Lincoln's eyes fluttered awake as he found himself on a bed in Titan's Tower's medical bay. He sat up to see his sister laying in the bed right next to him an took a moment to try and recall what had happened to him. But, that was when Starfire came in; maybe with her, his questions could be answered.
"Glad to see you awake, Lincoln." She said with a smile on her face. "You had been out for some time."
"W-Wh...What happened?" Was all he managed to get out.
"Do you not recall the battle at the amusement park? Chandler poisoned you and Lucy with a great amount of red kryptonite, which was able to do what standard kryptonite couldn't do to you."
That would explain why he still felt a tad it weak, and the major headache he's just now getting.
"You had been unconscious for almost a week." Starfire stated, shocking Lincoln as he tried to get up and go see how his sister was doing. His strength was just about as normal for any other human his age, so he didn't feel that bad he got up to the bed and shook Lucy awake.
"Lucy. Lucy, wake up." Fortunately, his gothic sister did respond as she turned and faced him.
"Mmm...brother...it seems we do have weaknesses afterall." She remarked in a rather raspy tone. Raspy even for Lucy. "Sigh...and I was just starting to believe that we could handle anything that comes our way."
Lincoln comforted his sister and said to her "It was just something we weren't ready for. Next time, we will be. We just need to get stronger, better at handling a situation where the odds may be against us."
"I couldn't have said it any better myself." Starfire replied as she walked up to the two. "Which is why we are going to do some serious training to get you back up full strength, and then, even higher than that. Starting now."
Both kids looked at each other before looking back at their mentor. She wasn't kidding as they soon found themselves at in the training area of the Tower. Specifically designed by Nightwing, it really did its job at pushing a personal, normal or meta, to their limits. They were at it against Starfire, who was leading the training regimen, and sparring match over the obstacle course which had loads of traps...such as trap doors, shifting walls, pistons, spikes, flame jets, spiked logs.
"Okay, who was the psychopath who designed this thing?" Lincoln said as he caught one of the logs with his hand.
Dodging a barrage of spikes, Starfire replied "D* did have a...strange phase growing up. Unfortunately, we all did, but we eventually grew out of it, at least, and eventually grew to appreciate he design. It actually is rather fun when you take it seriously."
Lucy tried to attack Starfire from behind, but the Tamaranian was too fast and moved to the side, catching Lucy in her fast punch before throwing her down the barrage of pistons coming of the walls.
"Sometimes, I wish I had access to magic if I wasn't half Kryptonian." She remarked as a piston tried to hit her in the head at breakneck speed, only for her to be faster and push it back into the wall.
"Well, you never really know, Lucy." Starfire said to her. "Since green kryptonite has no effect on you, yet red kryptonite does, surely that means that there is a limit to how much magic you can endure before you suffer weakening effects."
Both Kryptonians then came up on Starfire and attacked her head on. Both of their punches and kicks were matched, step by step against Starfire's own techniques and even their abilities, such as heat vision and freeze breath were meet with her lazer eyes and starbolts. Their superstrength had fully returned during this time and they were catching up quickly to Star's tactics and combos, and all throughout their training, their mentor knew that her pupils were getting better by the second.
Pretty soon, they had her on her knees, skitting across the floor from a huge punch. They were both coming in for another attack, but Star suddenly caught their fists as if they were nothing.
"You've both have been doing well." She said as she yielded and got back on her feet. "Keep this up, and you may surprass even me."
They both smiled at that, continuing to realize that greatness, much more than they could ever imagine, was most definitely in their future. But they didn't have time to think about it as the alarm went off in the Tower. An Emergency was taking place and the three of them raced to the meeting room where the rest of the Titans were already seeing on monitor what the situation was going on. Chandler and the Doom Kids were at it again, terrorizing Royal Woods like its their own personal playground.
"That psychotic ginger doesn't know when to quit, does he?" Damian remarked, and everyone looked at him weirdly. Mostly because of the 'term' he used. They all had friends who were redheads, and Chandler had auburn head, so he didn't exactly count. Not to mention, that insult was offensive and cliche. He almost immediately regretted saying afterward once he saw the looks he was getting. "Was it something I said?"
"I'd rather you stick to being the strong silent type, Robin." Ronnie Anne, the Blue Beetle remarked.
"They very, very silent type." Sid added.
"Moving on from that, anyone knows how Chandler managed to recover his team so quickly? Starfire briefed us on that they're one person down."
"And your folks were nice enough to take in their now forsaken team member." Haiku answered. "But is the most concerning part, one that especially concerns me with how he pulled it off."
That is when they began to see footage of how this attack took place. It came a surprise when they saw a huge come out of nowhere and start crashing down on one side of the town. While Lincoln was relieved that it was nowhere near where any of his old friends lived, this was still a huge concern since that wave destroyed homes, businesses, hurt people and may have done worse than that.
"That was something only my father's people could've pulled off." Haiku stated. "And no self-respecting Atlantean would dare to attack the surface like this, out of honoring the truce we have with it...unless it was someone who really hated the surface."
"And the only few people who would do that are the few enemies in your father's rogue gallery." Dana stated.
"Chandler's father, Lex Luthor, must've recruited an Atlantean to pull this off." Raven stated. "Black Manta's already been apprehended, so there's only one other person who could do this."
"Ocean Master." Haiku completed the thought.
"Let's not waste any more time then." Lincoln said with seriousness in his voice. "Titans, Go!"
"Spoken like a true leader, Lincoln." Starfire said with a smile on her face. And with that, the Titans took off...
Meanwhile, Chandler was piloting a hovercraft over the destruction of one-quarter of Royal Woods. The new recruit for the Legion of Doom's Junior Division was already proving themselves to be the most inspired choice. If he can get more members like this, then no one would dare to stand in his way or that of his father's
"Sphinx and those two clones were such disappointments. That's for sure." He said to himself. "But she's working out quite nicely."
"Stay focused, you little twerp." his new mentor, Blackfire spoke through a com link. "My sister and her band of misfits will be here any second now."
"I'm counting on it. In 3-2-1..."
Right on time, the Titans showed up on the scene to confront Chandler and his Team...or lack thereof. Seemed like McCann wanted to settle things with only himself and his newest teammate, as the son of Luthor stared down at the Titans from his hovercraft.
"Still playing with big boy toys, Chandler?" Lincoln remarked. "You really don't know when to quit!"
"Don't you like it? Had to upgrade since you kept wrecking my dad's mechs. But, it didn't give me a chance to talk to him about expanding our team and he's taken the liberty of getting me some members that can actually fight worth damn! As you can see, they already did a number around your home!"
"What sort of Atlantean would work with you?" Haiku asked, but then, she was met with a blast of water coming at her.
"The kind that knows when an abomination sits as the heir to the throne." spoke a female voice, almost way too similar to Haiku's but with an english accent. That is when the newest recruit revealed herself, and her appearance was a shock to the Titans. For they were looking at a clone of Haiku, exact features and all, except for the fact this girl was blonde, was a different shade of pale and wore a light-blue one-piece swimsuit with long sleeves with silver armor.
Basically, she looked like Haiku if she was living her worst nightmares.
"Who the heck?" The original asked, in shock herself.
"Surprised to see me, cousin?" The clone said, surprising everyone call Haiku cousin. "Well, don't be. I am merely just offspring of the one whose birthright was stolen from by you. Perhaps you've heard of my father, Orm Marius."
"Ocean Master?" Lucy asked.
"Since the Great Aquaman stripped my father of his right as King, he has been shunned and exiled, waiting for the day to rise again. He went as far as to join himself with a peasant girl from the surface. And they begot me. I am Aqua..."
That is when, rising above their heads, overshadowing the already destroyed part of the town, another monster wave arose out of nowhere, brought along by the Daughter of Orm's power.
"...And I am my father's vengeance!"
The Titans were quickly forced to disperse as the wave was brought down and flooded the whole place again. All the fliers took the air while Sid and Robin took to whatever rooftops were below the surface. Haiku stood where she was, able to handle the wave. If this new cousin of hers wants to settle some score, then she was more than happy to oblige. Meanwhile, Lincoln got up to Chandler's hovercraft and gripped at its windshield while giving his enemy the stinkeye.
"Chandler stop this! Royal Woods was once your home! Why are you trying to destroy it!"
"I'm a Luthor, Larry! I don't want to waste my time in a backwater time like this!" That is when Chandler gripped the controls and started to take action by shaking Lincoln off and getting the son of Superman in a dogfight. Meanwhile, the rest of the Titans were looking for a bit of a fight themselves, they were surprised to see something else come out of the water, Atlanteans, the scaley ones. Colored blue and with red eyes with menacingly dark armor, they were loyalists of Ocean Master, and where therefore a major threats, since Orm's loyalists were some of Atlantis' finest commandoes, they were the best. So it was safe to say that the Titans had their hands full just trying to take them down; they fought with great efficiency and without relenting.
"Sometimes, I almost miss when it was just goons who were desperate to line their pockets." Robin said as he swung his sword at a soldier's blade, countering it as Donna fought beside him, punching a soldier back into the flooded town, and she said "I could see why my people have been at war with these fish guys in the past."
Blue Beetle and Sid were also on a rooftop, getting the Atlanteans to back off as much as they could, but they were boxing them in much faster.
"I hate to say it, but we're out of her element here!" Sid said as she dodged a blast from one of their rifles. Nearly knocked her off the building, but she held her balance and continued to fight against the continuously multiplying soldiers. "And overrun! We need help!"
Her call was answered when Lucy and Starfire flew in together and knocked away all the Atlanteans surrounding them.
"I agree. This may be something you're not ready for." Starfire remarked as she got into the fight herself.
And all the while, Haiku and her new cousin, Aqua were squaring it up against each other in the water, but literally in their element. Both of them having the power over water, but it seems Aqua had an advantage over that, having better control than Haiku and greater strength as she manipulated a massive body of water, equaling the power of Mera.
"You've barely spent months underwater, I've lived my whole life in it." She taunted as she pushed Haiku with another wave of water, pinning her against the ground until she decided to opening up the flooded town, having the waves circle around her and her cousin in a makeshift arena. "You though yourself worthy of being an heir to the throne? My father was right about you. Your existence dishonors us."
"Well, now...that's the pot calling the kettle black." Bringing her own powers back up, Haiku used a hydro slash and managed to cut her cousin on the left side of her face. This staggered Aqua, made her lose focus and allowed Haiku to pounce on her as the water closed up again.
Heading back to Lincoln and Chandler, the Latter was chasing after the Former with a Red Kryptonite ray, hoping the taking him down here and now, but Lincoln wasn't gonna let this newfound weakness get the better of him a second time.
"You're making this too easy, Lincoln!" Chandler yelled out, having a blast, literally.
"And you're making this annoying!" The son of Superman yelled out, having enough of this as he used his heat vision and took out one of the jet engines. Chandler panicked as he tried to steady his craft and get it going back up. This allowed Lincoln to look back down to see the water subsiding. Haiku was now towering over her downed cousin with two spearheads (which Aqua secretly tried to kill her with) in hand. The rest of the Titans had taken down their share of Atlanteans, who were forced to retreat as Aqua's flood was now turning back into dry land. Seeing that their work was done, Lincoln rejoined them on solid ground.
"Well, gotta say that this was surprising." he told them. "But at least we got them."
"Not quite yet, boy!"
Hearing that familiar voice made Starfire turn to see her 'beloved' big sister, Blackfire standing on top of a building before jumping down and sending her first to the ground. A shockwave happened, sending all the Titans flying and crashing into debris. Satisfied with her handiwork, Blackfire strutted over to the siblings, looking down at both of them before picking up Lucy and hoisting her over her shoulder.
"Just had to soften you up so that I could punch in." She joked before starting to fly away, but Lincoln was recovering quickly to see her kidnapping his sister. "I'll be sure that you proves useful. You can thank me later."
Unfortunately, he didn't have enough energy to take off after her, and could must enough energy to angrily fire his heat vision at her. Starfire crawled over to him, watching as he struggled to concentrate his beams at her. Lincoln roared in frustration, exhaustion, but most of all, sadness, as he couldn't keep firing anymore. He began to cry, knowing full well that he failed to save his sister.
"We will save her, Lincoln." Starfire said to him as she comforted him. "...I promise you."
