Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Reload ( Chapter 32 )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Arc 6: “Justice”

Chapter 7: “Reload”

Disclaimer: Teen Titans and all other DCU characters, except for those of my invention, do not belong to me. They belong to DC Comics and Warner Brothers.

Author's note: I've really put the Titans through hell, haven't I? I've taken away their reputations, their home, and now their city. What else can I do to make them suffer? Not that much now, as they've had enough and they're not going to take it anymore. They're going to strike back and make those that ruined their lives pay. See “The Titans Strike Back” unfold.

Jump City was once a proud Southern Californian metropolis of roughly six million residents. Its beaches were beautiful and its spires were a sight to behold. It was the home of the most famous technology firms. Elevated streets created multiple levels to this shining beacon of modernity. It was also the home of the Teen Titans, before they were hounded out by a hostile public and government. And now . . . now its center was a smoldering ruin, chemical fires blazing around it.

The six Titans materialized inside their ruined metropolis. Despite the protection spell Samara had cast on them, Inferno couldn't help but cough. Neither could Mercury.

“Who did this?” Nightstar asked. “Who the hell did this?”

“It no longer matters,” Bladefire replied grimly. “What matters is saving the people of this city. Our city. Let's go.”

The Titans split off, either flying or running, to find survivors. Mercury ran up the façade of an apartment complex and dematerialized inside. He ran into the collapsing structure. “Hello!” he shouted. “If anyone's in here, I'll get you out!”

“Help!” someone coughed out.

Mercury sped over in the direction of the voice and used a pulse of kinetic energy to knock the table away. That revealed a dust-covered man, who had been protectively covering his young son. Mercury helped them up and sped them out of the apartment and away from the city, then ran back inside to find more survivors.

Beast Girl ran as a cheetah-girl, accelerating to 65 mph, to find other survivors. As she ran, she was confronted by images of death and devastation where she passed. It made her want to throw up. Not for the first time, she wondered how people could be so evil. Demons were one thing, but human beings were something else.

Samara clutched her head and gritted her teeth. She could feel them all, the people who had survived that initial blast and the people who hadn't. She could feel their souls screaming in horror that this atrocity had happened to them. She could feel them begging some form of divine being for answers as to why this had happened and who could have done it.

Inferno attempted to absorb the flames. He knew he would exhaust the capabilities of his containment suit and probably poison himself in the process, but he had to try. If he let those flames spread, the entire city would be destroyed. He gritted his teeth in pain as he drew the noxious chemical fires into himself. He felt the suit tearing from the pressure of containing all of that flame, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. Not with so many dead, not with so many that still might die if he didn't do this . . .

Nightstar and Bladefire flew through the air, finding and evacuating as many people from the city as they could. Within that same air, they spotted Solarflare, Ultraviolet, and Garnet evacuating people as well. Ultraviolet noticed the Grayson twins first and sneered.

“I'm surprised you'd come back after trying to kill us,” she remarked.

Nightstar let out a shrill scream of rage and flew at Ultraviolet, ready to take her head off, but Bladefire and Solarflare interposed themselves between the two girls. “This isn't the time, Nightstar,” Bladefire said.

“We have nothing to gain by antagonizing the Titans,” Solarflare said to Ultraviolet. “Right now, we're doing the same thing, which is saving these people. Waste the bitch after we're done with that.”

“Just remember who defeated whom,” Bladefire shot back.

“We don't have time for a pissing contest,” Garnet snapped, continuing to evacuate residents from the devastated Jump City.

“She's right,” Bladefire admitted reluctantly, returning to his and Nightstar's original purpose, which was to save as many lives as possible.

Inferno felt himself about to reach his limit. The noxious flames were making him sick and there was only so much he could absorb. He pushed himself to soak up more of the toxic fire, but just as he thought he was ready to burst, a sudden tidal surge washed out the flames.

“What the -?” he wondered.

“Thank me later!” Aquamarine shouted, merged with a tidal wave.

Hermes and Mercury were both rescuing and evacuating residents at super-speed, although they had managed to turn even that into a pissing contest. Considering both of them had air friction-reducing auras which protection extended to whatever or whoever they touched, they didn't have to worry about their passengers burning up. Less than purely heroic, but Hermes wasn't exactly a pure hero and Mercury didn't like the idea of being one-upped by someone like that. Whatever the underlying motivations, the Titans and Infinity, Inc. were able to work together to successfully evacuate the survivors from the ruined Jump City.

“Now . . . now we settle this!” Solarflare yelled, flying at Nightstar and Bladefire. Nightstar viciously smacked him down the street and he bounced off the street before rolling. Ultraviolet went to attack her, but Nightstar blocked the strike and grabbed her arm, twisting it behind the Wonder Woman-imitator's back. Ultraviolet swung her other arm at Nightstar, but Nightstar grabbed it and pinned it to her front. Ultraviolet finally stamped Nightstar's foot and used the loosening of Nightstar's grip to break free and elbow her hard enough to knock her to the ground.

“As usual, you revert to the thugs you really are,” Samara spat contemptuously.

“Shut up, you hell-bitch whore!” Hermes yelled, attacking her at super-speed. Inferno and Mercury both attacked him at superhuman speed, only for Inferno to be knocked out of commission by Aquamarine's water. Mercury was left to take on Hermes on his own, but that wouldn't be a problem for Mercury. Hermes was fast, all right, but Mercury was even faster.

Inferno heated up again to steam off the water Aquamarine had thrown at him. He shot a stream of flame at Aquamarine, who drowned it with a tidal blast. Inferno shot into the air to avoid that tidal blast and came back down as a veritable firestorm. Aquamarine screamed as the intense heat from the flames evaporated her water.

Beast Girl fought Nightside as a cheetah-girl, relying on her chosen animal component's speed to keep herself ahead of Nightside. Unfortunately for her, Nightside was just as fast and seemingly able to stay five steps ahead of her. Nightside withdrew a small rod and extended it into a full-sized quarterstaff, slamming it into Beast Girl's side with superhuman force. Beast Girl rolled with the slam and into a kick that Nightside unfortunately blocked, grabbing Beast Girl's ankle and twisting the geomorphic shape-shifter into the air.

In Metropolis, Green Lantern was hard at work aiding those caught in the shockwaves from the blast. Emerald constructs from both her ring and her innate powers gently lifted civilians to safety. Batman and Scarlet Archer were helping as well, airlifting the injured to hospitals. Static was gently disassembling automobile wreckage with his electromagnetic powers to free the people trapped inside. Superman and Wonder Woman were carrying civilians to shelters and hospitals, and the Flash was speeding civilians to those same shelters and hospitals.

The Justice Society had arrived to help as well. Kal-El aided his protégé and successor in bringing civilians to shelter and hospitals, while Jay Garrick and Jenny Quick aided the Flash in speeding people out of harm's way. Mr. Terrific used his T-spheres to gently levitate civilians to safety, while Starwoman was carrying the injured to hospitals and clinics. Jakeem Thunder summoned his Thunderbolt with an utterance of “So cool” to clean up the damage. Wildcat was aiding the injured and the frightened as well, while Alan Scott was assisting the Green Lantern.

“Wasn't expecting to see you here,” Superman commented to Batman.

“You're my friend, Kon,” Batman replied. “Right now, you're being immensely stupid and recklessly optimistic, but you're my friend.”

“Thank you,” a child said to the Supermen.

“You're welcome,” Kon-El answered.

“Hey, wait a minute,” someone said. “That laser blast came from space! Right where you League guys have your Watchtower!”

“Yeah!” another person shouted. “You guys fired on Lena Luthor's lab! She was right all along about you metas retarding human progress!”

Various jeers soon followed. “People, that's quite enough,” Alan spoke calmly, his clear voice cutting through the din. “There's more to this than what you know, but we are not going to get anywhere by hurling accusations without actual evidence to back those accusations. We understand that you're hurting. We understand that what you've just experienced has been highly traumatic. But we are not your enemies. We are not your destroyers. We simply want to help you.”

Unfortunately, his entreaty fell on deaf ears. Beside him, Wildcat gritted his teeth with rage. The ingrates; he'd teach them a thing or two about - Jay gently placed a hand on his shoulder, calming him somewhat.

“Forgive them, for they know not what they do,” Jay whispered.

Back in Jump City, the battle between the Teen Titans and Infinity, Inc. raged through the devastated metropolis. Ultraviolet had grabbed Nightstar by her hair and was now spinning her around. She tossed the Tamaranean hybrid into an already-wrecked car, the car crumpling around her. Nightstar tore herself free from the automobile and fired an optic blast at Ultraviolet, who blocked it with her bracelets. Ultraviolet flew at Nightstar, Nightstar rising to meet her. The two clashed in midair, striking each other furiously with fast punches and hand thrusts.

Mercury and Hermes fought across the city at hyper-speed, each blow shattering the windows within a two-block radius. Hermes grabbed Mercury's arm and used it as leverage to spin him into a throw that sent him flying down several blocks. Hermes sped after him, pursuing him with a series of brutal punches delivered at super-speed. Finally, Mercury landed on the ground, Hermes coming down on him with a fast punch. Mercury, having found himself quite fed up with Hermes, drained the speed from the swift Infinitor and channeled it into a strike that knocked him unconscious.

Nightside was still fighting Beast Girl, only she was using her quarterstaff to keep the shape-shifter at bay. Beast Girl attempted to slice the dark Infinitor, but Nightside rolled out of the way and into a kick to Beast Girl's side. She followed that up with a sweep of her staff to the back of Beast Girl's legs, knocking her down. And all of that was in the space of mere seconds, faster than even Beast Girl's eyes could detect. With that same unnatural speed, Nightside pinned Beast Girl to the asphalt with her staff, which was pressed against Beast Girl's throat. Beast Girl shifted into a snake and wrapped herself around Nightside's staff before lunging at her. Nightside ducked and grabbed Beast Girl by her middle, prompting Beast Girl to wrap herself around Nightside's arm and bite her exposed shoulder, pumping as much venom as she could into the Infinitor's body.

Samara telekinetically levitated wrecked cars and threw them at Garnet, who sliced through them with construct blades. The black-and-red-clad girl flew at Samara with twin construct blades extended from the backs of her hands. Samara blocked Garnet's slashes with telekinetic shields and wrapped her hands in black aura, using them to cut through Garnet's construct blades. Garnet shaped giant shuriken out of her red plasma energy and threw them at Samara, who dodged them. Just as Garnet was about to redouble her assault, a sonic grenade detonated near her, scrambling her concentration and disorienting her.

“Where did that come from?” Samara wondered, holding her own bleeding ears.

“I believe a `thank you' is in order,” a familiar voice answered.

Samara looked up and spotted a very familiar someone. It was a young woman, garbed in armored black leather and gray chain mail-like mesh. The armored leather covered most of her body, the mesh only taking up her shoulders and arms. Black straps wrapped around her shoulders and the mesh also covered her sides and outer thighs. Her knees, shins, and feet were accented with lightweight armor and her hands were covered in short black gloves with black bands wrapped around her forearm. Her face was partly concealed by a bisected orange-and-black mask that came down to her nose, the black side blank and the orange side having a red lens. Twin swords rested on her back and a hint of a smirk could be found on her lips.

“Ravager,” Samara spat. “What are you doing here?”

“Making up for past errors,” Ravager replied.

Nightstar and Bladefire had come together to battle Ultraviolet and Solarflare, respectively. Solarflare fired a matter-disintegrating optic blast, which Nightstar dodged, only for a section of skyscraper to vanish. Ultraviolet didn't bother with her ultraviolet lasso, since it would only fuel Bladefire's powers; she just flew at him and punched him. Bladefire struck back with a hard two-fisted slam that sent her flying to the ground. Ultraviolet righted herself in midair and rocketed into Bladefire, while Solarflare slammed Nightstar into the ground. Nightstar kicked Solarflare off her and rolled onto her feet, lashing out at him with an energy lariat to restrain him.

Solarflare dodged the lariat and was about to lunge at Nightstar when a blade glowing red projected itself from his stomach. He gasped in horror as blood began to well up in his mouth. He coughed out the blood and fell down in a heap. Standing behind him was Ravager, a red-glowing sword in her hand.

“He'll live,” Ravager spoke tersely.

“Ravager!” Nightstar yelled. “What are you doing here?”

“Helping you,” Ravager replied tersely.

“And why should I believe that?” Nightstar asked.

“You don't have to,” Ravager answered. “I don't expect you to.”

A blue optic blast sent Ultraviolet crashing to the ground, only to be impaled by Ravager's red-glowing blade before she could hit that ground. Ultraviolet sputtered in pain as Ravager tossed her aside, blood flowing from her wound. Her opponent, Bladefire, landed before Ravager in shock.

“She'll live,” Ravager spoke. “I deliberately missed her vitals.”

“What are you doing here?” Bladefire asked.

“Like I told your sister, I'm here to help,” Ravager replied.

“Why?” Bladefire asked. “And that's assuming I believe you.”

At that moment, the Titans had regrouped, all of whom were looking at Ravager with suspicious and untrusting expressions. “I came because I had enough. I've helped to cause you a great deal of pain and I won't be a party to it anymore. Slade ordered this. He ordered Tartarus to drop a living bomb on the city and when I wouldn't go along with it, he had me locked away.”

“How did you get out, then?” Inferno asked.

“Black Adam,” Ravager replied, “but that's not the end of it. The Society wants to invade Metropolis.”

“Why would they do that?” Mercury asked.

“Because it's Superman's city,” Ravager answered. “If they can claim Superman's city, then it'll demoralize the world to the point that there'll be no one willing to resist them.”

“Do they even have the numbers to invade Metropolis?” Beast Girl asked.

“They have a number of heavy-hitters on their side,” Ravager replied. “Including Match, Devastation, Black Flash, and Bright.”

“Bright?” Nightstar asked.

“Yeah,” Ravager confirmed. “She's the Society's trump card, just for this occasion.”

“Then we have to gather everyone,” Bladefire said. “Every last superhero we can contact and have them meet us in Metropolis.”

“That's not the only thing you have to worry about,” Bruce's voice spoke from Nightstar's communicator. “There's still the matter of the OMAC satellite. Someone has to shut that down and even Oracle can't remotely hack into the satellite.”

“Who's going to do that?” Nightstar asked.

“Oracle has the Steel Angels and Robin working on it, along with Blue Beetle, Goldstar, and Question,” Bruce replied. “The Terrifics will be joining them, along with Lightning and Indigo.”

“Then the rest of us will go to Metropolis,” Nightstar concluded.

“We found out who fired that laser on Lena Luthor's lab,” Bruce added. “It was Lena. She hacked the Watchtower's weapons systems and fired upon her own lab to set up the League.”

The Titans and Ravager swallowed that piece of news. People like Lena Luthor were the sort of conscience-less beasts that they had all donned their costumes to fight, even if some of them had lost sight of that. Upon swallowing that piece of news, they let it build up in their stomachs like a spiritual ulcer. The feelings of sickness and disgust coiled in their stomachs and grew into a righteous fury that drove Samara to teleport them all to Metropolis.

Joining the Titans and Ravager were the Justice League and Justice Society, whom Bruce had informed of the same thing that Ravager had informed the Titans. Also joining them were Hawk and Dove, Supergirl, Superwoman, Steel, and Power Woman. Captain Marvel, along with his wife Lady Marvel and their daughter Molly Marvel, joined the growing group of heroes. A boy-shaped shadow, otherwise known as Wraith, added himself to the group. The Titans East arrived, along with many of the still-living elder Titans, Dick Grayson in the lead and garbed in his Nightwing attire. Stephanie Brown was beside him in her own Nightwing costume, which had done away with the cloak for a full-face mask that let her hair flow freely. The Doom Patrol had arrived as well, consisting of Robotman, Negative Man, and Mento and Elasti-Girl's biological daughter Minder. They weren't the only heroes that were coming; so many more were pouring in as well, retired, still active, and new and untried.

They had all met at the sign that said “Welcome to Metropolis, Home of Superman!” Nightstar looked at that sign with a slightly sad smile. Just then, Samara placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don't worry,” she said to the younger girl. “We won't let the Society take this city without a fight.”

When they came, the heroes were almost caught unawares. It wasn't that they didn't know the Society was coming. It was just that they weren't ready for the numbers the Society came in. It was a veritable army, an army of darkness, so to speak. Villains and meta-criminals of all styles and power levels, all united under the banner of the Society. Standing at the head of this baneful army were Slade, Kon-El's doppelganger Match, Wonder Woman's “opposite and negative” Devastation, Bright, Black Flash, and Black Adam.

“If it isn't my traitorous daughter,” Slade greeted ominously.

“I'm not your daughter, Slade,” Ravager answered, drawing her swords threateningly.

Slade drew his broadsword and pointed it at Ravager. “Then you're my enemy . . . and you know what happens to my enemies, don't you?”

It was hard to miss the manner in which Bladefire stepped slightly in front of Ravager, pointing his energy blade at Slade. Slade simply smirked under his mask and narrowed his eye at Bladefire. “Quite protective of her, aren't you, Grayson?” he remarked.

“You're not setting one foot inside Metropolis, Slade,” Bladefire answered.

“And what makes you think you can stop me?” Slade questioned mockingly.

“All this posturing bores me,” Devastation sneered. She launched herself at Wonder Woman, striking with enough force to kill weaker beings. Beside her, Match telekinetically blasted Superman, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying into and through a nearby building. Black Flash “zoomed” at the speedsters, moving so quickly that even they couldn't react swiftly enough to stop her. Black Adam clashed with his more heroic counterpart in the skies, the Power of Shazam fueling both their blows.

Bedlam became the rule of the night, with heroes and villains clashing fiercely at the border dividing Metropolis from the outside world. As hard as the heroes tried to prevent the villains from entering Metropolis, they were ultimately unsuccessful, the battle spilling into the streets of the gleaming City of Tomorrow. Bright used her power like a giant flash grenade, blinding the Titans battling her and then proceeding to beat them while their eyes were trying to recover.

“Slade . . .” Dick snarled, the familiar hate welling up in his chest. Beside him were Nightstar, Bladefire, and Ravager. All four had their weapons out, whether fashioned from their own innate energies or carried on their persons. The snarl of his name was the only warning Slade received before being fiercely attacked by the Graysons and Ravager. Slade bent backwards to avoid the lash of Nightstar's whip and twisted to evade Ravager's swords. He blocked Dick's escrima sticks with his sword and parried Bladefire's energy sword.

The four attacked him together, Slade moving out of the way of their attacks with unnatural alacrity. He slashed at them with his sword, slicing the outer layer of Dick's costume and being blocked by Ravager's sword. She tried to slice him, but his armor was such that it managed to protect him from her sword. In return for that, he thrust his blade at her, but she evaded it. Nightstar lashed at him with her whip, only for Slade to catch it and use it to tug her toward him. Nightstar used that to propel herself into a kick, dissipating the energy whip so that Slade had nothing to hold onto. Bladefire slashed at him with his sword, cutting Slade's mask but doing relatively little to harm him.

Match and Kon-El battled fiercely, physical blows and telekinetic strikes being the main methods by which they fought. Kon-El glared at the reversed “S”-shield on Match's chest. “You don't deserve to wear that!” he exclaimed, firing a blast of heat vision at his dark twin.

Match simply blocked it with a telekinetic shield. “Always so emotional,” he mocked.

Lady Marvel and Molly Marvel, along with Black Adam's wife Isis and their son Osiris, took on Captain Nazi together. Captain Nazi may have been fiercely powerful, but even he was no match for three Shazam-empowered humans and one wielding the power of a goddess. Ultimately, he was defeated with an almost-ridiculous ease.

Arrows flew as Red Hood, Scarlet Archer, and Connor Hawke took on Night Arrow, the son of the Society of Assassins' archer Merlyn. Night Arrow shot his arrows at Red Hood, Scarlet Archer, and Connor, but they evaded and fired their own arrows at Night Arrow. Red Hood swapped out her arrow for her wrist-worn crossbow and shot its bolts at Night Arrow, who was hit in the arm by one of the bolts. He plucked out the bolt and shot more arrows at Red Hood. Connor caught one of the arrows and Scarlet Archer somersaulted into the air to fire crossbow bolts at Night Arrow.

Jay Garrick, Wally West, Bart Allen, Blitz, Max Mercury, and Jesse Quick took on the Rogues, while Kid Flash, Mercury, Velocity, Jenny Quick, and Windrunner took on Black Flash. The younger speedsters sadly found themselves outmatched by Black Flash, whose personal timeframe was so accelerated that even they seemed too slow for her. The “strength in numbers” paradigm unfortunately proved inaccurate when it came to dealing with someone outside the normal flow of time. Black Flash effortlessly blocked a kick from Mercury while kicking Kid Flash and then throwing Mercury at Velocity, who caught his cousin-brother and spun him into a throw at Black Flash, lending the platinum boy speed to enhance the throw. With the loaned speed, Mercury pummeled Black Flash, who blocked each and every one of his punches. She finally slammed the heel of her hand into his temple, hitting him hard enough to disorient him.

Batman, Stephanie, and Erinys fought Fray, Erinys being the only one who could pierce his kinetic field. This shocked Fray deeply, in fact more so than it actually hurt him. “How?” he asked. He received no answer from Erinys, who simply continued to attack him.

Hex ran around Samara, firing hexes at the partly demonic girl while using her speed to evade Samara's attacks. Samara finally grew weary of Hex and generated a shadow field around her to slow Hex down. Hex cast her magic on Samara's shadow field, resulting in an explosion of dark energy and pink energy that sent both girls flying. Hex rose to her feet first and attacked Samara in a pink speed blur. Samara attempted to block Hex's attacks with her telekinesis, but Hex was moving too fast for her.

Inferno and Phoebus attacked Dr. Blaze and vice versa with flames and constructs made from those same flames. Dr. Blaze generated a fire beast and sent it after the time-distanced pyromancers, but Inferno absorbed the fire beast and Phoebus shot his flames into an attack on Dr. Blaze, who dissipated it with a wave of his hand. Dr. Blaze retaliated with an attack of fiery knives, but Inferno and Phoebus blocked all of them with a fire construct staff. He jumped into the air and came down striking Dr. Blaze with his staff, while Phoebus knocked Dr. Blaze's feet out from under him with a low kick. Dr. Blaze grabbed the staff and used it to help himself back up, generating a fiery explosion to blast Inferno and Phoebus, the latter of whom absorbed the blast.

Beast Girl tore entire sections of ground out and flung them at Gemini with her geokinetic powers, but Gemini shattered them with her outstretched fists. She stretched her fingers into blades and shot them forth at Beast Girl, who dodged them and lunged at her. Gemini wrapped her arms around Beast Girl and began to squeeze her, but Beast Girl tore herself free with molten energy and fired that same energy at Gemini. The energy blew a hole in Gemini, but Gemini quickly regenerated. Gemini charged at Beast Girl and slashed at her with her finger-blades, but Beast Girl dodged and slashed at Gemini with her own claws.

When Gemini spotted Changeling making his way to defend his daughter, she let out a bloodcurdling scream of rage. “Murderer!” she screeched. She stretched her bladed hands at Changeling, intending to impale him. A wall of earth rose from the ground to block Gemini's attack, but Gemini's bladed hands tore through it with little evidence of slowing down. More earthen walls rose from the ground to protect Changeling, but Gemini began stretching her body around them. Beast Girl jumped up and sliced through Gemini's stretching body with golden-glowing claws. Gemini re-formed herself and stretched her fingers into a sharp lattice that trapped Beast Girl and Changeling.

Robotman charged at Gemini and punched her in the stomach, setting off a sonic charge that exploded her. Negative Man leaped out of his bandaged body and attacked Gemini in shadow form as she reformed. Minder shaped blades from her telekinetic energies and shot them at Gemini. Beast Girl and Changeling charged at Gemini as tigers, slashing at her from both sides. Terra laid the finishing blow with a platform of earth that squashed Gemini.

Raven and Jericho fought together, Jericho inside Raven's body and augmenting her fighting skills with his. Combined with Raven's magic, they were able to aid Samara in defeating Hex. Samara managed to hold Hex still long enough for Raven to lock eyes with the pink witch so that Jericho could jump inside her body. Once inside, Jericho turned Hex's powers against Dr. Blaze, causing his flames to extinguish themselves. Jericho jumped inside Dr. Blaze and used him to attack several other villains, taking them out with Dr. Blaze's pyrokinetic abilities. Jericho jumped from villain to villain, knocking them down like so many bowling pins.

“I've got an idea,” Windrunner said.

“Speak fast,” Velocity said.

“We have to channel all of our speed into someone,” Windrunner spoke. “We can use that to boost that someone high enough in speed to match Black Flash.”

“Who gets that speed?” Kid Flash asked.

“Mercury,” Jenny Quick replied simply. “He's already the fastest of all of us, so he has the best chance of keeping up with Black Flash.”

“If you say so,” Mercury said.

“Go,” Velocity said. “We'll give you all the speed we have.”

Mercury charged at Black Flash, who effortlessly blocked each and every one of his attacks. He didn't give up, suddenly feeling himself accelerate much further than the level he had been at before. To him, Black Flash now appeared to be moving as fast as him, if not marginally slower. He could see her moves, clear as daylight, and thus evade them. He was even able to hit her, catching her by surprise.

“Howwwww?” she asked.

Mercury simply smirked and kicked her in the stomach. Black Flash absorbed the blow and grabbed his ankle, twisting him into the air. Mercury spun and kicked her again, only for her to block the kick and swing herself into a kick of her own. Mercury evaded the kick and struck Black Flash in the chin, knocking her down. Black Flash rose to her feet and attacked Mercury again, only to be struck down again.

“Too slow,” he whispered.

The Graysons and Ravager were still battling Slade, who showed no signs of being tired. Being possessed of much the same abilities as Slade, Ravager wasn't tiring anytime soon herself. Neither were Nightstar and Bladefire. Dick, on the other hand, was starting to feel the weight of his years, although he was still doing a fine job of keeping just a few paces behind Slade.

“I must say, I have been looking forward to facing you again, Dick,” Slade remarked almost affectionately as he blocked Dick's strike. “But you're starting to get tired. I can see it in your body language. Just the tiniest slip . . . and I'll finish you, right in front of your delightful children. You can see your precious Starfire in heaven if you think such a place exists.”

Dick gritted his teeth at the mention of his deceased first wife and battered Slade furiously with his escrima sticks. Slade made no effort to avoid Dick's strikes, almost mocking him with his refusal to dodge. Finally, he grabbed Dick's wrists and pulled them apart, holding the younger man's arms out. He slammed his knee into Dick's solar plexus with enough force to knock the wind out of the former Titan leader. As Dick collapsed, Nightstar and Bladefire redoubled their attack on Slade, Nightstar launching herself into a flying kick and Bladefire kicking up from the ground. Slade caught both their legs and flipped into an upside-down split-kick that struck them both down. He drew his sword and clashed blades with Ravager, both of whom were moving at exceptional speeds. The two might have been evenly matched in abilities and skills, but Slade was the superior in experience, a fact he demonstrated when he feinted to trick Ravager into a position where he could and did impale her.

Throwing her aside, Slade was suddenly slashed by an electrified blade and a blade of psycho-spiritual energy. He quickly healed from both attacks, but he was stunned as to who had attacked him, until he saw two black-clad figures. One was in a suit of metallic black, bladed fins extending from his forearms, a red-outlined black bat on his chest, and a pointy-eared, red-eyed black mask, electrified blades extended from the backs of his hands. The other was slightly smaller and wearing a silver-edged black jacket over a silver-trimmed black suit with multiple zippers on the legs. He had long silver hair and violet eyes set in a somewhat feminine face.

“Cipher,” Slade greeted. “I wasn't expecting to see you so soon.” He looked over at the Batman-styled man. “And who might you be, a Batman cosplayer?”

Dick, Nightstar, and Bladefire had risen to their feet, along with a healed Ravager, only to spot the two young men. “Raziel? Ibn?” Nightstar uttered.

Cipher turned to Nightstar with a soft smile on his face. “Hello, Mar'i. It's been entirely too long.” Beside him, Ibn al Xu'ffasch nodded. Their attention returned to Slade and Cipher spoke again. “Bombing a city full of innocent people. You've reached an entirely new low, Terminator.”

“And what are you going to do about it?” Slade asked.

His answer came in the form of a telekinetic blast that sent him careening into a nearby building. The armor managed to absorb much of the impact and he recovered from the rest. Slade rose to his feet with a bemused expression underneath his mask. “You were never able to do that before.”

Ibn held six red-edged black Batarangs between his fingers and threw them all at Slade, who dodged each and every one of them. However, that had been just a feint; Ibn was rushing at Slade as Slade dodged the Batarangs and had gotten close enough to slice through his armor with his wrist-blades. Slade sliced at Ibn with his broadsword, but Ibn dodged and spun into a kick that sent Slade flying. Slade quickly flipped onto his feet and slashed at Ibn again, only for Ibn to block with his wrist-blades. Unfortunately for Ibn, Slade slipped inside his guard and stabbed him with a knife.

“IBN!” Nightstar cried out, flying into an attack on Slade, who was helpless to defend himself as she sliced him from all sides with energy wire. With the way Nightstar wielded her energy, the wire became a deadly moving web that cut the mastermind no matter where he stepped. He would heal, of course, but it was not a pleasant thing to be cut with energy wire. Finally, Nightstar relented, but by then Slade was bleeding from virtually everywhere on his body. The wounds quickly healed themselves, though, and he showed no sign of being slowed down by his injuries.

Before the fight could really be decided, Supergirl suddenly let out a horrified shout. “MISSILES! They're firing missiles at us!”

“What the hell?” Steel asked.

“I can hear them . . .” Supergirl replied with a frightened tone. “Three warplanes, each of them armed.”

“They've signed their own death warrants,” Ibn snarled, his voice deadly. He rocketed into the air and extended the glider wings. He shot forward at the warplanes, electrified blades ready to cut them down along with their pilots.

“Ibn, no!” Bladefire shouted, flying after him with Nightstar.

Ibn had already made it to the lead warplane, slicing its wings and rudder off with a brutally swift swing of his blades. He cut through another one, and the pilot of the third had by now realized what was happening and was now opening fire on Ibn. Ibn dodged the lasers and swung to shred the third warplane. The pilot of that particular warplane was more agile than Ibn had anticipated and got away with only a scratch. He managed to fire the missile, only for his plane to be violently shredded by Ibn.

On the ground, Phoebus could see that Ibn had failed to stop one of the missiles from being fired. “No . . .” he muttered. “No, not again . . . I came back to stop this . . . and I will . . .” He rocketed toward the missile, intending to detonate it high above the city, before it could kill anyone.

Meanwhile, Nightstar, Bladefire, and Supergirl were busy catching the warplanes that Ibn had wrecked so that their pilots did not die. As they navigated the planes to safety, they saw Phoebus rocketing toward the missile, his body wreathed in flames. “What are you doing?” Bladefire asked in shock.

“Stopping that missile,” Phoebus replied.

“But you'll die!” Bladefire shouted.

“So?” Phoebus asked. “If it saves this city from becoming a smoking crater and you all from being obliterated, it's worth it. Besides, if I make things right, the timeline will fix itself so that I don't exist.”

“Good-bye . . . Jeremiah,” Nightstar said.

“Good-bye, Mar'i,” Phoebus answered. He continued his suicidal charge toward the missile, accelerating himself to match its speed. To his horror, he saw that it was getting closer and closer to the skyline of Metropolis. He pushed himself harder than he had ever pushed himself, amplifying the thermo-chemical reactions that enabled his flight. He prepared for the explosive detonation that would cost him his life, but also take out the missile if he was lucky.

His last thoughts before the fatal impact were, Good-bye, Samara. The last thing he registered was a flash of white . . . and he slipped into merciful nothingness.

End Notes: That's the end of this arc, but not quite the end of Teen Titans: Future Storm. There's an epilogue chapter after this that will wrap up the series by showing the new status quo of the Future Storm universe following the events of this arc. If you're wondering who exactly sent those warplanes, you'll see that in the next chapter, too.

Captain Marvel and Lady Marvel are Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Bromfield/Mary Marvel, respectively. Molly Marvel is an OC invented by Plushie Nietzsche and will be appearing in his story Future Storm: Teen Titans Central, which is spun off from this story. Superwoman is the grown-up version of the modern Supergirl (who, as she's classically known, is Superman's cousin).

Fog Spirit, you've been demanding this long enough, so I hope you're happy with Cipher's return. As for Ibn al Xu'ffasch, you readers with long memories may know him from the side story “Son of the Bat,” which is also the translation of his name. Anyway, I'm hoping you'll leave a review to let me know what you think of how I've developed this particular arc.