Titans Resistance #10

Toni blasted at the Titans with her powers, but Green Lantern blocked her easily.

"We are not your enemy," Robin said.

"You fight the Markovians?" she asked.

"Gladly," Anarky put in.

Three shots ripped between them. Green Lantern blocked two, and one went wide. Toni turned and blasted the offender.

She watched them warily for a moment, then returned to the battle.

"Help her," Terra said.

"Let's clean up," Robin agreed.

Anarky leapt into the fray.

But at this point Anarky did not have such advantage of perspective. This was a fight for survival, more nervous and agitating than the fight against the sniper in the forest by far.

Physically he was capable; there was no doubt of that. And he had trained himself in several arts. He had fought thugs in Gotham before the battle with the sniper.

But this was no long enemy gunner, nor a bunch of stupid criminals. These were trained, disciplined soldiers. Focused on the task of killing him.

He did a lot of ducking and dodging, more avoiding enemy strikes than striking back himself, which galled him mightily.

On impulse, he leaned backwards, and three bullets ripped through the air where he had been. Leaning forward again, he spun his staff, and it connected with the bayonets of two soldiers who had come to close range planning to take him out. The current of his taser carried along the metal of the bayonets and into the guns themselves. One man was shocked into unconsciousness; the other's bullets exploded, sending him back screaming in pain. Anarky's costume protected him from the blast but not the knockback. Dazed and shaken, he fell on his rump, losing control of his cattle prod.

A third soldier loomed above him, and it was all he could do to roll out the way in time to avoid the downward thrust of the bayonet.
Recovering somewhat, he managed a leg sweep that brought the soldier down. Unable to find his own weapon in the darkness, he struggled with the Markovian for his rifle. The Markovian won, and fired. Anarky ducked to the side, and the shot missed his head by inches.

Anarky hauled off and punched the man in the face. As the soldier stumbled back, Anarky grabbed the rifle, reversed it, and shot him. The soldier fell dead.

Shaken and cursing to himself, he scrambled around in the dark for his cattle prod.

The reality was proving to be much different than the theory.

Terra stood tall, raining rocks down on the soldiers. Though she would have been appalled to admit it, she was getting used to killing people.

The thought brought her no pleasure, but she knew it must be done. So she began to harden her heart. She had to start to grow up; it had to happen sooner or later.

A bullet buzzed past her ear. Almost instinctively, she formed a ball of rock around herself as a shield.

But that meant she couldn't see anything.

So she went underground, sinking her ball into the surface and wandering beneath, tunneling as she went.

When she came up, it was with an eruption of power and fury that sent soldiers flying.

Green Lantern was the first to notice something was wrong with Supergirl. He moved in and swept her up, knocking the whip from her leg as he did so. The Overseer spat curses at him as he went.

"You okay, Supergirl?" Lantern asked, genuinely worried.

"That weapon...." she murmured, "Can hurt me...."

The Overseer lashed at the Lantern as he flew away with Supergirl, but was not foolish enough to throw his weapon after.

"That one will cause problems," he said to a lieutenant. "What are you waiting for? Move!"

Meanwhile, the soldiers of La Cosa Nostra had arrived, and they began to take on the Markovian troopers on their own terms, fighting fire with fire. Literally.

"Follow the silver angel!" they cried in Italian, rallying behind Toni in her attacks, though she herself did not know it.

They met the Markovians gun to gun, knife to bayonet, and killer instinct to murderous command. Face to face. One on one.
Life for life.

The Overseer noted their coming. "Destroy them! Leave the metahumans to me!"

But Toni and the returning Green Lantern converged on him in that moment.

It should have been easy for the two of them to take the Overseer down. He lashed out with his whip, but Lantern's shield held. Lantern tried to blast him back, but the Overseer ducked. The shot barely missed Toni.

As she flinched back, the Overseer moved quickly, curling his sizzling purple whip around her throat. She screamed and gagged.
"You will back off and tell your fellow freaks to surrender to my men!" he shouted at Green Lantern.

The ring translated for Eric. He snorted derisively. "You can't be serious."

"I will kill her if you do not!" the Overseer challenged. He tightened the whip. Toni began to gag, but her eyes were defiant, and she tried to shake her head. Lantern got the message, not that he would've surrendered anyway.

The Overseer leered into her face. "And what is your story, little one?"

Terra and Anarky had noted the situation and were closing in, but Toni acted first; blasting silver energy into the Overseer's armor. He stumbled back, hurt but not fallen.

Lantern blasted him in the back, and he pitched forward. Anarky's cattle prod slammed into his helmet, and electricity coursed through him. He sank to his knees.

Still coughing and spluttering, Toni hooked him under the arms and lifted, flying upwards with him on a current of silver.
Up, up up.

"For my family," she whispered in his ear, and then threw him down.

He fell, screaming, and impacted on the ground hard.

Miraculously, he didn't die. But he had no less than seven broken bones.

Satisfied, Toni returned her attention to the battle, joining with the Titans in mowing down the foe.

Toni led her family out of the mines.

It was an impressive sight to see, in the dim fiery light. But it was tainted by tragedy; with the partial and problematic exception of her father, they were all a little afraid of her, and of the Titans. And they weren't exactly happy to see La Cosa Nostra, either.

"We cannot go with them!" Toni's father exclaimed.

"You can't stay here, either," Toni tried to say it gently. "More Markovians will come. They can take you to safety."

"At what price?" her father protested. "We have nothing!"

"We will exact our price from the riches of the Overseer," one of the Organization soldiers said.

Toni's father looked as though he was about to argue—some of those treasures had been stolen from his ancestors, after all—but wisely held his tongue.

"Please, papa," Toni said, touching him on the arm. "You cannot stay here. And besides, do you really want to?"

"...No," her father admitted. "Where will you take us?" he asked, turning to the Organization captain.

"A sanctuary. We have many such. From there you can build new lives, or help us take the fight back to your oppressors."

"We'll think about it," was Toni's troubled reply.

"Do you know who they are?" Robin asked Anarky in an undertone.

The golden mask nodded. "I can guess."

"Does it trouble you?" Robin raised an eyebrow.

Anarky shrugged uncomfortably inside his costume. "I don't like it at all, but all other options are worse."

Robin smiled thinly. "Congratulations; you're learning. Welcome to the world."

"Oh yes, very well done," Anarky gave him a mocking slow handclap. "What decisive wit from the costumed elite that presumes to educate me on the ways of the world!"

Robin just shook his head.

"If you two are done imitating political pundits," Lantern put in dryly, "I do believe some friends of mine can look after her family later. Meanwhile, Supergirl is hurt."

He had brought her back, and she was sitting up now with his help, still groggy. "I will recover," she promised woozily. "I should have anticipated that sooner or later something on this world would harm me."

"Yet it hurt you more than the silver girl," Robin mused. "Something to think about in future."

"I'll analyze the weapon with my ring," Lantern promised.

"Speaking of the silver girl....." Terra murmured.

Toni Monetti came to them, stood before them. Looked at them one by one, Anarky at the last.

"I have....no place to go myself. Nor can I go into hiding with my family. I must fight. That seems to be....what you do."

"It is," Terra agreed. "And we seem to be recruiting new members lately," she said, glancing at Anarky.

Toni followed her gaze and nodded. Anarky nodded back. In his mind, here was the one most like him, or such was his hope.

"I was Toni Monetti," she said. "But no more. That part of my life is over. Now I am....not a normal person anymore. What am I?"

None of the Titans had an answer for her. But her father, listening quietly on one side, did. Tears still glistening down his cheeks as he looked at his daughter, he spoke one word, in Latin. "Argent."

"Argent," Anarky echoed, nodding. "Silver."

The silver girl nodded. "Yes, it is right. Thank you father."

"Go well, my daughter," he answered. They touched hands, once. Even now they could not embrace.

Slowly, her father turned away and joined his family. Just as slowly, Argent turned and joined the Titans.

Robin and Terra sat alone on the deck.

"Nobody came looking this time," Robin said. "We were lucky."

"Not so much luck as timing," Terra answered. "I am sure someone will be along soon enough. Brion, probably."

"What about our new recruits?" he asked.

She looked them over, where they were in low-voiced conversation with Ravager.

"Well," Terra said, "I think Argent will do well. Anarky....we'll have to see. Besides, we're fairly new ourselves, less you forget. We've only got a month on them."

"Seems a lifetime," Robin said, looking out over the water.

"Yes," she agreed, touching his hand.

He smiled at her. "We'll see what happens."

Terra smiled back, knowing his words could be read more than one way. "Yes, indeed."

Supergirl sat on the prow, staring out. Green Lantern stood awkwardly behind her.

"I scanned the whip. It was mystical in origin," he said softly.

"Magical power?" she asked, not turning around.

"Seems so…"

"Then it would explain why my scientific training did not prepare me for it," she said distantly. "We know of magic on Krypton, of course. But we have no use for it. I will have to make preparations in future."

"Are you going to be okay?"
"I am healing, slowly. Thank you for your assistance on the battlefield. Unfortunately your medicines can do nothing for me. I mean no offense by that; it is simply a matter of a differing physiology."

Lantern nodded and walked away. He was not in any way interested in her; he simply wished she wasn't so distant.
But she was, after all, an alien.

The ship sailed on into the dark.