City of Nightmares

Electricity crackled along the tips of each escrima as they were jammed into very noticeable earholes. Nightwing stabbed them further into the construct of whom he sat on the shoulders of, legs wrapped around a thick neck with his ankles interlocked. The monster whipped about as much as it could, but he dug his weapons in until it finally collapsed.

As the creature feature fell, Nightwing lowered his head as a ball of green energy fired past him, hitting an upcoming monster in the face. Several more balls followed, and then Starfire flew by to add her fists to the barrage. The way the monster's body jerked indicated how much force was being used here.

The Tamaranean was stronger than she looked by a mile. He had to admit, it was incredible. No movement was wasted, indicating a lot of training as well. The vigilante had suspected as much the last time he had fought back-to-back with her.

A screech from above had him looking up and there was a flying abomination heading his way, one with large wings, a very elongated beak, and several tentacle-like tongues whipping about. Like that hadn't come from one of his nightmares. Well, unlike his actual nightmares, he had full control of himself here.

Pulling his escrima's out of the head of the construct he was sitting up, Nightwing rose up to his full height, waited, and then allowed himself to be grabbed by two abnormally long talons that swiped into sight at the last second.

Up into the air he was pulled, the wings flapping harder and harder. The vigilante held on to both his escrimas and the taloned legs, letting himself be carried up. Reversing his grip on one of the escrima, he stabbed the crackling end of it into a bird-like foot, pinning the limb down for several seconds and letting the electricity do its work. Judging by how the construct wobbled in its flight, it definitely felt that one. As soon as he removed the escrima, the taloned foot spasmed and lost its grip on him.

Only being held by the other unharmed foot, Nightwing swung his own legs back and forth, wiggling and squirming himself in the creature's grip and slowly loosening it. With both his weight, the lack of support, and his constant movement, he broke free but not before grabbing onto the leg itself. Continuing to swing, he applied his refined acrobatic skills here and swung himself up and from behind the construct, getting himself on the back.

Those tongues tried to whip at him, but his place on the thin back was too out of the way. Using his legs to squeeze down and grip the torso, Nightwing curled his wrists inward and gave them a twist, triangle blades unlocking and extending out. One arm slashed into a wing, sliced the thin membrane there, and then he repeated the same action with his other arm with the other wing.

The wings were damaged, critically so, which meant the construct began falling no matter how hard it tried to gain altitude. Bringing both of his escrima together, he then rammed both ends of the sticks into the back of the monster's skull, further destabilizing it. Then he leapt off of it, giving a flip as he did so to put more space between himself and the plummeting flier.

Gravity, of course, exerted itself on him, and the vigilante began falling as well. Movement drew his attention, and he tossed one escrima so that he could catch and hold both with one hand while he extended his free hand out. An orange-skinned hand caught him and his downward trajectory changed.

Starfire was giving him an approving smile, and then she looked ahead, his gaze following hers. Another airborne construct was heading their way, and a single glance between the two of them solidified the plan.

Nightwing was thrown ahead, green bolts streaking around him and distracting this new beast enough that it could not stop him from striking it in the head, using his momentum to throw himself over and onto the back, and then repeating what he had done to the previous construct. This one fell too and once more he was caught by Starfire.

An insect-shaped construct tried to zero in on them, thin membrane wing buzzing rapidly as a very long protrusion not unlike a mosquito's stabbed its way to them. From her eyes, the Tamaranean fired twin beams of that green energy, slicing the wings off and a third construct fell to its doom.

"Didn't know you could do that!" he called up to her.

"I was unaware of your aerial abilities as well!" Starfire answered with a compliment.

Yeah, they were surprising each other left and right but that wasn't stopping anything. What was one or three of these monsters being taken out when more just kept falling from the sky itself, usually landing unharmed on the streets below? There was no way to keep up this pace.

Looking up to the massive construct above, Nightwing grimaced. "We have to find a way to stop that thing. Stop it from making more."

"Shall we ascend?" the orange alien asked, looking down at him with glowing green eyes.

Nightwing blinked at the words, considering. "Yeah?"

Starfire gave a sharp nod. "Then ascend we shall!"

Suddenly he wondered if he had said the wrong thing.

There was no time to wonder for long, because now he was being yanked up with the orange Titan, the pair flying high to face off with the mother of all monsters reigning above.

Perching on a streetlight, Red Robin took stock of the situation. Like with so many other streets in the city, this one was also clogged up with constructs. Either they were causing property damage, chasing after anyone who was unlucky enough to get caught up in this mess, or they were heading for the sounds of fighting.

In this case, the Titans were the source of fighting, so for as long as they could act as some kind of lightning rod that drew in these creatures, that would at least let other innocent bystanders slip away. He could see a couple making a break for it a couple blocks down and unfortunately drew the attention of a construct.

Luckily for them, Kid Flash was more than willing to be a distraction, using a combination of both physical hits and chirpy banter to get the ugly thing focused on the speedster. From there, it was drawing the monster into the path of the Titans.

It was one of multiple ways to go. One was with Wonder Girl whose armor was really showing what it could. The armored blonde's hits were taking apart anything and everything that got close and it didn't matter whether it was a punch, a kick, or the magical lasso that she was using to reel some of them in. She was a beast out there.

In fact, right now she was shredding apart one construct with her gauntlets, the thick hide useless against the mystical armor. It cried out as it fell apart, already disintegrating. Next, she was swinging her body about, one leg extended, and the heel of her boot snapping a construct's head ninety degrees. Wonder Girl further helped with that by grabbing the head and completing the breaking of the neck, and down this one went too. For a follow up, a construct tried to grab her from behind, but she used the spiky nature of her armor to her advantage, propelling back into it and bashing her head back. Hands clasped onto the sides of a snouted head and it was thrown over her smaller body. Pavement shook, and then a booted foot slammed into the throat, damaging a nonexistent windpipe.

If Wonder Girl's brutality wasn't your thing, Cyborg came back with science fiction made science fact. His titanium body took hits and scratches, and then a fist would deck whatever tried to attack him. After that, a point blank blast from his arm cannon, the energy output needing to be high enough that it carried away its victim back and into whatever constructs happen to be in the way. With one construct left as a smoking, charred husk, and its comrades picking themselves up, Cyborg adjusted his cannon to release an O-shaped sound wave to make more room for himself.

This led to the third option, and that involved any sort of animal that Beast Boy could dream up. A Stegosaurus was batting away a handful of constructs with a spiked tail that pierced through almost everything it encountered. When a few airborne constructs tried to swoop in from about, the extinct reptile disappeared into thin air leaving the flying constructs to crash into the street. A green elephant appeared above the constructs, gravity came into effect, and you could guess what happened next.

The masked teen's arm whipped out, a birdarang flew, and a construct was electrocuted when the throwing projectile made contact with some exposed gums. Leaping off his perch, he glided his way over to the construct, slashing into it with the edge of his hardened cape. The hand of another construct tried to swat him, but the teen vigilante angled himself perpendicular, his cape cutting into the hand which withdrew quickly.

He was losing altitude, though. Fortunately, Kid Flash appeared, took an outstretched arm and gave a spin, changing his trajectory so that he was going up. There was some…slight disorientation, but he got a handle on it quickly. Was he starting to get used to moving at almost supersonic speeds? Wait, no, there was the nausea. He appreciated what the speedster was trying to do, but next time it was going to be a grapple he used.

With a new overhead view, he took in the fighting once more and grimaced. Despite everything done so far, they weren't getting anywhere. Damn it, what could they do? Well, obviously, find Raven, but easier said than done.

Finding a streetlight to land on and perch once more, he made contact with Cyborg. "Cyborg, can you try to find Raven? Can that program do that?"

It was because of that program they were able to trace their missing teammate to Arkham. Maybe it could help out and locate her in all of this?

"No. Too much interference." Red Robin noticed a bright flash of light which gave away the cybernetic teen's position. "Her power's everywhere. I can't find the epicenter."

Well that was just great. Peachy. Damn it all. Casually, he ducked as Wonder Girl flew over him, tearing through an airborne construct that had tried to sneak up behind him.

They couldn't go on like this. Not really. First, there was only so much space for these constructs to occupy before they crowded everything. Second, despite all of their powers, there was only so long that they could fight before exhaustion happened. Sure, any and every one of them would push beyond their limit, but this was time restricted. Consider it a long term siege; eventually they would start falling.

And there was still no end to the constructs.

Movement up ahead drew his attention, and once more Red Robin scowled. There was another big one, like from last night. It was rampaging their way, crushing anything that happened to be in its way, including other constructs, and there was no Manhunter in sight. At least it didn't look like an overgrown grasshopper this time.

They couldn't afford another prolonged fight with a creature this size. Not tonight. Giving it a quick thought, he issued an order over the comm line. "Kid Flash, find Wonder Girl. When you do, give her as much momentum as you can. Wonder Girl, let Kid Flash do what he needs to do and then hit that…" Pausing, he took in some of the features of this new colossal construct. "...oversized lobster with everything you got."

A couple seconds later, a gold-colored blur raced past him, and the might of Wonder Girl's armor did the rest as she tore through what looked like a really hard shell. What might have been an amazing boss fight with multiple pincers came to a quick and anticlimactic end. He had learned a bit over these last few days.

There was something about Wonder Girl's armor that gave her an edge on these constructs. Whatever could it be? Well, whatever it was, adding some speed to it brought some results.

"Does it always feel this way to go at superspeed?" Wonder Girl demanded from above.

"I just don't get why everybody has a problem with it. I don't feel anything!" Kid Flash complained from below.

There was no sense in adding his two cents. Especially now with what was crawling through the dissolving remains of a Red Lobster dinner. Well, crawling was not quite the right word. It was another construct, one that looked like a mutant snail, and it moved at the same kind of pace. There were bizarre, stripped antenna and what looked like feelers from the mouth area, but the spiral shell was very distinctive.

Well, that and the fact that it released a cloud of dull yellow gas every time it heaved forward. What was really alarming was how much space that gas was taking up and it was heading their way. Like it always does.

"Alright, clear out and fall back," Red Robin ordered. He did not want to find out what that gas did.

As if figuring out this was what they were going to do, the mutant snail shuddered and then an enormous amount of the gas was unleashed, quickly filling the air. Red Robin was about to shout, but Kid Flash snatched him up and pulled him further away down the street. As soon as they stopped—oh good, the disorientation and nausea, he wasn't getting used to it yet. Still, preferable to experience than what that cloud of death back there would do.

"That's a new one," Wonder Girl remarked as she landed next to him. "What do we do about that one?"

Good question, let's see what they had…wait, one, two…

"Where's Cyborg and Beast Boy?" he demanded, alarmed. A quick look around gave away the absence of their two teammates, and really, after the last jaunt in Gotham, he was surprised it took this long.

"I can look," Kid Flash offered and you could see his body vibrate slightly as he was already past the point of getting ready to go.

Before he could answer that, the snail was emerging from that yellow cloud and zeroing in on them. That, and a few more constructs cutting off their way of retreat. Let's upgrade that damn it to a Goddamn it.

"Take care of these guys quick, we'll try to rendezvous with Cyborg and Beast Boy after. I'll try to contact them and see where they are," he decided.

Hopefully this wasn't a bad decision.

The constructs were everywhere. Shortly after passing into the city limits, Batman had met with a few of Raven's latest creations. They had been dangling from traffic lights, but dropped themselves down in front of his car in an effort to stop him.

Their broken bodies were left behind after he ran them over.

More and more were showing up, but not once did Batman slow down. He used the titanium-reinforced bumper to ram into them, knocking them to one side of his speeding car, or over the hood and windshield. The bumps of their bodies breaking against the car filled the cockpit.

Batgirl whimpered more from hearing this, but she didn't stir much more than that. Batman only spared a glance at her to make certain she was still sedated. Wherever he stopped, he'd make certain to give her another dose and lock her in. That would at least ensure she would be safe save for one of the larger constructs…

Better yet, he needed to stop at one of his bunkers. He'd lock the car up in there and that would make certain his daughter remained safe throughout all of this.

Reaching a button out to the console, he hit a button. "Oracle," he called out over the activated comm. "Status report."

There was a brief moment before, "Oh, thank God," came her response. "We've got a situation and a bad one at that."

"How bad?" he was quick to reply.

"These monsters are everywhere. I can't find a place in Gotham that isn't infested with them. The Birds and those Titan kids are fighting them, but it's only a matter of time before they're overrun."

Batman gritted his teeth. He was afraid of that. Scarecrow had stepped up his plan, that was for certain. "I need you to find the epicenter," he then ordered. "Scarecrow has his hands on Raven of the Titans. Each of these monsters are created by her power. We find them, we can put a stop to all of this."

"On it." That was all that was said and Batman let it drop. That wasn't because he didn't know how else to continue the conversation. More like, he saw one of the bigger constructs appear, one that was half-gorilla and half-lizard. It had the main body of a muscular gorilla, but its head, hands, and tail were lizard.

Striking the button to slide his headlights out of the way and allow his cannon turrets to emerge from their hiding place, he fired them on the construct, causing it to roar as it was blasted backwards. Another blast knocked it off of its feet and onto the ground.

The vigilante pressed down hard on the accelerator, speeding up quickly. Moments later and his car rammed right into the construct, running it over. Hell, the car even jumped up into the air, launching over it before landing further down the street.

There was a roar that rang out behind him. Damn, it seemed he hadn't finished the thing off.

As much as he would have preferred to take it down, there were more important things. Like he had told Oracle, they needed to find Scarecrow. That was how this all ended. Getting caught up in needless fighting would only prolong things.

Further up ahead, he could make out that large, black crow that seemed to hover over the city. He stared at it for perhaps several moments longer than he needed to.

What if…

"Oracle, I want you to check the area around where that large crow construct is," Batman said over the comm. "Particularly under it if you can identify an epicenter."

"Working on it."

It might take the hacker a little time to get the confirmation he needed, but that was alright. If the dark-clad man wasn't mistaken, there was a bunker between his current location and where that crow was sitting. He could head there, safeguard his girl and car, and then head over there on foot. Surely by then Oracle would have given him more accurate intel.

He had to resist the urge to sigh. In his line of work, hoping for such results in that kind of manner rarely worked out. Unfortunately, it was all he could do at the moment.

Alright, she was starting to get the hang of fighting these things. As bizarre and terrifying as they were, these monsters shared similar traits with animals. Namely, they had hard exteriors with various soft weak points.

Weak points such as eyes, ears, and joints.

Though she preferred to use one hand with her crossbow, Huntress was now using two, one on the trigger, the other helping to brace the underside. She took aim, slowly released her breath, and then pulled the trigger. The bolt fired from her crossbow, sailing through the air, and then struck one of the creatures right through its left eye, penetrating it, and sliding right up until the little feathers at the end of the bolt.

The monster—a towering brute with a ram's head, a beefcake of a body with pecs and abs, and the arms and legs of some big cat—jerked its head back, seemingly stunned, before it dropped to the ground.

In a flurry of movement, Huntress had another arrow in hand and was reloading her crossbow. She was on the move too, just in time as it turned out as something big and slithery landed right where she had been standing. She didn't bother checking to see what it was, you know, since she had backup.

That backup was Katana, who flew in behind the purple-clad vigilante, the steel of her sword flashing in the light of the various intact streetlamps. Huntress only caught the Asian woman's movement from the corner of her eyes. From her left, she saw a blur of red and yellow, which disappeared for a moment, then reappeared in the corner of her right eye.

And then she had her crossbow ready for another shot. Resuming her stance, she sought out a target. The first couple had their profiles to her, so they weren't viable targets. There was one with the head of a bear that was roaring, and for a tentative moment, she considered taking a shot at its ears. If she was good, the arrow would go through one ear and out the other, but…she didn't have that kind of aim. She didn't look like one of those Arrow people in Star City, ya know, so she didn't take the shot here either.

Then came a galloping hell-horse, one that was running right for her. "Shit," she hissed before she dove to one side, going into a roll as the hell-horse raced by. Ending up crouched on her feet, she twisted her body around and once again took aim, this time firing her bolt.

This one got the running hell-horse in the leg, in its backward-facing knee. There was a shrill neigh by the hell-horse as its leg went lame and it limped to a stop. That's when Katana flew by then, slicing its head off in one clean cut.

Unfortunately, that wasn't even a drop in the bucket with how many they had taken out, much less the ones that were still raining down from the sky. They were endless! The horde was damn near infinite at this point!

And they were getting tired. You didn't even need to look at the Birds to see them huffing and puffing. Now, they weren't slouches by any measure. They were in shape after doing this vigilante schtick for years. However, the human body had limits; it could only keep itself going for so long before rest was a requirement, not a request.

As Huntress began reloading her crossbow, she caught sight of Manhunter. The brunette was busy whacking one of the airborne, insect-looking creatures with the back end of her staff. It was just a jerk with her arms, swinging that end of the staff to hit its target, and then she brought it back to her side, the red-and-white-clad woman dropping to a knee and firing a large blast from the front end of her staff. That beam raced right for the bear monster, blasting a hole right through it, and left it to fall onto its side limply.

Yeah, that was D.E.O. tech at its finest. Huntress was usually content with her equipment, don't get her wrong, but right now, having that kind of firepower was proving to be very necessary. After this, she was getting upgrades.

Then, further down the street at a T-intersection, which was just crawling with these monsters, a loud scream rang out. This was followed by a large wave of air ramming into most, if not all of those monsters and throwing them into the air. They were swept up in the wave, becoming a veritable wall of creatures, only stopping when they slammed into the face of a building. For the smaller monsters, their bodies splattered into pace upon impact. The bigger, more sturdy ones struck the building, and then fell to the ground, crashing on top of each other.

Seeing this, Manhunter took aim with her staff, and fired another devastatingly powerful energy blast. The beam struck the growing pile of monsters and instantly erupted into a gigantic explosion, flames and smoke flying high into the air.

That wasn't it, though. Because the monsters were basically lying in a pile next to a building, the building took damage from the explosion. A loud, groaning sound was made before the building began to lean in the direction of the explosion, then toppled over. With a deafening crash, it landed on the street, crushing any monsters that happened to have gathered there.

Well, that was certainly one way to exterminate these creatures.

It didn't take much guessing to know that scream and powerful wind had come from Black Canary. She had been experimenting with her "singing" voice for some time now. She had her standard, skull-shattering scream that blew out eardrums in all directions; she had the narrower, blunted one that packed enough of a punch to send even a meta-human flying through the air. Apparently, she now could create a sweeping wave of wind over a large area.

Faintly, the purple-clad vigilante wondered when and where her blonde friend did her experimentation. Figuring that out couldn't have been easy.

Now, with property damage and an incredible number of monsters now paste between concrete and asphalt, Huntress turned her back on the destruction and got ready to take on other monsters. Funnily enough, she couldn't help but notice how some of the smaller ones were fleeing for their lives.

Well, all save for one that looked like a giant hornet that suddenly buzzed in front of Huntress' face. It was perhaps the size of a football, its wings batting back and forth in a blur, and it was shaking its stinger at her face menacingly.

Huntress just pointed her crossbow at it and fired, the arrow carrying the hornet away as it was impaled. With that dealt with, she began looking for other creatures needing slaying. Their little building stunt had bought them a few seconds of relative peace.

Her attention was drawn by movement further up ahead, a swarm of monsters were passing through an intersection. Well, that seemed to be the next target.

For a split-second, she glanced in the direction they were heading, only seeing the line of buildings that cut off any visual. Yet, she couldn't help but feel like there was something lying in the direction that swarm was going.

Folding the arms of her crossbow back against its body, she holstered the weapon before she pulled out her grapple. She fired the grapple towards the ledge of one of the buildings, and repelled herself up it. Once she was on the roof, she got herself a better idea of where she was and where those monsters were heading.

A sinking feeling welled up in her stomach. If she wasn't mistaken, the Children's Hospital was in the direction those monsters were going. That was bad. Colin was there and he was recovering from what that bastard Merrymaker had done to him. Having walking nightmares hanging out of his window wasn't going to do the poor boy any good, the same with the other sick children there.

"Birds!" she called out over her comm link. "I've got an army marching towards Gotham Children! Going to intercept!"

"We're right behind you!" came Black Canary's response. Glancing over the ledge she was standing on, Huntress saw Manhunter running down the street, no doubt wanting to take position behind the monster swarm and start cutting off their reinforcements. Katana had just pulled out her own grapple and was using it to scale the same building the dark-haired woman stood on. There was no visual on Black Canary though.

Alright, she could do this. Taking off into a run, Huntress raced across the building. She was going to get ahead of these things and hopefully stop them from causing more harm than they already were.

Okay, perhaps they were a little in over their heads.

Blasts of electrical current burned through the air. For once, it wasn't just Bluebird responsible. Yeah, she had her taser rifle leading the charge, making the biggest beam of them all; but she had dug into the little arsenal of toys she had been working on in the BatCave, and, well, now Spoiler and S.O.B. were using them too.

The smaller demon monster things were taking down easy enough. The three of them just lit them up, firing over and over. It was the ones on the ground, the bigger, stronger ones that were causing them trouble. See, they could take the blasts, unlike the smaller ones.

Like this minotaur looking guy. He was bellowing like a bull, charging at her as it threw one of its hooved hands at her head. Yeah, she thought the part-bull, part-man thing would give it normal man hands, but this one had hooves for hands and feet and toes for feet. A little backwards if you asked her.

Going into a dive, Bluebird avoided the "punch," if you could call it that, going into a roll that ended with her crouched on her feet, and pointing her taser rifle at the minotaur. She fired at it, causing it to roar from the shock.

Something black and small then flew in and struck the minotaur on the side of its head, one end of it actually piercing through skin. A couple moments later, it exploded, causing the bull monster to jerk to one side before it toppled over. Spoiler appeared on the scene then, her smaller taser gun hanging by a strap around her shoulder as she threw a few more of her little projectiles at point blank range into the minotaur's body. She then took off running, which caused Bluebird to begin backing away, just before they all blew up.

Well, that was maybe one down, only a bazillion to go.

Looking around, she caught sight of Damian jumping on top of a car. He was yelling as he fired blast after blast from his own taser gun. It was a little ridiculous looking, but hey, who was she to talk a boy down from going all post-apocalyptic survivalist? The situation kinda called for it.

"I don't think we're making much of a difference!" Spoiler shouted, magically appearing next to the blue-clad girl. If it weren't for all of the monsters, she would have jumped out of surprise.

"We don't have much of a choice!" she yelled back. And really, they didn't. Oh, they could have just hunkered down in the BatCave, that was certainly an option. But they were taught better than that. Hell, if they ever found their long-lost Bat captain, they would have their butts chewed out for ignoring a crisis when they could have helped. At least this way they could save face or die trying.

Bluebird fired off another blast. Unfortunately, the second option looked like the likelier one.

Suddenly, Damian dove off of the car he had been standing on. Good thing too, as one of the bigger monsters, something that looked like the cross between a pelican and a crab attacked. It slammed a pincer onto the car that Damian had been standing on, opening its absurdly large beak to caw at them, or whatever sound a pelican made.

"So, tell me, if we use these tasers of yours and cross the streams, can we take it?" Spoiler asked.

"What the hell are you talking about, crossing the streams?"

"I swear to God, if we survive this, I'm showing you Ghostbusters."

"Is that what that's from?"

"The first one, yeah. The only good one."

"There's more than one?"

Before they could continue their banter, or try to fight the pelican-crab monster, something else got to it. Now this Bluebird could be described as a giant snail. It literally crawled on top of the pelican-crab and crushed it beneath its body, leaving a trail of slime in its wake.

Well, now that wasn't just gross.

"I guess we won't be crossing the streams," Damian observed, also magically popping up right next to the two girls.

It wasn't long after that the snail stopped moving around, having crushed everything in its path as it straight up crawled over them. It then let out this large yellow cloud, one that made them all nope the hell away from it. They weren't getting paid enough for this! Never mind it was completely voluntary!

Hmmm, maybe they needed to speak to Batgirl about getting paid for this…

As the yellow cloud began to thin out, the snail monster becoming visible once again, something ran right into it, one that nearly knocked over the shell that the snail emerged right out of. It took a moment, but Bluebird couldn't help but spot some person in golden armor flying around in the air.

This was then joined by a streak of yellow running around the snail at its base, circling around it for…something, God only knows what.

"Wait, are those those Titan kids?" Spoiler questioned.

Maybe, it was hard to tell from this distance, but hell, the blue-haired girl hoped so. They could really use the backup right now. "If it is, who's all for joining forces?" she asked.

Two hands shot up, that being the girls. Damian was just glaring at the scene for some reason.

"Well, it's two out of three, we're joining," Bluebird declared. "We can practice crossing your streams in the meantime."

"I swear to God, Bluebird…"

A yellow cloud of anything was a clear sign to keep away from it. Hadn't even seen the thing that had done it. With it misting its way in his direction, Cyborg was quick to pull back, doing his best to clear the way and give him some space to work with.

There had been three constructs immediately behind him, a sound wave broke up the incidental formation they had going for them which let him pick who was first to be knocked down. The cybernetic teen started from left to right, shoulder tackling a one-eyed, flabby, and spike-hand weirdo. Due to the flab, most of his force absorbed by it so no real damage. The cyborg quickly corrected and grabbed one of the arms as it had tried to stab at him.

Servos were straining, but technological prowess won the day as he successfully began swinging one-eyed, late career Marlon Brando here like a club, smashing it into the second construct that looked like a cross between a velociraptor and a pterodactyl, wings for arms, ground based for some reason, but very thin and light which meant Cyborg here was a baseball slugger who just hit a homerun.

Dinosaur crossbreed there crashed into an awning several stories up and then fell, showing those wings were mostly for show. Kinda like that cat logo that decorated the window that showcased a lot of women's apparel. Anyways, Cyborg kept spinning until he swung upwards and brought fatty Brando down headfirst onto the street.

Jumping up, he thrusted his arm cannon downwards as gravity reasserted itself on him and he jammed his attached weapon right where the sun don't shine and gave the mother of all enemas.

Pulling himself out as the construct he stood on deflated, he focused on the third and last construct, the one that had been to his right. Looking like a minotaur that had skipped leg day one too many times, Cyborg leapt at the bull boy here and landed a savage hit into the torso. Barely even a shudder; well, someone had gotten some gains on chest day it seemed.

Two hands grabbed him from either side, a snout opened impossibly large, and was that a second head in there?! It was somehow uglier than the big head sans the four horns.

No thank you.

Taking a page from Red's book, Cyborg activated the rocket boosters in his feet, and up he went tearing himself…no, tearing both of the construct's hands off when it refused to let go of him. His altitude increased, and briefly he considered whether he could leap over a building with a single bound. That was an experiment to try another day.

As the street began rushing to meet with him once more, the cybernetic teen angled for the top of the bull-headed construct which was examining its stubs for hands now, and so was taken down easily when he landed on top of it. His arm cannon was shoved into the mouth, both of them, and he gave it all he could, light searing out of any available orifice that it could.

With this construct disintegrating now, Cyborg turned his attention first to the dissipating yellow cloud then to the rest of the construct infested street. He grimaced at it; this was going to take a lot of work…and he was already down by twenty-five percent of his battery charge. He was going to need to charge up at least once, maybe five more times at this rate. This just wasn't a feasible way to go saving the day here.

His human eye narrowed, and with his robotic eye he did a quick scan then groaned. Man, he didn't see anybody! No Red, no Wonder Girl, no Kid Flash, and no—

A green rhino charged by, ramming into an approaching construct and pinning it to a streetlight. The horned pachyderm pulled back then surged forward, hitting the construct into the pole once then, then a second time which the horn impaled the skeletal torso. The rhino head rolled, pulling the construct along with it until depositing the freaky beast onto the street. Dislodging the horn, the rhino reared up and brought its forelegs down to crush whatever happened to be in the way.

—oh hey, the Grass Stain was near.

Reverting back to his skinny human form, Beast Boy was panting, shoulders rising up and down exaggeratedly. "Yeah. Yeah! That's what you get! That's…" a green eye glanced in his direction, "hey Cy! Big workout, huh?"

"Not much time for a breather," the cybernetic teen remarked as he faced more constructs that were stalking their way towards them. "How much you got left in ya, BB? Looks like it's gonna be a long night."

The green shapeshifter stepped away from the advancing line of monstrous attacks, placing himself close to the cyborg. "I think I can get half of them. Or more than you can."

Cyborg snorted. "You gotta be dreaming, because I'm going to take out like…ninety percent of them. You can get the stragglers."

"Wanna bet?" Beast Boy challenged back. His buddy was crouching low to the ground, getting ready for a pounce, though with what, who knew?

However, Cyborg smirked. "Loser makes dinner. I'm gonna want a nice, big, juicy steak. Medium. All the fixings. Think you can handle that?"

BB jerked his head up to stare at him, eyes wide. Little guy was a vegetarian, and gambling on cooking up something with meat was really jerking at his chain. However, green eyes narrowed. "So long as you make an all you can eat tofu buffet when I kick your ass, you got a bet."

Tofu? That nasty shit? Alright, so it was on for a nice steak dinner. Screw being at a seventy-five percent charge, he was getting that dinner. There was no way in hell he was whipping up any tofu in this life.

"Game on," he roared, aiming his arm cannon at the closest construct, a bright light emanating from the barrel.

Oh, it was on. It was so on, much like the light right behind them that was glowing brighter…than…his…?

He could see his shadow stretching out in front of him and not at an angle that a streetlight would be capable of. Slowly, he glanced over his shoulder, trusting that his robotic eye would update him if one of the constructs made a mad dash at him.

Standing perpendicular with the street, brighter than anything manmade, and shaped like that one symbol—an ankh! Right?—this…thing seemed to hover slightly off the asphalt. When the hell had that gotten there? And—

A barrage of beams of light fired out of it, bypassing both him and Beast Boy, and tore into the rank and file of the monster brigade. Smaller ankhs grew into existence—the best way he could describe that—fire off a thick beam of their own, then would shrink out of existence only to be replaced by another while the big one continued to do its own thing.

The carnage was quick, constructs damaged enough they began to fall and crumble into nothingness, barely making any whimpers, the lot of them. Cyborg could only watch at the promise of making Beast Boy grill for him was taken away like victory from the jaws of defeat, or in this case defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.

It was over as soon as it had started, and no sooner had that happened when a man stepped out of the ankh. Taller, a combination of gold and blue, a cape flapped about until booted feet stepped on the street and then fell still, and of course this gnarly helmet that crowned the man's head that made it seem like there was no way anyone could see through it yet you knew you were being watched.

He stood tall, powerful, and he didn't seem to be the chatty type. At least, not at first. This man looked through both of them, taking in the scene, then lifted his head up to look at the sky.

You barely heard the metallic ring of a voice against metal say, "For what reason does Raven unleash her full might? This disturbance cannot be ignored."

Cyborg's human eye narrowed, the words managing to break through his awe. "You know something about this? How do you know this is Raven's power?"

He felt eyes he could not see as that helmeted head lowered. "And you assume it is not the girl?"

The cybernetic teen found himself talking before he could stop himself. "Of course I know this is Raven's powers going out of whack. It's not her fault! She wouldn't do this!"

No sooner had he said that, a file was brought to his attention, one from memory. Hey, this wasn't the first time he had seen this guy! It was him, the same one that had appeared out of nowhere back at the Tower, had made this shield that had been so tough none of the team had gotten through it, and he had…talked with Raven. At least, that was what Raven said it was. He himself hadn't heard a thing.

"You're that guy! The one that showed up and blocked us off! Who the hell are you and why are you showing up now?"

"Yeah!" Seemed like BB was able to catch on. "What's the deal and why didn't you show up sooner?" Okay, not quite what he was getting at, but still.

The helmet man held up a hand, another ankh formed in front of it, and then several beams of light fired from it, their aim going above their heads and hitting some flying constructs that broke apart immediately and disintegrated.

Lowering his arm and speaking as if he hadn't done anything special, "I sensed a grave disturbance, one that threatens to upset Order. Someone or something is interfering with Fate, and in such a way that it should not be occurring." Again, the helmeted head lifted up, the man looking away. "Odd, but I do not sense the girl herself. Her power ravages this city, but her mind is not directing it. There is another at work here, one I do not recognize."

Was he starting to ignore them?

"Hey! What're you talking about? Don't just stand there talking all cryptic! What do we gotta do to stop all this?!" Cyborg demanded, raising his voice. He would have waved his arms about, but that might have been overdoing it and be a little too dramatic.

"The answer is obvious, find Raven and stop her," the helmet-wearing man answered, not even looking at him.

No, duh, he could have figured that out on his own. Beast Boy could have figured it out!

"That's what we've been trying to do but we can't find her!" BB argued.

See?

"I am sure you have, but I have other means to do so. Keep yourselves safe or keep fighting, but I will put an end to this." Oh great, he was turning away from them. Nuh uh, no way, not gonna happen.

Not even caring, Cyborg reached out an arm and grabbed the man by his shoulder. "Not without us," he stated, glaring at the helmet-wearing man. "Raven's our friend. We're gonna help her, and if you can find her, then take us with you. We're not abandoning her."

"That's right!" Beast Boy agreed, crossing his arms.

The man looked over his shoulder at the two of them. "This fight is beyond you two."

"So were two alien invasions, but here we are," the cybernetic teen refuted. "You think this is going to be a simple thing? So did we, but here we are. We're coming, so either you can let us follow or we do this the hard way. Your pick. What's it going to be?"

A staring contest followed, though the gold and blue-wearing weirdo would hold up a hand and almost casually obliterate any of the constructs that got too close. Kinda insane, both the lack of effort and the fact that your boy Cyborg here was daring to give a piece of his mind. Damn it, this was Raven, their friend, at stake here and he was sick and tired of letting her down.

One way or the other—

"It would be best to keep you where I can see you instead of you bumbling after me. Very well. If you can keep up, you can follow, but if you fall behind, the consequences will be yours to handle. Such is the consequence of meddling with Fate."

"Dude, Cy said to knock it off with the cryptic stuff and find Raven!" Beast Boy blurted out.

Was it him, or did the helmet wonder here shake his head and mutter that gravitas was lost on the new generation? Whatever. Let's get this show on the road and wake Gotham up from this latest nightmare.

Author's Note: In case it was not clear, Dr. Fate has arrived on the scene and has been burdened with both dreadful responsibility and teenaged belligerence. Hopefully this is a substitute for the Justice League that this situation clearly merits.