East: Clash (Teen Titans: Future Storm)
In which Cerdian goes batshit and the nascent Titans East meet the man who helped start up the original Titans East. Note: This is animated continuity with elements of the comics, not the comics.
Title: Teen Titans: Future Storm
Arc: East
Chapter: Clash
Fandom: Teen Titans (TV/comic hybrid)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Nil
The other five remaining heroic combatants stared at Cerdian with horror in their eyes. Purple-black energy swirled around the Atlantean boy and his eyes were dead white, with black vein-like patterns spider-webbing over his face. The savage expression on his face was even more frightening, the look of a creature looking forward to inflicting as much harm as possible.
The Darkheart looked upon Cerdian’s changed visage, laughing. “Do you really think you can take me, boy? Even with the cursed power percolating in your veins?”
Cerdian’s only answer was the water that suddenly burst forth from the buildings on either side of him, the pressure shattering the windows. The water formed into a tidal wave, hovering above him and ready to crash down on his opponent. He smiled cruelly at the Darkheart before commanding the wave to slam it. The wave crashed down upon the Darkheart, but when it receded, the shadow entity was still standing and looking unharmed.
“Nice try, boy,” the Darkheart sneered. “My turn.” The shadow entity materialized a fiery sword and brought it down on the ground, sending a slicing wave of black fire toward Cerdian. Unfortunately for the Darkheart, the water from the tidal wave formed a protective barrier around Cerdian, dissipating the slicing flame. Undeterred, the Darkheart called forth a rain of black fire, intending to reduce Cerdian to ashes. Just as with the slicing flame, the Atlantean boy’s water shield dissipated the attack.
“A storm of black flame,” Cerdian whispered harshly. “I have a better idea. Let’s make a storm of blood instead.”
The Atlantean mage-prince changed his watery shield into a battering ram of hard water that slammed the Darkheart into the ground. Cerdian wasn’t done with him, though; he wrapped the water around himself and charged the shadow entity at superhuman speed. Upon reaching it, he found that it had quickly risen and it retaliated with a telekinetic attack that sliced through his water field. Undeterred, Cerdian re-formed the water field and used it to pierce the shadow entity in the shoulder.
The Darkheart cried out in pain and the air rippled toward Cerdian, battering his water field. Cerdian simply hardened the water field and the air molecules being pushed at him simply caused it to vibrate harmlessly. Cerdian morphed the water field into the shape of a dragon and it wrapped around the Darkheart, squeezing it. Unfortunately, the Darkheart’s aura expanded to shatter the water dragon and the Darkheart itself attacked Cerdian, who sheathed himself in a field of water vapor.
Both fighters moved at superhuman speeds, striking each other with blows that could easily turn an ordinary human into paste. The Darkheart proved especially relentless as a fighter, milking every momentary advantage he got over Cerdian for all it was worth. For what it was worth, Cerdian simply used his water to block whenever the Darkheart proved too fast for his hands and feet to block. Additionally, Cerdian used his water to lessen the protection the Darkheart’s shadow form afforded it, allowing him to pierce the human body underneath.
The Darkheart chuckled in spite of the pain. “You’re aware there’s a human being in here somewhere and you’re cutting through my power to get to her?”
Cerdian didn’t think that was something worth answering, instead delivering a water-enhanced kick to the Darkheart’s side. The Darkheart grabbed his ankle, only for Cerdian to lift off with the other foot into a kick to the Darkheart’s head, again piercing the shadow entity’s defenses. He flipped, tucked in his legs, and pushed them outward in a brutal double-footed kick that sent the Darkheart flying. Cerdian pursued the Darkheart in its uncontrolled flight, battering it with ferocious, unforgiving blows, each one cutting through its shadow defense.
The mage-prince wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot. The Darkheart still had a lot of suffering to endure for what it had done to Red Hood. To that end, Cerdian continued his savage pummeling of the Darkheart, even when the human inside began begging him to stop.
“S-stop . . . please . . . stop . . .” a plaintive young female voice pleaded.
“Oh, yes,” Cerdian murmured sadistically, morphing the water into a blade. “I’ll stop very soon.”
Suddenly, a telekinetic blast propelled Cerdian some distance away and into a car. Due to being physically denser than a human, the Atlantean mage-prince was able to shrug it off. He rose from the wreckage of the car, only for the Darkheart to attack him once again. Cerdian formed the water into a barrier that blocked the Darkheart’s telekinetic and fiery attacks. He then morphed the water barrier into armor, using it to enhance the power of his blows.
“Crap,” Darkstar uttered as he watched. “I’ve never seen Cerdian like this. Not ever. That look in his eyes . . . that’s not Cerdian. It couldn’t be him, because he’d never be this vicious.”
Cerdian grabbed the Darkheart by the wrist and spun it into a vicious throw that sent it crashing into a nearby building. Cerdian charged through the window and redoubled his assault, only to be thrown out the window by the Darkheart. The mage-prince flipped to his feet, morphing the water armor into a simple field of water that surrounded him. The Darkheart came charging at him, only to be caught in the water field, which enclosed it much like a coffin enclosed a dead body.
“What shall I do with you?” Cerdian wondered with a sadistic gleam in his dead white eyes. “Should I crush you into nothing? Would that be nice?”
“Stop . . .” Red Hood’s voice groaned from behind him. Cerdian turned his head to notice Red Hood walking toward him despite having trouble staying on her feet. Her hood was down, revealing her red-orange curly locks. She continued her unsteady but unrelenting approach. “There’s a human being in there . . . an innocent person subverted by that monster . . . don’t do it. Don’t. Please.”
Cerdian continued to hold the Darkheart in his watery death grip. He silently commanded the water to harden and constrict. The Darkheart cried out in pain as the water field began to form sharp internal protrusions, not unlike an iron maiden. Suddenly, the water field dissipated into vapor, freeing the Darkheart, who took the opportunity to teleport as far away from Cerdian as possible.
Cerdian simply chuckled cruelly. “That creature won’t get far. Not when I can follow teleportation signals.” His hand clenched into a fist and mystical lightning - poisoned by the cursed power - crackled around it. To his surprise, Red Hood grabbed his free hand and looked him in the eyes, her sunglasses off so that crystalline green could meet dead white. He blinked once and his eyes were dark violet again. The web-like vein patterns on his face faded away. “Lian.”
“She’s hurt,” Flamebird said.
“We can’t take her to a hospital,” Darkstar said. “Do you have any idea how many criminals would go after her if they found out she was in the hospital?”
“Where do we go, then?” Flamebird asked.
“There’s another place,” Red Hood replied. “The Titans Tower here. We can go there. It’ll have medical equipment.”
Cerdian created a portal and gently assisted Red Hood through it. The other five young heroes followed them through and when they all emerged on the other side, they were in the Titans Tower formerly used by the Titans East. To their surprise, it looked very much updated. The living areas still looked like living areas, but the Tower was pretty much equipped with the latest technology.
“Somebody’s been using this place,” Kid Flash commented.
“That would be me,” a familiar deep, robust voice answered. The seven teens looked and saw a tall, muscular man with what appeared to be a golden liquid metal body. The liquid metal quickly receded, revealing handsome dark features.
“Hi, Uncle Vic,” Red Hood greeted. “Sorry to come here like this.”
“It’s ok,” Vic Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg, answered. “Just tell your boyfriend to use the door like everyone else next time.”
Cerdian stared long and hard at Vic. “I’m not her boyfriend,” he said.
Vic just smiled in amusement before allowing the nanotechnology within his body to scan Red Hood. “That looks pretty bad. A lot of her ribs are cracked; one of them even looks broken. There’s no internal bleeding, though, so the armor in that outfit must have done some good. Follow me.”
The seven teens followed Vic to the medical ward of Titans Tower. Once there, Vic looked at Red Hood and then at the medical cot. Red Hood was about to lie down on it, but Vic stopped her. Red Hood looked at him questioningly.
“I hope you have a bra on under there,” he said. “If I’m to properly bandage up your ribs, I’ll need that vest off.”
Red Hood just grinned impishly and answered, “Nope, braless. Looks like you’re the lucky man who gets to see me in all my glory.”
“Not quite all your glory,” Vic amended with some embarrassment in his tone. “You can keep the pants.” He looked at the other six. “As for you guys, you don’t need to be here.”
The six teens departed from the medical ward, hanging out just outside it. Darkstar turned to Cerdian and asked, “What the freaking hell was that back there when we were fighting the Darkheart? You were nothing short of vicious, even though you yourself said there was a human being in there! And what was with that aura?”
Flamebird shivered, remembering how that fight had gone. That aura, that look in his eyes, it had chilled her to the bone. Never before had she seen such viciousness, such ferocity, such unrelenting cruelty. The fact that Cerdian was capable of such monstrous behavior scared her.
“A curse,” Cerdian answered. He rubbed the back of his neck, a grim expression on his face. “It’s a curse.”
“And who are you two?” Kid Flash asked, looking at the corset-clad girl and the costumed male with the atom symbol on his chest.
“Lilim,” the corset-clad girl replied. “Lilim Clay.”
“Lilim?” Darkstar asked. “Skinny little Lilim?” He looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her chest. “Whoa. You really filled out.”
“And you?” Flamebird asked the atom-emblazoned male.
“You can call me Micron,” he answered.
“You said the Darkheart murdered your mother,” Flamebird said. “How did that happen?”
“That monster torched my house,” Micron explained. “I was just taking a nap and the smell of smoke awakened me. I tried to get my mother out, but she was already dead by the time I reached her. The house was in flames and there was nothing I could do about it except get out. When I did, I saw this shadowy creature within the flames, the Darkheart, if that’s what unitard kid called him.”
“It’s Cerdian,” the Atlantean boy amended. “And the question is why the Darkheart is targeting us.” He looked at Flamebird suspiciously. “Or more to the point, why it is targeting you.” He narrowed his eyes. “Since when were you able to manipulate fire?”
“It happened during one of my first patrols,” Flamebird admitted. “I underestimated some crooks and I nearly got killed. While I was lying there, passed out from my injuries, I heard a voice speaking to me. It said it would save me, if I accepted it. I said yes and the next thing I knew, I felt . . . warm, like I had some kind of internal heater working overtime. I woke up and my wounds were all healed.”
“Did the voice have a name?” Cerdian asked.
“Fireheart,” Flamebird replied. “It called itself Fireheart.”
“That might explain why it’s after you, but it seemed perfectly inclined to attack the rest of us as well,” Darkstar said. “Not to mention that it torched Micron’s house trying to get at him.”
At that moment, Vic exited the medical ward. The six teens halted their discussion to regard him. Darkstar was the first to speak up, asking, “Will she be ok?”
“Yeah, she will be,” Vic replied. “I advised her to not try anything too strenuous for the next two weeks, but I doubt she’ll listen. Anyway, you can go in and see her now.”
The six went inside the medical ward to greet Red Hood, who had put her jacket vest back on. She grinned impishly at Cerdian and Darkstar. “What’s the matter, guys? Disappointed that you didn’t get to see me topless?”
Darkstar’s face turned red with embarrassment, while Cerdian’s face took on a faint tinge of red in spite of otherwise expressionless demeanor. Red Hood just laughed in their faces, only to wince in pain shortly afterward. “Stupid ribs,” she mumbled.
“I’m . . . glad that you’re all right,” Cerdian said.
Red Hood grinned before turning to Lilim and Micron. “Who might you two be?”
“Micron,” the masked boy with the atom symbol on his chest answered.
“Lilim,” the corset-wearing girl replied.
“Lilim?” Red Hood uttered in shock. “Little Lilim? Twiggy Lilim?” She examined the corset-clad girl very closely. “I guess I can’t call you either of those names any more.”
“Bobby said something like that when I told him,” Lilim replied. “He couldn’t stop looking at my chest. In fact, he’s staring at it right now.”
Darkstar groaned as everyone - save Cerdian - had a good laugh at his expense. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, glaring particularly at Cerdian and Micron. “As if you weren’t looking.”
“I wasn’t,” Cerdian answered simply.
“Me, neither,” Micron piped up.
“Liars, the both of you,” Darkstar griped.
“Why are we liars?” Cerdian asked irritably.
“Because you are!” Darkstar answered. “Either that, or you’re asexual or gay, not that there’s anything wrong with either.”
Cerdian rolled his eyes, as did Micron under his mask. Lilim just looked at them both and commented, “Never met a guy who could resist the urge to check me out.”
“Believe it or not, you’re not that impressive,” Red Hood derided the platinum blonde.
“Ok, that’s enough of that,” Vic said. “Now I have to ask, what happened out there?”
“We got our asses kicked,” Red Hood replied. “Pure and simple. Some kind of shadow creature attacked us and nothing we did stopped it. Cerdian was the only one who could hurt him at all and that was while under some kind of demonic influence.” She shivered slightly. “I don’t want to see him turn into that monster again.”
“Did you all try to fight him separately or together?” Vic asked.
A chastised Flamebird spoke for all of them. “Separately.”
“Well, you can’t do that,” Vic said. “Not if you expect to live. Operating like seven individuals instead of a team isn’t going to cut it against the enemies you’ll be facing in the future.”
“And what makes you think we’re staying together after this?” Darkstar asked with an edge of defiance in his tone.
“Bobby, you’re with the Darkstars now, right?” Vic asked. “Do they let you operate by yourself?”
“Not a lot of time,” Darkstar admitted. “They usually pair me with a more experienced member or several of us together will go to a trouble spot.”
“And why is that?” Vic asked.
“To promote teamwork,” Darkstar replied with no trace of his earlier defiance. “We’re not just a collection of individuals; we’re a single force and we have to act like it.”
“Exactly,” Vic confirmed with a grin, satisfied that at least one of the seven teens understood what he was trying to teach them.
“We found out something about the Darkheart,” Kid Flash offered. “For one thing, it has an enemy, the Fireheart. For another, the Fireheart’s inside Flamebird and that’s why the Darkheart is after her. What we don’t get is why it’s after the rest of us, too, if Flamebird is all it wants.”
“Does it matter?” Flamebird asked crossly.
“No, it doesn’t,” Vic answered. “Anyway, the seven of you look like crap, so you might as well get some rest. There’re some rooms down the corridor for you to stay in.”
“Thanks,” Red Hood spoke for them.
The seven teens departed to find a room, all except Cerdian, who made a beeline to the pool. He dived into it and began swimming, moving swiftly and gracefully underneath its surface. As he swam, he cursed himself for letting the monster inside him loose and cursed the fiend who had put that monster there. He kept swimming, pushing himself to his limits and once those limits had been reached, pushing himself beyond them. If it hadn’t been for Lian, he remembered, he would have killed the innocent that the Darkheart currently possessed. He pushed himself for one more lap, and one more lap, and one more lap . . . until he collapsed in the water and faded into a dead sleep.
When Cerdian awakened, he rose to the surface, only to notice a pair of black boots at the edge of the pool. He looked up and saw that it was Lilim, wearing a closed leather jacket with a black-feathered wing-like fringe extending from her right wrist. The leather briefs and thigh-high boots from when he’d first seen her were still present.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Vic wants to see us,” Lilim replied. “We still have some time to kill before he comes looking.”
“And what does that mean?” Cerdian questioned.
“You seem to be under a lot of stress,” Lilim replied. Her voice took on a low, sensuous tone as she began to idly run her finger along the pool’s surface. “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I helped you relieve it, right?”
Cerdian hated to admit it, but he was a lot more tempted than he appeared. However, he squashed that emotion and answered, “I’m perfectly capable of relieving my own tension.”
Lilim leaned closer to Cerdian, as close as she could go without falling into the water. “Do you mean to tell me that you aren’t even slightly tempted?” she asked.
Cerdian simply willed the water to lift him out of the pool and onto the floor around it. He began walking out, Lilim following him. “We don’t have time for that kind of dalliance,” he said. As they walked, Lilim smiled behind his back. He might have won this round, but seduction was often a game of attrition and the young succubus knew how to tear down a man’s defenses and inhibitions.
In the War Room, Vic and the other five young heroes turned to notice that Cerdian and Lilim had finally arrived. Red Hood noticed that Lilim was standing very close to Cerdian and her eyes narrowed underneath her sunglasses. “Glad you could make it,” Vic said to the two.
“Hey, what took you so long?” Darkstar asked. “Were you two getting acquainted?” He emphasized “acquainted” as though it were a euphemism for something less than completely decent.
“Nothing of the sort,” Cerdian answered acidly.
“Not that I would mind getting ‘acquainted’ with him,” Lilim added with a smirk. “He seems like a very interesting nut to crack.” She emphasized “nut to crack” as though she wanted to say something less suitable to be heard by children. The deepening smirk on her face only confirmed it, much to Red Hood’s disgust.
“Oh, you wouldn’t be able to crack that nut,” Darkstar remarked. “He’s a little on the frigid side.”
Lilim suddenly appeared behind Darkstar and placed her hands on his shoulders, rubbing them. “I like a challenge, Bobby,” she whispered in his ear, eliciting a shiver and blush from him. Red Hood looked on with a glare beneath her sunglasses.
“Ok, that’s enough of that,” Vic said. “Lilim, you can save the shoulder rubs for downtime. I’ve been checking in with Raven, trying to find out everything I can about this Darkheart thing, and the Fireheart along with it. She described them as twins, opposite yet identical. The Fireheart is a celestial force that acts as a ‘cleansing flame.’ The Darkheart, on the other hand, is a corruptive demonic force. They both act in a symbiotic manner, attaching themselves to hosts, but the Fireheart fuses with its host while the Darkheart simply takes control. Worse, the Darkheart ultimately burns away everything the host ever was.”
“Then we have to free whoever it’s possessing!” Kid Flash exclaimed. “Before it’s too late!”
“There’s something else,” Cerdian interjected. “When I looked at the Darkheart with Clear Sight, I sensed that it was not the sole possessing force inside its host. There was another presence, but its evil was more human, more personal. That presence momentarily became the dominant one when the Darkheart spotted Lilim.”
“Sounds like someone has a grudge against you, Lil,” Kid Flash remarked. “But who? A jilted boyfriend?”
“She probably has a lot of those lined up already,” Red Hood sneered uncharitably, only to receive a raised middle finger from Lilim in response.
“Hey, we’re not going to have any of that in here,” Vic said. “As long as the seven of you are working together, you’re going to respect each other. By the way, last night’s fight ended up on the news. It’s circulating throughout the NewsNet feeds.” He pressed a button and the screen showed video footage of the fight.
“As this video shows, several teenage metahumans confronted another metahuman that seemed to be composed of shadow,” a reporter narrated. “The fight led to tremendous property damage, particularly when one of the teens ruptured all the water pipes within the area and used the water as a weapon against the shadow meta through some kind of psychokinetic power. The sudden rush of water led to flood damage and nearly drowned everyone unfortunate enough to be inside those buildings when the pipes ruptured. Fortunately, it was only property that was seriously damaged and not people.”
“Thank you, Alexa,” another reporter spoke. “Years ago, Steel City was home to the East Coast branch of the young superheroes known as the Teen Titans. During the fight, we saw the offspring of some of the Titans East, such as Red Hood, who has taken up her father Arsenal’s bow and arrow. The mysterious water manipulator is certainly the son of Tempest. The question then becomes, ‘Will there be a new Titans East?’ After all, the West Coast branch of the Titans has been active for almost two years now, so maybe it’s time the Titans East had their own resurgence.”
Vic turned off the screen. “Maybe that reporter is right. Maybe the Titans East do need to come back together. First things first, what were you thinking rupturing every single water pipe in the area, Cerdian? Those people could have drowned!”
“I wasn’t thinking,” Cerdian answered bluntly. “I don’t think much of anything when it happens, except for the blood of my enemies coating my skin.”
“When what happens?” Vic inquired. “Does it have anything to do with that freaky aura and those markings on your face when you fought the Darkheart?”
Cerdian turned around and pulled at the back of his wetsuit’s neck. The seam split apart and he continued pulling until his neck was completely exposed. Vic and the other six teens could see a black marking on the back of his neck. It resembled the internationally recognized biohazard symbol, only more triangular than circular. A diamond shape framed the symbol.
“What the hell is that?” Kid Flash asked.
“The curse I spoke of,” Cerdian replied. “My father’s uncle branded me with it five years ago. My father managed to restrain its power, but the restraints could only be maintained by my will. Should I give in to anger, fear, hatred, or uncertainty, the restraints will crumble and I will be engulfed by the curse’s power.”
“The curse doesn’t seem entirely detrimental,” Darkstar commented. “While it was active, you were way stronger than you normally are, but you were frightening to watch.”
“My strength, speed, and mystical ability increase fivefold when the curse is active,” Cerdian admitted. “Unfortunately, the curse also perverts my thinking. It fills me with a hunger for the blood of my enemies and makes me liable to lash out at anyone that gets in the way of that.”
“Explains why you’ve spent the past few years being such an ass,” Darkstar concluded with a chastised tone in his voice. “Holding back that kind of power couldn’t have been easy.”
“If the seven of you are gonna be the new Titans East -” Vic started to say, but Lilim cut him off.
“Who said any of us were going to become Titans?” she asked.
“The door’s always available if you want out,” Red Hood sniped.
It took only one look at Cerdian for Lilim to make her decision. “Heh,” she said. “Might as well stick around.” She smirked nastily at Red Hood, as if to say that she wasn’t going to give the archer the satisfaction of seeing her walk away.
“I’ve got nowhere to go, anyway,” Micron said morosely. “Not with my mother dead and my house burned down.”
“Most of you have been at this long enough to have some idea what you’re doing, but you could use further training,” Vic said. “Plus, you need a way to keep in touch with each other and me.” He pressed a button and a drawer opened, revealing seven Titans communicators.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say this played right into your hands,” Red Hood said. “You’ve been looking to restart the Titans East, haven’t you?”
“I was going to start recruiting, but you guys just dropped into my lap,” Vic remarked with a grin. He blushed when Lilim sent a flirtatious wink his way. “Serendipity, isn’t it?”