Teen Titans #21: "Godshead" Pt 1

Chapter 1

“Donna, to your left!” Dick Grayson’s call came just in time and gave the Amazonian warrioress enough time to leap out of the way as a blast of energy obliterated the earth where she had stood. As she rolled onto her back to look up at her assailant he was blasted out of the sky by a green bolt with power like that of the sun.

“Thanks, Starfire.” She called to the Tamaranian Princess, the source of the emerald energy. As Starfire pivoted around to blast another foe from the sky Donna Troy, commonly referred to as Wonder Girl, picked herself up and returned into the fray.

The trio were now quickly out numbered three to one. It had started as a simply reply to an armed robbery but it wasn’t long until the three Titans members realised that these were no ordinary crooks. They were currently surrounded by about nine wealthy teenagers, armed to the teeth with highly advanced technology and armour. So far they had displayed the abilities to fly, phase through solid objects and use custom made weapons to project laser fire, the Titans were getting more than they had bargained for.

Escrima sticks sailed through the sky, green fire scorched the ground and the golden glow of a mystical lasso lashed the air but soon it wasn’t long before the three Titans stood back to back surrounded in a circle of the gang calling themselves the ‘Techna-Ghosts’. Dick tightened his grip on his sticks and clenched his teeth, Kory raised her fists to her face in a boxer’s stance as they began to glow with deadly emerald wrath, and Donna cracked her knuckles and neck as she prepared for the next big punch up.

It never happened.

Slowly a white smoke began to emerge around the feet of the hovering T-Ghosts that encircled them. The smoke grew thicker and the armoured attackers began glancing back and forth to one another, their eyes wide with confusion beneath their goggles. And without warning figures began to emerge in the smoke; three tall dark figures. They were hard to make out but two were male (one significantly bigger than the other) and the third was definitely a woman…no doubt about that.

What happened next was a blur, literally. Nightwing thought he must have blinked because it happened so suddenly he swore he must have missed it. He didn’t. What happened exactly was this: the smoke whipped into a spiral as all of the Ghosts fell to the floor unconscious and bruised. For a moment the Titans couldn’t understand what had happened until they saw the people who had previously been shrouded in mist.

The first seemed to be the leader. He was larger than the other man and wore a red and black costume with a black bird’s head that stretched up from the legs. He wore a black mask over his face almost like an executioner’s mask with eye holes and the top cut off to reveal is long black hair. All over his body were straps and pouches filled with various weapons and gadgets. The woman wore a black corset with a short cut black skirt and knee high black boots. She also had long black and white stripped socks that went up past her boots and similar material one her arms that stretched past her elbows and a dog collar round her neck. Her hair was snow white and fell over one side of her face; it almost blended into the pillar of cloud that still surrounded her body and only hers. The third character was much slighter than his leader and appeared to be Hispanic. he was dressed in short-sleeved, single, skin tight red, black and grey costume. Over his mouth was a plate of what appear to be some kind of metal or fibreglass and on his eyes were very streamlined red shades. All in all the looked as though he had zero air resistance, including a shaved head. This was explained by a red lightning bolt motif on the right hand side of his chest. Suddenly Nightwing understood the mysterious takedown of the Techna-Ghosts.

Dick was the first to break the awkward silence,“Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Raptor and my colleagues can be called Rush and Rook.” The larger man replied to Dick and with that pulled a small cylindrical metal object from his utility belt and, pressing a button on the side, caused it to extend into a metallic bo-staff as tall as he was. Slowly the smoke began to creep forth once more and this time it seemed to hold the Titans still and wrap itself around their necks immobilising them.

“Ok, about now I should do the whole ‘You can call us Godhead’ thing,” Raptor stated blandly “But in the next five seconds none of you will be able to talk.”
And then they attacked. But by this time the Titans were unconscious save for Kory who managed to regain consciousness long enough to send out a distress call. However soon she wished she was unconscious because she felt every blow that hit her body until she was out cold.

Later that day:
Princess Koriand’r clutched her bruised head as she wandered out from the Infirmary. She wandered slightly dazed and a little disoriented around the shimmering corridors of the Titans Tower. Her head still ached and as she was all the corridors and rooms looked the same to her. After having wandered around the building for around ten minutes she wandered into a room and the grim silence hit her like a freight train. At first no one noticed her silent wander into the open plan room. It happened to be a fairly minimal room; the only real features were a few couches, a breakfast bar, some stools and a giant TV screen that occupied an entire wall. Gar was reclining on a couch staring blankly through the enormous screen, Donna on the other couch. Dick however looked more proactive although not a lot. He sat at a stool against the breakfast table hunched over a laptop, his fingers flying over the keyboard; Victor was perched over his shoulder watching. Starfire took another step and this caught the attention of Donna who, leaping to her feet, announced the alien’s presence to the other member’s. Immediately Beast Boy ran over in the form of a giant, green Care Bear with a heart on its chest and gave her a big bear hug. However Dick and Victor remained where they were. At least Vic looked up and smiled but he soon returned to watching the teen detective. It wasn’t long until someone explained the morbid atmosphere.

“Kory we….” Wonder Girl began but was cut of by Beast Boy.

“You got beat up real bad. Like real bad!”

“Oh.” Was all the Princess could reply and as the hordes began to dissipate she stood alone once again. She decided to seek comfort with the only one in the room she really wanted to comfort her. Dick Grayson remained steadfast as the beautiful bronze alien moved towards him, however Vic decided now would be a good time to recline to the couch. Kory bent low towards his ear and was just about to whisper to him when he made an announcement to the entire team.

“So, I’ve been researching this ‘Godhead’ team, right? It turns out they are a government superhuman initiative and as best as I can guess they are supposed to be sort of better versions of us, or the original Titans anyway.”

“Why would they do that?” Wally called swivelling his head from the TV to look at Nightwing who sat far behind him. “Aren’t we good enough?”

“I think that’s the point, Wally. It would seem these guys are a team that the government can control and by today’s earlier events the government doesn’t trust us freelance heroes to much.”

“What a load of freakin’ shi--” Vic began to shout when suddenly he was silenced by Donna who grabbed the remote and turned up the volume on the giant TV set:
“…Channel Six News broadcasting live from…”

“Man, can’t we just watch Powerpuff Girls again.” Beast Boy lamented in protest. “It’s a marathon people!”

“SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH!” was the unanimous reply of the Titans as the volume on the TV was raised further.

“…Here we’re talking to a brand new team of superheroes in the Big Apple. Here ladies and gentlemen for their first exclusive interview is the Godhead.” With this the camera panned from the crisp, clean, manicured reporter to show a familiar group of faces who hours ago had put three of the Titans own members into hospital beds. “Now clearly your not all the members of the Godhead, how many more are there?”

Raptor answered the questions but to Donna Troy none of that mattered. For her the voices were mere echoes swirling in a pool of confusion and fear inside her mind. See, there were more Godhead members. Unlike last time their were four and this fourth member had left Donna Troy trembling in her chair. Fear consuming her mind. She’d met him before. A long time ago in a part of her memory she had hoped to never revisit.

“Do it again man!” Beast Boy urged. Letting out a heavy sigh Vic Stone watched as Garfield Logan’s eyes widen watching Victor Stone’s left arm transform into a gun.

“Man, that rocks!” shouted the green skinned teen.

Cyborg responded, “You realise you can turn into any animal you chose right? Plus keep the volume down. This is a stakeout after all.” Vic Stone could hardly believe he’d just said that. When it came down to it that’s what they were doing. The Titans had devised to plans one of which involved several Titans splitting up and staking out addresses Nightwing had found in government files of where the Godhead members were supposed to live. Vic only hoped the other plan was going better because right now he was seriously bored of looking at buildings.

“I’d prefer to be a living weapon than be able to turn into a green cat.” Beast Boy piped up again.

“Or a mammoth!” Vic noted.

“Good point!” And with that the two returned to watching the flat they had been assigned. Truth be told both of them really just wanted to run in there and blast anyone who attacked them. What fun is it being a Titan if you don’t get to fight bad guys?!

Suddenly a yellow and red blur passed by and they only just managed to hear it say,
“Youguysgotthreeminutesthenwegoinokay?”

Opposite them was a building they had under surveillance and had been for the last forty three minutes. Becoming slightly bored Starfire floated down to the roof and opened her communicator.

.“Not to interrupt you, Dick” Starfire spoke quietly “But I wanted to know how your plan was going?”

“Its fine, Kory. It’s just waiting like this for criminals to appear…it feels like being back with…like being back in Gotham” Dick replied.

“Sorry I did not mean to upset you.” Dick grinned widely on the communicator.

“It’s fine.”

“Dick I had a question.”

“Yes, Kory. What?”

“It’s about us.” Starfire whispered hesitantly.

“I'm not sure what you mean.”

For a second their eyes met over the communicator. It may have only been a second but in that time it felt like years just flew around her head and fluttered off on the breeze. She realized it was actually just dust.

Suddenly they were both stirred by a gush of wind and they turned to see Wally West, Kid Flash, standing before them. On this particular mission he was acting as a liaison between the various surveillance teams. He was to wait with Donna’s team until new orders were needed to be relayed. Looking Kory he simply spoke.

“You’ve got one minute then we go ahead with the plan.”

And with that he was gone.

“Okay,” Said the figure to himself. He was clad in black wearing a white skull mask with a large red ‘X’ painted on it and a long, red lined cape. “My name’s Red X and I'm here to kill the Teen Titans.”

The white clouds encircled Red X and from the smog figures began appearing. They were ready. Slowly the smoke began to clear and the emerged. First Raptor and Rush stepped forward and then Rook. Then slowly new faces walked forward. A man wearing a casual jacket and shirt with the top few buttons undone; a thin black moustache and stubble on his chin. Over his eyes he wore a pair of yellow tinted glasses and in his hand he carried a ridiculously over sized sword with a ram’s skull on the crossbar.

Behind them appeared a second man wearing a long brown trench coat, beneath which he caught glimpses of various weapons strapped to his chest including to Uzis, a variety of hand pistols and a grenade or two. On his back was a Kalashnikov as well as some other, seemingly custom made, triple barrelled, sci-fi looking rifle. In his hand he also carried a small semi-automatic gun. His hair was shaved short; as was his thin goatee and he had two earrings in the left ear and pair of perfectly round, armless shades resting on his nose. Next to him stood a bronze skinned, red haired, emerald eyed man who not only physically resembled Starfire but also had a costume similar to hers only more armour like and his hands glowed with the same jade energy. Raptor introduced them.

“I'm Raptor. Here with me are my associates: Rush, Rook, Ares, Arsenal and Stormburn. We call ourselves Godhead….but you already knew that didn’t you?”
With that the man called Stormburn shot a blast of green energy at ‘Red X’ who fell to the floor, however when he did he was a different man than he had been standing, in more way than one. His face mask cracked the Godhead could now see beneath it blood poured from the nose of Dick Grayson.

“Seriously! What are you kid’s playin’ at? Did you think you could get the upper hand by dressing up in new costumes and confusing us? How stupid do you think we are?” Stormburn taunted. It wasn’t a question.

Suddenly the air was filled with white smoke, it didn’t choke the Titan this time but it was so heavy that he couldn’t move. Even if he could it wouldn’t really have mattered. What followed next couldn’t be classed as a fight, it was a bloodbath. Blows fell hard and fast and Nightwing was helpless to do anything. As he began to feel the strain of heavy atmosphere though, it began to fade away.

Standing with his hands around Rook’s neck was Kid Flash. A rage swelled up in his eyes and just as he thought about squeezing for all he was worth he was blasted backwards by a column of solid white cloud. As he lay on the floor gasping for air punches began hitting him from every side, but he couldn’t see his attacker. Trying to stand up he fell back down to his knees under the onslaught of what seemed to be a thousand fists. But as he started to slump to the ground the blows stopped and in front of his eyes, now level with the ground, he saw a pair of black boots. Following them up the body he saw a figure clad in a streamlined suit with a plexi-glass guard over the lower mouth, thin red shades and a shaved head; all to reduce air resistance. As he stared at the face a voice came from beneath the shield over face.

“You don’t recognise me do you?” Bewildered Wally didn’t know what to do. It didn’t matter. The speedster called Rush reached up and slowly took the guard from his face and then the sunglasses. Wally’s eyes went wide with fear and confusion…and guilt.

“Hey, Wally. Long time no see.”

Wally was not the only one feeling the strain of the Godhead’s onslaught. Even Dick Grayson, former ward of the Dark Knight, was having a hard time holding his own. Dressed in an unfamiliar ‘Red X’ costume was not helping him either, being weighed down by the extra weight of the armour Dick aimed a blow at the face of Raptor however he once again grabbed his arm and knocked him to the ground. Raptor then reached down to one of the several belts strapped to him and detached what looked surprisingly like a sleek light sabre handle. Pushing a small button on the side metal rods telescoped from each ending resulting in a six foot long metal bo.

Holding it in one hand Raptor span around and aimed the weapon at Dick’s feet, However Dick jumped into the air and aimed a spinning kick at Raptor’s face. This is exactly what Raptor had expected and he arcing his staff around and bought the other end of the bo down sharply on Dick’s outstretched leg. He fell to the floor with a crunch. Clenching his teeth he focused on the source of the pain and managed to minimise it ready again for a fight. This time Raptor had a new trick. Twisting the two ends of the bow, it separated into three sections connected by chain like a sansetsukon. Raptor then performed a small routine of spinning the weapon around his body, swapping it from hand to hand with a great smile of his face. Then he leapt at Dick.

Without warning a flash of green and red knocked the attacker out of the sky. Dick turned to see Cyborg and Starfire hovering above him, their hands smoking with energy. A large green falcon swept down and clawed the face of Arsenal with its talons. Arsenal replaced the glasses on his face that the bird had knocked off and then spun to look up and shot the bird through the wing.

Falling to the ground it transformed into a giant green tiger and it leapt at Arsenal.

“Hey! YOU!” Wonder Girl’s fist connected with the jaw of the man she knew to be Eros.

“Okay that’s it.” He replied calmly scratching his nose, paying no attention to the hit. He then bought his sword down heavily at her. Although she raised her fists and the sword connected with her gauntlets, the force still knocked her to the ground.

“And its Ares now, girl.” But a blast from Cyborg caught him from behind.

“Okay, boys and girls,” Raptor called to the rest of the Godhead “This isn’t the time or the place.” With that a thick white smoke wrapped itself around them .“See ya soon, Titans.” And in a small wisp of cloud they were gone. Red X’s, or rather Nightwing’s, response to the attack just about summed how the whole team felt:
“Ow!”

“Okay Dick. See you guys in five then.” Roy Harper hung the phone back up and moved over to his breakfast bar placing the last item of his costume on, a red Robin Hood style hat. He reached into the fridge and picked up a carton of Tropicana and poured himself a glass of orange juice and slid some bread into the toaster. Then something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. At first it took him a while to work out what it was. It wasn’t until the small red dot stopped moving over his chest that he knew what it was. Looking straight up Roy saw through the large window, a man sitting on the roof of an apartment building opposite with a sniper rifle in his hands.

“Aw crap!” Roy Harper hit the floor and rolled across the kitchen to hide behind a sofa. I need my bow was the only thought that went through his head.

Unfortunately the wall that slid back to reveal his weapons was in the corridor to his room and the opposite wall of the corridor was comprised of windows that faced the sniper. Roy looked over the couch cushion and saw the sniper throw his rifle to the ground and reach under his trench coat. This was his chance. Roy raced into the small alley way like corridor that connected his living room-slash-kitchen to his bedroom and en-suite bathroom. Stopping he reached up to the top of the wall, rolled back a small tile and placed his thumb on the print recognition key pad.

As the top of the wall slid back to reveal a bow and quiver perched on a high up shelf Roy heard a low humming sound from behind him. He didn’t have time turn around before a set of bolos wrapped themselves around his wrists and weighed his hands down to his waist. Spinning around to look out the open window, another set of bolos wrapped around both his wrists around his waist, tying his hands down making them useless. Roy raced back to the kitchen to grab his communicator from where he had left it next to the toaster. A long, high pitched whistle came from the lips of his attacker and turning to look to knives flew at Roy, hitting him in the stylised prongs on the shoulders of his costume pinning him to the wall. Roy struggled trying to pull himself free by tearing his costume but the knives were so close to his shoulders that the material wouldn’t rip.

The need to be higher up nearer a stress point in the material, thought Roy, but the knives were so deep into the wall that he couldn’t move. All Roy could do was watch as his attacker reached down and pulled another knife from his boot.

Fortunately when Ollie had designed this apartment suite for Roy he had kitted it out with all the latest technology including lights that worked with the clap of the hands, doors that closed automatically and bullet proof windows that closed on voice command.

“Close window.” From the empty window frame a pane of glass slid down slowly. Slowly enough that the thrown blade had enough time to sail into the building before it shut. The knife pierced through Roy’s red costume and deep into the wall. A perfect hit. Fortunately for Roy his attacker was just playing and the target had been Roy’s hat.

Roy stared as the assailant placed the sniper rifle on his back and then pulled a gun of some kind from a holster on his chest and fired at Roy’s apartment window ledge. From the end a grappling hook with a wire attached sailed across the gap and attached into the grooves on the outside of the building. It wasn’t long before his attacker was standing on the thin windowsill staring at Roy through round, armless shades. Roy sighed with relief that the glass was bullet proof and nearly impervious. As Roy sighed his attacker smashed his shaved head against the glass shattering it onto the floor. Then stepping through the window frame he winced as he pulled shards of glass from his head. He slowly walked over to Roy and reaching under his long brown trench coat pulled another gun from a second holster on his chest, this time a nine millimetre. He stroked his grey goatee with the other hand and then slowly took the shades from his face. How could Roy have been so stupid? Why couldn’t he see it? It wasn’t like he was even wearing a costume. Just shades and a trench coat.

“Hey, Roy.”

How could he have not noticed? The same face. Same hair. The same goatee and the eyes. Those same eyes as always. One blue, one brown, both cold and cruel. The barrel of the nine millimetre pushed against Roy’s temple and his face distorted in fear.

“How are you doin all this?” he pleaded.

“It’s easy, Roy. Just pull back…” Gerard’s thumb pulled back on the hammer “and fire.” Roy’s eyes instinctively closed. Roy didn’t need to be a weapons expert to know what came next. The trigger would be pulled back and a small lump of lead would send his head all across the room. But it didn’t and he never pulled the trigger.

Opening his eyes Roy saw Gerard with one finger to his ear and looking in another direction like he was some kind of FBI agent.

Then turning back to Roy he simply said, “Maybe later then, Roy.” With that he pulled the knives from above Roy’s shoulders and replaced them in his boots as Roy collapsed to the floor. He kicked Roy in the stomach to wind him and then took the bolos and placed them on his belt by his hips. He then turned and left through the window, the only signs he had ever been there were the broken window, the winded body or Red Arrow and the hat lodged in the wall. Then there was a knock at the door.

“Hey, Roy, its Dick, are you in.”

“Help me………………”

Roy Harper’s Apartment:

After the Titans fussed over Roy trying to tend to any wounds, they got about to the business of telling him the situation which slowly turned into reminiscing which became Roy telling them about Gerard, who they told him was now named Arsenal, which then steered the conversation back to the Godhead. As they were talking Dick returned having left to run traces on the knife that had pinned Roy’s hat into the wall.

“So?” Roy asked “Where’d he get it?”

“Its standard U.S military. Could have been gained any where in the States. No distinguishing marks, no serial number of any kind and no finger prints. Not one. It’s a dead end.”

“So we still don’t know who’s behind Godhead?” asked Wally.

“Not a clue.”

“Then Dick is right.” Roy added “These new Titans. They aren’t ready. And not to blow my own trumpet or anything but I'm just saying, I was one of the original Titans right? And I’ve worked with Green Arrow and so I should be a pretty keen fighter and I'm handy with weapons and still I got taken down easily.”

“We all did, Roy.” Dick responded.

“Oh, I wasn’t like moanin’ or anything, I'm just saying that if they can take down the most experienced members of the team do the new guys really stand a chance.”

“They’re better than you think, Roy. You should give them more credit.”

“Maybe, but none the less…”

There was a long pause as the Titans looked from one to each other. They were all thinking the same thing and all hoping they were wrong. Dick was the first to speak and as always was focusing directly on the problem.

“They can handle it. What I want to know is where this Arsenal guy went. You said he left in hurry?”

“Yeah. He kinda looked like someone was giving him instructions in an ear piece; although I didn’t see one.” The crimson archer replied.

“Okay…so say you want to hurt the Titans. You’ve attacked one of the members who is on…hiatus but then your told you have more important plans, and I think its fair to presume they are following our actions so they knew we would be here shortly, where would you?”

“Do you reckon he left because he didn’t want to have to fight us?” Wally asked.

“Probably not because we know they are generally better in hand to hand combat that we are.” Dick responded.

“So why would they leave just as we arrived?” Wonder-Girl asked this time.

There was another eerily long and frightful silence. Roy worked it out first, “The others!”