Teen Titans #66: "Before the Storm"

-2-

About twenty minutes later, Scarlet Wing came back into the Tower.

"It's so good to have you back!" Terra said.

"It's good to be back," Scarlet Wing agreed. "But I wish I could've been with you guys in Africa."*

Terra's smile faded. "I wish we could have skipped it." She shook her head. "Never mind. I know that Raven and the docs gave you a clean bill of health, but how are you feeling?"

"They didn't give me a clean bill. Not completely. Even with Raven's ministrations, I won't be ready for active duty for at least a week."

"Yeah, I know, the whole 'bed rest and plenty of fluids' thing. But I really wanna know, how you're feeling."

"Oh....would you believe the starbolts to the chest didn't hurt that much? They just made me very sore. What really hurts is my wing," she gestured to the bandage. "My wings are part of me, nervous system and everything, and they're very sensitive. That's what is still holding me back, really."

Terra nodded. "Dagon wanted to come, but you know, he sleeps during the day and all."

Scarlet Wing nodded. "I know." Dagon had never been anything but her friend; if he wanted more than that, he hadn't said so. Carrie wasn't against the idea of there being more, but she wasn't sure about it, either. She was still shy and uncertain, in a way even Raven had never been.

But now Cyborg, Nightwing and Starfire were coming up to them.

"Welcome back kiddo," Cyborg said.

"It's good to have you back," Nightwing agreed. "Light exercise tomorrow?"

"Sure thing," Scarlet Wing nodded.

"You survived a concentrated attack by my sister," Starfire said, utterly serious. "For that I honor you."

Scarlet Wing bowed awkwardly. "Th-thank you, but really as I was telling Terra, my wing hurts more. If she had bolted those..." she couldn't finish.

"Nevertheless," Starfire insisted. "You are a worthy warrior."

"Um...thank you."

"Doctor Charles will be along tomorrow to resume your tutoring as well," Nightwing said.

Scarlet Wing nodded. "Good. For me that's the most exciting part."

Terra chuckled and rolled her eyes.

*Teen Titans Annual #2: Through a glass, Darkly"

-4-

The True Human Movement had been beaten down by the Titans some time ago.

They had been around for years, since the first 'heroes' had appeared. At first they were only a handful, as the early mystery men called the 'Justice Society' were celebrated during World War II. But the True Human Movement were not fooled; all powered people were villains. Luthor was correct in that, at least. But he himself was also corrupt, embracing technology to make himself one of them, whether he recognized this fact or not.

The human-freak conflict wasn't like it was portrayed sometimes in those comics and movies, where the pseudo-heroic 'mutants' faced off against an appropriately wary and motivated human race. Such was pro freak propaganda anyway, of course. In the minds of the True Human Movement, someone who chose to become a freak was worse than a 'mutant' that was born that way. What was even more relevant was that, unlike those comics and movies, the vast majority of the human race were not hostile to this enemy. Oh some were wary, and certainly not everyone trusted them, but recognition of the threat they represented was minimal. As previously noted, only Luthor realized what they were up to, and he made the mistake of fighting fire with fire, becoming what he despised.

Most of the Movement, therefore, was educational in nature. Trying to wake people up to the threat to their very existence. The action group, those that took the fight to the enemy, were small in number and secretive. They had taken out a few costumed vigilantes that no one had ever heard of; poor saps really, only two of them with any power, the rest just misguided souls who put on badly made costumes and tried to be vigilantes. They too were sell outs and deserved death; but they were the most insignificant part of the threat.

The action group faced a logistical problem; namely, to avoid falling into the same trap that had destroyed Luthor. If they used powers, even technologically based ones, they would become what they despised. Without that assistance, however, they themselves stood no chance of winning. The solution was two fold; first, long range sniping with specialized bullets--they were still working on a kryptonite bullet for Superman, for example--and second, technology that only neutralized the powers of the foe, without granting powers to the action group themselves. (They had stolen blueprints of this technology from the HIVE. The mad scientist cabal knew the schematics had been taken, but not by whom; and they had bigger problems.)

Their previous attempt on the Titans had been this way. They had kidnapped Nightwing, Starfire and Terra; and handcuffed them with power dampeners. But the foe had nevertheless escaped. They had been captured, put on trial by the very people they were protecting, and arrested. But even so, there were some who were sympathetic to their cause, and others who could be bribed, who ensured their early release. Not all of them, but most of them. A few recruits had been found since.

Now, regrouped in stone caverns connected to the New York sewers similar to the ones they had previously used, there had been some discussion of infiltrating the Tower through tunneling. But that would involve going out into the coastal waters. There had also been some suggestion of hacking the Tower's computers and flooding the place with poison gas, but Cyborg had improved the Tower's computer defenses since Circe's attack and Deathstroke's infiltration.

At first they were frustrated, but then hit on what should have been an obvious solution; they would wait until the Titans were called out on some other battle, then pounce.

Some suggested a modification of this plan; that they let the Titans and whomever their enemy were fight it out, and then take on the winner. This was vetoed as the Titans were certain to defeat most any enemy, and besides, attacking at the same time would distract the Titans, perhaps allowing the other foe to get a kill in as well. That was more than agreeable. Helping freaks to kill each other was always a good idea.

So now they had merely to watch, and wait.

-6-

The True Human Movement was watching the Tower at a distance, and was listening in to the police broadcasts as well, so they knew well enough where the Titans were going. Quickly, they got into their trucks and jeeps and got moving, rising out of their caverns onto rarely used back roads. Now their only concern was to get there before the battle was over.

-8-

The others spent a little time conferring with Kid Flash and Raven, as well as the police officers already on the scene. Nightwing was contemplating strategy when the True Human movement attacked.

They arrived, and were pleased to see the Titans so focused on their metahuman rivals.

They fired a missile launcher at the team. The missile didn't have any special properties to use against heroes; but it did have neurotoxin gas. The hope was that Nightwing at least, might be killed before the fight proper started.

The missile was aimed at Dagon, who turned to mist to avoid it. It impacted with the ground, and the gas began to spread.

Kid Flash didn't wait for Nightwing to disperse the gas; he recognized what was going on well enough, if not the exact nature of the foul fumes. He raced around in a circle, creating a whirlwind, and the gas was sent skyward.

"The gas was probably toxic," Starfire said, staring up at the dispersing cloud.

"DeGauss doesn't care about civilian casualties," Nightwing said. "Though, I give him credit for coming up with a flank attack."

"Uh, bossman?" Beast Boy pointed. "I don't think it's DeGauss...."

They could see the purple robes and the sour, grim faces. Not the HIVE, those were more maroon. And there wasn't nearly as much high tech weaponry in evidence. The missile launcher was evidence of that; and it was being quickly reloaded.

"Those anti-meta fanatics," Troia said. She shook her head in disbelief. "I thought we beat them down pretty hard last time."

"Fanaticism knows no restraint," Nightwing said sourly. "That's a clearer explanation of risking civilians than anything DeGauss might do, actually. Cyborg, would you?"

"Let me take the lovebirds, you guys can handle DeGauss and his crew," Cyborg said, firing his white noise cannon at the missile launcher. It was knocked out of the man's hands, and Terra dragged it underground in the event that it spewed forth it's noxious payload. Nightwing nodded and waved them off, as the rest of them advanced on the bank.

As they advanced on the anti-meta fanatics, both Beast Boy and Terra wondered if Cyborg was trying to protect Beast Boy from Colonel DeGauss, who had hurt him quite badly before. Beast Boy was bothered by it, but kept his mouth shut. Terra, for her part, was quietly relieved.

-10-

Starfire blasted away at DeGauss, who grinned and returned fire. His incendiary rounds and her starbolts collided in explosions. He had to stop to reload; she didn't. But her starbolts splattered harmlessly against his shields. He smiled; his kinetic shields spared him even the knockback of inertia. He just finished reloading and fired again.

But Starfire spiraled away, and Troia took her place, deflecting his incendiary rounds. Their fire didn't even make a smear on her bracelets. But when she came in to put him down, her blows also rained harmlessly against his shields. He grinned nastily at her and flicked out with his plasma whip. She brought up her bracelets in time, and it wrapped around them. He yanked her down.

Instantly Starfire was in his face again, blasting away at his shields before he could take advantage of Troia. He started shooting at her again. She ducked back and met him, starbolt for incendiary round. While his attention was diverted, Troia got to her knees and planted one boot on the plasma whip. It began to burn into her boot, but she paid no attention. DeGauss glanced at her and grimaced, realizing he'd lost one weapon.

Troia waited for him to pay attention to Starfire once more, then placed her hands against the kinetic shield. She couldn't vibrate through like Kid Flash could, but her invulnerability counted for much. She simply kept her hands there....and pushed.

And pushed.

Slowly, her hands began to force their way through the shield, sizzling, burning. She grit her teeth and kept pushing. The shield was thin, and her hands went through fairly quickly. Her bracelets were another matter; they did not want to go through. But they made a shrill noise that hurt the ears. For Troia and Starfire, it was loud; for DeGauss, it was simply unbearable. He screamed and dropped his gun. It glanced off the inside of the shield and fired; the bullet ricocheted around inside until finally it impacted on the man's own body armor. He barely noticed, hands clasped to his ears.

Troia was actually worried she might be stuck, but between the constant pressure of her bracelets and Starfire's regular barrage of starbolts, the shield eventually overloaded. This left DeGauss vulnerable, and Starfire blasted him into unconsciousness before he could recover.

-12-

Raven had dismissed the shield of one of DeGauss' men with her powers, but he still had a powerstaff, glowing at four points. He lashed out at her with it, and she ducked back; while not mystical, it certainly was strong enough to hurt her.

Kid Flash was there instantly, beating him down with three strikes. The lovers smiled and touched hands; then moved on.

Dagon's magical nature made it easier for him to penetrate the enemy shields, but it still hurt. He was wearing his helmet, as it was daylight outside. So he simply broke both of the man's arms, and let him collapse into a mewling ball of pain. It wasn't an ideal solution, but he did what needed to be done. Batman--both the original and Nightwing when he had temporarily taken the role--had done worse to criminal scum.

Nightwing ducked and dived; bobbed and weaved. Aside from DeGauss, who Starfire and Troia had already taken down, these were simply street thugs armed with advanced technology. Which was not to say he would underestimate them, but he knew what their capabilities were.

He experimented with his EMP gun, trying to take out the enemy's kinetic shield that way, but to no effect; the attack just arced harmlessly around the shield. The thug grinned, then fired his plasma shotgun. Nightwing barely dodged; he could feel the heat of the attack.

But the shields didn't keep air out, as the thugs needed to breathe. Nor other gasses, he suspected.

So he tossed a knockout gas pellet at the foe, then back-flipped away. The pellet broke on the shield, but the gas drifted right inside, and the thug dropped.

-14-

There were seven of DeGauss' men left. Nightwing used another gas pellet to take down one. Raven took down the shields of another, then wrapped him in her soul self.

Kid Flash started to vibrate his hands through the shield of the next, while Troia ran interference, distracting him long enough for Kid Flash to take him down.

Starfire flew hither and yon, throwing starbolts, trying to keep the enemy busy. One of them blasted at her with a power lance, grazing her ribs. She winced, gritting her teeth, and spun aside.

But Troia strode into the breach, literally, striding into the enemy and bashing their shields with her fists. She did no damage to them, but kept them busy. Busy enough for Raven and Kid Flash to take down their shields and finish them off.

But they discovered they were not done. In the back of the bank, in the vault, there was a bomb, surrounded by it's own kinetic shield.

Cyborg, Terra and Beast Boy came running in just as the others discovered it. With his robotic arm disabled, Cyborg would find it almost impossible to hack it; but they quickly discovered, it wouldn't have mattered if he had been able to.

There were wires stretching out from the bombs, touching the inside of the kinetic shield, glistening and sparking. Nightwing could already tell that the bomb was set to go off if the shield was disrupted. Raven couldn't dismiss it, nor Kid Flash vibrate through it.

"It seems DeGauss is a better planner than a fighter," Nightwing remarked.

"Either of us," Troia said, indicating herself and Starfire, "Could fly it out into space."

"There's a countdown," Cyborg said, eying it. "Twelve minutes left."

"What, DeGauss was willing to blow himself up to take it with us?" Beast Boy raised a brow.

"He probably had a shutoff code, not a simple remote control." Nightwing shook his head.

"And I can't read thoughts to find out what it would be," Raven sighed.

"We could have Kid Flash race back to the Tower, grab a transmitter, and run through all possible combinations?" Terra suggested.

But now Kid Flash was the one shaking his head. "Too risky. The wrong code might set it off."

"It's not nuclear, is it?" Troia asked, a rare note of fear in her voice.

"No, conventional. But there's enough explosive in there to take out several blocks." Cyborg was grim.

"Raven," Nightwing looked to her. "Can you teleport the bomb without disrupting the shield?"

"Yes," Raven nodded.

"Then we'll modify Troia's idea. Teleport it to the ocean, and let it sink."

Raven nodded. She stepped forward, standing just before the bomb, wrapped her cloak around it, and disappeared.