248. Break the Circle part 8
VRMMMMMMMM!
The two police cars and Robin's harley burned down the shaking, ruptured street of the City.
I blurred ahead of them. Smoke poured out of my shaded eyes and rushing limbs.
I gazed every which way ahead of us on the lookout for sudden obstacles….
….or opponents.
A warzone.
The City was a warzone again.
One solid month had brought hell back to the streets of our City.
Hell that spat living fire in the form of walking, bipedal golems.
These monsters roared and echoed an ambient chaos all around our caravan as we burned northward.
Following the movement of the speeding squad cars driven by the anxious officers inside…….
And as much as the flight was necessary…..and as much as we knew this 'HQ' would bring promises of Smith and promises of answers…….
Robin and I both mutely wondered in a subconscious shudder….
Did the Titans burn alive?
What happened to the Messenger and Killer Croc?
Why……Why………Why…………was the City DEAD?
I panted and gazed left and right of my blurred charge.
The office buildings were dull and dark.
The shopfronts were empty.
No pedestrians or casual traffic filled the street.
The City was a gray, red-lit urban playground for the golems and Dagger's army to romp through.
And as much as they smashed through buildings and shattered the streets and sidewalks and smashed parked automobiles….
There was nobody to bleed.
Robin and I would have counted our blessings if we weren't so nightmarishly afflicted with confusion.
"Look! Up ahead!" an officer in the front car shouted.
I snapped out of it and glanced ahead with my black eyes.
Two rock monsters lumbered out of opposite alleyways and marched into the center of the long straightaway.
Facing directly towards us.
The squad cars…
"They're in the way!"
"Noir!" Robin shouted. "Take 'em down!"
I got it.
FWOOOOOSH! I rushed forward with a burst of smoke.
The golems swung their thick, burning limbs at me. CRKKKKK!
I slid on a carpet of murk, ducked their blows, and hopped up between them with twirling fury.
TH-THWACCCK!
My spinning sword shattered the torso of one golem and slapped another one…forcing it to stumble out of the center of the street.
I then landed from my jump, snarled mutely, and flung my black limb into the center of the first-struck golem.
SHATTTER!
It crumbled with a puff of flame.
I kicked the shattered pieces off and out of the way and leapt up straight in time for the speeding squad cars to zoom beneath me.
Vrrrrrrmm!
VRMMMMM!
P-Plant!
I landed right as Robin was passing with his harley.
I blurred my legs, shot ahead of him, and streaked past the police cars just as a building face was crumbling ahead of us.
By the speed we were going…..even if the cars and Robin's bike braked, the building structure would land on their screeching figures and crush them.
I could only gasp in helplessness.
Robin, however….--
"NNNNGH!" He freed a hand and flung an explosive birdarang up at the falling buildingside with all his might.
Sw-Sw-Sw-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH! CRKK!—POWWWW!
The mortar and steel shattered and flew up and about in a splash of heat and concussion….which was just enough for us to pass beneath like gliders under a burning bridge.
CRNNNNCHH! The structure collapsed in ash and dust behind us, flanked by furiously burning golems.
Robin panted.
He stopped glancing back and looked ahead in my direction.
He shouted above the mess and speed: "They must have a weakness! Things that rely on heat and combustion with that thermal intensity can't be too stable!"
I panted and nodded to the wind as I guided the vehicles along.
Eyeing the sides of the shaken streets zooming past us….
"I-I'm guessing that some sort of technology used to amplify the thermal energy could make those walking lavaheads explode! Or at least break them apart!" he swerved his harley around a burning piece of rubble in the road.
SCRCCCH! SCREECH!
Only Robin has the license to drive while being nerdy.
"With the Tower gone, the only place to find something would be Phaser Labs! But with Simon Stone there and working for Triangular, I can't imagine getting so much as a foot inside that place without—"
I whistled sharply and pointed ahead with my sword.
Robin craned his neck.
A solid line of golden, burning golems stood in our path.
Nearly two dozen of them.
They were busy pounding the asphalt beneath them into gravel and ripping stationary vehicles apart.
At sight, they turned and 'stared' at us.
Their thermal centers flared and puffs of ash and flame billowed out as they marched in our direction all in one accord.
CRKKKK-KKKKK!
I bit my lip.
Robin gulped.
He glanced behind us down the street.
Fallen building faces and other amounting debris from rampaging H.I.V.E. choppers overhead had blocked our reverse path.
Robin turned forward and shouted.
"We'll have to cut on through! Tell the cops to halt before the intersection!"
I slowed to a smooth, blurring jog right in front of the two squad cars.
I held a black hand up.
The drivers stopped their cars, fumbling and shifting nervously in their seats.
VRMMMM!
Robin drove to a stop between the squad cars.
He panted and said: "How far away to your 'HQ'?"
"About three blocks away….the southern edge of the municipal warehouses."
"Northern District? Why so far from the City's center?"
"Trust Smith, Robin. It's all part of the emergency plan."
Robin took a deep breath. "I like the implications of 'emergency' at this point…"
I hand-signed something.
Robin nodded. "Yes, Noir! I know! They're almost upon us! You dash around and take the rear."
Snkkkt!
He extended his bo-staff in a free hand.
"I'll go in head on……"
"……….," I relented with a breathless nod.
"Robin! Noir!"
We both gazed at the cops.
They tossed us three smoking grenade canisters.
I caught one.
Robin caught two.
"You never know…th-they might come in handy…."
The Boy Wonder nodded. "The more we can throw at those creeps, the better…."
"Just don't settle for your heads, Titans!"
"Yeah! Don't kill yourselves!"
"Believe me…," Robin turned around. Mumbling. "That's the last thing on the menu…."
Vrmmm! Vrmm!
He holstered the grenades in front of the seat of the harley and grabbed the left handle with one wrist while holding his bo-staff in the other.
"Noir! Go!"
THWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!
I ran immediately to the right, dashed up the body of a crooked, dented lamppost, leapt off the head, landed vertically on a building front, streaked up across it, side-flipped, and vaulted so that I plunged in twirling fashion over the bodies of the burning, golden mob.
A good half of them turned to flail their limbs at me.
CRKKKK-KKKK!
A stream of fire-streaking, rocky projectiles surged straight at me from their craggly bodies.
I took a sharp breath and pulsed murk through my legs.
THWOOSH!
I vaulted upward, flipped over their lava-bullets, and came back down within arm's length with a merciless swing of my blade.
THWACK! SLASSSSH!
I snarled and slashed, ripped, shattered swing-fuls of golden hot rock matter.
I drew the crowd back…but they exhaled flames and marched back at me with thrice the firmness.
I remembered how long it took me to take out a single healthy sample of these things. That bruised and battered fight in the bowels of Area 51. I was a lot stronger and fuller of breath this time….this December Second, but facing the whole lot of those creeps flocking the streets like they did was virtual suicide.
I only hoped my frenzied banzai attack could provide a distraction.
And it did.
VRRRRRRM!
Robin sped his harley towards the front of the confused cluster of cretins.
"Yaa-aaaaaugh!" he swerved hard with one hand on the steering of the cycle and stretched his rod out, smashing through skull and limb and golden body of the thick group in succession.
CRK-CRK-CRK-CRK-CRKKKK!
Hot pebbles and splashes of lava shot everywhere.
The intense impact of the speedily-swung bo-staff leveled a few golems to the ground.
In response, a few of the monsters I was hacking and slashing turned and launched burning pebbles at the Boy Wonder.
Those still paying attention to me swarmed together and swung their meaty-concrete arms in identical thunder.
THUDDDD!
A crater formed in the asphalt. Burning. Spitting ash.
I grunted and fell back, rolling awkwardly along the ground.
The monsters leapt at me.
Two at a time.
I gasped and teleported at random.
SMASSSSH!
Four to six golems landed where I was.
F-FWOOSH!
Stupidly……I materialized into the thick of the crowd.
CRKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!
Their meaty limbs converged on me.
I gasped, vaulted up, and danced with smoking legs in a hot-foot hop-scotch from golem-top to golem-top.
CRK-CRKK-CRK!
I stabbed down and slashed at random Myrkblade through the lunging, leaping limbs of the burning beings groping up to incinerate and crush me.
TH-TH-TH-THWKKK! THWACCK!
In the meantime, Robin was exercising his recently-learned talent of dodging projectile lava bullets while straddling a harley motorcycle.
He zoomed and screeched around, avoiding the launched rocks of burning heat that ate into the cracked asphalt just behind his blurring tires.
At one point he skidded to a stop and panted…sheltering himself from the 'shooting' golem limbs with a metal lamppost blocking away.
He took a deep breath, flexed his wrists, and went about the nimble task of tying both of the cops' tear gas grenades to a bolo cord.
In the meantime, I was finally leaping…hopping my way over the heads of the monsters and into the open street at the rear of the crowd.
I landed in a murking slide and spun around to slash and block the lunging limbs of the golems with my blade.
SWOOOSH! THWISSSH!
CLANK! CL-CLACK!
I backflipped with a heavy pulse of murk just as two golems scampered towards me.
CRKKKKK!
I twirled backwards and stabbed Myrkblade into the fifth story of a nearby commercial skyscraper.
CHIIINK!
I panted…hanging from my blade.
Sweating and looking past my dangling legs at the golden-glowing golem crowd gawking at me from below.
In the meantime, Robin finished attaching the tear grenades to the weights of his bolo.
He took a deep breath…..and zoomed back out into the street.
VRRRRRM!
He spun the tear gas grenades overhead on the ends of the ropes.
TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSH!
Halfway to the line of burning monstrosities, he performed a wheelie on the harley—VRMMMMM!—and tossed the bolo straight into the crowd. "Nnnngh!"
THWISSSSSSSSH-THWP-THWP-POW!
The bolo wrapped around the torso of one golem and exploded once both grenades slammed into its back.
The resulting concussion sent a sea of burning gravel flying high into the air and a stream of white smog hissing from contact with the burning rock-bodies.
"Nnnngh!" Robin brought the front wheel of the motorcycle back down, reached his staff-hand back, wrapped his cape up over his mouth…and squinted his eyemask as he drove mercilessly into the crowd with staff outstretched.
VRMMMMMM-MMMMMMM! WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAAA-AAACKKK!
I watched from above as Robin and the motorcycle zoomed into the white cloud.
Disappeared.
Dispelled waves of crumbling, shattered golems, and burst out from the other side.
The Boy Wonder was wheezing….gasping for breath…..but otherwise unaffected by his vehicular plunge straight through smog-ville.
I took a deep breath. Encouraged….
My turn……
CL-CLINK!
I popped the trigger free of the tear gas grenade.
I took a deep breath.
Dangling with one hand on my hanging hilt, I pumped layer after layer of black murk and energy into the grenade.
Once it was sufficiently charged, I grunted mutely and tossed the black-wrapped explosive down into the thick of the remaining monsters.
Swiiiii-iiiiisssssssh!—BOOM!
The layers of murk and tear gas exploded the entire grenade and sent bodies of rocky monsters around it flailing.
A good many of them crumbling.
I took a second deep breath….
CRKKK!
I ripped Myrkblade out of the commercial skyscraper.
I twirled…plunged into the smoke, and landed with a cushion of murk.
I clenched my lips tightly shut, stretched a black arm out, and absorbed….sucked…..'inhaled' the fumes into my torso.
Like a cyclone, the tear gas and fumes and smoke shrunk dead-center into my black arm, compressed, snake-slithered around my other arm, streamed into my sword, and increased the strength by one-hundred-fold.
I snarled, gripped the hilt of Myrkblade with two hands, and spun around in furious circles.
THW-THW-THW-THWISSSSSH!
CRACK!
SMASSSH!
SHATTER!
The suddenly weighted sword shattered through eight solid bodies of golems.
Golden-flickering rock shards flew every which way as the monsters shattered and collapsed away from my revolving center.
A 'hole' was formed in the thick line.
Robin adjusted his cape, waved his bo-staff, and shouted from the other side of the street.
"Now! Now!" he caught the cops' attention. "Punch on through!"
SCREEEEEEEECH!
VRMMMMMMM!
The two squad cars burst past me and the canal in gold I had made.
When I finished twirling about with the furious sword, I collapsed to my feet. Panting for breath.
"………"
CRKKKKK!
The thick, remaining golems stood up and marched towards me on all sides. Limbs flailing to strike…
I was too weak to dodge….
VRMMMM! Robin blurred in on his bike.
He slid sideways on his two wheels, scooped me up with his bo-staff arm, hoisted me off my knees, and sped off after the cops.
Saving me.
CRASSSSSH! The golems devastated the circle of asphalt where I was previously seated.
I shuddered.
Riding astride Robin on the harley, I glanced at him through sweat-stained shades and nodded a weakly smiling 'thanks'.
Robin clenched his jaw. "Let me lose as little friends a possible today, huh?"
I gulped…
Yeah……
"Dead end!" one of the cops shouted.
Robin looked ahead. "No way! This street goes clear all the way to—" His eyemask bulged. "Aw shucks."
I looked up. I winced.
FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSH!
One of Dagger's nefarious HINDs was dipping down in the space between skyscrapers and zooming straight towards us.
The shadowed pilots fiddled with the controls from inside the two cockpit bubbles….and the payload whirred to life, aiming at the squad cars first.
I gasped.
Robin bit his lip.
He looked right.
He looked left….—"There!"
A paper thin alleyway loomed along our left flank.
"Noir! Guide them!"
Robin tossed me.
DAH!
I blurred my legs, caught the street's asphalt as I came by, and streaked past the two police cars.
I whistled and jerked left, streaking into the thin alleyway.
The two squad cars swerved---SCREEEECH!—and shot down the corridor behind me.
VRMMM! VRMMM-MMM!
Meanwhile, the hovering HIND loaded a rocket and—PFTOOOOOOOOOOM!
A hellseeker sailed straight towards the street.
Robin gunned it. "Nnnnngh!" VRMMMM! His harley swerved a hard, left-leaning arc. He vaulted over a mound of rubble—VRMM!—and came down in the alleyway. CL-CLANK! He bulleted down the corridor just as the missile impacted the street behind him.
POWWWW!
Flames swam down the alleyway after the Boy Wonder, but soon died and dissolved in mid-air long before so much as reaching his speeding, rear tire.
Meanwhile…at the front of the caravan, I was rocketing through the long thin canal between commercial building structures.
Red light filtered darkly down in the shadowed region.
I panted and blurred left and right ahead of the squad cars, slashing with Myrkblade and shattering a garbage can or a wooden box before the cops behind me could possibly impact it with deadly force.
THWWWK! SLASSSH! WHACK!
I twirled my blade some more—and gasped in mid-run.
A solid gate of criss-crossing metal wire stretched from wall to wall ahead, completely blocking the alleyway path.
"…….."
I glanced behind, nervous.
"……!"
I looked forward.
I gritted my teeth.
I sped up into a faster blur.
I reached the gate mere seconds before the police car.
SWOOOOOSSSSSH!
I thundered to a stop.
SWISSSH!
I slashed Myrkblade across the bottom support.
SLASSSSH!
I shredded the top right.
CRACK!
And finally the top left.
VRRRRRMMMMMM!
With the 'fence' loose, I leapt straight up with a mad pulse of murk.
CL-CLAK! The first squad car slammed through the loose, severed fence section. CL-CLAAAAAAANGGG! The now-warped fence flipped up and twirled back over the second squad car.
THWISSSSH!
I landed in a crouch atop the first police car and road the top like a circus performer. Panting as we blurred down the last lengths of the alleyway…..
TH-TH-TH-THWOOSH!
The severed fence piece flipped and flopped in the air over the second car.
It settled down and plummeted earthward as the motorcycle came up….
VRMMMMM!
Robin's eye mask widened.
He ducked just in time—
SWISSSSSSSSSSH!
The air-cutting fence slice sang over Robin's spiked hair and clattered to the alleyway behind his harley.
He sat up straight.
Shuddering in the wind.
I looked back at him, smiling helplessly.
"We're almost out of the thick of things!" a cop beneath me uttered.
Don't say that……
Sure enough, just as we reached the northwest opening of the alleyway…..
FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOSSSSSH!
The same damn HIND hovered down.
Its rotary assault rifles spun.
I gasped.
The cops let out cries of surprise---
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!
The high caliber bullets swam hotly through the air at us.
I stood up on the first police car, let out a mute scream, and twirled Myrkblade madly in front of me.
In front of us.
Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-SWISSSSH!
CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!
Sparks and bullet fragments and sparks and shell casings….
The alleyway sang with my maddening, black shield.
I felt like my wrists were going to snap off from the blurred contact with the impacting caliber…
"Noir!" Robin shouted from behind. VRMMMMMM! He whipped out two things. A discus and an explosive birdarang. "Shut your eyes!"
I bit my teeth….took a deep breath….stopped twirling Myrkblade, ducked, and shut my black eyes tightly.
Good thing too…..
"Nnnngh!" SWISSSSSSSSSH! Robin's discus flew first. It sang through the air much faster than any remaining bullets from the HIND could possibly turn the squad cars to swiss cheese…
FLAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAASSSH!
I winced….for the flash-bulb effect of Robin's strobe disc even burned my eyes through the lids.
I hugged to the squad car's top like a caged chimp to a plastic 'mother'.
The machine gun fire stopped blaring, and there was an uneven air-beating sound to the rotary blades…suggesting that the HIND overhead was toppling in mid-air.
I envisioned the blinded pilots inside collapsing into the controls with their confusion and making the aircraft wobble every which way.
With the weapons of the beastly 'bird' disengaged, my squad car and the vehicle behind it swerved out and spun right to take the outer municipal streets north towards the industrial section and….'HQ'.
But Robin lingered on his harley where the HIND was.
I reopened my eyes finally and looked behind me.
Robin positioned himself straight below the HIND as it hovered blindly in place
He raised his explosive birdarang over his head….aimed carefully….and let it fly.
FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISSSSH! CLANK!
It struck dead-center in the payload of the helicopter, nestled between three clumped hellseekers.
Robin twisted the handles of his harley fiercely.
VRMMMMMMMMMM!
He rocketed towards us, and as he did so—
BOOM!
PPPPPOWWWWW!
The HIND's entire left side exploded.
Rotary blades snapped off, flew across the City like shrapnel, and sliced several meters deep into the bodies of surrounding office buildings.
The hulking cocoon of flames engulfed itself in licking waves of amber and red before plummeting straight down, exploding in a ball of plasma, and silhouetting Robin's harley-throttling figure as the Boy Wonder swiftly sped towards us and onward into the chaos.
"………..," I blinked.
Well………
Allrighty then!
I leapt off the squad car, blurred along the road, and led the caravan northward towards its destination.
Golems and rogue agents of Dagger lingered all around…
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Titan's Island.
The inferno.
Metal shrapnel of burning, glowing steel lingered around ground zero in concentric circles.
Sparks and ash covered the craggy slopes of the island like the base of a volcano.
And where the base of the Tower once was….
A gaping hole of fire and plasma bubbled.
Like a china syndrome meltdown.
A peak into Dante's imagination.
Several feet away from the central point of the lava pit….
Where the flesh could safely reside without melting……
A black sphere of energy rose up from the shelter of the sand and earth.
Inside the obsidian shield, two limp….young bodies lay.
With a flicker, the translucent blackness disappeared.
Raven groaned….gurgled…..then lay silent where she was sprawled across the drier slopes of the beach.
Her leotard still possessed the bright red gash-spot in the center of her tummy.
She heaved one last time….and was still.
Silence….
"………….nnngh….," a battered and bleeding Changeling stirred.
He sat up and instantly cupped a shaking hand over the left side of his head.
Wincing.
Feeling for the ear that wasn't there.
"Grrfff…..G-God….."
A gust of cold wind….followed by hot air.
Then flying and splashing ashes.
Garfield gasped.
He looked over.
Blinking.
Attempting to adjust to a world that only half-existed now.
Everything on his left side was out of balance, soundless, and dizzy.
His right side saw with horrifying, half-clarity the lack of Titan's Tower.
In its place…the mouth of Hell spewed.
And lumbering rock demons marched down the crags and sand dunes….while in the distance……….
A helpless City was skewered with golden 'comets', and nefarious helicopters circled in destructive swarms.
"Shit almighty……," the teen grunted.
He again winced as a trickle of blood ran down his left side.
He panted and glanced down at his companion.
"Raven!"
He rushed over on all fours and shook her.
"Raven? Raven! Wake up! Breathe….talk….insult me! PLEASE!"
"Nnngh…mmmfff…bllbbbb…," Raven gasped…sputtered…coughed up blood. "M-Must…..b-b-be still…….G-Garfield…."
"No….NO! Dammit, Rae! Don't give up!" Changeling gripped her shoulders tightly. "You're hurt pretty bad! Let me take a close look…..Just STAY WITH ME!"
"Nnnngh…," she winced and hissed. "No……I must be still."
"But--!"
"I'm h-h-healing, Ch-Changeling….," Raven panted. Sweated. Winced….but did her best to remain perfectly still on the ash-strewn sand dune. "….I-I have to concentrate."
"But….B-But you lost all your energy! When the Tower went, you—"
"The sh-shield took a l-lot out of me…..but I-I'm regenerating now."
"H-How?"
"There is……s-so much Life surrounding us….."
Changeling panted.
He looked all around.
At the smoldering island.
The menacing golems.
The spiraling comets……and the flame-glowing City under a merciless red sky.
"'L-Life'?"
Raven heaved.
Raven wheezed:
"Terra's essence….G-Garfield….."
"………."
Her eyes opened.
They were glowing gray.
"I-I can feel it. Terra's powers are here."
"But….T-Terra isn't—"
"Dagger…..," Raven hissed. "He replaced Cyborg with Clayface. He split the Titans up. He set up the Tower to explode upon the day of invasion. And he let loose Terra's essence to manifest an army of earthen monsters to attack our City. That's what's happening now, Ch-Changeling. And we've been blind to it…."
"Terra's essences……," Garfield murmured.
Slowly breathing and hyperventilating to a fever pitch.
His bruised and bloody face tightened into a frown.
"That isn't 'Life'. Only Terra is Life."
A sneer.
"This energy you sense is a perverted energy, Raven. Dagger had to have stolen it from her!"
A shout.
"Like when they stole her from us!"
CRKKK!
CRKKKK-KKKK!
Burning, menacing golems marched in from all sides. Flaming. Hissing….
Changeling breathed…heaving….
He stood up on a fallen chunk of hot Tower shrapnel and spliced his forearms into gorilla fists.
"Wasn't it enough that Slade molested her, Dagger? Did you have to tear her apart even more? NNnnnngh-AAAUGH! I swear….if you so much as RIPPED HER OPEN……I will sink my teeth into your bleeding heart myself!"
"B-Beast Boy…..," Raven wheezed, reaching vainly out towards him as she slowly healed herself.
"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO THIS CITY! TO ROBIN! TO RAVEN!"
"B-Beast Boy….," Raven wheezed. "It was Sl-Slade…."
Changeling gasped.
His green eyes wide as the startling memory from a few terrifying moments of explosions ago once again surfaced in his mind.
The horizon seemed to strobe red and breathe cold vapors at him and Raven.
"Sl-Slade is here…..h-he could have f-f-finished me off in the wilderness…but he didn't….," Raven struggled to say. "H-He…nngh….c-could have tracked us down in the Tower before it blew….but he didn't. He's trying to track a b-bigger prey down…."
"But….H-How? Why? How in the Hell is Slade alive?"
Changeling shouted above the flames…the circling golems….the warzone looming across the Bay.
"Noir chopped him to bits!"
"He is alive, G-Garfield….," Raven said.
Her gray eyes fluctuated.
She coughed…sputtered…and added: "A-And so is Robin."
"………………..," Changeling's jaw dropped.
"November Fourth was never the sh-showdown…….tonight is."
"N-No……but……h-how could we not know…..?"
CRKKKK-KKKK!
The golems came within burning range.
"Ch-Changeling….," Raven insisted. "L-Leave. Save yourself before these things dest—"
"HOW COULD WE NOT HAVE SEEN ALL OF THIS?.!.?.!" Changeling bellowed. "Now Terra's raped! Now Starfire's out there on her own! Noir and Tempest and Cyborg----NnnnhgRAAAAH!"
His green body muscles seemed to throb as he summoned an animalistic wave of hormones into his spliced circulatory system.
With the fury of a bull, the might of a gorilla, and the speed of a swordfish he stampeded into the three closest golems and tackled them all at once.
"When will…..you leave us….ALONE?.!.?.!.?.!"
Stomp-Stomp!-STOMP!-STOMP!.!.!.!.!—WHAMMMM!
The three golems flew back and tumbled into the melting flames of the Tower's former cellar.
Two more converged on Changeling, hopping on the animorph's back.
"Grrfff….grrraaaAAAAAUGHHH!" he roared and spun with two meaty fists flying into the rocky exoskeletons.
CRKKKK!
CRACCCK!
The golems exploded.
Their golden-furnace centers scorched the changeling's flinging limbs.
He didn't care.
"RAAA-AAAAUGH!"
In animalistic fury he flew across the dunes and rock crags, plowing through golems and shredding them apart with dinosaur teeth.
He grabbed the limb of one with bear claws, snapped it off, and used it as a club with primate muscles….smashing the crowns, torsos, and shoulders apart of golem after golem.
He swung grabbed another monster by the foot with an elephant trunk, spun, morphed into a gorilla, and batted the entire body of the monster across three more standing in line…sending them flying back against a row of rock crags and exploding into gritty, golden bits.
CRKKKK!
All the while as Changeling punished the epicenter of the golem army's spawning point….
Raven lay on the sand.
Panting.
Sweating.
Taking long, firm breaths.
Absorbing the golden aura leaking from each and every monster Garfield thrashed to bits.
Her pale lips chanted invisible words.
Her violet eyes glowed a hot gray as a black shadow encased her center.
She winced some…but kept chanting.
The black energy coursed through her chest and stomach.
Lingering.
Rearranging.
Fusing.
She breathed….breathed….breathed…
Healed….
"Nnnng-RAAAAUGH!
Garfield morphed in and out of a bull, shredding and impaling golems with his horns and tossing them aside.
And yet more marched up as he stood up…fuming….teeth gritting.
"What's the matter, Dagger? An endless army not ENOUGH? It's time this ends! It's time this all ends! Here I am! No more muddy lackeys or rock-headed freaks! SHOW ME YOUR FACE! I'll make you tell me what happened to Terra if it's the last thing I do!"
CRKKK-KKKK!
Two golems marched up and loomed above Raven.
The dark girl watched helplessly as they prepared to stomp down on her injured figure.
Changeling spun around.
Seething.
"You….shall NOT….TOUCH HER!.!.!.!.!.!"
And he ran.
And he leapt.
And—screaming—he spliced his jump-kicking legs into the talons of a velociraptor which he sent shattering violently into the torsos of the two beasts.
SWOOOOOOOSSSSH-CH-CHRUNKKK!
Golden bits exploded and flew everywhere.
Beast Boy got a second wind, shouted, spun, and thrashed more golems marching up towards Raven's side.
The dark girl shivered with every maddening war cry the animorph made.
Her gray-flashing eyes—attempting to concentrate—stole a glance or two as he went about his rampage.
Defending her.
Defending whatever scraps of integrity remained on the exploded island.
Fighting for the dead-dream of a home.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
On the opposite slopes of Titan's Island…
Away from the green-skinned, one-beast army…
A puddle of ooze slithered down the rock crags.
A brown puddle of ooze.
Steaming.
Bubbling.
A voice disgustingly rang from it.
Freakishly human in tone.
"Nnnngh……nnggh-ugggh-aaaah………"
Clayface's head and eyes and teeth tried to rise up and form….but it sloshed back down into the creeping puddle as soon as it started.
"Nnnngh……..ughhh……D-Dagggerrrrr……!"
It was a whimpering, tormented sound.
Regardless….the puddle picked up speed.
It inched along…..then rounded out….and slithered at a high speed off the island….down the land ridge…..
And into the war-torn City.
SLOSH-SLOSH-SLOSH-SLOSH-SLOSSSSSH……………
T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Get her!"
"There! Before she flies off!"
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Bruised…soiled with dust and sweat….Starfire hobbled down the side street. As the potholes of bullet-exploding asphalt flew at her feet, she held her panting breath and leapt aside with a grunt.
"Nnngh!"
Two jeeps swerved around the rubble of the street corner.
Under the chaos and noise of the invasion, they revved their engines, soared after Starfire, and launched volleys of mounted gunfire at her.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Starfire gritted her teeth and dashed behind an abandoned armored car.
CL-CLANK! CLANKKK!
The vehicle absorbed the high caliber shots.
Starfire then gripped the vehicle with two pink-sleeved wrists, lifted it at an angle, and pushed it towards the jeeps.
TH-THWOOOOSSH!
The armored car spun through the air towards the source of the invading volley of bullets---
Then a hot laser blasts sailed into the fuel tank of the topsy-turvy vehicle before it was halfway through its trajectory.
PHOOOOOMB!
A wave of fire and shrapnel exploded into Starfire.
"Nnnngh!" she flew back and slammed into a building face, forcing an impression.
CRKKKK!
"Heh heh heh heh….," Metallo stood atop a ledge of a second story building. Overlooking the conflict.
He held a barrel-smoking wrist rifle at the spot.
His metal lips leaked forth an electronic chuckle as he leaned his head to the side and added: "Overwhelmed yet?"
"…..," Starfire glared at him.
She pulled herself out of the crumbling building front and raised her fists.
"I am not as easily pacified as you might assume!"
"True that, lass. Let's just work with the 'dead' part."
He snapped a metal finger.
FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSH!
A cargo helicopter soared overhead.
It hovered perpendicular to the street so that three men positioned in the open passenger section could aim out the yawning doors down at the Tamaranian girl and unleash their payload of R.P.G.s.
PFFTTTOOOOOSH!
SW-SWOOOOOSH!
Starfire gasped.
She flared starbolts and crossed her arms…forming an emerald strobe of a shield….
POWWW!
The missiles exploded at her feet.
"Aaah!" she flew back several meters.
Metallo laughed above the flames and concussions.
Starfire flew back, slid a trench through the asphalt, and tumbled a few added feet till she landed at the legs of a fiery golem.
SLAM!
The beast's foot planted over her abdomen, planting her to the ground.
"Nnnngh!" she hissed and struggled beneath the golem.
CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!
The burning automaton leaned over and gripped the alien girl's throat with tentacle-like limbs of rock.
The girl struggled.
Her green eyes flaring much like the rivers of green blood leaking from a scratch or two on her forehead and cheek.
She gritted her teeth and started to strobe all over
And just as the contact of the burning monster began singeing her jeans and skin….
"NNNNNGH-AAAAAH!" she shot straight up with a pulse of alien flight. "T'lenna thirul de X'Hal!"
SWOOOOOOSH!
She and the golem rose up till the monster flailed. She grabbed it by the hot ankle, spun, and tossed the monster straight down the street through the air…just as the cargo helicopter came swerving in.
SWOOOOOOSH-CRACCCK!
The monster smashed directly into the cockpit of the aircraft.
The pilots inside screamed as their lower bodies were shattered to pulp and calcium gravel.
The rest of their flailing skin burned alive as the jolt of the collision shook through the helicopter and tossed screaming, armed passengers out to a twenty-foot drop to solid asphalt below.
FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!
The smoking cargo helicopter strafed sideways through the air.
Its rotary blades screamed and scraped against a building front…shattering glass and sending shards flying everywhere. CRKKKKKK!
Starfire gasped and shielded her face with her forearms.
Thus she was caught unawares when a golem suddenly smashed through the fourth story of a building behind her and pounced on her from behind.
SWOOOOSH—CLAMP!
"Nnnngh!" she plunged straight to the concrete sidewalks below with the monstrosity hugging to her back.
Just before they could strike the earth, she wrangled the burning beast's grip off of her, twirled the two of them around, and landed with a shattering body-slam that pulverized the monster so that Starfire could flip off it and land in the street in a slide.
She stood for half a second…
Panting….
Then—behind her—the cargo helicopter collapsed maddeningly into the street.
CRAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAASSSSSH!
She hugged herself and winced as flame and shrapnel and ashes soared past her.
Her red hair billowed in the hot wind like a cape as her silhouette flinched against the enflamed aircraft.
Her part of the City flashed amber for a second.
She panted….the noise of HINDs swarming overhead and jeeps throttling in the distance.
And everywhere a golden quake of fiery golems laying waste to everything they put their hands on…..
Starfire's eyes quivered.
And her lips parted.
Because for a sudden, short moment……
She was barely twelve years old.
And the green sky of Tamaran burned before her.
Thousands of Tamaranian fighters soared and exploded in the heavens.
The blood of millions soaked the planes and cities and jungles of the lush homeworld.
Everywhere, lizard-men on jetpacks scoured the sky.
And their lasers were firing.
And their fire was consuming.
And the consumption was screaming.
In the forms of Tamaranian men, women, children….
Limbs flailing in the fire.
An awkward dance without music.
And it struck her as funny…
Because people only danced when there was joy to be had……
SCREEEEEEEEECH!
WH-WHAM!
A jeep rammed into her.
"Augh!"
Starfire went rolling across the City street.
She laid for a moment with her aching ear to the asphalt.
She heard something beneath the concrete.
Something gurgling….subterranean….
"You're gonna pay for that, you alien bitch!" the gunman on the back sneered in the flamelight of the fallen helicopter and let loose on her.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
"……..," Starfire merely stood up.
Frowning.
Green eyes narrow.
She didn't so much as flinch when the streams of bullets barely missed her on the asphalt.
She charged a single starbolt and launched it at the gunman.
FL-FLASSSH!
The energy pulse flew across the street and melted the barrel of the thug's mounted weapon.
"!" he gasped.
She sneered at him: "Desecrators of this innocent City…..if it is righteous fury that you desire today then righteous fury is what you shall verily receive!"
Then, with a scream, she knelt…and punched her wrist straight down into the spot where she had earlier heard the noise.
CRKKKK!
She snarled and pulled UP.
CRACKKKK!
She stood up with the awkwardly bent end of a septic pipe in her grip.
"Nnnnngh-Nim'raata de X'HAL!" She yanked up on the pipe with all her might. "RAAAAAAUGH!"
CRKKKK-KKKKK-KKKKKK!
Like a snake, the rest of the length of the septic pipe ripped up out of the ground in a wave till it came up directly beneath the stationary, Daggerite jeep.
TH-THUNK!
The jeep started to tip over.
"Aaaa-augh!" the gunman in the back teetered and flailed…
Hissing, Starfire charged a starbolt and flung it straight into her end of the pipe.
FL-FLASSSH!
A fiery plume ripped and roared through the septic tubing till it slammed into the fuel tank of the jeep that it was resting against and flared—
KA-POW!.!.!.!.!
The vehicle burst into the screaming bodies contained within.
The second jeep—just arriving on the scene—screeched to an immediate stop. As the gunman yelled and squealed, the vehicle tried helplessly to back up and turn around.
Starfire took one step forward, pumped her fists at her side, and jolted her head forward with an almighty pulse of her optic blasts.
"RAAAAUGH!"
FLAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAASH!
The twin green beams soared into the belly of the jeep, and it too exploded along with its screaming passengers.
POWWWWW!
Above the scene—standing on a rooftop this time—Metallo gasped and shielded himself from flying debris.
"Y-You?" he muttered electronically. "Taking lives? S-So soon?"
F-FWOOOSH! Starfire took to the air and hovered hotly across from him. Her red hair billowing. "Yes…..take….a hearty….EXAMPLE!"
She then snarled and flung her Tamaranian weight into him at unearthly speed.
SWOOOOOOOOSH-CLANK!
And the two went spiraling off the rooftop, smashing through an office building, and falling to the golem-dotted warzone on the other side.
CRASSSSH!