Titans: Legacies (Chapter 8)
Title: Titans: Legacies
Chapter 8: Down with the Nightmare
Author: V5_Vendetta
Fandom: Teen Titans
Disclaimer: DC's, not mine.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Titans and Reverse-Titans throw down.
Warning: Things get somewhat nasty here, in terms of the violence quotient. Not for the squeamish.
Red Hood and Black Canary drew loaded crossbows, pointing them at Quincy and Oni, who aimed their arrows at the two girls. Nightstar’s hands smoked with building power, while Robin drew his jian. Superboy, Excel, and Impulse stood in fighting poses, anticipating an attack from their opponents. A trans-portal opened and Tsunami stepped out with a grim expression on his face.
“Sorry I’m late. Mother was keeping me.”
“Isn’t that sweet?” Deathstroke mocked. “You have a mother that wants to protect you. Good for her. I’ll send her your corpse.”
Ultrawoman smirked cruelly when she saw Superboy. “Back to being the good little Super-p#$$&? Too bad. I liked you better when you were being bad.”
“Things have changed,” Superboy answered. “Not that I’d expect you to understand.”
“What’s the point of all this?” Nightstar asked. “What do you want with us?”
“Simply put, I want you dead,” Deathstroke responded curtly. “I want your parents to suffer as I have suffered.”
Nightstar barked out a harsh laugh. “You brought all that on yourself.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” Deathstroke replied. “But that’s all right. I only expect you to die.”
“The only one who’s going to die is you!” Robin roared, lunging at Deathstroke with his jian extended. Deathstroke drew his broadsword and blocked Robin’s jian.
“Vicious little boy, aren’t you?”
“It’s how you survive in this world. You know that already.”
“Titans Together!” Nightstar shouted.
The battle was joined.
Red Hood and Black Canary fought the assassin archers, dodging their arrows and retaliating with crossbow bolts. Tsunami fought Lyta, psychic vectors clashing with mystical lightning. Superboy and Ultrawoman traded blows in midair. Nightstar fought Executrix and Clayface, while the speedsters of both teams went up against each other. Robin continued to battle Deathstroke, albeit a one-sided battle.
“You’re good . . .” Deathstroke admitted. “But I’m better. It’s not your fault, really; I’ve just lived a lot longer than you have.”
“Doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived,” Robin snarled, as he barely parried another slash from Deathstroke’s sword. “I’m still going to kill you.”
“Really? Is your precious Nightstar really going to allow you to do that?”
“You shut the f#$& up about her.” He swung at Deathstroke, only for Deathstroke to easily block his sword and force him to the ground.
“Ah. I wonder if she knows how you feel for her. How many nights have you awoken in a cold sweat, with the only conscious thought on your mind being her?”
Robin snarled and rose to his feet, slashing at Deathstroke, who mockingly parried his sword before slamming his elbow into his stomach. Pressing his advantage, Deathstroke slammed his elbow into Robin’s back, knocking him to the ground.
“For the record, Grayson lasted longer than you.”
Robin pulled several three-pointed shuriken out of his utility belt and threw them at Deathstroke, who evaded with lightning reflexes. He slashed at Robin, who barely rolled out of the way and retaliated with a slash of his sword. Deathstroke blocked Robin’s slash and kicked him in the ribcage, knocking him down. Robin rolled to his feet and threw explosive Batarangs at Deathstroke, who caught them all and threw them back at him. Robin tried to dodge, but the explosions came close enough to knock him around a tad. Fortunately, his armor cushioned him from the worst of the impact and he was quickly ready to fight again.
“You really expect to be able to kill me, performing like that?” Deathstroke taunted.
A feral smile crossed Robin’s face. “Absolutely.” He lunged at Deathstroke with his sword extended, only for Deathstroke to parry his attack. This time, Robin pulled three R-shuriken out of his belt and threw them at Deathstroke’s face, aiming for the black side of his mask. The mercenary tilted his head to evade and catch the shuriken, but Robin lunged into his blind side and slashed him.
“Excellent use of misdirection,” Deathstroke hissed, just before kicking Robin in the stomach.
Meanwhile, Clayface extended his arms toward Nightstar as battering rams, only for Nightstar to slice them off with starbolt-enhanced chops. Executrix flipped over Clayface and came down with her katana for a slash, which Nightstar blocked with one of her bracers, kicking Executrix in the stomach. Executrix fell back into Clayface, only for Clayface to bounce her off him, allowing her to spring into a flying kick, which Nightstar blocked. Executrix went into a handstand that turned into a backward flip that put her back on her feet.
“Who are you?” Nightstar asked her.
“You don’t need to know,” Executrix replied. “No one needs to know.” She sprinted into a sword attack on Nightstar, who blocked her slashes with her bracers. Upon one block, Nightstar used her free hand to shoot a starbolt at Executrix, whose armor absorbed enough of the damage to let her live, only she still ended up flying off her feet. Executrix twisted in midair and landed on her feet, slashing at Nightstar again.
Nightstar avoided Executrix’s slashes and flipped over her, twirling in midair for a roundhouse kick to the back of her head. Unfortunately for her, Executrix whirled and caught her ankle, spinning her into a hard throw that sent her crashing near the entrance of Titans Lair. Nightstar rose to her feet and fired a starbolt at Executrix, who evaded and launched herself into the air for a flying kick. Nightstar blocked the kick by raising her bracer, but Executrix flipped over her head and whirled into a kick that Nightstar blocked. Nightstar followed up with a starbolt-enhanced palm strike to Executrix’s stomach, sending her flying.
Executrix rose to her feet with a smoking hole burned into the outer layer of her uniform, just in time for Clayface to envelop Nightstar. Executrix stalked toward Clayface with her katana at her side, her body language reeking of murderous intent. Just before she could confront the amorphous shape-shifter, said shape-shifter burst apart in an explosion of purple light, heat, and force, knocking Executrix off her feet. When she got up, she saw a somewhat muddy Nightstar glaring furiously at her.
“Come,” Executrix challenged.
Red Hood and Black Canary fired exploding bolts at Quincy and Oni, who dodged their assaults and retaliated with their arrows. Black Canary caught their arrows with inhuman speed while Red Hood dodged and returned fire. Quincy fired an explosive arrow at Red Hood, who dodged just in time for the explosion to knock her to her side. Never one to waste time, she rolled onto her back, drew her bow, and prepared and fired a restraint arrow at Quincy.
Oni fired an arrow at Black Canary, who caught it and tossed it aside, running toward him. Oni fired more arrows, but Black Canary dodged or caught them all until she was close enough, at which point she dived into a roll and sprang up with an uppercut to Oni’s chin. Oni fell to the ground and didn’t get up immediately, but get up he eventually did.
“Sister . . .” he growled dangerously.
“Doesn’t matter, ‘brother,’” Black Canary answered. “You’re trying to destroy my family. I’m not going to let you do that.”
Oni recovered his bow and fired another arrow at Black Canary, who rolled to the side to evade. Oni simply followed her movements, fast as they were, and fired at her again. Black Canary caught his arrow and lunged at him with Excalibur’s blade extended. Oni blocked the blade with his bow, only for Black Canary to push against him, trying to force him to give way. Oni struggled to remain upright, even though his knees were buckling from the force of Black Canary’s sword. Finally, with a burst of desperate strength, he pushed back against her, only she flipped backward and extended her blade to cut the string of his bow.
Oni threw his bow aside and extended the blade hidden in his gauntlet. He lunged at Black Canary, who blocked his blade with her own. She swung her leg up to kick him in the stomach, following up with a slash of her blade. Oni barely managed to block his sister’s slash, but she performed a flipping cartwheel over his head and whirled into a roundhouse kick. Oni blocked, but the kick came with such force that it cracked his wrist despite the bracer’s protection.
Black Canary twirled into another kick, which clipped Oni in the side of his head. While he was disoriented, Black Canary pressed her advantage with hard and fast punches, only for another arrow to fly in her direction. Without looking at the arrow, she caught it and whirled to face Quincy.
“Want this back?” she taunted and threw it at Quincy, who dodged just before it could explode. The explosion knocked him off-balance, but he quickly drew his guns and began firing at Black Canary, who dodged his bullets with superhuman celerity. She drew her crossbow again and returned fire with exploding bolts, which Quincy dodged.
Superboy and Ultrawoman traded vicious punches in midair, zipping around each other at super-speed to get into proper position to retaliate and evade. Superboy was using his Phantom Zone projector implants to dimensionally shift out of the way of Ultrawoman’s attacks and retaliate faster than even she could see, but that advantage didn’t last forever. When he emerged from yet another spatial warp to attack, she whirled with phenomenal speed and punched him.
“How . . . ?”
Ultrawoman smirked. “I can see past dimensional barriers.”
Superboy snarled and went into a high-velocity attack on Ultrawoman, augmented by his strength and the spatial shifting technology implanted inside him. Ultrawoman managed to block most of his attacks, but a few still got through her defenses. No matter, it just spurred her to fight harder and more viciously. Finally, she caught him by the wrist when he attempted to punch her again, only for a sunstone spike to emerge from his wrist and pierce her palm. Ultrawoman kicked Superboy off her at the same time she was pulling her hand off his spike, said hand quickly regenerating.
Just as Superboy was recovering from the attack, he was suddenly attacked by a super-speeding Ultrawoman. In fact, she was moving so fast that she seemed to be in several places at once, even to his heightened vision. It was everything he could do just to block her attacks, let alone retaliate.
What is she? Superboy wondered. How is she moving so fast?
“It’s called quickstep, in case you’re wondering,” Ultrawoman explained. “It’s a special form of hypervelocity combat. Johnny Quick taught me.”
“You’re not from this world, are you?” Superboy deduced.
“Nope!” Ultrawoman confirmed with a vicious smile. “I’m from a much cooler place!”
“A world where evil rules is not cool!” Superboy launched himself into his own version of quickstep, fusing his super-speed with his spatial shifting.
“Hell, yeah!” Ultrawoman was psychotically overjoyed. “Come on, baby boy! Hit me with your best shot!”
“As you wish.”
The battle was on now, with Superboy and Ultrawoman both moving at impossibly superhuman speeds as they attacked and evaded. Ultrawoman launched herself into the air and came down battering Superboy with a vicious pirouette. At the last second, Superboy managed to catch her leg and throw her, but she flipped backwards to control her propulsion and shot herself at Superboy like a bullet. Superboy crossed his arms and projected sunstone spikes out of his forearms to block, but Ultrawoman punched through the spikes and slammed him to the ground.
Superboy used his legs to flip Ultrawoman off him, and she twisted in midair, firing heat vision at him. Superboy shifted between the Phantom Zone and this dimension, rendering himself insubstantial and thus immune to heat vision. When he re-substantiated, he jumped up to catch Ultrawoman’s punch and toss her. Of course, she shrugged it off and twisted in midair to attack him again, this time kicking him in the chest. As he flew back, Ultrawoman sped up to him and punched him, propelling him even further.
“You know, you’re actually a lot better than I thought you’d be. Wanna shag sometime?”
Superboy was positively appalled. “NO!”
“It’s not like you really have a say in the matter. I was just trying to be nice.” A cruel smirk marred her otherwise lovely features.
“You, nice?” Superboy’s expression betrayed utter disbelief.
“Yeah. I’m capable of it. I just choose not to.” She laughed insanely. “Now come on and give me some sugar!”
“Here’s your sugar!” Superboy went into a quickstep attack on her, which only amused Ultrawoman.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” she cheered madly. “Now it’s my turn to give you some!”
Ultrawoman retaliated with her own quickstep, trading blows with Superboy so viciously anyone who saw her would be surprised that she considered it “merely foreplay.” Superboy let off a close-range blast of heat vision at Ultrawoman, whose response was to cry out in almost rapturous delight. When the blast petered out, she remained standing, albeit smoking, with a deranged smile on her face just before unleashing her own heat vision attack on Superboy. The blast knocked Superboy for a loop and while he was disoriented, Ultrawoman quickstepped all over him, finishing with a vicious kick that knocked him to the ground.
She gave him no time to recover, grabbing him by his hair and yanking him up for use as a living punching bag. Unfortunately for her, he grabbed her fist and punched her as hard as he had it in him to do, which sent her flying. Superboy flew after her, pursuing her with a series of super-speed punches which she struggled to block.
“You’re going to make an excellent boy toy,” Ultrawoman remarked cruelly.
“I hate to admit it, but I’m enjoying this fight,” Superboy snarled. “You know what it’s like, don’t you, to live in a world that feels like it’s made out of cardboard and tissue paper. To feel like you have to constantly be careful of every move you make, or else you could kill someone. Oh, wait. You don’t care about those things at all, do you? Dumb fool me, wanting to empathize with a psychopath. But even though you are a psychopath, you’re possibly the only one who can make me feel like this . . .”
“How sweet,” Ultrawoman purred. “I almost feel like I could fall in love with you, too. Oh, wait. I don’t do love.”
Excel and Impulse dashed all over the area surrounding Titans Lair fighting Savitrix and Inertia, trading fast and furious blows. They moved so quickly that they were invisible to the naked eye as anything except blurs of color and light. “So you can keep up now? What happened? Daddy Flash upgrade you?” Inertia taunted.
Impulse’s response was to simply disappear into the Speed Force and reemerge with a punch aimed at the back of Inertia’s head. Inertia tilted his head to evade and threw himself into a cartwheel-kick that knocked Impulse for a loop. Impulse quickly recovered, but the time he should have been taking was occupied by fending off Inertia’s super-speed attacks.
Savitrix anticipated that her kinetic draining field would protect her from Excel’s attacks. To her shock, though, Excel’s attacks were still getting through with enough force to hurt her. Excel merely smirked in satisfied amusement. “What’s wrong? Wondering why I’m whipping your ass?”
Savitrix snarled. “You’re not using your own speed . . . you’re manipulating the speed of the tachyons around you.”
“Exactly!” Excel crowed, accenting it with another punch to Savitrix’s jaw. “You’d drain my speed if I used it, so I resorted to manipulating the speed of the time acting directly on my person.”
“You . . .” Savitrix hissed and lunged into a quickstep. Excel blocked Savitrix’s attacks and retaliated with a quickstep of her own.
“You’re not so tough when you can’t just suck the speed out of other people, are you?” Excel mocked.
As his older twin continued to fight Savitrix, Impulse continued fighting against the twisted reflection of his predecessor. Inertia dodged as many of Impulse’s attacks as he could, but Impulse was coming at him faster and harder than he’d anticipated. The two speedsters darted all over the combat area, attacking, evading, and retaliating at phenomenal velocities.
“You’re nothing,” Impulse spat.
“I’m nothing?” Inertia retorted. “You’re the one who took up the legacy of a stupid dead child!”
“Bart Allen was not a stupid dead child.” Impulse punched Inertia. “He was ten times the man you’ll ever be.” He followed up with a kick. “And if anyone deserved to die, it was you . . . not him.” He thrust the heel of his palm into Inertia’s jaw in the style of an uppercut.
Tsunami used his psychic vectors to block Lyta’s lightning bolts, but the real trouble came when she began resorting to physical attacks. She flew at him with inhuman speed, slamming her palm into his chest with enough physical and mystical force to burn a hole in his outfit and singe his chest. Tsunami flipped to his feet and shot a vector at Lyta, who dodged and fired another bolt of mystical lightning at him.
Tsunami generated a force blade and slashed at Lyta, who blocked with a lightning blade. She pushed against him, forcing him back until the point he fired a blast of mystical force out of his eyes. The blast knocked Lyta for a loop, allowing Tsunami to slash her with the force blade. However, Lyta grabbed his wrist and soundly tossed him, adding insult to injury by shooting him while he was in midair. He landed on the ground with smoke emanating from his body.
Despite his injury, Tsunami rose to his feet and sped to attack Lyta, who reacted to his assault with blinding quickness. She blocked each and every one of his punches and retaliated with another mystically augmented palm thrust that knocked him to the ground. Tsunami flipped to his feet and shot his vectors at Lyta, who sped forward and struck him in the form of purple lightning.
How do I fight her? Tsunami asked himself.
“You don’t,” Lyta replied. “You just die.”
Tsunami crouched, holding his injured shoulder. “Damn it . . .”
“Now stay still and it won’t hurt so much.”
“Actually, no.”
Tsunami broke the seal on the cursed magic Lyta had poisoned him with. Immediately, he felt the dark energy surge through his body, augmenting his strength. He would pay a price for it later, but right now, he had to survive. He could worry about the long-term effects of the magic later.
In a burst of speed, Tsunami drop-kicked Lyta in her shoulders, the kick coming with such force that it knocked her to the ground. He came down with a fist charged with black-and-purple mystical energy, which she barely rolled out of the way of. Even so, the energy leaked out through the ground and shocked her. When she got up, Tsunami was behind her, prompting her to whirl into a kick that he easily caught. He twisted her into a throw and then shot her in midair with a bolt of tainted mystical energy, mimicking her earlier action against him.
Lyta snarled and rose to her feet, lunging into a quickstep. Tsunami merely sped up to match her, blocking and parrying her attacks with scornful ease. When he attacked, he did so with a brutal palm thrust to her chest, nearly blasting a hole through her. Lyta gasped in shock and outrage.
“You hurt me!” she yelled.
“That’s the name of the game,” Tsunami answered sadistically. “Now . . . want some more?”
Just as she got up, he sped behind her and grabbed her hands. “Now . . . you’re awfully proud of these hands, aren’t you? Of the power in them. What you can do to people with them. I wonder . . . how you would feel if you didn’t have your hands anymore.”
“What are you saying?” Lyta asked indignantly.
With no further warning, Tsunami squeezed Lyta’s hands with such force that the bones in them were crushed, prompting a bloodcurdling scream of agony from her. The scream distracted all of the other combatants, drawing their attention to her and Tsunami, who callously tossed her aside.
“My hands . . . my hands . . .” Lyta moaned pitiably.
“What did you do?!” Excel asked.
“Neutralized a threat,” Tsunami answered in what was apparently a Terminator impression.
Red Hood looked at Tsunami in horror. “You’re using the curse, aren’t you?”
A re-formed Clayface attacked Tsunami as a flowing wave of liquid clay, only for Tsunami to unleash a blast of mystical force that coagulated and then froze the shape-shifter. “Who’s next?”
Deathstroke chuckled darkly, having tossed Robin aside after soundly trouncing him and now walking toward Tsunami. The Atlantean mage smirked cruelly at the mercenary, the cursed magic’s physical manifestation marring his otherwise handsome features. The crimson stare of bloodlust further marred his face.
“You’re an interesting boy,” Deathstroke remarked. “I almost wish I didn’t have to kill you.”
“I think you’ve gotten it mixed up,” Tsunami responded, a grim smirk on his face. “I’m going to kill you.”
“Your Robin said that to me . . . and look what I did to him.” Deathstroke gestured at the beaten Robin, who was still struggling to his feet.
“Tsk. Robin has always overestimated himself.”
“And now, so do you.”
“If you’re so confident . . . come on.”
In a flash of blinding speed, Deathstroke cut Tsunami’s throat with his sword. Tsunami clutched his bleeding throat, pulling his hand back to look at his blood. To Deathstroke’s surprise, he laughed insanely. “Can you name the one thing you shouldn’t have done?”
“And what would that be?” Deathstroke asked.
Tsunami threw the blood into the air, the red fluid glowing bright scarlet and hardening into needles, which he proceeded to shoot at Deathstroke. The mercenary managed to dodge a great deal of those needles, but there were so many of them that even he couldn’t evade forever. Fortunately, his armor managed to absorb most of the damage from the blood needles.
“What the f#$& is that?!” Impulse asked.
“Blood magic,” Robin replied.
“How do you know?” Impulse questioned.
Robin chuckled grimly. “Etrigan.”
As Deathstroke dodged the blood needles, Tsunami blitzed him, quickstepping so brutally that even the mercenary couldn’t react to it in time. “Let’s see you heal from that,” Tsunami mocked.
“What happened to him?” Excel asked.
Before anyone could answer, Executrix had attacked Tsunami in a flurry of swift sword strikes, which Tsunami blocked with his hands alone. Finally, he grabbed her blade and used it to pull her in close enough to brutally knee her in the stomach before slamming his elbow into her exposed back. “It’s not enough . . .” Tsunami muttered psychotically.
“Come to me, you gruesome son of a bitch!” Ultrawoman challenged.
Tsunami took up her invitation with a brutal uppercut, which she easily took, flipping into the air and landing with a vicious drop-kick to his chest. Tsunami tumbled on the ground before rolling to his feet and firing a blast of mystical force out of his eyes, to which Ultrawoman retaliated with a blast of heat vision. The two blasts collided viciously, pushing against each other until Ultrawoman’s heat vision overcame Tsunami’s force.
“Bit off more than you could chew, huh, mother#$%&!?!” Ultrawoman taunted.
Tsunami’s retort came in the form of a multitude of blood needles, which Ultrawoman either dodged or swatted aside. When Tsunami himself blitzed her, she managed to block by shifting to quickstep. Ultrawoman smirked when she saw the blood leaking from his eyes and nose.
“That magic’s ripping you up from the inside, isn’t it?” Ultrawoman remarked. “I can see it. Benefits of X-ray vision, you know? And not to mention . . . you’re getting slower.”
“I still have enough time left to kill you!” Tsunami roared, hitting her bare stomach with a brutal palm thrust augmented by blood magic. Having succeeded in knocking her down, if not necessarily out, Tsunami walked over her and strode toward the other Reverse-Titans with murderous intent literally leaking out of his eyes.
“Cerdian, stop!” Red Hood shouted.
Tsunami briefly paused, just in time for Quincy to shoot him with an armor-piercing explosive arrow. The arrow struck him somewhere between shoulder and arm and detonated, seemingly blasting off both his arm and a good portion of his chest.
“CERDIAN!” Red Hood shouted in horrified anguish.
When the smoke cleared, Tsunami was in a crouch . . . and his chest and arm were regenerating themselves quite rapidly, much to the surprise of everyone who saw him. Once he finished regenerating, he stood up with a psychotic smirk on his face. “Now you’ve done it . . .” he whispered menacingly.
The next thing Quincy knew, his arm had been twisted into a painful lock by Tsunami, who then used that lock to dislocate his shoulder. Tsunami threw the assassin archer aside, just in time to dodge 28 arrows fired by Oni in the space of one minute. He rushed in for a punch to finish off the other assassin archer, only to be stopped by an invisible hand.
“That’s quite enough, Cerdian,” a familiar, authoritative voice spoke. “We’ll take it from here.”
The Titans - heroic and Reverse - and Deathstroke turned in the direction of the voice, shocked by what they saw. Specifically, it was Dick Grayson, Roy Harper, Donna Troy, Garth, Wally West, Rose Wilson, Joey Wilson, Raven, Vic Stone, and Gar Logan. All ten were in costume, and none of them looked too happy at the tableau presented to them.
“Deathstroke,” Batman (Dick) snarled.
“Still picking on Titans after all this time,” Rose remarked acidly. “Guess you’ll never learn.”