"Risk It All" Part Five
Apart they're just sidekicks and illigitimate children; Together they're the TEEN TITANS! Proteges of the Justice League, whippersnappers to the JSA, and all around annoyances to the Outsiders! Previously, Inertia came up with a plan to destroy his cousin, Impulse, by trapping and destroying everyone he cared about, starting with the Teen Titans! Recruiting several of the Titan's rogues and blackmailing Deathstroke the Terminator with the soul of his dead son Jericho, Inertia almost succeeded. Fortunately, Deathstroke foresaw Inertia doublecrossing him and gave Robin a means to escape, while Inertia was planning on using Bart's ex-girlfriend Carol to torture his hated cousin. When he refused to give Deathstroke his payment, a fight broke out in which the cylinder holding Bart was destabilized. After getting the upper hand on Deathstroke, banishing him from his lair and dispatching Jericho's soul into the time stream, Inertia now has a new problem on his hands: Impulse is out... and he's definitely pissed… Five Minutes Earlier "Please?" "No," "Please?" "No," "Please?" "No... God... damn you... No!" For the last hour, Risk had been followed around Offspring, the shape-shifting son of Plastic Man who, upon learning that Risk had become an official member of the Teen Titans, decided to use this as an in for his own membership. "But I'd make a great Titan!" Offspring said as he started taking the form of various Justice League members, including Superman, Batman and Vibe. "I can turn into anyone and get into anyplace!" "Go away you little... ... did you just turn into one of the most obscure ass Justice Leaguers ever?" Risk asked as he stopped. Before Offspring could answer, a portal opened as Deathstroke fell out. "Well, I'll be damned," Risk said with a smile as he cracked his knuckles. "I was hoping I'd get a chance to meet up with the bastard who drugged me three issues ago." "I don't have time for this," Deathstroke said as he prepared to shoot Risk's arm off before- "Uh, guys?" Offspring asked, acting as a tire jack, keeping the portal opened. "I can't hold this open all day. Well, I could, but I'd miss 'Lost'." BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! Know what a sonic boom sounds like? It's possibly the loudest, coolest sound ever imagined. It's a beautiful noise, almost like the music of the Gods. Unfortunately it'd bust a normal person's eardrums into tiny particles. The force I just hit Inertia with was worth at least two sonic booms. My name is Impulse, and right now I'm the most pissed off man alive. Inertia went flying several miles, sliding and skidding the entire way after Impulse's fist had collided with his jaw. Thirteen seconds ago, Bart Allen had just awakened from a deep sleep; Inertia had contained him in a sensory deprivation chamber and he was only awakened by the slimmest of chances from a fight between Inertia and Deathstroke over the soul of Jericho, of all people. Bart Allen was the poster boy for the 'Single Synapse Theory' or going from thought to motion in less than a fragment of a second. When Bart awoke to see his cousin standing over his ex-girlfriend Carol preparing to harm her... Bart cut that time down to a third. Unfortunately for our hero, however, Inertia also possessed the power of super speed. So by the time Impulse was speeding toward the flailing Inertia, his evil cousin was prepared with a counter strike. He punched back with almost as much rage to fuel him as it had Bart. Of course, while a fight between two speedsters might take place in normal time for them, to regular humans-- "Holy shit," Superboy said as the Teen Titans watched two blurs, one red, one green, zipping around with no other visible sign of the battle raging than the two distinct color streaks. "What did we miss?" Robin asked as he saw Carol sitting on the floor, scared for not only her own life but that of her ex-boyfriend. "What do we do?" Wonder Girl asked as she looked at Robin. "We protect the civilian and find a way home," Robin replied as he looked over at her. "There's nothing we can do for Bart. This is his fight and-" A large clawed hand grabbed both Robin and Wonder Girl around their throats, lifting them into the air. "It's payback time!" Mammoth shouted. Before they could react, Jinx stomped the ground, sending a shockwave to knock Superboy, Omni and Damage off balance. Dr. Light, while rubbing his jaw, walked in and decided to join the fun just as the portal opened and allowed Risk, Offspring and Deathstroke to come rushing in.. "Where the hell are we?" Risk asked as he looked around, punching his fist into his palm, "and how much of this stuff can I break?" "Hey, there's the Titans!" Offspring shouted as he literally sprung into action. Deathstroke stood back. He had other things to do... Impulse and Inertia's fight had long since broken through the wall of Inertia's HQ, revealing it to be hidden somewhere in the Eastern European mountains. The two tumbled down the rocky slope at super speed, trading punches as they fell. "Why do you continue fighting?" Inertia asked, blood trailing out of his nose. "I'm the superior speedster here." "You're just a generic, soulless clone," Impulse laughed, his body sore and covered with bruises. "You're too filled with hate and ignorance to know what being superior is." Inertia head butted Impulse, drawing blood from his forehead as the two continued racing across the world at super speed, their battle only being passed off as a harsh wind wherever they went. The Justice League Watchtower The purple mist rolled in and headed toward the 1994 tax manual. When the fog cleared, the book was gone... Back at Inertia's headquarters, nothing was left standing as the Titans fought Inertia's hired help and knocked over everything. Offspring turned into a coil and sprung up into Mammoth's chest, causing him to drop Robin and Wonder Girl. Both Titans hit the ground as a shockwave from Jinx came rushing towards them, but the two jumped out of the way, knocking several of Dr. Light's clones over like bowling pins. Damage picked up a table and swung it at Mammoth, who grabbed the other end and tossed Damage across the room, which was when Superboy and Wonder Girl both plowed their fists into him, plowing Mammoth into the wall. Omni was trying to absorb the powers of everyone around him to fight off Dr. Light's clones, using Damages strength, Superboy's heat vision and Risk's agility. Risk and Robin, meanwhile, were dodging Jinx's attacks. Risk grabbed Robin's arms started swinging him, his legs knocking Jinx off balance. Elswhere, Deathstroke had gathered everything he needed to and started placing small explosive devices, which were no bigger than a thumbnail, around the room. He slipped out among the confusion, smiling under his mask as he watched the fight. "Another day, Titans," Deathstroke smirked, watching Robin in particular. "Another day…" "Just like old times, huh?" Superboy asked his former girlfriend as the two continued to punch Mammoth. "Yeah," Wonder Girl replied with a smile as they pummeled the villain. They finally knocked him out, sending him onto a dog pile with Dr. Light and Jinx. "That's all of them," Robin said, noticing Gizmo's lifeless body. "Except for Inertia." "I think I took one too many hits," Omni said as he rubbed his ear. "I hear beeping." "You're not the only one; I hear it, too," Risk replied as Robin looked around, finally finding one of Deathstroke's explosives. "Oh, shi-" The entire building went up in one large fireball, debris and steel flying everywhere, just as Wonder Girl, carrying Robin and Damage, and Omni, who was copying Superboy's powers and carrying the villains, and Superboy, who was carrying Risk, and Offspring, who'd taken the form of a parachute for Carol, came flying down the mountain, avoiding the falling materials and flames. "Why her?" Impulse asked as he punched Inertia as their battle took them through Africa. "Of all people, why Carol?" Inertia laughed at his cousin's question. "Of all people, why not?" Inertia slammed his fist into Impulse's stomach as they went through Germany. "Who better to attack than the one person who loves you more than life itself?" Impulse grabbed Inertia by the hair and started punching him, causing cracks to appear in his goggles. "I should kill you for trying to touch her," Impulse said through clenched teeth. He wasn't about to tell Inertia the truth about him and Carol. For the first time in his life, Bart was thinking ahead. He was putting the safety of the one person he loved most above all by not telling Inertia about him. "Yeah, but you won't," Inertia grinned. "You didn't kill me when I took Preston away from you, and you won't kill-" Inertia's eyes widened as he saw something he never thought he'd see in Bart Allen's face. Pure, unadulterated, hatred. "You... you killed him!?" Impulse shouted as he poured everything he had into wailing on Inertia, blood and cloth started flying as tears mixed with bloody wounds fell down Bart's face. "It was you all along! You took my best friend away!" Both speedsters were reaching their breaking point, their bodies wouldn't be able to take too much more as they finally crashed, skidding along the dirt and gravel of an old country back road. Impulse continued punching Inertia, not caring about what he was doing. His fists plowed into Inertia, faster than his mind could think as the tears fell. Preson, his best friend who he had thought had died in a tragic accident. The person he'd been grieving for over the last two years, and now he had his killer right here. "Do it," Inertia said, his face bruised and swollen. "Finish it." Impulse held his fist back, which was caught before he could swing it one final time. "That's enough, son," Impulse looked up at the red and blue costume standing over him. The red cape flew in the wind like a proud symbol. Superman looked down at Impulse, then at Inertia and knew instantly that whatever Inertia had done to get Impulse this raging violent... it had to have been bad. Real bad. Impulse looked down at his enemy and realized what he was about to do. The Man of Steel stood there, unmoving. This was Bart's move. He wouldn't move one way or another, knowing deep down that the young man would make the right choice, having seen him, Superboy, Robin and Wonder Girl in one crisis after the next. He knew what Bart would do before he did it, or least hoped he did. Bart fell off of Inertia, hating what he'd allowed himself to become. He just lay there, sobbing, never feeling a pain and hatred like this. It'd hit him like a freight train and he didn't know how to make it stop now that he'd experienced it. Superman's recent experience with the Toyman had forced the Man of Steel to face emotions that he never wanted to feel, either*. He kneeled down and put his hand on Bart's shoulder. Maybe if that horrible experience had taught him something he could use it to help heal another who'd suffered it as well. It wouldn't make up for the horrors that everyone involved suffered, but in his own small way Superman would at least find some light in the darkness that was threatening to consume him and the young speedster in front of him. (*Superman #2 and #10 - TC) Inertia had been taken to S.T.A.R. Labs to be healed before he was incarcerated. It wasn't the fear of being taken into custody that scared him, it was the fact that Deathsroke had sworn an oath of vengeance... "So, am I in?" Offspring asked hopefully as the Titans headed back toward the UCLA campus after dropping the villains off into custody. "Am I a Teen Titan?" "Well, he did help us," Robin said as he looked around, "and we could use a shape shifter." "Yeah, a shapeshifter, not another power house," Superboy said smugly as he looked at Risk. "Hey, you got a problem with me?" Risk asked as he looked at Superboy, the two Titans stopping to look at each other. "Boys, don't make me split you up," Wonder Girl said as she got in between them. "The last thing we need to do is fight each other. Remember what happened the last time?" Robin and Superboy stopped as she said those words, remembering what had broken their team apart in the first place. "Did I miss something?" Risk asked as he looked around. "No," Robin told them as he looked at Superboy. "Besides, can you even devote time to being a full time member of this team?" "What are you saying?" Superboy asked with a laugh. "That you're demoting me?"' "More like giving you time to get your ass out of high school," Robin replied. "I've seen your grades, Conner." Superboy sighed as he looked at everyone. He knew that Robin was telling him to get lost for other reasons beyond just being in his senior year of high school with poor grades, none of them were just willing to admit it. "Fine, you got my cell number, just...just don't go fighting any big battles without me, okay?" Superboy turned and flew off as Wonder Girl looked at Robin, who wasn't facing anyone. "I think you hurt him," Wonder Girl said. "No, we hurt him," Robin told her as he walked away. Bart had returned Carol to her college dorm on the East Coast. He was still battle damaged and worn as he held her in his arms. As soon as he arrived outside of her building, he let her go. "Are you going to be all right?" Bart asked in a quiet voice. "I was about to ask you the same thing," Carol told him as she touched his bare shoulder. He had cuts, scrapes and bruises all over him. "The Speed Force will heal me soon," Bart replied as he looked away. "I'm sorry he--they tried to hurt you." Carol sighed as she turned Bart's head back toward her. "None of this is your fault, Bart. I realized what I was getting into when we started going out." "Then why did you-" Carol put a finger on his lips to stop him from talking. "You know why I let you go. I love you, Bart, but you loved someone else." "And now he's dead," Bart told her as he tried not to think about it. "Never even got a chance to tell him before...Inertia got to him. Do you think that...we could have worked out if Preston hadn't been in the picture?" Carol blushed. "Bart, I don't-" The two started leaning into each other as a voice called out. "CAROL!" Mike, Carol's fiancée shouted as he ran towards her, his arm in a sling. "Thank God you're all right!" "Yeah," Carol replied with a startled tone. "Thanks to-" She looked around and found she was alone. "A kind stranger." Mike took her hand and walked her back into her dorm so they could talk about what happened. A secret location somewhere in the midwest Deathstroke was looking over the blueprints he'd drawn from his photographic memory. "I'll find you, Joey, I promise," The man vowed. "No," a voice said from across the room. A teenage girl with flowing white hair, dressed in armor similar to Deathstroke's sat in a chair, holding a sword in her hand. Rose Wilson smiled at her father. "We'll find him." The End... Previous Issue | Next Issue |
