Teen Titans: Twilight of the Gods (IC/Limited Acceptance/S/PG-16)

[Hälō]

There. She had done it! Still panting lightly from the skirmish with the turrets, Roxie rolled her shoulders and massaged her thigh to sooth some the of the soreness from yet another use of the Overdrive technique. Thinking back to when she had just discovered her ability to mess with her own body's kinetic energy to such an extent, the blonde felt a small smirk form at the corner of her mouth. "It's getting easier..."  She mumbled to herself under the sound of smashing machinery 

 

"So, are we gonna have to keep cleaning up after you or...?"

 

Roxie's ears perked at Kiara's voice, promoting the knight to spin around, flashing her trademark smirk as if it were a reflex. "Hm?" Met with the sight Arcana holding Arondite triumphantly, the blonde felt her eyes narrow ever so slightly. Oh, so she even used Arondite better, huh? No! What was she thinking?? Kiara needed Roxie just as much she did her, right? Fighting back a wave of petty emotion, Roxie swallowed her weakness and locked it away in whatever pit it had crawled out from.

 

"Don't worry, love ... the only other cleaning you'll be doing will be peeling that bird faced wanker off the walls after I get my paws on him!" She responded to Kiara loud enough for any eavesdroppers to hear whilst looking up into the lens of a nearby security camera. It was a shame Shira couldn't see her glare through her helmet...

 

"Oh and since we have a minute," The blonde continued, staring Arcana in the eyes with a stoic expression only to take another pause. Studying the other girl's features, Roxie couldn't help but let her face melt into yet another one of her smiles; though this one was filled competitive mischief that danced in the air between the two femme fatales. She had found a rival without even knowing it, huh? "I wanna fight you someday." She tried her best silently force the thought to telepath before winking at her.  

 

"THE NEXT PERSON WHO TOUCHES MY BLOODY BAT IS GETTING TWO SIZE THREE AND A HALF BOOTS UP THE ARSE!" She shouted with exaggerated annoyance before playfully snatching her weapon from Kiara's hand hugging it close her face. "You don't see me spewing nerd toxins, wearing fancy metal pants, growing arms, summoning magic geese, or reading minds, do ya???"

[Ren✧]

Kiara gladly handed over Arondite. Sure, the weapon did its job, and more than effectively, but in her hands it felt so clumsy and cumbersome. It felt much more natural to see the metallic piece of sports equipment in Roxie's possession. Kiara would stick to using her own two fists for now. However, as she traded the bat off and the thrill of smashing up the turrets faded away Kiara became acutely aware of an emotion that she did not normally sense coming from Roxie. Self-doubt. It was just emanating from her like heat from a furnace. Kiara was surprised that she hadn't sensed it sooner. However, just as soon as she had noticed this worrying discrepancy in her friend's behavior, it vanished, as if suddenly snatched up and shoved out of sight.

 

"Don't worry, love ... the only other cleaning you'll be doing will be peeling that bird faced wanker off the walls after I get my paws on him!" Roxie boldly proclaimed, challenging whomever was watching the Titans behind the safety of the camera feed. Kiara just nodded, a little worried about the vibe she had just received from the former knight. There was no reason that Roxie should be questioning herself. If anything, that infringed upon Kiara's territory. 

 

"Oh and since we have a minute," Kiara wasn't entirely sure what Roxie meant by that. The Titans definitely did not have a minute. The clock was still ticking on the lives of the hostages and any further delays would put them further at ri- "I wanna fight you someday."

 

Kiara couldn't stop herself from letting out a good-natured laugh. "You're on." She agreed. "But don't expect me to take it easy on you." She added slyly with a telepathic wink. Of course, Rox would have been insulted if she had. 

 

After a final declaration by Roxie, Kiara made a mental note to never touch Arondite again, and then spoke: "We've got hostages to rescue."

[Saiba Aisu]

---

GM Post: 

 (Main Generator Room, ACNN24 Headquarters, 9:56 P.M.)

---

Clavicus was having a wonderful day. The schemes that Shira had toiled upon so patiently, so lovingly, were slowly but surely coming together. Stealing Spore from the South Korean government had only been the first step of a much greater and grander game, with absolute control of Aurora City as the final prize. The subsequent destruction of the Saint Dominique had gone off without a hitch, while the take-over of ACNN24 Headquarters had been laughably easy. Indeed, he had laughed, giggling madly to himself as he mowed down the tower's pitiful defense drones and security forces one by one before moving to secure the Main Generator Room.

 

The fact that the Agent of Shira had ordered him to kill the Teen Titans was merely the icing on the cake.

 

"Come out, come out, wherever you are, little boys!" he warbled, advancing slowly across the floor, each step accompanied by an ear-splitting crash, his off-pitch singsong tones distorted by his suit's speakers as they echoed throughout the room, clearly enjoying their little game of hide-and-seek.

 

A sudden flash of peripheral motion caught his eye—one of the heroes had leaped high into the air and appeared to be clinging to the ceiling upside-down, like some kind of bizarre frog, while he shouted taunts at the pilot of the G0LI7TH Unit.

 

"Found you!" Clavicus squealed, his voice cracking with glee as he took aim at the cheeky little bugger, his fingers closing around his suit's firing triggers. A hail of bullets exploded from the Goliath's twin machine gun cannons with a deafening roar, ripping the surrounding ceiling to shreds, forcing Arachnid to take evasive action, dodging instant death by a mere sliver.

 

"Hehehe, not bad! You're pretty good at this!" he giggled, tracking the boy's rapid movement across the ceiling with rapture, still shooting all the while. "Dance for me! Dance! Yeah! More, more! Hehehe!"

 

At that moment, there was a blinding flash of coruscating crimson and scarlet light from his left—Clavicus turned towards it, only to be struck squarely by a raging inferno of searing alien flame.

 

"Hey, no fair!!" Clavicus exclaimed petulantly, raising his arms in protest, using them to deflect the thick streams of fire away from his cockpit. "Wait your tur—OOF!!"

 

His words were cut off as Batsu nailed the Goliath with a full-force tackle, seizing it by the waist as he leaped high into the air, flipping the suit and slamming it headfirst into the ground with an almighty crash, where it lay motionless.

 

"Did it work?" Batsu asked under his breath, rolling to a halt a short distance away and getting to his feet, looking over his handiwork.

 

 

4th Floor, Central Broadcasting Access, ACNN24 Headquarters

 

"Bien joué, les filles,"¹ Cygnus murmured, dusting himself off as he strode past the feebly fizzing ruins of the turrets to join his teammates at the far end of the corridor. With an elegant twist of the wrist and a masterful snap of his fingers, the dazzling flock of ghostly swans dissolved into billowing clouds of smoky silver, quickly fading out of existence.

 

"THE NEXT PERSON WHO TOUCHES MY BLOODY BAT IS GETTING TWO SIZE THREE AND A HALF BOOTS UP THE ARSE!" Roxie declared loudly, playfully snatching Arondite from Kiara's hands with her signature mischievous smile, clearly overjoyed to be reunited with her beloved weapon. Even when threatening bodily violence, there was no denying the girl's ruffian charm.

 

"We've got hostages to rescue," Kiara reminded them, speaking over her shoulder as she led the way further down the hallway, her stride swift and relentless, almost running.

 

"You can feel them, then?" Cygnus inquired, he and Roxie bringing up the rear, their longer limbs letting them keep pace with the telepathic princess as the group forged ahead.

 

"Yes, just ahead, not far now!" the team leader replied, her voice betraying the urgency that drove her.

 

Finally, after several ambushes and countless delays, it was time to do what they had come to do. Time to save the hostages and defeat Shira once and for all.

 

[spoiler=Learn French with Cygnus: Today's Lesson]1. Well done, girls.

 

 

"OW!!" Clavicus wailed loudly, shaking his head from side to side like a wet dog as he got to his knees. "That hurt!"

 

With a low mechanical whine, the Goliath's reptilian head swiveled sideways abruptly, its beady eyes flashing menacingly as it locked gazes with Batsu.

 

"Naughty boys deserve to be PUNISHED!" Clavicus shrieked at the top of his lungs, his voice suddenly inhuman. With an ear-splitting scream, he lunged forwards, the Goliath's back-mounted jetpack igniting with a low roar, propelling the suit rapidly across the floor.

 

Batsu had no time to react, crying out as the much larger unit caught hold of him firmly by the wrists of two of his extra arms, raising him slowly off the ground and into the air. The alien hero struggled all the while, kicking furiously and unleashing more fire, yet unable to generate enough force to knock the mechanical giant away.

 

"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer," Clavicus chanted eagerly, mindless of the blistering streams of fire glancing off his breastplate, tightening his grip around Batsu's arms, snapping his wrists with two audible cracks like a pair of brittle sticks. "Take one down, pass it around...!"

 

With a sickening twist and brutal jerk, the Goliath ripped one of Batsu's arms off in a thick stream of white blood, tossing the mangled limb to one side like a broken toy. Batsu threw back his head and screamed in agony, struggling harder than ever, yet unable to break free.

 

"98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer!" Clavicus began again, taking hold of another of the alien's arms, his feverish mantra mingling with Batsu's cries in a twisted chorus as he ripped off yet another limb.

 

"Take one down, pass it around! Hehehe!"

 

 

"Less than five minutes until they execute the first set of hostages!" Lily exclaimed, her voice terse, every syllable clipped, no longer sounding quite so unruffled. "Kiara, if you're going to do something, now's the time!"

 

"We're working on it!" the young heroine murmured past gritted teeth, delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to her masked assailant, flooring the woman, before slamming her fist into the next foe's jaw with a resounding crack. A large set of double doors lay at the very end of the corridor several hundred feet away, tantalizingly close but still just out of reach, the way ahead barred by a final vanguard of at least a dozen more enemies.

 

At her side, Roxie and Cygnus were fighting, the former bashing her opponents using Arondite with her usual finesse like a twisted game of whack-a-mole, while the latter summoned long jagged claws of light, catching hold of Shira by the throat and midriff, whirling them around and slamming them against the walls. Behind them lay the motionless forms of at least ten other terrorists: unconscious or dead, it was difficult to say, but at the very least, one thing was clear—these enemies did not appear to be equipped with ranged weapons, forcing them to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Titans.

"This is taking too much time," Cygnus growled, summoning shields of moonlight around his wrists with a magical hum as he danced around his opponent, ducking and weaving as the pair parried blows in the cramped space. "From the sound of things, Batsu and the others need our help!"

 

The mage ducked under his opponent's overhead swing, snarling as he blasted the man squarely in the face with a pulse of dazzling silver light, knocking him backwards with a strangled yell, where he lay still.

 

"We need some way to break past all of them at once," he concluded, his dark blue eyes narrowing as he sized up the remaining enemies, all of them crouched into expert fighting stances, unwilling to back down, even if it cost them their lives. Lunatics, the lot of them!

 

"I'm a telepath, Cygnus, not a miracle-worker," Kiara replied calmly, though inside she was just as desperate to reach the hostages as he was, if not more so. Every second they delayed was another opportunity for Shira to swoop in with some new unexpected trick—not to mention that if Batsu's screams were anything to go by, the other team was in serious trouble. "Isn't magic supposed to be your specialty?"

 

"Bowling, innit!"

 

The pair turned bemusedly over their shoulders towards Roxie, who had pulled up short, her cyan eyes only just visible past her helmet, flashing with devious manic energy.

 

"I beg your pardon?" Cygnus asked shortly, raising one eyebrow, assuming he had misheard.

 

"Group huddle!!" the blonde announced loudly, grabbing him and Kiara by the shoulders and yanking them towards her with surprising strength, ignoring their cries of protest as she formed a tight-knit circle.

 

"It's like bowling, innit?" the knight murmured under her breath excitedly, pointing down the narrow hallway filled with enemies. "You've got yer lane and yer pins, right, yeah? All you're missing is..."

 

"The ball!" Cygnus and Kiara breathed in unison, their eyes widening.

 

 

"97 bottles of beer on the wall, 97 bottles of beer!" Clavicus chanted gleefully, utterly enraptured by his little fantasy, transported to a world of sick pleasure all his own as he reached down to rip off yet another of Batsu's limbs.

 

"Hands off the alien, copycat!"

 

With a roar, Blake smashed shoulder-first into the G0LI7TH Unit's side with a devastating tackle, knocking the mechanical monstrosity a few steps back and forcing it to let go of Batsu, who landed heavily on the floor. Without missing a beat, Blake revved his boosters to full, twisting through the enemy's arms in a complicated aerial maneuver that left the latter swiping at nothing, scooping up Batsu smoothly from the ground as he passed, trying to high-tail it to safety, though weighed down by his cargo.

 

"Give me back my toy, you little sh*t!" Clavicus shrieked harshly, his eyes bulging from their sockets as he deployed his twin machine gun cannons once more, taking aim at Blake's shoulders, preparing to blast the pair into oblivion.

 

"Not today, ugly!" Arachnid cried, leaping down fearlessly from the ceiling onto the Goliath's face, using his adhesive powers to cling to the metal surface firmly. "Now!! Do your stuff, guys, go on!"

 

At the young hero's words, a thick black swarm of spiders burst from his pores, scurrying quickly across the G0LI7TH Unit's eyes, spinning their glistening webs in a thick sticky haze, temporarily obscuring its vision.

 

"My eyes! Get off me, get off me!" Clavicus screamed, the Goliath swaying haphazardly as he opened fire randomly with one hand, blasting apart the floor and ceiling in a hail of concrete splinters and dust while the other tore frantically at the webs.

 

"Charlotte and the others have bought us some time," Arachnid murmured, landing on the other side of the generator where Blake and Batsu had taken cover, his words almost swallowed by the deafening roar of gunfire and inhuman shrieks echoing from across the room. "But those webs won't stop him for long. We need a plan, fast!"

 

"From the looks of things, the enemy is too heavily armored for physical attacks to work," Lily chimed in, her words slightly garbled by static, much less clear now that the team was several levels underground. "You need to hurry and do something about those cannons before they tear you to shreds! If that's no good, then try targeting the jetpack, that should cut its mobility and speed!"

 

 

BGM

 

"Well, here goes something! Karreylos Ethonim Cazar!" Cygnus cried, summoning a gigantic bubble of silver light around himself, Kiara, and Roxie. With an additional twist of his fingers, the glistening sphere hardened with an audible crack, like water freezing solid. From the other side, slightly warped by the translucent surface, Shira exchanged looks of utter confusion, unsure how to handle this new development.

 

"Hold on to your lunch, loves," Roxie ordered, bending over in a sprinter's stance as Kiara and Cygnus curled themselves uncomfortably against the sides, trying to find something to grab hold of, the latter holding Arondite gingerly in one hand. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"

 

With a roar, the knight lunged forward, her slender outline glowing gold as she began to unleash her stored kinetic energy, pumping her arms and legs furiously in place. She must have looked quite stupid as the sphere resisted at first, but after a few moments it eventually gave way with a creak, rolling slowly but surely forwards along the wooden floor, gaining speed and momentum at an alarming rate as it advanced.

 

"Sayernarda, sweethearts!!"¹ Roxie cried, laughing maniacally as the trio barreled down the narrow hallway like a demented hamster in an exercise ball from hell, smashing anything unfortunate enough to be in their path.

 

Finally realizing the team's plan, Shira tried to turn and run, to flatten themselves against the walls, but it was too late. The terrorists' cries of pain were music to the Titans' ears as they charged past, trampling over them like pancakes and knocking them aside like bowling pins.

 

CRASH!!

 

With a resounding smash, the sphere blasted past the revolving doors at the end of the hallway, knocking them off their hinges with a shriek of grinding metal.

 

POP! THUD! SQUEEEAK!

 

As soon as they cleared the double doors, the gigantic bubble dissolved in a burst of miniature twinkling stars, leaving the three heroes to slide across the polished wooden floor on their rumps, coming to a graceless halt a short distance away. At the far end of the room, several dozens of heads turned swiftly in their direction, eyes widening in disbelief—the hostages, their hands and legs bound, their mouths gagged, arranged against the wall!

 

"That. Was. AMAZING!" Roxie cackled, getting to her feet lightly, laughing her head off. "Did you see the looks on those rotters' faces?!"

 

"They were wearing masks," Cygnus groaned, getting to his feet slowly, bent over with one hand on his stomach like he was about to throw up, quickly handing Arondite back to her with the other. "Ughh... Remind me to never do that again!"

 

"You can be sick later," Kiara interjected shortly, looking over her shoulder to confirm that Shira was down for the count before moving towards the hostages. "Let's hurry!"

 

[spoiler=Learn Rox-Speak with Roxie: Today's Lesson]1. Roxie's attempt at saying, "Sayōnara, sweethearts!"

---

[spoiler=OOC. Please Read.]Alright guys, thanks for your patience! As you can see, our heroes are back and in the thick of the action! Please refer to the notes below for information relevant to your character's current situation.

 

1. Ben, Batsu, and Blake have managed to survive against the G0LI7TH Unit so far, but things don't look good. Batsu has lost two arms and even more blood, and according to Lily's calculations, physical attacks—the group's specialty—don't seem to be enough to do the trick. Clavicus, the Goliath's pilot, certainly seems deranged and mentally unstable, which means that goading him into a trap shouldn't be too difficult if our heroes can keep their sang-froid... Having said that, the armored exoskeleton doesn't seem to have very many weak points other than the ones mentioned by Lily (the twin machine guns and back-mounted fuel jetpack). How will our heroes proceed?

 

2. Finally, a piece of good news! Thanks to a spontaneous and explosive new combination, Roxie, Kiara, and Cygnus have finally made it past Shira to the hostage chamber! There's no time to waste—hurry and start freeing the hostages before any more enemies decide to crash the party!

 

As always, additional questions and comments will be addressed in Skype chat. Cheers. Teen Titans, GO~!

 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

"We don't have time for this jxak!!"

 

"W-Wait!!" Arachnid shouted at Batsu, who threw a monkey wrench into his plan, watching the alien basically struck out at the suit of armor. Well...there went THAT idea... he grumbled, thinking as he watched the G0LI7TH unit stand once again.

 

"OW!! That hurt! Naughty boys deserve to be PUNISHED!"

 

"Oh great...you're into THAT type of thing?" Arachnid snickered, as he kept scurrying around the ceiling, only to see the G0LI7TH unit go toe to toe with Batsu...and actually begin winning. Jeez...this guy is making mince meat out of the pyro. He thought, trying to come up with a new plan.

 

Thankfully, Blake was already working on one.

 

"Hands off the alien, copycat!"

 

Arachnid watched as Blake slammed into the G0LI7TH unit's side, surprised that he was able to accomplish this. Nevertheless, the iron Titan scooped Batsu up and moved him away, but it wasn't long before the psycho in the iron suit returned.

 

"Give me back my toy, you little sh*t!"

 

"Not today, ugly!" Arachnid cried, leaping down fearlessly from the ceiling onto the Goliath's face, using his adhesive powers to cling to the metal surface firmly. "Now!! Do your stuff, guys, go on!"

 

At the young hero's words, a thick black swarm of spiders burst from his pores, scurrying quickly across the G0LI7TH Unit's eyes, spinning their glistening webs in a thick sticky haze, temporarily obscuring its vision. ...This was either the most brilliant idea he had yet...or the most insane and stupid one he had. And for Arachnid, he was thinking it would be the latter.

 

"My eyes! Get off me, get off me!"

 

Arachnid landed on the other end of the generators, where both Blake and Batsu had taken cover. "Charlotte and the others have bought us some time. But those webs won't stop him for long. We need a plan, fast!" he spoke quickly, glancing over at the guy shrieking in terror.

 

That's when the group heard Lily speak to them regarding their conundrum.

 

"From the looks of things, the enemy is too heavily armored for physical attacks to work. You need to hurry and do something about those cannons before they tear you to shreds! If that's no good, then try targeting the jetpack, that should cut its mobility and speed!"

 

No duh about the enemy being heavily armored... Arachnid rolled his eyes underneath his helmet, before nodding slightly. He had a new plan. "Tin man! I know your suit has some sort of hacking capabilities. See what you can do about disabling the cannons. I'm going to deal with the jetpack."

 

Arachnid only gave Blake a thumbs up before leaping into action again. He rushed near a wall and quickly hopped on it, running along it. "Alright...alright! Showtime guys!!" he snapped his fingers, as a few more spiders swarmed from him, beginning to run with him. He paused along the wall, seeing the G0LI7TH's back being towards him. Perfect...

 

With that he took a leap from the wall, watching the spiders sling a web onto him as they too moved from the wall. Arachnid landed directly on the iron psycho's head, as he held his hands out. He watched as the spiders began to swing onto the jetpack, seeing them rooting themselves deep into the device. C'mon guys...take the jetpack out of commission! he thought, before finally leaping onto the ceiling, scurrying along it again...knowing all too good and well the guy was going to be on the offensive now. However...the damage was already being done.

 

"Tin man! Spiders are in the pack...whenever your ready on the cannons!!"

[Mr. Hyde]

"Charlotte and the others have bought us some time, but those webs won't stop him for long. We need a plan, fast!"

 

The wall-crawler was quick to come up with another good distraction.  All he was able to do was shove his body into the mech hard enough for it to lose balance momentarily.  He was practically useless against this behemoth of a mech...he'd have to design a similar suit one day.  

 

"From the looks of things, the enemy is too heavily armored for physical attacks to work, you need to hurry and do something about those cannons before they tear you to shreds! If that's no good, then try targeting the jetpack, that should cut its mobility and speed!"

 

"Thanks for the advice Lily-pad, but I think we figured that out."  He looked at Batsu, the alien was losing a lot of blood.  Now would be the perfect time to take a sample!  He shook his head at the thought, he was in the middle of a battle, not an autopsy.  "Arm yourself now!  This fight isn't over yet!"

 

"Tin man! I know your suit has some sort of hacking capabilities. See what you can do about disabling the cannons. I'm going to deal with the jetpack."

 

"What the hell do you think I've been doing for the past hour bug brain?!"  Blake barked at Arachnid.  "Shira's security is top notch...even I'm having a tough time trying to hack into it.  That's suit's probably got the same system too."  Although the spider did have the right idea...they had to take out the arm cannons, and fast.  "Irene...scan for vulnerabilities in the mech's armor, designated area: forearm and cannon."  While the scans ran across the inner mechanics of his helmet, Blake studied them carefully.  When the scans showed the most vulnerable spot, Blake sprang out from behind cover.  He stuck out his hands, and made sure to line up both shots carefully.  He cranked his lasers to medium settings, enough power to blow back whatever was keeping those guns attached.  

 

Blake's suit's palms glowed, as they both fired off a repulsor shot at the GOLI7TH.

[Ren✧]

Kiara shook off the sense of vertigo that had swept over her. If there weren't hostages to rescue she would be marveling at the type of entrance they just made, but unfortunately they did have hostages to rescue. Fighting back the urge to throw up from Roxie's bowling maneuver, Kiara picked herself up from off the ground and rushed over to where the nearest woman was tied up. Taking the gag out of her mouth, Kiara attempted to calm her. "Everything is going to be alright, we're here to save you."

 

The woman managed to choke out some words of gratitude of which Kiara just nodded along to as she ripped apart the bonds that held her. The telepath tried not to let the ocean of fear and desperation in the room distract her from her work. The sheer amount of emotional input she was receiving from these people was astounding, though really not all that surprising. In truth, Shira scared her. How could she possibly expect these people to keep their emotions in check when they had been taken hostage by them. 

 

Moving to the next bound and gagged victim, a young man that was only a few years older than herself, Kiara noted that he seemed to be fairly put together despite the situation. "Are you alright?" Kiara asked, fearing that perhaps he was in shock. 

 

"You're the Teen Titans, ain't you?" He asked, a bit in awe of Kiara.

 

"We are, yes." Kiara replied, removing his bonds.

 

"I knew you'd be coming, wasn't worried a bit. Y'all always save the day." 

 

Kiara just smiled and nodded, she realized that she didn't want to make any promises that she couldn't keep. 

[Hälō]

"Up you go!" Roxie grunted with effort as she brought an elderly gentleman up to his feet and removed the gag from his mouth. The man was old enough to be her grandfather, and seeing him in such a situation was enough to force the blonde to adopt a rare frown. "You alright, pappy?" She inquired whilst dusting the man off.

 

"Of course I am." He responded in a rather dignified manner. "Brutes like those will never win- not when we have young heroes such as yourself standing up for whats right." He nodded to Roxie approvingly before moving towards another one of the hostages to remove her restraints. "Your parents must be quite proud of you all..." 

 

"..." The blonde fell silent. Glancing over to another hostage, she swiftly removed their hand ties and plucked the gag from their lips before gently motioning them to the side. "Proud, huh?" She muttered dryly, the warm sensation of heroism slowly growing cold from the memory of her time in London. What would Arthur think if he saw her and the Titan's battle with Shira? Would he be proud? Was the man even capable of such... human emotion? Not that it mattered anyway. It wasn't like he was her real father...

 

This wasn't her first hostage station; The Knights had dealt with these kind of things quite frequently actually. Though their methods were vastly different. For starters, they never stuck around for meet and greets with the civilians. Furthermore, every Shira agent in the building would have been a corps by the end of it all, and  Blake would have suffered a lot more than a little kinetically charged push for mouthing off to the team like he did. Needless to say, having these people look at her the way they did was a new feeling for Havoc, and for some reason it didn't feel as good as she thought it would. In all honesty, it seemed to instill an odd sense of dread upon the blonde. So this was what it meant to be a Hero, huh?

 

"In time you'll come to understand... victories such as these are fleeting. The only true pa-"  She begun to recall the words of her former mentor, only to be interupted by sudden movement at her flank.

 

"GOD BLESS YOU, CHILD!" 

 

Roxie's eyes widened in shock as a large woman collapsed in her arms, ripping her from her trip down memory lane . "Of course..." The former knight was obviously uncomfortable but manged to force a smile and support the woman as she wept openly on with her arms wrapped around the girls neck. "... everything will be ok now. I Promise." She whispered into the woman's ears whilst soothingly rubbing her back. Though her cyan gaze was elsewhere.

[King K. Azo]

Okay, this was ridiculous! Batsu was losing more arms today then he had in a month in service of the king. And he dealt with assassins that aimed directly for the arms! How was this even possible? The blood loss was making him woozy... apparently, he had to fight a giant robot and its clones... This was not the best of situations at all. They could barely hurt the metal monster, even when he crashed it straight into the ground. 

 

"Arm yourself now!  This fight isn't over yet!" Blake snapped. Batsu would have punched the genius in the mouth if he could see straight. He didn't have an endless supply of energy to make to those arms, ya know! The alien dove behind cover and pulled out a secret weapon... a bunch of bananas and a thermos. Opening his mouth wide, Batsu began to devour the bananas, peels and all. As soon as he finished the strange earth fruits, he popped open the thermos, which released a smell Ben and Blake would recognize as gasoline and began to chug that down. He didn't liked rushing his meals, but he needed the energy back to grow more arms. 

He waited for a few seconds, the blood loss slowing down a bit as he stared at his hands. Soon, he popped a new pair of arms to replace the ones he had loss. Okay, if his brute force didn't work... He would use brute force... with even more arms!! Batsu grabbed his extra arms and pulled with all his might, ripping them back. He didn't grow them back this time though. Instead, he grabbed his lower arms as well and ripped them out. He quickly started to arrange the severed limbs, lining them up and forcing the hands to grab the hand in front of the other, until he made a large weapon made of arms. For the final touch, he ignited his hand and grabbed the weapon, it catching fire as well, the flames travelling from the base to the top. 

With a grin from hell, Batsu ran out, seeing a blast of some sort of energy from Blake soaring at the GOLI7TH. Batsu waited for a split second so the blasts could hit their marks before taking a batter's stance, roaring as he swung the flaming armbat into the insane suit man. This had to do something, right?

[Saiba Aisu]

---

GM Post: "Spore" (Main Generator Room, ACNN24 Headquarters, 9:58 P.M.)

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"Nasty, creeping, crawling little beasts!!" Clavicus shrieked, desperately tearing at his face, trying to rip apart the thick sticky veil that Ben's spiders had woven across his visor. "Just wait until I get my hands on you! You're going to wish you were never born!!"

 

The G0LI7TH Unit lurched erratically from side to side with each word, its heavy feet smashing the concrete underneath with each step, its powerful arms windmilling through the air like deadly twin clubs, rendering an approach all but impossible—a ground approach, that is.

 

"Alright, showtime guys!" Arachnid commanded, using his adhesive abilities to sprint across the wall parallel to the mechanical monstrosity, his personal spider army at his heels.

 

The young Titan paused for a moment, his eyes narrowing behind his helmet, waiting for the enemy to provide an opening. He didn't have to wait long before Clavicus turned his back towards him—it was only for a split instant, but that was all the opportunity he needed. He kicked off from the wall in a powerful leap, a thin spider-spun rope glinting faintly from his shoulders as he flew through the air, only to land firmly on the Goliath's head, clinging doggedly as if his life depended on it. The spiders wasted no time in scurrying along one after the other like trapeze artists, using the tether to traverse the gap and begin rooting themselves within the giant's back-mounted jetpack, nestling deep among its combustible fuel cells, clicking softly to themselves as they went to work.

 

With an outraged scream, Clavicus ripped apart the final remains of the spiderspun shroud from his eyes, buckling and swaying like an angry bull at a rodeo, dislodging his ersatz rider and forcing him to cling to the ceiling.

 

"End of the road, spider-brat, now you die!" the madman spat, foam bubbling at his lips as he raised his arms and took aim, preparing to blast Ben into oblivion.

 

 

"Stay calm and try not to move, I'll have you free in a minute," Cygnus advised, a nexus of sharp silver energy forming around his fingertips as he sliced downwards, using his magic as a scalpel to cut through the thick ropes binding the hostage with surgical precision.

 

The girl—she couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen—reached up with a trembling hand to remove the gag from her mouth, tears welling in her bright green eyes as she collapsed in his arms, sobbing unabashedly, clutching desperately at the Swan Prince like a piece of driftwood after a shipwreck.

 

"T-They showed us the most awful things," she choked out. "Images.. And videos... And things. They said they were going to hang up our corpses across the city, one by one, as part of their plans for Aurora City. So much cruelty, so much blood and suffering... Why?!"

 

"The world is full of monsters who want to watch everything burn," Cygnus replied softly, doing his best to comfort the girl, patting her on the shoulders. "Sometimes, there's no point in trying to understand them—but don't worry, that's what we're here for."

 

As he moved to the next hostage, Cygnus did his best to ignore the sense of foreboding in his chest—these people had already suffered so much at the hands of Shira, yet the way ahead still seemed full of dangers... Hopefully there was a happy ending to this crazed nightmare. Hopefully everyone would get out alive. The alternative was unacceptable.

 

The room around them was rapidly coming alive with sound and movement as he, Roxie, and Kiara went to work, flitting from captive to captive, freeing them as quickly as possible. One, two, three, four... By the sixth hostage, the sorcerer was practically on autopilot, his movements smooth, precise, and automatic.

 

"THERE'S-A-BOMB-OVER-THERE!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

 

Cygnus blinked, his eyes drawn as if by magnetism towards the balding middle-aged man he had just freed, an expression of utter terror on his face as he shouted and gesticulated wildly towards the very center of the ring of hostages. Cries of panic and anger erupted on all sides as the other hostages—both freed and still captive—began to jostle about, tripping over each other as they tried to put distance between themselves and the site. Roxie and Kiara's voices drifted across the air, practically shouting themselves hoarse in order to be heard above the chaos, urging the civilians to stay calm.

 

No, it can't be... Not now...

 

Despair invaded his soul, falling over him like a heavy shadow, swathing him in its cold numbing mantle. One step, then another, dodging past those around him, carrying him towards the center of the mass of prisoners... There.

 

The device was rectangular—a narrow upright shape, as unassuming as a box of cereal—standing at about two feet tall, its metal surface littered with at least a dozen colorful wires, twisting downwards in convoluted interlocking spirals towards an open panel on the floor, where they meshed with the rooms's electric pylons, drawing power from the building's main generators. A tiny display interface crowned the bomb, its surface glowing faintly with three red digits, counting down slowly but steadily. 1:48, 1:47, 1:46...

 

 

At the last moment, two bolts of purple energy hummed through the air from the left, striking each wrist-mounted cannon squarely at their weakest point—the support base. Clavicus wailed with frustration as his weapons were blasted off and sent skittering across the floor and out of reach. Whirling around, he caught sight of Blake, his glowing palms extended in his direction.

 

"Bullseye," the supergenius smirked with exaggerated cockiness, raising one finger and blowing softly against it, only too aware of the effect his gesture would have on his opponent. The other man was clearly teetering on an impending nuclear meltdown—all he needed was one last good push to send him over the edge.

 

BAM!!!

 

The G0LI7TH Unit staggered backwards, reeling like a drunk as Batsu roared and swung his improvised fiery arm-bat, nailing the cockpit with a devastating blow, tongues of flame dancing as they climbed across his ribs, flickering briefly before dissipating as they consumed themselves.

 

"YOU FILTHY, MISERABLE...! I... ARE THOSE—?! JUST HOW MANY ARMS DO YOU HAVE, YOU FREAK!" Clavicus demanded, taking a few steps back, his bulging eyes widening even further in disbelief at the sight of the miraculously recovered alien warrior. What was happening here?! By all rights this punk should be down for the count, if not practically dying from blood loss, not wielding flaming weapons made from his own body parts!

 

Picking up on Blake's lead, Batsu waved cheekily, taking the opportunity to put into practice something he had learned from television only a few days after his arrival on Earth. Something Sybil had been extremely reluctant to explain in detail and had expressly prohibited him from using, save for critical situations. A mysterious, forbidden gesture... known only as "The Finger."

 

"THAT'S IT!" Clavicus shrieked at the top of his lungs, slamming one clenched fist against a nearby generator with a crash as he took the bait, carving out a deep dent in its surface. Hook, line, sinker. "I'VE HAD IT!!"

 

The madman lunged towards Batsu with a high-pitched cackle and open arms, the Goliath's jetpack igniting with an almighty roar, propelling the mechanical monstrosity rapidly across the concrete floor towards the alien warrior, ready to rip him limb from limb—for good, this time.

 

BOOM! ZZT!! BOOM!!!

 

Halfway through its aerial trajectory, the G0LI7TH Unit's jetpack short-circuited and burst into flame with a powerful explosion, abruptly forcing its pilot terra firma, leaving him to smash face-first into the ground with an earsplitting crash.

 

"NO!" Clavicus howled, writhing desperately in place like an overturned turtle, struggling to get back to his feet as the suit's jetpack was rocked by another devastating chain of explosions, blasting apart in a cascade of sparks and hot metal, exposing the vulnerable circuitry underneath. "YOU SNOT-NOSED LITTLE BRATS... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

 

"Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak," Arachnid replied, drawing upon one of his favorite quotes from Sun Tzu's The Art of War as he flipped smoothly down towards the floor, one hand raised, palm uplifted, displaying a small mass of glistening spiders. "You made the mistake of underestimating my little friends and focusing all of your attention on us... And while you were busy trying to blast us to smithereens, they were busy destroying your equipment. End of the road, big guy."

 

Ben's tone was unusually somber—he was relieved that Clavicus had been defeated, but he had paid a heavy price to do so. The powerful chain of explosions from moments ago had utterly consumed the G0LI7TH Unit's jetpack... along with all of the spiders who had bravely sacrificed themselves in order to sabotage it. Then again, sacrifices were yet another component of the art of war, an inevitable cog in the intricate workings of the brutal game of strategy. The important thing was that the battle was over and the Titans had won. Victory.

 

"Don't patronize me, you sneaky little sh*t!" Clavicus snarled, still struggling vainly to get back to his feet, yet unable to generate sufficient force. "Do you really think that you've won?! This changes nothing! You hear me?! NOTHING!!"

 

"This is Cygnus," came the lunar sorcerer's voice, every syllable terse and clipped, sounding suddenly from the team's helmets. "What's your status? Have you managed to make progress with shutting down the generators?"

 

"We managed to neutralize the enemy," Blake replied. "Without using lethal force, I might add. Still working on the generators, though."

 

"Work faster. Shira has set up some kind of bomb in the middle of the hostages, it's tied to the building's power system and rigged to blow in a little over a minute. We need those generators offline—now!"

 

 

Cygnus turned back towards the device, his eyes narrowing behind his helmet's visor. 1:24, 1:23, 1:22...

 

"Kiara. Roxie. Take as many hostages with you as you can and get as far away as possible. We don't know what kind of blast radius we're dealing with, but I don't want you around when this thing goes off. I'll stay and try to defuse it."

 

"Fat chance, Frenchy," Roxie countered immediately, shaking her head vehemently. "The hostages are free to leave, but I'm not going anywhere. If anyone's staying behind, it's gonna be me."

 

"This isn't the time to argue," Cygnus snapped, letting a flash of exasperation shine through his usually cold veneer as he gestured at the civilians, who seemed to be frozen in place, paralyzed with shock and indecision. "These people are counting on us. We can't abandon them now, and it doesn't make sense for all of us to put ourselves at risk. Besides, you're hopeless when it comes to technology, Blondie."

 

"You said it yourself, Cygnus," Kiara interjected. "Only one of us needs to stay. I'm as good as you are with technology, maybe even better. Take Roxie and the hostages and—"

 

"And what?" Cygnus interrupted, raising one eyebrow. "Leave you to magically shield yourself and the other hostages from the explosion in case you fail? The last time I checked, your barrier was a single-type-protection affair."

 

"It has to be me," he continued firmly, fixing each of his teammates with an intense gaze before stealing a quick glance at the display screen and its glowing red digits, ticking backwards mercilessly. "I'm the only one that has a chance at protecting everyone in case the bomb goes off... Which will be in one minute and three seconds. You have to get as far away as possible before then. Go, now. Please. There isn't much time."

 

Roxie clenched her fists and grit her teeth, half-tempted to punch another wall in frustration. This wasn't how things were supposed to turn out! The team had overcome all of the terrorists' tricks and traps to make it this far, they couldn't separate now... Leave it to Shira to pull one last gambit in the eleventh hour. The blonde knight turned towards Kiara, waiting for the girl's response—as team leader, the final call was hers to make.

 

"Alright," Kiara breathed at last, her shoulders falling as she sighed her assent, clearly displeased with the turn of events. "Stay here and try to defuse the bomb, protect the hostages as best you can... And stay alive, no matter what happens. That's an order!"

 

"Understood. Now—GET OUT OF HERE!"

 

"You still with me, Lily?" Cygnus asked softly, his voice trembling slightly in spite of himself, turning his back on Roxie and Kiara as the pair sprang into motion, grabbing as many hostages as they could and ferrying them towards the exit. Despite their best efforts, however, more than half of them were left behind, gagged and bound, their eyes wide with panic, their gazes fixed upon the pale Titan as if their very fates depended on him.

 

"To the death, Cygnet," the biochemist purred, trying to inject a note of her usual sultry humor into the situation.

 

"Good, because I'm going to need your help to shut this thing down."

 

"I'm a biochemist, not a mechanical engineer," Lily replied nonchalantly, though he could hear a chorus of telltale clicks and beeps in the background as the girl's fingers flew across the keyboard. "That being said, I did manage to speedread a few online guides while you and the others were hashing out your plan of action. Mostly. Partly. A bit."

 

"It'll have to do," Cygnus said firmly, kneeling in front of the device and using his helmet's camera to zoom in. 0:45, 0:44, 0:43... "Here's the visual of the device that you need, just guide me through the rest."

 

"You-do-realize-that-you-are-attempting-an-extremely-delicate-operation-without-proper-equipment-and-training," Lily began, reciting everything in one breath as if she had swallowed a procedural textbook whole. "In-the-interest-of-time-I-will-skip-explanations-of-the-complex-mechanics-involved—"

 

"Lily!!"

 

"Alright, alright! Here we go."

 

[spoiler=OOC. Please Read.]

 

Anddddd we're back! Sorry for the delay folks, and thanks for your patience! Sometimes in life, the situations surrounding us don't go as perfectly hand-in-hand with the projects we're working on as we would like... These past few weeks have been very busy and very hard on me as I finalize the many details of my move to France later this year while working full-time, and as some of you may know, I'm currently traveling around Europe. Having said that, it feels great to be back and ready to continue with this project—Twilight of the Gods and the members of our beloved cast have become very dear to me. So let's get right to it!

 

Thanks to some well-coordinated teamwork and strategy, Batsu, Ben and Blake have managed to floor the G0LI7TH Unit and neutralize its deranged pilot, Clavicus, by destroying its back-mounted jetpack. While still deadly in principle, the Goliath is unable to generate enough force using its arms to lift itself off from the ground (a design error associated with sacrificing mobility and utility for pure power). Unfortunately, there isn't any time to celebrate—Shira has rigged a timed bomb, linking it to ACNN24 HQ's generator system, and it's set to go off in less than a minute! Our heroes need to find a way to shut down the remaining fourteen generators before it's too late!

 

Kiara, Roxie, and Cygnus' victory has been similarly short-lived. They've reached the hostages and cleared an escape route, but they don't have the time needed to free and transport all of them before the time bomb goes off, forcing them to separate into two groups. While Cygnus stays behind and tries to defuse the bomb with Lily's help, it's up to Kiara and Roxie to guide the hostages that they were able to free to safety.

 

Take a moment to have your characters react to these recent developments, as well as flex those writing muscles and get back into the habit and mentality for writing them. I'm very excited to see what everyone comes up with. As always, further questions and comments will be addressed separately in Skype chat. Teen Titans, GO~! ♡

[Super Chaos Sonic]

"End of the road, spider-brat, now you die!"

 

Arachnid remained on the ceiling, watching Clavicus, raising his arms towards him to fire off at him and most likely send him off to oblivion. Though his response was probably something the man wasn't expecting. "Well...that's if you can hit me." he laughed. "Cause let's be honest...the aim you have, sucks terribly."

 

That response most likely pushed Clavicus to the edge as he already was preparing to fire...until two purple shots were fired at arm cannons, falling onto the floor. Arachnid chuckled, seeing Blake on the other side of the room, palms glowing from his strike. "Perfect timing, as usual Tin-man!" he saluted his armored ally, chuckling.

 

"YOU FILTHY, MISERABLE...! I... ARE THOSE—?! JUST HOW MANY ARMS DO YOU HAVE, YOU FREAK!"

 

Arachnid watched as Batsu was attacking Clavicus without any problem with a fiery arm bat... Oh Roxie would be proud of this little pyromaniac. "Ya know, that is a question...but probably one you won't get, amigo!" Arachnid chimed in, before watching the jetpack finally short-circuit and burst into a beautiful flame. "Muy bien! Excellente! The spiders did their job!"

 

"NO! YOU SNOT-NOSED LITTLE BRATS... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

 

Now...this was one thing Arachnid had been wanting to do for a while now: a witty comeback to let the villain lament on their failure. And just for an occasion, he knew EXACTLY what quote to use.

 

BGM

 

"Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak," Arachnid replied, drawing upon one of his favorite quotes from Sun Tzu's The Art of War as he flipped smoothly down towards the floor, one hand raised, palm uplifted, displaying a small mass of glistening spiders. "You made the mistake of underestimating my little friends and focusing all of your attention on us... And while you were busy trying to blast us to smithereens, they were busy destroying your equipment. End of the road, big guy."

 

His somber tone filled the room. While he was glad that Clavicus was defeated, his eyes could only drift towards the now flaming jetpack. He knew that with that in its current state...a great number of spiders were lost to it. A slight sigh was heard, as he turned away from this man.

 

"Don't patronize me, you sneaky little sh*t! Do you really think that you've won?! This changes nothing! You hear me?! NOTHING!!"

 

"Says the one on the floor right now..." Arachnid simply retorted. He wanted to turn around and punch this man's lights out, however he kept himself in check. He simply walked away from the man, before hearing Cygnus.

 

"Work faster. Shira has set up some kind of bomb in the middle of the hostages, it's tied to the building's power system and rigged to blow in a little over a minute. We need those generators offline—now!"

 

"Never easy..." Arachnid sighed, looking at the generators as well as thinking of the spiders he currently had on him. It wasn't going to be enough to just destroy them all...not only that, they were pretty live with that electricity. However, his eyes gazed towards Blake as he snapped his fingers. "Tin-man! Is there any possible way for you to possibly utilize the generators here? Maybe we could have these generators charge up your suit or something while draining their power."

[Mr. Hyde]

The three of them had managed to turn the tide of the battle, and the hulking monstrosity of metal was down for the count.  

 

"Work faster. Shira has set up some kind of bomb in the middle of the hostages, it's tied to the building's power system and rigged to blow in a little over a minute. We need those generators offline—now!"

 

"Great...that's all we needed...a time limit."  Blake's mind scrambled for an idea.  Only one minute until that bomb blew.  If the other team couldn't handle that, it was up to them after all.  But even with their superior fire power, it would be impossible to destroy all these generators in five minutes...let alone one!  They'd have to take out all the generators at once...but how.  Blake looked for all the possibilities in the room...and came to a swift conclusion.  

 

"Tin-man! Is there any possible way for you to possibly utilize the generators here? Maybe we could have these generators charge up your suit or something while draining their power."

 

Ben's mind was also working towards a solution...but nevertheless, it was impossible.

 

"Sorry Ben...these generators would fry my suit way before I drained one-hundred percent of one of their energy supplies.  However...I think our foe can become a rather large asset in this situation."  Blake marched over to the GOLI7TH and swooped around, looking for a control panel of sorts.  The GOLI7TH squirmed on the floor, desperately trying to climb back onto it's feet.  Each time one of it's arms came close to swatting him, Blake merely stopped it with his own two hands.  

 

Blake knelt down on the GOLI7TH's side, a small door could be seen held firmly into place.  Blake ripped the small door from its hinges, and stared at the circuitry before him.  "Geez...this stuff is ancient.  I can't believe I almost got outclassed by it."  With a few cranks, and the replacing of a couple wires, Blake emerged from the side of the suit.

 

"Well...I've reconfigured this suit's wiring.  This baby doesn't have much juice left in her, but itt should generate an electromagnetic pulse within the next....ten seconds.  It should generate a wave big enough to destroy all the generators in the vicini....oh crap."  Without another word, Blake dashed out from the room.  He forgot that the wave would indeed tamper with his own suit's wiring.  His thrusters boosted him into the air, as he crashed into multiple walls, hoping to avoid the pulse.  

[Hälō]

Fight To The Death 

 

"Stay here and try to defuse the bomb, protect the hostages as best you can... And stay alive, no matter what happens. That's an order!"

 

"Understood. Now—GET OUT OF HERE!"

 

"GAH!" Roxie let loose an irritable grunt at the prospect of leaving Cygnus behind, but forced her body to move nonetheless. Cygnus's wasn't the only life at stake here, and the blood of the hostages would be on her hands if she wasted any more time trying to argue with him. She simply had no choice but to believe that the moon mage would handle the situation, and that this wasn't the last time she'd ever see him...

 

"Com'on, lets move!" She shouted towards the remaining hostages, forcibly yanking a man off the floor and pushing him towards the exit before motioning for others to follow. "Move it! We have to go now!" The blonde's tone was heavy with urgency as she pushed through the crowed, only to stop as she realized that they were on the forth floor of the building. 

 

"Hold on..." She sighed whilst raising Arondite to block the path of the panicked civilians."Theres no way you lot would make it down in time......"The blonde spoke in a low serious tone as she studied the floor beneath her.

 

"WHAT? 

 

"We're doomed..."

 

"Then we make a break for it! Every man for hims-"

 

"There are children here dammit!" 

 

"What are we going to do?" 

 

The panicked cries of the hostages swirled around her, causing Roxie's grip on her weapon to tighten. "You're going to shut up, stand back and let Havoc and Arcana handle this, love." The former knight said as she began walking forward whilst rolling her shoulders. "Frenchy is in there risking his tail feathers for all of us..." Raising Arondite high above her and and grabbing it with both hands, the blonde spread her legs wide as if entering read stance. "The least we can do his put some effort into this, right?" The small white flash of her grin was only barely visible through her helmet before the former knight inhaled deeply. Without warning the air around Roxie began to vibrate fiercely, causing a handful of the hostages to gasp before stepping backwards. How long did they have know? Fifty seconds at most...

 

"Full power, Rox. 100%. You need to give it everything you've got!" The blonde mumbled to herself before suddenly tensing her entire body as a raging golden aura bursted into existence and began dancing around her form like fire. "RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRWWWWWW!" Tilting her head back, Roxie let loose a roar as her entire body rang with agony. The golden aura of her Overdrive Technique began to grow dense as she channeled as much energy as her body could handle, causing her to lose all feeling in her legs as the girl became a living conduit for kinetic energy. Painfully aware that time was of the essences, Roxie leaned backwards slowly before suddenly bringing Arondite down towards the ground at an almost unseeable speed. 

 

The resulting crash shook the entire building, veiling Kiara and the hostages in a thick cloud of smoke. When the dust cleared, Roxie was replaced by a massive hole that the stretched from both ends of the hallway. Down bellow, the glowing blonde could be seen free falling down towards the third floor with Arondite cocked tightly over her shoulder.  "Second floor, coming right up!" Her voice trailed upwards towards the others as she twisted her entire body in a wide two handed swing just as she met the third floor.

 

A second crash rocked the building, causing large wave of debris to shoot upwards from the newly formed hole in the second floor and third floors, smashing into the ceiling and causing the forth floor hallway to collapse in on itself, caving in the third floor to form a downward slope that would allow the hostages to climb down on to the second. Panting violently, Roxie laid on her back in a small teenage girl sized crater at the base of the makeshift ramp as she stared upwards at the bewildered faces of the hostages. "K-Kiara ..." Her voice chimed upwards towards the telepath between labored breaths. "I might need you to get the last one, my dear! I'm going to just try and figure out how to move my legs for second here..."

[Ren✧]

Kiara ushered for the hostages to follow Roxie, she would follow behind and bring up the rear. With a fleeting look at Cygnus as he furiously tried to defuse the bomb, the telepath knew that she couldn't wait any longer. "See you soon." Kiara briefly thought about sending the sorcerer the message telepathically but knew she couldn't risk distracting him from his work. She would just have to hope he knew how much the team needed him. Tearing her gaze away like a band-aid from a wound, Kiara raced off after Roxie and the newly freed hostages.

 

"Move it! Let's go! We don't want to be around here if-" Kiara stopped herself. She had been about to vocalize the possibility of Cygnus being incapable of defusing the bomb or Blake's team not shutting the power down in time. If that happened it meant that a lot of people would probably get hurt. "We just don't want to be around here." She corrected herself, pushing the stragglers of the groups through the destruction that Roxie had made of the ACNN24 headquarters. 

 

"K-Kiara ..." Hearing her name sputtered out by Roxie sent a jolt of panic through Kiara, perhaps they had missed a trap on their way through or maybe a patrol had swept through. Kiara leapt to the side of the makeshift ramp, sliding along exposed steel framing of the building to stop just a few feet short of Roxie. "I might need you to get the last one, my dear! I'm going to just try and figure out how to move my legs for second here..." A sigh of relief escaped Kiara's lips, it appeared that Rox had just overdone herself.

 

"Don't scare me like that." Kiara said, sticking her hand out to help Roxie up. Now all Kiara had to do was figure out how to quickly get these hostages out of here. She couldn't punch through the floor as quickly as Roxie did, but there was still another way. Thinking about the layout of the building that Blake had pulled up earlier Kiara was sure that there were two large staircases at either end of their current hallway. If their current group split up they could make it if maybe...

 

"Okay well this isn't any crazier than..." Kiara gestured to Roxie's makeshift ramp. Whilst giving directions to the opposite stairwells Kiara peeled open the doors to a nearby elevator, squeezing a couple dozen people inside. 

 

"I think this is over the weight limit." One woman with a bob haircut piped up.

 

"Won't matter." As the elevator began to move downward, Kiara held the doors open with one hand reached out and snapped the cable with the other, causing a number of screams to explode from the passengers but Kiara paid them no mind. Straining slightly, she pulled on the falling elevator, slowing its descent before she lowered it with a resounding thud to the final floor. 

 

With the other hostages having already scattered to the far stairwells it was just Kiara and Roxie. "How long has it been since we left him alone?"  

[King K. Azo]

"YOU FILTHY, MISERABLE...! I... ARE THOSE—?! JUST HOW MANY ARMS DO YOU HAVE, YOU FREAK!" Batsu's grin widen as he heard the cowardly pilot beginning to freak out. There was only one way to make this better. A forbidden technique that Earthlings used to blind their opponents into rage, one Sybil told him not to use unless absolutely necessary. He held up his middle finger.

Earthlings were weird.

That did the trick though, as the man came flying at him, foaming at the mouth and screaming. He wouldn't get far as his jetpack gave out and he crashed into the ground, still screaming. Ben spewed out some Earthling book quote, which was fine and dandy, except...
 
"Work faster. Shira has set up some kind of bomb in the middle of the hostages, it's tied to the building's power system and rigged to blow in a little over a minute. We need those generators offline—now!" Yeah, that. They would need to do something, but he doubted he could do melt these things in time. Besides... he was starting to feel a little queasy...
 
"Tin-man! Is there any possible way for you to possibly utilize the generators here? Maybe we could have these generators charge up your suit or something while draining their power." Some more science-y things that flew over his head. He wished he paid more attention in 'Science and its Applications to Battle' class right about now.
 
"Sorry Ben...these generators would fry my suit way before I drained one-hundred percent of one of their energy supplies.  However...I think our foe can become a rather large asset in this situation." That... was clever. He was somehow going to rig their enemy to take these generators. Blake was fiddling with the giant suit, so Batsu took this moment to lean against the wall. Why was he feeling sick?

Was it viruses and bacteria in the air that his body wasn't used to? Well, no... what was thinking, this was some sort of fiction? He did overexert himself, mostly due to the fact people thought his arms didn't grow back, or they grew back way too easily. But he did drink Earth fuel and fruits to mitigate that effect... unless it was the Earth fuel. It seemed similar to an energy boosting drink on his planet... but he was a fool to think that it would be exactly like the one back home. He was never guzzling gasoline again...

A loud crashing noise caught his attention, and he noticed Blake had charged through the wall, running away for... some reason. Ben wasn't running... so what was the deal?

"What's with him?" the alien took his flaming arm bat and threw it over his shoulder before slowly walking through the hole in the wall. They weren't done yet... he would just have to power through this queasiness.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

"Sorry Ben...these generators would fry my suit way before I drained one-hundred percent of one of their energy supplies."

 

Damn...he's got a point. Arachnid thought, grumbling a bit as he crossed his arms. Another chance of bringing out a good idea to a problem out the window. But this one was for the best...given that he honestly didn't think deep-fried Blake would be good. The thought made Arachnid shudder, as he shook his head, to hear Blake speak again.

 

"However...I think our foe can become a rather large asset in this situation."

 

At that point, he watched Blake working with the GOLI7TH armor, apparently the genius having a better plan. "Just don't tell me we're blowin' the guy up." Arachnid said chuckling slightly. "Cause I'm fairly certain blood and fuel stains would be a disaster to clean up around here." Thankfully his answer came quickly.

 

"Well...I've reconfigured this suit's wiring.  This baby doesn't have much juice left in her, but it should generate an electromagnetic pulse within the next....ten seconds."

 

Wait...an electromagnetic pulse? "You made an EMP...." Arachnid said, rubbing the back of his head. "Wait...won't you....?"

 

Almost right at the revelation, Arachnid watched Blake rocket out of the room and bursting through walls. Apparently, the genius realized the error of this plan, a little late but nevertheless. He shook his head, before hearing Batsu speak up.

 

"What's with him?"

 

"Well...long story short...this thing Tin-man rigged..." Arachnid said, following after Batsu, jumping up onto the ceiling. "Basically it'll render the generators useless...but at the same time, it'll power his suit and any other tech down. Oh wait..." he paused, before face palming. "Crap!! We need to move...now!" Arachnid said, quickly moving along the ceiling. He couldn't believe that he forgot that if the EMP hit, not only would Blake's suit go dark, but so would the helmets and communicators...Smooth thinkin' genius...

[Saiba Aisu]

---

GM Post: "Spore" (Hostage Chamber, ACNN24 Headquarters, 9:59 P.M.)

---

"Cut through the fuchsia wire diagonally. Nice and slow," Lily said, enunciating each word as clearly as possible. "One cut, one movement, without pausing halfway."

 

"This one?" Cygnus asked, his voice trembling slightly from nervousness as he reached out towards the convoluted mass of interlocking cables, though his hand was remarkably steady, enveloped in a magical aura of sharp silver energy.

 

"No, not that one, Cygnet, that's magenta. The one next to it. My goodness, aren't all gay men supposed to be good with colors?"

 

"We are!" Cygnus snarled testily in reply, slicing cleanly through the correct wire, unaware that Lily was trying to help him overcome his nerves with her teasing. "The problem is that I never learned the English words for all these stupid shades of purple!!"

 

"Is that so? Well, you're doing a lovely job anyway, pet. The cobalt one is next—that's dark blue in layman's terms, in case you weren't sure."

 

"Yeah, yeah," the lunar mage muttered darkly, trying to ignore the feverish pounding of his heart and the bead of cold sweat rolling slowly down his forehead. How far away had Kiara and Roxie managed to get with the hostages? And what had become of the second team, charged with shutting down the generators on the basement level? Time was running out for all of them.

 

0:27, 0:26, 0:25...

 

"Please work," Cygnus murmured softly, whispering a quick and almost unintelligible prayer to himself as he cut through the second wire.

 

 

Abandoning their dignity with all the grace of a dancing one-legged hippo, the three heroes hauled ass as they scrambled through the newly-formed exit one after another, hurtling up the square landings of the concrete stairwell, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the generator room.

 

"W-wait, where are you—?! Come back!" Clavicus demanded, still thrashing about on the floor like a particularly large and misshapen insect, trying desperately to right the downed G0LI7TH Unit, unaware that his beloved armorsuit had been transformed into a ticking time-bomb, yet somehow cognizant of its impending doom. "Don't leave—AIIIEEEE!!!"

 

The rest of his sentence was cut off, eclipsed by a deafening buzz of static as the hastily improvised EMP detonated, unleashing a devastating expanding storm of concentrated electromagnetic energy. To the madman, it was as if the entire world was collapsing around his ears—that, paired with the sensation of being buried alive. The Goliath's heads-up display visor lit up with a dizzying array of brightly blinking icons accompanied by a frenetic chorus of electric beeps and whines as the combatsuit's internal processing system went haywire before flat-lining, leaving its pilot trapped inside an unresponsive mechanical tomb.

 

Clavicus' unearthly shrieks followed the Titans like a malediction as they raced upwards. Starting at the bottom of the stairwell, the overhead fluorescent lights began to flicker violently one by one, advancing faster and faster every instant, until they were almost snapping at the trio's heels. Moments later, several of them succumbed with a low whine, exploding in a twisted shower of hot plastic and shining glass, falling to the floor below.

 

Their hearts beating fit to the burst, their breathing ragged and uneven, the three heroes took a moment to steady themselves, leaning against the walls of the stairwell's upper level, only a stone's throw away from the doorway leading back to the Main Atrium. From Lily's voice sounding in their ears, calmly but firmly guiding Cygnus, they could tell that their helmet technology was still functional—somehow, miraculously, they had managed to outrun the EMP. They could also hear muffled crashes and booms echoing faintly from somewhere above—no doubt courtesy of Roxie and Kiara's superhuman strength—but as for the telltale mechanical hum of the generators below them... Silence.

 

"D-did we do it?" Ben managed at last, still panting, giving voice to the question burning on all of their lips as he stood up.

 

"Stay calm!" Kiara called, practically shouting herself hoarse, fighting to be heard above the confused and terrified din as the hostages scrambled out haphazardly from the elevators into the battle-scarred ruins of the Main Atrium, desperate to get as far away as possible. "Watch out for the rubble, don't slip on the water! Help each other, stay together!"

 

She turned towards her right as a sudden chorus of screams erupted from that direction, wincing as she did so. Apparently, a few of Roxie's hostages had quite literally stumbled across Styx's headless corpse—a fact that failed to go unnoticed by them.

 

"AHHH! A BODY!!"

 

"WHERE'S THE HEAD?!"

 

"SOMEONE'S BEEN KILLED!"

 

"LOOK, THE HEAD'S OVER HERE! OH MY GOD!"

 

"Yah, yah, keep it moving, why don't ya!"

 

Fortunately Roxie was on the case, weaving skillfully in and out of the hostages' midst like a shepherd dog, hurrying them along with little pushes to the shoulders or pokes to the legs with Arondite, jivvying them towards the far side of the Main Atrium, near the exit.

 

"Just your average headless bloke, nothing to see here, chaps!"

 

Bringing up the rear of her own hostage group, Kiara sighed deeply, feeling the weight of even more responsibility fall upon her. The team should have known better than to leave the enemy's bodies lying around like a bunch of loose ends where the civilians could see them... Then again, there hadn't exactly been much time to tidy up. Cygnus and Blake had practically been at each other's throats, she herself had been in shock from her back injury, and the hostages had still been in Shira's clutches.

 

This entire situation, from start to finish, was a superhero's nightmare. Dozens of casualties, heavily armed enemies striking randomly from the shadows in deadly ambushes, fighting among teammates, and now, a handful of traumatized hostages. She tried to reassure herself with the thought that for all their underhanded tricks the terrorists had failed at executing their prisoners, but even that comfort was superficial and fleeting. Cygnus was on his own, trying desperately to save the remaining hostages, while the team was still no closer to recovering Spore from Shira.

 

At least things can't possibly get any worse, the telepathic princess thought, smiling wryly to herself.

 

As if on cue, the overhead lights went out all at once, plunging the atrium into complete darkness.

 

 

"Karreylos Ethonim Cazar!"

 

Moonlight blossomed in the void, guided by sorcery, curving around the huddled mass of wide-eyed hostages like a divine mantle, shielding them from all harm... Hopefully. Shrouded in the faux-moonlight, kneeling on the floor before the device, Cygnus' hands were a blur of motion as he worked furiously to disarm the bioweapon. Every bead of sweat, every twitching muscle, every wrinkle on his brow seemed somehow bizarrely accentuated in the surrounding werelight's silvery glow. There was no trace of the sorcerer's usual brand of cool confidence—only panic, gnawing and feverish, driven by the timer's countdown.

 

0:11, 0:10, 0:09...

 

"What was that?" Lily asked.

 

"A spell, to protect them! Now hurry, what's next?!" Cygnus demanded sharply, his voice betraying the strain of trying to keep all of Lily's frenetic instructions straight. Only seconds left now.

 

"Cut the wire to the timer. It should be crimson. That's red if you don't kno—"

 

"MERDE!" Cygnus roared, launching himself instinctively away from the device, even though he knew it wouldn't do any good. Milliseconds later, the bomb's timer hit 0 with a resounding whine, deafening and final as the judge's gavel, accompanied by a powerful tug as the weapon triggered, unleashing an invisible vacuum, like a riptide trying to drag its victims out to sea. The hostages closest to the device cried out and struggled as the wave caught hold of them, threatening to pull them from the safety of the silver forcefields, only to be steadied by their neighbors.

 

Cygnus wasn't so lucky. Caught alone at the heart of the vacuum, the mage was as helpless as a leaf in a hurricane, his slender frame twisting and turning as he was pulled relentlessly towards its epicenter, his choked screams echoing in his teammate's ears. He had allowed himself to believe, if only for a moment, that despite everything the Titans had gone up against, they would come out winning in the end.

 

How very wrong he was.

 

THUD! OOF! CRACK!

 

For the second time that day, Cygnus found himself slamming face-first into the ground, his head spinning, his ears ringing, and every muscle in his body alight with pain, surprised to be still alive. Nothing made sense anymore. Where were the explosives? The searing flames, the jagged shrapnel? Everything was calm, save for the hostage's muted murmurs and sobs... as well as a soft hissing sound, as if an invisible giant were blowing gently into the room.

 

Hissing. Blowing. Air.

 

BGM

 

"MERDE!!" Cygnus roared again, jumping to his feet, summoning yet another massive spherical shield around himself and the device as he put two and two together. At that moment, the room's lights went out completely, plunging the scene into chaotic darkness, eliciting a fresh chorus of shrieks from the hostages.

 

"Stay where you are! Don't move!!" Cygnus ordered harshly, cutting across the hostage's diatribe as he redoubled his efforts, struggling to maintain several different lunar constructs at once. Strong, secure, hermetic... There was no room for mistakes. Even the slightest lapse in his concentration would be fatal.

 

"Lily, is this what I think it is?" the mage asked softly, his eyes flashing across the room, even though he already knew her reply. The heavy dread in his chest, like an anchor dragging him into the depths, was answer enough.

 

"Yes," the biochemist replied numbly, her words poisoned by the same fear. "Spore."

 

Even if the lights had been on, the hostages wouldn't have been able to detect anything out of the ordinary. Yet to Cygnus' technologically-enhanced eyes, the surrounding air was suddenly alive with motion, populated by dense swarms of dancing fireflies, colored a vivid shade of toxic green—the miniature spores of the deadly fungus, finally unleashed. As he watched, the noxious clouds expanded outwards, only to be rebuffed as they came into contact with the inner walls of his magical barrier. Although he knew the fungus wasn't sentient, Cygnus couldn't help but swallow nervously as the hissing sound increased in volume, as if the firefly horde were truly alive and seething with fury at its confinement.

 

"Stay calm, Cygnus," Lily murmured. "Your helmet is equipped with a self-regulating magnetic field that filters your air supply. Any spores that get too close will be automatically repelled. You're safe."

 

"Me, maybe," the sorcerer replied, taking a shaky breath as he tried to steady his frayed nerves. "It's the hostages I'm worried about. The moment my barrier fails..."

 

"When we genetically engineered Spore, we rapidly accelerated its growth and life-cycle in order to maximize its ability to kill quickly. As a side effect, however, the bioweapon's half-life was drastically reduced. If Spore is unable to infect a host during its initial release period, then its fungal spores will eventually consume themselves and die from lack of nutrition."

 

"A half-life? How long?"

 

"There can be some variation caused by atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity," Lily answered, slipping slowly back into her usual matter-of-fact tones. "But generally speaking, it shouldn't be more than fifteen minutes or so. In theory."

 

"In theory?!" Cygnus growled in disbelief, gritting his teeth. "Can't you be more precise? There are lives on the line here!"

 

"You asked the question, darling," the biochemist said coolly. "And I answered it. The rest is up to you, Cygnet. Are you up to the task?"

 

That much was true. Whatever happened next depended on him, and him alone. Even in the most strenuous combat situation, he had never before managed to consecutively maintain a single barrier—let alone several of them—for more than a few minutes. Fifteen minutes was a tall order, but what choice did he have?

 

"You insult me," the French boy replied at last, taking a deep breath as he sat down on the wooden floor, closing his eyes and adopting his usual meditative position, trying to ignore the frenetic pounding of his heart.

 

Karreylos Ethonim Cazar... Karreylos Ethonim Cazar... Karreylos Ethonim Cazar...

 

So be it. Let the countdown begin.

 

[spoiler=OOC. Please Read.]And here it is, the beginning of our heroes' triumphant return! After several long discussions with my fellow co-hosts Ren and Hollow, I have decided to return and continue the mission in full. I'm still very busy with full-time work and preparations for France, but I now feel comfortable making the time commitment necessary for this RP. I realize that a lot of time has passed, so please let me take the opportunity to thank you for your understanding and patience. And now, without further ado, let's get right back into the thick of things!

 

Success! Using a hastily improvised yet nonetheless brilliant EMP, Ben, Batsu, and Blake have not only managed to completely neutralize Clavicus and the G0LI7TH Unit, but also knocked ACNN24 HQ's generator system off-line. While they were not able to do so in time to shut down the time bomb, our three heroes have made it out of an extremely deadly encounter with all of their limbs still attached. Except, of course, for Batsu, but that's to be expected. Currently only a few steps away from the Main Atrium, the boys are in the perfect spot for reuniting with the team's leading ladies and helping them manage the hostages.

 

Roxie and Kiara are safely out of harm's way along with the hostages they were able to rescue, though they paid a heavy price to do so. While Cygnus struggles to contain Spore and protect the remaining hostages, it's up to them to decide upon the next course of action. Forge ahead with the hostages, or head back to help the Swan Prince? The team is still no closer to capturing The Agent of Shira and dismantling the sinister cult's leadership... What will be our heroines' decision?

 

Take this opportunity for our Titans to regroup, as well as get the feel for your characters after so long without RPing them—stretch those writing muscles and get back into the habit! The next GM Post will be definitive and provide further direction, and it's already in the works. Any questions or concerns will be addressed in the Skype chat. I'm looking forward to working with all of you once again! Teen Titans, GO~! ♡

 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

-BGM-

 

"What a fantastic plan, Tin-man!!" Arachnid laughed, speaking in a very sarcastic manner towards Blake as he ran along the walls of the stairway with Batsu coming up close behind. They had high-tailed it out of the room they fought Clavicus in to escape the make-shift EMP that Blake made out of the guy's armor. However...this also put them at a disadvantage as well.

 

"I understand your reasoning...but come on! How could you forget that a wave of that would black your suit out?" he asked, though not exactly helping the situation since he almost forgot about the EMP being able to strike at their communications and helmets. Silver lining, he wouldn't have to hear Lily speak...and constantly nag and get his name wrong... Heh...that's thinking positive!

 

However, the costumed teen couldn't exactly keep his thoughts together...especially when the sounds of the EMP exploding was heard. "Oh...merde...GET THE LEAD OUT PEOPLE!!" he shouted, seeing and almost feeling the EMP's wave gaining on their heels as they ran with everything they had...

 

 

"D-did we do it?" Arachnid managed at last, still panting, giving voice to the question burning on all of their lips as he stood up. He groaned a bit as he stretched out some, dusting myself off. "H-Holy crap...WE DID IT!!" he said pumping his fist into the air, before slowly lowering it. Truth be told, he was still pretty sore and banged up from both the fight with Vulture and the fight with Clavicus...

 

"M-Mission accomplished from us then..." Arachnid chuckled, looking back at Blake and Batsu, giving them a thumbs up.

 

"Just your average headless bloke, nothing to see here, chaps!"

 

Arachnid quickly snapped his head around to see both Kiara and Roxie along with the hostages making their way into the room. "M-Muy bien! Arcana! Havoc!" he called out, still giving codenames, waving his arm as he made his way towards them. "L-Looks like you got your end of the mission...you both alright?"

[Mr. Hyde]

Blake was finally joined by his two teammates as he booked it out of range of the electromagnetic pulse.  Behind, he could he Ben poking fun at his plan.  

 

"What a fantastic plan, Tin-man!!  I understand your reasoning...but come on! How could you forget that a wave of that would black your suit out?"

 

"I admit that it was a clearly important oversight, but maybe we could save my explanation for after we get ourselves out of range, ay bug breath?!"  Blake's thrusters were at maximum power.  He was surprised that both Ben and Batsu were able to keep up.  It almost felt that escaping this blast was taking an eternity...or at least two months worth of time.  As soon as the pulse went off, Blake gritted his teeth, waiting for the worst...but luckily, all his suit's functions were online.  They had somehow also made it to the place were the other team was escorting hostages away from the situation.

 

"M-Mission accomplished from us then..."

 

Blake crossed his arms and nodded.  

 

"Just your average headless bloke, nothing to see here, chaps!"

 

The phrase from Roxie...so cold...and heartless...made him turn an eye away.  Why not dispose of the bodies, rather than further traumatizing the hostages.  What kind of team was this to allow it to happen.  However, he was still glad that they appeared uninjured.  

 

"Successful on both ends?  I wouldn't expect anything less...where's Cygnus?"

[King K. Azo]

"I admit that it was a clearly important oversight, but maybe we could save my explanation for after we get ourselves out of range, ay bug breath?!"

 

"Why are we running anyways?" Batsu asked, confused as all hell. It wasn't like the place was going to erupt into giant flames, or the Spore being released into the air. Still, he ran with them, until they made it to the place were the other team was escorting hostages away from the situation. It seemed they suceeded. Great. Still... He was feeling very nauseous...

 

"M-Mission accomplished from us then..." Ben called out. Batsu nodded before falling to a knee. Between his injuries, chugging gasoline, and the running, he was feeling very weak and sick. Still, he had enough of his wits to notice that Blake seemed unhappy, especially with Roxie trying to help the hostages... Was it the bodies? It had to be. Civilians were squeamish around those... And around him...

 

He got up unsteadily, walking around and grabbing the bodies, slowly but surely picking them all up. As he did, he looked around, he saw a door with a pink sign... If he remembered correctly, that was an Earthling's 'bathroom'. He dragged every dead body in there, throwing them into a pile and shutting the door behind him.

 

As soon as the door shut, his body began to expel the foreign substance through his mouth. He was never drinking Earth gasoline again... Thank the deities he was able to get in here before his body forced him to expel. He didn't want to show even more weakness in front of his team. When his body was finished and he managed to catch his breath, Batsu held out a hand, shooting a stream of fire, which ignited the gasoline covering the bodies and lit them on fire. With a sigh, he slide in front of the door and watched the flames.

 

It was very relaxing to him, watching the flames dance. Besides, he had to make sure the fire didn't spread. Even if that was a very easy solution to the Spore problem they were having.

[Ren✧]

Kiara hastily fumbled with her helmet, trying to cycle through the various viewing functions that the piece of technology was equipped with. After being plunged into darkness, she had felt her chest start to tighten and her breathing turn shallow. She wasn't typically afraid of the dark, but right now it felt suffocating. However, it appeared that Kiara was overreacting because within moments the helmet immediately flicked to a night vision display. Her field of vision was now overlain with an eerie green glow that gently highlighted that surrounding environment. It was impossible not to think of the ominous green eyes that the Agent of Shira had sported, seeming to cut right through her.

 

Hit with a wave of emotion, Kiara stumbled. Panic. She felt panic. As the empath sense faded, she desperately reached out to figure out where the telepathic reading was coming from, perhaps the team had missed some hostages, but the source was too far away and it quickly faded. Turning to Roxie, Kiara thought about voicing what she had just sensed, but before she could Ben, Blake, and Batsu stumbled into the Main Atrium filling it with a sense of relief. 

 

"M-Mission accomplished from us then..." The spider whisperer looked a little rough around the edges. Kiara offered him a telepathic nudge, letting him know that she was there to lend him support if he needed it. She couldn't blame him for being weary after going toe-to-toe with a Blade of Shira and then with whatever happened down in the basement. Thinking of Ben's weariness, made Kiara's back twitch. She had nearly forgot, but now that she was standing still the wound was beginning to burn. 

 

"Successful on both ends?  I wouldn't expect anything less...where's Cygnus?" The panic struck her again. This time it was her own. In the process of rescuing the hostages and being reunited with the rest of the team she had let her responsibilities as leader begin to slip. Cygnus was still up there all alone. Having tuned out Lily and his chatter in her ear, she brought herself back around.

 

Karreylos Ethonim Cazar...Karreylos Ethonim Cazar...Karreylos Ethonim Cazar...

 

Kiara's eyes widened, understanding dawning on her. There would only be one reason that Cygnus would need to cast such a powerful spell. "I am going to help Cygnus! Blake!" She called, running for the stairs. "You make sure everyone stays here. Get the rest of these hostages out of here and to a safe area. No arguments!" 

 

No more fighting. Not today. She added telepathically. 

 

Taking the stairs two at a time, she made it to the second floor in no time. Unfortunately, the stairs leading up to Cygnus had been destroyed when Roxie had made her makeshift ramps down. Leaving Kiara to sprint upwards at an incline. All the while, she reached out with her mind, desperately searching to touch Cygnus' own. She was in the process of hiking of the ramp between the third and fourth floor when she made contact. Careful not to interrupt his thought process, Kiara tactfully worked her way into his mind, integrating her thoughts with his own.

 

As always the sorcerer's mind was a difficult read and bringing herself to delve as deeply as she was going was even more difficult, but she forced herself to continue. She knew that if Cygnus knew she was there, he would probably protest, but right now his privacy was not her concern. Besides, it wasn't like she was browsing, she just had to get deep enough into his mind to lend her support...that is, if her theory worked.

 

As Kiara moved telepathically, her body moved closer to Cygnus' actual location. Once she was satisfied that she had established a strong enough psychic link with Cygnus, she began to make her presence known to him. It appeared that she would have to work quickly, as the lunar constructs that were protecting the hostages looked as though they were beginning to thin.

 

"I'm here." She said, knowing that the silvery magician would know her by her touch at this point, "Save any objections for later. You can't do this without my help." 

 

Kiara began to flood Cygnus' mind with happy memories of the Team. Their first meeting. The time he had thrown a party for them, which has coincidentally been Kiara's first real party. The numerous successful training sessions. The moment when Cygnus had saved her in Club OXYGEN. She showed him memories of Roxie's constant quips at his expense. She revealed how much she relied on him as an unofficial second-in-command. 

 

"We are all here to support you. You will never be alone." Kiara flooded Cygnus' mind with images of each of the team members. 

[Hälō]

 BMG 

 

"M-Muy bien! Arcana! Havoc!" Roxie's ears perked at the sound of Ben's voice calling from across the hall. "L-Looks like you got your end of the mission...you both alright?"

 

"Keep moving towards the exit!" She ordered her group of hostages press on ahead before turning and pushing her way back towards the other titans. Moments later, the blonde's form could be seen bursting from the crowd and running towards Ben and Blake. "THERES MY BOYS!" She called at the top of her lounges, moving surprisingly fast, despite that fact that she had been put through the ringer. 

 

Arriving at Ben first, Roxie quickly wrapped both arms around the spider's neck and squeezed with all her strength in a rough bearhug. "It feels like it's been months since I've seen you blokes..." She said as she used the momentum of her advance to swing off of Ben and launch herself towards Blake. "And you..." 

 

Latching on to the back of Blake's armor like a monkey, Roxie climbed upwards so that she was level with is helmet before using Arondite to secure herself around his neck. "I'm sorry for taking the piss out of you earlier, and even more so for pushing you like that, love..." She whispered with a tinge of embarrassment. Apologies were definitely something that she'd need to get used to, but she really did feel regretful for putting her hands on her comrade the way she did. "You lot are all I got, and I would never want to hurt you no matter how much our opinions differ."

 

Just then, Kiara suddenly bursted into movement, reminding Roxie that they weren't out of the woods just yet. 

 

 "I am going to help Cygnus! Blake!" She called, running for the stairs. "You make sure everyone stays here. Get the rest of these hostages out of here and to a safe area. No arguments!" 

 

"You heard the lady!" The tiny blonde shouted to the lingering hostages before jumping off Blake's back. "Get the led out, folks! Com'on lets move! BATSY PINCH IT FLUSH, MATE! WE GOTTA GO!" 

[Saiba Aisu]

---

GM Post: 

 (Hostage Chamber, ACNN24 Headquarters, 10:08 P.M.)

---

It had come down to this. The final homestretch with victory in sight, tantalizingly close, but still just out of reach. This was it—the moment where it truly counted. All or nothing. Everything in. Winner take all.

 

Like hell I'm going to just give up, Shira, Cygnus thought to himself, eyes closed, pale brow furrowed with concentration as he reached deep within his soul, drawing upon as much magical energy as possible. Despite his best efforts, the lunar constructs were already beginning to thin, waning like the moon in the coming dawn.

 

He could vaguely register the panicked cries of the hostages around him as well as the faint murmur of Lily's voice in his ears, trying to reassure him, yet for some reason, they seemed oddly muted. Even the sinister hiss of Spore as it twisted through the air like an invisible plague, hungrily probing his barrier for weaknesses, seemed somehow distant. In that moment, he was utterly alone—a Titan, a hero, fighting against insurmountable odds, struggling to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders.

 

Karreylos Ethonim Cazar... Karreylos Ethonim Cazar... Karreylos...

 

How many minutes had gone by? How much longer did he have to hold on? Time seemed to have lost all meaning.

 

"I'm here."

 

The voice seemed to issue, not from around him, but from the very depths of his mind. Kind. Strong. Familiar. The lunar sorcerer frowned slightly, shifting his weight on the hard wooden floor, hardly daring to believe. Could it be...?

 

"Save any objections for later. You can't do this without my help."

 

Cygnus gasped as a powerful wave of psychic energy washed over him, flooding him with its warmth, projecting a stream of happy memories into his mind. It was her. Kiara. She was here, with him. They all were.

 

"We are all here to support you. You will never be alone."

 

The lunar sorcerer reached up with one hand, momentarily overwhelmed, grateful that the other Titans weren't around to see him wiping the tears suddenly forming in his eyes. After all, he had a reputation to uphold!

 

"I... You're right. Thank you. We'll finish this together."

 

With a slow breath, Cygnus lowered the last of his mental defenses, granting Kiara access to his inner thoughts, allowing their two minds to come together like never before. It felt as if the girl were standing right next to him—as if she had taken his hand with her own, her mental presence pulsing with positive psychic energy, helping to replenish his dwindling reserves and strengthen his resolve.

 

"Karreylos... Ethonim... Cazar..."

 

The magic was his, but the determined will giving shape to it belonged to both of them. With a wave of his hand, the thinning lunar constructs were restored to their former brilliance, exuding a soothing hum so powerful it was almost a song, forcing the surrounding darkness to retreat.

 

"Thatta boy."

 

 

"Cygnus?"

 

"Hmm?"

 

"The toxic spores have consumed themselves. You did it. It's over."

 

The Swan Prince blinked at Lily's words, as if he were waking from some kind of deep trance. Was it over already? The last thing he remembered was Kiara's mind touching his own, giving him the strength he needed to carry on... Glancing around, however, he was relieved to see that the biochemist appeared to be right—the air within his barrier was once again miraculously clear, devoid of the sinister swarm of poisonous fireflies.

 

"You're sure?" he asked, reluctant to take any chances. In the back of his mind, he could feel Kiara's presence fading once more as she let the telepathic connection between them dissolve. Still, knowing the team leader, she was close by and keeping an eye on things, ready to help if the situation called for it.

 

"Positive. I even waited an extra two minutes in order to account for any possible environmental variation. All of the scanners are showing the same result. Spore is gone, for good."

 

"Thank goodness," Cygnus breathed, almost too softly for the others to hear. His arms were aching, his head was spinning, and every muscle in his body seemed to be sore beyond all belief. At that moment, he would have given anything for a good night's sleep... Unfortunately, his bedtime fantasies would have to wait. There was still work to be done.

 

 

BGM

 

"Oi! There they are!!"

 

The rest of the team turned as one at Roxie's exclamation, relieved to see Cygnus emerging from the battered entrance of ACNN24 HQ, followed by several dozen hostages with Kiara bringing up the rear. The group moved down the stairs and advanced into the square, rejoining the other Titans and the first set of hostages. After being holed up inside for so long, it felt oddly liberating to be under the night sky once more.

 

"Alright there, Frenchy-love? Still in one piece?" the blonde asked, bounding forward like a labrador puppy, brimming with her usual manic energy as she began poking and prodding the magician without waiting for an answer.

 

"More or less," Cygnus chuckled, too tired to wave the girl away, grateful for the helmet obscuring the exhaustion on his features. "I'll be better once this is all over."

 

"Let's put an end to it, then," Kiara said firmly as she stepped forward, injecting her words with an extra dose of confidence in an attempt to keep the team's spirits high. 

 

Still, try as she might, she couldn't do anything about the fact that they were hardly better off than when they started. True, the team had managed to rescue the hostages and prevent a sample of Spore from being released... But they were still no closer to unraveling Shira's plans and crippling the terrorists' core leadership. If she knew Shira, they were two steps ahead and safely out of reach, already beginning to eye their next target. It was as if another time-bomb were ticking in the back of her mind, counting down savagely to another tragedy... except this time, she had no idea where it might be.

 

"First things first, though," the girl continued, mastering her thoughts as she eyed the shell-shocked civilians around her. "We need to get these people to safety. They've been through too much tonight as it is."

 

"Way ahead of you on that one," Blake said, tapping his helmet's communications array with one finger. "The first thing we did after we secured the plaza was establish contact with Commander Rookwood. While he can't leave City Hall unattended, he agreed to dispatch a police division to escort the hostages to safety and clean up the mess in ACNN24 HQ. They should be here soon."

 

"So that's why things are so quiet," Cygnus breathed, relieved to hear that the invisible snipers from before were no longer hanging around, trying to blast them into smithereens. The last thing he wanted to do was get caught in another crossfire.

 

"Hem hem," Lily interrupted, clearing her throat with her usual daintiness. "If I might make a small suggestion? If I know Commander Walrus, he's going to want to take everyone into police custody—including any surviving members of Shira's ambush team. I don't know about you, but something tells me that they might be able to give us some insight on Shira's next move, provided we can persuade them to share. Wouldn't you agree, Kiara?"

 

"What are you trying to get at?" the team leader retorted coldly, crossing her arms. As always, there was something about Lily's attitude that rubbed her the wrong way. "Spit it out, will you?"

 

"Fine," the biochemist snarled, sounding rather less coy than usual. "Aren't you supposed to be a telepath or something? If you can acquire the intel we need from the survivor's minds, then we'll be one step closer to taking Shira down!!"

 

"It's one thing to lie to Commander Rookwood about how much we know about Shira," Kiara replied, trying to keep a civil tone but inwardly seething. "But taking hostiles into our own hands for interrogation, without authorization? You're asking me to go behind his back, to directly interfere with police procedure!"

 

"The survivors?" Batsu interrupted, looking suddenly sheepish. "Oh... This might not be the good time... But you should probably know that I burned the dead bodies, because they were upsetting the people. At least, I think they were dead... If they weren't dead, they are now."

 

"YOU WHAT?!" Blake and Kiara yelled together in scandalized tones.

 

"We're clearly too far down the rabbit hole to worry about violating police procedure now," Cygnus murmured, placing a firm hand on the team leader's shoulder, trying to cut through the chaos and help her focus, the way she had helped him earlier. "Everything about this mission—from start to finish—goes against the rulebooks. Sybil knew that, and he entrusted us with it anyway. What's important now is stopping Shira. We can deal with the consequences later."

 

"Do you mean to tell me that you made ashes out of all of them?" Lily hissed. "There's not a single survivor left? You moron, Pazu!!"

 

"Not all of them!" Ben chimed in. "At least... I don't think so. I'm pretty sure Vulture's still there. I guess our alien friend must have missed him on the way out."

 

"Vulture?" Roxie repeated incredulously. "You mean the bloke you dropkicked from the ceiling? He still alive, then?"

 

"Oh, he's alive," Ben replied, chuckling to himself. "The cocoon I used to trap him is pretty tough, you know. He's probably just really pissed at being wrapped up tighter than a spider's—"

 

"Alright. Fine."

 

The Titans turned with surprise as Kiara spoke up, taking charge of the situation once more.

 

"Batsu, go and recover the survivor. Vulture, Pigeon, Robin—whatever his name is, just grab him and get him out the back door! Ben, take the T-Jet and meet them on the other side. You'll need it to transport the prisoner to Titans Tower. The rest of us will regroup with you there after the police recover the hostages."

 

"I get to drive? Sweet!" Ben cheered, his laughs echoing as he flipped high into the air and onto a nearby wall, swiftly scurrying away and out of sight over the rooftops. "Race ya there, Pyromaniac! Last one there's a rotten egg!" 

 

Batsu merely grunted an affirmation at Kiara's orders before running back into the building at top speed. He didn't know where the back door was, or even if there was one, but he didn't let that bother him—he'd create his own door, if he had to. Something told him Kiara wouldn't be too miffed about a few more walls getting knocked down, either way.

 

"Does this mean that you agree with my plan?" Lily inquired smugly, her words accompanied by the faint shriek of police sirens, growingly steadily stronger by the second. "I knew you'd see it my way eventually. Well done!"

 

"It means," Kiara continued, speaking up firmly, "that stopping Shira is our top priority. Once this is all over, we'll turn in Vulture to the authorities. That's the right thing to do."

 

"If you say so, Princess," Lily replied patronizingly, clearly pleased to have gotten her way. "Now then... Unless my ears fool me, those are sirens. Your public awaits. I look forward to your performance."

 

"You sure about this plan of yours, Kiara-love?" Roxie asked softly, watching as a swarm of hovercars appeared on the horizon, their sirens wailing fit to wake the dead as they descended en masse.

 

"No. But it's the best we've got."

 

 

Titans Tower, Temporary Holding Area, 12th Floor

 

A little over half an hour later saw the team reassembled at Titans Tower, leaving the dark memories of their time at ACNN24 HQ—along with the shimmering cityscape—far behind them. With the hostages safely in police custody and Shira's attempt to release Spore thwarted for the time being, the Titans could breathe a little easier. There was just one small matter left to attend to...

 

THUD!

 

The team watched as Kiara carried a heavy armchair across the windowless room before slamming it against the tiled floor. Forcefully. Perhaps too forcefully.

 

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Vulture sneered, turning his head aside, superbly disdainful despite the fact that most of his body was still encased in a glistening spiderweb cocoon, cradled in Batsu's arms like some twisted parody of a swaddled infant... or a particularly foul-tempered mummy. Only the terrorist's head was exposed—his deathly white helmet long since discarded—revealing a seductive-looking man a few years older than Cygnus in appearance with long crimson hair and heavy-lidded eyes. "Oh yeah, a chair, really spooky, kid!"

 

None of the Titans chose to reply. From the moment they had brought him to Titans Tower for interrogation, the sole surviving member of the Blade of Shira had subjected them to an endless and surprisingly creative torrent of verbal abuse, ranging from the pitiful state of their clothes to their bad taste in interior decoration. Even Lily seemed temporarily at a loss when faced with such willful noncompliance. At a nod from Kiara, Batsu dumped the prisoner into the chair like a pile of dirty clothes.

 

"Hey! Watch the goods, punk!"

 

"Comfortable?" Cygnus inquired coldly, crossing his arms as he sized up the other man, fixing him with his sharp blue gaze. "Good. Now listen closely. We're all going to have a nice little chat. Heart-to-heart, like the best of friends. Depending on whether or not you cooperate, things can either be very simple... or very unpleasant. The choice is yours."

 

Despite his frigid bravado, however, the sorcerer felt a touch of unease. He didn't have any personal experience with interrogation, nor did he have much of an appetite for torture. However ruthless he might seem to Blake, there was a huge difference in his mind between cutting down a dangerous enemy in the heat of battle and sticking someone with needles until they squealed. It didn't help matters that Vulture seemed so much younger and frailer without his helmet... Not to mention... Handsome?

 

Cygnus bit back the bizarre urge to laugh, suddenly feeling flushed and light-headed. Evidently, his last magic spell had taken more out of him than he thought. Better to let one of the others take the lead for now.

 

"Alright, guys. À vous de jouer."¹

 

[spoiler=Learn French with Cygnus: Today's Lesson]1. It's all yours.

 

---

[spoiler=OOC. Please Read.]Phew! Alright guys, thanks again for your patience! Thanks to our heroes' efforts, the hostages are safe and Shira's plans have been thwarted! ... For the moment, at least. The mission isn't over quite just yet—not until the Titans recover Spore and take down the terrorist network for good. Fortunately, the team has a lead that could prove useful in discovering and counteracting Shira's next move. The only problem is, he's not exactly in the mood to share.

 

Take this opportunity to RP your character's reactions to the most recent developments. In between the fighting, the daring rescue, the averted contagion crisis and a surprise bout of body burning... Well, I'm sure you'll have plenty to work with. Once everyone has had the opportunity to post at least once or twice, I'll proceed with the next GM Post. As always, any further questions or comments will be addressed in the Skype chat.

 

[spoiler=T-Jet]For those of you wondering about the "T-Jet," I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to introduce one the many cool vehicles in the Titans' garage. Normally, our heroes move within their world in a sort of off-screen flux, conveniently appearing and disappearing without much prior narration. Nevertheless, a superhero lair isn't complete without awesome high-tech devices, and Titans Tower is no exception! The T-Jet is a high-speed aerial transport unit with light armor and self-defense systems. Its sleek aerodynamic design makes it our heroes' transportation method of choice for getting around Aurora City, especially when they want to conserve magical energy (Cygnus) or Satellite's batteries (Blake). In addition, the T-Jet's state-of-the-art security system means that only those carrying a Titan Communicator can synchronize with its wavelength frequencies in order to access and pilot it.

 

 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

"Oi! There they are!!"

 

Arachnid turned, seeing Cygnus and Kiara along with another group of hostages emerging from the entrance of ACNN24. He could feel his heart at ease, as he strolled towards the two with the others. "And here you guys had me worried..." he said, chuckling, crossing his arms some.

 

"Alright there, Frenchy-love? Still in one piece?

"More or less. I'll be better once this is all over."

 

Rightly so. Arachnid could only hypothesize that the swan had overdone it again in the range of his magic. But then again, whatever specifically happened in there was needing his magic, overuse of it or not. Nevertheless, the conversations carried on between the team, and of COURSE Lily. He wasn't exactly paying attention as much, he was still a little focused on Roxie almost hugging the living hell out of his neck. And after she got upset with him for almost killing them all with that stupid walkie-talkie bomb. He sighed some, until he heard something in Lily's next sentence.

 

"Aren't you supposed to be a telepath or something? If you can acquire the intel we need from the survivor's minds, then we'll be one step closer to taking Shira down!!"

 

The survivors? That wouldn't be a bad idea. And minus the ones that were completely eviscerated by the other Titans, they could easil-

 

"The survivors? Oh... This might not be the good time... But you should probably know that I burned the dead bodies, because they were upsetting the people. At least, I think they were dead... If they weren't dead, they are now."

"YOU WHAT?!"

 

Arachnid's hand met his helmet in defeat, shaking his head slightly. "Pyro...you are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too innocent for this world." he said, underneath his helmet rolling his eyes. That's about when Lily started yelling at Batsu about not leaving a survivor...but then again...

 

"Not all of them!" Arachnid finally chimed in, clearing his throat. "At least... I don't think so. I'm pretty sure Vulture's still there. I guess our alien friend must have missed him on the way out."

 

"Vulture? You mean the bloke you dropkicked from the ceiling? He still alive, then?"

 

"Oh, he's alive, my dear Havoc." he replied, chuckling to himself. "The cocoon I used to trap him is pretty tough, you know. He's probably just really pissed at being wrapped up tighter than a spider's—"

 

"Alright. Fine. Batsu, go and recover the survivor. Vulture, Pigeon, Robin—whatever his name is, just grab him and get him out the back door! Ben, take the T-Jet and meet them on the other side. You'll need it to transport the prisoner to Titans Tower. The rest of us will regroup with you there after the police recover the hostages."

 

Arachnid sighed as he couldn't finish his sentence as Kiara interrupted, but still... "I get to drive? Sweet!" Arachnid cheered, his laughs echoing as he flipped high into the air and onto a nearby wall, swiftly scurrying away and out of sight over the rooftops. "Race ya there, Pyromaniac! Last one there's a rotten egg! AND NO!! It's not an insult either!!"

 

He headed into the direction of the T-Jet, landing beside it as he flipped off the wall he ran down. Ahhh the T-Jet...a true work of craftsmanship. And while it looked a bit retro-like, Arachnid adored the sleek style it had.

 

-BGM-

 

He slid his hand into his pocket and grabbed his communicator, matching the wavelength frequencies to open the hatch. Dropping into the pilot's seat, he placed his communicator down, firing everything up. And with his communicator being synched up to the T-Jet, Arachnid had some music playing through the jet, which could be heard from outside.

 

Arachnid took point and swung the jet into gear, heading to the back of ACNN24, seeing Batsu walking out with a 'Baddie Burrito' as he liked to call it. "Alright, looks like he's still in one piece too!" he chuckled, as he landed and opened the T-Jet for Batsu and their new 'friend'. "Thank you for choosing Air Titan, bird-brain. Asura here will be your personal assistant, so please sit back and enjoy the ride!"

 

And with that, Arachnid gunned it and flew back towards Titans Tower....

 

 

"Hey! Watch the goods, punk!"

 

"I'd watch what you say, bird-brain." Arachnid chuckled, pointing at Batsu, who was seen cracking his knuckles. "These guys don't play around. Then again, you know first hand that I don't, amigo." He slowly turned on his heel and headed out of the room. There was no point in him staying to help interrogate...especially with Kiara being the telepath. So he just left the room...mainly to gather some thoughts...

 

-A Few Moments Later-

 

Benjamin returned, watching how the interrogation was going via the one way glass, as he sighed some. The other Titans were outside of the room right, save for Kiara. But, knowing her, she'd hear anyway.

 

-BGM-

 

"Guys...I want to apologize." Benjamin said with a very solemn tone in his voice. He finally turned around to face the others, leaning against the wall slightly, crossing his arms. "I put you guys in harms way...I shouldn't have ever done something THAT incredibly stupid." He closed his eyes, sighing slightly. "Plato once said...that 'ignorance is the stem of all evil'. And Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said that 'there is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action'...and back there...I showed ignorance."

 

Benjamin paused, before looking at the group again. "I thought I was helping...however, Roxie...I have to apologize to you the most. You brought up the possibility that the walkie-talkie could've been a bomb. And rather than listen to my teammate, I listened to my own ignorance...for that...I am sorry." he paused once more, before finally exhaling deeply.

 

"Now...more importantly, Lily mentioned when me and Batsu arrived...that Cygnus saw Spore..." his eyes fixated on the lunar sorcerer, who was sitting down at this point. "What can you say about it?"

[King K. Azo]

"YOU WHAT?!" Even the alien could tell from their tones that he had messed up astronomically.

 

"Do you mean to tell me that you made ashes out of all of them?" Lily hissed. "There's not a single survivor left? You moron, Pazu!!"

 

"Not all of them!" Ben chimed in. "At least... I don't think so. I'm pretty sure Vulture's still there. I guess our alien friend must have missed him on the way out." Batsu looked at him, his eyes narrowing.

 

"I didn't miss him. He was still alive, there by not distressing the civilians," Batsu corrected.

 

"Alright. Fine."

 

The Titans turned with surprise as Kiara strode forward, taking charge of the situation once more.

 

"Batsu, go and recover the survivor. Vulture, Pigeon, Robin—whatever his name is, just grab him and get him out the back door! Ben, take the T-Jet and meet them on the other side. You'll need it to transport the prisoner to Titans Tower. The rest of us will regroup with you there after the police recover the hostages." Batsu nodded and ran off, deciding to take out his now rebuilding aggression out on the wall, leaving another big hole in its side...

 

"Hey! Watch the goods, punk!" Vulture had snapped at Batsu as he dumped Vulture into the chair. This man was very defiant. Good. He liked to break those kind of people.

 

"I'd watch what you say, bird-brain." Ben chuckled, pointing at Batsu, who was cracking his knuckles. "These guys don't play around. Then again, you know first hand that I don't, amigo."

 

"I do agree with the space duck though," Batsu spoke up, pausing for a moment to look at his translator. Space duck? What the fu--? He shook his head. "A chair is not very scary. If need be, I can find us some spikes or perhaps a pit to light on the fire which we can hang the space duck from," He suggested, completely serious. He looked over to Kiara. "If you can not get a thing from his mind, I can lend my help," He said. "The Sufsem have some interrogation techniques that may work work here... unless he does like his legs ripped off of his body...," He added thoughtfully. With that final offer, he left the room, cracking his knuckles still. He felt stiff for some reason.

 

-A Few Moments Later-

"Guys...I want to apologize,"Benjamin said with a very solemn tone in his voice. Batsu looked up from his position on the ground, doing his push ups. Where did this come from suddenly? "I put you guys in harms way...I shouldn't have ever done something THAT incredibly stupid." He closed his eyes, sighing slightly. "Plato once said...that 'ignorance is the stem of all evil'. And Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said that 'there is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action'...and back there...I showed ignorance."

 

Benjamin paused, before looking at the group again. "I thought I was helping...however, Roxie...I have to apologize to you the most. You brought up the possibility that the walkie-talkie could've been a bomb. And rather than listen to my teammate, I listened to my own ignorance...for that...I am sorry." he paused once more, before finally exhaling deeply.

 

"Now...more importantly, Lily mentioned when me and Batsu arrived...that Cygnus saw Spore..." his eyes fixated on the lunar sorcerer, who was sitting down at this point. "What can you say about it?" Batsu stood up, walking over and rubbing Ben's head, like a big brother would to a younger one.

 

"Don't worry about it. I've made dumber mistakes on missions before," He said. "Xocc, I made one on this mission as well. It all turned out fine in the end," he looked to the others. "I also am owing of the apology. I burned the bodies, thinking it was the right thing to do to help the civilians. Forgive me,"

[Mr. Hyde]

The titans made their way back to the tower.  While the interrogations were under way, Blake sat in a crumpled heap in a corner.  The fact that bodies had been burned...the fact that people died on his watch...bad guy or not...they didn't deserve death.  He didn't understand why all of this was happening.  

 

"I didn't sign up for this you know...being some part of some homicide squad..." he said, as he took off his helmet.  A glum look painted his face.  He wanted to cry...but he couldn't.  Not in front of them.  After a while, Ben had spoken up.

 

"Guys...I want to apologize.  I put you guys in harms way...I shouldn't have ever done something THAT incredibly stupid.  Plato once said...that 'ignorance is the stem of all evil'. And Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said that 'there is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action'...and back there...I showed ignorance.  I thought I was helping...however, Roxie...I have to apologize to you the most. You brought up the possibility that the walkie-talkie could've been a bomb. And rather than listen to my teammate, I listened to my own ignorance...for that...I am sorry." 

 

"I also am owing of the apology. I burned the bodies, thinking it was the right thing to do to help the civilians. Forgive me," 

 

Blake couldn't help but bite his bottom lip.  He wanted to say so much worse.

 

"Shut your traps...both of you.  Making mistakes is part of a mission.  You don't have to ask for forgiveness Ben."  He broke from his sentence and looked straight to Batsu, making sure to make his glare as intense as humanly possible.  "As for you....Alien....I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive you for what you've done today.  Hell...I doubt I'll still be able to look at you without feeling disgusted after all this is over."  He pinched the furrow of his brow.  "This wasn't how it was supposed to play out..."  Blake shook his head and put his helmet back on, knocking it against the wall he had huddled himself into.  After a while, he got up from his pity party and headed to the elevator.  

 

"Vulture better not be dead when I come back down...if he is, consider my position resigned."  Blake headed towards the Elevator, and made made his way to the lab.  In her chair, where they had left her, was Lily.  He made his way over, his suit clanking against the floor.  He made a laudable sigh.  "I didn't think they were like this Lily...it's like....they've flipped to the other side of the coin....the one on the bottom....that darker side I think."  He started emerging from his suit, pressurized gases were released, and he stepped out.  He wasn't wearing much, besides a rather skin tight purple suit.