A/N: Welcome back! Let me say thank you all so much for reading. Seriously. Seeing your comments and reviews makes it all worth it. All I have to say is buckle up for this one. It took a long time to go through every scene of this battle and this is my first time jumping around so much I had to put breakers in between to make it more clear and understandable. So if you see some errors and miatakes please excuse them. lol you're gonna be dying to know what happens next... I know I am and I'm the one writing it! As always leave a fav/follow and drop a review and let me know how I can improve! Hope you enjoy!
Complete silence. Even more quiet than than the calm before the storm. The soft trance of rolling waves merely feet away from the team was drown out completely by the sheer intensity in the air. It seemed as though everyone could hear a small ringing in their ears. The sound you hear when you're in a dark room on a dead quiet night. You know there is no sound but your mind is tricked into creating the non-existant pitch to ensure your sense of hearing is still functioning.
Fang stood behind Kitten on the right side of the Hive, staring across the small concrete battlefield at Nightwing with a gruesome look on their faces. They were furious.
The same look of anger and resentment dawned on Jonny Rancid's face as well. He stood on the left side of the Hive more near the docks and the rolling water of the ocean. They had one objective here and together... they just might achieve it.
The blood lust emanating from their emotions rattled even Raven. She could sense something familiar in them and it brought nothing but dark memories to her. She followed their disgusted gaze to the man standing next to her. To her surprise, Nightwing had the same look on his face staring right back at them. She couldn't decide which one scared her more... The look from the villains... or the same look from one of her closest friends. Either way she felt a deep sense of unshakable doom that was about to unfold in front of them.
As the silence dragged on one person grew tired of it and decided to break the tension with his notorious sarcasm.
"Well then," X said in and upbeat voice, "I can't help but feel like I missed the invitation to the villain reunion," he turned his back to the Titans facing the small team of villains with his arms crossed, "what are you doing here?"
The villains grew more angry as though they were being mocked by the vigilante.
"Save it, ya scuz-licker!" Gizmo shouted as he began to hover from the small jets that popped out of his back pack, "for all we know you're working with them!" He said pointing behind X towards the Titans, "don't think I forgot how you totally trashed my ride during the race for Robin's cruddy briefcase!"
"I don't like owing favors," X said raising his arms to a small shrug, "it's nothing personal," he lowered his arms and glared from under his mask, "I also don't like when people get in between me and what I want," his tone changed and sounded menacing.
"I don't give a rat's ass about what you want!" Rancid yelled in anger. His face was painted black and blue from an obvious beating he took not too long ago. One of his eyes was nearly swollen shit but he didn't feel the remaining pain at the moment. He was pumped so full of adrenaline he was ready to risk even more pain, "I just want that little punk!" He shouted again pointing at the man with the blue eagle on his chest.
The Titans all looked at their friend with a look of worry and confusion.
"Uh... What's he talking about?" Beastboy asked with a hand raised to his mouth quietly passing the message to his girlfriend.
Raven looked back at him with a deep look of concern. Her heart knew the answer but she refused to believe it.
"Daddy is in the hospital because of you!" Kitten screamed in her annoying high pitch voice, "you'll be lucky to end up in the bed next to him, Robby-poo!" Her voice grew dark and raspy as she raised a large rifle looking weapon from behind her pink dress and raised it at the Titans.
The Titan's jaws instantly hit the floor in astonishment. They looked at each other and began questioning everything they knew. During their stupor they all looked back at their former leader. Before they knew it, Nightwing had sprang into action leaping high in the air drawing his collapsible staff mid-flight on his way towards the girl with her weapon raised.
She fired the large weapon at her flying target but instead of lasers or bullets being fired from the barrel it was darts. The same darts that her father, Killer Moth, would use to tranquilize his prey to experiment on.
The weapon was hard for her to control as the gun fired countless darts like a rapid fire machine gun. Each shot she fired missed her target following closely on his trail towards her. The look of rage on kittens face turned to panic as she watched the long metal staff inching closer to her. She let go of the trigger and turned to her right bracing for impact and heard the sound of the staff striking something hard between them. She looked back at where her enemy was approaching from and saw Fang's long spider-like legs crisscrossed in front of her wrapping around her body like a shield with the metal staff pinched in the crease of his legs.
She looked up at Nightwing's face and her terror grew. His face looked like something she had never seen. Like looking into the jaws of a vicious animal wanting to maul its prey. The voice that followed rattled her even more...
"The Robin you knew is dead," He said through clenched teeth. With a loud cry of anger he withdrew his staff while crouching into a spinning leg sweep with his right leg, landing hard on Kitten's shins sending her falling face first to the ground.
Fang then saw his chance and placed his long legs on the ground in front of Kitten laying on the ground and sent his body flying forward like a child on a swing set with both legs extended into a dropkick.
Nightwing just got back to his feet when the dropkick landed in his chest sending him flying into a back flip where he landed on his feet in a wide stance sliding to a stop with his right hand on the ground in front of him for stability and his staff in his left hand behind him in a position to strike. It was as if he was expecting that attack and rolled with it to lessen the damage.
"Attack pattern Delta!" Gizmo yelled to his team and they took off in all directions towards the other Titans.
The Titans all took off as well dashing towards their enemies running right past Red X as if he didn't exist.
Cyborg took on Mammoth. Raven faced Kyd Wykkyd while Beastboy's target was Billy Numerous. Leaving Terra with Seemore.
"Looks like you guys got this handled," Red X said enjoying the show, "but I've got business to attend to." He turned and began heading back to the mysterious stranger standing on the dock before he was cut off by Gizmo.
"I don't think so fart-breath!" Gizmo yelled with confidence. His jets retracted back into his backpack and were replaced with for metallic arms much like Fang's legs.
"Didn't you hear what I just said?" X respond with a more serious and angry voice, "I hate it when people get in my way!" With that, he drew his blades from the back of his fist and lunged at the mechanical legs hoisting up the boy genius.
--
With the Hive now out of the way, Rancid pulled out his own weapon. A small black pistol in the shape of what could only be described as a dark lightening bolt and opened fire with a barrage of red lasers at Nightwing.
Nightwing dove to his right avoiding the initial barrage only to find his feet quickly struck with the web shot from Fang's mouth to where he ending up standing. The barrage of lasers then followed and he began spinning his staff with tremendous speed blocking every laser he could while he was cemented in place.
Fang never approached Nightwing and waited patiently next to Kitten. He knew he didn't stand a chance against Nightwing so he simply acted as support and defense for his girlfriend.
Rancid's weapon began to over heat and needed to cool down before he could fire again leaving Nightwing a small window of time before Kitten got back to her feet and raised her rifle at him. He thought quick and drew two small devices from his belt. One was a smoke bomb that he detonated first giving him a large amount of cover to hide from his enemies. The other was an ice bomb that he threw at the web his feet were trapped in. It froze instantly and became as fragile as glass on impact. He raised his staff and brought it down as if using it to impale the ground at his feet shattering the ice and freeing him.
As soon as the smoke screen went up Kitten had began firing blindly into the massive cloud hoping the volume of fire would strike her target. After a few moments of firing wildly she ceased fire and waited for the smoke to clear...
--
While that fight went on, Cyborg and Mammoth were charging at each other at full speed. Mammoth threw a massive right haymaker that Cyborg ducked under and countered with a right upper cut that sent Mammoth flying straight up in the air. He followed it immediately with his left arm detaching from his body with jet propelled rockets flying quickly at his target in mid-air.
Incapable of moving, the giant suspended in air was struck on the jaw with the flying fist. Sending him tumbling head over heels before landing on his stomach with a loud thud. The anger rose in Mammoth and he jumped to his feet bending at the knees and waist slamming his fingers into the concrete breaking the surface and pulling a massive chunk of it from its place over his head. He hurled it as hard as he could with all his strength at the one armed Cyborg who lifted his right arm and discharged this one as well with rockets at the large object thrown at him.
His arm made contact with the massive boulder of concrete and shattered it to pieces kicking dust and debris everywhere. But this move played right into Mammoths hand. Mammoth dashed through the small smoke screen tackling Cyborg and taking him by complete surprise before landing on top of him. Mammoth began raining down punches on Cyborgs jaw who was armless with no way to defend himself.
Mammoth began laughing as the taste triumphant victory began to cross his lips before he heard Cyborg yell in frustration.
"Get. OFF!!!" He yelled while a powerful blast landed on his attacker.
Mammoth found himself flying back into the sky once more as Cyborgs' chest opened up and fired an incredibly strong sonic blast into his chest taking catching him off guard.
Cyborg's arms then flew back to him reconnecting and he rubbed his jaw before looking back at his opponent regaining his stance. Cyborg motioned his neck left and right popping his joints as he prepared for the next spar.
--
Meanwhile, Beastboy faced Billy numerous. He waited patiently for his opponents first move knowing fully well he would multiply and take the upper hand.
Just as expected, Numerous duplicated into 2 then 4 then 8 and began dashing towards Beastboy. Thinking quickly, Beastboy morphed into an octopus and each arm shot out at the 8 clones of Numerous wrapping them up tightly.
At first Numerous was shocked by the speed of his opponent's reaction. He was a bit smarter and stronger then he remembered. But Billy smiled and thought out loud so his foe could hear him.
"I hope you're flexible!" The clones then began duplicating rapidly increasing his forces ten-fold as he giggle with glee from multiple mouths.
Beastboy's arms began to stretch thin as his eyes began to water in pain. He had no choice but to release his enemies and return to his normal form. His arm felt like noodles stretched to their limits and he looked at them as if they were.
"Man!" He yelled in pain, "I'm gonna have to start taking yoga classes." He said sarcastically. Just as he finished that sentence one of the clones jumped on his back as the others formed a wide circle around him.
He immediately morphed into a bull bucking wildly to shake off his enemy on his back.
"Yeeeeehaaaaawww!" Billy yelled on the back of Beastboy, "Ride 'em cowboy!"
"This takes me back to the rodeo days!" One of the clones shouted as the others cheered him on.
Beastboy saw he was outmatched in this form and decided to change things up. He transformed into a common household cat falling to the floor in between Numerous' feet before turning around and jumping up latching onto his right inner thigh digging his sharp claws deep into the sensitive skin.
"YEOOOOOW!!!" Numerous screamed in pain as began flailing around, "get it off! Get it off!" He yelled in desperation. The tables had turned. Now Beastboy was desperately trying not to be bucked off.
The rest of the clones all began diverging on the one struggling with the small cat. They swarmed him in massive numbers of about 20 clones literally dog piling the small cat.
In all the chaos Beastboy managed to slip away as a small fly dodging in and out of the clones, unnoticed. He gained quite a bit of distance from the crowd before be started flying at them with as much speed as possible before morphing into a massive 20 foot anaconda wrapping himself around the crowd with all his momentum. Now all he had to do was squeeze. And as he did, the clones began to wince in pain. Duplicating wouldn't help them now. The power of this huge snake was stronger than his ability to make more of himself.
--
Above that battle was Terra. She hovered on a rock facing down Seemore who was floating with a massive eye above him like a hot air ballon.
"Catch me if you can!" Seemore yelled with a smile on his face. His eye then let out air like a ballon flying through a party after someone had failed to tie a knot in it allowing the air to escape from the entrance.
His body whipped around wildly as his movement became impossible to predict and Terra could do nothing but flow him slowly in the general direction he was headed.
As the eye grew smaller and slowly returned to its normal size on his head, he landed on top of one of the warehouses next to the battle. He turned the knob on the right side of his helmet and his eye turned green and began to glow before it started firing off small lasers rapidly.
Terra gasped and her face turned to shock as she saw these projectiles flying towards her with intense speed. She immediately jumped off her platform and turned it forward using it as a shield as she raised a large piece of concrete beneath her as a second platform to stand on.
Seemore saw her fall back under the first rock she stood on and redirected his aim down at her new position and began firing wildly while laughing. He thought he had her on the run.
But Terra smiled and saw her chance. This was Seemore's weakness. He could only focus on one thing at a time and got tunnel vision easily seeing as how he only had one eye to work with.
As she began tracing the ground in a serpentine pattern dodging every laser thrown at her, she threw a yellow glowing fist forward and sent the massive boulder she jumped off of at her opponent who had clearly taken his attention off of it.
Terra then stopped in her tracks, confusing Seemore who stopped firing out of curiosity.
"Should always keep your eye on the rock!" Terra yelled confidently.
"Huh?" He said even more confused. Seemore looked up but it was too late. The boulder was already right on top of him. He yelled in horror as it slammed against him taking him for a ride before landing on top of him pinning him to the roof of the warehouse he stood on.
--
In a separate aerial battle, Raven found herself struggling with an unfamiliar enemy. Kyd Wykkyd was hard to follow. He could levitate, teleport, and hide his presence. Hovering in the air, Raven tried to end it quickly by surrounding her target in her dark energy.
Kyd allowed himself to be over taken by the dark energy surrounding him but he simply smiled at Raven as he did earlier at the mall. He then coated himself in his own energy and vanished into his own darkness.
Raven gasped in shock. That has never happened to her before. No one has ever escaped her dark energy the way he did just now. Whats worse... she couldn't sense him. He completely vanished from her. She felt this fight may be harder than she had hoped.
What scared her more was a small tap on her shoulder from behind. A dark chill raced down Raven's spine as she whipped around to see Kyd standing there still smiling. She distanced herself from him and raised her hands with dark orbs as her eye's began glowing white.
"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" She exclaimed. Her commands were followed by a claw of dark energy rising from the ground underneath Kyd. It wrapped around him gripping tightly. She hopped that if surrounding him with dark energy wouldn't work maybe a solid form of it would have a different result but she doubt it.
Kyd seemed to hold no distress on his face as he allowed her to grip him with all her strength. In fact... his smile never left his face. Raven felt like he was toying with her and it irritated her.
"Who... What are you?" Raven asked as she maintained her focus.
Kyd's gleaming red eyes focused on her glowing white eyes and without moving his mouth Raven could hear him in her head.
"Someone who understands." The voice was soft and gentle. It seemed like the voice of a honor student in high school. Focused and determined, yet compassionate and welcoming.
Raven was shocked and the glow in her eyes faded. Her focus had broken and the dark energy holding onto Kyd slowly fade away.
Telepathy? Raven asked herself.
She had never seen this before. She herself was incapable of this ability. She could enter the mind of others and communicate but not like this. Not as a main source of communication.
"We're not so different," the voice in her head continued, "I was also not born of this world but I chose a different path... Much like you did."
Raven was frozen in the air. The two just stared at each other not knowing what to do as the battle raged on below.
--
The smoke screen Nightwing had dropped began to fade as a gentle breeze carried it away. Kitten watched closely as a drop of sweat rolled down her temple with Fang standing at her side.
Rancid also waited carefully for what came next. He stood near the edge of the cement where the water of the ocean splashed against it but he wasn't near enough to worry about falling. Until Nightwing jumped out of the smoke high into the air towards Rancid, throwing three circular discs at the ground trapping him between the blasts and the edge of the cement.
Rancid had no choice but to jump back towards the ocean to avoid the explosions. He barrel rolled towards the edge keeping himself from falling. But that was exactly what Nightwing had planned.
As Rancid got back to his feet, his opponent landed in a somersault popping up to his feet, holding his staff like a baseball bat swinging it lefthanded striking Rancid in the stomach sending him off his feet into a ten foot drop of the waters below. He had one less enemy to face now...
--
Near the dock where the hooded stranger looked on in amusement, Red X and Gizmo battled on.
X slashed straight through the metallic legs holding up Gizmo and it took him by complete surprise. He didn't think his legs could be cut down like butter but he thought quickly and the jets in his backpack deployed before losing balance taking off in a spiral around X.
Red X followed him closely even though Gizmo was flying around with intense speed. It got harder though as holograms of Gizmo began to appear also flying around him. The numbers continued to grow and before long X had lost track of the real Gizmo.
All the holograms in unison began taunting him, "you can't hit me! You can't hit me!"
"Man, you're annoying," X said in frustration. He reached into his belt and pulled put a small red orb and tossed it into the air above him before ducking and covering himself.
The red orb grew in size and began to glow as it started beeping. As it reached its peak in the air it suspended itself in the air as the beeping grew faster before detonating. It sent a massive electric shock wave through the air wiping out all of clones but the real Gizmo had disappeared and managed to escape the blast.
Red X then looked back at his intended mission. The person in the hood had stepped back on to the platform that had previously descend into the ocean earlier. His eyes went wide as he realized their window of opportunity was about to disappear. Leaving him with no choice...
"Starfire!" He yelled back to the crate next to the warehouse, "now! They're getting away!"
All the eyes of everyone in battle stopped in place and shifted to Red X but then sharply turned to the sound of an explosion of green as a wooden crate on the side of the warehouse explode, casting chunks of wood in every direction possible.
Starfire took off like a missile for the hooded stranger standing on the platform. Her eyes glowed green and her face was fierce with anger. She flew past everyone with a speed no one had ever seen before. Even X was shocked by how fast she was moving. She bolted past everyone in the blink of an eye as if she couldn't control herself. Just as she was about to reach her target the hood flew back off the stranger revealing the smooth skin of a female face complemented by long silver hair and an eye patch covering her left eye.
From under her cloak she drew a small weapon like a pistol with thick fishing line attached to the top and she fired it at Starfire who was right on top of her at this point. The weapon sent a long metal coil at the Tamaranian wrapping around her body taking Starfire by complete surprise. As soon as it made a few wraps around her body the weapon whirred with power and an unbelievable amount of electricity discharged from it lighting up the area brighter than the moonlight as Starfire was jolted with an overwhelming amount of voltage.
Starfire was suspended in place with her head tilted up towards the stars in sky. Her mouth was open wide as she tried to scream in pain yet no sound could leave her lips.
Everyone watched in horror as the amount of power being forced into her body lit up the area around them like a constant strobe light. For any normal person... they clearly wouldn't survive.
When the sound of sparking electricity finally died down, Starfire's glowing eyes shut and her body went limp, falling into the arms of the silver haired beauty standing on the platform as smoke rose from the coils around her victim's body.
The woman grew a dark smile and began to laugh maniacally as she looked up at the surprised and terrified look on all the Titans...
