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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:27:12 GMT -5
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:28:43 GMT -5
Titans: The Resistance
Issue #9: “Scarlet and Silver” Pt. 3
Written by Jay McIntyre
Cover by: Brian Hodges
Edited by: Brian Burchette |
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:29:21 GMT -5
"Anarchy is the only slight glimmer of hope"
Mick Jagger
The aristocracy of Western Europe has absolutely tabooed silver in those countries and driven it away from there. Here it finds its only resting place.
Richard Parks Bland
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:31:51 GMT -5
The Sweet Lilli quietly laid anchor some five miles off the coast of Italy.
It had been no joke sneaking through Gibraltar. Leaving the fleet behind annoyed Ravager, but she understood its necessity. As it was, they had to pull up to an abandoned stretch of coast with no defenses, not an easy task in itself.
The trip had taken a couple days, even with Ravager's ships going full speed across the Atlantic. They had all kept a wary eye on Anarky, who had in turn glared back at them. Except, that was, for Ravager, who had been amused by him for some reason. Anarky didn't know how to take that. Now he shied away from her as Ravager stood with them on the deck.
Will you be coming with us?" Robin asked her.
Ravager thought about it, seriously. Finally, she said, "Call me if you need me. Supergirl could pick me up in nothing flat."
Robin nodded, and the others disembarked.
"I really thought she'd come with us," Terra said. "I thought she was one of us."
"I think she is, but only on her terms," Robin said. "She'll help us when she's ready."
"Somehow I don't see her letting that Wintergreen guy chaperone her every move," said Green Lantern.
Robin shrugged. "I think she does what he wants when it pleases her."
"Really, I fail to see the concern," Supergirl said. "She has helped us this time in any event, with transport and stealth.. Without her, we would have to fight for every inch of ground, and subtlety would be lost."
Robin nodded. "Remember also, that she is in her own way a 'privateer' against the Markovians at all times."
Terra nodded. "I am still working on my 'idealistic enthusiasm.'"
"Never lose it, Princess," Green Lantern said.
Just temper it with a healthy does of reality," Robin agreed.
Anarky, who had been thoughtfully silent until this point, spoke up. "I find it hard to believe that any Markovian could have any sort of idealism."
"Shut up, you," Green Lantern all but snarled. "You're still on probation yourself!"
"No, really?" Anarky sneered. "I hadn't noticed."
"Ease up, both of you," Robin said.
"Boys," Terra sighed for the second time in recent memory. "But for the record, Anarchist, I don't blame you. The others all felt the same, to varying degrees, when they met me."
"It's Anarky," he said. But there was something uncertain in his voice. Realizing what it was, Robin and Terra laughed; Tara's soft, open honesty had disconcerted him. Supergirl smirked, and even Lantern's glower faded a little.
"You'll get used to it," Robin said. "But GL is right; we're all watching you."
"I am quite sure I cannot compete with meta-human powers. In any event, the one I am watching is not Terra, it is you, Robin."
Robin raised a brow. "Me? Why?"
Anarky waved an irritated hand. "Perhaps we can discuss it after I have proved myself."
"That's the first good idea you've had all day," Green Lantern said heavily. "Let's move."
They waded ashore.
"Where to strike first?" Terra asked.
"Green Lantern, scan and if you can come up with anything interesting." Robin suggested.
Green Lantern nodded and focused on his ring, which seemed to grow brighter for a long moment, so much so that it became more difficult for the others to look at him. Terra hoped no one was around. They had picked this landing point for that particular reason, but even so.....
"I think I found something, something," Green Lantern said. "For a minute I thought it was my mentor, given the disruption of infrastructure. But I rather think this is....something else. The mines, in the north of the country." He looked at the others. "Shall we go?"
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:32:35 GMT -5
Toni Monetti had spent the last couple days quietly mastering her powers. Now she had returned, taken out the guard at the mine entrance, and found her father within, alive and broken. But he almost no longer recognized her.
"Antoinette? Is that you?" He stared, disbelieving. "What happened to you?"
"They threw me in the silver, father. You saw it, I know you did. I should have died. Instead....I became....I don't know what I have become." Her voice became harried, urgent. "What do I look like?"
"Your skin..." he faltered. “Your skin is like silver, child. You look like a statue of metal. A living sculpture."
Toni smiled, thinly. "Thanks, I think. Get the others. I'm going to take out the guards."
"They'll kill you! My child, I cannot lose you again..."
Toni's smile became something unpleasant. "They already tried to kill me once. Now....I can hurt them. Trust me, father. Gather the others together."
Her somewhat startled father watched as she pointed at his chains and blasted them with silver light from her fingertips. The chains broke. Staring at his daughter, he scurried into the darkness.
"Now," she said, turning back to the entrance, "Let's play...."
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:33:28 GMT -5
"An independent metahuman?" Anarky asked as they moved quietly through the countryside, stepping under large trees and around the edge of farmsteads.
"That's how the ring reads it," Green Lantern shrugged. "Question is, can we get there in time to help them."
"Oh, we can do that," said Supergirl. "But we would attract attention in doing so."
"How fast can your ring fly us, Lantern?" Terra asked.
Green Lantern looked sour. "Not fast enough."
"Maybe you should try," Robin suggested.
The point abruptly became academic. A bullet ripped into Supergirl's shoulder.
"It appears we have been detected," Anarky said dryly.
Supergirl shot heat vision into the woods, but missed her target. Thankfully, she did not start a fire.
"We have to get him before he alerts his fellows!" Terra hissed.
But it was too late; four more shots flashed through the team. One hit Robin's ballistic armor; one impacted on Green Lantern's shields, the other two went wide.
Not waiting for orders or permission, Anarky lunged into the darkness.
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:34:11 GMT -5
This is how it feels to be Anarky, right now:
You are galled mightily but the necessity of siding with these meta-human fascists. Supergirl frightens you more than you care to admit. The Green Lantern is an obvious tyrant. The Markovian is obviously leading all of you to certain doom.
Robin, of course, is the one you view as your true enemy. Almost as much as the Markovian armies, he is everything that is wrong with those who wear costumes. You will enjoy taking him down several pegs....if you survive, that is.
But for the moment this is not what haunts you most. That pirate femme fatale back on the ship....she disturbs you most of all, in an entirely different way than the others.
But now is not the time for such introspection. Right now you are being shot at as you charge into the woods. Though the sun has not yet set, but the darkening woods are more than shrouded enough to hide the shooter. You have not seen the muzzle flash, as yet, A sniper?
The practical reality is proving much different than the theory. You had fought some thugs in Gotham before this, of course, warming up as it were. But that is not the same as charging blindly towards an unknown foe. You are used to being the ambusher, not the target.
Already you can imagine a bullet impacting between the eye holes of your mask. Will there be pain before the darkness? Or will everything simply, suddenly, stop?
But your paranoia is, at least in this particular case, unfounded. The next shot rips past your head to the right, and you think the bullet was traveling up. That would make sense; the shooter should be low to the ground.
Would that you had time to throw a smoke bomb, but that might attract attention. And on that point, at least, you agree with the meta-humans.
The ring wielder and the alien woman are also on the move, but you have the initiative and the sense of urgency they simply do not have. Robin and the Markovian waited too long. You scoff to yourself; is not Robin supposed to be the leader of this motley little band?
Ahead of you, you heard scuffling; the shooter scrambling back, probably lifting his weapon for a close range shot. You thrust your electrified cattle prod out almost instinctively, and strike home. There is a nasty sizzling noise, a groan, and a thud as the shooter collapses.
You take deep, panting breaths, only barely aware of Green Lantern taking out the other three Markovians hiding in the trees. Supergirl defeats the last one as he turns to run.
You have lucked out....this time.
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:34:57 GMT -5
"A small patrol of five," Robin said. "But the others must be close." He looked up. "Good work, Anarky," he said grudgingly.
"You're welcome," Anarky replied, with only mild sarcasm.
"Enough," Terra intoned. It was the first time any of them had heard her actually be angry. Robin blinked, and Anarky positively flinched. "Shall we go?" she added, more softly.
"Excellent thought," Supergirl added. She shot on ahead, while Green Lantern wrapped a ball of green energy around the others, and followed.
Terra did not protest; he could move faster than she could, at least on a consistent basis.
She did not like having to use her "noble command" voice. She had been taught it as a child of Imperial Royalty, of course; but she had hated it then, and certainly had no love for it now. But if they had stayed around, a patrol would have noticed sooner or later. If all they wanted to do was fight her people that would suffice. But they had a specific goal in mind, and needed to achieve it.
Even so, she was disquieted as they shot onwards.
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:35:33 GMT -5
Arcs of silver ripped through the mine area. Guards ran hither and thither, not knowing what was going on.
The commander, the one that had ordered Toni's death, had at least some idea what was going on.
"...The Overseer!" He was shouting into a phone in the guard barracks. "You're not listening to me; you must tell the Overseer what is happening! Someone is tearing us apart!" He listened to the reply, and said, "I have no idea if it's tied in with those freaks that hit Markovia! I just know we're getting hit, now! You have to tell the Over--"
A blast of silver burst through the window, splashing against him and sending him tumbling to the floor, the phone a molten slag of metal, its connection destroyed, badly burned himself.
She stood over him, a fire behind her. She was a silhouette of silver, her eyes burning hate in liquid mercury.
"You took away everything I was," she said. "Now it's your turn to lose."
With trembling, scorched fingers he tried to pull his pistol. She didn't know if she was immune to bullets now, and was not anxious find out. So she reached out with one hand, fingers stretched like talons, and hurled more silver light into his face.
He screamed
It was his last scream.
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:36:18 GMT -5
Meanwhile, others less gifted than the Titans but closer to the situation had noticed what was going on.
La Cosa Nostra, the old society of criminals, had long resisted against the mailed fist of the Markovian war machine. Snubbed by even the secret underground for their criminal roots, they nevertheless took the fight to the Empire in their own way.
Now, noting the chaos at the mines, some of their spies amongst the peasantry slipped away, including a servant of the Overseer.
That worthy himself, though, was starting to understand the gravity of the situation, and was making some desperate calls of his own.
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:37:05 GMT -5
The Overseer was a fat man in his forties. He was portly but not overly fat, with gray hair receding from his temples. German by birth, he was one of the men whose thankless task it was to govern occupied areas. Early in life he had the opportunity to serve the Empire rather than be crushed by it, and had fairly leapt at the opportunity. Markovian rule was all he had ever known and saw no reason not to profit by it.
The frantic, aborted phone call from the guard commander had finally goaded him into action, and so he stirred in his rich, almost palatial estate. He would call more guards, certainly. But that, to his mind, might not be enough.
"Unlock the basement door," he told one of his servants, who nodded and scurried away to obey. He sighed, and eased his portly form out of his favorite chair. Following the servant down, he watched as the toady nervously fumbled with a key ring.
"Sometime before the slaves tear down the estate, if you don't mind," he said in a bored voice. Nevertheless the toady knew there was a threat in that bored tone; he knew his master well. Casting a terrified look over his shoulder, he started picking through the keys faster and more carefully.
Finally the right key was selected, and clunked home.
Down into the wet, dripping depths they went. Past the torture chambers, where the screams of the captured could clearly be heard. Past the prison cells. Past the wine cellar, with it's nearly endless bottles of so many vintages.
Finally, they reached the weapons cabinet in one corner of a storage room. No ordinary weapons these, simple heraldic swords and axes, of the Monetti family, that had once ruled here and were now slaves in the mines. Nor was it the guns the army used. These were special weapons set aside for uprisings.
The Overseer unlocked this cabinet himself, with a smaller, simpler key on a filigree chain that hung from a vest pocket. He withdrew from the cabinet something that looked not unlike a simple whip with an ornate handle.
Of course, it was a little more than that.
"Right then," the Overseer said with satisfaction. "Shall we go deal with the rabble?"
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:37:53 GMT -5
The local Don of La Cosa Nostra was underground....literally. Old caverns, linked to the mine system, albeit distantly.
Three shadowy figures reported to him as he sat at his small wooden table, lit by a single, flickering candle.
He nodded, eyes glittering, and told them to gather the crew; twenty in total, from nearby farmlands. He just hoped it would be enough, and he hoped it would be in time.
"Omerta," he told them as they left; the creed of never cooperating with the law.
"Omerta," they echoed as they vanished into the darkness of the cave network, armed with shovels and guns.
Omerta.
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:38:34 GMT -5
Anarky sat within the bubble of green energy and brooded, watching the others.
Terra sat, seemingly lost in thought. Robin paced back and forth, muttering to himself. Anarky supposed he was going over strategies in his mind.
The Lantern was pulling them along with his ring of power, flying into the twilight. Anarky got the feeling that one hated him most. For his part, Anarky thought him a fool. The others were more worthy of his attention.
The alien woman, the "Supergirl", now she scared him. She looked human but wasn't. About as powerful as the Lantern's ring made him, maybe more so, but with a cold, detached brain behind her strength. She was one to watch. He wondered what her agenda was.
Robin, his true opposite number. Terra, the obvious Markovian mole, leading them into some trap or other. But surely Robin, who was no fool, whatever his other flaws might be, had considered this?
Once again his mind drifted back to the seaborne predator they had left behind. Scum she might be, but at least she had spirit. Angry with himself, he pushed the thought aside.
"I still want to know why you don't trust me, of all people," Robin said, breaking the silence.
"You, or your mentor. Tyrants of the first order, second only to the Markovians themselves."
Robin simply stared at him; Terra laughed bitterly.
"What do you find so amusing?" Anarky snapped at her.
"Just...." Terra suppressed another guffaw. "Just that Robin now finds himself in my shoes."
Robin shook his head. "You're crazy," he said, in a simple, matter of fact tone.
"This from a man who kneels to one who dresses up like a bat?"
"I don't kneel before him, and you're one to talk. What are you, V for Vendetta's stunt double?"
Terra was laughing openly at both of them now.
Anarky could only shrug. "You're not far wrong, I will admit."
"S-stop," Terra pleaded with both of them, putting a hand on Robin's arm. "Please, stop, I haven't l-laughed so much since I was very y-young.....I'm afraid I might hurt myself!" Nor was this sham, Anarky could see; Tears were leaking out of her eyes.
"As you wish," Anarky conceded. "But what is so amusing?"
"Boys," she wheezed. "You silly boys!"
Anarky and Robin exchanged glances and shrugs.
The conversation was abruptly curtailed. They could all sense Lantern slow, and then rise in altitude. Looking out through the green bubble, they could see chaos and flames below, and Markovian soldiers running hither and yon....and were those flashes of silver?
Lantern set them down and dismissed the bubble, in a field. Supergirl was beside them in an instant. "I can see her," the Kryptonian said, eyes wide and pointing. "Such fury...."
They followed her pointing finger to the flashes of silver power that were still erupting. They heard a scream.
Without discussion they moved towards the battle, Anarky as curious as any to see the source of this havoc.
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:39:37 GMT -5
Toni had control of her powers fine tuned now; ripping the Markovian soldiers apart with the energies. Twice bullets had come close to hitting her, and she formed a shield to defend herself.
But she was growing tired again, and sooner or later her luck would run out.....
She almost wondered why she had these new abilities, if they couldn't earn her victory.
Another bullet buzzed past, and then twin thin lines of red answered, striking the Markovian shooter and making him scream in agony.
Toni whirled, and came face to face with the Titans....
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Post by starlord on Sept 18, 2007 20:40:22 GMT -5
To Be Continued
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