Titans West

The Titans burst into cheers as the silver T-jet touched down inside what was left of their hangar. Gar Logan smiled as he shut down the engines and lowered the stairs. Together, they walked down and all of them grinned as their feet hit the ground in their home.

"It feels so good to be back here again," Bette Kane said.

"Yeah," Gar agreed. "Bit of a mess, though."

"Don't worry," a voice came from behind them. "I've already been in touch with Questor. He's sending Sarah Simms out to get damage estimates in an hour so we can get this place fixed up."

Karen Beecher started crying as she realized who it was. "Mal!" she yelled as she ran toward him.

Mal smiled as he swept her up in his arms. "Hey, Baby," he said. Karen just held onto him and cried.

Gar turned to face the rest of the team. "Let's go ahead and start cleaning up. I'm sure that our rooms are a mess."

The team was dispersing when Cody Driscoll ran up beside Gar. "Have you heard anything about Leo?" he asked.

"Yeah," Gar said. "He made it to the Russian embassy safely. I've sent word that everything's taken care of. He said that he'll be on the next flight back.":

"Cool," Cody said. He stopped as he saw his room. "Man, my magazines!" He quickly closed the door.

Tara Markov caught up with Gar. "You did it," she said. "You really got us through this."

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" Gar said as it finally sunk in. "I can't believe that we got out of this in one piece."

"I know," Tara said. "I just want to know what Bette did to pull this off."

"Let me tell you a secret about Bette," Gar said. "As long as this works, I really don't want to know. I've found that Bette works better that way."

"If you say so," Tara asked. She stopped in front of her door. "Well, I'd better see how many pairs of my panties those DEO pervs stole." She gave Gar a quick peck on the cheek and vanished into the room.

"It was an emergency!" Jason said. "I had a family emergency and had to run." He closed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair. "I understand that. But I was in a hospital! I didn't have access to a phone!" Jason leaned over the desk and grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper. "Friday morning at 8. Thank you, Dr. Martin. I won't be late. I'll be early, as a matter of fact. Thank you again." He hung up the phone and turned to see Bette behind him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I missed a major Anatomy exam while we were out gallivanting around the country." Jason closed his eyes. "I now have two days to learn a month's worth of material. Wonderful."

Bette leaned up against a dresser. "How'd you pull that off?"

"My mother's appendix just burst," Jason said. "At least that's the beauty part of being a pre-med major. You can always come up with a good disease when you need one."

Bette laughed. "Now I know who to call when I don't want to go to some boring dinner." She said goodbye and walked out. Jason stood there, watching her saunter out of the room.

Paco Ramone searched through the debris of his room. Finally he picked up an empty drawer and discovered what he'd been searching for. He gently touched the picture of his family and traced the face of his sister with his finger. "Rosita," he whispered. A tear broke free and flowed down his cheek as he thought of his sister who was lying in a Detroit hospital because of Risk.

Bette Kane slowly slid beneath the water in her bathtub. She smiled as the bubbles rubbed against her chin. As a matter of fact, the water felt so good, she worried she'd fall asleep.

Jason Parker sat at his desk, a pencil behind his ear. He thoroughly scanned his anatomy textbook while he nibbled at the plastic tip of his highlighter.

Gar slid behind the main computer and grinned. Mal had been able to restore everything from the purge he'd done. He quickly cued up a videophone and dialed a number.

Questor laid down his pen and rubbed his nose as the phone rang. Without looking he punched the button. "Vernon Questor," he said.

"Heya, Questor!" Gar yelled.

Questor smiled as he saw the monitor. "Mr. Logan," he said. "It is a pleasure to hear from you again. I trust you had a safe flight back?"

"No problems," Gar replied. "Except that half our base was trashed by the DEO."

"Yes," Questor said. "We are currently working to have the damage repaired. It should be taken care of shortly."

"No rush," Gar said. "Right now we're just working on getting settled again."

"I'll be sending Ms. Simms over tomorrow morning," Questor said. "It would be a great help if you could present her with a list of any additional damage."

"Sure," Gar said. The two chatted for a few more minutes and then signed off.

In a plane streaking westward, a large man with red hair stepped out of the bathroom and returned to his seat. As he sat down, Leonid Kovar couldn't keep the grin off his face. He was going home.

Jason Parker threw the anatomy book across the room. "This is hopeless," he said as the pencil finally fell from behind his ear. He let his head fall forward until it bounced off the desk. "I'm never going to get this down." He slowly rolled his eyes to the side and they fell upon his clock. "Well, if I'm not learning anything anyway," Jason said. He smiled and stood.

Sarah Simms turned on the lights in her living room and kicked her shoes off. She checked to see if she had any messages (she didn't) and headed into the living room. Her eyes widened as she heard a tapping on the door to her balcony. She walked over and opened the curtains. Golden Eagle stood on the other side. She smiled and opened the door.

Without a word, Jason swept her up into his arms. The two stood there, kissing, as if they'd never part again.

Cody Driscoll grinned as he pulled an LA Lakers Kobe Bryant jersey on. He grabbed a new basketball from his bed and stepped out into the hall. He'd already checked, and the outside goal was fine. He passed Karen in the hall.

"No, Patti!" Karen yelled into her cell phone. "That test was supposed to be run tomorrow! Tomorrow! Has everything gone to hell since I've been gone?"

Cody let Karen yell at her secretary and kicked Paco's door open. Paco didn't even look up. "Hey!" Cody yelled. "How's about some b-ball?" When Paco didn't respond, Cody passed the ball to him. The ball hit Paco in the shoulder and fell to the ground.

"Leave me alone," Paco said coldly.

"Why? What's eating you?" Cody asked.

Karen sensed the tension level rising. "Patti, I've got a situation developing over here. I'll be in tomorrow, and those tests had better be on the schedule!" She snapped the phone shut and shoved it into her pocket.

"I really don't want to see you right now," Paco said.

Karen grabbed Cody's arm as he opened his mouth. "Cody, let it go," she said. "He's upset because his sister got shot when we were getting away in Detroit. Leave him alone."

Cody shook free. "What are you talking about? Why should I get blamed for this? I catch it for everything! It's not my fault his sister's too stupid to get out of a war zone! If she'd moved like she should have, her dumb ass wouldn't have been there! What, did the short bus drop her off out front just before the DEO arrived?"

Karen grabbed at Cody's arm again. "Cody, shut up!" she said. "Just shut up!"

"No," Paco said, standing. "Why don't you talk, vato? Huh? Maybe we go find your hermana. Maybe we go shoot her? You like that idea?"

"What are you talking about?" Cody demanded.

Vibe snapped his arms up and fired. The sound waves slammed into Cody and Karen. Karen's head struck a table in the hall and she fell to the ground, unconscious. Cody was thrown back through the wall. Vibe started walking toward him. "Maybe we even shoot that mama of yours! You like that idea, Mama's boy?"

Cody glanced down and saw that his new jersey was torn. "Oh, it's on now," Risk said, angrily grinning. "Time for you to take your medicine, Taco!"

Vibe dove out of the way as Risk came at him. Another wall collapsed as Risk charged through it. An instant later, Vibe was behind him, firing more shock waves. Risk's grin grew wider as the waves pushed him into the concrete of the floor.

"Is that all you got?" Risk asked as he stood. Vibe fired again. Bette Kane screamed as Risk flew through the wall and into her bathroom. Bette grabbed a towel and tried to cover herself with both it and the bubbles.

Risk smiled and winked at the fuming Bette. "Thanks," he said. Turning to Vibe, he added, "Now it's my turn." Risk jumped to his feet and charged out. This time, Vibe wasn't as quick. The two crashed through another wall and fell into the damaged gym.

"What the hell is that?" Gar asked as alarms started sounding in the monitor room.

"Something's going on in the residential corridor!" Mal yelled over the noise.

"Are we under attack?" Tara asked as she ran into the room.

"I don't know!" Mal said. "External sensors aren't showing anything, but there's definitely something going on in the residential hall!"

"Come on!" Gar yelled. "Mal, see what you can dig up! We're going down there!" Terra and Changeling ran out.

Vibe staggered back to his feet as Risk reached the weight set. He dove for cover as Risk started throwing massive weights at him. The weights slammed into the wall, taking chunks out of the exterior concrete wall with them. Vibe took another step back and disappeared from sight. Interested, Risk started walking over.

Vibe hit the bottom of the empty pool and landed on his ankle, pitching him forward onto his stomach. He tried to stand and his ankle gave way again.

Risk looked down and saw Vibe trying to use the pool walls to pull himself up. He chuckled as Vibe fell forward yet again. As Vibe rolled over onto his back, Risk jumped down into the pool. He walked over as Vibe struggled to pull himself away. Vibe raised his hands and fired another blast of waves. Risk only laughed darkly as the only effect was to blow his hair back from his face.

"That's about enough of that," Risk said as he knelt over Vibe's chest, pinning his arms down. Vibe struggled to free his arms, but to no avail. "I think you need to watch your mouth, punk!" Risk smacked Vibe across the face several times. Finally Vibe spat blood on him, then swore at him in Spanish.

Risk was furious as Vibe just smiled at him with bloody lips. "That's it!" he yelled. "I have had enough of you!" Risk immediately pulled his jersey off over his head and wrapped it around Vibe's throat. "You were never one of us!" Risk yelled. "And soon we won't have to worry about you ever again."

Changeling ran into the hall where Karen was just beginning to pick herself up. Terra looked around and whistled at the damage.

"What's going on?" Changeling asked.

"Paco and Cody," Karen said, rubbing the bruise on the back of her head. "They'll kill each other!"

"Great," Changeling said. "Tara, stay here and help Karen to the medlab. I've got to stop those two!"

"Gar, are you nuts?" Terra asked. "If Risk's that out of control, only Leonid could calm him down!"

"Yeah, but Leo's not here," Gar said grimly. "I may not be able to stop them, but I've got to try." He ran down the hall as a concerned Tara looked after him.

In the pool, Paco's tongue was beginning to protrude as the jersey was pulled tighter. Vibe no longer saw Risk kneeling over him. He saw the Ivodroid that was meant to have killed him. Vibe would have screamed if he could have.

Risk's lips were stretched back in a maniacal grin as he pulled the jersey tighter.

"Cody, stop it!" a voice came from above. A second later, Gar Logan dropped into the pool. "Let him go! You're killing him!" Gar pulled on Risk's arm, but he wouldn't budge.

Finally Gar did the only thing he could. He turned into a stegosaurus. Gar swung his massive tail and slammed it into Risk's chest. Risk, surprised, lost his grip and flew back into the wall of the pool.

Bette Kane ran to the edge of the pool as Gar quickly unwrapped the jersey from Vibe's neck. As soon as it was free, Paco rolled to his side and threw up.

"Bette, get down here!" Gar yelled. "He needs help!"

Bette nodded and started for the ladder.

Gar tried to help the coughing Paco to his feet. As soon as he put weight on his wounded ankle, Paco screamed and fell to the ground. Gar eased him down as Bette arrived. He turned and stalked toward Risk.

"Cody, what in the hell did you think you were doing?" he demanded. "You could have killed him!"

Risk just laid there and glared at Gar.

"Dammit, answer me!"

Risk slowly raised up until his face was even with Gar's. "No," he said coldly. Gar flew backward as Cody backhanded him.

"That's for getting in the middle of something that's none of your business!" Risk yelled. He looked around, seeing that Karen, Mal, and Tara were also up at the top of the pool.

"I'm sick of this!" Risk yelled. "You think I didn't see how you all always blame me for everything! You think I didn't see the way you were looking at me when we were running across the country? You think I didn't hear you saying 'Oh, there's Cody. This is all his fault!' You people make me sick! I'm through with all of you! I quit!" Risk jumped to the top of the pool and stormed out of the room through a hole in an outside wall.

Tara started after him. "Let him go," Gar called from below as he wiped blood from his lip. "He'll come back once he cools off. Hopefully by then Leonid'll be back and we can make some sense out of this." Uncertainly, Tara nodded and dropped into the pool to help.

It took them a while to get Vibe up onto the floor of the gym. As they prepared to help him to the medlab, a man stepped in through the hole in the wall.

"Bozhe moi," Leonid Kovar said. "What happened here?"

Brilliant, Cody Driscoll thought as he walked down the street. The only people who were willing to take me in, and I do that to them. Why'd I have to go after Gar like that? They'll never want me around again. At least I could have grabbed a shirt before I left. Cody looked around and saw some clothes hanging on an outside display. Well, I've survived like this before. I guess I'll have to again. He quickly wiped a tear away and started down the street toward the display. As he walked in front of an alley, his collar lit up ominously. Cody screamed as the restraint collar reactivated itself for the first time in months and he fell to the ground, unable to move. Finally his eyes closed as he slid into unconsciousness to escape the pain.

A black patent leather shoe stepped up next to the unconscious Cody. "And that's how you're supposed to handle matters like this," Director Bones said as he lit a cigar. Three DEO agents in plainclothes stood behind him. "If Agent Jamison had been able to understand that, maybe she'd still be on active duty. Quickly, gentlemen. Let's get home."

Without a word, the DEO agents picked up Cody Driscoll and put him into the back of a waiting car. A second later, the agents piled into a second car. Bones dropped his cigar onto the ground before climbing into a limousine that had just pulled up.

A moment later they were gone.

To Be Continued...

Previous Issue | Next Issue