[IC] Titans of Gotham

[FalloutJack]

They didn't have a proper plan to deal with Peacekeeper once the fight started because they didn't know all of his tactics. That was why Zen cautioned them to his merciless professional attitude in order for them to keep up the defense and watch each other as the fight progresses. Other than that, the only viable info to deliver besides that would be - since PK-01 was a guy with guns - to disarm him, bind him, and knock him out, which he didn't need to tell them how to do, since they had all done that to others by this point. OF course, everything was suddenly interrupted by the fact that Bolt was gone, leading Zen to facepalm with an audible Clunk!

"Normally, when the plan doesn't survive the engagement, it gets to be engaged first."

Why did he go? Yes, he was angry, but this was literally a plan of attack he'd been putting together so they could all fight their enemy. They were actively defying Oracle in favor of retribution for Gemini, so why couldn't Bolt wait? He would've enjoyed tearing into Peacekeeper's base while they pull the proverbial rug from beneath him. Instead, they were the ones on that rug, quickly needing to jump or be thrown askew. It was at this point that Tiara, sensing both that they had to act quick and that she had to help her friends now or bad things would happen, decided to bite the bullet and get them over to the site via the shadows. They were ALL transported - admittedly, not all of them prepared - and would now be in a position to help Bolt. As a result, though, the strain caused Tia to go through some unseen pain, and then fall limp into Zen's grasp.

"Tia, are you- Heartbeat regular, otherwise unresponsive. Passed out from the effort."

Immediately, he began assessing the situation. Zen was combat-capable, but he would not be doing much if he had to keep Tiara safe. His previous statement involving Peacekeeper meant that he could not leave her, lest a bullet or explosion find her. The darkness of the blimp station meant that the power was off, meaning Bolt's actions had led to the disablement of power and thus automated artillery, so there did have that. That made things a little better, although he still couldn't leave Tia alone out here. With this, Monolith charged in, stating that he would sset off the traps since they wouldn't likely hurt him, or not as much. Natalie couldn't wait for long, even though Oscar - He tended to just call himself Monolith even at their base, seriously. - asked them to do so in order to draw fire. Jeremy also went in. There wasn't much else that could be done, since PK was obviously still fighting Bolt and he would be taken off-guard NOW, not later. Then, after that, it was Travis who said to hand Tiara over to him, saying he wouldn't do much good in there.

"You would be surprised, but thank you."

Zen could think of several ways in which Travis could tactically master his abilities in a situation, even one as hairy as this. However, now was not the time. He handed over their Shade Walker and moved aside, so neither of them would be caught in the backwash of his engines firing.

His engines would allow him to catch up to the others in no time at all. He was only housed with default units, nothing ot the Trask special armaments or thicker armor. No matter. He was lighter as himself, and would take advantage of that. Of all the people in this building, the one best-suited to dodge bullets - via immediate vector pathing from the angle of the barrel at the instant he could see a trigger depression - was him. Really, any human could dodge bullets by moving before the gun was fired, knowing that it was going to fire. Zen could just do it AS it was being fired. In any case, the interior of the place was rather spaceous, and since three of his allies would be taking up the floor after the traps were set off, Zen would fly in, grab some ground with his hands, skid to a halt with feet and hands, then launch upwards to gain the aerial view of the situation while deploying his pulse gun undermounts.

He would open fire on Peacekeeper's legs with forceful impacts. If he cracked a joint or broke a leg, the man would be very incapacitated, both now and in future.

[Omega Man]

“Who are you, any one of you, without your super friends?” PK01 asked as he pumped the gun for a final shot.

That’s when the mines at the far entrance as well as every other trap were set off. They sent the tank in first. That wasn’t a dumb move, but Peacekeeper came prepared. The young tough hero came at him with everything he had in one blow after busting through a wall and screaming PK-01’s name. PK-01 pulled his blade, enchanted by the evil sorceress Tala, who was a member of some supervillain team led by Gorilla Grodd.

“I killed Poison Ivy to get this blade enchanted.” he taunted as he dodged the young hero’s attack and slashed him multiple times across the arm and back. Monolith continued to attack despite being outclassed in hand to hand. The two were probably several dozen feet away from the injured Bolt when the other Titans began moving on the robotic super soldier.

The robotic hero Zen had taken to the air and began to blast at the legs of the adversary. One of the blasts caught meat, or rather the robotic limb that was Peacekeeper-01’s right leg. Now at more of a disadvantage he could see some mist powered metahuman exiting the vents, and a young girl that looked like she had an extension cord wrapped around her hands. PK-01 only took his eyes off of Monolith for a few seconds after taking the critical shot to his leg.

The slashes across Monolith’s arms hurt. More than he realized they would. Tank shells could do little more than leave his skin sore, and PK-01’s sword cut bloody gashes through it. This was a type of pain Monolith hadn’t experienced in a long time, and it just drove his adrenaline further. He was seeing red, and it was more than just the red running down his arm.

He screamed bloody murder, and lunges for PK-01. Monolith clenched his grip around the bastard’s wrist. He pulled, hard and snapped the cybernetic arm off like a dead twig.

The magic sword clattered to the ground. As though the arm were just a metal club, Monolith whirled it over his head and brought it down on PK-01’s armored head over, and over again. He was fully intent on beating the man to death.

[Birdboy]

An ambush from the vents proved more difficult to Jeremy than anticipated. The twist and turns left him in the dark on what happening while he tried to find an exit into the room with the others. Moving as a mist was awkward at best, and being confined left him feeling turned around and disoriented. He had never truly tried to creep around as a mist before, it would be something to keep in mind later, for now he just had to press on. A barrage of gunshots echoed through the vents, and fear gripped Jeremy as he questioned if Peacekeeper had taken another life. As the mist finally crept into the room with commotion, Jeremy felt immense relief and surprise to find PK-1 completely incapacitated. Pleasantly surprised to find no one else down, he freely entered the room.

It only reaffirmed to him that they needed to crack down on this sooner, Oracle was too cautious. As Jeremy slowly took form from the mist, he did his best not to flinch at the brutal beating Monolith was dishing out. The man was practically drenched in blood, both from his own wounds and the murderer he was currently murdering. The sickening sound of a molar skipping across the ground suddenly made the whole display too much for Jeremy to sit back and witness. He was a hero after all! Not just some vigilante out for revenge.

"Hey now!" Jeremy stammered out nervously, staring in grotesque horror at the beat-down of PK gargling his own blood and literally disarmed.
"Oracle will want some answers from him first! You can have your fun after we know why he went rogue!" He said, before putting a hand on Monolith's shoulder.
"And we need to get you patched up anyway," He said, tugging lightly at Monolith, knowing full well that tugging with all his strength would yield nothing but scorn from his ally.
Truthfully, Jeremy felt the anger the others had towards PK, but he knew that returning empty-handed would only leave them scolded. If they at least returned with PK, perhaps Oracle could see they were ready. More importantly, Jeremy had not realized how gruesome fighting crime could truly be! He shuddered at the sight of What was left of PK, and it made him question what the life of all metahumans was in Gotham. Brutal, and merciless violence? Even if it was dangerous to let Peacekeeper live, deep down he didn’t have it in him to sit by and watch. Surely Oracle would return him to the Authorities as soon as she was done with him, at least from what Jeremy had gathered from her.

Motioning over to Bolt still bleeding out in the corner, Jeremy tried to further his reasoning and raising his voice as he did. Vengeance had been served out, but he wasn't going to let anymore deaths in the party happen first.
"And we Really need to get him to a hospital! Does anyone have a fast exit plan?" He added with growing concern, addressing the rest of the team as they reconvened.

[Silver Carrot]

Natalie finally managed to make it to the room, after PK had already been beaten, and Jeremy had already stopped Monolith from killing him. Natalie had conflicted feelings. She'd feel a lot safer if PK died today, but she also wanted to hear from PK's own mouth, 'why?'. She approached PK once Monolith had gotten off him, and started tying him up in steel wire created from her left arm, in effect cuffing his body to herself. She looked back up at the other two.

"My bike's back at the hideout so that's out. Where the hell is Oracle? Was she watching us? Does she know where we are? What the hell's she so busy on if we're supposed to be some kind of hero group soon? Does anybody have any modes of transport that...Zen! Can't he fly or something? To be honest, I've never asked what he can and can't do..." Natalie trailed off. They've already been together a week and barring a bunch of small talk, she really didn't know a whole lot about her teammates...

[FalloutJack]

Although Peacekeeper appeared to act as an ordinary well-trained human being, the possibility of his physique being enhanced in some way - such as by technology - was always in the cards. However, Zen wouldn't know until he encountered him personally or found some clue from data to support this. As it happened, though, this confrontation yielded proper results. He had cybernetic limbs, proven first by one of his attacks connecting with a metallic sound, and then Monolith using his unyielding force to pull off the arm. With the situation swiftly turning in their favor, they were now in a damage control state in this fight.

LOCATION: Gotham PD Blimp Station (Abandoned).

STATUS: Primary objective reached.

NEW OBJECTIVES:

-Secure Peacekeeper 01 for capture.
-Determine best method of dealing with battle injuries.
-Escape detection by authorities.

Landing, Zen approached Monolith without delay and - without making any move to interrupt his attacks as of yet - jabbed his fingers into the connector area for Peacekeeper's missing limb. There was a sudden electical jolt, which could stun the man and short-circuit his limbs' primary motivators, and then Zen interfered. Both the arm Monolith was swinging and the leg that Zen had previously hit were quickly caught in his scissor claws, and they pressed down to crumple both.

"That will not be necessary, Monolith. He isn't going anywhere."

This left Objectives Two and Three now, which Natalie and Jeremy began to address with understandable distress. Zen decided to be the answer to both, at least insofar as Bolt's situation was concerned.

"Yes, I can fly, and very fast."

He'd move towards Bolt with that swift mechanical pace of his, already planning his exit route.

"It would be best if I left immediately. You will have to transport Peacekeeper yourselves, and do so quickly. Someone will have noticed this action, however brief."

Provided Bolt didn't resist being picked up, he would do so and go, saying "Do not shock me.". Their destination? Well...there should be some sort of Crime Alley Memorial Hospital or something, right? Something that'd been supported for those who weren't made of money, but staffed with good doctors?

[Omega Man]

An encrypted message was sent to Zen en route to the nearest hospital. It was Oracle. Even in the twilight of her career she was a mastermind behind a computer.

“Take Bolt back to HQ. Surgeon is waiting. Transport for the others as well as PK-01 en route.”

Barbara Gordon had friends in the right places when stuff hit the fan. She wouldn’t have tried this Titans of Gotham experiment without having contingency plans for contingency plans. The former Doctor Mid-Night of the Justice Society was a blind surgeon named Pieter Cross. If you needed to know anybody in the superhero circles, it was this guy. Even in his 70’s he uses old League teleporter tech to travel to a dozen or so heroes a week in need across the globe. When Zen and Bolt got back to base, the man went to work.

Several blocks away Captain Renee Montoya was also aiding Gordon. She drove an old police transport vehicle rather than one of the newer flying models. This was for transporting the team back to base. A second flying unit wasn’t far behind her for what was left of Peacekeeper. He had multiple concussions, missing teeth, a broken nose… thank God that his arm and leg were made of lightweight materials. After he was released from Wireframe’s grasp he tried to say something. It was a mess of words what with the missing teeth, busted lips and gums, and the swelling of his face and head. It almost sounded like he was trying to say “I’ll get you...”

Later…

While the transport vehicle was old, it was also durable. Thankfully it was built for the weight of over a dozen criminals; otherwise Monolith would have been a bigger issue. Montoya had asked about what happened and had a separate EMS crew there for Shade Walker. As they arrived at their destination, a hidden exit tunnel another block away from the bunker under a nearby bridge, the police captain gave the young heroes some advice.

“Maybe with some training… you kids won’t almost kill somebody next time. Good luck.” she said with a smirk as they opened the tunnel hatch and descended down.

When they arrived back at the bunker Cross was finishing up with Bolt. He was sedated, but he was going to live. No major organs were hit. That’s when a green figure stepped out of the kitchen area towards the heroes. It was an older Beast Boy from the Titans’ past. Nowadays, he goes by Animal Man.

“Oracle told you to stay put because you needed real training. I’m getting too old to keep mentoring Titans… I should be in the JLU by now!” Animal Man/Gar said with some years behind him now.

[Silver Carrot]

Natalie folded her arms as she listened to Animal Man's words. She felt prickly. There was a lot of things about this whole situation that were making her angry and she was making an active effort not to explode at somebody just trying to help. Still, she couldn't completely bite her tongue. She had to say something.

"Well, Oracle didn't see any need to rush to train us back when one of us was dead, the killer could have been trying to hunt the rest of us down and we were left on our own for a week. I can't believe it had to come to this before it was given priority either. But better late than never, I guess. I've been waiting to get some real training since I joined this team."

[FalloutJack]

The sudden diversion from his course did not seem wise to Zen for expediency's sake, but he took it on the basis that it would keep things a bit more secret from the public, which was always a plus. Fortunately, his fly-by could at least be toned down, in terms of the noise, so attraction called to his attention would be minimum, and the night sky was always friendlier towards his blue-black armor a bit more than the Trask loadout. The point is that things would seemingly work out for them, as he arrived at the base to let the good doctor get to work.

Time passed...and soon the rest of the gang would arrive to report that Peacekeeper 01 was secured. Shade...Tia...was sadly not among them. She needed some recovery time from whatever state her mass-transport had done to her. That just left the aftermath... The Shapeshifter, Animal Man, had some choice words about their execution. Frankly, so did Zen, but not exactly the way that you think. He turned to the green man, now.

"There was a greater than 90% chance that Oracle always knew this was going to happen, and took steps as she has. Nevertheless, I made no mention of this possibility to the team, as I attempted to rally them to a sane course of action which would use all of their skills to overcome Peacekeeper. The main fault lies in the impatience of Bolt, even though I was acting to help all of the team take down a killer. Hopefully, he has learned his lesson. However..."

And he turned now to face the others.

"I think that in the heat of the moment, where we were forced to improvise under pressure, we proved ourselves capable, which I believe Oracle wanted to determine for herself."

He stepped over to join the others, head lowering as he turned to face Animal Man again.

"My experience is such that I cannot let someone be sacrificed for my benefit again, so I was all for this, and as a result, Bolt was not killed. My one regret is that while this did succeed, Shade Walker may not return for some time, and the feeling of loss is familiar to me."

[Omega Man]

He was right around the corner from turning forty. Garfield Logan had been doing this for a little over two decades now. Over the next several days he worked with the newest iteration of Titans to try and get them working together more as a unit. Years ago, Gar inherited the title of Animal Man from another hero who had decided to retire to focus on his family. The former Beast Boy had been the sole protector of Jump City for several years, and a member of Batman's black ops team the Outsiders along with other heroes such as Metamorpho and Blue Devil. That's where he was introduced to Oracle...

As Animal Man he transformed into a small group of green rhinos to take on Monolith and Trask. As a gorilla he trained with Wireframe to subdue even the toughest of foes mid-combat. Garfield trained with Ghost and Haze on stealth with what was essentially metahuman hide & seek. And as a group the Titans faced Animal Man in the form of a T-Rex. However as the Titans of Gotham grew as a team in this future above and beyond, so did the daughter of one of Batman's most complex of enemies. Drug pushers selling slappers was common in Gotham without the Batman taking down the supply chain. Bane-masked goons working in tandem with gangs like hired muscle was becoming a bigger problem.

It was a little past one in the morning on a Saturday two weeks after the team took down Peacekeeper-01. Animal Man finished off a training exercise of his own against a holo-droid in the training area in the far side of the bunker. His smart phone chimed the tune of Blue Oyster Cult's 'Godzilla'.

"Bolt's not quite healed yet but he's having second thoughts about the hero thing." Gar spoke on the phone, it was presumably Oracle/Gordon on the other end. "Yeah." he answered briefly. "One of them is still lacking in hand to hand, but they've got the power to become intangible so it's not so much of a problem if we're going up against a bunch of meat-heads." There was a bit of a pause before Gar made his eyes wide in disbelief. "Wait... you're WHERE?!? Does Oracle know about this?"

A few blocks away at what was left of the blimp station, a fifty-something year old Victor Stone pulled a red hood down revealing his face. He took a knee and planted his fist into the ground and nano-bots flowed from his body and began absorbing old tech and debris and reshaping it into what looked like the foundation of a building.

"The Titans, no matter what city they're in... need a Tower." Cyborg claimed on the other end of the call as the T shape was beginning to form. "Booyah."

[Birdboy]

Jeremy had not enjoyed the aftermath of his first encounter with superheroic. Admittedly, the hastily planned attack had fairly well, as the team won handedly thanks to Monolith's strength. Traks had been an absolute play maker, both in the fight and in saving Bolt's life. Overall, the mission had been successful and yet Jeremy left the battle with a bitter taste in his mouth.

The ride home was painfully quiet. With half of the team unconscious or injured, and the image of Peacekeeper's bloodied face still fresh in his mind, Jeremy did not feel like delivering quips or social banter. Monolith seemed to be staring off into space and Jeremy hesitated to even look at him, or risk gaining his ire. Despite all of this, he couldn't help but feel somewhat indignant to the police captain's remarks. They had stopped someone no one else could!

The next few weeks passed in a blur for Jeremy, but his training was much more up his alley. All the excitement and none of the fear. Garfield may have been old, but he moved with more agility than Jeremy and all his years of experience helped him show Jeremy how to hide and spot convenient places to take cover. The marvel of his power, above all else, was his innate ability to squeeze into even the tiniest of cracks. Once he learned to keep himself oriented in tight spaces, Jeremy felt like his power was more than capable of helping this party. More than anything, he had a better feel for his allies and their powers. Particularly with Ghost, who together made the perfect infiltration team.

After a tough day of physical training, Jeremy walked out of the showers, groaning in pain at his physical discomfort. It was tough trying to stay in shape for hero work, and Jeremy had been feeling it every day under the intense regiment they where doing. Spotting Animal man in the training facilities he walked towards him, but stopped as he saw the shocked look on their mentors face.

"Wait... you're WHERE?!? Does Oracle know about this?" The green man's voice boomed.

Jeremy cocked his head to the side, a look of worry covering his face. Perhaps this was another mission for them, he had hoped to get a bit more training in. He still didn't feel like his bat would be enough. Especially if bane or killer croc showed their faces.
"Everything alright, teach?" He said with a nervous chuckle.
"Don't worry, we went behind Oracle's back and it turned out fine. I am sure you're safe too" He said with a snicker.

[Silver Carrot]

Natalie's progress in training, while not that of any kind of prodigy, was still impressive. It seems that the largest thing holding her back was her lack of belief in herself that she could be a hero or fight criminals. She was a clever and creative fighter and that only became more true when one day she had gained enough control over her power to be able to move the wires at will. Natalie claimed it was because she finally started thinking of the wires as her own body, instead of an inanimate object her body merely turned into.

She had managed to restrain Animal Man's gorilla form on several occasions. Now the focus had shifted to physical training, to both build her body and to grant her the ability to actually fight enemies as well as simply incapacitate them. She was doggedly commited to her training regimen so was quickly seeing noticeable improvements in her strength, speed and cardio. But when it came to martial arts form, footwork, etc, she had no talent and even less patience so struggled to learn as fast as other students may have in the same amount of time.

Part of this training was being put on a diet to support the training regime. And man, she really missed soda. She'd never thought of herself as 'addicted' to sodas or anything but this feeling was possibly bordering on mild withdrawal. To compensate, she'd started drinking sparkling water a lot. Right now, she was lyring across the entire sofa, sipping from a bottle while scrolling on her phone idly. Her ears perked up when Garfield mentioned one of them lacking in hand to hand but relaxed again when she realised he wasn't talking about her.

She perked up again when she shouted, and sat up to look over at Garfield.

"Who's where? I'm curious now."

[Blizz]

Enough had happened at the attack on PK-01 that Monolith wasn't going to discuss it unless someone else brought it up first.

And of course, no one did.

After the incident where he damn near killed the cybernetic murderer, Oscar simply tuned everything out. He didn't mean to fight as hard as he did, in fact he wanted to simply incapacitate Peacekeeper and be done with it. But hearing those gunshots and knowing Bolt had to have been hurt, Oscar just... Snapped. He relapsed back into the old mindset that Avalon had programmed him to work with, where he needed to be the only thing still breathing in the end or he had failed somehow. The feeling of that was painful. Monolith tried so hard to be someone different, and yet he nearly murdered someone on their first mission as a team. He counted himself lucky that the others avoided him as they had. He wasn't sure he could face them if they asked about it. When Animal Man trained him and Trask, Monolith used it as an excuse to leave PK behind him. The rhino herd wasn't a particular challenge to him.

The challenge was collateral damage. Monolith was like a sledgehammer, he could hit what he was aiming for with absolute power. And yet, he would but everything else around it as he did. Someone like Trask was more like a surgeon in the application of force, he didn't waste anything. Every move was calculated. Of course, Monolith calculated his attacks as well- He had to. Even something as minor as stepping on someone's foot as he walked by meant someone would be unable to walk, and holding something meant for normal human hands was a risk when he could shatter anything short of Tenth Metal. Even still, one could be calculated in their application of a rocket launcher, but it was still an explosion. Monolith opted to make his attacks no less profound and aggressive, but more sparse. He did not rush down the rhinos, he grabbed one and hurled it at another like a sack of grain and nothing heavier. Instead of shoulder charging the entire herd at once, he swung a fist at specific points on their chunky bodies, their horns, their legs, or their sides. There was only so much precision one could have with strength like his. But honed precision was better than no precision.

During downtime, he overheard Garfield talking to someone about something.

"Is something wrong?"

[Omega Man]

One week later...

"Buddy Baker always called it his superhero cocktail... a group of animal abilities and traits he always tapped into when going into action as the Animal Man before me. After a few adventures altered my powers here and there I took time off and went to college to better understand animal and marine biology. When I came back to the hero life and teamed up with Baker to save his kids he decided it was time to retire and passed the title on to me. After my powers were altered I came up with my own cocktail. For me though, its more of a base form." Gar thought about his past while warming up for another training session in their upgraded HQ.

"Bio-electricity manipulation of an electric eel."

"The mostly bulletproof hide of a rhino."

"Agility and jumping skills of a flea. That was the one Buddy recommended." after the texture of his skin slightly changed up he stopped jumping up and down in place and swinging his arms around.

"After failing to put together my own adult Titans team I just protected Jump City on my own for a few years with
the occasional assist from somebody like Cyborg or Arsenal. Eventually I got a call from Batman to join his new group of Outsiders back here on the east coast. That's how I got to know people like Blue Devil, Metamorpho, and Oracle." he continued to think about his past... but before the holo-droid could mimic a supervillain the holographic head of Oracle appeared in the training room.

"The Wayne Industries board and Gotham Zoning Committee is still fighting me on the zoning for your new tower. Victor could've told me what he was planning." Oracle stated.

"He didn't tell me until the moment he started constructing it. Vic was right though, the Titans needed a tower." Animal Man responded.

"The bunker was adequate enough space for a handful of teenagers." Oracle continued.

"The Titans were never a covert team hiding in a bunker. You got anymore leads on Bane's daughter? I'm not so sure she's getting the slappers made outside of city limits. We've staked out the bay three times now in a week and haven't made any progress." Gar added.

"You and the team may have to just go out on patrols more until you find the dealers. Not everyone juicing up on slappers goes around in a knockoff Bane mask. I still haven't figured out who's using them in the GCPD." Oracle mentioned as it seemed someone was coming into the training room area of the new T Tower.

"Keep in touch if anything changes." Animal Man said in closing.

"I will. The new suit looks good, Garfield." Gordon commented as her Oracle hologram dissipated.

Before another Titan could get into the War Room level of the Tower, Gar booted up another training session against an old enemy of his. If the Titans were coming to the training area, they'd be stuck in the viewing room until Animal Man was finished with the Silver Scorpion in the shopping mall setting.

[FalloutJack]

BEFORE...

The truth is that Monolith was entirely correct in his assessment of Zen, in or out of his Trask armor loadout. He was a precision calculating fighter. As a machine built for it, he dedicated much of his cycles towards combat, and how to use it properly. The rest was personal needs and his personality. For instance, when Animal Man came at him and Monolith in the form of rhinos, the android's speed and use of leverage was applied towards tripping it up or attacking from the side. Rhinos were great at charging, but they didn't corner well, unlike Zen. The T-Rex form was also a trouble in a head-on attack, and the whipping tail was a flying slab of meat that could knock you into a wall with ease. However, it could do nothing to protect its senses, so a blinding flash to the eyes, followed by using its own heavy weight to slam it to the ground was a viable strategy that eventually worked, as Garfield was still highly-experienced and apparently fought or sparred with technological foes before.

It was roughly two weeks later, while Zen was plugged into the system to work, that he overheard Animal Man on the phone from the hideout's security feed, and then arched what you might call an electronic eyebrow when the man seemed to panic at whoever he was talking to. Tracing the signal, he found that it was someone calling from Old Gotham, and that soon - with a little finnagling over the e-space - he could see what was out there. What he say was...

Oh my...

...most unexpected.

NOW...

Time had passed, since then and now, and Zen had gotten himself settled into this new Titan's Tower. Naturally, his room was decked out in technology. To explain, it was thus... The room had a number of computer servers in out-of-the-way spots on the room, all centering their connections on a single self-adjusting chair which could go from an upright seat to a flat slab with a repair station. His Trask armor was stored overhead for easy access, as it replaced his Zen armor. There were other machines for storing weapons, and of course he had his own printer now. Ahead were a number of screens to corralate all the computer data he was sifting through while he was connected via the seat, like he was now. It was in an easy chair form, with alot of controls being manipulated now. On the screen was the picture of a human being among several text and face-matching entries, in which he was getting no hits.

Where are you...? Why can I not locate you? Was it an identity protection plan? Or did you simply change your name in shame?

He could not go to Oracle for this, although she might know. It was a personal matter, first of all, and also...if he did not do this with subtlety, he might make a little too much noise... So, he continued his search, dimly aware that training time was approaching. If he was called, he would go, but for now...this was Zen's focus.

[Silver Carrot]

The elevator to the floor with the break room dinged as the doors opened and Natalie walked out, yawning. She’d been out all night undercover as a random young partying punk, which was admittedly an easy role for her to get into character for. She’d rounded up some names of the street-level dealers who sold slappers directly to the customers, but still no leads on who was supplying them, and said dealers were completely in the dark too. She’d have to try to catch a supply run and tail the supplier, but whoever was behind this was being more careful than that. The police had probably already tried sting operations better planned out than what she was doing, but they had to start somewhere.

She was glad that not only was there a ground level garage where she could park her bike, but she’d been gifted one of Robin’s old bikes, with a paint job, to use during superhero activities. Natalie hadn’t tried any of that bike’s unique features or gadgets yet but she was excited to play around with it when she wasn’t going incognito.

As it was 9am, the only one currently in the break room was Jeremy. She waved at him as she put her phone on charge and then crashed on the sofa beside his. “Good morning,” she greeted with a wry, sarcastic smile. “The club didn’t close until 6am. Hero work sure is tiring. What’s up?”

"Right, hero work" Jeremy said with a sarcastic chide, a roll of his eyes and a drag of a long yawn that followed both.

The young man was sitting in the break room, cozily draped in a sweater and pajama pants. Steam blew in thin wisps from his coffee which sat of a table in front of him. Beside it was a laptop where he scanned the news. It seemed the police and journalists were just as in the dark as they were on this 'slapper' drug. It didn't surprise him, after the events with Peacekeeper, he didn't expect the police to do much more than clean-up work after the heroes solved the problem. Arching his back and throwing his arms up in a stretching motion the young man pulled himself out of his morning stupor momentarily. Though he had met the girl with sarcasm he knew she was doing good work. Work that Trask or Monolith couldn't given their appearance. Jeremy himself wasn't much of a 'party animal' either.

"Nothing new to report here. Yourself?" He asked casually as he reclined into the sofa.
"Coffee's brewed if you aren't about to crash"

“Nothing of real substance,” Natalie replied, shaking her head. “Sent the street-names and pics of the dealers I came in contact with to Oracle, and she was already aware of them all. Still, now I’ve actually bought from them, I can hopefully build on a relationship with some of them. Already dumped all the Slappers I bought off to the lab. I’m not touching that poison.” Natalie looked into the distance with a cold, resigned anger. Though not Slappers, she’d seen more than one friend lose themselves to drugs in her short life. Part and parcel of growing up a poor orphan who’s into parties and metal.

She sighed and got up, heading over to the coffee machine. “I’m not going to crash out. It’s already daytime. May as well just coast along and then crash out this evening instead.” She made her coffee the way she liked it; black with two sugars. She took a sip then rejoined him on the couch. “Any idea where the others are?” she asked.

Jeremy noticed the stare as she mentioned the ‘poison’ of slappers. He had seen it far too often in this crew, everyone here seemed to have a tortured past except him. Monolith had the same look on that ride home from the blimp station, and Jeremy couldn’t help but sometimes Trask’s vacant death stare was just like theirs, a glimpse into their memories. He didn’t want to pry, but he wondered if maybe this undercover job might be taking a toll on her.

As the girl came to the couch, Jeremy scooted over to allow her to join him. Their cups were nearly identical and he couldn’t help but appreciate a fellow fan of black coffee. At her question he merely shrugged.

“Garf- Er, Animal Man’s in the training room. The others could be anywhere” He added as he closed his laptop to keep the news from blaring over the two of them. They had heard enough of tragedy and corruption for today.

“This place is so massive it’s hard to find anyone” He added with a sense of annoyance. “And I had just gotten used to that old bunker. But I guess the view here is nice." he added, staring out one of the windows as he sipped on his coffee once more.

Gotham was a grimy, grizzly town, but the cityscape as the sun rose over it was shockingly beautiful. The oranges and pinks of the sky contrasted the dark greys and blacks of Gotham’s streets in a thematic way. The bay’s waves seemed to excite in the new sun’s rising, crashing against the docks and swirling in a frothing haze. A thin layer of mist obscured the streets faintly, giving the whole scene a ghostly presence in the wake of the beautiful day’s light.

“We can go look for them if you’d like…” he continued before Animal Man came in and went towards the kitchen area of this floor.

“You guys are up early. Thought I was the only one who’d be up this hour on a Saturday…” the older hero stated while grabbing a bottle of water.

Natalie gave a tired, half-hearted wave to Animal Man as he walked in, before yawning and stretching. “I’m actually up late, boss. Just got back from being undercover. Anyway, you know where everyone else is?” she asked.

[Omega Man]

Neo-Gotham, Midtown
01:26 am, Monday

"I should've known you weren't a metahuman. You're just another guy on slappers." said a man garbed in what looked like futuristic King clothing.

"I still get the strength we need, what's it matter K?" a man responded, clothed in all white with a giant spade on his chest.

"We should have replaced him with that robot we saw at the auction..." a woman stated, wearing what appeared to be a futuristic Queen's attire.

The Royal Flush Gang was on a smash and grab when finding out their muscle, Ace, was using slappers. He just ran out of juice and the King and Queen seemed at the very least annoyed. Jack and Ten were finishing with the theivery in the futuristic skyscraper. It looked to be sometime late at night in the city. When they were done they headed for the roof and witnessed Queen giving Ace a backhand. The two younger criminals didn't know what was going on, but they were carrying a large case and sat it down on the roof until they knew what was happening. Queen jumped up to her flying playing-card transport and looked down at Ace and King.

"I don't care how far you two go back, it's him or me King." the Queen stated flying off.

"What's going on, King?" Jack asked.

"And what do we do with..." Ten began to ask before being interrupted by the Titans of Gotham flying in on a giant green dinosaur with wings.

"TITANS GO!" screamed Animal Man as he shifted back to his more humanoid form as the members of the team jumped into action.

King, Jack, and Ten each possessed futiristic styled weapons; a staff that also shot energy blasts, bladed weapons, and smoke bombs respectively. Ace however didn't have anything fancy, as he was always just the muscle. They had their four playing card transports, but there was also the stolen goods in the heavy case just laying on the roof now. It was obvious at the point who the Titans main target was, the fact that eighty percent of the Gang was being caught mid-heist was just icing on the cake for the young heroes. It remained unclear what was in the large case, or where King stood with his old friend Ace. Did the group lose their Queen, or would they lose their muscle?

[FalloutJack]

Trask was not riding atop a dragon. While it would've been - by his hero persona's standards - a pretty epic thing to behold, he decided that it was a far better thing that their targets see a bunch of young heroes riding atop a dragon...and then completely miss the attacker from above. He spent a few seconds analyzing the situation, noting the argument that they were about to interrupt, the everyone's positions relative to one another, and all their strengths and arsenal. And on 'GO!', he descended to press his attack.

We will point out that Zen explained what he'd be doing beforehand to Animal Man. It was just his hero persona to seem like a showboater.

A black-and-red armored figure isn't easy to spot in the night sky. Maybe not impossible, but in a choice between seeing that high up and seeing a group of people on a big green dragon, it's fairly obvious who's getting the immediate notice, the preface of Zen's plan as he flew down in Trask form. You might ask who it was that Trask was going for: The bulk of the gang or the airborne Queen? The answer was both. Trask's flying form was built for multi-tasking. And so, when he laid down a suppressing fire of those pounding pulse blasts to hit or distract Jack, Ten, and King specifically with his arm weapons, there were a pair of POW shots from the devices on his shoulders as he flew by.

"Hang on, lady! We go for a ride!"

The shoulder-mounted grappler guns had gripping claws that were going for both Queen and Card, either to grab-and-drag her off, or to pull the flying carpet of a card out from under her and thus remove her escape options. He had the range for all of this. Would it all go according to plan? We'll find out. All Trask knew was that if Queen ended up falling upteen-plenty stories, he'd have to be the one to go get her, but at least that would leave the rest of the team free to do their part.

[Birdboy]

Jeremy was groggy, not used to staying up so late. Still, the cool breeze of the air as they soared by was enough to sober him. The frigid night air caused him to shiver as he looked on, squinting to see the forms of a small group of costumed villains. The costumes never made much sense, and Jeremy was more than happy he had a jacket on. As they neared the building, Jeremy dug his hands into the jacket, pulling free two of his gaseous bombs. This high up, out in the open, his mist form would be simply blown away. Luckily he had substitutes. As the group jumped free to land, he tossed both of his gas bombs down, and a dark purple mist clouded the area. Hopefully enough to blind the foes from Zen who began laying suppressive fire down.

As the bombs flew from his hands, Jeremy moved to pull his baseball bat from the awkward back-sheath he had been given after his training. Jeremy had been trained to fight better with his weapons, but as he sized up the crew in front of him he worried he was in over his head. Hopefully Zen and Monolith would do the heavy lifting. If not, surely Animal man could carry. Jeremy for certain was just another goon in this fight and he hesitated from charging in, instead opting to stand back and wait for the others to rush forward.