Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Entwined ( Chapter 21 )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Arc 4: “Blood”

Chapter 5: “Entwined”

Disclaimer: Neither Teen Titans nor Devil May Cry belongs to me; the former is owned by DC Comics and Warner Brothers and the latter is owned by Capcom. The characters of Nightstar, Mercury, Brother Blood, Slade, Ravager, Raven, Zatara II, and Dante are not mine, either; all but Mercury and Dante are owned by DC Comics while Mercury is jointly owned by DC and Marvel and Dante is owned by Capcom.

Author's note: The end is nigh. Yeah, we're pretty much there, anyway, but I have one more chapter to write - this one. After that, the story's more or less done. Anyway, you're going to see lots of demon action and a scene reminiscent of part 2 of “The End.” Enjoy.

Inferno woke up the next morning and the first thing he noticed was a very warm body curled up beside him. A cursory look revealed that it was Samara, her sleeping face fixed in an expression of bliss.

He looked down at himself and saw the “S”-shaped seal on his left pectoral. He smiled slightly, remembering that it was Samara's seal, the seal that marked him as her consort.

Last night was a whirlwind, he thought. He found his face heating up, even now, at the memory of the things she had done to him with just her mouth and tongue. Of course, he had taken the opportunity to ravish her in some rather creative ways, particularly where his pyrokinetic abilities had come into play. Thank God - or Azar - for fireproof bedclothes.

Samara had told him, when they were taking a brief break from the activities of last night, that her seal had altered his physiology - a necessity for a human (even one with residual alien genes) to survive sex with a demon (even one who was mostly human). So far, that had manifested as increased stamina, which was a good thing considering how demanding the partly demonic girl was.

“How was she?” Raven's voice asked.

Inferno jumped up and out of bed, springing into a defensive position instantaneously despite his lack of clothing.

“Good reflexes,” Raven remarked.

“Raven!” the pyrokinetic exclaimed. “Don't scare me like that!”

“Couldn't resist,” Raven said. “Thought I'd come by and check on my daughter's new consort. It seems the binding seal's enhancements are already working.”

“Well, yeah . . .” Inferno murmured, not wanting to confess just how those enhancements had been used.

“It's not like I don't know what you two were up to,” Raven said. “Samara's a screamer. Gets it from me.”

“I'm surprised you're being this open with me,” Inferno admitted.

“You're her consort now,” Raven spoke. “By demon law, that makes you two married and that makes us in-laws. You're part of the family now.”

Inferno put a hand behind his head and chuckled nervously.

“It's both a relief and kind of scary that you're so accepting of this,” he said.

“It wasn't a decision either of you entered into lightly,” Raven stated. “Besides, you're good for each other.”

Just then, the door was sliced open by a fiery blade.

“She chose you,” Kiryu spat, glaring at Inferno with hellish fury.

“What, jealous?” Inferno asked coolly. “And don't try to tell me you could have done better. You heard the same thing everyone else heard last night and that wasn't faking.”

Kiryu snarled. “Get dressed and come with me.”

“Anytime,” Inferno answered in challenge, walking over to his wardrobe and pulling out the containment suit he usually wore to battle. After changing into it, he scribbled a brief note to Samara explaining where he'd gone, adding a brief postscript saying, “If I don't come back, you know what happened.”

He followed Kiryu out of Titans Tower.

“She's changed you,” Kiryu spoke. “Do you understand the full extent of those changes?”

“I've got more stamina and better reflexes, not to mention that I feel stronger,” Inferno answered.

“That's part of it,” Kiryu said. “Furthermore, since you're now part demon, I can teach you pyromancy.”

“Pyromancy?” Inferno echoed. “I already have pyrokinesis.”

“Pyrokinesis is the scientific aspect of fire control,” Kiryu stated. “Pyromancy is the magic of flames, a magic that encompasses far more than what you're accustomed to. I can teach you new ways of controlling fire, and you'll need to learn, if you want to fight Blood and stand a chance.”

“Why are you doing this?” Inferno asked.

“I need to know that Samara is in safe hands,” Kiryu replied. “I need to know that her consort is someone that can protect her.”

“She doesn't need protection,” Inferno retorted. “She's not helpless.”

“True,” Kiryu admitted. “Are you ready to begin?”

“Yes,” Inferno answered.

“One important thing you need to learn is fire morphing,” Kiryu stated, “the ability to shape fire - either the fire you create or flames caused by others - into anything you can imagine.”

“Like a Green Lantern?” Inferno asked.

“Yes, if you want to use that example,” Kiryu replied. He generated a fireball . . . and shaped it into the image of a dragon. “You try. Imagine whatever you want and try to mold your flame into that image.”

Inferno thought of Samara, concentrating on her image, summoning from memory every detail of her face and body. He pulled more and more flame out, molding it into a mirror image of Samara. However, he had no sooner formed the fiery image of Samara than it disappeared.

“You're straining yourself too much,” Kiryu said. “And besides, that's too complex a construct for you right now. Try something simpler.”

Inferno molded his fire again, this time into the shape of a spider web.

“Now we're going to try something else,” Kiryu moved on. “Hard-flame constructs.”

“Hard-flame?” Inferno echoed. “As in making fire solid?”

“Yes,” Kiryu confirmed. “It's really not that much different from the hard-light constructs used by Green Lanterns and it's a more advanced form of fire morphing. Not only are you shaping fire; you're making it into a solid object, which is good for when you're in melee combat.”

Kiryu demonstrated by molding his flame into the image of a sword. He concentrated further and that fiery sword hardened into a red-orange facsimile of an actual broadsword, looking every bit as sharp as the genuine article.

“What do you call that?” Inferno asked.

“Hard-flame, remember?” Kiryu replied. “You try.”

Inferno concentrated on forming a sword out of his flames and then on making it solid.

“Got it,” he gasped out. He flexed his fingers around the hard-flame sword, surprised at the warmth and solidness of the construct.

“And now that you can make a weapon out of your flames, it's time to learn how to use it,” Kiryu said, charging at Inferno to attack. Inferno reacted instantly, raising his own sword to block. Kiryu slashed again, but Inferno dodged and slashed at him, a slash that Kiryu easily dodged. “Hack and slash. How pedestrian.”

“Excuse me for not being an expert in sword technique,” Inferno retorted as he swung at Kiryu again. This time, Kiryu deflected Inferno's swing and materialized another hard-flame sword, slashing him with that.

“I have an idea,” Kiryu said.

“What?” Inferno asked.

“You combust yourself into a fiery state when you go into battle,” Kiryu answered. “Why not try making yourself a hard-flame construct?”

“Like armor?” Inferno deduced.

“Exactly,” Kiryu confirmed. “Try it.”

Inferno powered up into his fiery state, willing the flame covering his skin to harden.

“Not bad,” he spoke.

This training went on for most of the day, both in fire control and in demonic combat styles. Once night fell, Kiryu smiled underneath his mask.

“I'm going to teach you something else,” the draconic assassin said.

“Such as?” Inferno asked.

“How to see into the infrared spectrum,” Kiryu replied. “If you can detect heat with your eyes, you'll be able to track others . . . unless they're vampires.”

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Inferno retorted.

“Concentrate on the heat,” Kiryu said. “Concentrate on seeing it.”

Inferno did exactly that, focusing solely on the heat around him. Suddenly, his vision shifted; instead of perceiving light to see as most creatures did, he was perceiving heat. He saw Kiryu as a humanoid mass of heat and when he looked into Titans Tower, he saw the beings inside as similar masses of heat.

“Whoa,” he uttered once he shifted his vision back to normal.

“I think it's time we returned to the others,” Kiryu said. “Samara is most likely missing you.”

“I'm missing her, too,” Inferno admitted.

The two entered Titans Tower.

“The demons have left,” Nightstar said. “Must have sensed that Samara had already chosen her consort.”

“Binding seals are extremely difficult to remove,” Leknaat said. “Even if you cut off the skin, it'll just regenerate and the seal will be right there.”

“We still have Blood to worry about,” Bladefire said. “He will most likely not be persuaded to back down so easily. After all, he's not a demon.”

“We'll take care of him,” Nightstar responded to her twin. She turned to Mercury. “Can you do a recon of that church where Blood is hiding out?”

Mercury sped away and returned only a few minutes later. He went to the mainframe and accessed a drawing program, which he used to recreate the layout of Blood's base.

“Is that it?” Samara asked.

“Yeah,” Mercury replied.

“When do we strike, O fearless leader?” Beast Girl asked.

“Yeah, I'm itching to kick some ass,” Dante added.

A feral smile graced Nightstar's features.

“Now.”

“I hope Kiryu's training helped,” Bladefire said to Inferno, “because you're going to need it.”

The Titans and their allies of the occasion made their way to Brother Blood's base in their own ways. Those that could fly flew, those that could run with superhuman speed ran, and the others used vehicular transportation . . . except for Leknaat, who warped through the shadows.

“Looks like there's a service going on,” Mercury observed.

“Holograms,” Inferno clarified.

“How do you know?” Mercury asked.

“I can see in infrared,” Inferno replied. “And those `people' are not emitting any kind of heat, so they're obviously holograms.”

“Then we go in,” Nightstar said.

They moved in like a small but deadly army, Mercury and Zatara II leading the way. It didn't take long for Blood's droids arrived to intercept them.

“Kaerb,” Zatara II spat and the droids shattered into a million pieces.

They continued through, encountering more numerous droids.

“Well, aren't we in a fine mess?” Ravager remarked with a feral smirk, drawing her twin katana swords. Beside her, Slade drew his bastard sword.

One of the droids attacked . . . and got its head sliced off by Slade. Another droid attacked Ravager, who smoothly dodged and sliced it in half.

Nightstar extended her energy whip, slicing through several droids at once. Bladefire extended a dual-bladed energy sword and began tearing droids apart with it.

At some point, the Grayson twins ended up next to Slade and Ravager.

“Only a minor setback,” Slade remarked coolly. “Nothing old friends can't handle.”

“We're not friends!” Nightstar roared, nonetheless flipping into the air and using Slade's shoulders as a springboard to launch into an attack on several more droids, energy wire lashing out everywhere and slicing apart any droid it touched. Slade and Bladefire teamed up to slice through a seemingly endless array of droids. Ravager somersaulted and spun into a vicious slash attack that cut through more droids. She threw her swords at two droids, impaling both of them. She proceeded to jump into the air, Bladefire catching her hands with his and launching her at the droids that had gathered near the ones “slain” by her. Ravager reclaimed her swords from the dead mechanical husks in which she had impaled them and used them to tear through the droids.

Meanwhile, Beast Girl was ripping droids apart with molten energy attacks while Mercury detonated them by impaling them with vibrating hands. Inferno battered droids while in armored flame state and resorted to slicing through the ones he couldn't beat down with a hard-flame sword. Samara used her telekinesis as a battering ram, while Raven pushed it inside the droids and tore them apart from within.

Zatara II moved about the battlefield simply commanding droids to break and break they did. Dante pulled out his twin guns and shot the droids in the head. The three demons attacked the droids in their own ways, Kiryu and Melchiah cutting through them with their blades and Leknaat crushing them in shadows.

Nightstar and Ravager ran at the droids together and began cutting through them, moving oddly in sync with each other. Bladefire and Slade, while not pausing for a single moment in their own attacks, took the time to observe this, Bladefire with a bemused look in his eyes and Slade with dark amusement glittering in his eye.

Ravager grabbed Nightstar's wrists, letting the younger girl use her as leverage to flip into an attack on the droids behind her, smashing them with her feet and fists. The assassin watched Nightstar's back, slicing apart the droids coming at them.

“Doesn't this feel right?” she asked the Tamaranean-human hybrid with a smirk.

“It's only an alliance of necessity,” Nightstar answered coldly. “There is nothing right about it.”

The two young women somersaulted past each other, uncurling into fierce kicks that smashed two more droids.

Dante put his guns away and drew a sword, using it to cut through the droids.

Leknaat morphed into a liquid shadow and slithered inside a droid, slipping in between its servos and bursting it apart just by expanding inside it.

“Ever do that to a person?” Dante wondered.

“Wouldn't you like to know?” Leknaat answered with a smirk.

Finally, the droids were all destroyed.

“Did you think your droids would be sufficient?” Slade asked. “I know you're here, Blood. Show yourself, you brat, or would you prefer we come to you?”

“I'm impressed,” Brother Blood stated. “Then again, I probably shouldn't have sent an army after you. Cannon fodder effect, you see.” He looked at Inferno and Samara and his eyes glowed with jealous rage.

“Anytime you are,” Inferno challenged, molding the flames wreathing his skin into hard armor.

“Hard-flame,” Blood observed. “You've learned a few tricks.”

“You don't know the half of it,” Inferno answered, as the two fire users attacked each other. Blood attempted to turn Inferno's flames against him, but to his shock, it didn't work.

“What?” Blood uttered in shock.

“That won't work on me anymore,” Inferno replied. He smirked. “You call yourself a real pyromancer? I'll show you pyromancy - starting now.”

Inferno disappeared . . . and reappeared behind Brother Blood, chopping him hard in the back of his neck. Blood staggered and shot crimson flame at Inferno, who skidded out of the way and spun into a kick that knocked the sorcerer for a loop.

“You're . . . stronger,” Blood gasped out.

“And faster, too,” Inferno added, vanishing and reappearing in the sorcerer's face, striking him right in the mouth and knocking him into a wall.

“I'll drink your blood!” Brother Blood screamed.

“Sorry, but when I'm like this, my blood isn't a safe drink,” Inferno quipped.

Brother Blood sent a wave of fire through the ground, which Inferno jumped off, somersaulting into a kick that penetrated Blood's wall of flames.

“When did Inferno get that badass?” Mercury asked, awestruck by his fiery teammate's prowess.

Kiryu chuckled. “That's what happens when someone is trained by me.”

Blood caught Inferno's ankle just as the other fire user was about to kick him again and twisted. Inferno twisted with him and into a kick with his other leg, striking him in the head.

“Can't even touch me, huh?” Inferno commented.

“I'm . . . more powerful than you think,” Blood snarled, shaping his flame into a spider web that trapped Inferno. To his shock, Inferno simply absorbed the fiery web . . . and released it in the form of hard-flame spiked knuckles.

Fire swirled around Inferno.

“Give it up, Blood,” he said. “Your tricks are useless against me.”

Blood lunged at Inferno, who simply punched him, the knuckles tearing his flesh. The demon worshipper willed it to heal, sweeping his leg out into a low kick that Inferno jumped over, striking him again. Brother Blood grabbed the pyrokinetic's leg and tossed him, but the pyrokinetic bounced off the wall and lunged for another strike. This time, Blood caught it and to Inferno's surprise, the hard-flame shell that covered his skin began to crack and flake off, revealing dusky flesh underneath.

“You're not the only fire absorber here,” Blood snarled, the flakes of hard-flame igniting into light and heat again and being drawn into him.

Inferno kicked him off, but by then, part of his face and left arm were uncovered. The pyrokinetic simply shattered the rest of his hard-flame armor, reshaping it into a sword. Brother Blood created a hard-flame chain, connecting him and Inferno.

“What's this?” Inferno asked.

“Let's see how well you fight when there's only so far you can go,” Brother Blood challenged, using the chain to yank Inferno toward him. Inferno leveraged himself into a slash with his sword, which Blood blocked with his own saber. The two clashed swords, parrying and blocking each other's attacks.

Inferno ran around Blood, attempting to ensnare him in the chain, but the sorcerer used this to tangle them both together. Inferno chopped the chain, breaking it and absorbing the flames. He spun into a sword strike, but Blood parried it and kicked him.

“He's handling himself very well,” Slade observed.

Samara glared at Slade. “Don't even think about it.”

Slade chuckled, never once taking his eye off Inferno as the pyrokinetic did battle with Brother Blood.

To Inferno's surprise, Blood suddenly shot a blast of black fire at him.

“What was that?” Inferno asked.

“Black hellfire,” Blood replied. “What you saw me use before was red hellfire.”

“Um, what's the difference between red hellfire and black hellfire?” Mercury asked.

“Red hellfire is your standard hellfire,” Raven replied. “Black hellfire is hellfire combined with dark energy, a rather dangerous combination at that.”

Inferno slammed his fingers into the wall behind him and channeled his fire through the walls, letting it form a circuit that attacked the sorcerer.

“Not bad, Inferno,” Blood remarked, his body smoking from that prior attack. “You just might be worthy of the title pyromancer after all.”

Inferno's only answer was a swift charge and a hard strike using just his index and middle fingers. Blood gasped in pain.

“Was that some kind of nerve strike?” Nightstar asked.

“In a way,” Zatara II replied. “You see, magic is supposed to flow through the body and it is released via certain pathways. That strike just closed one of those pathways, so that increases the burden of releasing magic for the other pathways. The more pathways close, the more burdened the remaining pathways become, and they can only release so much magic at once. Eventually, he'll either have to stop tapping into his magic or he'll explode from the strain of releasing it through ever-increasingly fewer pathways.”

“Your training was certainly thorough,” Brother Blood growled, “but you're not the only one who can do that.” He shot forth with a burst of speed, striking Inferno just below his rib cage, leaving the younger pyromancer coughing up blood. The demon worshipper followed up the strike with another blast of black hellfire.

“Why would magic nerve strikes work on Inferno?” Beast Girl asked.

“Because he's a magic user now himself,” Dante replied. “Magic users aren't always spell-casters, but everyone mixes the two up. If you harness magic for whatever abilities you possess, you're a magic user and thus subject to both the perks and the drawbacks.”

“This has been a fun little game, Inferno, but you're in my way,” Brother Blood stated. “Time for me to remove you.”

With a burst of psychokinetic force, he caved in the ground below himself, Inferno, and everyone else present.

“The hell?” Dante uttered. “Is he freaking insane?”

“That's a stupid question,” Raven answered.

“Oh, sure, you're all calm about it,” Dante retorted as they plummeted, “you can fly.”

Beast Girl transformed into a pterodactyl, letting Mercury land on her back. Nightstar and Bladefire caught Slade and Ravager, while Zatara II and Dante landed on Beast Girl. Leknaat dove into a shadow and reemerged safely on the ground, while Melchiah and Kiryu flew. Inferno and Samara caught themselves in midair, the former via superheating the air around him and Samara via telekinesis.

Brother Blood, on the other hand, landed in a pool of blood beneath them.

“What the hell was that?” Bladefire asked.

“Demon blood,” Slade replied. “He's probably trying to amplify his own power so that he can kill your fiery comrade.”

Brother Blood emerged from the blood pool minutes later, his eyes glowing a horrible crimson.

“Inferno. You're going to die. Any last words?”

“Yeah . . . burn.”

Instantly, the Titan pyromancer ignited his body into its fiery state and those flames lashed out at Brother Blood, who merely deflected them.

“What?”

Blood smiled sinisterly. “I have bathed in the blood of the dark gods. Do you think you can defeat me now?”

“Yes.”

“You fool.”

“Maybe.”

Blood's hands ignited, crimson-and-black flame surrounding them. He charged at Inferno and began slashing at him with his burning hands. Inferno dodged and lashed back with hard-flame twin swords. Blood simply broke them with his burning hands.

“I see how it's going to be now. Fisticuffs, huh? We can do that.”

Inferno blocked Blood's attacks as best as he could, while striking back with swift, precise blows aimed at the pathways where his body channeled his magic. Unfortunately, Blood kept avoiding Inferno's blows and striking Inferno at many of the same points the Titan pyromancer had targeted him. It was now becoming more difficult for Inferno to form his flames and use them to attack, but he would not give in.

Inferno launched himself into a fiery tornado kick, repeatedly striking Brother Blood. He spun himself into a burning tornado and flew at the sorcerer, constantly striking him in midair. Finally, Brother Blood sent Inferno into a wall with a hard strike to one of his channeling pathways.

“You're going down,” Samara snarled, attacking Brother Blood with shadow-formed blades. Blood simply dissipated the blades with a thought. “How did you do that?”

“I'm part of you,” Blood answered. “You can't attack me.”

“Wanna bet?” Samara challenged, catching Blood in an umbrakinetic field and throwing him around the chamber. Unfortunately, Blood dissipated it like he did to her blades.

“You will be mine,” Blood declared. “And Trigon will be reborn through you.”

“Never,” Samara vowed. “I won't let that happen.”

“You won't have a choice,” Blood answered.

“Didn't you hear her?” Dante asked, having withdrawn his sword from its sheath. “She said no.”

“Half-breed,” Blood addressed him. “You think you can fight me?”

“Actually, yes,” Dante replied cockily. “What's the matter, you kook, scared?”

Blood looked at Dante's sword. “Sparda, named after the demonic warrior who wielded it. You really take after your father, don't you?”

Dante's answer was to charge Brother Blood, lightning crackling around him and Sparda. Blood was about to cut through Sparda with his burning hands, but Dante moved faster than he did and slashed him, lightning trailing the blade.

“That hurt, you big baby?” the platinum-blond half-demon asked.

“I'll show you hurt,” Blood snarled in answer, a projection of telekinetic force knocking Dante back. The half-demon simply turned his unwilling backward flight into a somersault and landed safely on the ground. Before Dante could attack again, Leknaat became liquid shadow once more and lunged at Brother Blood, wrapping herself around him and creeping toward his mouth.

“Open wide,” she purred, squeezing to make him cry out in pain. She took the opportunity to pour herself into his mouth, burrowing into his body until she was in his lungs, in his throat, in his stomach, in his intestines, and in his veins. To her shock, he concentrated his telekinesis inward, forcing her out through his available orifices - mainly his mouth. Leknaat was left a lump of liquid shadow.

“That was freaking gross,” Mercury commented. Beside him, Beast Girl was merely greener than she already was.

“I think I need a drink to wash that wench's taste out of my mouth,” Brother Blood commented. He grinned savagely at Samara, his fangs showing.

As soon as the sorcerer made his move, Melchiah and Kiryu were on him with their respective bladed weapons. Blood merely threw them aside telekinetically.

“I don't have time for you,” he snarled.

The Titans, Raven, Slade, Ravager, and Zatara II formed a protective barrier around Samara, ready to prevent Blood from getting to her. Unfortunately for them, he was powered not only by his magic but also by a psychotic determination that made him insanely strong. Not one of them was able to hold him back for long. Not even a hyperkinetic attack from Mercury or a concentrated fire assault from Inferno could slow him down.

“What is he?” Nightstar asked in horror as even she was thrown aside by Brother Blood.

Raven threw up a telekinetic barrier, but Blood simply punched through it, generating a psychic backlash that nearly fried her mind.

“Mother!” Samara exclaimed.

“Now, now, Samara,” Blood whispered in a falsely soothing voice. “Stay still. It won't hurt for long.”

“Stay away from me!” Samara yelled, her eyes glowing white as she generated a burst of psychokinetic power to throw the demon worshipper back. Like the others' efforts, hers proved ultimately futile.

Blood grabbed her and bent down to bite her. Unfortunately for him, a darkish red hand grabbed his shoulder and brutally tossed him into a wall.

What was that? Samara wondered, looking at her mysterious rescuer, demon-winged, horned, and covered in reddish black armored hide.

“The one and only Dante,” the reddish-black demon replied. “I just decided to stop messing around.”

“Son of Sparda, you will not stand in my way,” Brother Blood snarled.

“Hate to tell you this, Bloody, but you're not that tough,” Dante answered. “You had to take a dip in demon blood to juice yourself up. Weak.”

“I'll show you who's weak!” Brother Blood snarled, charging Dante with the intent of finishing him off. Dante looked at him with a bored expression and impaled him with Sparda.

“And here I thought you'd be a challenge,” Dante remarked. “Maybe I shouldn't have used my Devil Trigger.”

Blood glared at Dante with helpless rage, knowing full well that his impalement was a fatal blow.

“I'd kill you right now, but I'll let Sammy do that,” Dante said.

Samara glared at him. “Never call me that again.”

“Sorry, babe,” Dante said.

“Don't call me that, either,” Samara stated.

“Make it quick,” Dante said. “Unlike a lot of demons, I'm not into drawn-out deaths.”

Samara pulled Sparda out of Blood and used it to decapitate the sorcerer in one swift motion.

The next day, the Titans congregated back at Titans Tower. Everyone else had returned to whence they came - Zatara II going back to Sacramento, Dante going back to his private investigation firm Devil May Cry, the demons going back to their respective regions of hell, and Slade and Ravager going wherever it was they holed up whenever they were plotting something.

Raven had gone, too, but not before giving her blessing to Samara and Inferno.

“That was rough,” Mercury commented.

“Yeah,” Nightstar agreed. “The fight with Blood took a lot out of all of us. But he's gone now.”

“Yeah, and since you two are now consorts, the demon community will leave you alone,” Bladefire added, addressing Samara and Inferno.

“That's a good thing,” Inferno said. “I don't know if I'm ready to go through all that again.”

“Why not?” Samara asked. “You were certainly hurting Brother Blood before he took that blood dive.”

“Yeah,” Inferno agreed. “But I'm gonna need a lot of practice. You'll help me, right?”

“Yeah,” Samara answered. “That's what lovers do. And speaking of what lovers do . . .”

Inferno blushed.

End Notes: And this is where this arc ends. I hope you enjoyed it.

To be honest, I don't have that much to say on it, except I could have created an OC as a demon hunter character, but I wanted to use Dante, so consider that a mini-crossover of sorts. Speaking of mini-crossovers, a future standalone will see the Titans go to Japan and meet Public Security Section 9 from the manga/animé Ghost in the Shell. It only works because this story and Ghost in the Shell are in roughly the same era. Look forward to it.

Also, the future Titans East will be appearing in the next arc. Look forward to that as well.

If you're wondering why Raven was so calm about Inferno being in bed with Samara, this is Raven we're talking about here. I doubt she'd have the same hang-ups as most humans and I also wanted to portray her as having gained enough emotional control to make light of the situation somewhat.

“Hard-flame” was inspired by my pal Darkmoon Knight's OC Ifrit over in his story Teen Titans: Inferno. Read it; it's actually very good.

Anyway, see you soon and tell me what you think, good or bad.