“Grievances”
"I can't believe this," Gar Logan griped. "How long have they been in there?" Flamebird checked her watch. "Too long." She paced back across the door. "What gives them the right to do this, anyway?" "That's what I'm going to find out," Gar said. "Nightwing may be big stuff out east, but this is our team. I want to know why those five think they have the right to come out here and `interview' us." Golden Eagle looked up from where he'd been staring at the floor. "What's going on, anyway?" Gar scowled. "Just some old bad blood showing up again. And I've had just about enough of it." Gar purposefully strode forward and shoved the door to the conference room open. Around the table were seated Arsenal, Troia, Tempest and the Flash. Red Star was seated at the other end, being questioned. Gar's temper rose further when he saw Nightwing sitting in his chair. "Gar," Nightwing said. "May I help you? It isn't time for your interview yet." "Get up, Leo," Gar said through clenched teeth. "He's not finished yet," Troia said, raising a hand. "Yes, he is, Donna." Gar waited until Leonid had left and walked out. Nightwing followed him into the hall. "Would you like to explain what this little tantrum is about?" he asked. Gar whirled around, pointing his finger into Nightwing's face. "That depends. Would you like to explain what you think you're doing out here?" Tempest smiled. "That's easy. We're checking to see which of you should be able to join us." "What?" Flamebird asked. "What are you talking about?" "Easy," Nightwing said with a slight shrug. "We're shutting you down." "You got about three seconds to explain what you mean by that, Spooky," Vibe said, taking a step forward. "Simple. We are the Titans. We started the name. It's ours. And frankly, you're an embarrassment," Nightwing explained. "Look around you!" Arsenal added. "That fiasco at the amusement park was the last straw. It takes that long to put down Harlequin? Come on! She doesn't even have any powers!" "You mean like Nightwing? Or you?" Risk challenged. "That's different!" Flash yelled. "After all, Nightwing was trained by Batman!" "And if you think you can take me, punk, anytime," Arsenal added with a cold gleam in his eye. "That's enough, Cody," Gar started, but Nightwing cut him off. "See what I mean?" the sneering Nightwing added. "You can't even keep control of your own team! Not to mention you've got Ms. Super-Hero Groupie hanging out with you! You're a joke! You all are!" Gar didn't even feel himself shifting into a giant gorilla as he screamed, "Nightwing, you can just shut up!" Before Nightwing could move, the gorilla had picked him up and thrown him through the window of the conference room. Arsenal grinned. "Lock and load, Titans!" he yelled as he fired at Risk. Risk grinned as arrow after arrow hit him and shattered. "Gotta do better than that, Robin Hood." "I can do better." Arsenal threw a small bead at Risk that exploded in front of his face, releasing a gas. "Let's see how you do with a lungful of knockout gas." A choking Risk fell to his knees as Arsenal started forward, drawing another arrow as he did so. Troia lifted off. "Knock it off, you guys. You can't win, so don't even bother trying." Golden Eagle launched up and hovered in front of her. "We're gonna try, and we're gonna win." He reached out and grabbed Troia's bracelets. Troia's eyes practically flashed red. "Get your hands off me, you man!" Before Eagle could react, Troia had wrenched one hand free and punched him so hard that his helmet flew off. Dazed, Eagle flew across the room and slammed into a wall. Troia watched him fall with a cold smile on her face. Below, Bumblebee raised her arm. Troia felt a slight pain in her side and reached down to pull out one of Bumblebee's stings. "Karen, we've known each other for a long time. You know you can't take me." Bumblebee smiled. "Let's find out for sure." Troia's bracelets became a silver blur as she fought to block the stingers. Tempest's eyes began to glow as he saw Red Star coming toward him. "Back off," he warned. "You were one that we were really looking at." "That may be," Red Star agreed, "but this is my home and these are my friends. You have insulted both." Tempest's eyes glowed brighter as he prepared to fire. "Don't be a fool, Leonid." Red Star smiled a cold smile. "I am not the one who has invaded a man's home." Without another word, he ignited. Tempest fired his eye beams, but Red Star's flame form simply absorbed them. With a scowl, Tempest formed an ice shield. As Red Star melted through, Tempest began trying to think of his next move. Flash grinned as he saw Terra stepping toward him. "I saw you on TV at Happyland. I've got a Happy Slurp for you!" "Pig," Terra said as she willed rocks to form a cage around the Flash. Flash smiled. "Nice try, hon. But when it comes to running, I'm the fastest man alive!" Terra smirked as she turned to floor inside his cage to mud. "Not bad," Flash admitted as he fought to keep his balance. "But now it's my turn." Stepping carefully forward, he took hold of the bars and began vibrating. Terra began to try to plan as the bars began to crack. Flamebird vaulted into the conference room just as Nightwing whipped out his escrima sticks. The gorilla that Gar had become watched cautiously as Nightwing parried to keep him away. Flamebird smiled and raised a hand. "Hey, Nightwing!" she yelled. When Nightwing turned, she activated her flash. Nightwing dropped the escrimas and fell to the ground, holding his eyes. "Thanks, Bette," Gar said as he stepped forward. "Now we've got him." Gar let out a cry as a swift kick from Nightwing landed in his stomach. Nightwing vaulted upward and advanced on Flamebird. "That was stupid," he said coldly. "Did you really think that I wouldn't have polarized lenses in my mask?" Shivering inside, Flamebird stood her ground. "It would have been nice!" she yelled as she threw a kick straight into Nightwing's ribs. Caught off guard, he stumbled to the ground. As he fell, he grabbed Flamebird's leg and threw her off balance as well. Nightwing stood and retrieved his escrima sticks. "One of the things Batman taught me was how to endure pain," he said. "Let's see how good you are at it." Flamebird could only stare as he stepped toward her, spinning the escrima sticks the entire time. From across the room, Vibe saw Arsenal standing over Risk. Risk finally got one of his eyes open and discovered he was looking at the razor-sharp point of an arrow. "Let's see if your eyes are invulnerable," Arsenal said with a sick smile. "No!" Vibe yelled. He loosed a sonic wave a second before Arsenal's finger released the bowstring. When it was all over, the arrow was sticking out of the floor and Risk had been safely blown out of the way. "Oh, somebody else who thinks they're better than me?" Arsenal asked. "Let's find out!" Vibe dove behind a crate as the flood of arrows streaked toward him. "As I said, I have no knowledge of their personal lives," Vernon Questor was saying as Sarah Simms entered carrying coffee. "So you are unaware that they are harboring a fugitive?" the woman before him asked. "As I said before, Agent...ah..." "Jamison. Dakota Jamison," she supplied smoothly. "Yes, of course. As I said, Agent Jamison, Questcorp offers financial assistance to the team known as Titans West out of a desire to preserve the public good." Questor nodded as Sarah finished pouring his coffee and she moved to Jamison. "So you have no knowledge of their legal status," Jamison said, pouring some sugar into the cup and taking a sip. She nodded and Sarah took the tray to the sideboard. "I assume that they are all in good standing," he affirmed. "I have received no notices of any problems." Sarah quietly walked out. Jamison simply raised an eyebrow as the door closed. "Perhaps you should check on that," she said. She quickly stood and placed her cup and saucer on Questor's desk. "Good day, Mr. Questor." Sarah waited until Jamison had left before she returned. "What was that about, sir?" she asked. Questor stared straight ahead with a frown on his face. "I don't know, Ms. Simms. I don't know." Tempest smiled. Finally he had Red Star encased in ice. Leonid kept pounding away trying to escape, but it looked like he was finally trapped. Just then, his head snapped back as a fist slammed into his chin. Tempest's eyes rolled back in his head as he fell to the ground. Red Star easily smashed through the remaining ice and stepped forward. "Excellent shot, Mal," he said. Mal just smiled. "Looks like he forgot I'm a trained boxer. I’ll have to tell you about how I first met the Titans sometime." "I would love to hear it," Red Star said. "But first we must aid the others!" Arsenal grabbed an explosive bead from his pack and prepared to throw it. Behind the arrow-covered crate, Vibe saw his chance. He shot out a sonic wave, forcing Arsenal to drop the bead. Arsenal's eyes shot open and he dove for cover. Before the sound of the explosion had even abated, a hand grabbed Arsenal by his hair and slammed his head into the floor. "All clear," Risk called as he stood over the unconscious Arsenal. Vibe stepped forward. "Sweet move, man," he said. "Yeah," Risk said, smiling slightly. "How's that, punk?" Risk indulged and gave Arsenal a quick kick in the ribs before the two of them ran down the hall looking for the rest of the team. Bumblebee and Troia were still in their standoff when Karen heard a small beep in her helmet. Her eyes grew wide as she realized that she was almost out of stingers. "Oh, no," she whispered as her wrist launcher stopped firing. An evil smile twisted Troia's delicate features. "Out of ammunition?" she asked. "Now it's my turn!" Bumblebee barely dodged out of the way as Troia slammed into the floor. As Troia stood, a small round device bounced into view in front of her. She picked it up and looked at it. "Roy?" she asked. An instant later, the screamer went off and she covered her ears. Golden Eagle appeared behind her and punched her as hard as he could. Troia fell to the ground, unconscious. "Good work, Eagle," Bumblebee said. "I was on empty." Eagle just kept staring at his gauntlet. "Look at this," he said, showing it to her. "I hit her so hard it dented this thing." Bumblebee gaped a moment as Mal and Red Star came running up. "You okay?" Mal asked as he grabbed his wife. "Yeah," she said. "Do you think that next time we could fight somewhere other than in our headquarters for a change?" Mal just smiled as he pulled his wife tight. Terra's scowl grew deeper as the Flash's grin grew wider. She closed her eyes as the bars finally gave way. "Well, well, well," the Flash said as he stepped out of the cage. "Looks like I'm comin' to get you, little girl." "Don't flatter yourself," Terra said, firing rocks at him. The Flash dodged them with ease. Suddenly, Terra sagged to the ground. "Well, looks like you're ready," Flash said, walking forward. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you enjoy it." "Enjoy this, mudball!" Terra screamed. Suddenly the ground beneath the Flash exploded in a mudstorm, covering him from head to toe in mud. Terra used her powers to harden it instantly. "Don't worry, you can breathe," she said, standing and walking confidently over to him. "But you're out of our hair. Thanks to a little girl." Terra ran out of the room, ready to help the others. In the ruined conference room, Nightwing continued advancing on Flamebird. Angrily, she drove her foot straight into his crotch. The smile never left Nightwing's face. "Please. Like that hasn't been tried before." Nightwing then started screaming as Gar changed into a snake and bit down on Nightwing's neck. "Get off of me!" Nightwing yelled as blood started flowing from the bite. Flamebird stood and stepped toward him. "I've been waiting for this," she said as she drew back her fist and slammed it into Nightwing's jaw. Unconscious, he fell to the floor as Gar returned to his usual form. "How'd it feel?" Gar asked. "Really good," Bette replied. "I've been wanting to do that ever since he told me to give this up.*" (* In the DC Beast Boy miniseries - db) Flamebird took a step back as Nightwing vanished. "What's going on?" she asked, but Gar was already out the door. "Where are the others?" he demanded. The team just looked around. "They just disappeared," Bumblebee said. "They're all gone." Across the country, the manipulator leaned back in his cell. He'd returned the five Titans to their original locations, and he knew that they would never remember any of this. He smiled when he pictured Nightwing trying to figure out where the snakebite had come from. He turned his head as he heard a guard walking by. With a sigh, Psimon released his final hold on them and stopped thinking. When the guard was past, he smiled again. This was a fitting revenge for their earlier defeat of him. Besides, he mused, it was always fun to practice like this. "Soon," he whispered. Silently, he laughed to himself as he remembered how easily his puppets had danced. Next Issue: Lock your doors and hide your children! It's Bette's birthday, which means that it's a Girls Night Out! Previous Issue | Next Issue |
