It should come as no surprise to anyone that separating a warrior from his weapons is like having an open wound on your back, you have trouble doing anything without that comforting weight resting upon your shoulders, the chair you sit upon feels uneven, you cant sleep you feel too naked, you are keenly aware of the gaze of others on your back, and where to flee should things go amiss. In Thomas(Lunatic) this translated into vivid nightmares, in his dreams Mammoth managed to crush his skull, he was unable to fend off the faculty members and was beaten to death, Gizmo managed to fry him, after every dream he would sit up bathed in sweat and shaking, his body telling him that there was a threat in the room his eyes saying there was nothing of the sort after the third attempt at sleep Lunatic rose from his bed a clean robe in his hands and made his way to the dorm's tiny showering stall.
The hot water cascading town his scarred back and pattering off the line of dime sized studs adorning his head seemed to wash away the unease brought on by the dreams, "two months now" he thought "Two very strange months since i arrived at this bizarre world, where everyone seems to possess powers and skills well outside the norm, everyone can read and write, has clean food and water, and is under the tutelage of competent instructors, even if the classes are all related to super villainy, and after all this time my weapons remain confiscated..." a Texan twang drawled out "y'all gonna be long? I need ta spruce up a bit afore we head out, gonna have a ball in town tonight I reckon" Lunatic perked up at this, "your going out? tonight? uh what time is it? I've been trying to sleep for what feels like days" stepping out of the still running shower an leaving the door open for Billy as he accepted a proffered towel, stepping aside to allow his dorm mate into the unoccupied stall as he started wiping himself down all the while Billy chattered about his plans. "First me an Private Hive 'r gonna hit the mall see whats shakin down there maybe grab a bite and a few odds and ends depending if somethin catches or eye ya know? then we're gonna wander down ta this new car dealership, the one that just opened up last weekend remember? well boy lemme tell ya, there are some sweet rides down there me, m'self, and I plan to see what we cant take offa their hands, you wanna come? Cause I know you ain't been outta these gleamin, golden walls since ya done showed up, wadda ya say Luney you in?" Lunatic sighed as he scrubbed his hair dry and polished his locater studs, finally he shrugged "ok why the hell not, lets get this show on the road Billy!" The hooting and hollering from the bathroom caused Kyd Wykkyd to stare at the closed door worriedly, sliding his hand into the darkness under his pillow he reached through the shadows of his room and from the shade of a conveniently placed night blooming vine his hand reached the door's lock and keyed it into place sealing himself off from his deranged dorm mates.
Within fifteen minutes Private Hive, about five Billy Numerous, and one very excited Lunatic crawling through a ventilation duct on their way to the surface, the tight confines proving to be easily traversed by the Billy's and Lunatic, however P.H. was having a bit of difficulty being the tallest by a good three inches and the largest, out weighing Lunatic and Billy by almost a stone, plus his shield and body armor caught on various struts and rivets, until one of the Billy's offered to carry his shield smoothing the process a bit, despite P.H.'s grumbling about being out of uniform. "Are you sure you know where your going?" hissed P.H. as they made yet another left and didn't appear to be going up hill anymore, "sure we're sure" replied the Billy's in stereo as they made *another* left, this one leading some how to a dead end, Lunatic by this point had no idea where they were, the vent shafts were surprisingly clean, free of dust and vermin, but after an hour the novelty of clean duct was wearing painfully thin and staring at Billy's backside was old loooong ago, staring up the shaft at their apparent dead end the lead Billy piped up "ok boys we're here", and abruptly there was only one Billy who stood up in the vertical shaft and suddenly gained the power of flight as his feet left the ground. "You guys gonna need a hand gettin up here" called down a gaggle of Billys, Lunatic braced his hand and feet against opposite sides of the shaft and shimmied up to the Billy's eye level in a few moments proclaiming himself in no need of a hand as he toed his way into the larger duct, now technically a maintenance tunnel, standing amongst the small gang of Billys looking down at the yellow clad form of P.H. almost three stories below, "oh come on!" he griped as he followed suit with a bit more difficulty and only slightly less speed. Soon the trio (if you didn't count the extra Billys) stood on the darkened shores of Jump City bay, staring up at the lights of the busy city Lunatic loosed an impressed whistle, "ain't she a purdy sight" crowed the Billys excitedly it was then that Lunatic pointed to the immense "T" sitting in the middle of the bay glowing golden in the gloom of the ocean.
"What the hell is that?" asked a confounded Lunatic as he openly gaped at the seemingly impossible structure rising above the dark waves. "That", said an openly disgusted P.H. "is the enemy stronghold home of the Teen Titans" the Billy's all nodded, a few making obscene gestures at the tower. "What? in the middle of the ocean, in plain view, open to all manner of attack from both land sea and air" exclaimed a startled Lunatic, "yup' was the general consensus, "how have they uh remained the enemy all this time?" enquired a bemused Lunatic. "biggest pack of tricky losers this side of anywhere, lucky as sin too" drawled the lead Billy as the group moved on to the city pier making their way to the busy streets at an easy walk, "their CO is quite the tactician" commented P.H. "and one heck of a fighter could probably plant, you on your backside" Lunatic let this roll around in his head a few moments taking in the sights of the clean prosperous city with its rather unassuming population, most didn't bat an eye at their costumed group, others scurried out of their way as they approached some risking a hasty jog across the street as the Billy's hooted and jeered at any who crossed their path, "shouldn't we be proceeding with a bit more caution if they are so tough?" asked Lunatic as they marched their way towards the Holly berry shopping center, Billy had spread out now almost fifty of him roaming over and around parked cars, setting off alarms and breaking windows as they passed, P.H. had his shield secured to his left arm, "keeping a low profile is for the infiltrators and buglers, we are the movers and shakers that do the damage!" with that he proceeded to overturn a family sized four door sedan.
"What on earth are those idiots doing?" thought Raven as she flew through the air, stopping above the Holly berry mall's parking lot watching as the army of red clad villains wrought havoc amongst the parked cars of the evening shoppers she adjusted her leotard and shook out her cloak as, with a flicker of thought, she drew out her communicator, "never a quiet night in this place" she sighed, "Raven calling Beastboy" droned the dusky sorceress, "are you at the mall by any chance?" "B.B. here, Cyborg too, we're in the food court whats the beef Rae?" "My name is Raven" she growled irritated "and we have a bit of a public disturbance out in the parking lot, looks like some kind of gang, the usual, vandalism, disturbing the peace, lousy fashion sense" "On our way Rae!" chirped Beastboy as he watched Cyborg wolf down his fourth chillidog, "seriously dude! meat with meat sauce! I mean come on, now your just being mean" whined the green changeling as he leapt from his seat making a beeline for the main entrance (in this case exit) morphing seamlessly into a green raven to better avoid the milling crowd of the mall's main thorough fare, the six foot eight bionic man just belched his response noisily at the retreating form of his shape shifting best friend "if you didn't want to see me eat you shoulda just got your nasty salad and gone on home, its self inflicted torture near as i can tell, so quit your griping COMMIN THROUGH!" he finished parting the crowd as though it were the red sea and he had a beard, staff and ten thousand Jewish slaves at his back.
The Billy's, having stumbled upon a shiny new red sports car were in the process of trying to hotwire it, loudly arguing about how it was done as Lunatic and P.H. stood nearby smirking at the one man army bickering with himself, four of them had jammed themselves in the bucket seats each claiming to know which wire to cross to get the thing going "its the red one Billy!" snapped one, "naw I'm tellin ya Billy its the blue one its always the blue one" drawled another, "now why in tarnation would it be th' blue one when its a red car?" asked the third Billy confused, "th' color of the car don't matter none Billy I'm tellin you its the red 'un" insisted the first Billy, "well what about that there black one Billy? whats it do?" asked the fourth Billy curiously. It was at this point that the whole car was sheathed in a dark aura and plucked soundlessly from the ground doors slamming shut and trapping the four Billy's inside who immediately started hollering and cussing as the car started to shake like a maraca violently rattling the four Billy's inside, the doors then burst open and the four would be car jackers found themselves free falling into the midst of their little red army.
Raven watched the green bird come into focus as it passed through the outer doors of the mall and proceeded to glide over the parking lot, observing the chaos below, her mind searched amidst the noise of the city and found the sometimes simplistic thoughts of her green teammate "I wonder where they get their outfits?" he mused as he passed over head to land on the sorceress' shoulder ruffling his feathers a bit as the stiff sea breeze caught him, Cyborg was close behind as Raven concentrated on the car and its unlawful occupants, a flicker of thought sealed tight the doors, and a small effort of will hoisted the car into the air, and perhaps channeling her shape shifting teammate for a moment (proximity plus empath equals quirks) she started jostling the car about like a rattle in the hands of the infant causing an eruption of howled curses, before she emptied the expensive vehicle of its unwanted guests depositing it in nearby empty space. "I don't believe that belongs to you" she addressed the mob below her, amusement wafting like spring blossoms from her shoulder as the green raven adjusted its grip readying to leap free of the sorceress.
"Uh P.H. who are these guys?" asked an amused Lunatic watching Billy literally collect himself from the pavement, "those would be the Teen Titans, Lunatic" barked P.H. as he hunkered down amidst the cars readying himself for a brawl it seems, Lunatic stood his ground watching the dark sorceress and her weird green familiar hover mid air as the Billy's collected themselves, thats when the nearly seven foot tall borg came into view and a tiny sliver of doubt lanced into Lunatics being as he reached for his particle beam rifle and found it still missing, "oh man ya'll 'r in for a world of hurt" growled the borg as he stood easily above the Billy's a towering metallic juggernaut amidst the all too delicate flesh of his multiplied friend, "Billy" breathed Lunatic to the Billy beside him, "pull back and head for the pier I'll try and buy us a bit of time we cant take this guy", the Billy's (all of them) turned and looked back at him "sure we can" they laughed "we got him out numbered" and thats when the borg raised his right arm and proceeded to destroy a hundred foot swath of the parking lot.
The little switch in Lunatics head kicked in a heart beat before it all went down, and as the borg was raising his arm, Lunatic was moving, grabbing P.H. and one of the Billys and bodily hurling them three lanes to the right as the blast decimated everything in its path scattering the larger portion of the crowd of Billys and overturning cars, his dorm mates (friends?) out of harms way Lunatic attempted to throw himself free with partial success only managing to get clipped by the blast which sent him sliding across the hood of the car behind him and slammed him into the car past that, his head ringing Lunatic staggered to his feet in time to see P.H. hammer his meaty fist into the head of a large green wolf, the Billy's were piling onto the borg battering at him with fists feet and anything else they could get their hands on, meanwhile the sorceress remained airborne drifting over the scene in the lotus position sending knots of Billy's in every direction with explosions of that strange black energy, the trumpet of an elephant actually made Lunatic jump as out of no where a wooly mammoth towered over P.H. its long trunk snaking around his midsection and slamming him into the roof of a minivan bursting all four tires and flattening the roof.
Liquid fire started hammering into Lunatic's brain, flowing from his neck, down his arms into his chest and finally cascading to his legs, ah yes the sweet sweet bite of adrenalin flooding his system, the world slowing the blood hammering in his ears, oh yeah a proper fight, and weapons or no he wasn't about to be left out, dropping to one knee and thrusting his hands under the two door car he had been leaning against, he tipped it up on its side then sliding under it hoisted the vehicle over his head with a grunt of exertion, turning shakily on his heel he shouted over the din "Billy! get your asses outta the way!" and with that hurled the half ton collection of aluminum, plastic and steel at the bionic Titan, the sorceress too startled to react barely managed to call out to her bionic teammate as the car arced through the air and into the rapidly scattering crowd of red dressed men, and with a deafening crash, flattened her teammate into the pavement.
Beastboy, turned mammoth stared for a moment seeing his best friend caught blind sided by an airborne car, whirled on the culprit who dared strike him, and with a thunder of heavy treaded feet charged trumpeting his rage and plowing through or stomping flat anything that got between him and revenge. Raven in a panic cast her senses to the older Titan beneath the wreckage , finding him stunned but unhurt, restrained her feeling of relief and yanked the wreckage off of his metallic frame, the now scuffed form of her teammate rose to its feet and shot her a grateful smile as he raised his right arm and proceeded to loose another blast into the milling group of strangely dressed men named Billy, scattering them like litter in a wind storm, she whirled on the man responsible for her concern in time to see Beastboy over turn several cars in an attempt to catch the villain, his mammoth form proving to be too bulky to land a proper blow on the armored guy in front of him, Beastboy became Deinonychus(think velociraptor) and lunged at his agile opponent catching the man mid air and bringing him down on the hood of a truck latching on with his fore claws screeching across his breastplate and his rear claws slicing into his legs, the man forced his arm guard into Beastboy's toothy maw to prevent him from gaining purchase on anything softer or more vital as they struggled.
Private Hive groaned in pain as he slowly worked himself free of the wreckage of the minivan, his head ringing and his back hurting to all heck "what hit me?" he grumbled as he forced his way through the twisted remains of the van's roof, vision fuzzy, "likely concussion" he mused detachedly as he watched the scene before him unfold, they were definitely losing this fight already Billy was running, well several of them were most stayed behind distracting Cyborg and Raven while he made his getaway "c'mon" whispered a Billy hidden in the shadows of the van's wreckage and the stomped car beside it "we gotta git while the gettins good" already the Billy was skulking off towards the pier, as P.H. settled onto the pavement favoring his right leg and crouching where the Billy had just vacated, Lunatic was struggling with Beastboy, who had turned into some kind of dinosaur and already the Billy's were starting to pop out of existence, weighing the odds and feeling an odd pang of guilt that had never happened to him before Private Hive, thunked his aching head against the mashed car next to him and got to his feet, taking a deep breath he hauled back and hurled his shield at the thrashing green changeling's back.
Lunatic could feel the knife like claws slicing into his lower legs as the green saurian vigorously jerked his arm about trying to break the limb and get at the softer bits the smaller claws gracing his forelimbs had found purchase under his right arm and sunk into the flesh of his left shoulder under the pauldron, "goddamned dino's always scratching the paint" grit out Lunatic as the beast thrashed eagerly claws digging deeper, when abruptly a resounding *THWACK* broke over the mixture of growls and curses, and he suddenly had an unconscious green skinned kid biting his arm guard and his shoes were grinding into the bleeding limbs beneath them, the clang of P.H.'s shield striking the pavement giving evidence as to whom he owed this respite too, Lunatic glanced to his left and right painfully aware that he was alone with the Teen Titans, his team nowhere to be seen. "I'm gonna say this once put the green kid down nice and slow or I'm gonna pull your arms off" the seven foot borg stood less than twenty feet away and was closing in slowly circling around wreckage to get a better line of fire with that big cannon of his, as the sorceress flared with that strange blacker than blackness energy of hers.
Rolling to his feet green shape shifter in hand Lunatic glanced about for an escape route, painfully aware of the fact he was bleeding badly, "alright alright i was just trying to enjoy a night on the town didn't plan on picking a fight" with the adrenalin still running hell mell through his veins it was hard to take the threat of the metal man seriously, "CATCH!" shouted Lunatic as he hurled the green teen at the sorceress, leaping off the truck and bolting full speed towards the street and the lovely rolling cover that is nighttime traffic. Raven caught Beastboy out of the air with a flicker of thought her mind heavy with concern for the green teen hanging suspended before her, "is B.B. alright Rae?" asked the metallic Titan standing below her, a moment to check showed him to have a nasty lump but no other injury, with an inward sigh of relief she pulled her hood low over her face obscuring violet eyes "don't call me Rae" she droned, as she flew after the rapidly retreating armored figure, fury simmering beneath a thin veneer of control she raced after the speeding villain, and a short while later the squeal of rubber signaled Cyborg had joined the chase as well.
Unwinding a twisted piece of the destroyed car that had so recently knocked him for a loop Cyborg activated his communicator intent on signaling their leader "Robin we have a runner heading west from the Holly berry shopping center towards the Village, he's hurt bad and still running any chance of an assist or are you an your girlfriend makin out again?" a moments pause followed as the sound of clothing being adjusted was heard "Me and Star will meet you at the Village try to keep him there I've already called the authorities they should have the area cleared before you get there, Robin out". With a sigh Cyborg settled into the seat of his baby almost unconsciously nipping between cars as traffic started to lighten considerably, Raven was still in sight as was B.B. who seemed to be coming around, Rae reached back to rest a glowing left hand on the green changeling forehead without diverting her gaze from her quarry, the armored figure of the bleeding man was managing to keep a steady speed of forty four miles per hour, no Kid Flash but pretty impressive for anyone, the fact he could leap clean over most traffic meant he kept ahead of the T-car pretty handily but only by a thin margin, that is until he pulled a ninety degree turn at a dead run and bolted straight into a store front window sending an explosion of glass onto the sidewalk.