JLU 2001 Fanfiction -The Titans #6

Outside Markovia,

The T-Jet landed outside the small European castle that lay at the borders between Markovia and its neighbor Switzerland. King Baran had granted the Titans free access through Markovian air space to investigate the castle and its owner’s activities.

“All right Titans remember, we are just investigating- we are not here to bring him down. Yet,” Nightwing addressed the group.

The team nodded their heads and followed Nightwing in as he took the lead.

Inside the castle…

Brother Blood sat in his throne with his hand gently brushing the hair of the woman on his lap.

“Are you ready my dear?” he asked with a touch of excitement in his voice.

She nodded her head and laid a kiss on his blood stained lips before disrobing and climbing into the pool of blood. Brother Blood took his place before the Alter that lay at the tip of the pool of blood and began reciting an ancient incantation- for no one could stop him not even….

raven Protecting Our Future

Basked in Blood: Part Two

"and the evil shall rise when the darkness falls"

The Titans #6 - February, Year 2 by Mick Edwards

The Titans

NIGHTWING
Dick Grayson

CYBORG
Victor Stone

STARFIRE

BEAST BOY
Garfield Logan

ARGENT
Toni Montelli


ARSENAL Roy Harper	RAVEN

Nightwing hugged the worn, blood stained walls with a mixed look of disgust and revulsion. His eyes darted back and forth between the multi-chambered halls of the castle, looking for anything suspicious as well as for security measures that they needed to be wary of. After taking a quick look up and down the hall he signaled the others to come, with Beast Boy bringing up the rear end. With eyes darting back and forth between the views he had on the newest Titan- Toni Montelli, alias Argent- and the path behind them.

“So what exactly are we looking for?” Toni whispered.

“Anything that might look suspicious or out of place, if such is possible in a place like this,” Starfire replied.

“Where does this guy get his pads? This place is like something out of those old Dracula movies,” Beast Boy said with a bit of excitement in his voice.

“Figures Gar would get a kick of out an old spooky castle,” Cyborg replied as he followed closely behind Arsenal.

Nightwing stopped dead in his tracks and put a finger to his lips silencing the others. He peeked over the corner that lay at the end of the left path that they took. A man with a red vest and skull mask stood before a cherry wood door that had a demon’s head painted in the center. Reaching down slowly, the former boy wonder pulled out his wing dings and took careful aim before launching them at the guard positioned at the door. He then flew into a series of flips, which ended in a double mounted spring behind the guard and socked him across his face with his balled fist. Bending over, Nightwing tied the guard’s feet and hands behind his back after dragging him to what looked like a closet.

“Sorry buddy, but we don’t need any problems from you,” Nightwing replied as he placed the guard in the closet.

Starfire walked towards the ornate door and casually blew it off its hinges getting a look of surprise and bewilderment from her teammates.

“Um, Star, we are trying to be stealthy here,” Cyborg said after wincing at the sight of the big hole she made.

Starfire blushed. “Oops, guess I got too excited.”

Nightwing shook his head as he took the lead into the cavern. Starfire stayed not too far behind him with her fist aglow of the solar energies that she absorbs and re-emits. A dark luminous wave brushed past the Titans as they reached the fateful bottom. Nightwing held fast at the maw of the cavern looking for any measures of security. The smell of decomposing flesh was so strong that Argent could not help but keel over and start vomiting.

“Are you alright?” Beast Boy said as he offered a hand to help her up.

“I’ll be fine. I just need a minute,” Argent replied as she tried to compose herself.

“Beast Boy, we need a reconnaissance now,” Nightwing said as he pointed towards a great red lake with a young woman bathing in it.

“Right boss,” Beast Boy replied as he changed into a small rodent and snuck his way towards the pool.

When he came to the edge of the pool, he noticed a yellow shimmering figure hovering around the young girl. He felt some kind of familiarity with it and it dawned on him on where he had felt the feeling before. Another thing he noticed was the other girls surrounding Blood, who seemed to be in a trance.

“Raven,” Beast Boy gasped before he scurried back to the others.

“Okay BB what are we dealin’ with?” Cyborg asked as Beast Boy climbed into the palm of his hand.

“It looks like Raven is down there guys and I think they are doing something to her,” Beast Boy replied. “I think Blood has all those girls hypnotized. Looks like Checkmate and Oracle were right that something fishy was going on.”

Nightwing turned to the shimmering figure in the distance. His eyes furrowed as he briefly contemplated on what their next course of action should be. The others watched for his signal to see what Nightwing wanted them to do. After a brief moment he pulled out the last of his wing dings and looked back at the team.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but Raven is one of us. We don’t abandon our own. Titans go!” Nightwing said as he led the charge.

He tossed his wing dings with pin point accuracy nailing the temple and wrist of Brother Blood. The small youth fell to the ground with a thud. Nightwing raced to check on the condition on the boy while Arsenal directed Starfire to get the girls out of the pool. As Nightwing reached down to check the boy’s pulse, Brother Blood sprung up grabbing Nightwing’s throat and lifting him off the ground.

“Did you really think that your puny attack would down me?” Brother Blood asked.

“Yeah. I was hoping it would,” Nightwing choked out as he struggled to catch his breath, “but I guess this will have to suffice.”

Pulling the escrima sticks from his boots, Nightwing leaned in kicking Brother Blood square in the chin. Then the former boy wonder used that momentum to go into a back flip onto his palms before springing away to a safe distance. Brother Blood wiped the small trickle of blood from his mouth and tasted it.

“Worms. That is all you are to me is worms to be crushed under my heel,” Blood spat as he closed in on Nightwing

“Don’t move kid! I have you dead to rights,” Arsenal said as he aimed his crossbow at the kid’s shoulder.

Brother Blood’s purple eyes showed no hint of fear as he kept moving towards the former boy wonder.

“Alright. I warned you,” Arsenal said as he fired his crossbow bolt at Blood’s shoulder.

The bolt glided through the air towards Blood only to be caught between his index and middle finger.

“This is nothing but a toy to me,” Blood said as he snapped the shaft with those same two fingers. “If there is a weapon capable of beating me this surely is not it.”

Arsenal looked at Brother Blood with a look of disbelief while he placed another bolt in his crossbow. Nightwing edged back from the boy before running forward and delivering a series of strikes, meant to incapacitate the youth and nothing more.

In the center of the pool...

Starfire tried in vain to remove the girl from the pool, but each try was met without success. Finally losing her cool she leveled a star bolt on the field containing the girl and Raven. She relented on a second attack when she saw Raven’s face.

“Raven?” Starfire gasped.

The face created by the glowing field looked at Starfire with pleading eyes, before a wave of darkness started to lower from a pentagram that was brandished on the ceiling of the cavern.

“Raven!” Starfire cried.

The others looked at what was happening. Nightwing turned to Arsenal and Cyborg. “Get her out of there!” he said with zeal.

“Hey Roy, I got the sonic if you got the boom,” Cyborg said as he prepped and aimed his sonic blaster.

“I got your boom right here Cy,” Arsenal said as he fired an explosive tipped bolt.

The crossbow bolt met the sonic blast midway creating a powerful explosion that destroyed the pentagram above Raven and the girl’s head. After the explosion cleared the darkness shot out in all directions and the light which was Raven was drawn into the young woman.

“You fool! Do you realize what you have done?” Blood bellowed in anger.

“Um, let’s see? How about stop a freak teenager from destroying one of my friends?” Nightwing quipped.

“You idiot, that spell wasn’t meant to destroy her. It was to bring about her rebirth. By tampering with it you have unleashed forces you cannot possibly imagine!” Blood screamed. “We must flee if we value our lives. Even the great Trigon cannot save us now!”

“Trigon?” Nightwing said with a puzzled expression on his face.

His thoughts were caught short when the darkness entered the women that had been gathered around Blood. Each one of them metamorphosed into grizzly creatures with long bat-like wings. Their claws were long enough and sharp enough to cut right through a foot thick slab of steel easily. Nightwing drew back with Arsenal backing him up. The creatures took to the air before they started their descending attack on the ground bound Titans.

“If any one has any ideas what these things are and how we are going to beat them please say something now,” Beast Boy said as he changed into a cougar to avoid one of the attacking creature’s claws.

“We’ve beaten tougher, Beast Boy. Titans go!” Nightwing said after throwing one of the escrima sticks into the throat of one of the creatures.

Arsenal fired bolt after bolt at the creatures to keep them away, yet none of the quarrels seemed to deter the creatures’ attacks. He started to draw his side arm when Nightwing shook his head-

“We can’t. They are still human,” Nightwing said as he dodged another attack.

“It’s a stun gun. Relax,” Arsenal replied as he took down one of the creatures with one shot.

The Titans continued to fight the creatures off until a cascade of light flew from the pool of blood and enveloped each one of them. Its radiance soothed the tensions amongst all in the room while the creatures were restored to their natural state. Once the light faded Raven stood in an empty pit where the pool had been. Her newer, younger body was covered by a dark blue dress with a hood that was layered with stripes of gold. When the Titans could see again, they noticed Blood was gone and the girls were out of their trances and demonic forms.

“My God,” Nightwing said upon seeing his returned friend.

Later,

JLA Watchtower…

“So,” Batman said as he circled the Titans who were gathered in the meeting room alongside the JLA, “Not only did you disobey us, but you put innocent lives at risk.”

“What would you expect us to do? Oracle and Checkmate had been hearing a lot about Blood since he popped up again and if it wasn’t for us all of those missing kids would still be under his thrall,” Nightwing said. “So, as I see it we saved lives and stopped a mad man from unleashing who knows what horror on Earth.”

“But you said in your report this Blood was different than the one you had faced before. You also said he claimed to be saving your friend over there,” Batman said with his accusing eyes focused only on Nightwing. “So, tell me why did you intervene when we have nothing solid on him?”

“Kidnapping children is nothing solid? Gee, I wonder what this boils down to. Your ego being out of control or you’re too scared to admit I was in the right,” Nightwing said. “Now if you’re finished we will be leaving. All of us.”

The Titans one by one started filing out of the room. As Nightwing was heading out the door he heard Batman’s last statement.

“This isn’t over. It’s far from over,” Batman said as he stood in the center of the room. His eyes focused on his former protégé.

Nightwing said nothing in reply as he kept his back to the man who he grew up admiring. He simply walked on out the door.

NEXT ISSUE: 'Beast Boy did it!'

Titan Talkback: Welcome to my next installment of Titan Talkback. I hope this issue was much more gratifying then the first part. If the whole scheme felt familiar that’s because I borrowed some inspiration from Geoff John’s Teen Titans. Okay, now let’s take a look at the one and only comment that I received from my partner in crime Jason Trenner on #1.

Fanboyimus prime 2009: It was good, except for the year 3 Brother Blood reference.

Um, that was a total goof on my part I think. At the time I had no clue what year Titans was going to start on so I made a subtle reference to Brother Blood’s appearance in Outsiders. I think Curt organizes that end so I’d imagine he will correct me if I make any more screw ups.

Well that’s all for now till next ish!

-Mick

Sorry Mick- That was something i should have caught as well. All shall be explained shortly, however. Stay tuned...
-Curt