Chapter 68

I slowly stood up from my seat with a sigh. Cracking my neck before looking at the other Titans. Who all seemed relatively calm.

“Titans, prepare for combat.”

Ravager was the only one to immediately do as I said. Immediately taking out a gun and flicking the safety off. Meanwhile Artemis, Miss Martian, and Zatanna seemed to be too surprised and shocked to move.

“Where’s the target?”

Ravager asked immediately scouting her surroundings. Several of the other customers were rather surprised at our actions. I half expected something resembling fear, or perhaps an inclination to pretend things weren’t happening.

But instead, they seemed…excited. Happy to be seeing something go down…

Was it really that Gotham was just so different from everywhere else…or perhaps did the Titans contribute something to cause this sort of reaction?

Though, I guess it didn’t really matter.

“There’s an empty bus en route to a stroller in the middle of the street. It’s probably a trap, so be prepared.”

A series of nods was received before everyone started to move. Quickly vacating the Pizzeria in favor of jumping down to the street level and going towards the stroller and oncoming bus.

“Miss Martian, pull the stroller to safety and be careful. It’s likely some sort of trap, like a gas attack or bomb. Artemis, you’re with me. We need to stop the bus.”

Ravager huffed at that.

“And what exactly do we do? Stand around and look pretty?”

“Ravager, you and Zatanna cover us. If they thought they could take five Titans they probably have a lot more up their sleeve.”

They didn’t even pause to question me. Instead, just nodding and setting out with their own preparations. Miss Martian flew forward towards the stroller before pulling it forward with telekinesis.

Artemis immediately started to fire several trick arrows at the bus. Whatever they were filled with seemed to be working. Slowing the bus’s oncoming path. Pulling two capsules from my belt, I tossed them to the front of bus. Causing a large foam wall to set down.

Eventually do to both of our efforts, the bus was forced to come to a complete stop. Which was good, as it likely would have careened into a building if it hadn’t been taken care of.

Looking back at Miss Martian, she was holding up…a fake doll with telekinesis. One that exploded at a distance and pushed her back. But thankfully it doesn’t seem to have done any lasting damage.

Unfortunately, it seemed to be some sort of smoke bomb as well…Causing a bit of the area to become blanketed. Though due to it going off at a high altitude, it didn’t really obscure or hide much.

So, it was easy for me to dodge the incoming projectile that came out of it. Especially as it was…bright pink…

Hmm.

“We got company!”

Ravager stated out loud before firing her guns out at someone I didn’t have visuals on. Though due to where she was firing, they seemed to be on top of a building. That suspicion was confirmed when a laser was fired back at her position.

Miss Martian took a hit from someone who had flown down to hit her. Through the smoke it looked like…some guy cosplaying Batman, but with red eyes and grey skin.

Jesus. Were villains really that unoriginal with their own costumes?

A bald kid with large mechanical spider legs coming out of his back was fighting Zatanna and…wait, he was actually familiar.

Several figures rushed towards Artemis and me. She took out a few with her arrows, but eventually some of them reached her. Knocking her off her feet with a tackle.

I was quite limited on my ranged abilities, so instead I simply waited for them to approach. Several identical men in red suits with a division symbol on their chest. Well, that was…original, at the very least.

One tried to punch me in the face, but instead took a foot to the ribs. Blasting him backwards-

I was forced to evade once again as pink blast attempted to hit me. Instead hitting the building next to me. This time I was able to see who the hidden shooter was.

Jinx.

I smiled in amusement. An act that immediately served to get rid of her own devilish smirk and be replaced with something a lot more anger focused.

“Jinx, it’s been so long…how have you been?”

The guys in the red suits attempted to interrupt me, but they were quite sloppy. Naturally they were a bit strong but they had no sort of actual training in terms of actual combat. Though there may be a reason for that, as I noticed they were starting to duplicate themselves.

Forcing me to fight on two fronts as they approached.

Until finally they started to back off in a panic. Leading me to notice the wall behind me was starting to fall over.

Great.

I decided against running away and stood my ground. Tossing a capsule towards a specific part of the wall. Seconds later, the wall crashed down on me. Though it didn’t do much, considering the part of the wall had been greatly softened until it had the same texture as jello.

Though it did leave me covered in a thin layer of slime as a result. Which wasn’t exactly very fun. Jinx attempted to rapid fire on my position again, only to be knocked aside by an arrow from Artemis. Causing her to audibly cry out as her elbow took the brunt of the blow.

The guy, or perhaps I should say guys, in red all started to converge. Attempting to practically dogpile me with their sheer numbers. I was strong. I was fast. But neither of those mattered against the sheer numbers I was up against.

So, I had to use my third skill.

My intelligence.

I blocked the incoming punch of one of the red duplicates, before locking his arm in my hands. As a second quickly approached, I pumped more venom into my veins…and snapped his arm.

His duplicate cried out, but in the middle of doing so, he faded away into nothing. A fact that seemed to surprise the other red ones, as they momentarily stopped attacking.

So, it seemed that I needed to push just a bit harder with these types, huh?

That was easy.

They quickly got over themselves and attacked once more, but I was prepared. They lashed out with a leg, and I kicked in their knee. Causing another to fade away. I blocked another with my hands, and a third and fourth hit my back and side. In annoyance, I slammed my fist into his chest as hard as I could.

Likely shattering his ribcage in the process.

As he dissipated, I whirled on the ones behind me. Cracking my fist into one of their shoulders, before shoulder charging on another. Picking him off the ground before slamming my full body weight against him on the ground.

A move I once used on Robin, but this time I made sure my full elbow was in his esophagus when he hit the ground. Causing him to wheeze out and dissipate like the rest.

After cracking my neck, I went after the next…who started to back up in fear.

“W-wait, just hold on now fella.”

A sharp southern accent came from his lips. Ah, so this must be the real one then. It didn’t take long for me to close the distance, especially due to him still facing me instead of running away.

“Alright! You-“

My fist slammed into his chest. Causing spittle to fly out of his mouth as his legs left the ground. Of course, it didn’t hurt him too bad. I was once again pulling my punches this time.

But that didn’t mean I was going to go easy on him.

He threatened not only me, but the Titans as a whole. There was no doubt in my mind that if they had been successful, they’d have likely laughed in our faces if we surrendered. Not that they would have been able to beat us, regardless.

I was a hero. Which meant I would be accepting his surrender.

But that didn’t mean I was just going to let him get off scot-free.

My hand enclosed around his mouth. He didn’t resist for several moments as he was just trying to get his bearings, but he quickly began to panic. And just as quickly, he stopped and fell forward into a slump.

So, I tossed his body aside and surveyed the other Titans.

Miss Martian seemed to have beaten the Batman knockoff and was currently teaming up with Ravager in order to beat down a…giant eyeball in the sky? Alright…

Zatanna was still fighting Gizmo, and they seemed to be at a standstill. Or at least, they would have if it wasn’t for all the mechanical parts that were twitching on the ground.

It seemed Zatanna’s arsenal vastly outweighed Gizmos.

Artemis was the closest and last Titan to check on, and she wasn’t having an easy time. Already she had several cuts and bruises on her as she fought Jinx. Who simply blasted everything around her.

Artemis was constantly losing ground, and Jinx seemed to take pleasure in that. So much pleasure that she didn’t seem to notice that the rest of her team were in very dire straits at the moment.

So, I approached her.

“Lights out.”

Jinx stated as her eyes lit up and the palm of her hand flashed pink. Just as a laser was blasted out of her hand, her arm was forcefully shifted upwards and out of the way of Artemis.

She looked back in surprise at me, but there was little else she could do as my other hand grasped her face. She struggled in fear and even tried to use her power. The pink light seemed to flicker in her palm before fading out.

I kept her in my palms for a few extra seconds just to be sure, before putting her on the ground. Checking back with the other Titans, it seems Beast Boy had come out of nowhere to blindside Miss Martian’s and Ravager’s opponent. Knocking a giant eye into the ground.

My eyes traced the surroundings, but it seems that Beast Boy was the only back up here. And due to how quickly he responded…that meant that he likely had followed us from the tower after several minutes.

Actually, he didn’t even need to follow us. He knew what pizzeria we were heading to, so it was more likely that he just waited about ten of fifteen minutes before leaving. Zatanna was still fighting Gizmo-scratch that, Artemis had just fired an arrow into Gizmo’s side, leaving him wide open to being taken down by Zatanna.

Which just left the giant eyeball guy.

The eyeball finally cracked, showcasing some guy wearing a helmet with one giant eye. It seemed to be curtains for him…until one of the nearby bystanders who was filming all of this go down was suddenly grabbed. Causing me to be immediately annoyed.

What fucking idiot gets that close to a fight…

“Get back! I-I can fire a laser from my helmet!”

The villain stated, stuttering as he was struggling to keep a hold of his hostage. Obviously, he wasn’t very physically strong.

Beast Boy flew down before morphing back into a human. Showcasing the palms of his hands towards the villain with a scared look on his face.

“Woah now. Okay dude. Let’s calm down.”

“YOU calm down! I’m serious! I’ll burn a hole through this woman's head if you don’t let me g-“

A bullet slammed into the eye on his helmet, causing his cry out and fall back. The Woman who had been struggling in his arms immediately ran off as I quickly ran forward and made sure he was down for the count.

He was…actually crying. Ah, likely due to the fact that he was bleeding from the gunshot piercing his helmet.

…Wow. These villains were really…pathetic, weren’t they?

It was like I was fighting fucking children instead of actual villains. As he finally fell unconscious, I smiled to myself. That had gone pretty-

“What the hell is your problem!?”

Ravager’s voice rang out, causing me to look back with a raised eyebrow. Only to see Beast Boy pointing a finger in her face.

“My problem!? You could have killed someone! What were you thinking?”

Beast Boy accused, causing her to scoff and cross her arms.

“I saw the shot and I took it. No need to thank me for cleaning up your screw up, I guess.”

“MY screw up!? Are you-“

“Quiet.”

I spoke, going towards the both of them. Beast Boy looked at me with relief filling his eyes, and a smile on his lips. Ravager on the other hand was squinting and showing clear hostility my way.

“Yeah, you tell her Law.”

My eyes went to Beast Boy before nodding.

“Alright, I will.”

Ravager squinted even further as I met her eye.

“Ravager, good job.”

Immediately her features softened. The hostile atmosphere around her disappeared as her eye widened in shock. Her mouth slowly dipping upwards into a smile before she quickly regained her composure.

Even afterwards though, it was rather obvious that she was pleased.

“…Of course.”

She simply stated. Likely not having been able to say anything else. Hah, I think I’m starting to get a better picture of Ravager’s personality…

“What? Law, you can’t be serious!”

“Of course, I am. Tell me, Beast Boy. How did you plan to solve the situation without Ravager’s help?”

Beast Boy proceeded to think for a moment before speaking up. By this point Zatanna, Miss Martian, and Artemis had started to converge on our position. Listening in on the conversation.

Not that I really cared. It wasn’t as if I was planning on publicly dressing down Beast Boy or anything. Merely telling him how the world worked.

“I would have went along with him before waiting for an opening.”

“How can you be certain that you’d get one? Rather, if you didn’t get an opening, would you let him leave in order to make sure the woman was safe?”

Beast Boy immediately nodded his head, causing me to sigh.

“Of course!”

“Alright, you do so and he gets away. Later, you learn he’s killed ten people before someone else captured him. Do you still feel like you did the right thing?”

A pause. Beast Boy grimaced before shaking his head.

“You can’t possibly know what he’d do.”

“True, but if he was willing to kill and hold hostage a random bystander, I believe this theoretical scenario still has some merit. So just tell me how you’d feel.”

He rubbed his chin before looking away. The other Titans seemed to be looking at either me or Beast Boy. Wanting to see where this was going, or just waiting for the conversation to drop in order to round up these guys.

“Fine, I’d feel bad. But that doesn’t mean we can just let people die.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes before putting a hand on Beast Boy’s shoulder.

“That’s not what we’re doing, and you know that. The lives of each Titan member are of the highest priority. Something he and his other friends tried to compromise. Would you still feel the same way if he had been successful? What if had really injured me, or Zatanna, or Miss Martian?”

His eyes lit up at that. Panic set in them as he immediately looked over to Miss Martian before looking at me again.

“I…”

“Even if Ravager had missed and the hostage was killed, it’s a major dick move to put that on her, or anyone else but the guy. HE is the one threatening people. HE decided to play that card. Do not give him an easy out by blaming someone else for his actions.”

For a few moments, Beast Boy thought about what I had said. Obviously, something didn’t sit well with him, but eventually he gave a weak nod.

“Alright. I’m…sorry.”

I waved him off.

“Don’t apologize to me. I wasn’t offended.”

He turned to Ravager before apologizing directly. Something that seemed to also surprise her.

“It’s whatever.”

She calmly stated. As the conversation started to die down, Zatanna finally broached the question.

“So…what do we do about these guys?”

Oh, I had a few ideas.