Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Bender ( Chapter 30 )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Arc 6: “Justice”

Chapter 5: “Bender”

Disclaimer: The Teen Titans and the various other denizens of the DC Universe, comic or animated, don't exactly belong to me. They belong to DC Comics and Warner Brothers and I make no profit at all from this story, as I'm not a professional writer for either. I'm doing this purely for my own enjoyment and maybe your feedback.

Author's note: The crap is really starting to hit the fan. I know I might have said that before, but I was serious when I said it then and I'm serious when I say it now. And what's about to happen will make things far, far worse for the Teen Titans and the Justice League. For those of you who enjoyed seeing a regular police officer who doesn't have a mad-on for costumed vigilantes, I'm sorry to say that you might not be seeing that much of J. What's about to come is, in the words of the late Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist, “a contest of freaks” and J is too normal to actually have a shot at surviving. Anyway, if I haven't totally put you off with that statement, let's get going.

“It's happening again,” Ted Grant, alias the champion boxer and superhero Wildcat, groaned as he watched the President of the United States give his speech.

“I know what you mean,” Jay Garrick, the first Flash, agreed sadly.

“In this day and age, we can no longer afford to be complacent. The truth is that we have a very real enemy in our midst . . . metahuman terrorism. These people answer to no government, no higher authority except their own beliefs as to what right and wrong are. For too long, we have allowed these beings to pretend that they are gods, that they have an almost divine right to utilize their abilities as they will as long as they claim to be protecting normal humans. The night Richard Snow was murdered should have been the night that we woke up, that we realized that we cannot allow metahumans to go unchecked. That is why the Watchmen Act exists and any opposition to it is a vote to allow more innocent lives to be lost through the actions of reckless super-powered vigilantes.”

“Somebody should tell that asshole to shut his trap,” Jenny Quick sneered.

“Language, Jenny,” Jay admonished gently.

“Sorry, Jay,” Jenny said. “I'm just sick of everyone in the government talking as though we're the threat. We've spent decades saving humanity from super-villains and they're going to treat us like we're the real problem?”

“Over 60 years ago, something similar to this happened,” Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern and granddaughter to the current Green Lantern, explained. “We wouldn't use our powers to kill for our country, so we were accused of being disloyal to our country. They tried to pass a law making us register and we disbanded rather than do that. And now it's begun all over again, only this time you're automatically a threat if you have special abilities . . . unless you're with the government and then you're just fine.”

Kal-El, the original Superman, looked out into the night sky sadly. His hair had gone slightly gray at the temples and there were a few more wrinkles on his face, but he was otherwise very youthful in appearance. Besides, the solar energy his body had spent years collecting had supercharged him beyond his former power levels.

“I still don't agree with the League choosing to register,” he said. “I know Kon told me that he figured the League had a better chance of turning the course of that river around from the inside, but I have my doubts.” He looked at Alan ruefully. “Your granddaughter . . .”

“. . . is unregistered,” Alan finished. “I know that. I'm also capable of pulling enough strings with Checkmate to see that metahuman villain activity has become a lot more organized as of late, as though there's some kind of purpose behind it.”

“You think there's a connection between that and what's happening to us?” Jakeem Thunder asked.

“I wouldn't doubt it,” Alan replied. “Of course, they have the registered heroes to keep things under control.” He snickered bitterly. “I have to admit, it's a hell of an opportunity for some up-and-coming superhero. Sign up and get access to impressive government technology, back-engineered from what various aliens who've worked with us in the past have given us, to make them more effective crime-fighters.”

“And how long is it going to be until the government uses metahumans to fight wars for it?” Wildcat asked.

Courtney Dugan, alias Starwoman and formerly the Star-Spangled Kid and Stargirl, balanced herself with her staff. “That's happening already, believe it or not,” she replied, “and even if it wasn't, it's going to start soon.”

Jakeem turned on the news and his jaw dropped in shock. The news bulletin was reporting on Mercury's “escape” from his holding cell, facilitated by an apparently murderous Beast Girl. “Well, doesn't that just freak all?”

“Has to be some kind of setup,” Michael Holt, the second man to take the name of Mr. Terrific, answered. “And even if it wasn't, it'll put the Titans in some serious trouble with the authorities.”

In Jump City, Mercury was being helped away from the police station by someone who looked very much like Beast Girl. The platinum speedster had just awoken from his catatonic state, snapped out of it by her kiss. He was still very groggy and not sure of anything around him at that moment.

“It's ok, Mercury,” the Beast Girl doppelganger whispered. “We'll be far away from here. Can you still run?”

“I'll try,” Mercury replied. He picked up the Beast Girl doppelganger and ran as fast as he could, going from zero to Mach 3 in five seconds. As he ran, he felt the fog within his mind clear and with that clarity, he threw the Beast Girl doppelganger off him.

“What are you doing?” she asked in shock.

“You're not Terri,” he snarled. “You think I wouldn't know how my own girlfriend kisses me?”

“No fooling you when it comes to that bitch, is there?” the false Beast Girl remarked as she shifted back into her true form of Gemini. She thrust her clawed hand at Mercury rapidly, but Mercury dodged and charged at her. She thrust both hands at Mercury to catch him, but he accelerated the kinetic energy of her molecules to detonate her, thus forcing her to let him go. Gemini re-formed herself and lashed at him with tentacle-like finger-blades that the speedster evaded. One managed to slice his cheek, but that wound quickly began to seal itself.

Mercury raised both hands in finger-snapping positions as she shot her clawed fingers at him again, making no move to evade. Of course, his brain was processing the data his senses were acquiring at super-speed, so Gemini looked rather slow to him, anyway. He snapped his fingers at super-speed, setting off twin sonic booms that even Gemini's rubbery frame could not withstand. She burst from the sonic booms, only to regenerate and lunge at him with her fingers extended into blades. Mercury dodged her slashes and retaliated with fierce blows, only for those blows to be absorbed by her malleable form. Before the fight could truly escalate, a lattice of crimson light engulfed both of them.

“You might as well stop,” Garnet said, hovering above the combatants.

“Let go!” Gemini yelled, slicing at her restraints. Considering that her restraints were made from hard light, it would not be a very easy task, assuming it was a task that could be accomplished. Mercury simply vibrated out of the lattice.

“Thanks for the help,” Mercury said.

“You're an escaped criminal,” Garnet answered harshly. “And you're going to go back to your holding cell where you can await your trial and conviction.”

“Get out of my way,” Mercury snapped. “What I did was a setup. I was maneuvered into that position!”

“So you say,” Garnet mused, sounding as though she didn't seriously believe him. “If you want to argue that, you can do so at your trial like a responsible citizen. If you want to throw down, be my guest. But you'll lose.”

“I don't have time for this,” Mercury answered and sped away, only for Garnet to project a slippery crimson surface underneath the speedster's feet. He slipped and crumpled to the ground, crashing into a parked car in the process.

“You might want to just stop,” Garnet advised.

Mercury rose to his feet with a snarl. “Screw this,” he muttered and attempted to run again, only for Garnet to trap him in a crimson bubble. He attempted to vibrate out, but the bubble vibrated with him, preventing him from escaping. He simply vibrated the bubble construct until it dissipated.

“Resisting arrest?” Garnet asked.

“Since when were you an officer of the law?” Mercury asked.

“Since the Watchmen Act was passed last week,” Garnet replied. “I hate to break it to you, but your Titan pals are outlaws now, just like you.”

“You're calling us outlaws?” Mercury uttered in stunned horror. “After all we've done, protecting this city for the past two years . . . and we're the outlaws? We're the criminals? Screw that noise!” He snapped his fingers and set off a sonic boom that would have sent Garnet flying if she hadn't generated a shield to protect herself. Garnet sent a clawed crimson hand flying at Mercury, but the speedster jumped on her construct and ran up its arm to kick her. As the two descended, he rolled in the air to drop his foot on her again. With her collapsed on the street, he sped away again, hoping he could make it to Titans Tower in time.

Gemini setting me free as Beast Girl was a setup, he thought. She was just trying to throw more dirt on our names. It probably worked, and that means the Titans are in trouble.

He ran down the bay to Titans Tower and dematerialized through the front door, rematerializing once inside and running into the main room. When he got there, the first thing he saw was pandemonium. He saw the Titans and Scarlet Archer battling a group of people that seemed to have a patriotic theme running. Their leader was a man garbed in skintight blue with white stars on his shoulders and knees and a golden belt shaped like a bald eagle wrapped around his hips. He was blond with a faceplate resembling an eagle covering his face. The others were several identical-looking men garbed in black with white star outlines all over their bodies, as well as a redhead in a green mini-dress and a crown matching that of the Statue of Liberty. There was also a masked brunette in a star-spangled blue top and red-and-white-striped skirt, and an extremely swift man dressed in metallic-looking black with red lines running through his attire.

The identical men spotted Mercury and swarmed on him. “Who the hell are you guys?” Mercury asked as he dodged their attacks.

“Si . . .” one started.

“Lent . . .” another picked up.

“Ma . . .” the third continued.

“Jor . . .” the fourth went on.

“Ity,” the fifth finished.

“Multipliers,” Mercury groaned. “Unlucky for you bastards, you're not the only ones who can replicate.”

The speedster internally sighed and hoped his trick worked. For this, he was going to have to give himself over, at least partially, to one of the speedsters residing within the Speed Force. He rolled his eyes in the back of his head and silently reached out to the Speed Force, contacting the speedster he had in mind for this. He psychically synched with that speedster . . . and four copies of himself emerged, two on either side of him.

“Go time,” he said and each Mercury took on one of the Silent Majorities. The Silent Majorities battled the Mercury doppelgangers, only to be swiftly overwhelmed by the Mercury doppelgangers. After all, multiplying didn't exactly work on a speedster who could also multiply. Before the Mercury doppelgangers could land the finishing blows, they were suddenly assaulted by the black-and-red-clad man and swiftly disabled, leaving only the real Mercury behind.

“And who might you be?” Mercury asked.

“Spin Doctor,” the black-and-red-clad speedster replied.

“Where's that bitch-ass whore of a leader of yours?” the star-spangled and eagle-masked leader asked cruelly.

Bladefire slashed at him with his energy sword. “You shut up about her, Americommando.”

Americommando summoned a photon shield around his left forearm and blocked Bladefire's sword. He then bashed the shield into Bladefire's face and used its edge to slash him. Fortunately, the Tamaranean fabric of his uniform held fast.

“You miserable little piece of crap!” Americommando yelled. “All of you! You punk kids think you're so cool for rebelling against the government, do you? Well, the government's there to do what the people can't do for themselves and that's protecting them from the likes of you rebels!”

Samara telekinetically threw him into a wall. “Quit rambling, you lunatic.”

Americommando rose from his crumpled position with an outraged expression on what could be seen of his face. He converted his photon shield into a photon blaster that cleaved through Samara's shields. He was about to pounce on her when Inferno shot multiple fireballs at him to get him to back away. He threw up a fiery shield to block an energy blast fired at him by the Statue of Liberty-styled woman from her torch.

“Lady Liberty,” Inferno commented. “Is this any way to honor your namesake?”

“I am honoring my namesake, Mr. Crockett,” Lady Liberty replied with a soft hint of a Southern accent. “I'm safeguarding liberty from those who would undermine it, like those of you who don't feel like registering.”

“A badge from the government doesn't equal legitimacy,” Inferno retorted, slicing the air with his hand to send an arc of flame in her direction. Lady Liberty blocked the blast with a shield from her torch and blasted Inferno with said torch.

The woman in the American flag dress clapped her hands and transmuted the floor into a liquid substance that trapped Beast Girl's feet before she could shift into an animal form to evade or attack. Beast Girl morphed into a lioness, but the shifting floor managed to hold her in place. She tried to change into a bird, but her talons were stuck in the floor and so she couldn't fly away. She even became a worm, but she was still trapped in the floor. Finally, she reverted to her human form . . . and blew a hole in the floor via her earth energy to break free.

“Miss America!” Scarlet Archer shouted, releasing an arrow in the direction of the woman in the American flag dress. The woman was struck in the torso by the arrow and an energy lattice emanated from the head, binding her. “Can't transmute if you can't use your hands, can you?”

Spin Doctor and Silent Majority teamed up to attack Mercury, the former using his speed and the latter replicating to keep Mercury off-balance. Mercury fought back against Silent Majority's duplicates, but Spin Doctor's speed was unbalancing him. The strange thing was that Spin Doctor seemed faster than him and there was something just wrong with that. Not because of ego so much as something just wasn't right about the way he moved. There was a vague distortion about him, as though he didn't quite exist in this space.

Americommando summoned his photon shield and charged at Inferno and Bladefire, who both blasted at him. Inferno shot a blast of flame at him and Bladefire projected an optic blast at him. Americommando simply blocked both with his shield, along with the hard-flame and energy knives Inferno and Bladefire threw at him next.

“Give it up, you brats,” he snarled.

Suddenly, a purple energy whip wrapped around his arm just as he was rearing it back for a vicious punch. He was rather undaunted by that, but he was not so undaunted by the black boot that slammed into his face. Nor was he undaunted by the vicious punch from a golden-bronze fist that followed.

“Get the hell out of my Tower,” Nightstar snarled, her fists glowing a smoky purple and her eyes lurid with wrath. Beside her stood the pyromancer Phoebus . . . and he didn't look that happy, either.

“There's the whoring little bitch I was hoping to meet,” Americommando sneered.

“So you're the ones the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive sent for us,” Phoebus intoned wrathfully.

“Huh?” Inferno asked.

“Otherwise known as S.H.A.D.E.,” Phoebus explained to the younger pyromancer. “They're a military black ops organization that investigates metahuman threats to `national security' with the intention of eliminating those threats. Apparently, any metahuman who doesn't volunteer to become a pawn of the government counts as a threat to national security.”

Americommando got back on his feet with his body language being positively livid. “You just don't get it, do you?” he spat. “You live in this country, you're answerable to its laws whether you like them or not. You don't get a free pass just because you have powers.”

“Americommando,” Phoebus sneered. “Just because you have a badge from the government doesn't mean you're any more legitimate than we are. If anything, that just makes you a dog . . . and I'm putting you down.”

“S.H.A.D.E.'s had its eye on you for a while now, Phoebus,” Americommando said. “Ever since you attacked one of Lena Luthor's labs. S.H.A.D.E. has what you might call a vested interest in Ms. Luthor's work and we don't appreciate the interference of mavericks.”

“Thank you,” Phoebus sneered.

“What the hell's going on here?” Nightstar asked.

“What do you think?” a recovered Samara asked. “S.H.A.D.E. is obviously working with Lena Luthor to engineer metahuman soldiers. Why send many thousands of human troops to overthrow a dictator when a few hundred highly trained metahumans will do the job even better?”

Lady Liberty blasted Nightstar with the energy from her torch, only for Nightstar to block the blast with her bracers. Nightstar flew at Lady Liberty, only for Lady Liberty to block her attack with a shield generated by her torch. Nightstar merely summoned her energy whip and sliced at the shield with it. However, she was suddenly attacked by a black blur of motion. That same blur struck down Bladefire, Inferno, and Phoebus, leaving them floored. Samara threw up a telekinetic shield to block the blur's attack, but the blur reached through her shield and clocked her. An electrical arrow flew at the blur, but it stopped to catch it, revealing itself to be Spin Doctor.

“I don't fall for the same trick twice,” Spin Doctor spoke.

“What makes you think I tried the same trick twice?” Scarlet Archer asked, pressing a button she'd hidden behind her back. The arrow set off an electrical pulse that shocked Spin Doctor. The insulation in his suit protected him from being completely electrocuted, but something else happened. “Not so fast, now are you?”

Spin Doctor attempted to charge at Scarlet Archer, only to be clocked by the red-clad archer . . . who had slipped on her trench knives. “It's not you that's fast, it's the suit,” Scarlet Archer said. “In fact, that's not even real speed; it's experimental spatial-shift technology. By shifting yourself slightly out of phase with this dimension, you can move relatively faster than everyone else and pass through solid objects. With that tech in your suit shorted out, you're helpless.”

Mercury was swarmed by duplicates of Silent Majority. He had to admit, Silent Majority was more skillful with the application of his duplication abilities than Multiplicity. That was probably why he was having so much trouble with the duplicator. Still, he wasn't going to let himself be defeated that easily. Besides, he was Mercury, dammit; that meant he could take on more than one idiot at once. Just as that thought passed through his mind, he felt something come over him.

“What . . .”

“The . . .”

“Hell . . .”

“Is . . .”

“Happening?” the duplicates of Silent Majority asked just before a surge of Speed Force energy knocked them off Mercury. The speedster stood where they had been, his eyes molten and his body emitting a crackling blue aura. He disappeared from sight and reappeared with his fist embedded in the gut of one Silent Majority, knocking him out. Another Silent Majority attempted to attack, only for Mercury to kick him in the gut so swiftly that it was almost as though his leg hadn't moved at all. The remaining Silent Majorities attempted to attack together, but Mercury saw them all as moving so slowly that they couldn't do much to stop him.

Americommando and Lady Liberty blasted at Mercury with their photon generator and torch respectively, but a field emerged around Mercury that sapped the energy from their respective attacks. Again, he disappeared from sight, reappearing to strike them both down with such rapidity that it almost seemed simultaneous. Americommando recovered and his photon generator manifested a shield, which he attempted to use to slice Mercury, but Mercury evaded the shield and struck Americommando. Before he could follow up on that attack, he was attacked by several speeding blurs. He was able to perceive them clearly enough to identify them as . . .

“Hermes, Solarflare, and Ultraviolet,” Mercury snarled. “I was wondering when you guys would show up.”

“Infinity, Inc.!” Nightstar exclaimed. “What's the meaning of this?”

“Under the Watchmen Act, registered metahumans can be commissioned to apprehend unregistered metahuman combatants,” Solarflare replied. “We're registered. You're not. Do the math, Nightstar.”

“Well, you guys always talked like you wanted to kick our asses,” Beast Girl said. “Wanna see if you can?”

Aquamarine smirked and shattered the water pipes in Titans Tower, sending the water flooding upon the Titans. Samara created a telekinetic field to protect herself, the other Titans, Scarlet Archer, and Phoebus. Aquamarine manipulated the water into a battering ram that struck Samara's shield in an attempt to break it. The shield held, but Samara was straining to maintain it.

“Why don't we give it a try?” Solarflare asked. He and Ultraviolet charged at the shield and began battering it with superhumanly strong punches and kicks.

“How much do you think you can take, witch?” Ultraviolet asked tauntingly.

“More than you can,” Samara retorted and expanded the telekinetic shield into an attacking instrument that pushed Ultraviolet and Solarflare back. She withdrew the shield into herself with a sigh. “Inferno, Phoebus, Mercury, you three better stay back. Your powers are useless with the Tower flooded like this.”

“What about you guys?” Mercury asked.

“We can fly or swim,” Nightstar replied.

True to her word, Nightstar, Bladefire, and Samara floated into the air, as did Solarflare, Ultraviolet, and Garnet. Ultraviolet flew at Nightstar and punched her in the face, sending her tumbling gracelessly through the air. Nightstar righted herself in midair and flew into a kick that propelled Ultraviolet toward a window. Ultraviolet bounced off the window and barreled into Nightstar, knocking the other girl off-balance. Nightstar extended her energy whip and it wrapped around Ultraviolet's ankle. She used it to swing Ultraviolet into a wall, but Ultraviolet freed herself and trapped Nightstar in an ultraviolet-light lariat.

“That feels quite nice,” Nightstar commented darkly.

“What do you mean?” Ultraviolet asked, tightening the lariat.

“You'll see,” Nightstar replied. “Oh, you'll see.”

“Don't try to act like you still have cards to play,” Ultraviolet sneered. “You're pretty much dead in the water.”

Bladefire and Solarflare clashed in midair, the slightly stronger Solarflare beating down Bladefire. Bladefire flew back and threw energy knives at Solarflare, who batted them aside and fired an optic blast of matter-disintegrating energy at Bladefire. The Tamaranean hybrid evaded the blast, only for a section of the wall behind him to be disintegrated. He retaliated with an optic blast that Solarflare dodged, the teenage Superman pastiche slamming into Bladefire with full force in retaliation. Bladefire flipped them around and kicked Solarflare off him, sending him plummeting into the floodwaters of the main room.

Aquamarine had sank into the floodwaters and blended with them, figuring she'd attack the grounded Titans while they were vulnerable. Unfortunately for her, she was blocked by Beast Girl, who had grown fins and gills. Aquamarine manipulated the water as a jet to batter Beast Girl, but Beast Girl maintained her ground. She swam at Aquamarine and rammed her in the stomach with her head. Aquamarine wrapped her arms and legs around Beast Girl and slammed her onto the floor. Beast Girl became an electric eel and set off a bioelectric discharge that stunned Aquamarine.

Samara and Garnet were in the middle of a construct battle. Garnet materialized crimson plasma fists and sent them flying at Samara, who halved them with a shadow construct sword. Garnet created a construct sword of her own and sliced at Samara with it. Samara parried Garnet's slashes and retaliated with shadow construct throwing knives. Garnet blocked the knives with a plasma shield and slashed at Samara again. Samara engulfed Garnet in a telekinetic field and threw her out the window. When the window shattered, the water poured out behind her, accelerating her descent to Titans Island and taking the warring Beast Girl and Aquamarine with her.

“Bad idea, girly,” Americommando sneered and leaped up into a vicious strike that laid the partly demonic telekinetic low. In return, Americommando was struck down by Phoebus and Inferno, who had steamed themselves dry. Americommando generated a photon shield to block both pyromancers' fire attacks, only for Phoebus to suddenly emerge behind Americommando, who whirled to block Phoebus's punch with his shield. He proceeded to bash Phoebus with that shield and slice at him with that same shield. Disoriented by the prior bashing, Phoebus was unable to evade the slice in time and blood flowed from the wound in his chest, a wound that he cauterized and avenged via a kick to Americommando's unguarded side.

Hermes began to attack the Titans at super-speed, only to be halted by a kick from Mercury. The strawberry blond was quick to recover and skidded into an attack on Mercury, who blocked his punch and retaliated with a punch of his own. Hermes was floored quite brutally by the punch, but Mercury pressed the attack with a hyper-fast flurry of punches and kicks. Hermes blocked as many as he could, but Mercury seemed to be operating on a higher level as far as speed was concerned. Even when Solarflare joined Hermes in the assault, Mercury was able to fight them both.

Bladefire was now fighting Nightside. The dark girl was a fierce opponent, reacting as though she was several steps ahead of him. He blocked a palm thrust from her, only to be felled by a knee jab to the stomach. Nightside slammed her elbow into his spine, but he planted himself on his hands and threw his legs upward into a kick. Nightside blocked his kick and chopped him in the back of the knees, knocking him down. She brought her foot down to stomp him, but he grabbed it and used it to flip her. Nightside flipped gracefully, only to be caught in the stomach by a kick from Bladefire in mid-flip.

Nightstar burst free of Ultraviolet's energy lasso and whirled to fire an optic blast at her. While Ultraviolet managed to deflect it with her bracelets, the blast seared her wrists in spite of the bracelets. She rubbed those wrists in shock, wondering just how Nightstar had gotten off such a strong blast.

“Shocked?” Nightstar asked. “Tamaraneans are a race of sun drinkers. The energy we absorb from the sun is ultraviolet radiation. Your lasso is shaped from ultraviolet light. Do the math.” The expression on Ultraviolet's face was utterly priceless and it made Nightstar smirk.

Nightstar flew at Ultraviolet with superhuman speed and impacted against her with a hard punch. Ultraviolet attempted to retaliate with a punch of her own, but Nightstar caught it and squeezed her fist. Ultraviolet attempted to pry Nightstar's hand off her fist, but Nightstar's grip was too strong, so she threw her other fist at Nightstar's face. Nightstar dipped backwards to avoid the punch and swung her legs up to kick Ultraviolet in the stomach. Ultraviolet flew into the wall, only to kick off it and attack Nightstar, who slapped her blow aside and knocked her into and through another wall.

Americommando fired his photon generator at Nightstar, who cut the blast in half with a chop. She came down on him with a flying kick that he blocked by generating a photon shield. She simply spun on that photon shield and pirouetted into a kick to his masked face. She flipped off his shield and kicked him again. On the third kick, he caught her ankle and twisted, but she twisted with him and swung her free leg into a kick to his head, twisting his neck. Americommando simply twisted his neck back into place and glared balefully at her.

“You little whore!” he roared, attacking her viciously.

Meanwhile, Lady Liberty was dodging Inferno's and Phoebus's fireballs and retaliating with energy blasts from her torch. Inferno created a heat shield to block her energy blasts and Phoebus sped toward Lady Liberty to knock the torch out of her hands. She attempted to blast him with her torch, but he was moving so swiftly that he was evading her blasts. With a flaming hand, he knocked the torch out of her hand, singing said hand in the process.

“Say goodnight,” Phoebus snarled and punched her hard enough to knock her unconscious.

“You didn't hit her too hard, did you?” Inferno asked.

“I'm not quite the merciless fiend you seem to have mistaken me for,” Phoebus replied with grim sarcasm.

“Titans Tower, Code 777,” the two pyromancers heard Nightstar spit out. “Delay by 30 seconds.”

“That's the self-destruct code!” Bladefire yelled. “Nightstar, what are you doing?”

“This way, our Tower's technology won't be used by our enemies,” Nightstar replied harshly. “Samara, teleport us out. Just us.”

“Are you serious?” Samara asked.

“Dead serious,” Nightstar replied. “Get us out now.”

The Titans Tower mainframe continued its grim countdown. “10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . .”

“Damn you,” Samara whispered just before enveloping the Titans, Phoebus, and Scarlet Archer in her aura and shunting them all outside the Tower.

“3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Self-destruct commence.”

That night, any citizen of Jump City who looked outside their windows would see rubble and flame where the T-shaped structure that had loomed over them for almost thirty years once stood. Some would be shocked. Others would be horrified. A number would be savagely relieved, having by now considered the Titans as much of a menace to their safety as the villains they fought. However they looked at it, they could all agree on one thing: It was the end of something.

End Notes: Pretty gnarly ending, huh? All right, some things need to be said here.

First, J did not get killed. Before Mercury arrived, the Titans and Scarlet Archer knew what was about to go down and got J the hell out of there. Assume he is somewhere relatively safe outside Titans Tower right now.

Second, Americommando is based on an old character from DC Comics' Golden Age, but his interpretation here is inspired by Kingdom Come's version of him. Lady Liberty, Miss America, and Silent Majority are United States-themed DC Comics heroes that I've appropriated and altered for use in this story. Spin Doctor is a speedster in DC Comics canon, but in my version, his speed comes from a different source than in the comics, as you can tell.

As for Nightstar blowing up Titans Tower with Infinity, Inc. and S.H.A.D.E. agents still in there, you'll see the ramifications of that in the next chapter. Why did she do it? You'll see next chapter, too. Speaking of next chapter, if you think things can't get any worse, you'd be quite wrong.

In the meantime, be kind and leave me a review.