Titans Tomorrow #7

[Glippernip]

Titans Tomorrow #7

Nine

Written and Edited by Joel Sawyer


Starbolt: Half-Tamaranean son of Dick Grayson and Princess Koriand’r with psionic ability;

Battalion: Grandson of Roy Harper, combining impressive martial arts training and weapons skill with a suit that enhances his strength, reflexes, and protects him from harm;

Terra: Daughter of the original Terra and Beast Boy/Changeling/Animal Man Garfield Logan, who can transform herself into stone, earth, and metallic form and possesses some manipulation of earthly substances;

Cardinal: Winged warrior with amazing senses, now also possessing the powers of Dove;

Taurus: Huge minotaur with yet untested strength, invulnerability, and reflexes far superior to most beings his size;

Fusion: Grand-daughter of the villain Dr. Light who can create a light construct that simulates armor;

Kilowatt: New, young hero who has gained the electrical powers once use by Live Wire, a former super-villain;

Princess Fern: A young, almost completely unknown Liana Cicero who has amazing abilities relating to the Plant Kingdom,

Jon Levine: Cardinal’s brother who has no real fighting skill or power, but can access computer systems from a distance with his willpower alone.

Together, they are The TITANS!

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[Glippernip]

How did we end up with nine, Starbolt asked himself silently.

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[Glippernip]

In the last 60 years of Earth history, beings of power have left behind them pockets of their might that were never retrieved due to their creator’s imprisonment, death, memory loss, or any of a hundred other reasons. Many of these caches are eventually found and used by someone else, but a few still exist.

Edwin Luckritz is 21 years old and had spent his years fighting uphill. Cursed with a sloping forehead, hooked nose, jutting chin, and horrible acne, he was the target of every kid in school. With no higher education and very few social skills, he has ended up a janitor in a smaller town 38 miles outside of Metropolis, a place where automation has not yet taken over menial jobs. He appreciates the new employment, but always dreams of what could be.

It is during his shift, dumping wastewater into a ditch out behind the place of his employment, when he comes across the little bubble of force left many years ago by a little imp as a mischievous trap for Superman, a trap never sprung or discovered since then. As he places the mop back into the pail and turns, the energy surges up to him, engulfs him, sears him in every micrometer of every nerve, infusing him with power.

And his mop.

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[Glippernip]

Ivy Town, a smaller community rich in culture and history. Today, an unwanted son has reappeared, and he is feeling fine standing atop The Quednau Building, tallest structure in Ivy that isn’t a water tower. Two-Tone howled and laughed with over a million in jewelry in his hand.

It's not even for the money, Two-Tone thought, reveling in the afternoon wind, As long as I stay out of the crosshairs of the major leaguers, I can have my fun with the kids. And here they come! Lord, I love doing this.

As she swooped in gracefully, Cardinal let her additional powers of Order sweep through her, followed by the subsequent flood of information from all of her senses. She smiled as well. This would be an interesting rematch. She stopped in mid-air about thirty feet from him.

She’s hovering without even flapping, Two-Tone thought, She can’t do that. “Hey, Red,” He shouted, “ he called, “Where’s your boyfriend? He’s my favorite playmate.”

“He had some important business to take care of,” she answered with a smirk, “He stepped in some gum and had to clean his boot.”

“I’ll make this quick, then,” he called, drawing out a silver pistol. He fired a white beam at her, but her enhanced senses anticipated the path and she dodged even as he fired. Instead of a single bolt, however, the beam continued to fire, and followed her as Two-Tone tried to lock on. Cardinal climbed into the sun, performed a loop, then dove, smacking him soundly with a wing as she passed. With a slight ‘Pop!’ sound, he disappeared.

Now to see what I can really do, Cardinal thought.

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[Glippernip]

About thirty seconds later, Two-Tone popped around the corner of an electrical box three buildings away, again on a rooftop. He aimed the gun at Cardinal’s back, then his jaw dropped when she turned and looked straight at him.

Something has changed about her, he thought, slipping back around the corner without firing.

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[Glippernip]

Moments after, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him through the clean alleyways between buildings of Downtown Ivy, trying to stay out of sight. Two-Tone wasn’t afraid, just really uneasy. The pit of his stomach squiggled and tightened as he thought about Cardinal’s apparent new skills. He rounded another corner between the Bank of America Main and an office building, and he stumbled to a halt. Before him stood a seven-foot tall, four-foot wide, muscle bound monster. They stared at each other for two seconds, then the beast raised its arms and leaned forward.

“ROOOAAAARRR,” the creature roared. Two-Tone again popped away.

“Was that really necessary,” Alexandra asked, running her hand through her hot pink hair. Taurus chuckled.

“No, it wasn’t,” the minotaur said, “but it would win $25,000.00 on America’s Funniest Videos. I’m surprised he didn’t soil his nice, white spandex.

“Eeewwww,” she responded as Taurus laughed.

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[Glippernip]

Above, Cardinal concentrated. What am I sensing, she pondered, the wind blowing her red pony-tail. I’m getting very confused readings.

“He’s coming towards you now, Fern. From the South.”

“Roger, wilco, over and out,” Liana’s voice eagerly said from Cardinal’s ear-piece radio.

Now to investigate the other one I’m sensing, Cardinal decided.

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[Glippernip]

As he sprinted up Lafayette Street, he saw a young girl stand up ahead. She looked about 13 or so with a red, skin-tight outfit looking much like a one piece swimsuit with short sleeves and leggings almost to her knees. Her red boots and armbands seemed to have twine tied around them, and twine also ‘X’d’ across the V-neck of her suit. A leafy vine pattern ran up the left side of the uniform, thigh to shoulder. Two-Tone shook his head. He didn’t want to fight a kid. She leaned against one of the small, potted trees that lined each side of the road.



“Let me guess,” he offered, “The New Wonder Girl?”

“That’s funny,” Liana replied with a chuckle, “You can call me Princess Fern.”

“Princess Fern,” he snickered, “That sounds really tough!”

“Plants are some of the strongest beings on Earth,” she told him confidently, “Can I place you under arrest, now?

He laughed out loud, drawing a bead with his shiny pistol. The beam struck Fern full in the chest. She stumbled back from the impact, but the beam didn’t cause any direct, physical damage. Instead, ice appeared where the beam hit her, spreading and engulfing her in a mini-glacier.

“Now all we need is some Pepsi,” he smirked, showing the trapped girl his gun, “A Mr. Freeze Cold gun. You’d be amazed how much of this stuff is hidden away, waiting to be found.” That was when the little tree hit him.

It did not have much strength, but it whipped him in the face. He turned the Cold gun toward his surprise adversary, but the tree placed its branches on the sidewalk, flipped the large stone pot over itself, and clubbed Two-Tone on the head. With his resilience, it would not have hurt much except that he bit his own tongue. As the taste of blood invaded his mouth, Fern grinned at him from within her icy tomb. Then, just to add insult to injury, a yellow-orange blur zoomed up the street, driving a hard fist into his face. As he stood back up, he glared at Fusion in her light armor, and clenched his fists.

Don’t get angry, he told himself silently, You might take her down, but there are at least two more that you’ve seen. Get out! Two-Tone spit out blood, smiled at Fusion, and popped away.

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[Glippernip]

Now Two-Tone stood in a delivery truck well behind one building. He had traveled about fifteen blocks from his starting point, near the outer edges of downtown. He needed a place to crash, to hole up for a while.

Why did Starbolt go and get himself a team, he wondered. But he had heard they were calling themselves The Titans. That was a team just waiting for a next generation.

Then Two-Tone divided into two identical persons.

“I thought so,” Cardinal’s voice called from above.

Two-Tone looked up to see her peeking over the edge of the roof of the warehouse four stories up. She jumped over the edge and floated downward, again not using her wings.

“With my senses, I could ‘hear’ your supposed teleports, but I kept hearing two sets of footsteps away from the spot your ported to. You don’t teleport to another location, you recall your duplicate to the other’s hiding spot. As long as we didn’t know there were two of you, we would chase whichever one we saw.”

“At this point, it doesn’t make a difference,” he told her, “Right now, I want to get away, and you can only chase one of me!” The Two-Tones split up, running in opposite directions.

Cardinal dove for the criminal heading North, but the man turned and aimed the Cold gun. With a sharp crack, her Talon whip shot out and grasped the weapon. With her pulling, he could not aim properly, so he grabbed her line and yanked her down hard to the tarmac of the parking lot. He bent down and lifted a concrete parking stop off the ground.

“I know I use weapons, but I don’t need them,” he explained, raising the stone over his head, “I’m really strong.”

“And really stupid,” she said, looking up at him and screaming. Her throat implant did its work as high decibels of white sound stabbed into his ears, the shockwave knocking him off his feet.

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[Glippernip]

The other Two-Tone stopped, feeling the agony of his other self and prepared to call it back. Taurus, with a huge amount of steam behind him, charged across the street and slammed into him. The fact that Two-Tone stood up after the shot surprised him. Two-Tone smiled and an orange aura appeared around him.

“I’m even stronger when I’m not divided,” he stated, “I didn’t want a knockdown drag-out, but if you insist...” Taurus punched, but Two-Tone divided suddenly and split up, double punching the bull-man and knocking him down. Lightning struck from the sky, arcing between the twosome. Both Two-Tones convulsed with dual shrieks of pain as Kilowatt landing next to Taurus, his young form bathed in a corona of white-hot electricity. A blue beam then struck the villainous duo, encasing them in ice up to their necks.

“Dropped this,” Cardinal taunted, twirling the Cold gun on her finger.

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[Glippernip]

“How do I look,” Tamara Markov-Logan asked her two companions. Ryand’r and Gabe appraised her costume, an outfit that resembled her mother’s original Terra costume but with a knee length brown skirt and goggles instead of a mask. She smiled then, a confident smile not really seen much on her face.



I’m a Titan, she thought to herself, Maybe this is exactly where I need to be.

Ry grinned warmly. “You look good,” he offered, “It’s strange seeing us, now. I still remember being a kid, and seeing you once a year, if we were lucky. You’ve decided to call yourself Terra?”

She nodded. “Let’s get down to business. What’s first?”

Ry jumped in. “How in the world did we end up with nine members?”

“I’m counting Jon as support, since he is a non-com. Eight is a respectable number for a fighting force,” Gabe stated.

“Yeah, but we offered Reese and LJ spots as well, before Tamara arrived,” Ry reminded Gabe, “Even Batman could change his mind.”
“Don’t hold your breath for LJ,” Battalion explained, “He’s having a crisis of faith, sort of, and I don’t think it will lead to our door. Reese hasn’t even gotten back to us, yet.”

“Besides,” Terra added, “A new team can go through some attrition at first. Some of them may not make good team-mates, and some may leave on their own.”

“Maybe,” Ry replied, “Cardinal has already become like family to me, so I don’t see her leaving soon.”

“That leaves four unknowns,” Gabe added.

“Three,” Terra emphatically corrected, “Liana is not an unknown. I trust her.”

“She looks like a kid,” Gabe said calmly, “Besides, your trust does not mean she’ll stick around.”

Tamara fumed. “I consider her my friend, and I have faith in her. Just because your family has issues...”

“All families have issues, Tammy. My family doesn’t hide from that, we make it one of our strengths.”

She scowled at him. “Why aren’t you being all loud and obnoxious,” she barked.

“When I’m Battalion, I put on a face,” he said, stroking his clean shaven face and short red hair, reminding her of the mane he wore when in battle.

She sat back down and calmed herself, grunting, “I hate being called ‘Tammy’.”

“OK, Ry trusts Carrie, Terra trusts Liana,” Gabe summed up, “What about the others.”

“I don’t know,” Ryand’r responded, “I’m putting a lot of faith in Alexandra, but she has only two actions as a crime-fighter. She and Kilowatt are so new to this, its impossible to judge.”

“And what about the furball,” Gabe asked.

Terra huffed. “You have to watch his sensitive sense of smell. He told me that, once Phobos and Arcana are dealt with, he’ll head home to Greece.”

“One of us needs to check out his history,” Starbolt said, “Call his friends in Greece.”

“We ought to send the newbies through a crash self-defense course,” Gabe suggested, “I don’t know if Green Arrow would really want to take on a brand new group of students with Roy not around.”

“Maybe Mirage would pitch in,” Ry mentioned, “With us to demonstrate the moves, she could train them. Even Jon would benefit. Now, what about a base of Ops.”

“Yeah, that’s a big one,” Gabe sighed, “Even if we fix this place up, we can’t all live here, and there are to many bystanders to get in the way.”

Terra perked up. “But we have one of the greatest networks in the world when it comes to resources, and all three of us have more money than most young adults. It will be difficult to set it all up, but we have the ability. We can send out feelers for a new place and see if any of our friends or family know of something. Maybe an old hero or villain base is still standing.”

Starbolt nodded with a wan smile but a furrowed brow. Terra leaned forward with concern. “Are you all right, Ry,” she asked, “You look a bit slagged.”

He sighed. “Its just all hitting me. I mean, we are officially Titans now, not just their kids. There is a huge reputation to uphold. I really want to do this right.”

“So do we,” Gabe agreed, “for those no longer with us.”

Ryand’r smiled. “All right, next item up for bids...”

“Ry, do you read me,” a youngish voice interrupted from the com.

“We’re connected, Jon,” Starbolt verified, “What do you need?”

“The Titans,” Jon stated over the phone, “There is a big dregg tearing up Boston. The police can’t touch him, the Flashes aren’t responding, and Superman is in space. We’re the closest.”

“Cardinal is still dealing with Two-Tone,” Gabe stated, “It’s just us.”

“We’ll check it out,” Starbolt replied, “If we can’t handle it, when we’ll regroup. Jon can fetch the others while we engage the combatant.”

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[Glippernip]

They exited the hatch together, dropping 100 feet to the street below. Starbolt assisted Battalion with the descent while Terra created a smooth rock slide to ‘surf’ down to the street. Gabe dropped the final 15 feet himself, triggering the Palmer Effect and ‘transforming’ into Battalion. Their opponent had cut a pretty good swath through Boston. He regarded the trio with amusement.

“I expected someone...bigger,” the man said.

“I’m bigger than you are,” Battalion replied.

“You misunderstand,” the man countered, “I mean a major-leaguer. You know, Wonder Woman or something. Someone Big!”

“The end result is the same,” Battalion told him, “Federal incarceration.”

“Hold on,” Starbolt said, placing a hand in front of Battalion’s chest. “What is this all about,” Ry asked.

The man reared back, surprised at the question. He stood there in what appeared to be a workman’s one-piece, zipped up the front with long pants and sleeves. There were holes in the outfit, holes with singed edges, and he wore no footgear. The man barely fit the uniform; he was thick and a bit obese, though the outfit concealed how much was fat and how much was muscle. His face looked huge and flat, and no hair grew, not on his head, face, or body, not even eyebrows. His skin had a strange purplish cast, as if the entire body had a light bruise on it. The man looked at his abnormally large hands, also the purplish color, and showed them to The Titans.

“They thought I died,” he muttered, and then he bellowed, “THEN THEY THREW ME AWAY!” His eyes flared a dark purple, and he clenched his fists while advancing.

Battalion shot past Starbolt and Terra, and bulldozed right into the man, who stumbled from the impact but remained standing.

“Is he looking for a fight,” Ry asked Tamara.

“Either way, this gentleman isn’t coming along quietly,” she replied with her slight European accent. Together, Starbolt and Terra charged.

As she came within a few feet of the man, a wave of weakness washed across her like she had just ran a mile, a weariness down to her bones. Glancing at Starbolt, she saw his shoulders slump and his brow furrow with confusion. The man placed his hands on Battalion’s shoulders, and Gabe moaned, a fearful sound the others had never heard before. In face, Battalion’s knees quivered, as if fighting just to remain standing.

“Drop him,” Terra commanded, transforming to dirt. Not knowing how tough her opponent was, she didn’t want to kill him with a solid stone fist. Though still weakened, the effect diminished once she was no longer flesh. Starbolt fired one of his Psi-bolts, causing their opponent to curse and stumble, and Terra punched him in the gut. Ryand’r grabbed Gabe, who slumped into his arms.

“Get away from me,” the unknown man shouted. He clenched his fists and punched his arms out and down like a classic body-builder flexing. Pure force rippled from him, visible only because it warped the light around him. The force tossed all three heroes away from the man; in fact, it threw everything within a ten-foot radius away from him, and once finished, the man stood in a 4" depression where the street buckled and indented. Starbolt protected Battalion, who was unable to catch himself. All three skidded painfully across the tarmac.

“What in X’hal was that,” Starbolt growled through gritted teeth. Terra opened her mouth to reply, but another deep, manly voice shouted over her.

“Do not worry, comrades! I will handle this filth!”

As the Titanic Trio watched, a newcomer flew out of the sky, landing between them and their opponent. He dressed in a blue costume with darker blue boots, gloves, trunks, and long cape, a black ‘M’ emblazoned on his chest and mask. Their foe reached for the caped hero, who pushed him back with a huge...mop. The blue-clad one spun the mop over his head like a quarterstaff, then shifted his grip and smashed the larger man with the business end. With a CRACK of concussive force and a splash of corrosive liquid, the hairless man shot forty feet through the air, smashing through a parked car and caving in the plasti-shell siding of a shop. The man fell to the sidewalk and groaned. Terra stood up and rushed to the newcomer.

“You better hope he’s tough enough to take a shot like that,” she spat, “That could kill someone who has no protection.”

“Have no fear,” he stated confidently, “I can determine an opponent’s toughness and respond accordingly.

“Who in the 52 are you,” she demanded.

“I am the new force in crime-fighting, here to clean up the streets of meta criminals. I am...Mop Man!”

The only one who spoke was Battalion, who still had enough strength to laugh.



To be Continued.