Titans West

Gar Logan stood stunned. His team, Titans West, had just returned to their headquarters to find the old Titans enemies known as the Hybrid waiting for them. Even more shocking was the fact that Mento was among them. Gar's eyes widened as he saw the smiling Gorgon turning his gaze toward the team.

"Move!" Gar yelled, shoving Terra and Flamebird out of the way. Gorgon's eye beam hit where they had been standing and turned the floor to stone.

"You can't dodge forever!" Gorgon roared as he dropped to the floor.

"What do we do?" Vibe asked as Gar grabbed his arm and dragged him forward.

"Move it!" Gar replied. "We can't take them all grouped up like that! We've got to scatter and break them up!" The team disappeared into the headquarters.

Behind them, Mento gently lowered the Hybrid to the ground. "Well, well, well," he said. "The prey has gone to ground. Take them, but don't kill them. The Master reserves that privilege for himself."

At his beckoning, the Hybrid split up and followed the team into the dark...

Harpi flew through the hallways and headed down the bedroom corridor. She smiled as she saw someone lying in the floor. Her eyes began to glow as she prepared to fire her eyebeams. As she drew closer, she saw that it was Mal.

"But he was-" she started to say. Just then, a cord wrapped itself around her neck and a weight dropped onto her back.

"Got her!" Flamebird yelled. She grabbed the cord tighter as Harpi began flying widely trying to throw her off. "A little help here!" she yelled as she dodged Harpi's slashing claws.

Harpi quickly targeted Mal with her eye beams. "Get off or he dies!" she ordered. A moment later she felt a slight pain in her stomach and fell to the ground unconscious.

"That'll teach you to threaten my husband!" Bumblebee said. Her stinger was still aimed at Harpi as Flamebird climbed off. "Are you okay?"

Flamebird nodded. "Yeah. Thought I was in trouble for a second there."

Bumblebee lowered her stinger arm as Flamebird finished tying up Harpi. "What now?"

Flamebird stood up. "Now we try to find the others. They may need a hand."

Bumblebee nodded as she helped Mal to his feet. He shook his head. "Ow. What happened?" he asked.

"The Hybrid," Bumblebee told him. "Now we've got to get out of here." Together, the three ran down the corridor.

Behemoth thundered down the corridor, searching for Titans to crush. He smiled when he saw Risk standing in the middle of the corridor. "So, you are the first," he said.

Risk looked up at the massive Behemoth. "The first and best!" he said, smirking.

"You expect to fight me?" Behemoth asked. "You are kidding. I will smash you like the bug you are."

Risk flexed his fists. "Or maybe I'll just knock you on that big fat ass of yours."

Behemoth laughed. "Prepare to lose," he said as he stepped forward.

Risk charged and started slamming his fists into Behemoth to no effect. Behemoth simply swatted him away and into the far wall.

"Puny little thing," Behemoth said. He then let out a cry of pain as a blazing Red Star dropped onto his back. Behemoth swung wildly and Red Star fell to the carpet, extinguishing himself before the carpet ignited. He stood there and smiled.

"What are you laughing at?" Behemoth asked as thick walls of transparent promethium dropped around him and the small fires on the carpet. His eyes bugged out as fire extinguishing chemicals sprayed from the ceiling.

Red Star hurried over and helped Risk up. "Did we get him?" Risk asked.

Red Star glanced over his shoulder as Behemoth hit the carpet with an earth-shaking thud. "Yes," he replied. "We got him."

Gorgon crept through the deserted halls and into the monitor room. The small snakes atop his head twitched nervously as he looked around. He glanced down as a small sphere rolled toward him. He picked it up and heard a click. A second later, he dropped it as it emitted an ear-piercing screech. Still holding his ears, he backed away. Then the lights went out.

"Got him!" Jason yelled. From overhead, he'd dropped his Golden Eagle helmet onto Gorgon's head backwards, blocking his stone vision. Still aloft, he forced the helmet down, keeping Gorgon from removing it.

Terra grinned. She slowly gestured and earth broke through the room's floor, wrapping Gorgon in an earthen cage. Jason grabbed his helmet from above and earth quickly covered Gorgon's mouth and eyes.

"Good job," Jason said as he replaced the helmet on his head.

"Guess we did make a pretty good team at that," Terra said. "Now let's go find the others."

Pteradon's leathery wings carried him into the gymnasium, where he could fly free. He quickly scanned for his opponents, and saw Vibe step out from behind a storage cabinet. As Vibe raised his hands to fire a sonic wave, Pteradon streaked downward and slashed him with his claws, shredding his uniform shirt and drawing blood. If he hadn't recoiled, he would have been eviscerated.

Bleeding, Vibe dragged himself back as Pteradon began searching for the source of a small noise above. He just had time to look up before he saw a pterodactyl attacking him. With a roar, Pteradon retaliated.

Down below, Vibe saw his chance. He quickly raised his hands again and fired. The sonic waves slammed into Pteradon, stunning him. Above him, the pterodactyl turned into a rhinoceros and dropped him to earth. The impact with the gym floor knocked him out.

The rhino quickly returned to his Gar Logan form, hurrying over to Vibe. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, man," Vibe said, standing up. "Got worse than this in gang fights."

Gar nodded as he finished locking Pteradon in a storage closet. "Come on, we're stopping off at the infirmary and then we're going after Mento. I want to know what's going on here."

"What do you mean?" Vibe asked as they reached the infirmary. "Who is this Mento?" He pulled off his jacket and laid it down on the table, then removed his shirt.

"Mento was supposed to be my stepfather," Gar replied as he approached the table with a bottle of antiseptic and some bandages. Working quickly, he started putting the antiseptic into the cuts.

"Burns," Vibe said, drawing back a little.

"Sorry," Gar said as he closed the bottle and started wrapping up Vibe's cuts. "Anyway, Mento is also supposed to be dead. I just want to know who that goof is in his old costume."

"You never know, man," Vibe said, pulling his shirt back on and wincing as he did so. He reached for his jacket and pulled it on as he said, "I'm supposed to be dead, too."

"Oh, questions? I'll be happy to answer them. But first...” They both whirled and saw Mento standing in the doorway. A wave of his hand and they were gone.

When they regained consciousness, Gar saw that they were all in the meeting room. They were seated around the table but he couldn't move. Mento slowly walked around the table.

"All awake? Good. I believe that it's time for some answers." Mento stopped and swung Gar around to face him. "After all, it's you who dragged these others into this." He turned Gar back so he was facing the table. "My mastermind has chosen this moment to reveal himself." The door opened and the Brain slowly rolled in. The small robot's eyes lit up and displayed a hologram of the Hybrid's master.

In Gotham, Oracle was restudying the items that the Brotherhood had stolen. Beside her, the names that the stolen items had been stored under were running through a cryptoanalysis program. She glanced over when it beeped with a name. She gasped and opened a channel to the Titans West headquarters.

"Gar, this is Oracle," she said, fighting to keep the worry out of her voice. "I've just discovered something about those items that the Brotherhood tried to steal. The names were fake! Those items belong to STEVE DAYTON!"

In the meeting room, the hologram of Steve Dayton, the Crimelord, stepped forward and smiled coldly. "Excellent work, Mark." Mento smiled at the unexpected praise. "You know what? I believe I'd like a little time alone with my stepson. Send them to me."

"Yes, Father!" Mento said, beaming. The glow from his helmet seemed to light up the room...

... and when it faded, Mento was the only one left.

To Be Concluded...

Next Issue: Steve Dayton is ‘the thought’? What can happen next? The answers keep coming next time as the Team is trapped in cyberspace!

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