Teen Titans: Old Wounds pt.3

“I take it you never considered the Black Glove would have me as a new leader, would you?” Bane asked, still walking towards the stunned Robin.

The Boy Wonder took small steps to back away from bane while saying “But why you? You have your own gang. Your own style of crime. The Black Glove doesn’t seem your kind of organization to join.”

“Desperate times. Desperate measures.” Bane stated, finally standing a foot in front of him and looking down. “You and the rest of your friends from Gotham have caused enough damage into my affairs. One job, deal or assignment after the other stopped by you and your amigos. But when word spread that the Black Glove was having the same trouble I’d offered to combined our few remaining resources. In gratitude, I became the new leader.”

Robin looked back to Hurt and said “And you just accepted it?”

“I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue.” He smirked, indicating his paralyzed legs.
 
Bane brought the attention back to himself by saying “We figured this city would be an ideal spot to begin reconstruction of the new an reinforced Black Glove. But there was one variable we had to erase: you.” He pointed at Robin. “And your pandilla. The rest is as Simon Hurt said; only with one exception.”

“You see,” Hurt began “we knew that those hired fools wouldn’t be enough to finish you; especially not with your friends watching your back every step of the way. Instead we let them, without even realizing it, lead you right where we wanted you. Here. Alone. And trapped.”

Robin looked up to Bane and said “Good plan, but big mistake. I’ve beaten you before and I’ll do it again.”

“With one difference, little bird.” He began. “Now you are without any backup. While I have everything I need. Right here.”

He reached over and turned the dial on his little device on his wrist. With that a green liquid went from it up through the tube going up to his head. His eyes seemed to bulge for a minute and he growled with pain. In a few seconds his muscles began to grow five times their size. Robin only looked more and more nervous as Bane finally reached a more muscular build.

Robin instantly threw a smoke bomb down, blinding Bane and Hurt for a moment. He tried using the cover to sneak behind Bane while pulling out a birdrang, with the intent to cut the tube. He found an opportunity and jumped up, only for Bane to quickly reached back and grab his hand holding the weapon.

“I feel for that little trick once, chico.” He punched Robin away with the free hand while holding the birdarang in the other and saying “But I’ve learned a lot since then.”

Robin saw as the birding was easily crushed in Bane’s hand before the muscular monstrosity came charging towards him. Robin ducked under his legs before tossing two explosives at Bane’s back. He turned and caught both in his hands and barley filched when they exploded. Robin Flipped back as Bane tried punching him before landing on top of Hurt’s desk. Bane lifted his arms up and smashed them down, missing Robin but breaking the desk into pieces.

He turned as Robin tried to make for the door. He reached it but found it locked.

Bane chuckled and said “No flying away to find your friends, Robin. They’re dealing with their own problems. Whereas you, are in for a serve treatment in pan.” He smirked while cracking his knuckles.

Robin’s eyes went wide with panic as Bane stepped closer to land another punch.

********************

Raven managed to create a barrier in time before the mercenaries started opening fire on her, Cyborg and Beast Boy.

All three of them were cornered in the lobby as the three villains, Black Spider and the Copperhead Twins, all watched with delight at what they knew would be the eventual end of these Titans. Raven only narrowed her eyes in anger at the smirks they had while Cyborg peeked out to fire his arm cannon now-and-then, and BB was cowering in the form of a turtle in its shell.

Black Spider indicated for the men to stop firing, which they did, before saying “Look, you kids should just throw in the towel here and now.”

“Not happening, spider freak.” Cy shouted.

“Look at it this way then.” he continued “You’re cornered with no way out. You three are all that’s here while your alien chick is flying around with Firefly. And right about now the big man’s laying it on, hard, to the feather head. You’re out gunned, out classed and out of luck.”

“You might be right.” Raven began, stopping Cy from giving his own remark. “We’re probably doomed right here on the spot. But it doesn’t matter. We’re not giving up. Not for our sake or for our friend’s. If this is where we go down, then we do it fighting.”

Cy, looking at Raven, nodded while smiling before activating his hidden missiles. BB stood ready behind him, now in normal form, and waited until Raven dropped the barrier. Before the men could fire, Cyborg unleashed his missiles, firing either in front of behind them. They exploded all around, knocking the men off their feet or disorienting them.

BB took the form of a bull and charged forward, knocking the many men still standing off their feet and away. Cyborg and Raven took this chance to deal with the remaining enemies: the villains.

Raven used her magic on a nearby water fountain and sprayed the water towards the Copperhead Twins. While the boy was able to duck away, the girl was hit directly and hard enough to go flying towards the wall.

With his sibling busy, the boy Twin looked over to Cyborg in time to duck an incoming arm thrust. He stood up straight and drew his swords before Cyborg indicated for him to bring it. The boy ran forward and began attacking, Cyborg using a tech-shield in his arms to block each strike.

From behind Raven, who was using her magic attacks against the Twin she was dealing with, Black Spider aimed his shooters at her back. But before he could fire, a large green panther leapt towards him and tackled him to the ground.  Spider rolled with him before managing to kick him off. He stood and fired his wed at BB, only for him to turn into a snake small enough to dodge it and then a gorilla. He roared and came forward, slamming his right fist towards Spider who jumped away.

********************

Starfire spiraled in the air from another grenade detonated near her by Firefly.

She stopped and looked back to see Firefly coming towards her with his flamethrower armed. He fired a stream, which she avoided, that completely roasted a nearby tree. She flew around and behind him, firing her bolts, which he avoided and returned with more flame attacks. Eventually she flew behind and grabbed him, making both spiral and duck and dive in the air out of control.

Seeing an opportunity, Firefly unbuckled the jetpack and landed on a roof. He rolled a bit but recovered in time to see Starfire, still holding the jetpack, going flying into the side of a nearby building the roof was next to. She slammed into it with an explosion from the pack before landing hard on the roof.

She groaned as she tried to recover, only to see Firefly coming towards her with the flamethrower ready.

“Lights out, girly.” He said before firing the flamethrower right at her.

Starfire had no time before being completely consumed in the fire. He laughed as he saw her entire body covered in flame. After a moment he stopped and hustled the thrower over his shoulder.

“Rough job, but easy money.” He said to himself.

However Firefly did not have time to celebrate as he saw an unbelievable sight: Starfire standing tall and unharmed by his attack. The rest of the wall she was against was scorched. Even leaving an outline of where she stood, but Starfire wasn’t even burned.

“No...no way!” Firefly said, angered.

“Clearly you are not familiar with Tamerianian physiology.” Star smirked. “We are accustom to very intense heat. In fact, most of my power comes from absorbing the rays from your world’s sun.”

Firefly looked down at his now useless arsenal and said “So...you tricked me? You made me use up everything!”

“I believe the expression is ‘lights out.’” She said before landing a hard punch to Firefly.

He fell to the ground, his helmet cracked from the impact, and was out cold. Starfire walked over and picked up his flamethrower, breaking it in half and tossing what was left to the side. She wiped her hands before flying up into the air and looking back to the building where Robin and the other Titans were.

“Now to aide Robin.” She said before flying off.

********************

Robin was thrown against the wall and landed against the ground hard.

He was badly beaten enough as it was, a bruise here, a fractured bone here and there, a rip in his cape and costume. Even his mask was hanging a bit off on the side from a large tear in it. He gritted his teeth in pain and tried to stand, only for Bane, who walked up to him, to grab him by the arm and hoist him up.

Robin put up enough strength to kick Bane in the face, but the mercenary only chuckled at this before punching him in the face and tossing in over his shoulder. Robin rolled and stopped right near Simon Hurt, who was sitting and watching with his hands folded up and smiling.

“Tell me, Robin, how does it feel?” he asked. “How does that PAIN feel? That’s exactly what I’ve felt for years. Every defeat. Every botched job. Every time I knew that you and your friends would gloat and boast in victory. And now you know what it’s like. So tell me, how does it feel?”

Robin looked up while groaning and said “It.....tickles....” before smirking.
 
Hurt grimaced before looking and nodding to Bane. The muscular villains picked Robin up by the cape, chocking him a bit, and then gave another hard punch to his stomach. He took off his utility belt and tossed it away before changing his grip to around his neck.

“Before, I broke the master.” He began. “Now I will break the student.”

He held his one hand under his neck while the other hand held Robin’s leg. He hoisted him up high in the air, seeing Robin groan more. All of them, even Hurt, knew what was coming. Bane smirked before lifting his knee a bit.

Robin gave a hurtful “...no...” before Bane brought him down.

Before Robin’s back could make contact with Bane’s knee, Starfire flew straight through the window and slammed both fists into Bane, knocking him back and making him drop Robin into Star’s arms. The force of everything that happened made Simon Hurt fall out of his chair while Bane went back into the wall, making a hole in it.

Holding Robin, Star said to Bane “You will not harm him again. Nor will you ever again!”
Robin coughed a bit before saying “St...Stafire....”

She rubbed his head and said “Do not worry, Robin. I’m here.”

He smiled a bit and said “Wh-what would...I do without you?”

She smiled as well before both kissed. They stopped when they heard Bane coming back from the hole in the wall and cracking some of his bones.

“You show courage, luciérnaga.” He said to Starfire. “but that will not save you or your amigo.”

Starfire laid Robin down behind what was left of the desk, thinking he’d be safe, before looking to Bane and saying “I may not know what an ‘amigo’ is, but you do not have the right to call Robin as such. And I will not let you touch him again.”

He laughed and said “Then come and protect your man, little girl. If you can.”

She roared as she flew towards him, her eyes and fists glowing green. Before she could land a punch him, Bane caught both her fists and held them apart. She looked surprised before Bane bashed his head against hers, making her fall to the ground. She shook her head to recover before standing in time to block a punch from Bane with her arms. She broke his attack and gave a few punches to Bane’s chest, only for him to shrug them off and landed a heavy kick to her chest. She flew back and landed against a picture of Hurt on the wall, making both of them fall to the ground before Bane came walking towards her.

As Robin laid on the ground he tried to move, only for nearly every joint to hurt with each movement. Speaking of ‘Hurt’, Robin felt his ankle being grabbed. He looked down to see Simon Hurt, with an angered wild look in his eyes, crawling towards Robin. His hands made their way up Robin’s body as he came closer to his neck.

As they both struggled, Hurt said “You think because your alien girl is here, you win? Never! None of your friends can help you now!”

Hurt tried to get his hands around Robin’s throat as his body was over his. Robin struggled while dealing with the pain and Hurt’s hands which he had by the wrists.

“You’ve...always been obsessive, Hurt.” Robin said while they struggled. He managed to roll him of him, still struggling, while saying “But you never seem to realize....that when the chips are down....you need to learn when to quit while you’re ahead!”

They still continued to struggle while Starfire managed to knock Bane back. He held up his arms in defense as she fired her starbolts at him. They hit, but thanks to Bane’s extra strength they did not do much damage. Once she finished he found Robin’s utility belt nearby. He picked it up and tossed it, making Star hit it with another bolt out of reflex. This caused it to explode, mainly with one of its flash bang grenades going off and blinding her. Bane took the opportunity and charged his shoulder into Star, pushing her all the way back until she was squished between a wall and his shoulder.

She dropped to the ground, a large crack on the wall from where Bane pushed her, before he picked her up by her hair and said “Game over, seniority.”

She held his hand as she struggled as he reared his fist up. At the same time Hurt managed to get one hand around Robin’s neck and started squeezing. Both fights were getting intense.

Just then the door to the room was kicked open and all looked to see Cyborg, BB and Raven there.

“I think these belong to you.” Cy said, tossing the knocked out villains in front of them.  

Bane dropped Star and said “Ah, the rest of the Niño’s. Good. I’ll crush all of you myself!”

“Uh, what’s a Niño?” BB asked. “Some kind of burrito or something?”

“Save it for later, Beast Boy.” Raven said just as Bane came towards them.

In response BB changed into a triceratops and charged at him. Both collided and began a power struggle, one trying to push the other back with all their might. Eventually Bane won, throwing BB to the side and making him skid into a wall.

Cyborg came in next and started boxing with him. Bane blocked what he could but took a few hits to the stomach. This didn’t stop him however as he managed to grab one of Cy’s hands and spin him around before flinging him towards the window. Cy crashed through the glass and fell before managing to snag hold of the ledge before he could go any further down.

Raven fired magic attacked at him, which Bane managed to block with his arms. She looked and saw weapons on the wall and focused.

“Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos!”

The weapons, mainly being swords and the like, flew from the wall towards Bane. Some missed and others he either caught or smacked away. Two managed to graze his shoulder and side but he barely reacted to them. He smirked as she panicked before coming towards her.

“Azarath. Metri..."

Bane grabbed her by the head, his fingers around her mouth, and said “No more little tricks from you, bruja.”

He picked her up high before slamming her down to the ground. He raised his fists to slam down on her before a  green crow came in started flapping around in his face. Bane took a few steps back as he tried to swat him before finally managing to grab BB in one hand before using both to crush him.  He gripped so tight it made BB revert to normal form as he struggled. Before he could finish him off, a blast from behind made Bane drop him. He turned to see Cyborg standing with his arm cannon smoking and looking angry at him.

“I’m not out of the fight yet, WrestleMania.” He said.

Bane growled in annoyance before running towards Cyborg now.

As the fight continued, Hurt had managed to get both hands around Robin and was strangling him now.

Robin was doing his best to fight back, but given his injuries it was proving too difficult. Hurt had a wild look in his eyes the whole time. His plans weren’t going as smoothly as he wanted, Robin knew that always managed to push his buttons.

“I should’ve know I didn’t need Bane to finish you off!” he said. “I’ll be the one who finally kills the Bird Boy Wonder!” He chuckled and said “How does that sound, boy?”

Before Hurt could finally finish off Robin, he felt a hand grab him from behind and hoist him up. Hurt was met face-to-face with Starfire, her eyes blazing green and a vengeful look on her face.

“I believe it sounds out of the question.” She said before tossing him away.

Simon Hurt landed and rolled, stopping near his chair and groaning. Starfire kneeled down as Robin was coughing and drawing breath again.

“I am sorry.” She said. “I thought you were safe.”

“It’s *cough* *cough* it’s alright....Starfire.” he said. “He’s not the problem. You have to stop Bane.”

“But how?” she asked, picking his head up. She glanced over to see Bane grappling hands with Cyborg while BB was on his back in the form of a squid before looking back and saying “He seems almost unstoppable.”

“The...the tube.” He said. “On his head. You have to....cut it. Get the...Venom out of his system.”

She nodded and stood just in time to see both Cyborg and BB being tossed away from Bane towards where Raven was dropped. She looked around before seeing a sword on the ground, one that Raven had flung at Bane earlier.

Bane stepped closer to the three fallen Titans and shouted “You whelps are nothing against me! I have conquered an entire city under my rule! You are only bugs to be squashed under my boots! I will see you all break!”

Just then Starfire flew in from behind, a sword in hand, and managed to slice the tube off. The liquid, green in color, before to spray out like a hose. Bane screamed in defeat before turning around and seeing her.

“The only one to be broken this day shall be you!” she declared as Bane roared before coming towards her.

Starfire dropped the sword and grabbed both of his fists when they tried to punch her. For a moment both started a power struggle, Bane still managing some of his super strength in him from the remaining amount of Venom. It wasn’t until a few moments later that Bane’s muscles began to shrink back. He looked with shock as this happened while Star’s superior strength made it easier to push Bane back.

She pushed him far enough before giving a few hard punches to his face. A heavy kick to the stomach sent him against the wall and then a few hard pummels to his face again. When Starfire stopped a moment later, Bane lid against the wall and dropped to the floor.

Before he passed out, Bane mumbled under his mask “Odio a.....los niños.”

Seeing him down for the count, Starfire walked over to her friends and made sure they were alright, helping Raven and BB up.

“It’s official: I’m never going to Mexican Luchador matches ever again.” BB said, cracking his back.

Cyborg stood and said “Guy was like a living tank. And coming from ME that’s saying something.”

Raven, removing her hood and rubbing her head, looked around and asked “Where’s Robin?”
Star gasped before flying over to where she left him. He was fine, but trying to stand on his own while holding his side and limping on one leg. She rushed over to throw his arm over her before the others came over.

Cy helped him as well while saying “Easy. Easy. You have a lot of fractures.”

Robin, looking over at Bane, chuckled a bit and said “Not as much....as I’ll bet he has.”

BB laughed and said “Good one, Rob. Up high.” He held his hand up for a high-five, but then got a look from the others making him say “Oh right.”

As they walked towards the door Robin said “Guys...I’m sorry.  This was all my fault.”
“Your fault?” Cy asked.

“If it wasn’t for me, they’d have never come here. Never tried to have us all killed. You wouldn’t have...”

He groaned before being helped up and BB saying “Oh c’mon, Rob. Don’t go off like that again. We told you before, we’re your friends and we’re not letting you down.”

“So what if a few bad guys almost got the jump on us.” Cy began. “How many times has it  happened now? One hundred? Two hundred times?”

“We will endure any obstacle you have to.” Star said. “You have been there for us, so we must, in turn, be there for you.”

They all looked to Raven who only answered with “What they said.”

Robin smiled before all heard laughing from behind. They looked back to see Simon Hurt struggling to get to his chair while laughing at them.

“How thoughtful” he said. “You must feel very lucky and safe having your friends with you, right Robin?” But this is far from over. The Black Glove will be back. And so will I. Your friends will never be safe as long as you’re around them. More villains will come. More will be hurt. And in the end it will all be your fault.” They all heard as police sirens sounded outside but that didn’t stop Simon from saying “Before this is over, I’ll see you die. I’ll see your Tower burn to the ground and this and any other city will be mine!”

Robin only glared and said “We’ll be waiting.” Before walking off with his friends.

END