Teen Titans Grim Autumn Season RP

Teen Titans: Grim Autumn Season

In a warehouse in central New York...

“Oi, Bartolo, you sure this guy's legit?”

The young boss of the Ludovici Crime Family, Philippe, looked at some of the technology being presented to his gang. It all looked too good to be true.

Philippe was probably not what you pictured when someone mentioned a vicious mob boss. Rather, he was the heir until two months ago, when the Red Hood gunned him down. Philippe was a thin figured, effeminately featured young man, somewhat long black hair, an olive colored tan, and icy blue eyes. His outfit was youthful and somewhat unassuming, a sleeveless black shirt and jeans.

Bartolo, the weapons and tech expert, examined each piece and then walked back over to his boss, and reported curtly, “As much as it pains me, this is all far more advanced than anything I could dream of...are you an Interganger?”

And Bartolo was probably not what you'd think a weapons scientist would look like. He resembled a large, over-muscled thug of a man, his face square and harsh. He was shaved bald and wore a black ensemble.

The cloaked young man selling them the technology smirked, a cruel, cold expression, “Oh, no, you could say I'm just an interested party who wants to bolster the chances of mundane humans.”

Given the sheer detachment when he said that, Philippe cupped his chin and asked, “And...you're not a mundane human?”

“No, but trust me when I say I'm on your side.” He shifted on his feet, almost exposing some dark hair underneath that hood.

Bartolo asked, seeming to still have trouble getting what exactly this boy wanted, “So...you give us technology and a leg up while the League is outta town, and you want to build a base? Where are you guys from?”

The seller responded in a chipper manner, his happiness seeming somewhat dishonest, “NOWHERE. Everywhere...and NOWHERE.”

Philippe seemed to consider this, but with everything that was going around, it was clear he had little choice in the matter but to strengthen himself by allying with these guys. “So, you...uh, nowhere guys...you just want to give us guns and possibly fight those...what's their names Bartolo?”

“Teen Titans, sir.” Bartolo stated after looking at his phone

“Yeah yeah, those superpowered brats...you guys want to possibly fight them?”

The cloaked man pushed down his cloak's hood, resulting in gasps from the entire mob group assembled – they had heard rumors, but to see it for themselves - “I definitely want to fight them. And everyone else does too.” Philippe managed to stop himself from staring, “...he probably hates your guts. You know what they say about doppelgangers, right?”

“Oh yeah. I aim to make that story true – the doppelganger will kill the original.”

Bartolo looked slightly uneasy with the expression on the young man's face, but decided he, as advisor, could not say no to this either.

Before long, both parties left the building. The Doppelganger took out a small communicator device, “Business as usual. We're all good out here. Gimme a way home, 'Blade.”

A strange green and yellow portal opened in the night, and the Doppelganger stepped into it, vanishing utterly.

Robin looked at the surveillance footage showing the Doppelganger Superboy just leaving what looked like a meeting with some organized crime elements. When the Falcones experienced their decline, the Ludovici tried to muscle in, but ended up holding off due to Batman.

They'd spent the rest of the intervening time apparently trying to increase their strength to rival Intergang, though until this possibility, they weren't successful.

This was not going to improve Superboy's image – it had already been a hard-sell to the authorities that he hadn't been about to turn heel. If people found out about this it could only get worse.

The Titans Tower computer was thankfully able to blur it before it could be scavenged and given to the public view.

Robin aka Dick Grayson was one of the people who were left in charge so to speak while the adults all went off to fight good ol' Hank Henshaw and his fleet of mechanical creatures.

Right now the Teen Titans were the best the Earth had, and he had made up his mind that this group – whoever the Doppelganger belonged to – would be found out and defeated. Before they could continue on to whatever it was they were doing besides arming mobs.

Because he'd bet Two-Face's Giant Coin that simply distributing arms was not the sole thing they aimed for.

Figuring it was time for a mission to get his mind off of more distressing thoughts, he almost breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the HIVE Five trying to...huh?

They were going after some sort of old gang hideout, which Robin remembered used to belong to a splinter group from the Falcones that Bruce took down a week before the space mission.

He spoke to the Titans over the communications;

“Titans meet up in the main room, the HIVE Five are up to something.” Photon, one of the newer members, was currently lifting weights down in the exercise room, pushing up 350 pounds on the bench press, getting acclimated through this to his enhanced strength. He breathed in and out rapidly, then putting the weights back up and getting up.

Of course, given it was Jared, he worked out without a shirt on. He responded to the call thusly, “Kay, see you in the birds' nest, Robin.”

He promptly picked up his costume and a shirt, deciding he could put them on just outside the “nest” as he called it.

Dick's only response to this was to mutter that he had never heard that one before, wondering whether Darkseid might come after the Anti-Comedy Equation located within Photon's mouth.

Cynthia Byrne’s long legs dangled thoughtlessly from the top of her bed, an electric double bass balanced on her lap. A set of appropriate strings were open to one side and a broken G-string (the musical kind) on the other. She snapped it the previous night but, as such breakages were pretty rare, had to make a trip the next morning to get a replacement. A little annoying but it was satisfying changing her own strings - kept her fingers busy. Her bare toes on the other hand were twitching rhythmically, a subtle note for each plucked muscle though no one could hear this through the sound-proofing. This wasn’t her only instrument by a long shot but was fairly attached to this one, albeit none of the other Titans knew this. In fact, she kept her more conventional musical talents to herself and would be surprised if anyone knew she actually had any instruments at the tower.

Cyn was nearly done with the procedure and would have been a while ago if she hadn’t been distracted by a call from her mother. Just a conversational call, no dire news though naturally it broke into passive aggressive hints that she should be leaving the Titans and looking into college. Cyn agreed in certain respects but didn’t want to right now.

“I can’t exactly walk out the door while the JLA are off in space, ok?”

A scoff about Cyn acting melodramatic came almost before her sentence was finished.

“Call it a necessity of the job.”

Her grandmothers voice suddenly spoke, “Hello Cynthia, how are you? Any good fights with those lycra-boys?” This was accompanied by a mutter from her mother, “I wish you wouldn’t do that.” Gran had obviously thrown her voice to the receiver which, to put it bluntly, shat mum up the wall. Cyn tried not to snicker, “I’m fine Nan, no terribly spectacular fights…”

It was a t this time Robin’s message came through on her radio and Cynthia was very thankful. “I gotta go! I’ll call later tonight, ok? Bye!”

She hung up, closed her eyes and breathed deeply for a few moments. A few practiced movements and the string was secured. Noise picked up the radio and finally replied, “Gotcha – I’ll be there in two shakes.” The reply was relaxed and upbeat. Not wanting to waste time Cynthia put her boots on and started towards the main room whilst still securing her body armor. On her way there she spotted the new guy, Jared AKA Photon, and was about to wave when she noticed he was shirtless. Her hand dropped to her mouth and made a mock gagging sound before entering. “You Rang?” She mimicked the catch phrase of Lurch from The Addams Family.

Jared just smirked at her and reacted by sliding his hand over his abdomen and whispering after her, "You know you like it..."

Inside the room, Robin looked at Cyn as she entered and remembered the missions wherein she was recruited and then employed to assist in putting her father away. It reminded him of another young hero he'd worked with around two years ago, but that was neither here nor there.

"Alright, good to see you, Cyn. Hey, Photon, put your shirt and costume on and get in here!"

Jared entered after some amount of grumbling from out there, now clothed in his costume. He gave a wink at Cyn that made Robin roll his eyes.

Jared, I have got to tell you about subtlety...its far more effective at least.

Robin decided to wait for everyone else to arrive before commencing the mission, but might as well see what these two knew about their new enemy. "Alright, before we get started, I'd like to ask what you two have attained, impression-wise, of our latest foe - we'll just call them Nowhere. Of the few agents we've managed to capture, they parroted "we are from nowhere, nowhere at all". Any thoughts?"

Photon made a very effective impression of a deer in the headlights, so Grayson guessed that there hadn't been much thought going on with him...

Tatsu's body flowed like water as she practiced some katas in her room. She swiftly spun on the ball of her left heel, reached forward with her right leg and delivered a forceful fist onto the air in front of her.

-"Legs too wide, fist too high, and you lost concentration on the spin, little one"- spoke a spirit from the mass of shrines she had built in a corner of her room. The faint smell of incense and herbs permeated the air as speakers on her room played electronica in low volume. She liked it that way, it was pleasant to her.

-"Apologies, shall I repeat"- she asked the spirit.

-"Yes, from the beginning"- replied the old tired warrior spirit. Tatsu's body relaxed and she went back to the starting position of the kata. She took a deep breath and proceeded to begin when Robin's message came in. She stopped on her tracks and swiftly bowed to the shrines.

-"Sorry, Takeo-sama, duty calls"- then she began to suit up.

-"we both know your duty lies somewhere else"-

-"This is aligned with it"- she said clipping a katana and a shorter pairing sword to her left hip. She clicked off the music and exited the room as she pulled on her mask.

-"Vague, mysterious... dangerous, rather"- Mused outloud Tastu as she approached the 'nest'.

Cyn visibly shuddered when Jared whispered to her, stroking his abs in a manner best described as incredibly creepy. “Excuse me while I chunder…” She muttered, rolling her eyes and clearing her throat lightly as they entered the main room. The former merc smiled in greeting to Robin, AKA Dick Grayson – He was a nice guy if a bit too focussed on his job sometimes. That being said, Noise realised justice was less nebulous and more important to him. Regardless she trusted him and the other Titans like family, after all they were more likely to stand by her side than certain members of her actual family.

Jared, on the other hand, was very new to their team and frankly a bit of a douche. She got the feeling he meant well but he was far too self absorbed, not meantion a cringe-worthy sense of humour. Cyn wasn’t above puns and had a bad habit of using sound bites in conversation but at least she had some standards. She ignored the wink and instead greeted Tatsu – at least she hadn’t been traumatised by Photon’s nipples yet. Noise bobbed her head in a so-so manner in response to Robin’s question, “Yeah, ‘Nowhere’ seems to sum up their story – I don’t know where they’re getting those people or the tech, might as well be nowhere.” She admitted, glancing to the screens behind their leader, “The Ravagers, the mercs with them, I’m wondering what keeps them on side. It’s either a big prize or a bigger threat. The regulars just sound brainwashed.” She added, pulling on her fingerless gloves over the blue wrist tattoos.

She chose not to mention her thoughts on the Superboy doppelganger, Cyn didn’t what to think really. She trusted Connor, he was very kind and too naïve to be deceitful overall. But Noise had been betrayed before and she wasn’t ruling out anything.

"They're cryptic." Connor Kent made his presence known after he walked into 'the bird's nest', fists clenched like always and a look of muddled anger on his face. "I hate cryptic people."

The tensed up shoulders and the furrowed brow meant only one thing: Superboy was in one of his moods. Most likely the result of playing the videos of the doppelganger over and over again, trying yet again to find something that'd reveal that it was a fake Superboy doing all those shady things. And like all those other times, this session ended with his fist through the console.

"Did we find one of their bases?" He asked Robin, not even giving the others the usual greeting.

Music - obnoxiously loud classical - blared from Damian's room as he did push-ups inside, attempting to beat his previous record. He could train more efficiently if he actually went in the exercise room but that would require more socialisation with the others than he deemed necessary. He stopped as he heard Robin's message, irritated by the interruption. He still wasn't sure why his father had made him join the team and he didn't like answering to one of his wards but it was clear this was his best chance for some actual crime fighting.

He slowly made his way up to the 'nest', joining the meeting in progress. He had nothing to contribute yet though; this organisation was annoyingly well-hidden and he didn't have his father's detective skills yet.

Robin looked over at the new arrivals and nodded, putting up various pictures on the computer, showing some of the lesser agents, and some of the known Ravagers.

Insofar, the only Ravagers they'd seen were a large saurian looking man who seemed somewhat apologetic about what he was doing, and a young man with some odd wolf-like traits who seemed cold about the whole thing.

Speaking of what Cyn had said, "I'm working on trying to find out just where these guys get their tech. They've been surprisingly good about keeping large samples out of our hands."

"As for the Ravagers, when I was in contact with Beast Boy last, he said he had some sort of lead in regards to them. But I haven't heard from him in a while. Its...worrying. Whether they're here for a prize or because of a threat, they're fighting like people with nothing left to lose."

Dick looked over at Connor and gave a confident little smile, it was rare he could give Connor good news, but today was different. "Actually, it seems some of our foes might've found something for us."

He motioned and put the footage of the Hive Five on the monitor. It looked like they were rifling around some very familiar looking places in the old mob hideout, "As you know, it seems Nowhere and the various mundane mobs have some sort of relationship. It seems the HIVE Five are out trying to scavenge any of Nowhere's material."

Photon brought his right fist to his left hand and grinned, "This is great! We can take whatever those losers find, and possibly draw out some of Nohow's agents!"

Robin winced a little, Jared, I REALLY need to teach you better material.

Roy came in late but caught most of what Robin said.

-"If you excuse me, Robin"- she began talking to her leader -"As much as I'm curious of the findings of the HIVE 5, shouldn't we track down Beast Boy first? I mean, not that I don't trust his abilities but it really has been a good while since we haven't heard from a comrade. As always I defer to you, but I think we should considerate this."-

Grayson nodded in agreement, he hadn't heard from Beast Boy in a while, and the length of absence was worrying. Still, he couldn't quite let the HIVE Five go running around and possibly obtain some Ravager Tech.

"Alright, I'm going to send Starfire over to his last known coordinate to see what's going on."

He then looked back at the screen, "Everyone else, time to move out."

A little while later...

"URRRGH!!" Mammoth was presently attempting to pry open a dark silver door found in the back of the mob hideout, which everyone involved suspected was where Nowhere was keeping some of their "goodies".

Gizmo was sulking / ranting to himself about how he just needed ten minutes in there to put HIVE up to stuff with Nowhere. This was one of the first times, after all, that he had heard of technology not even he could get.

Jinx was blithely combing her hair, and looking at a broken mirror, "...Something tells me making noises and doing the exact same thing longer isn't going to bust it open."

Seemore was looking around for any approaching Nowhere agents who might've been angered at the intrusion...but he ended up seeing the Titans running in toward the mob base, "Hey...guys...Titans incoming!"

He was rewarded for this with a blast from Photon, and Robin shouted, "Titans Go!"

Tatsu was right, prolonged silence from Beast Boy was worrying in any situation let alone while going after The Ravagers or Nowhere. However, Robin was right not to focus their efforts on contacting him just yet, not with the Hive Five after a Nowhere stash. Noise simply nodded, noting both Connor and Damian were having their little moods with silent exasperation. Cynthia supposed she couldn’t blame them for the way they were. A lookalike running around was bad enough if you weren’t already a clone. As for Batman’s young son, well, she understood how an assassin’s upbringing could leave you with issues.

Time to move out. Noise secured her mask, ready for battle as a more serious manner took her.

Noise heard the grunts of the aptly named Mammoth straining against the door long before they came into sight, though most would as he wasn’t the subtlest of villains. However she also heard Jinx and Gizmo complaining, a fun bunch to deal with. “Well, shit. Stealth was fun while it lasted…” Cyn muttered as See-more announced their approach but fortunately they were quick to act.

She targeted a high pitch whistle at the mirror in Jinx’s hand, a high amplitude resonant frequency intended to cause a sort of explosion – A distraction if nothing else. Simultaneously the former merc charged at the odd teen, “Think fast!” The yell and accompanying sounds came from the opposite direction to her actually approach. Noise attacked in a flurry of careful strikes from behind. If one listened very closely they might hear a faint melody to her movements.

Red Arrow sent a shock arrow at Gizmo, specifically targeting his suit, hoping to short circuit his gadgets then another at Mammoth.

edited 6th Sep '15 8:02:25 AM by tricksterson

As the Titans burst in Damian tried to skirt round the edge and stick to the shadows. They'd lost stealth but he was trained as an assassin and he wanted to get the element of surprise back for one attack. As Red Arrow's attack would divert Mammoth's attention Damian dashed round to a blind spot and ambushed the large villain, throwing a smoke bomb before aiming at his legs in an attempt to knock him down. The pre-teen picking the biggest villain was a weird choice but his training included a multitude of martial arts, so he knew how to turn an opponent's weight against them.

Damian's careful attempt at an attack didn't count for one big variable. Like a big bullet of anger, Connor rushed out of formation, vaulting forward and trying to land a mega punch right in Mammoth's ugly mug. Connor wasn't holding back- if this punch landed, it would hurt like hell.

Red Arrow's bolt arrow threw Gizmo for a loop, though as he flailed around it looked like his armor was adapting a bit, the arrow's payload feeding into it.

"You'll pay for that!" Six spider-like limbs came out of the backpack the small supervillain always carried with him, followed by two shock-blasters, "Lets see how you like it, pretty boy!"

He promptly started firing jagged bolts of force from the shock-blasters, the blasts curving along after Roy.

Jinx meanwhile hadn't quite been caught surprised - she applied her power to the mirror and by and large it exploded elsewhere. "Well, Noisy, seems you're my dance partner tonight."

She sent waves of her power at Noise, also hoping to catch some of the stuff in the room with her power, notably two large bookcases.

Mammoth wasn't too badly harmed by the shock arrow - he was an extremely resistant individual after all - and went to try to take a swing at Roy despite the current arrangements, but found himself first smoke bombed by Damian, and then...

When the smoke cleared, he could only murmur one thing when he saw Superboy coming right at him, "Uh oh."

He was promptly sent flying through the wall, though he was back up and ready for Superboy this time. "Alright, fine, Nowhere's tech'll be even sweeter if we stomp over you idiots first!"

This had landed Mammoth in the alleyway outside...

edited 6th Sep '15 10:15:28 PM by NickTheSwing

"Shut up!" Connor yelled with the bravado of a distraught teenager, jumping through the hole so he could land on top of Mammoth, pin him down and take him out of the fight for good. Superboy really wasn't messing around...

As Superboy went at Mammoth, the large supervillain met the distraught teenager head on, smirking a little. Now that he was used to his opponent, he was matching Superboy punch for punch.

He didn't seem to remember Damian, and instead stated as if impressed after a certain punch threw him back a little, "I guess they weren't kidding when they said you went bad. How's it feel running with mobsters and Nowhere, huh? Good, am I right?"

The force bolts are suddenly interrupted as Tatsu leaps and blocks them with her sheathed blades. -"I am fairly sure he won't like them"- she said simply when she lands. She clips the sheathes back on and grasps her main blade and its sheath, putting it behind her body as she takes a quickdraw stance -"Toro-Style, Stance of God"- she mutters as she then swiftly rushes towards the legs of the irate midget's suit, aiming to slash them with a speedy quickdraw.

edited 6th Sep '15 11:04:18 PM by Sanojutsu

Under her mask Noise’s smirk only grew as Jinx hexed the mirror away, casually strolling towards the girl. Truthfully this was a façade, one her father had taught her to unsettle opponents and catch them off guard. Though she hated to admit it, the idea was effective. “You only need two to Tango, Jinx…” She drolled, voice a little distorted as if through a bad radio to disguise it. As the hexes came at Cynthia she dodged the wave of unfortunate events determined to happen and noted the others were focussed on Gizmo and Mammoth. “And those boys always step on my toes, anyhow.” She added, having weaved her way up to Jinx but noticing the bookcases.

Cyn launched a few strikes to Jinx’s head and neck but only to set her up for a vicious leg attack. As she did this Noise focussed an infrasound on her enemy’s body - intended to disorientate the villain and thus her powers. Nevertheless, she kept a wary eye on the bookcases.

"Thanks," Roy said to Tatsu but went into dodge mode nonetheless incase any bolts got past her. He put down the bow, pulled out his bo sticks and headed towards Seemore, the only member of the Five not engaged, with intent to pummel.

edited 7th Sep '15 5:36:08 AM by tricksterson

Superboy loathed it when the press hurled accusations at him, especially because he couldn't fight back, lest they use that to fuel their rants against him. But here? Right now? He could punch Mammoth as much as he wanted.

His eyes widened, and the giant would feel a sudden increase in power as Superboy aimed a punch right at his chest. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THEM?!" He bellowed, trying to push Mammoth down so he could pummel him. "HUH? HUH?! TELL ME!"

Assuming he reaches See-more Roy will aim one bo stick at the Eye Helmet and the other at See-more's knees.

Jinx was disoriented, but as she fell back from the attacks, she hexed the floor underneath Noise, breaking it open underneath her, managing to overcome the effect after the hits.

Jinx smiled and noted the shadow on the floor proceeding toward Roy. "Surely you noticed...we're the HIVE Five, not Four."

See-more was just about up when he saw Roy looming over him getting ready to fire...and then it seemed something touched Roy's shadow, and promptly grabbed at his legs, aiming to hold him up to disrupt his attack.

The fifth spot in the HIVE Five team this time went to what looked like a black cloaked young man sitting on the head of what looked like a shadowy creature. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Shadow-Diver, new member of the HIVE Five."

The shadow-creature resembled some sort of cat-fish, its whiskers elongated and acting like tendrils.

See-more got up just in time for Robin to disrupt his attempt at a follow up, namely with his pole weapon to the face.

Mammoth was sent flying backward, and then promptly pummeled by the enraged Superboy. He hadn't known when he said that just what kind of monster, at least in his mind, he was dealing with.

"I...don't know anything about them..."

However, as Superboy went on, only he would be able to hear someone start clapping at the sight. "Ahaha, man, that was quite a sight. Its like watching myself batter someone. Though...you're still just a copy at the end of the day."

It sounded like Superboy's own voice, but different, distinct, undercurrents of haughtiness and disdain evident.

Gizmo's spider legs were suddenly down a few, resulting in him dipping down toward the ground. He shouted, "Get lost, girly!" His backpack released half a dozen small spider-mines that crawled toward Katana, flashing brightly as Gizmo himself moved backward to avoid the explosions oncoming.

“Son of a –“ Noise began as she slipped down the sink hole hexed into existence under her feet, managing to stop herself from falling all the way to the bottom by pushing out with her limbs. Unfortunately for Jinx she was just pissed off now and not injured. She took a moment or two to assess the situation above, listening to every scuffle, strike and quip with her whole body. The appearance of the ‘Shadow-Diver’ as a new teammate wasn’t terribly good news, but they should have noticed there were only four earlier. Maybe Photon would have an edge on him but the fight in the alleyway was far more concerning. Not Mammoth’s childish taunts or Connor’s understandable reaction – a third voice, just like Superboy’s but colder.

“Shit.” Cyn muttered, “Better hustle with taking out the trash…”

Noise absorbed all the ambient sound in the area she could, swiftly climbing out of the hole and emerging soundlessly behind Jinx. She took all the sound energy she could and grabbed the villain’s ears, or at least her head, from behind. “Guess who!” She then created a sonic boom focussed on Jinx, enough to burst her eardrums and perhaps knock her out, with any excess surrounding the former merc.