeling all but collapsed.
"Sl-Slade?"
He looked up through the ceiling and stammered.
"My God….w-was that---?"
She was clinging to him all the harder.
"Garfield!" She hoarsely growled. "Stay…close…..to me!"
"R-Raven?"
"I-I-I'm going to protect us….a sh-shield! St-Stay still…."
"N-No, Raven—"
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"
"Raven! Don't! For God's sake, you can barely hold yourself together--!"
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……."
"Don't do it, Raven! Don't waste your powers on me—"
"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!.!.!.!.!.!.!"
Changeling yelled, but it was no use. A black shield encased the two Titans as Raven limply fell into his arms.
He screamed something…..but between the black vortex and the ringing in his missing ear, he couldn't hear his own voice.
In the black sphere, the two Titans bled together.
Just as……
T-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Hckkkk-Snkkkkktt!"
Deathstroke sensed it.
His whole body warbled.
A red pulsing response to a strobe of Construction.
He tensed his body.
Tilted his face up.
Coiled his legs….
Summoned red smoke—every crimson layer to the Spectrum that he could summon.
And…..
FL-FLASH!
He soared upwards.
SMASH!
Through a hallway.
SMASH!
Through another hallway.
CRKKK!
Through the gym.
CRNCHHH!
Through Cyborg's lab.
SMASH! THRKKK! CRKKKK!
Hallway after hallway after hallway.
SHATTER!
The Main Room…..
T-T-T-T-T-T-
CRASSSSSSSH!
Red Aviary exploded out through the top roof of Titan's Tower.
Looming over the Bay with the outstretched, steel arms of a martyr.
Deathstroke's pulsating body soared up….up….up…..and billowed red all over.
"HCKKKK-SNKKKT!"
Floating above the Tower, his voice entreated a crimson lightning to dance down from the red aura of the sky.
It illuminated his figure and flickered in such a way that all deceased spirits that may happened to have lingered within the vicinity would have envisioned a glowing, burning Phoenix strobing above the Titans' Home.
The Circle of Destruction.
The promise of another day and another Hell.
Like a bloody lighthouse for the silent, gray City lying hushed and timid beneath it all…..
T-T-T-T-T-T-
The Tower's Cellar.
The golden vials strobed.
The carbonite explosives surrounding them…..
Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Vrmmmmmmm!
Robin was halfway over the Suspension Bridge.
I was blurring alongside him.
As the Boy Wonder gripped the handles….
And I blurred like the frosty wind itself….
We both let out sighs of relief.
Everything……was in one piece.
"Thank God…..," Robin loudly mumbled. "We're not too late."
"………..," I smiled amidst running.
"Okay. Good. We can start out on a solid foot! Noir….meet up with the Messenger. I'll go and check on the Titans and see if—"
BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!...
A huge…golden flare.
To our right…..southeastward….
I was instantly blinded….
Aaah!
My black eyes clenched shut. I tripped. In my velocity, I painfully fell down and tumbled a good ten meters before grinding to a stop on the bridge pavement. Wincing all over.
Robin gasped.
SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!
He burned the wheels of the Harley as he forced it to a sideways stop.
And he faced it directly.
His head leaning to the side.
His mouth agape as the golden glow glinted off the shiny parts of his mask.
I stood up, hobbling.
Clutching my ribs with a black, synthetic hand.
I limped over to his side and watched in utter horror.
A cold chill.
Mother of God.
Titans' Island was a plume of fire.
A veritable mushroom cloud.
Carbonite heat.
Plasma.
The metal body was completely incinerated….and anything that was once solid inevitably melted into oblivion as the golden chaos lifted….lifted…lifted into the sky and brightened the continent from space.
And then the second sound wave hit…..
RUMMMMMMMBBBBBBLLLLLEEEEEE!...
Waves rose high and slammed into the support pillars of the bridge.
SLOSSSSSH!
The metal support wires wobbled.
The road 'bobbed' up and down.
Robin and I shook where we stood.
"Nnnngh!"
"………!"
In the distance, windows of the higher skyscrapers cracked and shattered from the resulting sonic boom.
A numb stillness filled the air…in shop contrast with the blazing inferno that was our formal home.
"…………..," Robin slowly shook his head. "D-Dagger………T-Triangular beat us to our Home….."
Silence.
His fists clenched. He gritted his teeth. He shook:
"But he hasn't beaten us to the City…not yet!"
"…….."
"Noir. We must move."
"……."
"Noir?" he glanced aside at me. His eyemask widened.
I had fallen on my knees.
I was hunched over.
Clutching my stomach.
Everything in my body shook and shivered.
I gritted my teeth….in torturous convulsions.
"Noir!" Robin hopped off his harley and gripped my shoulders. "What is it?"
I panted.
I looked up at my.
My black eyes flickered….flickered a resonating RED.
"…….," Robin stepped back.
Very much confused….quite possibly freaked out.
I gulped.
I hissed a mute breath and shakily hand-signed:
'This is it, Robin. So much Construction. So much……White.'
"…………"
'This is Dagger's invasion. This is his answer to Red Aviary………and his Key to the City……'
"……….?" Robin looked breathlessly toward the island.
And so did I.
Weakly….breathlessly.
The Equalizer being strained…..
FL-FLASH!
And then we saw it.
FL-FL-FLASH!
Blinding streaks.
Comets.
Unnatural missiles of gold flying out of the center of the infernal.
Hot-white capsules were soaring out and out in a progressive fan of chaos like a giant sparkling fireworks toy.
The Essences of Terra……
I fought to keep the flickering red reactionary smoke from billowing out of my black eyes.
I failed……
They are being fueled by the carbonite explosion………
"Dagger's army…..," Robin murmured.
FL-FL-FL-FLASH!
Hundreds of 'comets' were soaring every which way now….and raining down mercilessly into the City.
Robin's right………
God help us all.
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Nnngh…..mmmmf!" Starfire climbed out of the rubble of the fallen office building.
Metallo was nowhere to be seen.
The Tamaranian hovered weakly up to the sky.
She became aware of a strong, golden glow shimmering its way into the City from the southern horizon.
She squinted her green eyes, floated up some more….and gazed over the building tops.
And when she saw it….
Her face exploded.
She screamed: "X'HAL! Nimberratta'tuil! Garfield! Raven!"
She reached a hand forward towards the distant inferno.
But her flight died just as limply as her voice.
"Cy-Cyborg………"
All she could do was float and shudder.
In disbelief.
But before the first of many green tears could leak from her optics….
FSHHHHHH-SHOOOOOOOOM!
"H-Huh?" she looked up.
A bright, white 'comet' soared down in a curved arc.
It hotly scorched the air and plummeted in the alien girl's direction.
"Eeeek!" she swiftly swerved out of the way in midair.
FWOOOOOOOOSH!-PLOWWW!
The comet struck the center of the City streets a block away from the wreckage of her Metallo battle.
"……..," Starfire stared.
Mouth agape.
Eyes wide.
CRKKKKKK-KKKK!
Something emerged from the burning crater.
The asphalt and earth and concrete was coming alive.
It turned into a tall, infernal golem.
Flexing thermal muscles and roaring a muffled, burning roar.
It thrashed about and smashed the nearest lampposts, building faces, and parked vehicles with merciless decimation.
CRKKKK! CRNCHHHH! THRKKKK!
Before she could busy herself in righteously thrashing the sudden beast….
FSSSSSSH-SHOOOOOOM! SH-SHOOOOOM!
Starfire gasped.
She twirled.
Three more comets blurred past her.
She hugged herself and flinched as the burning 'capsules' plummeted into streets, rooftops, and building faces.
PLOW!
PL-PLOWWW!
PPPLOWWWWW!
And in every crater….
And at every impact point….
The concrete and stone and earth came to live.
In burning bipeds of monstrous wrath.
And their only impulse was to swing their stony, burning limbs….
Shredding all things around them to pieces.
Not just in her City Block.
But all over Town.
Where dozens…hundreds….thousands of the comets landed.
And bred a legion of thermal demons…ravaging everything in sight.
"X'Hal……," Starfire panted.
She flew up high and began the mad dash of surveying the sudden warzone and strategizing the first course of superheroic action.
But she had to pause and breathily murmur: "The people……."
She looked around in mixed confusion and horror.
"Where are all the poor people?"
FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSH!
Starfire's thoughts were cut short by a squadron of H.I.N.D. helicopters soaring directly overhead.
She spun and gasped…
T-T-T-T-T-T-
FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSSSH!
They came from all sides of the City.
Rotary blades beating….beating….beating the heated air.
The pilots expertly ducked and dodged the shimmering comets of thermal energy.
H.I.N.D.s loaded their weapons and trained their sights on the buildings and streets below.
Cargo helicopters carried legions of heavily-armored thugs and gunmen equipped with machine guns, uzzis, and explosives.
And following the rear of the aircraft, Hummers and jeeps and trucks full of Dagger's elite zoomed into the City.
The forces of Triangular swarmed into the City like sugar ants spiraling into the bottom bowl of a sliced-open tangerine.
And all the while thermal golems sprouted and exploded and thrashed to furious life all throughout the streets and avenues with the wrath-filled, inner programming inserted by Dr. Helga Jace way back in Area 51.
And on top of it all…
On the highest spot in the City….
The summit of Kobayashi Tower……..
Dagger appeared.
Dressed in more body armor and equipped with more weapons and daggers than even he was used to.
He ducked under a white satellite dish and stood on the smooth, glass surface of the skyscraper's roof.
He glared silently at his Invasion in action. The calculated clockwork of hideous perfection.
"……………all right, Slade….."
Chiiiing!
Th-Thwish!
He twirled a dagger in each hand, turned around, and faced the burning inferno of Titans' Island and its spouting 'comets' with an icy gaze.
"……come out….….wherever you are…….."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Flying over the mountains…..
Terra gasped.
Her blue eyes widened and—beneath the goggles—strobed a hot….hot gold.
The flying rock descended some.
Supergirl and Pulsade instantly felt it.
"Wh-Whoah!"
"Bloody Hell!"
"Nnnngh!" Terra shuddered, her legs wobbling.
Her glowing hand twitching.
The rock wobbled some more.
Supergirl shot up to her feet and steadied Terra's shoulders.
"Concentrate, Terra! Concentrate!"
Terra hissed.
She nodded her head.
Supergirl gulped…..
"What in the world was that about?" Pulsade muttered.
"Nnnnngh….," Jinx was stirring awake.
Supergirl looked down. "What's your problem?"
The pink witch rubbed her head. Visibly straining. Her cat eyes pulsed a bright pink under tightly clenched lids.
"Mmmmf…..Hecate almighty…."
"Jean? Jean, you all right, love?"
"Something….S-Something bad has happened…..," Jinx ambiguously murmured. "S-Something big and…b-bad….."
"What are you babbling about?" Supergirl frowned.
"Kara….sh-she's right….."
Supergirl flashed Terra a look.
The earth maiden bit her lip as she re-steadied the levitating rock. "I….I felt something. M-Much like the day I felt Jinx and Pulsade's ignition of the thermal essences in the Tunnel."
Pulsade squinted her eyes. "Yeah?….But what the devil does it mean this time?"
"……………….."
Supergirl gently caressed Terra's shoulder. "Terra…..?"
Terra looked over at Supergirl. Her lip quivered. "I feel…..I-I feel like I've lost my child all over again."
"…………."
"Kara….I-I'm not so sure going to Gotham is the right thing to do anymore."
"Then where should we be going, Terra?"