Issue #16: "Titanic Days" Pt. 3

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Issue #16: “Titanic Days” Part Three
Written by Mark Bowers
Cover by Ramon Villalobos
Edited by Brian Burchette[/center]

Thanks to a yet-to-be-invented teleportational device, Roy Harper, along with his daughter from the future, had just materialized outside Titans Tower.

Quickly, he took in the sights and sounds around him. At his feet, were two unconscious bodies, one of whom he recognized as the villainess Shimmer, while, over to his left, there were big heaps of earth dug up, and next to them was the body of a villain called Mammoth, who he’d met in the Titans’ early days, alongside that of Kid Flash. Meanwhile, some of the other Titans (all of them new, few of whom he recognized) were watching Dick and Donna in what appeared to be a fight to the death.

“I’ve got to go and help,” he said.

“No,” said his daughter forcefully, grabbing hold of his arm. “Leave them be. There are more important things to worry about. Besides, do you even know which one of them you’re supposed to be helping?”

“Well, no, but...”

“Just sit back and watch,” she advised. “This is all history to me. If we do nothing, it will sort itself out. If we interfere, we could just make things worse. Trust me; it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Well, we’ll just have to risk it,” said Roy, marching over to where the other Titans were standing.

Meanwhile, Raven was currently nowhere near Titans Tower, nor near the ground for that matter. Instead, she was currently high up in the air, where she’d just teleported with Flamebird. Letting go of Flamebird’s hand, she then teleported again, this time to the ground, and watched her teammate’s descent.

A second later, Flamebird hit the ground, her legs buckling beneath her as she tried to spread the impact through her body. Lying there, unable to get up, she saw Raven walking over to her.

“I thought you’d be better at killing people,” said Flamebird defiantly, as she lay there, unmoving, mentally checking through her body parts to assess the damage.

“Oh, I didn’t want to kill you,” explained Raven. “I figured, considering your gymnastic training, you’d be able to survive that little drop. You might not be able to fly, but you can certainly fall with style. Nice landing, by the way.”

Raven then kicked Flamebird’s legs, hard, but Flamebird didn’t feel a thing.

“No, I just wanted to incapacitate you, so that you’d stay with me for a little chat and then, when all that’s over and done with, then maybe I’ll drop you some more.”

Raven sat down next to Flamebird.

“So, Flamebird, you still think I’m Raven, don’t you?”

“But you are Raven.”

“Well, yes, I am Raven... now... Didn’t used to be though. Used to just be a nobody, but then my metagene kicked in and... well, I was still a nobody, maybe more so. I was a shadow-being; able to inhabit other people’s bodies, do whatever I liked with them... some of the things I did you wouldn’t even want to imagine, most of the things for that matter... Good times.”

“You’re insane.”

“No, I don’t think so; just a kid having fun... I could do whatever I wanted, become whomever I wanted... except, that is, for Raven. See, I’m from the future, and there our ruler Raven is just too darn powerful. Anyway, we always want what we can’t have, so, after I gave up on using other people to try and get to her, I joined one of the more powerful resistance groups, hoping that they’d be able to weaken Raven enough for me to get control of her. Little did I realize that they’d take me back in time, enabling me to take over Raven here and now. It wasn’t easy – at first she was in charge, then I was stuck in a coma for a year - but now that’s all changed and it’s time to reap the rewards.”

Suddenly Raven grabbed hold of Flamebird’s arm. “Anyway, can’t just sit here chatting. I have Titans to kill.”

And with that, they were gone.

Flamebird was falling through the sky again, and this time she saw cars below, and then she heard the thud as she hit one, and felt the pain in the places she could still feel the pain, and then, to the sound of screeching brakes, everything seemed to slow down for her for an instant as she was sent flying through the air, and then hit the ground. The next thing she knew, she was lying there, her costume torn, her body broken, surrounded by a crowd.

“Please step back,” said a black-garbed figure making her way through the crowd, “I’m a Titan.”

The next thing she felt was Raven’s cold touch on her hand, and then the location changed yet again. This time, it was a graveyard.

“So, I’ve told you a little about myself,” said Raven, “but you’ve not told me anything in return. So, is there anything you want to tell me, Flamebird... or do you prefer Carrie... or maybe Robin?”

Flamebird, her breathing ragged, struggled to get her words out. “You...you know?”

“Well, as I said before, I’m a shadow-being. I went into Portal’s body once one night while he was sleeping; looked through his thoughts, saw his backup plan.”

“You’ve known... all along.”

Raven wiped the blood from Flamebird’s lips. “Of course I have.”

“But... but why wait until now?”

“Why didn’t I kill you straight away? Well, I was gathering my strength – I’ve still not got this soul-self thing working. Also, this isn’t the first time I’ve tried to kill you. The first time I thought I’d murder your parents before you were even born; just to see what would happen.”

“You... you killed my parents?”

Raven smiled. “Well, it turned out not to be that simple. You see I found out that things weren’t quite what they seemed.”

“Wh-what?” Carrie uttered, and then her surrounding was changing once again, and she was lying on the ground, staring up at some familiar faces, younger than she’d ever seen them before.

“Sorry to bring her here,” said Raven, “but she claims that you’re her parents, Mister and Mrs...”

Carrie looked up at her confused father and mother, as they told Raven their surname was Kelly.

“And how do you spell that?” asked Raven, to the young newlyweds, both of them still in shock at the blood-stained figure now lying on their wooden floor..

“K-E-L-L-E-Y.”

Flamebird, confused, assumed she’d misheard.

“And that ends with an E and a Y, not just a Y,” asked Raven.

“Yes,” said her parents, “but what difference does it make.”

Raven looked down at Carrie Kelly (whose surname contained no letter e) and smiled. “It makes a world of difference.”

Carrie’s mind raced as the truth dawned on her. She didn’t know where Portal had transported her, but it wasn’t her Earth, it wasn’t her past, and Portal’s plan to save the future might just have ended up recreating the very thing they were trying to avoid.

And then everything went black.

Cyborg walked to the elevator, his hand firmly gripping the shoulder of the villain calling himself Psimon. Accompanying them was Beast Boy, who, for some reason known only to himself, if that, currently resembled a meerkat.

“So, are you a new member?” asked the green meerkat.

“I am Cyborg,” replied Cyborg. “My creator, Silas Stone, created this Tower.”

“I’m Beast Boy,” answered the meerkat, “you can call me Gar.”

“Go away, Gar.”

“But-”

“Psimon cannot control me. I’m the part of Victor Stone that is...” Cyborg paused, calculating the right word, and then smiled to Psimon as it continued, “...inhuman. While I keep my human part asleep, he cannot affect it. You, on the other hand...”

“Say no more,” said the meerkat, as it ran off down the corridor, transforming into a cheetah.

Starfire came out, just in time to see an arrow slam into the wheel of Dick’s motorbike, causing him to fly off it.

Rushing over to Dick, feeling her strength returning slightly in the sunlight, Starfire suddenly turned to see a muddied Donna coming up behind her, casting aside her lasso that had been tied around her.

“We’ve got to stop Nightwing,” Donna explained. “He wants to kill the Titans.”

“Well, that’s what Psimon asked him to do,” explained Starfire matter-of-factly, as she caught Donna off-guard with a powerful punch. “Now,” Starfire said, walking over to the fallen Donna, “do you know where Raven is?”

“They’ve gone,” said Arrowette, looking at where Raven had been standing.

“But they’re back,” said Dagon, who’d only recently regained consciousness, as he pointed over at Shimmer, who was now waving her hand in front of Gizmo’s face to remove the remnants of the Garfield arrow still stuck there.

“Quick, check on Baran,” Shimmer begged of Gizmo, seeing her brother lying there still on the ground. Gizmo, grateful for Selinda’s earlier attention, quickly rushed over to her brother, and checked his pulse.

A second later, Gizmo dropped Baran’s wrist back to the ground. “His heart... it’s stopped beating.”

Until then, Sindella had never really wanted to be a super-villain. She’d never really wanted to kill superheroes. Still, as her power had taught her long ago... things change.

A wave of the hand, and the heroes in front of her – Arrowette, Plastique, Roy Harper’s daughter, and Dagon, had fallen into a newly-created hole, ready to be buried alive like her brother.

She started to wave her hand again, ready to change the air in the hole back to earth, when suddenly she screamed as she felt a pain in her hand. Looking at it, she saw that her middle finger now had a toothpick protruding from it.

“They call me the Woodchucker,” said a Titan, stepping out of the shadows into Shimmer’s vision. He stood there, with a smile on his face, and a toothpick between his teeth,

Shimmer waved her hand at the interfering hero, but again there was that searing pain, and her toothpick collection had grown.

She looked up from her hand, toward the Woodchucker, standing in the same position as previously, another toothpick in his mouth.

“I’ve got lots of toothpicks, Ma’am. Way more than you’ve got fingers. Trust me, you don’t want to know how much wood this Woodchucker can chuck.”

She put her hands by her side. After all, there was no need to rush. She could kill him anytime. She knew where he lived.

Suddenly her train of thought was interrupted by Cyborg walking toward them.

“What’s he doing?” she asked, as he got nearer. “Are you controlling him?”

Gizmo shook his head nervously, as Cyborg stopped in front of them.

“Stand back,” he said, as his arms telescoped out, his hands touching the sides of Baran’s chest.

Then a jolt of electricity shot out through his hands and the body shook beneath him.

“Still no heartbeat,” he said. “Again.”

Baran’s body shook once more, and Cyborg turned away. “He’ll live.”

While Selinda hugged Cyborg, Element asked “What about Kid Flash?”

“He’s alive,” replied Cyborg, unemotionally. “He just needs bringing round.”

“More to the point,” asked Arrowette, “what about the others?”

“They’ll be back,” said Roy Harper’s daughter. “Dad will see to that.”

The Titans rematerialized in front of Titans Tower, next to Gizmo and Shimmer, followed a second later by Kid Flash, who’d been delayed with dropping Doctor Light off at the local police station.

“Psimon says forget everything I said previously,” said Psimon, who, with Cyborg holding on to him tightly, now hoped to achieve his ends by cooperation. “And Raven or whoever you are... no teleporting.”

Raven tried to leave, but to her dismay found that teleportation - the only power of hers that seemed to work – she could now no longer use.

“Use the lasso on her, Wonder Girl,” said Roy. “Learn the truth.”

Donna looked at Roy in confusion, but then looked over to Dick who nodded. “Very well,” said Wonder Girl, placing the lasso around Raven. “Who are you?”

“My name is...” began Raven, and then she collapsed.

“It was not Raven, but a parasitical shadow creature,” explained Psimon. “It wanted to have Raven’s power, but could only ever have tapped into a fraction of it, and so I expelled it.”

“It wasn’t Raven?” said Kid Flash, his mind suddenly racing.

Nightwing looked at Psimon. “Even if what you’re saying is true, where is that creature now?”

“It’s gone to where it can find true power,” said Psimon. “Does it really matter, anyway? We have to bring back the real Raven.”

“What is your name?” Kid Flash asked Raven, his Raven, hoping this time the magic of the lasso would force her to speak.

There was no answer.

“She can’t hear you,” said Psimon, putting his hands on her head.

“What are you doing to her?” asked an alarmed Kid Flash.

“Reawakening her,” said Psimon.

“How can we tru-” started Kid Flash, but then he saw her eyes open.

“Who are you?” asked Roy.

“My name is Rachel,” she said, and then, seeing Kid Flash, clung on to him tightly.

Long after the villains had left, Victor Stone suddenly woke up. “Huh? Where am I? Did I miss anything?”

“Only your first adventure as a Titan,” said Gar.

“I’m an official Titan?” he replied, excitedly.

“Well, your robot half is. Boy, did he do a great acceptance speech.”

“So, did we win?”

“Yeah, we won.”

As she listened to Roy’s tale, Arrowette’s mind was briefly distracted from wondering when, or if, Carrie would show up again.

“So what did Raven ask him?” enquired Arrowette.

“Babs or Kory,” said Roy, taking a glass of wine.

His future daughter looked at him in shock. “Babs? Dick had a thing with Mom?”

As Roy spluttered his wine all over the table, his daughter leaned across the table and high-fived Arrowette.

“Love yanking his chain.”