“Showdown”
Karen Beecher looked around the room and realized that her nightmare had come back once again. She was strapped to a table, surrounded by Wildebeests. Worst of all was that the Titan named Jericho stood in front of her, watching silently. She screamed as the probes chewed into her flesh... Bumblebee's head jerked and she looked around. The rest of the team was hovering beside her, surrounded by an indistinct environment. In front of them, a hologram of Steve Dayton stepped forward. "Welcome back," Dayton said. Karen scowled in defiance. "Go to hell," she replied. Dayton shrugged, and suddenly she was back on the table again, unable to do anything but scream... Risk looked around. He appeared to be standing in a hospital room. Behind the drawn curtain, he heard a soft moan from the hospital bed. He strode forward and ripped the curtain open. His mother was lying on the bed. Beside her stood Mr. Bones, the DEO director. His bare hand touched her and her skin bubbled and melted. Bones calmly took his cigar out of his mouth and tapped off the ash. "I'll be with you in a second, Kid," he said nonchalantly. Risk screamed as his mother was reduced to a viscous puddle... Dayton smiled as he walked to another Titan. Using his mind, he was able to access the elaborate scenarios he was creating for them. This time it was Flamebird. Bette Kane gasped as she recognized where she was. She looked around the derelict space station and saw that Bones and Risk were already gone. She took a step forward and her foot bumped something. She looked down and saw the twisted body of this reality's Courtney Whitmore. Beside her lay the older Gar Logan, his head facing up while the rest of his was facing downward. "Looks like I missed one," the being that had once called himself Omni said as he stepped forward. "Surely you didn't think that I could have been stopped by a little psionic feedback." He smiled, as his skin seemed to practically shine with power. Flamebird assumed a fighting stance as she prepared for a battle she knew she'd never win. She screamed as she leaped forward... Dayton took another drag off his computer-generated cigar. "Incredible," he breathed. "I wonder if that was just a dream." Dayton silently thought a moment before turning his attention to Golden Eagle. Jason Parker stood in a room with only one source of light. The light shone down on a casket at the front of the room. Against his will, Jason walked forward and looked inside. There lay his brother Charley. Jason gasped as Charley's eyes snapped open. Immediately Charley reached up and started trying to pull Jason into the casket with him. "Come with me!" he yelled. "Come with me and die forever!" Jason turned his head and saw that not only was Charley pulling him in, the Golden Eagle armor was pushing him from behind. As he started losing ground, all he could do was scream... "Wow," Dayton observed. "I'll bet Sigmund Freud would have a field day with that one." He moved down to Red Star. Leonid turned and saw Baby and Pantha standing there. He smiled and extended his arms. "Daddy not leave!" Baby cried and he ran forward and grabbed Leonid's leg. "Baby?" Leonid asked as he saw corrosion spreading across the armor Baby wore. "He's right," Pantha rasped. "You're not leaving. You're staying here with us. Forever." She removed her mask, revealing the exposed rotting muscle and empty eye sockets that it had hidden. As she started forward, all Red Star could do was scream... "Pfft," Dayton remarked. "Old news." He glanced at a watch that had just materialized on his wrist. "It's getting late. I'll just take a quick look at these others." Terra stood trapped in her earthen form. Helpless, she saw Tara Markov create a dirt storm with her body. The team was buried, all except Changeling. Terra screamed as Tara began forcing earth down his throat, slowly suffocating him... Vibe stood surrounded by an army of Ivodroids. His Justice League - J'onn J'onzz, Aquaman, Gypsy, Steel, Vixen, Elongated Man and Zatanna lay dead around him. They were partially buried by the Titans West team. Vibe took a step back toward the pile of bodies as the Ivodroids moved forward as one. Vibe could only scream as he vanished beneath their onslaught... "Isn't there an original thought in any of their heads?" Dayton asked nobody. "I've got to admit that this is kind of disappointing. Only one I even want to take another look at is Flamebird." He took another drag on his cigar. "Now we get interesting." Before him hovered Gar Logan. Gar Logan knew instantly where he was. The African river was picking up speed and his parents were in the boat in front of him. He turned and saw all of his friends in the boat behind. Just then the waterfall came into view. His parents screamed and started trying to paddle backwards. Against his will, he found himself transforming into the bird he had before. This time, however, he was unable to take off. Everyone in the boat was grabbing him, pulling him back down. Gar screamed as the boat went over the waterfall... Suddenly Gar was no longer in the boat. He was hovering in front of Steve Dayton. "Welcome back, punk," Dayton said. "I should've know it was you doing this all along," Gar said. Dayton smiled. "But I knew I could count on you to be stupid enough to not figure it out. You know, I'm feeling generous. Got anything you haven't figured out yet?" "Yeah," Gar said. "Who's the kid in the Mento suit?" Dayton grinned. "That's one of the things I'm proudest of. It seems that a few of my `indiscretions' before I met Rita turned out to be a bit more fruitful than I'd expected. The kid's my son. My real son, unlike you. I found out he was looking for me, and I reached out to him. He would do anything to help his daddy." Dayton took another pull off his cigar. "All I had to do was direct him to a Mento suit I'd hidden years ago and he did the rest. Imaginative little guy even grabbed the Hybrid again. That was classy." "Why?" Gar asked. "Why us?" "Simple. Because of you. Everytime I was within reach of true greatness, I was stopped by you or one of your little buddies. If it wasn't you, it was Nightwing or Arsenal or one of them. So I've decided to take care of that little problem once and for all. I'm going to kill all of them. Grayson, Troy, Harper, Rayner, all of them. That's a set fact." "What about my team?" Gar asked. Dayton smiled a predatory smile. "That's up to you. Do you remember how Rita died?" Gar nodded. "Yeah. She and the rest of the Patrol went out to fight General Zahl and Madame Rouge. They died to save that one little town." "Little town?" Dayton roared. "That place had fourteen people in it! Fourteen! Because of that, my wife was taken from me!" "She was a hero," Gar said. "Unlike some people I know." "Watch your mouth, punk," Dayton snapped. He took a second and composed himself. "Anyway, I decided I wanted to conduct a little behavioral experiment. That's why I had Junior send all of you here to me. I just wish that there had been a few more of you. It just doesn't seem completely right with less than fourteen." "What are you talking about?" Gar asked. Dayton's eyes flashed. "It's your choice, punk. Either your team dies, or you do." Dayton leaned back against nothing as Gar's jaw dropped. There was silence for what seemed like an eternity. "You made your decision?" Dayton finally asked. Gar silently nodded. "Good!" Dayton said. "Let's just let the rest of your little friends join in the fun!" A second later, the rest of the team began stirring and looking at Dayton. "Now, what's your decision." Gar opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a voice from behind. "He chooses option c - none of the above." Dayton scowled as Mal Duncan stepped forward. "How the hell did you get here?" Dayton asked. "Easy," Mal said. "I got sent right along with the rest of the team." "What? How did you get away from me?" Mal shrugged. "Simple. You forgot one thing. This isn't the real world. This is cyberspace. And cyberspace is amazingly flexible." As Mal spoke, reality seemed to swirl around him. "Matter of fact, all the rules just go right out the window. All you have to do is know what you're doing. And I do." Mal Duncan was gone. The Herald stood in front of Dayton now, Gabriel's Horn in hand. "So what?" Dayton asked. "I know you can't use that thing without releasing the Antithesis and the Gargoyle. All you're doing is putting on a fashion show." Dayton raised a hand that glowed with energy. "And now your time's up." "Not quite," Herald said. "I fixed those bugs when I created this baby." Before Dayton could react, the Herald raised the horn to his lips and blew. Dayton barely had time to scream in frustration before a portal opened beneath him and he vanished. "Now let's take care of this." Herald keyed in a different sequence and blew the horn again, releasing the team. "Where is he?" Gar asked. Herald shook his head. "Someplace far away. You guys ready to go home?" At the nods and yes's that followed, Herald smiled and blew again. In the conference room, Mento screamed as the room erupted in light. He fell to the floor, the helmet falling off his head and rolling away. "We're back!" Flamebird yelled as she ran to hug Mal. Mal smiled and kissed Karen. "Hey, look at this," Vibe said, spotting Dayton's unmoving son. "Looks like Captain Freako's still here." "Here's the helmet," Risk said, picking it up. He glanced down and saw his glove beginning to smolder. Risk immediately dropped the helmet. "Watch it! That thing's hot!" Eagle pulled his helmet off and knelt beside Mento. After a quick examination, he snapped his fingers in front of his face. Mento didn't even blink. "Completely unresponsive," Jason said. Karen was looking at the helmet without touching it. "I'd say he was using the helmet to keep us from taking control of cyberspace and to keep us there. When Mal brought us back, it overloaded the helmet. And his mind." Gar stepped over to the prone figure. "Is there anything we can do?" Jason shook his head. "About all we can do is get him to the hospital. Maybe they'll have some sort of new therapy that'll help. Right now, it's almost like his mind shorted out." Karen stood and moved to a phone. "I'll let STAR know. We may be able to help bring him out again." Gar nodded and watched as Eagle tried to make Mento comfortable. Later that night, Gar was standing on the roof looking at the stars. Terra walked up behind him and gently laid her hand on his shoulder. "You okay?" she asked. Gar turned and Terra saw tears running down his face. "I couldn't save him," he said softly. "And now he's still out there..." Gar fell into Tara's arms. She held him tightly as he mourned his adoptive father. In the shadows, Bette Kane smiled. "I love you, too," she whispered as she walked back downstairs and into the future. Next Issue: After the events of the Dayton battle, things pick up for the team as they get to put in a public appearance at the Happyland Amusement Park! And then an old sometime-friend shows up to completely mess up the works! Don't miss it! Previous Issue | Next Issue |
