Teen Titans #35: "Mission to Zandia" Pt. 2

“Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue cleverer than another.”
Oscar Wilde

“The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue.”
Emma Goldman





Tim rolled under the belly of the plane as bullets flew all around him. He had faced gunfire before, of course, but not like this. Dick had tried to train him for it, but a hailstorm of bullets is much different in reality than in theory.

He was not afraid, exactly; the situation didn't allow for that. But one of the other things Dick had also taught him—that even Bruce had begun to teach him, before that—is that, like professional soldiers and police, costumed heroes put their personal feelings to the side and focused on the moment. There was only a hard adrenaline rush, and absolute focus on the situation at hand. Failing to maintain that focus, letting your emotions creep in could be fatal.

Of course, some fed on emotions. He heard Terra screaming in rage, and saw her hurling rocks into the troops. Beast Boy had taken the form of a snake and was slithering past her into the crowd of soldiers. Cyborg was charging ahead, knocking soldiers aside like ninepins as the occasional bullet bounced off his mechanical parts. Robin worried that a shot might hit him in a vital flesh area.

Speedy rolled up beside him and grinned. “Safe cover is a good idea kid, but we gotta hit back.”

Robin nodded. Dick had trained him in ranged weapons, and in theory he was good. He had access to both a sling and to razor-sharp “R” shiruken. At first he had preferred the sling on the premise it was less likely to cause a vital injury to a criminal, but really at the speed of the sling shot the difference between blunt and edged damage was minimal.

On this particular occasion he had brought the sling. Facing professional soldiers in a villain-based society who were bound and determined to kill them, perhaps he should have brought the shiruken instead.

Hissing a sigh of frustration, he put a concussion ball in his sling and let fly. Beside him, Speedy was shooting arrows with abandon. Evidently he had no problem hitting the thugs where he wanted, which only made sense, given that he was an expert marksman trained by the best. Perhaps it was something they could compare notes on...when they weren't being shot at.




For Roy, it was no trouble shooting a thug in the shoulder or the leg. Most such injuries caused the foe to drop their weapon (which admittedly ran the risk of the weapon firing). This was an old game to him.

Granted, he and Ollie weren't on the best of terms these days, but he'd worry about that later. There was also the real reason why he had joined Checkmate in the first place, but that was rather complicated and also something he didn't want to specifically think about right now....

The kid was holding up fairly well, Roy judged. He spared him the occasional glance while shooting thugs. Donna was doing most of the damage out there at the moment—Dagon was bleeding from the shoulder and looking none too happy about it—and he got the feeling she was going to be screaming into his face about this whole business when she got done out there. But the new Boy Wonder—did the kid even realize that people seriously called him that—had done the right thing by diving for cover in a hailstorm of bullets like this and picking his shots. It was no accident Roy had done the same.

He continued to aim at arm or shoulder or foot. The kid seemed to be using concussive shots and aiming for the head; sound strategy, if not ideal.

Wally was a golden-scarlet blur out there, taking guys down left and right, knocking the occasional bullet out of the air. Raven teleported in and out, choosing to frighten the enemy more often than directly confront them, but on the two occasions when she took a soldier into her cloak, he came back out again screaming and drooling in sheer terror.

Kory was floating above the battle, also picking her shots, but those she blasted were writhing and in pain, and Roy could tell they would need long-term hospital stays. What was hospital care like here, anyway? He couldn't imagine it was very good.

As expected, when it was over and they came out from under the plane, Donna was immediately in his face, screaming about the situation and demanding more details.

“All I know is there's a lot of costumed metas here, whom we will have to fight as well if we don't watch ourselves,” he said, both hands up, placating. “But if we're lucky, we can observe them cavorting amongst this culture—which is designed to cater to them—and see what exactly is going on."

“You going to partake of that culture yourself?” Donna sneered. “Assuming that more troops don't come to kill us, that is.”

“I doubt I'd be given the opportunity. But let's move on, eh? Unless you'd rather get on the plane and go home.”

He'd pushed her too far. She tapped him in the chest, lightly, but he went down hard all the same, spine jolted from the fall and out of breath from her “gentle” push. Distantly in his ringing ears he could hear Terra and Dagon laughing at him.



After some more....animated conversation....Wonder Girl and Speedy agreed that they weren't likely to face any more “government” troops....at least for a while. Not without some annoyance, Wonder Girl sent Beast Boy and Cyborg out on point; looking for evidence of the “Super villain culture” that Speedy was so on about.

“Are ya sure ya wanted to send Gar out on a reconnaissance mission?” Terra asked. “I mean, he's not exactly the quiet type.”

“You just wanted me to keep him here,” Wonder Girl said, not unkindly. “Anyway, I also wanted them to be ready to fight if they found something.”

“Um, if they do find something,” Tim said, “What then?”

Wonder Girl smiled. “We do the best we can.”

Tim was not reassured, but he kept his mouth shut. Even speaking up that much was something he was uncertain of.



They continued into the main part of the island. As Roy had expected, they faced no more official opposition. The “government”, such as it was, would probably take time to find out what had happened, let along move against them again. But he wondered how long it would be until they faced more traditional criminal opposition, super-powered and otherwise. Quite possibly when the Zandian “government” did find out what had happened, they would leave it to these super powered thugs—or perhaps the remnants of the Church of Blood still active in the country—to deal with them.

Even though he didn't have a full, clear idea of what they would find here, he was fairly sure they'd run into unsavory types sooner or later. Question was, would they be too busy enjoying themselves? Or would they be ready to fight?

So far all was quiet on the Gar and Vic front. Gar had come back twice, reported seeing various poor people in various stages of desperation, several people hurrying to what he could only assume was work, and one open bar.

Roy, however, was not mollified.

“Maybe Kid Flash should check on them periodically?” he said to Donna with the closest thing to meekness he could manage. While he would much rather use Wally's “code name”, they were nevertheless in enemy territory and playing by that particular rule (if few others) was old hat for him.

Donna was still annoyed at him, but she could not dispute the soundness of the idea. She nodded to Wally, who vanished in a blur of gold and scarlet.




“No, we don't have the sort of magical charm you require,” the HIVE representative said. “Although, your overall strategy is something we approve of.”

“Thank you,” Slade said, with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

“We recommend you look into the certain recent developments in Egypt. Fascinating things have been found around the pyramids lately. The sort of thing that doesn't get reported in the mainstream media.”

Slade frowned. “I don't want any cursed artifacts, thank you.”

The HIVE representative laughed inside his hood. Slade found himself more and more annoyed.

“Be assured, we would not point you at anything that would put you or your....plan....at risk,” the robed man said. “Check the pyramids. Chances are excellent you will find what you need.”




Tim was somewhat unnerved by Dagon, the vampire, but noticed with real interest that his shoulder wound had closed up fairly quickly. Tim wondered how he had done that without feeding in the interim, but decided not to ask.

Kid Flash kept blipping back and forth, something that was all the more unnerving to Tim now that he had experienced it personally.

After about the sixth journey, Kid Flash shot back and shouted, “Theyfoundsomeonethey'refighting!” to Wonder Girl and then was gone again. He was talking too fast to be properly understood, but all of them got the gist from the context of the situation. Wonder Girl launched herself after him, Starfire right behind. Dagon led the others with his spooky vampire speed.

They were in something of a suburban area now. The influence of the Church of Blood was still felt in the architecture; all the buildings looked like something of a cross between the Middle East and a vampire horror film. But this was an area of small shops and independent homes, with the occasional apartment high-rise.

Beast Boy and Cyborg had evidently found some “local color”. A gang of blue-garbed toughs fought them. The catch was, the toughs all had super powers of some kind. It was an elemental thing, apparently; some had fire, some ice, and one even had Earth control.

Terra blocked that one with her own powers while the others stormed into the fray, Tim included. He pole-vaulted over one of the blue clad thugs and planted his feet in the midriff of another. That one went down, blasting lightning at him which he barely ducked. His costume and cape (which was really more of a cloak in terms of consistency and form) had ballistic armor and insulation, not to mention fluid-dampening impact attenuation pads. But they couldn't do much for him if he took an electric charge to the head.

He felt a cold breeze and looked up to see Raven had materialized before him. She gave him a sad smile, which did nothing to ease his fear.

“You are more worthy than you believe,” she said. “Be confident in yourself.”

“Um....thanks, I think,” he said.

Her smile became slightly sadder, as though she expected and understood his fear. Then she turned and swept another blue-clad thug into her terrible embrace.

Tim had barely recovered from that when Dagon leapt over his head to take down another foe. Tim himself turned and blocked a straight punch from another thug, who followed it up with a bolt of fire. Tim blocked this with his cape, though he could feel the heat, and kicked the azure-garbed enemy in the groin. There were no prizes for following Marquees of Queensberry rules in costumed combat. That was something he had learned early.

He kicked another thug down, and saw Kid Flash reach out a hand for Wonder Girl. She nodded her acquiescence, and he flung her into the foe at his tremendous speed, slamming her into two foes at once.

Tim was more than slightly worried that the velocity plus her strength might be enough to kill them, but apparently they had judged the situation well; both foes were simply down and groaning. He chided himself for forgetting that a) they were experienced in super-powered combat in ways he was not and b) they had known their enemies were also meta-humans in advance. Granted, such did not grant invulnerability by itself, but they knew how hard to hit. They were a team, a focused unit. Dick had helped make it that way. Just as he had trained Tim.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were still in full flow. Beast Boy had taken a monkey form and was literally beating one of the blue-clad villains down. “Shouldn't have taken my bananas!” he taunted.

“Can it, BB,” Cyborg chided as he blasted one of them with his white noise cannon while keeping another pinned against the wall with his free hand.

And just like that, it was over. The one remaining blue-clad villain who was still conscious was planted firmly under Cyborg's hand.

“Let's have a talk with our little friend, shall we?” Cyborg suggested.

“That's a good idea,” Speedy agreed.



Roy had known how to bully and threaten a suspect for years. But Checkmate had....refined...his experience in that area. It made him uncomfortable.

But the thug proved most cooperative. The Church of Blood (he said, spitting some of his own blood out through missing teeth) had retreated from this area with the apparent death of their leader. He did not express it in quite those terms, of course, and of them all, only Speedy himself, Wonder Girl and Raven could understand Zandian.

The gist of it was, the local area was a microcosm for the country at large; a haven for criminal’s great and small. Costumed villains of various grades had spread all over the island, but they were concentrated in the urban areas like this one, which offered what “cosmopolitan” amenities the tiny country had.

Of course, powered villains of many grades were not known for their refined tastes.

They heard raucous female laughter around a corner. Roy knew that laugh only too well, the laugh of the harlot.

There were several store fronts on this street. Neon signs glittered here and there, creating the impression of a cut rate Middle East themed casino in Vegas. Not that the Church of Blood had been any kind of prudish operation before, but all sensuality had been ritualized and under the Church's control, focused on glorifying Brother Blood, their leader. Here it had been set free, and moved at least somewhat up market, at least in terms of budget.

Nor were prostitutes the only game in town; far from it. Roy saw at least two gambling shops, one dog-fighting arena and—he twitched—three open-air drug transactions going on. Restaurants were, of course, always busy regardless of economic or political climate, and there were several greasy diners in this market square; not to mention several generic rip-offs of the major American fast food franchises. Despite himself, Roy felt a growl in his belly when he saw the “Epic Burger” advertised prominently.

But the central attraction of this particular market square was what was clearly a pit fight between two low-level super villains, not much higher on the food chain of villainy than the gang the team had just defeated around the corner. The current battle was between a man wielding a glowing golden axe in one hand and whose other hand was clenched into a flaming fist; and his opponent who was clearly an exponent of the powered armor school of thought. If “school of thought” was a term that could really be applied.

Dozens of spectators watched this match, some of them costumed villains like the participants, others either ordinary criminals or the nominal citizens of Zandia; it was hard to tell which. Roy noted with real interest that there were no down trodden looks or people scurrying away in fear. No one here was “oppressed” by the criminal consortium that now ran the island. Some might have even viewed them as liberators from the Church.

Also, Roy knew, Zandia had never been what one would call a “nice place”. In the days before the Church of Blood it had been a pirate haven, and at various points in history several European powers had dumped criminals here as a sort of “penal colony”. Evil had always called this place home, in one shade or another. The breaking of Church control over the island only really meant that Zandia was returning to its wicked roots.

Several people noticed the Titans, but none started or flinched. They must think we're villains too, Roy thought sadly to himself.

“If the Church still has any presence here,” Raven said, “They're keeping a very low profile.” Raven's eyes were more haunted than usual remembering her history with that organization.

“For which we should all be grateful.” Donna said.

Roy nodded. “If we see any, that's one thing. But I don't think we really want to go hunting for them.”

“Agreed,” Donna said, and Roy began to relax. Things had smoothed over apparently. At least for the moment. He was thankful for the small mercy.

“We'll infiltrate the crowd and see what we can find out,” Donna said. “And, Speedy, try not to get too interested in the details of the local color, okay?”

She was warning him about the prostitutes, but Roy only had to take one look at the drug dealers to kill any interest he might have had in fun and games. “No problem,” he assured her.



Tim was very uncomfortable here. He tried to cover it by being stern and grim; he couldn't pretend to be a villain, but a grim vigilante look was probably close enough. Most ignored him; one or two of the harlots grinned and winked at him. He did his best tough sneer and turned away. He wasn't fooling anyone; he heard them giggling behind him.

But apparently they thought he was just shy; there was no blowing of his cover. He knew the concept of Robin was relatively obscure outside of Gotham and the hero community; but what if some ex-Gotham villain was here? And surely someone would figure out who Wonder Girl was sooner or later. And if any Church of Blood agents were in the crowd they were certain to recognize Raven.

But clearly they hadn't, yet, or if they had they didn't want a fight. He forced himself to relax. That was not to say that he didn't stay alert, but with a focused effort of will he shut the paranoia down. Control the things you can control, Dick had told him. Take everything else as it comes, and fight when you have to.

He looked up and around, taking in the scene, breathing in the air. He was vaguely worried about getting a contact high; surely there was cannabis smoke in that air, and who knew what else? Surreptitiously he took a systemic antidote pill from his utility belt and dry-swallowed it. That was another skill he'd had to learn. You didn't always have something to drink down a pill with in the field.

He continued to look around, seeing this. Really seeing it. The various criminal activities going on around him, ordinary citizens neither afraid nor resentful, but part of this scene; or at worst, ignoring it and walking on calmly, without any more negative emotional reaction than mild annoyance. And most were much more positive than that. Costumed villains and ordinary thugs prowled around, relaxed and grinning.

This is no simple “rogue state”, he thought to himself. This is not just some country opposed to the west or to heroes. This is an honest-to-God culture of evil, of villainy. A nation of villains. The idea was terrifying, yet also fascinating, in a way. Like a train wreck, he supposed. He wondered what a sociologist would make of it.

He looked around to see how the others were taking it. Speedy and Raven each looked haunted, in their own way. Beast Boy was stunned. Terra had taken him by the shoulder, while she herself looked around almost clinically, as though comparing it to scenes she had previously seen. Cyborg and Wonder Girl were each grimly businesslike. Kid Flash was blurring around as usual so it was hard to tell what he thought, but Robin got the impression that he was trying not to examine the whole thing too closely. Starfire's reaction was similar to Terra's in the sense that she was analyzing what she saw, but unlike Terra she looked disappointed and saddened by it.

His musings interrupted by a massive explosion that knocked him off his feet. Dazed, he struggled to his knees. The nearest Titan was Speedy; he was as surprised as Tim. All around them, there were screams and shouts of anger and surprise from the crowd of scum and villainy as they too were mystified.

Titans and the various villains around them readied for battle as the smoke began to clear. Was it the Church of Blood? The government, such as it was, having tracked the Titans down? Tim tried to peer through the smoke....

To Be Continued![/b]