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'You're Going Down' is performed by Sick Puppies

"Hey, so what are we going to do about that Kitten chick?" Sweet 16 asked Malice as they lingered about the beach, waiting for the return of the former's new pet and his prey. The young woman in question still lay where she had been knocked unconscious, the blood having dried on her face as her chest rose and fell with a dogged desire for life.

Malice glanced over dispassionately and then shrugged, "Kill her for all I care. She had better weapons, better preparation, and she still lost."

"But-"

"It's a mercy to let her die here and now then to take her to Granny and have her fail there," she declared. Sweet 16 recoiled at the sharp gaze and harsh tone of the younger girl who gave no further chance for an argument. Nodding meekly, the redhead backed away, settling upon a large rock to glance occasionally in the direction of the unconscious blond. The matter in hand, Malice turned to observe Volcana and Killer Frost, the latter of whom was standing watch over their captives but quickly growing bored as she entertained herself by exercising her powers. Killer Frost roared in frustration as she waved a hand, sending a twisted spire of ice she had constructed crumbling and whirled about to face the girl.

"I'm getting bored," she snarled. "Let Volcana burn the forest down. We'll flush the brat out. But enough of this sitting around bull."

"Does 'low profile' mean anything to you?" she returned evenly. "We're trying to do all this without attracting the big league heroes. Setting a forest on fire does not exactly lend itself to subterfuge."

"I must have missed it when I said I'd be following the orders of some creepy little girl who doesn't even understand what the 'time of the month' is," the villainess sneered, arching a brow as she glared down at the child. "You offered me wanton destruction and murder. But so far it's just been a bunch of orders and playing with children. I'm getting a bit sick of it all."

"She has a point. This isn't nearly as entertaining as I thought it would be," Volcana groaned as she lay out in the chair she had commandeered, soaking in the sun's bountiful rays.

"This is not a game," Malice growled, the glowing eyes of Chessure appearing in her shadow once more, "This is a sacred mission given by the God of Apokolips. We-"

"Blah, ba-blah, blah, blah, blah," Killer Frost interjected, moving her hand as a puppet in time with her mocking.

The cruel fang-filled smile had joined the glowing eyes in her shadow and Malice's expression turned savage as Volcana laughed and Sweet 16 merely looked uneasy, looking between the gathering of the villains and Kitten, whose breathing was gradually growing more ragged. None noticed the fluttering eyelid of the beaten Blackfire, her other eye caked with blood, who remained silent as she took stock of the situation, assessing it with a tactician's eye. Her mangled limb lay near the block of ice that encased Eddie and she bit back a cry at the surge of pain as she fought to press her fingers against the frozen prison. Heat flowed through her limb, overwhelming the throbbing pain, and from her fingertips to the ice entrapment. A terrible howl suddenly filled the air and Blackfire stiffened though everybody's gaze swung to the top of the base where the green abnormality perched.

"Oh goodie," Sweet 16 finally smiled, "My boy's back. Come to mama, sweetie."

"Where's the girl?" Malice demanded as the beast bounded to the ground. He immediately headed to Sweet 16, nuzzling her side and she affectionately stroked the head that was nearly a third the size of her entire body.

"He was cuter before you changed him. Do you think you could keep the slavish obedience but get back the nice bod?" Volcana suggested.

"I actually have no idea why he's like this. This isn't normal. And kinda freaky," Sweet 16 admitted, smile uneasy as he continued to rub against her.

"If I have to repeat myself again, somebody is going to die. Gruesomely," Malice growled. "Now . . . Where. Is. The. Girl?"

"Peek-a-boo, Malice in Wonderland."

Clad in her lightweight armor and armed with not only her swords but a bandolier of knives, Ravager leered as she leapt from her perch upon the rocky ridge that she had crept along. Landing upon the ground, she whirled and delivered a kick to Malice's stomach, launching her off her feet. Using the momentum of her spin, she sent several daggers flying towards Killer Frost where they stabbed into her thigh, sending her stumbling back with a scream of pain. Volcana rose to her feet only for Ravager to perform an astounding leap and slam the hilt of her blade into the redhead's neck. The pyrokinetic staggered and Ravager sprang into the air, delivering a kick to launch her into the sea. Ravager landed on her feet and turned to face the others, her blades at the ready as she grinned.

"All right. I'm ready for round two. Gar, cut loose."

His expression appeared conflicted, it wasn't entirely easy to discern with his current facial features, and he whined as he clawed at the ground, digging deep furrows. Ravager frowned and swore as Sweet 16 beamed and stroked his muzzle, "So I take it the effect of my pheromones wore off out there? Too bad you brought him back. Cause now he's mine again. So . . . sic her, boy."

Dirt and sod flew into the air as he shot forward, the ground trembling beneath his charge only for a dark bolt of energy to smash into his side and send him skidding across the ground. Eyes turned to the Tamaranean who struggled to her feet while the block of ice behind her began to crack before shattering. Eddie shivered, his teeth chattering together as he vigorously rubbed his arms and gave a jerky nod to the alien.

"T-t-t-th-thanks f-f-for the h-h-h-heat," he stuttered through the chill.

"A loan," Blackfire said, "Take out these pests, and I'll call it even. I need to have a chat with Gar."

"D-d-d-d-eal."

After a few weak sputters of flame, Eddie sucked in a great gulp of air, his chest swelling before his breath rushed out, unleashing a torrent of flame. Malice brought her arms up and Chessure rose up, winding about its mistress to shield her from the furnace heat while Sweet 16 sprinted to her downed minion. She brought herself to a halt as Blackfire descended, clutching her injured arm.

"Garfield. The only person you should be drooling over is me. Quit this silly infatuation with the jailbait," she commanded imperiously.

"Jailbait!?" Sweet 16 snapped. She snarled at the alien, "Watch it, sister. I don't care what sort of attachment you had with lean and green, but he's my toy now."

"Pheromones, right?" Blackfire arched a brow, looking down upon the redhead as though she were a mere insect. "Chemicals. Gar's susceptible to them due to his enhanced senses, twisted by them due to the reactions with the chemicals already in his body. They don't belong in him. But the chemicals from our 'attachment' – the serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine – those are natural. And I don't doubt stronger."

She touched down upon ground in front of the verdant creature as he lumbered to his feet, a hissing growl growing in his throat that went from ferocious to tinged with curiosity. He angled his head, nostrils flaring as he drank in her scent, his snout tickling her toned stomach. Sweet 16 stared on, certain her pheromones would win out, as the ribbon tongue slipped out to lap at the scars and bruises. Golden fingers stroked through thick fur and over the large ears before tracing down and along his jaw, dredging a purr that rumbled up from his gut.

"I don't think I'm ready to give you up just yet, Gar. Now come back to me," she commanded.

Bones cracked, muscles tore, and a pained roar ripped from Gar's throat as he began his excruciating transformation, the change lopsided and asymmetrical. Scales shrank and his skin turned smooth as his spine rearranged itself back into a bipedal stance. He craned his neck to the sky, venting his pain upward. His snout shortened but the large fangs remained for an instant, too large for his now human sized mouth, while his hands remained large and equipped with the wicked talons. The tail whipped back into his spine and he finally returned to his human form with the dwindling away of the final features, collapsing against Blackfire's shoulder who swung her good arm across his back.

"There you are. My Gar. My love," she whispered.

"They . . . hurt you," he panted.

Blades of ice suddenly stabbed upward from the ground and Gar wrapped his arms about her, leaping out of the way as Killer Frost, atop an ice slide with her recent wounds iced over, laughed cruelly, "Sorry to break up that oh-so-touching moment. Maybe if you stand still, I'll freeze you in it for all eternity. Or I might just kill you. Eh, I'm fickle."

"You . . ." Gar's face darkened. Pupils narrowed, claws extended, and teeth sharpened into fangs as he snarled at her, "You hurt her."

"Yeah, so? What'cha gonna do about it, lover boy?"

"Rip your throat out."

"And there's the final ingredient, the adrenaline that makes this 'attachment' so very delicious," Blackfire sighed contentedly as she let her head fall back against his firm chest. She angled upward to press a quick kiss to his neck, feeling the growl reverberate in his throat, before he lowered her to the ground and shot into the air. He morphed into a powerful ape as he crashed into the ice slide, wielding his fists like sledgehammers to shatter her perch and then smash into her. Reluctantly tearing her beaming gaze away from her beau, she looked to the shocked redhead and smiled deviously.

"See, Sweetie? Love, attraction – it's a chemical cocktail. And mine is a headier drink than you could ever hope to make. Now why don't you be a good bad girl, and take a timeout?"

An orb of energy formed about her good fist and she launched at Sweet 16, catching her in the stomach and blasting her into the ground. Pleased with her results, Blackfire relaxed, her head resting upon the earth as she let the fatigue claim her.

Eddie fueled let his rage fuel his fire, the anger at his imprisonment, reaching into a dark part of him that he normally refused to touch. It was a piece that hadn't been there before his infernal bargain and had been begging for release ever since. He gave it that relief as he stalked Malice, unleashing torrent after torrent upon the Apokoliptikan psychopath and her shadowy pet. When Chessure tried to turn the tide, winding along the ground with its gaping maw wide, he leapt into the air to execute a spin kick against the creature. Chessure bellowed as he toppled and Eddie landed to grab its jaw and whip it, creating a wave along its body that snapped out to send Malice sailing through the air. He landed another thunderous blow upon the dark creature's snout and then pressed forward, yellowed eyes glowing as he advanced upon the girl.

Ravager couldn't help the smile as she dodged the fiery blasts, displaying her mastery of acrobatics to close in on the enraged Volcana. She laughed as she leaned back, dodging an enflamed kick and sending her sword licking along her enemy's thigh, cutting through the tight red pants and drawing a scarlet line along tanned skin. Volcana shrieked as she clutched the wound, leaving her open for the twin blades that raked her bared stomach and arms, followed by a boot delivered to the intersection of the scars.

"I'm going to melt those blades and pour them down your throat!"

"Temper, temper, hothead," Ravager chided.

A spray of sand went up as Killer Frost crashed into the beach between them and skidded by, the emerald kangaroo bounding after his adversary. He paused for a moment, turning to his human form and grabbed Ravager in a quick appreciative hug.

"Thank you for saying that pun because I've just been waiting for the opportunity. Now excuse me as I go stuff Frosty's icicles up her ass for what she did to my midnight sun."

Swelling into a wooly rhino, he stamped the ground before charging forward at the cryokinetic and Ravager used the massive mammal as cover, attacking the unsuspecting Volcana from the side. The flying kick sent her splaying into the sand and Ravager sent several of her blades arcing towards her, biting into her arm. Hissing in pain, smoke began to curl from her limb and the weapons melted, hissing as they dripped off her arm onto the sand. She staggered to her feet and unleashed a roar of searing heat and flame, but Ravager dodged the inferno easily, racing forth to sweep her legs out from under her and mounted her abdomen, pressing her blades to her throat.

"I'm soaring right now," she smiled viciously, "Everything you're about to do, I can see it. For example . . ."

Ravager rolled away with an exhilarated laugh, dodging the fire that spewed from Volcana's mouth. She skipped away, allowing the villainess to clamber to her feet as she taunted her, "So do you actually have a purpose on this team besides being the eye candy? Because Sweet 16's got at least a decade and a half on you and she's so much better at it."

Gritting her teeth, Volcana lashed out at the younger girl who simply caught the fist and helped the punch, adding momentum and launching the fiery woman into the water. Steam immediately began to rise from her form and the water she was sitting in started to bubble until the next wave crashed down upon her, dousing her anew. She sputtered, spitting the salty water out as she tried to wipe it from her eyes, clearing them only in time to see the boot that collided with her face, delivering her to unconsciousness. With a pleased sigh, Ravager grabbed her quarry by her long hair and dragged her back to the shore before she could drown.

Dropping her roughly in the beach, the white-haired girl considered her teammates. Gar flowed from shape to shape to fast for Killer Frost to keep track of. One moment, it was a polar bear shattering her ice constructs, its claws coming dangerously close, and the next it was a nimble arctic fox dodging her assault, biting at her calves and ankles. He pressed her relentlessly, wearing her out purposefully and inflicting a multitude of small but painful wounds, prolonging her pain.

Eddie slowly and steadily progressed upon the ever backpedaling Malice and Chessure who defended its mistress desperately. Laying her swords across her shoulders, Ravager yelled, "Hey, Eddie, you want some help?"

"Nope," he answered as he caught Chessure's gaping jaws and slammed his knee into the thing's chin, sending it sailing back. The ground shook with the force of the impact and Chessure struggled to lift its head only for it to crash back into the earth.

"I'm good."

"If he keeps that up . . . hoo boy," Ravager breathed to herself, suppressing an excited shiver. Malice raced over to her fallen pet, stroking its powerful jaw as she rifled about in the pockets of her dress and snarled at the demonic youth.

"Big meanie! Just you wait. We're going to rip your throat out?"

There was another resounding boom and the golden rings appeared in the air once again that Malice ran into, Chessure dwindling back into her shadow. Killer Frost looked up from her battle and her crystal blue gaze narrowed, "Hey, where do you think you're going? Don't just ditch me here!"

The brunette youth did not look back and the boom tube shrank after her, abandoning Killer Frost and her other unconscious comrades to the not so tender mercies of the heroes. Ravager's swords rotated like windmill blades between her fingers as she advanced and fire curled from Eddie's nose, leaving burnt grass in his wake. Frost growled as she glanced between them and the polar bear that was nearly four times as large as the usual animal, looming over her with fangs thicker than her fingers. Tossing her head back with a groan of frustration, she cast her hands at the ground, sending ice spikes stabbing in all direction as she shot into the sky upon an ice pillar. She skated out, her bridge swooping over the ridges too fast for them to follow as Gar returned to his human form, an irate rumble welling up from the pit of his stomach.

-Gar, let me rip!-

The words were emblazoned across Danny's rough surface and as the shape shifter's eyes landed upon them, he didn't waste a second to swing down and grab the brick. As he cocked his arm back, memories of tossing about the football with Cliff wafted to the forefront of his mind. Then he focused upon the task at hand, tapped into the increased muscular density of the ape and set Danny sailing through the air. He hurtled with startling evenness, his destination evident even before it impacted with the blue-haired woman's head, promptly knocking her from the bridge and turning her world to blackness. A brilliant grin spread across Gar's face and his arms shot into the air as he whirled to his friends with a cheer, "Touchdown!"

Wide eyes regarded him as they stood amongst the wreckage of their lawn, embers still burning in the grass where it wasn't frosted over. Great furrows, aside from the one he had begun work on, scarred the landscape and many of the larger rocks that had dotted it had been pulverized into gravel. Bodies were like lawn ornaments with how regularly they were strewn about and upon the yard, but his emerald eyes focused in upon the golden form that lay prone. He dropped to all fours as he shifted to a cheetah and fired across the lawn, morphing back into human and sliding the last several feet on his knees to the alien. His arm slid along her shoulder, cradling her as his other arm grabbed her hip and pulled her closer to him as he took stock of her injuries.

"Blackfire! Blackfire! Come on. Only scars that are supposed to be on that curvy little piece of heaven is the leftovers of my bites."

"Heh . . ."

A weak, short laugh escaped from her throat and his grip tightened about her, his eyes growing wide.

"Beautiful?"

"Hmmm," she hummed, her eyes still closed as she brought up her good hand to rest upon his chest. They slowly opened to meet his hopeful gaze and she smiled, "You're worried. That's sweet. Now can I get kisses for all my boo-boos?"

The evening found the worn and slowly recuperating members of Tartarus in their control room, the lights down and the movie low, mostly just background noise as they hovered on the cusp of sleep and wakefulness. After the attack, they had gathered themselves together and delivered the vanquished foes to the authorities. Kitten had been stripped of her armor and rushed to intensive care for her though Gar had been able to dissuade any questioning at the time. Blackfire's arm had been, in a storm of what he suspected was swearing that would make an intergalactic farer blanch and several star bolts, corrected and was not set in a specially designed cast to restrain her strength and enhance healing. By the time the rest of them were tended to and Gar had finished an incident report that he had sent to Nightwing, the sun had sunk over the horizon and they unanimously decided to leave the tending of the yard for tomorrow.

Eddie's head was resting upon the back of the couch, drool and snores emerging from his gaping mouth. At his side, Rose slumped in the cushions, her arms crossed over her chest as she fought to keep her eye open, refusing to surrender to Hypnos when the moon had just begun to rise. She scowled as Eddie slowly slid over to fall atop her and she gave him a rough shove, sending him sprawling out along the couch. Blackfire was spread out on the other side of Gar, her head resting on his thigh as she slept peacefully, her injuries tended to. A small smile graced her face and Gar mirrored it as he ran his fingers through her ebony hair, more focused upon her than the movie he had put in the central computer. Retrieved along with Killer Frost, Danny squatted next to Gar's unoccupied leg, no words flying across his surface.

"So, Rose . . ."

She snapped into wakefulness, jerking her head from side to side before her glance finally landed upon the shape shifter who had broken the predominant silence of the room. He grinned as he lifted his gaze from Blackfire and teased, "Am I a good boy?"

Thanks to everybody who reviewed! We tried to respond to everybody. And thus ends the Female Furies arc. It's been a while since we've seen Killer Frost or Volcana, so let us know what you think of their characterization.

We hope you all enjoyed it and that victory didn't seem like some deux ex machina (that truly is a marvelous phrase). Since this went on longer than we were expecting, there are still a few more chapters to complete before we get to the big story arc. No promises that we'll post before the holidays, so many friends and family to see, so we'd like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, (adjective that fits meaning 'pleasant') Kwanza, and whatever else you celebrate!

I Be Sporks: Sorry about grossing you out. Ira was on a roll. And you talk like there's a good side to Ira. Our condolences that you wasted your 'Old Timey' language. Glad that you loved the bit with Rose and Gar, and we hope that the last little quip at the end of this chapter did the same for you. Please continue to enjoy and review! We greatly appreciate it.

gg: You flatter us. And the cast of characters is fun to write. Strange thing about them is that not a lot of them are that well prepared. They just pop into our heads at the last moment.

Please continue to read, enjoy, and review.