MLDC Next Generation: Teen Titans

by Michael_Ravencroft

Invasion Part 6: TITANS, GO!

Tirek continued to move further into the city, his Parademons flanking him the whole way. His horns charged up with black and orange energy and fired an Omega Beam at a few buildings, raking the super charged attack across, practically slicing them in half and toppling the structures. He was disappointed by the outcome of his battle with the young would-be-heroes.

Tirek only had himself to blame, he had thought that they might’ve been able to shake off his little doldrum that he had slipped into without realizing. His quest for his ultimate goal had been taking longer than he thought, and with each conquered world Tirek believed he was getting closer to it, but alas, it seemed further away. Maybe a little destruction would help him think.

Suddenly the skies rumbled, Tirek stopped, the other Parademons following his lead. Suddenly lightning shot down from the sky in a giant column of crackling power; the bolt struck the road a couple of yards away from Tirek. The column broke apart with a whoosh of ionized air, creating a buffeting effect that made the Parademons wince from it, but Tirek just narrowed his gaze.

When the column disappeared they stood tall. Thunder stood at the center, arms crossed and hood up, her twin tail scarf bellowing in the cross winds of her power, eyes and body shimmering with magical lightning energy. Dove stood on the far right, with two mana spheres at the ready. Closer to Thunder’s right was Hawk, a double bladed ax in one hand, and a spiked shield on the other. On the far left was Blue Lantern, a blue construct staff in her hands. And on Thunder’s left was Green Lantern, both forearms encased in green construct gauntlets, the synergy of Will and Hope raging in the two Lanterns’ auras.

“Humph, the whelps return after licking their wounds. The arrogance of youth, believing themselves invincible when really they are no more invincible than speck of dirt, I suppose it is I who must show you the error of your ways.” Tirek took a momentary headcount of the assembled heroes. “I see two of you have come to their senses, but it does not matter. There is no refuge on this world that can shelter them from the end.”

“UGH, give it up with the doom-and-gloom, ‘I’m the bringer of death and’, blah, blah, blah! We don’t give a damn! This is our planet – our home! And we won’t let you destroy it!” Hawk shouted.

Tirek smirked, if nothing else, the children were amusing to him. Apokolips had far too few things that gave him such amusement, other than bearing witness to the tortures his lieutenants could conjure for their captives. The centaur summoned his energy yet again, channeling into his horns and creating a sphere of power. The sphere blasted forth its Omega Beam, roaring down the road and striking the heroes. The explosion kicked up a dust cloud that hid them from sight, but he didn’t have to wait long.

Azure and red streaks of light broke off from the left, green and blue from the left, and down the middle lightning flashed as Thunder burst through the cloud and prepared to deliver a haymaker to the centaur. Her gaze shifted to her left for just a split second, her thoughts going out to those she knew were out there.

Firestorm, Arrow, we’re counting on you, thought Thunder.

“SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT, TIREK!!!”

ELSEWHERE…

Arrow and Firestorm were flying over the water and headed straight towards the tower; the vigilante archer had hidden the portal generator before they went to do battle with Tirek their first time out. Now though, now was different. While the others kept Tirek occupied, Firestorm and Arrow would infiltrate the black tower and figure out a way to send the Parademons away, and hopefully Tirek while they were at it.

“I still don’t like this, we should be helping them fight that guy!” Firestorm vented.

Arrow, standing on a platform made of solidified water – and no I don’t mean ice, he literally made the water solid without freezing it – shared his concerns with Firestorm. “I know how you feel, but if we succeed then we’ll be able to beat Tirek.”

“Sending him away back to where he came from isn’t a solution, what’s to stop him from coming back?!”

The archer knew that Firestorm had a point. Although this was the best available plan, it wasn’t a permanent solution. If Tirek wanted to, he could always come back and try again. But for now, there was the task at hand. The tower was getting closer and closer with each passing second, soon they’d be up to their necks in Parademons, fighting through a horde of them to get to the tower, and a computer with which to enact their plan.

“For now let’s see if we can even pull it off. Get ready!”

Firestorm increased his speed, igniting his nuclear plasma fire and wrapping it around him. Like a fiery comet, the Nuclear Man hurled himself at the side of the tower. Firestorm broke through the side, melting through the layers of metal, boring deeper into the structure.

Once Arrow was close enough, he followed after Firestorm. He notched an arrow and released it, the tail catching on his bow and the arrow head itself breaking open into a three-pronged grappling hook. Once the hook attached to something Arrow swung from it, he dislodged the first and fired another, continuing to swing further into the tower.

Arrow followed the burning path of his alley all the way to the end, finding Firestorm standing on an observational deck. The vigilante archer swung one final time, flipped in the air, and landed with ease next to him. “Let’s start searching.” Arrow suggested.

“Where do we even start?”

“Splitting up would be bad, but faster.”

“No way, we’re sticking together.”

Arrow chuckled. “Fair enough. If I were to venture a guess we should head up. The closer we are to the main portal the more likely we’ll run into a control console of some sort.”

“Alright I – wait hold up.” Firestorm stared off at something next to him, he then nodded his head as if agreeing to something. “Change of plans, Lucky’s going to switch out with me. You two will be better able to find the computer and do your techno thing.”

The hooded archer nodded and waited. Firestorm’s body was engulfed by purple flames, the atomic rings formed around it, containing the flame and reshaping it into the form of its new driver. After a short couple of seconds, the Secondary Driver of Firestorm appeared.

“I think I might know a way to find what we’re looking for.” Firestorm got down on knee and placed his left palm against the cool metal floor. His energy pulsated through the floor, going out in waves as if they were acting as some sort of radar system. Arrow had a few of this trick arrows at the ready, just in case they got ambushed. Just then Firestorm’s eyes opened and he grinned. “I think I found something, follow me!”

Firestorm took the lead with Arrow on his heels. The two heroes went down a corridor and found themselves about to run into a small contingent of Parademons. Atomic rings formed around his hands, Firestorm swiped them around as if drawing something in the air. Suddenly the metal walls churned and undulated.

The Parademons continued to charge for them, but before they could reach Arrow and Firestorm, the metal transformed into metal spikes that jutted out in every direction. The Parademons were skewered from every possible angle, making their blue-green blood ooze out onto the floor.

From behind them, another group of Parademons approached. Arrow launched one of his explosive tipped arrows down the hall, Firestorm saw this and held out his right hand, placing his middle finger and thumb together.

When the arrow struck the Parademon, Firestorm snapped his fingers, making the explosion double in size and magnitude. Thankfully, he anticipated that the corridor would just make the flames funnel through it, but with a flick of his left wrist, Firestorm made the flames shoot towards the entrance they used earlier, preventing anymore Parademons from entering.

Firestorm waved his hand again, making the hall ahead of them return to normal and letting the dead Parademons fall to the floor. The two heroes continued onward with Firestorm leading the way. After making a few turns, Firestorm brought down one of the doors and allowed themselves entry, closing the door behind them and reinforcing it to prevent more Parademons from busting in.

Before them was a computer console, the screens above it displayed various functions of the tower, all in the same alien language that was shown to them at S.T.A.R Labs.

Arrow unslung the device and placed it beside the console. The two had jerry-rigged a crude translation device that would aid them in deciphering the alien letters and hack into the computer. Firestorm and Arrow worked in tandem. The Nuclear Man used his transmutation abilities to create hard light constructs of the consoles that Arrow was using, and connecting to the computer via manipulation of the wireless signals.

“How did you find this place so quickly?” Arrow asked.

“All computers radiate a unique heat signature when in use, I figured a computer connected to this place would give off a pretty big one, and when I looked, I found this place!”

“Good, we should be able to send them back with just a few keystrokes.”

The monitors above showed the main portal that was situated at the top of the tower, at the same time, it showed the locations of the smaller ones scattered about the world. The swarms of Parademons were blanketing every city, and if nothing was done soon, the world would fall.

As they typed away, the pounding of the Parademons against the reinforced door were doubling in number. Many of them trying to tear it down and tear into them; as Arrow continued his work, he spotted something on the monitors, something that caused him some worry.

“Firestorm, Lucky, I think I found the people these Parademons kidnapped!”

“Seriously?!” Firestorm asked. “I think we can save them, teleport them out of their holding pods.”

“Now’s not the time, unfortunately. If we did, they’d be dropped right into the middle of our battle with Tirek, we’ll get them out later, but right now the Parademons and then Tirek.”

Lucky nodded and went back to work. The firewalls to the mainframe were coming down with each passing second. Thanks to the Father Box A.I. they were able to fool the computer into thinking that they weren’t intruders. At that moment the machine pinged, and Firestorm and Arrow glanced at each other, smirking in victory.

Back in the city, the remaining heroes fought tooth and nail to keep Tirek at bay, having stomped out the Parademons around him and now attacking him directly. Green Lantern and Blue Lantern fired a dual beam of at Tirek, slamming him in the chest and making the giant centaur dig his hooves into the ground to keep from being pushed back. He charged his horns, preparing to fire his Omega Beam.

But Hawk swooped down from high above, holding chakrams in both hands. She used her speed and momentum to throw the two razor sharp discs down at Tirek. The chakrams ignited with red mana, blazing towards the unsuspecting centaur.

The red spiraling discs slashed down his back, cutting deep red grooves in his back armor. The tyrant must’ve felt a sting of the blade, for his concentration was broken for that moment, allowing the two Lanterns to pour their energy into the attack and send him flying off his hooves and down the street.

Thunder flew in and took advantage of his disorientation. When she was in range she threw a right hook across his face, creating a deafening “BOOM”. Tirek was sent flying into the side of a building, but Thunder didn’t stop there, she began unleashing a flurry of rapid-fire punches right at his midsection, her fists becoming literal blurs. The blows seemed to penetrate his thick armor as Tirek released pained grunts from each strike. Thunder stopped, but then shot up into a super speed uppercut.

The uppercut connected with Tirek’s jaw, making his head bounce back against the building. With an enraged growl he wrenched himself free from the building and threw a downward punch, catching the magic heroine off guard by the large centaur’s speed. His fist connected with Thunder, slamming her into the ground. Tirek returned her punches in kind, raining down several on Thunder, making the crater she was in grow with each impact.

Dove fired a mana sphere towards Thunder, quickly enveloping her in a barrier that protected Thunder from the next punch. Tirek growled in pain when his knuckles met the hard barrier, his horns charged up again and fired an Omega Beam right at Dove.

The Avatar of Peace skidded to a halt, gawking at the incoming beam and uttered, “Uh-oh!”

She took off in the opposite direction, with the Omega Beam right on her tail. She looked behind her and let out an “EEP!” as the beam dogged her. She made several turns down many streets, and yet, despite all this, the beam continued to follow her.

Dove spotted a few Parademons floating above her. She aimed for the building nearest them and ran up the side of it, and of course, the Omega Beam was right behind her. She continued up, running with everything she had. Dove took a quick glance to see where the Parademons were.

When she was level with them, she spring boarded off the building and flew towards them. The Parademons saw her and prepared to take her down, but Dove’s graceful movements and ability to weave through aggressive energy allowed her to slip behind them. She gave them a quick wave goodbye before the Omega Beam struck the group of Parademons, blowing them up before they knew what hit them.

Hawk flew to her with a wide grin on her face. “Nice work Annie!”

“Thanks, that beam is no joke! It’s like OP to the max!”

“Yeah, now that I think about it, I thought you didn’t like heights,” said Star as she crossed her arms in front of her.

“I don’t.”

“So why are you flying right now?”

Dove froze, looked down and then back to Star. She hurriedly grabbed hold of the Avatar of War. “GET ME DOWN FROM HERE! NOW!”

“You gotta be kidding me,” said Star, mentally face palming herself. “You just ran up a building and flew, you can do it if you just –”

“I MEAN IT!!!” Annie screamed.

Back at the fight, Green Lantern created a construct missile launcher and fired a volley of green energy missiles at Tirek. The giant centaur brought up his arms and defended himself from the attack, each missile exploding on impact. Blue Lantern created a giant hammer that looked akin to a child’s toy. She raised it up and brought the hammer down with great speed. Tirek raised his hands into the air and caught the hammer, the force generated from the sudden stop flew out in all directions in a wave of air.

Blue Lantern abandoned the hammer and appeared in front of Tirek’s face. Below her she created a giant cannon, upon which she sat on and gave Tirek a big smile. The cannon then fired an energy beam that was littered with construct confetti, balloons, and streamers. The centaur was sent fumbling backwards from the power and sheer unorthodox ordinance. Green Lantern created his lasso and quickly hogtied Tirek’s legs, making the Destroyer fall to the ground.

“INSOLENT WHELPS! YOU DARE TO MAKE LIGHT OF A GOD?!!” Tirek shouted.

“Oh, blah, blah, god this and god that! Tell me if this stings Mr. God?!” Hawk shouted.

Tirek looked up and saw Hawk coming straight for her, but she wasn’t alone. Somehow the Avatar of War had gotten hold of an F-22 fighter jet. Using her powers she had taken over the aircraft, transforming it into a literal Warbird. The wings matched Hawk’s, the jet was colored black and red, and its missiles were mounted on the outside. The twin Vulcan cannons of the jet opened fire, along with unloading all its missiles, basically raining down hell upon Tirek.

The added power of the Avatar of War made each explosion twice as powerful, making Tirek buckle down from the attacks. Hawk jumped off at the last second and let the jet crash land onto him, exploding with enough force to shatter the glass of the surrounding buildings. Dove rejoined Blue Lantern, and Hawk partnered with Green Lantern. Thunder recovered and was flying towards the smoldering crater, but at that moment a blast wave erupted from the crater.

The wave slammed against the heroes knocking them off their feet. When the smoke cleared Tirek’s armor was cracking and dented, parts of his body were bleeding with violet blood. He charged for Green Lantern and Hawk, catching them in midair. He held out both of his massive arms and clotheslined them, making them spin around. Tirek skidded to a halt and brought down both his hands in dual hammer fists, striking both heroes and making them hit the dirt.

Tirek fired an Omega Beam at Dove and Blue Lantern. The two heroines used their powers to create a shield to protect them. Tirek split the beam into three parts, one hitting from the front, while the others hit from the left and right. The tri beam laid into the heroes until their barrier fell and exploded, sending them flying backwards.

Thunder doubled her speed, concentrating her magical might into her right fist and punched Tirek right in the face, she channeled it yet again into her left foot, landing an electrically charged crescent kick to his right side, sending Tirek all the way down the street as he came to a halt, slamming his hooves into the ground to stop himself form going any further.

Thunder landed near Green Lantern and Hawk, giving them a hand up. Blue Lantern appeared next to them along with Dove. She used her light of Hope to cast a healing ray of light over them. It allowed them to rejuvenate, and heal some of their wounds, but to completely heal them would take a little longer and they knew Tirek wouldn’t give them that chance.

“Ah’m not sure how much longer we can hold out here,” said Green Lantern.

“We can hold out for as long as it takes! Firestorm and Arrow need all the time we can give ‘em,” said Hawk.

“Then you’ll be happy to know that we’re done.”

Suddenly a Boom Tube opened up behind the five heroes, making them hurriedly turn around and prepare for a second assault. But their tension eased when they saw Firestorm (Hot Head form) and Arrow walk out of the roaring dimensional tunnel. When they were on solid ground the Boom Tube closed itself.

“You guys did it?!” Thunder asked.

“Yes we did, hacked them good,” said Firestorm.

“Now we have access to their Boom Tubes, and it’s time to send these guys back to where they came from.” Arrow, who still had the father box slung on his waist, flipped his left forearm, revealing a mini terminal computer. He then connected some wire cords to the portal generator. “Firestorm and I figured out a way to get all the abducted people out from captivity and teleported them to military safe zones. Now it’s time to say goodbye to beasties.”

Arrow typed away at his wrist terminal, and within a few seconds the sounds of multiple Boom Tubes opening up thundered in the air. All across the sky, dimensional rifts opened up. The Parademons’ Omega symbols shined red and were immediately pulled straight for the Boom Tubes. The creatures shrieked as they were forcibly pulled into the gateways and hurled back to Apokolips. All around the world the same thing was happening, portals opening up and sucking in Parademons, the people cheering in victory at the sight of it all.

The team looked to Tirek, who was shocked at seeing the portals opening. His own Omega symbol glowed red, and a portal opened up behind him. But the centaur tyrant wasn’t about to go back, he was stronger than his lackey Parademons, and he would not be taken down so easily.

“This is impossible! What have you done?!” Tirek shouted.

“Our plan happened. While you fought the five of us, you had no idea that we sent two of our own to infiltrate your tower and take over your portal generators,” said Thunder.

“And to make sure you never return, at least by these means, I’ve scrambled Earth’s dimensional coordinates and erased them from your mainframe.” Arrow added.

Tirek stomped his front hooves and growled in indignation and fury. “YOU DARE TO INTERFERE WITH MY WILL?!! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO DEFY A GOD?!!”

The assembled heroes each had grins on their faces. Green Lantern and Blue Lantern’s rings flared with emerald and sapphire light. Hawk summoned two scimitars into her hands, and Dove held up her palms, creating two spheres of condensed mana. Firestorm ignited his fists, his flaming mane bellowing as he grinned at Tirek. Arrow turned off his wrist terminal and notched three explosive tipped arrows onto the drawstring.

“Like you said earlier, Tirek…WE’RE TITANS!” Thunder shouted.

“RAARRAARAAGGGGH!!!!” Tirek bellowed as he charged for them.

Thunder’s lightning aura wrapped around her body as her eyes turned pure white from the buildup her magical power. “GO!”

All seven heroes charged for Tirek. The giant centaur thrust his right fist, red energy coalesced around it as he struck the ground, missing the heroes but making the road blow up from the impact. Thunder came down with an electrified ax kick, right on top of Tirek’s head. The blow made the tyrant do a face plant and fumble forward before righting himself.

But before he could counter attack, the Lanterns swopped in and hit him with a double boxing glove construct, throwing an uppercut at him. The double punch sent Tirek flying back, but Dove was waiting for him. She spun out and created a giant sphere of mana that kicked up a whirlwind. When Tirek struck it he was tossed backwards like a rag doll, bouncing on the asphalt until he came within a few yards of the Boom Tube.

Tirek’s horns charged yet again, preparing to fire another Omega Beam. But Arrow rolled out and fired two of the three explosive arrows, both whizzing arrows struck the bull’s eye. Literally, the arrows hit Tirek right in the eyes and exploded, making the giant wail in pain as he clutched at his eyes.

Green Lantern and Blue Lantern appeared on either side of him. They shot out blue and green chain constructs that wrapped around his huge arms. Hawk summoned a huge lance and threw the red bladed weapon right at Tirek’s left horn, the Avatar of War then chased after her weapon. The lance found its home right in the middle of Tirek’s left horn, Hawk flipped around in midair and thrust out her right foot. She kicked the butt of her lance at high speed, forcing the rest of the weapon all the way through his horn.

She kicked off from the horn, leaving Tirek to wail again from the pain now radiating from his punctured horn. He charged up again, pouring more energy into his next Omega Beam. Tirek may not have been able to see, but that mattered little when you could just level everything around you.

Dove took aim with one of her mana spheres and shot it right for the twelve-inch hole in his horn. The sphere zipped inside, and within a few seconds, the azure sphere expanded to the size of a wrecking ball. The resulting expansion caused Tirek’s horn to snap off, sending shattered remnants of the horn scattering everywhere. The energy that built up for the Omega Beam had discharged, firing upwards into the air and dissipating in a matter of moments.

GL and BL nodded to each other and started pulling backwards. Tirek felt the jerking of his arms, the sudden pull as he was dragged towards the Boom Tube behind him. Her roared and growled, shouting out his defiance as he refused to be thrown back to his home world by children. The giant tyrant pulled his arms forward, flexing his muscles and struggling against the restraints. The construct chains began to show signs of cracking as the two Lanterns struggled to keep their hold on him.

Suddenly Firestorm appeared and slammed his right palm on the ground. Atomic rings formed and the road changed into slippery, slick sludge that made it hard for Tirek to get proper traction. The centaur attempted to gallop but his front hooves slipped and the tyrant lost his hoofing right then and there. The Lanterns put everything they had into one toss, flinging Tirek right at the Boom Tube.

Tirek flew towards the gateway, yelling out as he flailed his arms to try and grab hold of something. The giant centaur’s body got halfway into the warbling portal before his large hands gripped the edges of the portal, pulling tight against it as his damaged eyes tried to focus on his enemies. They focused just long enough to see all seven of them assemble just a yard away from him.

Thunder charged up her lightning and fired a bolt of magical lightning. Firestorm brought both his hands together and bellowed out an intense stream of plasma flames. Dove fired another wrecking ball sized mana sphere, while Hawk summoned her largest spear and chucked the blazing red weapon. Arrow drew one his more deadly arrows, he notched the high explosive tipped shaft and fired it. Green Lantern and Blue Lantern gathered all the light power they had and unleashed a dual beam of Hope and Willpower.

The seven attacks all converged on Tirek, hitting the conqueror with massive power and force, exploding out in a shower of colors. The last attack of the heroes made Tirek lose his grip and with that he let go. Tirek roared out as he fell further and further into the Boom Tube, he was so far down the tunnel of light he appeared as a speck. Arrow quickly flipped on his wrist terminal and deactivated the portal, shutting the door between Apokolips and Earth.

The seven heroes still stood, tense and ready for more, waiting for something to happen, but after several tense seconds of silence they all released a collective sigh of relief. They each looked to each other, grinning and chuckling, until…

“WE WON, YES!!!” Firestorm shouted.

“I think we need a vacation,” said Lucky from within the Matrix.

“Thank god,” said Dove, relieved.

“Okay, well, my tank’s empty, I’m ready to go to bed now.” Hawk commented.

Arrow was about to agree, but then he spotted a large crowd of civilians approaching them. “Um, my friends, we may not be out of the woods just yet.”

Green Lantern saw the civilians coming and cringed. “Yeah…Ah don’t think they may be happy with what we did to most of the city…”

“B-But we stopped the invasion, we beat Tirek! They wouldn’t be mad about that, right?” Blue Lantern asked.

“I don’t know, the world was already skittish about kids like us wielding superpowers and roaming around free to do what we want. I wouldn’t be surprised if they blamed us,” said Thunder.

The crowd grew in size as the civilians saw that the danger had passed. The seven heroes prepared themselves for the jeers and disapproving glares of the people for their actions in stopping Tirek. But what they didn’t expect were the growing noise of cheering. They listened closely and found that they were not mistaken, the crowd was cheering for them, loudly and with great joy.

Suddenly they were surrounded by a sea of people, all of them gathering close to the young heroes, offering the deepest thanks and congratulations for defeating Tirek and the Parademon army.

It was a strange feeling for some of them. Thunder never stuck around to here if people thanked her or cursed her for her work, Hawk and Dove were semi used to hearing cheers, although they had been considered dangerous minors. Green Lantern and Blue Lantern had always been looked to as heroes by various alien species, Earth saw them as the same but with a grain of salt.

Arrow was seen as a dangerous vigilante, prowling the streets with an arsenal of dangerous weapons and with a hood. Firestorm was the newest hero among them, but this was still something foreign to them.

All of them glanced to each other. Together they had stood against a great foe, and overwhelming odds. Together they ended an invasion that not a single one of them was strong enough alone to stop. And together they ended it. A strong sense of comradery was felt between them all, strangers though each of them were, this day, this night, they were a team.

Author's Note:

Next time on Teen Titans:

The fighting has ended, and now one of the Titans contemplates the future and the events of the Invasion. But a surprise rally call from Arrow will change everything.