I OWN NOTHING
"No," the faceless men said. "We wish to fight the Saiyan, Tamaranean, and the Demon."
Gohan, Starfire, and Raven looked at each other.
"It doesn't matter who you want to fight," Robin said. "You're fighting all of us."
"Can we wait until I get changed?" Blackfire said. "These are not my fighting clothes."
"For once, I can agree," Starfire said. "I do not wish to battle, but even more so in these clothes."
The faceless men seemed to shrink in their clothes as a white, viscous puddle slowly started to form around them. Suddenly they grew to their original sizes and amorphous blobs of the viscous fluid separated from them, growing into naked, faceless humanoids about six feet tall and bulging with muscle. There were six of the clones, making it an even match.
The cloaked men charged into Starfire and Raven as the six clones swarmed Gohan. Starfire and Raven flew out of the alley, followed into the air by the mysterious agents. "These guys can fly?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.
"You can fly!" Robin said.
"Oh yeah," Beast Boy said, tearing a clone off of Gohan and throwing it into the wall. He morphed into a large gorilla and punched a hole through its stomach. The clone split into two and they jumped onto Beast Boy's face. The green gorilla stumbled back and grabbed their legs, smashing them again and again into the hard ground. "The clones can split!" he snarled. "Be careful!"
"Go help Starfire and Raven," Gohan said, blowing a ring of clones around him into the sides of the buildings. "I can handle this!"
"No," Robin said. "You're outnumbered!"
"By a weaker enemy," Gohan said, leading the fight out of the alley. "I'll be fine."
"Blackfire," Trunks said. "Let's go."
"My sister can handle herself," Blackfire said.
"If she loses this fight you won't be able to have your revenge," Trunks said.
Blackfire grunted. "Fine." She followed Trunks into the air, leaving Gohan and the other three Titans to fight off a growing horde of monsters.
Robin spun in circles, kicking a circle of clones in their heads. The last clone caught his leg and whipped him across the street, through a lamp post and into a palm tree. Robin stood up and wiped the dust off his trunks. "Is that all you've got?"
Another clone sent Robin flying back with a powerful punch to the face. Robin rolled to his feet as his back hit the side of a house. "Ha!" he shouted, firing a volley of chi blasts into the growing horde.
"Nothing's working!" Beast Boy said, hopping into the middle of the horde as a humpback whale, flattening them all. "Gross!" the whale bellowed, feeling them reform from under him.
The clones rolled Beast Boy off of them and continued to chase the four Titans down the streets. "Robin," Gohan said. "We need to take them away from the civilians." Gohan ran across the wall of a restaurant and jumped, taking off into the air. Some of the clones stopped and stared in unison. Their auras spiked as wings jutted out of their backs.
"This fight just got so much more complicated," Cyborg said, flying after them with his rocket boots.
The other two Titans followed, bringing the battle to them.
Cyborg charged his sonic cannon and fired, burning through fifty of them. They hit the ground and reformed, taking off into the air again in larger numbers. Beast Boy morphed into a giant European dragon and tilted his head back. "Feel my Thu'um!" Beast Boy snarled. "Yol Toor Shul!" he shouted, obliterating half of the clones. Twice as many rose again. "Fire isn't working, bros!" the green dragon said, batting several away with a large tail swipe.
Robin and Gohan gasped. "Water!"
"Take them to the ocean!" Robin shouted. "We can-"
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven shouted from the ground.
Beast Boy looked down, watching the cloaked men battle with Trunks, the Tamaraneans and Raven.
"Destructive Wave!" Piccolo shouted from another end of the island.
"Kamehameha!" Krillin and Yamcha shouted.
"Dodompa!" Tien and Chiaotzu exclaimed.
The Z-Fighters flew into the air, followed by their own little horde of three hundred.
The other two Titans and Trunks and Blackfire took off as well, taking their fight into the sky.
"What the hell are these things?!" Piccolo shouted, chopping through a charging line.
"We don't know," Gohan said, "but they were after Starfire, Raven, and me!"
"They were after Vegeta and Tien," Krillin said, kicking one's head off.
"They picked a damn good time to do it too," Tien said sarcastically, blocking a punch from hitting his lipstick-stained cheek and mouth.
"Tien and Pantha sitting in a tree," Chiaotzu said. "K-I-S-S-I-N- Dodompa!" he shouted, lobotomizing a line of clones.
Vegeta fought the two cloaked men chasing after him and punched one in the gut, blowing him into a group of clones. "Just die already, bastards! Galic Gun-"
"Vegeta! Wait!" Gohan shouted, beheading several clones with powerful punches. "That doesn't work! We're going to try to take them into the water!"
"Fuck it," Vegeta said, flying toward the ocean. "This way!" he barked, leading his group of monsters toward the beach. Vegeta flew hundreds of feet out over the ocean and dived, taking them with him. The other heroes followed suit, taking all of the clones into the ocean. They resurfaced moments later, watching the hydrophobic waxy material desperately try to reform, failing every time as the soft currents carried them away from each other.
"Phew!" Beast Boy spat, wiping his tongue off. "I think I got some of it in my mouth!"
"We will give you one more chance," the four cloaked men said, floating above the water. "Come with us and no harm shall be done to you."
The heroes rose out of the ocean. "Why?" Robin said. "What makes us so interesting?"
"We are only following orders," they said. "No harm will be done to you-"
"I call bull," Robin said. "What is the Master planning with his intervention in this tournament?"
The cloaked men spiked their gray auras.
"I didn't want to do this the hard way," Robin said. "Teen Titans: Go!"
Vegeta, Starfire, Gohan, and Piccolo clashed with them first, easily driving them back to the currently desolate shores. Vegeta sat on top of one and punched through his skull, letting gray, runny fluid drain into the shallow water. He turned toward a second one and sent a chi laser up its spine, cutting it in half. Vegeta fazed out, intercepting the one Starfire was fighting and caved its chest in, whipping it into the sky and blasting it to bits. He took the halves of the one he split and threw them into the sky as well. "How about some fireworks?" he snarled happily, lighting up the dissected corpse.
The Titans who didn't train with Vegeta were appalled at his ease of killing. "Vegeta," Starfire said, holding the fourth one n the air by his throat. "Leave this one alive for the interrogation."
Vegeta looked at his hands, seeing them covered in gray material. "I got carried away."
"I'll have him finish you off unless you talk," Robin said, standing next to Starfire. "Now talk."
The cloaked man grabbed Starfire's arm and reached into his cloak pocket, grabbing a red syringe and jamming it into her arm. It started injecting its material into Starfire by itself. Starfire yelped in pain and dropped the cloaked man, trying to rip the syringe out of her arm. "I can't get it out!"
Gohan rushed over, trying to pull it out as well. He crushed the glass, opening small gashes in his hand. Whatever was in the syringe had already entered her bloodstream. Starfire felt the skin around it loosen and she pulled the syringe needle out. "Let me see that," Cyborg said, opening a panel in his arm. He took the needle and placed it on an analyzing tray. "This will allow us to see what was inside the shot."
A blue light enveloped the needle and a simple three-atom molecule appeared on a small screen next to the analyzing panel. "It's just water," Cyborg said. "A lame way to get you to let go, Star."
Gohan angrily fazed out, taking the cloaked man by the back of his head and sliding his face into the stand. "Talk! Now! You have nowhere to run!"
The cloaked man spiked his aura again, this time growing in size. He started to laugh as he busted out of his cloak, his skin gurgling and crawling. "The time of the Djinn is upon this realm. He wakes here."
"Get down!" Robin shouted, turning away from him as he exploded into gray guts and humors.
The Titans and the Z-Fighters surrounded the cloak. "Damn it," Piccolo said.
"Can this day get any grosser?" Beast Boy asked, wiping the gray goop off his shoulder.
"Ravager?" Trunks said, looking toward the mainland and seeing Ravager in full gear covered in the same gray material running toward them. Her swords were slick with the clone fluid. Master Roshi stood next to her in his orange Hawaiian tee shirt and red sunglasses, also covered in the icky remains.
"Did they find you?" she asked, seeing Earth's defenders covered in the biological material.
"Yes," Trunks said. "Did you know who or what they were?"
Ravager nodded gravely. "It's not good."
"What is it?" Gohan said.
"I'll tell you when we get up to my room," Ravager said.
"We're not going anywhere with you unless you tell us who you are and what you're doing here," Gohan said.
"My name is Rose," Ravager said. "I am Slade's daughter and have been following his actions for months on end for a chance to finally end his life in revenge for abandoning me. A year and a half ago, I had eavesdropped on a meeting in Jump City between him and a cloaked man much like the ones we fought today. They were speaking of world domination and the enslavement of the human race and said they would meet again on Papaya Island. That is why I'm here: to stop my father and his associates at all costs."
"But Slade isn't running the show," Gohan said.
"Exactly," Ravager said. "Whoever has been placing the 'M' on every scum's forehead is, and I think I know what it represents and who is doing it."
"Where is Young Justice?" Robin asked.
"Dealing with damage control," Ravager said. "Those monsters tried taking the hotel, so watch your step."
She led them into the hotel, seeing Young Justice tirelessly trying to clean up the wet mess Aqualad was forced to make to defeat the clones. "Ravager, right?" Aqualad said, greeting them at the door. "And Titans."
"How does it look?" Ravager asked.
"A bit messy," Aqualad said, "but it's under control."
"How do I work this thing?" Kid Flash said from behind the staircase.
"No!" Green Lantern said. "That's the sprinkler system!"
All the lights in the hotel went dark as a heavy downpour drenched all the heroes.
Aqualad's grin faded. He dropped his head. "Your help would be much appreciated."
"Sorry!" Kid Flash said. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, hitting the ground with a thud. "I'm okay!"
"Illuminus Airea!" Zatanna said, turning on the lights again with her magic.
"How many times have I told you not to go messing with wheels!" Superboy shouted, flying behind the staircase with a bucket of gray goop in his arms.
"But it was red!" Kid Flash said. "It made me do the opposite of what was intended!"
"Just don't do it again," Captain Marvel Junior said.
"We'll be down soon," Ravager said. "Just let us change."
Aqualad stared at Raven's long, wet hair and curvy body. "I think you guys are fine just the way you are."
"We don't," Chiaotzu said. "Excuse us."
"Tien!" Pantha cried out, running down the stairs and wrapping around Tien. She kissed him on the cheek and started hurriedly talking in Spanish.
"Are you okay?" Tien asked. "They didn't hurt you, did they? I tried taking as many away from you as possible."
"That was fast," Yamcha whispered to Krillin.
"Don't be jealous," Krillin said. "I remember when we were younger, girls would literally be crowding outside your window."
"Those were the times," Yamcha said, sighing dreamily. He frowned at Krillin's first comment. "I'm not jealous!"
"Let's go change," Ravager said, leading them up the first set of escalators.
"Into the elevator," Robin said.
"Why?" Ravager asked.
"Just go." Robin opened an elevator door and the thirteen heroes crammed themselves inside. "On the back left corner of your waist, you should find a bat-shaped tracking device. Crush it."
Robin was right.
The Boy Wonder smirked. "Smart, Barbara," he said. "It's like I never left Gotham." He crushed it in his hand. "Next, look on your heel. It's a beetle that matches your skin tone. Destroy it."
Right again.
"On the small of your spine, there is an arrow emblem tracking device," Robin said, feeling for it and grabbing it. He snapped it in half.
"Wonder Girl and Aqualad left us gifts too," Robin said, "around the ankles." Two thin bands around Robin's ankles were proof of that. "Cyborg, check your microphone and speakers, Beast Boy, look for any other bugs, Raven, check for magic interference, everyone, check every part of your body for any other devices."
Beast Boy morphed into a gnat, Raven closed her eyes, and Cyborg scanned himself for any foreign frequencies.
"Don't you think you're being a tad bit paranoid?" Trunks asked.
"Nostril," Robin said.
Trunks snorted, blowing a tiny camera out of his left nostril.
"Told you," Robin said. He looked into one of the corners of the elevator, barely seeing the glint of a camera out of a small hole. "Offspring, go away."
"You're no fun, Robin," Offspring said in between the outside of the elevator and the wall. The doors opened to the top floor where most if not all of the contestants' rooms were. "Later," Offspring said. The Titans waited until the doors closed and they all filed into Ravager's room. Stacks of messy papers with the "M" symbol were sloppily arrayed across the desk.
She looked around, seeing the air ducts as a way to be eavesdropped on. "Everyone hold hands."
Tien realized what she was doing. "Chiaotzu, set up a chi barrier."
"Got it, Mr. Tien." Chiaotzu closed his eyes. "Done." He grabbed Tien's hand and got into the circle with the others.
"Like I said before, I believe I know the significance of the 'M' that has appeared everywhere," Ravager said telepathically. "Have any of you heard of the Ma-Djinn clan?"
"The Ma-Djinn clan?" Raven said. "They were destroyed thousands of years ago by the Kais. If the Ma-Djinn clan returned, wouldn't the Kais have intervened by now? Wouldn't the Warlocks have been tracked down and destroyed?"
"Their bodies, yes," Ravager said, "but who knows what demons they created and let loose into the world before they perished? The Warlocks are also known for their necromancy, including the ability to raise themselves from the dead. They also love to destroy life and planets; thankfully, Earth has always been part of their list of favorite planets to eradicate among all other planets in all dimensions, so I was able to find remnants of the legends. It would also explain why they're choosing to reveal themselves on this planet. My readings, especially the scrolls in Egypt, Scotland, and Greece, all took me to a father and son, both the most powerful Warlocks in all of the known universe. The night before the Kais went to war with the Warlocks on their home planet, they had vanished with all of their belongings, as if they never existed. When the Kais sacked the Warlock stronghold in approximately five million BC, they entered the Warlock pair's house and found only one clue that they had ever been there: the black 'M' of the Ma-Djinn clan etched on a desk. The Kais burned the house and presumed them dead, and now no one knows if and where the remains of the Ma-Djinn clan lie."
"Who are the Kais?" Cyborg asked.
"And what are Warlocks?" Beast Boy asked.
"The Kais are upper-level gods," Ravager said. "They keep the balance of the universe in four directions: South, East, West, and North Kai, otherwise known as King Kai."
"King Kai?" Gohan said.
"Then there are the Supreme Kais, those who watch over every realm-"
"Tch," Trunks said, "did they turn a blind eye to mine?"
"I have to agree with Trunks on this one," Gohan said.
"Don't get me wrong," Ravager said, "I have a bone to pick with them-"
"We're getting off track," Piccolo said.
"Anyway," Ravager said, "they keep the realms separate to prevent the demons from taking control of the living world. When the Warlock race had its first uprising, they raised all kinds of powerful deities to attack the Kais and the living world and were slaughtered by the Kais."
"They don't seem very watchful if they let two escape," Robin said.
"The Warlocks are powerful magicians," Raven said, "greatly outclassing me and Zatanna. They can raise the dead, bend the elements, use chi like us, but their claim to fame is their ability to raise demons."
"What do you think they're doing here?" Starfire asked. "Before the man with no face exploded, he talked about the waking of the Djinn."
"They're trying to raise a demon," Ravager said. "I know the Master has his hands in this somewhere, but it doesn't make sense. They haven't been sacrificing anyone as tribute to raise it."
"Nor do they have any place of high spiritual energy for the right orientation," Raven said.
"Some don't need the right orientation," Piccolo said. "Some can be bred anywhere."
"Warlocks are very methodical," Ravager said. "We just need to find a pattern."
"Their world-hopping is a possibility," Trunks said. "The more worlds destroyed, the more souls gathered."
"We would have felt the chi of a creature of that magnitude," Tien said. "Even if it was dormant."
"Tomorrow night," Robin said. "We all will go out looking for clues. Here's how-"
"It's too early for that," Vegeta said, rubbing a small cut on his neck. He pulled a small piece of a metal needle out of the cut and burned it with his chi. "They, whoever they are, know that we are onto them. All of us scouring the island for no apparent reason is going to make us look more suspicious, the targets of more attacks. I say that we wait one or two rounds," Vegeta said. "Let them get a little closer to their goal and more comfortable. By that time, they'll be too preoccupied in what they're doing to notice that we're looking for them."
"But wouldn't that-"
"I agree with Vegeta," Starfire said. "All those in favor of the plan, say I."
The other Z-Fighters agreed.
"Wouldn't that give them time to complete their task?" Robin asked.
"Not necessarily," Piccolo said. "If they needed more powerful beings for their task, then they're stuck until they can find alternatives."
"They're hosting the tournament to find worthy sacrifices!" Raven and Ravager exclaimed. Even if it was inside everybody's heads, it was still pretty loud.
"We do a full team search when we reach the quarter-finals," Robin said. "Young Justice will be off our backs at that point. For now, we do individual searches during and after the matches."
The whole room nodded in agreement. Ravager let go, letting everyone open their eyes. "Leave," she said. "I want to get changed now."
The Titans and Z-Fighters left the room and went their separate ways for the night. Starfire followed Gohan to his room. "Gohan," she said in an unusually sultry way, making the hair on the back of Gohan's neck stand up.
"Yes?" he said, blushing as she leaned into him.
"I wanted to talk about something," she said, staring into his eyes.
"What is it?" Gohan asked.
"I wanted to talk about 'us'."
Gohan looked into her eyes, seeing a small red dot in the center of each pupil. "Are you alright? Your eyes are-"
Starfire grabbed the back of his head and turned hers, leaning in as if she was going to kiss him. He could feel her breath on his lips. She sharply moved her head over, whispering into his ear. "I like you; you know that, right?" Her hand slowly moved down his back as she pressed her big chest against his. Gohan felt the air escape from his lungs. "It's okay," Starfire said. "You don't have to speak."
"Where did this come from?" Gohan wheezed. "This isn't you."
"I don't know," Starfire said, "but I like it." She continued to feel his back and chest. "What's the matter?"
Gohan swallowed. He couldn't sense any change in chi, and couldn't think of the cause either. She was very distracting. He could feel his heart rate increase as she started to breathe heavily on his neck. He had to leave or else he would lose control.
"It's okay," Starfire whispered. "I can take it-"
"Good night," Gohan said, rushing into his room and slamming the door, sitting on the floor with his back against the door.
"Have the best of nights, Gohan!" Starfire said in her usually bubbly voice. "Good luck tomorrow!"
Gohan wiped the sweat off his face and exhaled. He felt like he had been holding his breath.
Things were truly starting to get weird.
Whaddya think? Who are these two Warlocks? What is the connection between the Master and Ma-Djinn? What the heck is up with Starfire? Are you ready for the next round?