Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Bud ( Chapter 4 )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Arc 1: “Ravaged”

Chapter 4: “Bud”

Disclaimer: The concept of Teen Titans does not belong to me; it belongs to DC Comics. Nightstar, Ravager, and Mercury do not belong to me, either; Nightstar and Ravager are owned by DC Comics and Mercury is owned jointly by Marvel and DC Comics. Except for anyone that you might recognize from DC Comics, everyone else is my creation.

Author's note: A reviewer said that this story belongs in the Comics - Teen Titans section of FF.Net instead of the Cartoons - Teen Titans section. This story is set in the animated continuity, which is why it is here instead of in the Comics category's Teen Titans section. The reviewer also said that he didn't even know who some of the characters are. With the exception of Nightstar, Ravager, and Mercury, these are original characters. You're not supposed to know who they are, but if you keep reading, you'll learn more about them.

If anyone liked the fight with Rubyhawk, take heed. You'll see more of her, including her secret.

“I should have been there,” Nightstar said.

“Bet your ass you should've been there!” Beast Girl yelled. “Look at my hair!” She pointed to her blonde locks, which had been cut short with jagged edges due to the fact that Mercury couldn't quite get the gunk out of her hair.

“You actually look kinda cute like that,” Mercury remarked.

“You really think so?” Beast Girl asked.

“Yeah,” Mercury replied. “Would I lie to you?”

“You fibbed about not knowing where my panties went,” Beast Girl mentioned.

“Memnoch dared me into it!” Mercury protested.

“Uh-huh,” Beast Girl droned. “And if he dared you to jump off a cliff, you'd do it?”

“Well, it's either jump to my death or be sliced up and shot,” Mercury answered.

“This conversation is getting highly disturbing,” Samara remarked, holding an ice pack to her forehead. “Twice in a week I've been slapped with an anti-psi weapon. Where do they get those things?”

“From the black market,” Bladefire replied. “Either that or they swipe it from the government.”

“What would the government be doing with anti-psi weapons?” Mercury asked.

“You are one naïve kid,” Inferno remarked. “Don't you know that the government doesn't really trust superheroes? They let us operate without incident most of the time, but they've probably got contingency plans in case they feel we've become a threat.”

“Oh,” Mercury uttered.

“It wouldn't have made a difference if you were there,” Raziel stated. “I'm certain Rubyhawk would have bested you as well.”

“I still feel guilty, though,” Nightstar replied.

“There is one thing that bothers me, though,” Raziel continued.

“What is it?” Bladefire asked.

“Her moves,” Raziel replied. “They were very familiar. Her style of fighting reminded me of someone.”

“Who?” Samara asked.

“I don't know,” Raziel admitted. “I don't know yet. I'll have to fight her again to be certain.”

“Well, don't go looking for a fight with her,” Nightstar cautioned. “She's dangerous.”

“Onto a more pleasant subject,” Raziel said. “Mar'i, how was your visit with Lian?”

“It was cool,” Nightstar replied. “We hung out, smacked around a few thugs, and pigged out on ice cream.”

“And that's all?” Raziel asked, his voice becoming harsher and carrying a lecherous tone with it.

“What are you thinking, Memnoch?” Nightstar asked in irritation. “That Lian and I `experiment' with each other when we get together?”

“She flirts with you often enough,” Memnoch answered with a smirk.

“She flirts with damn near everyone, male or female,” Nightstar stated.

“Hey, can't a guy have his fantasies?” Memnoch asked calmly, or as calmly as a maniac like him could.

His posture suddenly changed, shifting from a slouch to an upright position in his seat. His eyes sharpened, revealing chilling intellect and logic instead of savagery and lechery.

“Sorry about him,” he spoke in a monotone.

“Hello, Uriel,” Nightstar greeted.

“How do you keep track of all those personalities?” Mercury asked.

“If you pay attention to the subtle shifts in his posture and body language, you can tell which personality is in charge,” Nightstar replied.

“This is all . . . quite suspicious,” Uriel stated. “Rubyhawk attacked us while there were only six of us. Her weapon was essentially the same as yours, minus the sword option.”

“What are you saying?” Nightstar asked.

“Nothing at all, dear Mar'i,” Uriel responded. “Nothing at all.” His demeanor changed once again, becoming softer and gentler.

“Raziel,” Nightstar spoke. “Dive with me?”

The next day, the Titans found themselves going to school. This time, they moved quickly and silently, making themselves as inconspicuous as possible so that their fans wouldn't spot them and hound them for autographs.

The day proceeded normally for the most part, the only disturbance being at gym class with Beast Girl and Mercury. The students were playing tennis.

“Why do I have to play tennis?” Mercury asked as he swatted the tennis ball.

“Coach says it'll teach us how to think on our feet,” Schuyler replied as he struck the tennis ball.

Mercury merely swatted the tennis ball again. “This is so boring.”

“Of course you're bored,” Schuyler remarked. “You can move and think at hypersonic speeds, if not the speed of light itself. Of course it'll be boring for you.”

“And you know how?” Mercury asked as he hit the ball again.

“I do my research,” Schuyler answered. “Besides, my older brother is a huge fan of speedsters, particularly the female ones.”

“You know, it's kinda disturbing to think that he might have pictures of my cousin on his wall,” Mercury commented.

“Not just Kid Flash,” Schuyler said. “He's also got Jesse and Jenny Quick.”

Mercury smacked the ball again . . . only to find that he'd smacked it too hard and now it was flying toward the head of a very oblivious Beast Girl.

“Terri!” Mercury screamed and reached out toward the ball, draining the kinetic energy from it before it could hit her. The ball harmlessly dropped in front of Beast Girl and the silver-haired speedster jogged over to her to retrieve it. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Beast Girl greeted. “What'cha doing here?”

“I just hit the ball too hard,” Mercury replied, “and it landed here. Wanted to come pick it up.” He picked up the ball. “I'll see you later.”

He jogged back to Schuyler, but as he did, he heard Beast Girl's opponent Clarissa remark, “Damn, he is fine.”

Mercury blushed at hearing that, only for that blush to deepen when he heard Beast Girl growl, “Keep your eyes off his ass. It's mine.”

“That was slekkin' cool, man!” Schuyler exclaimed.

“What was?” Mercury asked.

“You stole that ball's speed!” Schuyler exclaimed. “I've never seen someone do that before!”

“It's no big deal,” Mercury stated nonchalantly. “Let's play.”

At lunch, Inferno didn't eat, choosing to type in his laptop instead.

“Why aren't you eating?” Samara asked.

“I'm too mad to eat,” Inferno replied.

“What's got you so pissed you can't eat?” Samara asked.

“The school administration is talking about shutting down the newsletter,” Inferno replied. “Something to do with the budget. They're probably going to divert the money from the newsletter to the basketball team. Assholes.”

Samara looked over his shoulder. “So you're writing a protest letter. Good for you, but do you need to refer to them as `bottom-feeding bum buddies of the athletic upper class'?”

“I feel it gets my point across,” Inferno answered.

“Maybe, but you won't win any hearts and minds by insulting them,” Samara chided.

Inferno sighed. “I know. It just makes me so mad that the administration thinks that a bunch of empty-headed jocks running around throwing balls in hoops is more important than getting information out to the student body.”

“Think about it, Jeremiah,” Samara said. “Student athletes make a lot of money for the school. Politically oriented newsletters . . . not so much. And you know how adults like to think that people our age don't give a crap about politics.”

“A lot of them don't,” Inferno admitted.

“True, but that's no reason for them to write off the entire generation,” Samara added.

Inferno sighed and resumed typing. The completed letter read something like this:

“To the school board:

“I am writing to you in the hopes of convincing you to reverse your impending cancellation of our newsletter. You may believe that young people do not care about what's going on in the world, in the nation, or even their own city. The truth is that the mainstream news media is not speaking to their concerns. As a result, young people see the news as an abstract thing that has no effect on their daily lives. The newsletter provides young people with a voice, with an outlet for their concerns, and demonstrates that the news affects them as well. If you shut down the newsletter, you will have cut the students of this high school off from one of the few sources of news that comes from the viewpoint of someone who shares their concerns. I sincerely ask you to take all that I've written into account when you make your final decision. Thank you for reading this message.

“Signed, Jeremiah Crockett.”

“Better,” Samara remarked. “Not a single insult to be found.”

“You think they won't delete it before or after reading it?” Inferno asked.

“Not if they have any sense of dignity or compassion for the young,” Samara answered.

Inferno exhaled and sent the e-mail. At that moment, the other five Titans joined them.

“Hey, Jeremiah, why aren't ya eating?” Beast Girl asked.

“I'm pissed,” Inferno replied. “Not as pissed as I was before, but I'm still pissed.”

“So earlier you were `ready to light somebody's ass on fire' mad and now you're just `gonna be kinda bitter all day' mad, right?” Mercury reasoned.

“They're considering canceling the newsletter,” Inferno explained. “Just because the athletics department makes more money for the school than supplementing the students' education doesn't mean they have to cancel the newsletter.”

“Not to mention that the basketball team they might be diverting the funds to is the boys' team,” Nightstar added. “I hate that. I mean, the boys' team can screw around all semester long and get away with it, but they're ready to suspend the girls' team for getting C's.”

“It's called a double standard,” Raziel remarked. “An unfair state of affairs, but what do you expect when much more attention and status is lavished upon the male athletes?”

Bladefire wasn't actually paying attention to the conversation, as he was busy listening to his wrist-worn music player. However, he did have a small bit to contribute.

“Ever consider that this is just a small-scale reenactment of what goes on the outside world?” he asked. “I mean, nobody gives a damn about what the scholars do, but everyone follows the athletes and can name at least three famous players from each sport.”

“He has a point,” Nightstar remarked.

“What are you listening to?” Mercury asked.

“Ghostslayer,” Bladefire replied before turning up the music player to the extent that he wouldn't be able to hear anyone's voice unless they shouted.

Several days and nights passed and there had been no sign of The Ravager or Rubyhawk. During those days, Raziel had begun to notice Nightstar acting oddly. It seemed that she would disappear after nightly patrols. When he asked her about it, she just told him she'd been training by herself.

It worried him. It worried him greatly.

One night on patrol, he'd shared his suspicions with Samara.

“So you noticed, too,” she had remarked before he'd had the opportunity to speak.

“Yes,” Raziel confirmed. “She doesn't spend as much time with us as she used to. Either she's disappearing after patrol or she's locking herself in her room investigating The Ravager.”

“Where does she go after patrol?” Samara wondered.

“I tried tracking her through her communicator, but all I found was decoy signals,” Raziel mentioned. “Wherever she goes after patrol, she apparently doesn't want us following her there.”

“Reading her emotions has yielded nothing,” Samara added. “Her mind is too closed, too closely guarded.”

“And my ability to read souls doesn't work on someone actively trying to guard their secrets,” Raziel stated. “But what secrets is she guarding from m - I mean, us?”

“I don't know,” Samara replied. “But we'll find out. I just hope it's nothing serious.”

“Same,” Raziel agreed.

Just then, they got a call on their communicators. Samara flipped hers open. “Samara here.”

“There's been a break-in in the tech sector,” Bladefire said.

“Where's Nightstar?” Raziel asked.

“She disappeared again,” Bladefire replied grimly. “I'm already on my way. Get here as soon as you can.”

“On our way,” Samara spoke. “Samara out.”

The Titans - minus Nightstar - congregated inside a laboratory that contained specialized and experimental computer technologies.

“Mercury, recon,” Bladefire ordered softly. “Beast Girl, do you smell anyone in here?”

Beast Girl sniffed the air. “Two people. Both female. Scent of leather. They both smell familiar, but one of them's done her best to mask it.”

Mercury came back from his super-speed reconnaissance. “Didn't see anyone, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were lying in wait for us.”

At that moment, Raziel caught the glint of metal in his eye. “Guys . . .”

“We're in trouble, aren't we?” Inferno concluded.

“Damn straight,” a familiar distorted voice confirmed, a serpentine black light lashing at the fire-starter, who cried out in pain upon the light striking him.

“Inferno!” Samara exclaimed. “Azarath . . . Terra . . . Infernus!” Flame-like wisps of black light emanated from her and lunged at Inferno's attacker, who merely danced out of the way and lashed at her with her laser whip. Raziel knocked Samara out of the way and grabbed the whip with his exposed hand, withstanding the pain of the laser long enough for him to pull its wielder into the light.

“Rubyhawk,” Raziel uttered.

“That's me, babe,” Rubyhawk confirmed.

Meanwhile, The Ravager was battling Bladefire, Beast Girl, and Mercury. Bladefire flung energy knives at her, but she leaped and ricocheted around the room, staying out of the way of those blades. Beast Girl jumped down on her as a green silverback gorilla, but Ravager slid between her legs and trapped her with a set of bolas. Beast Girl merely transformed into a serpent and slithered up Ravager's body, aiming for the empty triangle that exposed the assassin's cleavage.

Ravager smirked. “Nice try, shifter.” She grabbed Beast Girl by her middle and threw her a considerable distance. Beast Girl simply morphed into a tigress and slashed at Ravager, who merely caught Beast Girl by her forelegs and flipped her off her with her legs. Beast Girl landed on her paws and came at her as a harpy, kicking her with her talons.

“You're better than I give you credit for,” the assassin hissed as she pulled three darts out of her belt and threw them at the shape-changer. Beast Girl managed to evade two of them but the third struck her in the wing.

“Beast Girl!” Mercury shouted as he saw her fall to the ground and shift back into human form, the dart in her arm. He ran to her and pulled the dart out.

“That third dart was dipped in tranquilizer,” Ravager stated. “She won't be getting up for a while.”

Mercury snarled and began fighting Ravager, his punches and kicks striking her with the force of concrete bricks due to the speed with which he delivered them. Ravager's reflexes and reaction time were good enough to allow her to block a good deal of them, but the blows kept coming faster and faster. Finally, she pulled out a knife and slipped inside his guard, stabbing him in the gut.

Bladefire charged at Ravager and slashed her with his energy sword. Ravager flipped over him and slashed at him from behind, but he raised his blade and caught hers without looking.

“Impressive, Blade,” Ravager remarked with a note of affection in her voice.

The half-Tamaranean whirled and slashed at her again, but she jumped over his blade and kicked him into a wall.

“This has actually been quite pleasant for me,” Ravager admitted. “You Titans give me more fun than I've had with my other targets.”

Bladefire let loose with an optic blast that the assassin merely leaped over.

Rubyhawk and Raziel continued their fight, Rubyhawk lashing at Raziel with her laser whip and Raziel dodging. Raziel knew well enough that she was just waiting for him to get tired and slip so that she could strike him. He decided he wasn't going to give her that opportunity.

As he dodged, Raziel pulled out a handful of marbles and dice and injected them with enough of his psychic aura to transform them into deadly bullets. He threw them all at Rubyhawk, who dodged them all, only to get an unpleasant surprise when the marbles and dice ricocheted off the walls and came at her again.

“What is this?” she asked as she performed complicated acrobatic maneuver after complicated acrobatic maneuver to evade the psychic bullets.

“Something I've been working on for quite a while,” Raziel replied. “Homing bullets. They lock on the unique aura that every person gives off and continue following that specific target until they reach him or her or are stopped.”

Rubyhawk pulled out her laser weapon and shifted it into a sword, deflecting the homing bullets to the best of her ability. Despite this, one such bullet struck the red bird emblem that covered her eyes with such force that it shattered, revealing shockingly familiar emerald eyes.

“I hoped it wasn't you,” Raziel stated sadly. “I hoped it wasn't. But those acrobatic maneuvers confirmed my suspicions . . . Mar'i.”

“So you know,” “Rubyhawk” stated, the voice distorter still working inside her mask. She reached behind her head and cracked the seal of the helmet open, pulling it away from her face . . . the face of Mar'i Grayson.

The Titans, the ones that were still conscious and able to fight, looked at Nightstar/Rubyhawk with expressions of confusion and betrayal. The Ravager, on the other hand, didn't look surprised or shocked at all. To the contrary, she was smiling.

“Nightstar,” Ravager purred. “What a joy it is to see the lady behind the mask at last.”

“You don't sound surprised,” Nightstar answered as she undid her ponytail, letting her black locks flow down her back.

“Of course not,” Ravager replied. “I knew it was you from the moment I saw you fight. I just wanted to see how far you'd go to get to me . . . and you've performed quite well. Now shall we take out your friends together, or have you thrown down your gauntlet against me?”

Nightstar's response was an optic blast, which Ravager deflected with the flat of her blade.

“So you're willing to throw away everything we shared just to go back to your friends?” Ravager asked. “I'm hurt, Nightstar. I thought we had something special.”

“We have nothing, Ravager,” Nightstar replied.

“I understand,” Ravager said. “I'll go.” She began making her way upstairs toward the roof access of the lab.

“She's getting away!” Nightstar exclaimed. “Come on!” She looked back at her teammates, only to face cold, stony expressions. “Fine, then.” She ran after Ravager by herself, following her up the stairway to the roof access. By the time she reached her, her motorcycle jacket had come undone, revealing the more familiar wing-emblazoned crop top.

“So it comes to this,” Ravager stated as the two young women faced off. “We could have been so good together.”

“I don't work with selfish, greedy assassins,” Nightstar snarled.

“A noble sentiment,” The Ravager ruminated. “But fighting your friends? Brutalizing a crime lord's son on my orders? Accepting instruction from an assassin? All to entrap me? Not very noble, Mar'i. Two wrongs never make a right.”

“Don't lecture me!” Nightstar yelled as she lashed at the masked assassin with her energy whip. “You're not my mother!”

Ravager merely moved her head out of the way of the energy whip and drew her sword again. She rushed at Nightstar and slashed her exposed stomach. To her credit, the Titan leader didn't cry out in pain. Instead, she retaliated by slicing through Ravager's sword with her energy whip.

The assassin dropped the stump that was once her sword. “That sword was a precious gift from my sensei. You will pay for breaking it.” She reached into her belt and withdrew a small dark gray rod, pressing the button that extended the rod into a full-sized quarterstaff. She rushed at Nightstar and struck her in her wounded stomach with the quarterstaff, forcing her to grit her teeth to keep from crying out.

Nightstar swept her leg out and kicked Ravager's feet out from under her, causing her to fall on her back. Ravager merely swung her leg up and kicked Nightstar in the stomach, this time succeeding in eliciting a cry of pain from her. Nightstar rolled on the roof and to her feet, launching herself into a flying kick. Ravager caught her ankle and slammed her down onto the ground, subsequently pinning her.

Nightstar kicked Ravager off her and lashed her viciously with her energy whip, leaving a gruesome lesion on the exposed portion of her face. The wound bled a little before it sealed itself.

“You made me bleed,” The Ravager uttered, smiling. “And you said you didn't like hurting me.”

The half-Tamaranean girl lashed at Ravager again with her whip, but the sword-wielder caught it and pulled her toward her, slamming her knee into Nightstar's stomach. The wound, which had only started to heal, opened once again. Ravager proceeded to perform a judo toss that landed Nightstar on her back. Nightstar merely flipped onto her feet and whirled around to kick Ravager in the throat. Ravager coughed due to the momentary crushing of her windpipe.

“You lack the will to kill, don't you?” Ravager deduced. “That's why this fight won't end. I may be strong, but you're even stronger. You could have ended my life with that kick if you felt like it.”

“I'm not a killer,” Nightstar answered. “Not like you.”

“We do what we have to in this world,” Ravager stated as she swung her quarterstaff at Nightstar, who caught it with her energy whip and used it to swing herself at Ravager and kick her. The kick came with such force that both of them found themselves tumbling off the roof. Ravager pulled a pellet out of her belt and bounced it off the façade of a nearby building. The pellet exploded in a cloud of smoke and Ravager fell through it. “See you later, Nightstar!”

“Ravager!” Nightstar yelled as she flew through the smoke cloud after the assassin. When she passed through it, the older girl was nowhere to be found. “Damn her.”

The Teen Titans returned to Titans Tower with tension so thick that The Ravager could have cut through it with her sword. Once inside, Nightstar was subjected to a brutal volley of recriminations.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Samara asked angrily, almost shouting the question.

“And that's assuming you even were thinking,” Inferno added.

“How could you, Mar'i?” Beast Girl asked. “We're your friends. Couldn't you have at least let us in on it?”

“No,” Nightstar replied. “If you'd known Rubyhawk and I were the same person, you'd have held back. I needed Ravager to believe that I really was after you.”

“And look how that turned out!” Bladefire yelled, shocking Nightstar because it was the first time in years she'd seen him lose his temper. “She was just stringing you along, taking amusement in the idea that you'd attack us of your own free will!”

“It was necessary,” Nightstar stated. “If you knew who I was behind that helmet, you wouldn't have fought me with everything you had.”

“Like it mattered,” Mercury spat, having speed-healed the knife wound Ravager had given him. “You know us too well. You know how we fight, how we think.”

“You truly are your father's daughter,” Samara sneered.

Nightstar's eyes flashed a lurid violet and she slapped Samara hard enough to leave a long-lasting sting. “Don't . . . ever . . . call me . . . that.”

Samara's eyes glowed white and she punched Nightstar with as much force as she could muster. While it wouldn't seriously harm someone of her constitution, it still stung.

Nightstar growled and lunged at Samara, only to be halted in mid-lunge by Raziel's hand around her wrist.

“Let go, Raziel,” she growled.

“Not if you intend to harm Samara,” Raziel answered calmly. “The intensity of your feelings has left your soul bare to me, so I can easily read your intentions and I know you still intend to harm her.”

Meanwhile, Samara was being held back by Inferno, who was in human form. “Let me go,” she snarled.

“Can't,” Inferno replied. “She hurt you, I know. But she hurt us all, so I'm not going to let you make it all about you.”

“You disappoint me, honestly,” Raziel stated bluntly. “Ruthless, dishonorable, underhanded. You resorted to deception and trickery to gain an edge over Ravager and while that in itself is not so dishonorable, as deception and trickery are the best weapons of the ninja, you were willing to discard us to get to her. You regarded us as less than important and that I cannot so easily abide or forgive.” He glared coldly at Nightstar. “Are you sorry? Does the thought of what you so deliberately did to us fill you with remorse and regret? Does it?”

He unceremoniously released her. Nightstar went to her room, where she stripped off the rest of her Rubyhawk costume, revealing her normal costume. She walked to the full-length mirror across from her bed and looked at her reflection, pausing at the still-healing slash Ravager had given her.

“It was necessary,” Nightstar muttered. “Necessary.”

Was it? a nagging little voice in her mind whispered. Or are you just telling yourself that to feel better about screwing over your friends?

Shut up, Nightstar growled. I did what I had to.

Was that your father thought when he created Red X? the voice asked.

Shut up! Nightstar yelled. I'm nothing like him! I'm not, I'm not, I'M NOT! She collapsed on her knees, murmuring softly to herself, “I'm not. I'm not. I'm not . . .”

End Notes: A rather grim note on which to end this chapter. The people that guessed that Rubyhawk was a form of Red X were correct. They just didn't think to guess which Red X. You'll see the Titans deal with the repercussions of Nightstar's actions in the concluding chapter(s) of this arc and maybe one or two standalone stories. You'll also see the faces of the syndicate that has hired The Ravager to kill the Titans.

You're free to let me know what you thought of this story now.