The Next Generation

Well, um, OW! That had certainly not gone quite as planned. Rose felt like her knee had driven into a fucking brick wall, and by the time she landed behind the big guy, she was limping. "What the fuck?" she muttered, holding a hand to her knee. The next thing she knew, the big guy's hand was around her throat and then she was airborne, not just crashing into the wall, but going right through it. As the plaster crumbled down around her, she coughed and cried out in pain, her entire body feeling as though it had just shattered. If she didn't have decently enhanced durability, her insides probably would have exploded on impact.

"Son... of.. a bitch..." she coughed out, rolling over onto her front. Every move she made made her cringe. What in the hell was that guy? She felt like Superman had just thrown her through the wall. Of course, little did she know, he basically had, considering that Amazo had absorbed Superman's powers in the past, among many others. By the time she staggered back up to her feet, the whole room was spinning. She tried to shake it off, regaining her bearings.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to recover before she was being assaulted by three of the masked men. Well, crap. Grabbing a peace of plaster to use as a weapon, she prepared to defend herself against all three guys. This might not go so well, since every time she tried to move, her entire body flared with pain. "Come on!" she growled, taking a swing at the first guy.

Before the other two guys had much of a chance to converge on her, a pair of starbolts came firing in from the other room at them. Starfire flew in and went straight at them. "Leave her alone!" the Tamaranean shouted, blasting them with her full fury. Unless they were super powered, they wouldn't be getting up any time soon.

"I will destroy you for this Amazo, I don't care how strong you are you won't beat me on my home field," Neal said as he continued to stare right at Amazo. Their battle of the minds continued, but it was impossible to tell just who exactly was winning. Hot Spot and Cyborg tried to go in and interfere, but it seemed like it was going to be impossible. Whenever they tried to get close they ended up being attacked by more of the Masked Men. The Titans were winning, but there were so many men that they were constantly fighting.

"This whole place is going to Hell," one guy muttered to himself. "I better tell the boss that it's time to bail," he said before heading out of the room and down the hallway.

As the plaster made contact with the first guy he let out a yell of pain, but he wasn't defeated yet. He turned to take a punch at Rose, but got shot by Starfire as she quickly moved in. The two men turned to fight the alien, but considering they were unarmed it was only moments before they were all completely knocked out.

As the two looked back towards the room where all the fighting was taking place, they'd both notice something that was somewhat alarming. Starfire would notice several men retreating up a flight of stairs; stairs that led directly to Starfire's room where Lori still was. Rose would see that Neal was struggling in his mental battle against Amazo. She noticed this because Neal's nose was beginning to bleed, which was always a sign that Neal was pushing himself farther than he had before.

Starfire turned from the currently unconscious men to the ones fleeing the area. But they apparently weren't going downstairs to escape the tower... they were going upstairs. The only thing that they could get to upstairs was the living quarters.. where Lori had to be, up in her room. "No you don't!" she shouted, flying up towards the ceiling. She crashed straight through it, flying up to the next ceiling and crashing through that one as well, all the way up to the floor where her room was. By the time the other men got to that floor, they'd come into the hallway to see one very angry Tamaranean princess waiting for them.

"Okay, well this is just great," Rose muttered, stumbling back into the other room where the other Titans were, as was the strange android with the most retarded name ever. Amazo? What the hell? When she got there, she found Neal deadlocked with the android in some kind of epic staring contest. Whatever was going on, Neal was struggling, his nose bleeding.

"Back.... off!" she growled, taking a swing at Amazo. She only succeeded in breaking every bone in her hand. She reeled back in pain, clutching her shattered hand. "FUCK MOTHER CUNT!"

Rose took the swing at Amazo, who was so focused on Neal that he didn't even see it coming. The blow hit and managed to move his head several inches despite the amazing amount of damage that had done to Rose's hand. Despite this, it was actually the one thing that Neal needed in order to gain the advantage. He gained a smile, and Rose would notice that the blood flowing from his nose stopped. The blood was still there, but no new blood was coming out of his nose.

"That is right Neal Anderson, your powers are no match for mine," Amazo said. It seemed like he didn't seem to notice the change that Neal had gone through. Of course, there was a reason for that.

"Sorry Amazo but it's like I told you before, you're fighting in my world now," Neal said with a large smile as Amazo seemed to stand rigidly still. "You copied my powers when you first attacked, but you didn't wait enough to see everything," Neal said before suddenly lunging forward as if all his energy was in his movement now. Within seconds Neal suddenly reached into his pack, removed the handle of his sword before turning it to the highest level of heat that he had. By the time that Neal was an inch away from Amazo, the android only seemed to just notice what was going on.

"You tricked-" but Amazo didn't have time to finish the rest of the sentence as Neal suddenly spun his entire body into the slash that he deliver. He started down at Amazo's hip and slashes the sword up through the android's body until it reached the opposite end of his neck. The two pieces fell apart, a massive melting hunk of metal that was now falling to the ground. Before the top half even reached the ground though Neal made one more cut and lopped the head of Amazo off from his neck. The android pieces fell to a heap on the floor, and Amazo was no more.

Neal stood there, breathing heavily for some time before reaching up to wipe the blood from his nose. He quickly turned his sword off. He felt like his hands were burned just from holding the thing, it had been hot enough to cut through Amazo's powerful metal after all. "Rose...........are you okay?"

"I can't feel my fucking hand, what do you think!" she screamed, clutching the broken fingers close to her chest. Normally she'd be completely amazed and relieved that Amazo was defeated and everything was good now... but holy shit this fucking hurt! "Ow ow ow ow owowowowow! Fuck!"

"Maybe I can help with that," Raven said, walking up behind her.

"Woah!" Rose shouted, sharply jumping back and blinking at the cloaked woman. "What, Raven... when the hell did you get here?"

"About five seconds ago," Beast Boy said, taking a look around the place. "What the hell happened here? Did you guys throw a party without us?"

Starfire reappeared a moment later, flying back down through the holes she had created in the multiple floors. She was carrying several unconscious bad guys. "They are defeated! ...oh, Raven, Beast Boy, welcome back! Um... you will have to excuse the mess, we just completed a victory over men sent by Black Mask."

"Right..." Raven said, blinking. She turned her attention back to Rose's hand, starting to heal it.

"Hey hey hey, I'm the one that just killed the guy responsible for that......but you make a good point," Neal said as he placed his sword back into his pack that was reserved solely for the sword. Boy was Neal glad that he had picked that thing up, he'd have to thank Batman for it at some point. Neal was about to offer to help Rose when someone else showed up instead.

"Raven.....Beast boy?" Neal said in disbelief. Boy, what he wouldn't have given to have them show up a good five minutes ago. Still, it was a good sign to see some reinforcements after they had to fight so many. Neal only fought one, but the mental toll that he had taken against Amazo was stronger than he had thought. He had only barely tricked the android into believing that he was defeating Neal. After that, it was only the matter of Neal moving in to deal the killing blow.

There was nothing against superheroes killing androids after all right? Whatever, Neal doubted that anyone was going to give him crap for that.

Neal was about to say something when a noise suddenly reached all of their ears. At first Neal couldn't tell what it was, but it was growing louder.

"Is that a helicopter?" Cyborg asked as he and Hot Spot walked over after defeating the last of their men.

A sudden memory flashed through Neal's eyes. "No.....he's so close!" he shouted although no one had any idea what he was talking about. "It's not over yet," he suddenly said before turning and running straight towards one of the windows. Neal jumped and crashed through it, only to create a soul-self platform beneath his feet before causing it to rise up quickly.

"Okay.......anyone understand what just happened?" Cyborg asked in clear confusion.

"Black Mask! I heard one of the men saying that they were going to warn the boss that he needed to get out. It must have also been why those men were running upstairs," Hot Spot said as he looked towards the group. "Neal's going to end his feud with the man, we should help him! Black Mask might still have some of his best bodyguards with him"

"Dude, is that Amazo?" Beast Boy said, kneeling down and picking up the android's head. "What the hell is that sword of yours made out of? You cut through him like butter."

"Well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?" Rose said with a shrug, starting to slench her fingers together as Rose healed the broken bones. Who knows, maybe Batman had designed the technology specifically to deal with ultra powerful renegade androids? "I'm just glad this is all... over?"

But apparently it wasn't over, not yet. The sound of a helicopter soon reached their ears. It could only be Black Mask himself, and Neal was going after him. Well, hey certainly weren't just going to sit there wait around, they were going to help him! Raven quickly transported them all up to the roof, likely where the chopper was located, except for Starfire, who went to take Lori to safety before the whole tower turned into a warzone.

As everyone was transported to the roof, they would be confronted with the sight of Neal fighting ten men at once. While he wasn't necessarily winning, it was clear that he also didn't have the overall advantage. Hot Spot had been right, Black Mask had truly saved his most elite men to protect him during his escape. They were probably also the most loyal, considering that the helicopter with Black Mask in it was already beginning to take off.

Cyborg quickly unleashed his sonic cannon and fired directly into one of the men, knocking them back and sending them flying. "We gotta stop that helicopter!" Cyborg shouted as he began to fight one of the men that were closest. "This is our best chance to REALLY stop this guy!"

"You handle the men, I got the chopper," Raven said, holding her hands up. Her soul-self cast out a second later and surrounded the helicopter, pulling it straight back down to the roof. She was also sure to rip to rotors right off and throw them into the bay. Needless to say, Black Mask wouldn't be going anywhere now.

While she was bringing down the chopper, the others joined the battle against the bodyguards. Rose leaped in with a combination of attacks, now fully healed after Raven had finished with her. This time, she was going all out, and whoever got in her way would be eating through a straw for the next six months. Beast Boy, meanwhile, transformed into a rampaging rhinoceros, charging the group and and knocking multiple people aside violently.

The group were able to take down the men with ease. They may have been some of Black Mask's best, but they weren't anywhere near their own level. With the help of his friends Neal quickly took out the two men that stuck to him, smashing them into the ground and knocking them unconscious. He quickly looked up as he saw that Black Mask's chopper had been forced to the ground. Neal quickly stood up and ran over before grabbing the door and pulling it open.

The moment that Neal opened the door, Black Mask pulled out a revolved and tried to fire it straight at Neal, only for Neal to reach up and push the hand up so high that the bullet shot skywards and missed everybody. Neal grabbed the man by the throat before throwing him down to the ground. The impact caused Black Mask to drop the ground, now leaving everyone open to see the crime lord as they finished off their battles against the bodyguards.

"It's over Black Mask, you're done," Neal said as he stepped over the crime lord.

"You got too much confidence kid, it's what got you in trouble in the first place," Black Mask said as he looked right up at Neal. "You think you're safe here with your friends and with your tower, but you made your family vulnerable because we found out who you were. That was on you, that was the day I showed you how easy it is for the ones you love to get hurt...........isn't that right Neal?" Black Mask asked with that sick grin on his face.

"Neal placed his boot right into Black Mask's throat. "Amazo is dead, and all of your men are in custody here. You're going to go to jail, and I swear in front of everyone here that if you come after me or anyone I care about ever again I will NOT let you live and walk away. I don't care if I'm kicked out of the Titans, I will make sure the rest of your life is very VERY short," Neal said in a clearly angered voice. Before he allowed Black Mask to reply Neal sent a quick stomp right to the man's forehead, knocking him out immediately.

Neal just stood there breathing heavily, seeing the cause of so much pain for himself and for his family to finally be captured. It was a moment to take in, but also a dark one as Neal meant every word that he said. Black Mask knew who he was, and if that was information he was going to reveal than Neal would rather kill him and leave the superhero world behind him to ensure that his family was safe.

It was selfish, but it was how he truly felt. "Bastard" Neal finally uttered as he couldn't seem to peel his eyes off of Black Mask.

"Well... I'd say that it's over now, right?" Beast Boy said, watching as Neal finished up with Black Mask and knocked him out cold.

They all knew about the things that Black Mask had done, but none of them had ever heard Neal threaten someone with such... complete venom before. They had no doubt that he meant every word that he said, so it was up to them to make sure that he was never put into the situation where he had to follow through with them. They wouldn't let one of their own fall down that dark path, not again.

"Neal..." Rose said, holding a hand up to his shoulder. "Come on... it's over."

"Let's gather them all together," Raven said, referring to all of Black Mask's men. "I'll transport them all into police custody, and make sure that they won't be getting out any time soon."

Neal just continued to stare down at the face of Black Mask for some time. They all knew how much trouble this man had caused Neal and his family, so they understood the anger. At the same time, Neal knew that it wasn't justified......or more accurately it wasn't acceptable anger. Despite a hero's personal feelings they always had to do the right thing and not kill. Still, some days that was a lot harder than it sounded.

Neal at first didn't look at Rose as she touched him, his gaze staring down at the man he hated so much. "Yeah.......you're right," Neal said as he finally turned to face to his wife. "You're right, everything's okay now," he said before reaching out and hugging his wife.

---

"Eagles and Turkeys? That's what he legitimately said?" Neal asked with a laugh as he sat across from Rose. It had been several days since the Black Mask incident, most of the time having been filled with a lot of explaining and a lot of clean up work on the tower. Due to the busy schedule Neal and Rose hadn't had a lot of alone time together, so he decided to take her out for a nice lunch at a cafe.

"So do you think the Question is that crazy in real life? I mean I've heard stories but maybe Amazo just overdid it all in the illusion" Neal suggested as he drank the hot chocolate that he had ordered earlier.

"That's exactly what he said," Rose assured, with a nod. She couldn't believe it either at the time, but hey, the Question was quite the character, even if it had been a big illusion. "I can't really say what he's like in real life, though, never met the guy. I hear he goes through people's trash, though, so I wouldn't doubt he's that crazy." She sipped her coffee calmly, enjoying the warmth that spread through her body. In spite of how injured she'd been lately, after the several days that followed, plus Raven's care, she was back to one hundred percent and felt better than ever.

"Well if we ever meet him maybe I'll have to ask how Boy Bands are connected to the apocalypse" Neal said with a laugh before taking a small drink. He gave a tiny sigh before looking up for a moment. "Hey Rose, we haven't really talked about it since it happened but I'm sorry that I doubted you in that whole dream world thing," Neal said as he looked over to his wife. "I just.....I just didn't know if I was the only one affected or what was going on. So I'm sorry that I doubted you but I had to make sure, I just hope that you understand. I did not mean it to be a personal attack on you"

"Look, Neal, really, don't worry about it," Rose said, with a wave of her hand. "It was a weird situation, and you had every right not to take chances. Just because I had no clue what was going on doesn't mean that you should have let your guard down, especially considering the nature of what was happening. It... was a complicated situation, and to be honest I'd have done the same thing. So you have nothing to worry about." She smiled at him, taking another sip of coffee. "By the way, did you ever find out how Black Mask found out who you were? Or even why he decided to go after you?"

"Thanks for understanding, I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea," Neal said with a smile before Rose asked her next question. "I did actually, I asked one of Black Mask's men about it before he was taken away. He said he didn't know the full story but he heard enough to figure it out. Apparently Black Mask had already gotten Deadshot out of jail and hired him to assassinate one of us, send a message kind of thing," Neal began to explain. "Deadshot got on a boat and aimed for our living room right at the time that I walked over to the window. I wasn't in uniform and he got a full view of my face. Deadshot reported back and Black Mask decided to use me in order to pull off that bank job" Neal explained.

"If there's anything more to it I have no idea. It's not like I ever fought the buy before, I think he just saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. I guess in a way it's a good thing though isn't it?" Neal asked. "If he had just decided to kill me, what were the odds that I would have dodged that bullet from Deadshot?"

Rose slowly bowed her head. "Yeah... guess it was a good thing," she said, letting the information sink in. What if Deadshot had really decided to kill Neal instead of handing over his identity to Black Mask? They wouldn't be having this conversation right now, if that were the case. Rose probably wouldn't even be a Titan anymore. If Neal ever died on this job, she expected she'd fall into some dark state of depression and cut all ties with any sort of hero business whatsoever. He was the one that kept her grounded, kept her sane. Without him... she was just a volatile woman failing to maintain her control over her violent tendencies. She might have been able to control those tendencies before she met him, to a degree, but losing him, the love of her life, would throw her straight over the edge.

"So, you, uh... want to just take a walk after this?" she asked, bringing her smile back. "I could go for stretching my legs a bit."

Neal realized the information as much as Rose did, but he did his best not to think about it. He just needed to be more careful from now on. If he went near any windows he had to make sure that he was in costume or at least his face was covered. He couldn't afford something like this happening again. It had caused far too much damage last time. It had put the team at risk, it had put Rose at risk. The only thing they could do was continue to move forward.

As Rose suggested taking a walk Neal only smiled at her. "A walk sounds lovely, we haven't been on a simple walk in a while," Neal admitted as he thought back on it. "We haven't really had a normal day in San Francisco for some time" he pointed out.

As Neal said this though, something caught both of their attention. Two men were shouting over some problem several feet away. They began to push and shove at one another. "You asshole, you kicked my bike deliberately when you walked by and you know it!" the first man shouted.

"Fat chance! I bumped it at best, that dent was already there when I walked by!" the second man shouted.

"Wow, those two are really going at it huh?" Neal asked as he couldn't help but watch from where they were sitting.

Rose glanced over at the two men in an argument. They really were going at it, for sure, but civilian disputes weren't really something that the Titans got involved in. So, she just watched the two argue for a few minutes and then grabbed Neal's hand, pulling him off down the street. "Come on, let's go take that walk."

However, they only got about five minutes into their walk before their communicators went off. "Oy, great, now what?" she muttered, turning so no passersby would be able to see what she was holding. "Yeah, what is it?"

"We got a job," Beast Boy said, on the other end. "The others are downtown handling a bank robbery, so it's just gonna be you two, me, and Raven on this one. There's reports of some attacks going down in the streets of Sacramento, just a couple cities over. The super pwoered kind of attacks. Since we don't know of any other heroes in the area, and it's pretty close by, the Titans are going to go handle things. Hurry back and grab your gear so we can go."

"Yeah, that walk sounds nice," Neal said as he got up and placed the money on the table plus a fairly nice tip. Their waiter had been very nice and funny, plus Neal hated carrying change anyway. Rose had already started to walk off as Neal put on his winter coat. As he watched the two men however he noticed something strange. Just as they turned to leave, Neal noticed a tattoo on each shoulder: one of a turkey and one of an eagle. "You've got to be kidding me" Neal said in disbelief. Before saying anything though, he turned to see that Rose had already started to walk away. He glanced back at the two men to see that they had both left, vanished into thin air.

Neal just shook his head. "Must be imagining things or something" he said before turning and running off after Rose. The moment that he joined her though Rose's communicator went off. Neal listened as Beast Boy explained the situation. Sacramento huh? Looks like they had work to do. "We'll be there soon" Neal said before turning to Rose.

"I promise to take you on a walk when we get back," he said as he clutched her hand warmly and smiled. "Let's go," he said before turning and running towards the tower.

The two were back a the tower a few minutes later, running upstairs to their room so they could get dressed into their uniforms. Rose had her clothes off in seconds (being rather experienced in getting undressed quickly, when around Neal), and strapped her armor on almost as fast. After grabbing her energy sword handles, she hurried back downstairs to meet up with Beast Boy and Raven. Neal was presumably right behind her.

"Alright, so what's the deal?" she asked, making her way into the lounge area. "What do we know so far?"

"Just that a bunch of super powered individuals are tearing up downtown Sacramento," Raven said. "The whole thing started about fifteen minutes ago, but we haven't heard anymore reports since the initial alert."

Beast Boy nodded. "Right, so we need to get down there as soon as possible and help out. Let's get going."

Raven raised her hands, and in seconds the team was transported right into the streets of downtown Sacramento, which was a scene of chaos. The first thing they noticed were he fires from a few cars that had exploded, and the crowds of people running away screaming. In the center of the street were three people, two men and one women, having a grand old time destroying everything around them. They weren't dressed in any particular costumes, nor were they any villains that had ever really been seen before. It was like they were just a bunch of regular people running amok with super powers. But they didn't seem like they were having fun, or that they were angry, or anything like that... they were completely emotionless as they tore up street signs, threw cars through store windows, and punched craters into the sidewalks.

"Okay, this is new," Rose muttered. "Anyone ever seen these clowns before?"

"Nope," Beast said, scratching his head. "But that doesn't mean we can't stop them. Titans, let's- woah!"

Beast Boy had to duck out of the way as something flew straight over his head and collided with the street in front of them, sliding across the ground violently. It was another one of these strange super powered criminals, apparently having been thrown by... something. But there weren't supposed to be any other heroes in Sacramento, so who had...?

"Out of the way!" a female voice shouted, as a figure raced by the group on a floating rock. She raised her hands and caused a field of razor sharp rocks to float up in front of her, rocks that then shot forward like missiles into the group of criminals standing in front of her. However, one of the criminals held up a hand and fired some kind of energy blast that basically melted the incoming rocks into vapor.

"Think again!" the girl shouted, clenching a fist and swinging her arm up. A pillar of stone shot straight up underneath the guy with energy blasts and knocked him into the sky. Then, another flying boulder flew forward and smashed the airborne criminal into the side of a billboard. As the other group of criminals began to regroup and prepare a counter attack, she glanced back at the Titans, thinking they were just another group of onlookers, and said, "Are you people stupid? Get the hell out of-! ...Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy blinked in shock. "T-Terra?"

Neal moved right alongside Rose, heading back to the Tower as fast as they could. If there were supers messing up Sacramento then they had to be there as fast as they could. The longer that they waited the more likely that a large number of people would seriously get hurt. Neal undressed alongside Rose, quickly putting his uniform and helmet on, and lastly grabbing his packs of gadgets along with his sword. Once he had everything, he ran downstairs to meet up with Beast Boy and Raven.

Neal listened as Rose asked about what exactly was happening. Raven explained that their knowledge was limited, just that a bunch of super humans were busy destroying the streets of Sacramento. "I'm sure that it's nothing that the four of us can't handle," Neal said as he reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "Not exactly what I would call a double date, but hey let's make the best out of it," he added with a joking laugh.

It wasn't really the appropriate time, but that rarely stopped Neal.

As Raven teleported them to the scene of the attack, the site that they were met with was a strange one. They saw the super powered humans doing damage, but there wasn't a familiar face among them. Not only that, but it didn't seem like there was any clear goal, nor were they just dumb kids that were destroying things and messing around. Something just felt off, even Amazo showed more emotion and he had been a pure robot.

"Can't say that I've seen them either, guess we have some new faces to add to the database," Neal admitted as he reached into his pack. He figured some of his gadgets might help them to restrain these kids before too much damage was done. Neal was ready to move at Beast Boy's command, but someone else seemed to beat them to the punch.

Neal and the others watched as the new face that showed up seemed to defeat one of the men easily, using earth to crush him into a billboard. As she turned around to address them though, Neal could only barely hold himself back from swearing. It was Terra, the one that caused an emotional upset within Beast Boy every time she was mentioned or brought up. What was she doing in Sacramento?

"Let's deal with the reunion later," Neal said as he watched as their enemy began to gather themselves back up. They had no idea who these guys were and they couldn't afford to underestimate them. Neal fired a blast of his soul-self towards the closest enemy. Neal was certain that everyone had questions, but the mission was still the first priority.

"Right, good idea," Terra said, turning around to face the enemies as they regrouped. "From what I've managed to gather so far, they're robots. So, you know, don't hold back." She gave one glance back before rushing forward to attack again and added, "Oh, and Gar... It's good to see you."

"Robots, huh?" Beast Boy said, with a grin. He transformed into a T-rex a second later. "Don't mind if I do!" With a might roar, he chomped down on the nearest robot and tore it to pieces.

Rose clicked on her energy blades and grinned, knowing that, since robots had no flesh, she could slice and dice them with these babies. "Well alright, been a while since I could cut loose!"

Raven just glared as the Titans ran forward to assist. What was she doing here? Out of all people they could have met in this mission, it just had to be the one person she loathed more than almost anyone else, probably behind only Trigon and Brother Blood. She could already tell that this was not going to be pleasant.

"Robots huh? I'm sure that they'll just love to meet me than," Neal said with a small laugh as he pulled out his sword and changed it to a rather high temperature. At least they didn't have to worry about truly hurting them, it wasn't like they were actual people. Neal couldn't help but wonder just how these robots had gotten here though, they didn't just build themselves.

Still, that was a thought for another time. Neal ran forward, towards the robot that he had knocked down with his soul self attack. Thankfully, the robot didn't have much time to recover before Neal had closed the distance between them. Without waiting any longer Neal quickly slashed right at the torso of the robot in order to cut it clean in half.

Neal turned off his sword as he saw that everyone else was dealing with their robots just fine. "Well, wasn't as big of an emergency as I thought that it was going to be. I'm not going to complain about that though" he admitted.

It not being as big of an emergency as first expected was a bit of an understatement. Though the robots apparently possessed a lot of power, they were also obscenely brittle, no more durable than your average toaster oven. The Titans easily picked them apart. Rose cut through hers like butter, while Terra smashed the last one between two giant slabs of earth. She then quickly began reseting all the displaced earth and concrete, fully repairing the damaged streets. Some other things, like shattered windows and exploded cars would have to be handled by regular clean up crews, however.

"Okay, we're done here," Raven muttered. "We can go now."

"What? We can't leave yet," Beast Boy insisted. "We just got here, and we haven't even seen Terra since she came back. We should at least get caught up."

Raven said nothing, merely bowing her head and glaring at the ground. Several street lamp bulbs behind her, however, suddenly burst in a shower of glass. Beast Boy didn't even notice, though, having already turned back to Terra.

"Wow, it's been forever!" Beast Boy declared, smiling. He reached forward to give her a firm handshake. "How have you been? We never even got a chance to talk after the whole Abra Kadabra incident."

Terra smiled back at him, turning the handshake into a brief, but friendly, hug. "Gosh, it's great to see you. I've been great, really. I mean, ever since having another chance at life... It's unreal."

"So what are you doing in Sacramento?" he asked, curiously.

It's kind of my city now," she said, with a small laugh. "I needed a place to go after I came back, and Sacramento didn't have a local hero, so I decided to step in."

"Funny," Raven spoke up, "since no one seemed to know about this city now having a hero."

"Well maybe if you picked up a local paper once in a while, you'd know," Terra replied, glaring at her. "Not all of us heroes have to be officially registered and tied to groups like the Justice League you know."

Beast Boy slowly glanced between the two girls for a moment. "Well, uh, anyway, it was really great seeing you again, Terra, but I guess we should get going now."

"Wait!" Terra said quickly, holding a hand up. "Uh... It's just, there's still the issue of finding out who built these robots and sent them to attack the city... and I'm not the best with detective work. It would he really cool to work together again on this, like old times. What do you say?"

Rose slowly glanced over at Neal. "This cannot end well."