[IC] Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

[Weird Tales]

Max was taken off guard when Evan tackled their teammate who apparently knew why Rose was nowhere to be found, Amazon certainly had boarded the Nope Train to Fuck That-Ville, and it wasn't helping whatsoever. People were probably dying because of their quarreling and it pissed him off, he joined to save lives and not to just get into fights with super-powered children.

"Guys! People are dying! We can discuss about Rose's disappearance later! Does it really matter more than innocent people dying?!" he shouted at them angrily and wanted to start brawling. Thankfully Rhea was trying to calm the situation and get Evan to focus to on the situation at hand. When both she and Siamese answered his question, Max was ready to go wild since there was no plan to follow just end the threat in whatever way possible. He almost snickered when Rhea called him Skelly and just gave her an amused smile. Max put his hands in his trench coat pockets and followed Rhea to the hanger.

He had no experience flying an aircraft, but as a stuntman he had a way of figuring out to use vehicles for the purpose of showmanship. Thermos looked like he didn't know any more than Max did when it came to piloting the T-Wing. Upon hearing the mention of zombies Max got images of several zombie movies he had seen over the years. This made him happy to have his riot shotgun handy for when he needed to head shot an undead, and his baseball bat would be good when a zombie invaded his personal space.

"Let's pray to God that these aren't like Return of The Living Dead zombies, nothing could fully kill them" he said to his teammates as he patted his aluminum slugger bat.

[FacePunch]

Isaac stopped in his tracks as Accelerate appeared in front of him, holding chunks of asphalt in his hands. "First of all, you're slow." The speedster joked. Sentinel's eye twitched as he considered punching Rufus in the face. Did he seriously race all the way over here to make stupid jokes at a time like this? The city was under attack! The nerve he had. "Second; Watch it. And thirdly, you good? We have a whole mess here. I talked to Detective Johnson over there" - pointing towards one of the cruisers. "And it's pretty damn bad. Humanoid creatures are attacking the civilians. They're dying." Okay, Rufus had a point. Sentinel needed to be more careful when he was choosing his landing zone next time. "I'm fine." The Kryptonian growled. Accelerate was just wasting his time telling Isaac stuff he already knew. The city was under attack, and there were monsters on a murderous rampage stomping around San Francisco.

"I don't think we can go in guns - eyes, blazing. We need a plan, and I don't have one yet. I need you to keep it together. This isn't Lobo, this is much closer to civilians." Rufus admitted, rarely without a plan and even rarer to be willing to admit it. "The others won't be here for a minute, you're the one with the S on your chest, what ya' think?"

"You want a plan?" Sentinel began. "We need to take these things down and keep the humans outta harms way. Go non-lethal, we don't know if these...things can be cured. I'm going to try and find the source and shut it down. Hopefully we can keep this contained, and it doesn't spread outside of San Francisco." And people said Rufus was the brains of the operation. Keep it simple, the more time they took brain storming the harder their jobs get.

Sentinel was about to take off when one of the nearby police officer's started to panic. A missile? Isaac turned his eyes toward the sky and used his enhanced senses to identify the flying object. "That's not a missile." Sentinel commented as he watched the robot slam into a bakery and onto the street. Sentinel activated his X-Ray vision, examining the man within the suit as he fought off a number of the zombie husks. Isaac couldn't identify the man, but he noticed the Welsh accent hidden underneath the robotic-sounding voice modular. "Superboy, Kid-Flash! What're doing just standing there, like a pair of spare nerds at the prom? There's a zombie apocalypse going on out there, in case you hadn't noticed! It's full on Romero out there! I could use a hand!" That metal-clad, stuck up piece of shit. Who was he calling a nerd?! Isaac took a deep breath. Now wasn't the time to go starting fights with other good guys. He needed to stay calm and focused if they were going to beat this so called apocalypse. Sentinel ran over to the new hero's side, barely under the speed of sound to spare the police officers' hearing. He gave the mechanized suit a look over before talking to the unidentified superhero. "The name's Sentinel." Isaac took his communicator off his belt, handing it to Blue Paladin. "Patch into our radio frequency. We'll need to be able to communicate with you if we're going to work together." Isaac explained to the new-comer. "What kind of sensors are you packing? I could use some help looking for the cause of these things. Oh, and how about you try not to kill anymore 'zombies?' We might be able to salvage them."

[An Outsider]

Blue Paladin IX

Mal glanced down at the proffered communicator. Even without his scanners he could tell this particular piece was based on the Barret communications VHF. The teen-genius shook his head in pity, a sharp, condescending snort escaping him.

"Seriously? You might as well be using your iPhones for all the security those'll provide." He didn't even enlist the suits AI to patch in, instead just manually jumping on to they're frequency. It was sad to think that the Titans, the worlds premier Teen super-team, was in such dire need of some upgrades.

He began to swivel around, scanning the area for any more zombies, while almost absent mindedly addressing Sentinel. Almost like he didn't consider the Kryptonian worthy of his full attention.

"Salvage? Man, you're cold." He began. "Though I didn't kill them. Those blasts were carefully calculated to inhibit higher level brain activity, but not stop it entirely. In layman's terms they're currently in and altered state of conciousness, though I wouldn't expect you to know anything about that. Wouldn't suggest doing it to a regular person, but because these lads seem to be missing a lot of the vital processes to begin with I thought I'd take a gamble, and it paid off. Those guys'll stay down for a while, but they'll get back up soon. I estimate they'll be getting back up in eleven minutes and forty-eight seconds, based on previous data."

"All that said I'm not so sure we can salvage them. Beyond those higher level brain functions I mentioned, there's really not much going on our swiftly rotting friends. For all intents and purposes, they're dead. I've only spotted one so far that was anything other than an incredibly mobile cadaver. I assumed he was the leader, and tried to engage, but he got away from me. Some emotion coloured Mal's voice at that last bit. To the keen observer it may have sounded something akin to shame.

He had indeed found an anomaly in his scans that may have been the source of this catastrophe, moving slowly through a tenement building several blocks from their current position. He had moved to engage, hoping to put a swift end to this catastrophe, half his mind on the battle at hand, and half on the plaudits he would earn as the man who saved San Fran from the Day of the Dead. He had been careless though, and before he knew it, and long before he reached the anomaly, he was ambushed by over fifty of the shamblers. He panicked then, engaging his flight jets in a mindless bid for escape. Several of the rotting horrors had clung to his armour though, and it was that that forced flight control out of his hands, and caused him to crash into the block. Thankfully it seemed he was successful in playing it off as a deed of heroic derring-do, rather than a near catastrophic failing.

"Funny, I can't see him anymore though" He muttered, more to himself than to Sentinel. He turned full circle, facing the Kryptonian once more, starting backwards slightly as if he had forgotten that he wasn't alone. With a grunt he engaged his rockets, hovering slightly above the street.

"I can get clearer readings from above the streets. I'll see if I can't find our mystery man from the air. I'll need you to disperse the larger groups of undead. The more there are in one place, the stronger they collectively become. Break em' into manageable chunks. And get Kid Flash to widen the evacuation area. Past the city limits, ideally. Everyone out, cops and emergency workers too. Hit the walkers where it hurts, in their stomachs. Deprive them off a food source."

"Oh, and Superboy? Don't let them touch you. I have reason to suspect they don't just feed on flesh, but off your life force too." Mal didn't suspect that. That was entirely scientifically unfounded. But it was something the Father Box believed, and in his short experience with the machine he had found the Father Box to always be right. A bit like himself in that regard. "An undead Kryptonian is a big no-no in my opinion. So, while I know it may be taxing for you to exert the self control required, try not to punch, huh?" With that he rocketed into the air.

"Scream if you need me!"

[Hillan]

Kid Flash...

Kid Flash?

Kid Flash?!

As soon as he heard the words and he understood what the iron clad wannabe hero had said, Rufus's eyes went black. His head stopped. Who the fuck was this guy and how did he dare to be so insolent? This pathetic excuse for a hero had just run in and tried to take over the show. Rufus was so angry that anything that had happened previously had faded away and was no longer on his mind. The only thing he could think of was how much he wanted to vibrate his hand through his skull and tear his brain out of the back of his head.

What was worse than the disgusting insult was the fact that he was not barking orders around like he knew anything about either of them, bossing around like he himself was a titan, nay, like he was a member of the League. He couldn't know what he was talking about and every part of Rufus's body wanted to run to the other site of the country and come back, open that armor like a can. While his sadistic thoughts were filling his head much quicker than the mech-clad 'hero' could finish telling his 'plan' Rufus let out a grunt.

Someone who was so reckless not to be able to control his own equipment, to make a mess and allow collateral, he wasn't any better than the Kryptonian that was the loosest canon Rufus had seen. And this guy was trying to school him on how to be a hero? He wasn't gonna have any of it.
"For someone who can't control his pocket sized fighter jet. You sure are talking a lot." Rufus remarked, fixing the position of the trucker hat on his head, staring the two other males down for a split second before speaking again. "I'm out." And like that he was gone. He was gonna kill someone if he didn't focus on something else. Like a blur he ran across the city, scouting it out, counting each 'zombie' he came across and finding civilians to rescue. Dashing from the city back to safety, outside of the city, he carried the civilians and the more he moved the more energy he got.

After he had scouted the 10 mile radius around the area, he put his comm back into his ear, hearing shouting from within the tower. It was inaudible, but it certainly almost sounded like fighting. "Accelerate to Ravager. ETA on arrival?" He spoke, dashing through the city, into a convenient store where he saw a shadow move he ran, grabbing a snackbar he also found a little girl whom was crying, holding a doll in her hand. Had he been one of the Flash's, he would've chatted with the girl, made her smile and laugh and asked her about her parents. But he wasn't, he got shit done.

Before the girl knew what happened, she was on the hood of a police cruiser that was parked in the evacuation zone, sitting there safe and sound. Giving the all clear to the cops he began moving again, this time for the Titans Tower. "Ravager, come in Ravager." He tried, much to his disappointment, there was no answer. "They under attack, too?" He thought to himself, hurrying he would arrive at the tower but a few moments later.

Panting slightly as he arrived at the tower he saw Evan get off of Thermo. Flirting, now? Come on Blunderboy. Walking to the team in the hangar he removed his cap from his head, holding it in his hand. "Hell are you doing here still, should've been in the air a while ago." Since there was no real danger, he wasn't worried anymore, just really, really angry. Looking for Rose he turned to the group "So, where's Ravager at? Tried the comms, no answer. City's all kinds of messed up, zombies and what not, we need to get there, or Sentinel and the new guy are gonna burn it to the ground."

[Lord Wraith]

Several Hours Ago

Black ooze dripped from Zuggernaut's mouth, forming a shallow puddle of pitch as he loomed over the dessicated corpse of his latest victim. His thralls numbered in the hundreds now, forming a writhing horde of slowly decomposing horrors around him, all vestiges of humanity long since abandoning their hideous forms. Screams sounded all around him, raw and terrified, from man, woman, and child. The horde spared no mind to age or gender. All were equal in the eyes of the horde. All were meat.

The meals were becoming scarcer now though, the easy pickings long since had or fled. The thralls were forced to scale buildings now, hauling bodies out of windows before dropping them to the throng below. Still, the harder the hunt, the sweeter the feast, or so the old adage went.

The life force of Zuggernaut's latest victim in particular had been sweeter than the any other, making him feel different, almost stronger. Yes, stronger. Definitely stronger. He could feel that strength now, suffusing his limbs, flowing through his body like a wave. Then, before his very eyes, he began to grow. His arms seemed to inflate, coiling around themselves as thick, corded muscle began to emerge under his skin. In moments he went from being an average sized man in prison orange to having the kind of physique a Greek God would envy. The power of his new frame was intoxicating, much more so than that that had been gifted to him in the waters of the bay, as this power felt purer, more true.

"Meta..." Matvei started to spit out. "Me...ta...human." For a moment the hunger was gone, but then it returned with a vengeance, as if it was incensed that he had managed to deny it, even for a second.

Metahuman? Yes, they have powers, they make the horde stronger. We must feed on more. All that we can find.

"Ti..tans." Metvei muttered as the entire horde paused to look towards the tower along the coast. The T shape in its design quite evident from the distance. "He..roes..."

THEN ON THEM WE FEED! The Zuggernaut roared, before lumbering towards the distant T, moving neither quick nor slow, merely pacing as steadily and inexorable as a mighty glacier, confident than nothing could deny him his feast. Part of the horde turned after him while the vast majority continued to assault the city and it's defencless denziens.

Now

"Don't worry, next time I'll snap your neck." Evan retorted as he shrugged Rhea's hand off of his shoulder. "Then you can stand united with those who choose to withhold information, I think my chances look better by myself. Especially if any of you are thinking of trying to drive that mechanical monstrosity in the basement. It was bad enough when Rose knew what she was doing, do any of you even know how to disengage the parking brake?" He spat while rolling his eyes before shoving his way past JC and Rhea. As he passed the newest member, Max began to speak only for Evan to shoot a death glare towards Max as he went on about innocent people dying.

"And you're what? Going to play ball with them?" He snorted looking towards the 'Stunt Devil's' basebal bat before entering an elevator as Rufus returned from the field.

"Oh look who decided to show up. If you're looking for Rose, ask the Hot 'n Cold pack over there." With those final words, Evan ascended to the next floor up. Exiting the elevator, he made a beeline for his room as the automated doors slid open with a slight 'HISS'. The personalized climate washed over his skin as the room's atmosphere had been made to reflect the moist sea air of Themyscria Island. Opening his closet, Evan slipped into a pair of pants before zipping up his hoodie and fastening on his bracers. Stepping into a pair of boots, he fastened the red armored leather before pulling out a pair of Amazonian swords and slinging them across his back. Swinging his shield over top of them, Evan lastly pulled out a spear before departing the room armed to the teeth. Taking the elevator up to the balcony, Evan let out a sharp whistle before taking a running leap off the platform into the air. A whiney echoed through the foggy air as Bellophron flew towards Evan who expertly landed on the back of the pegasus before urging it towards the city. Had Evan been able to see through the fog, he would have noticed the dark shapes emerging from the water below as the horde began to swarm the tower.

~~~

A sharp wail echoed through the Titans' Tower as alarms began to go off. The zombies had broke into the lower levels and the hanger was the first to lose its defenses as the zombies shifted from their steady pace to a run, climbing onto the T-Wing, cracks appearing in its windshield as the zombies tried to get at anyone inside. Outside the tower, numerous other zombies began to climb the windows heading towards the Titans' lounge. The sound of shattering glass echoed through the tower as each floor became more and more overrun by the husks of the horde.

I can smell their strength. Came the Zuggernaut's voice from inside Matvei's head.

"FEED!" Matvei roared as the horde mirrored his words in a loud chorus before going into a frenzy as they charged towards the remaining Titans.

~~~

Seeing the horde breaking through the police perimeter, Evan tapped his heels against Bellophron's sides as he steered the winged horse into a dive and held the spear forward.

"Alright zombies," Evan muttered over the Titans' commwave. "So we stake their hearts right? I can never keep track of your North American undead." Readying the spear, Evan impaled the first zombie as it slid down the haft as he impaled another and another before his spear looked more like a shish-kabob than a weapon.

"Souless beasts!" Evan roared as the creatures hissed back at him, planting their feet as their new strength kicked in and they pulled Evan from his mount. Hitting the ground hard, Evan let go the spear as it was reduced to splinters by the zombies. Rolling back onto his feet, Evan unsheathed the twin blades on his back, spinning them around in his hands.

"Alright, you cockroaches want to play rough." Evan growled. "Come at me then." He yelled as he swung around, severing the head of the first zombie and impaling the next in the gut before hoisting the beast over his head and sending it flying at the rest of the group.

"Fly away from here Bellophron!" Evan yelled as the pegasus who had been circling above quickly obeyed. Spinning around, Evan put both his blades against the neck of the next zombie before pulling his arms apart, black blood splattering across his face as the head went flying. Thrusting a blade into the chest of a zombie on either side of him, Evan pulled his arms across his chest, smashing their heads together as the skulls caved in like a pair of smashed melons.

"By Ares, tonight is a good night to dine with Hades!" Evan roared as the horde continued to swarm towards him.

[SugarRush]

Rose was gone. Not that the old lady had much to offer but apparently she instilled courage into some of her less competent teammates so her presence was to be missed. Thermo was extremely suspicious, coming in acting like a leader like that; luckily Evan decided to stick Thermo's ass into the ground and knock a little humility into him. Letting him up so he could speak for himself.

"Rose left. She quit the team. I searched for her all night and got nothing. I'm sorry, but like I said. We can talk about it more on the way there. We can't waste anymore time," Thermo explained himself, starting to walk away before adding one more thing. "And another thing. Don't. Ever. Tackle. Me. Again." When he said it, Ariel clamped her hand over her mouth, stifling the giggling at Thermo's threat. What a LOSER.

Next it was Evan's turn to freak out, and he did it an in equally bullheaded self-righteous fashion. He took an elevator as Accelerate arrived. The Titans weren't looking good for a team that was supposed to be fighting a zombie invasion.

Finally it was Ariel's turn to freak out when a fraction of the horde charged into the hangar in a frighteningly unorganized chaotic frenzy. "Holy shit!" she glanced at the T-Wing which was currently being usurped by the horde. "I'll be right back! I swear!!" Ariel promised the team as water shot from inside the tower and into the hangar — a combination of sink faucets, pools, and any other source of water you could think of — forming a wave that Whirlpool rode out of the hangar and into the outside air. She was nearly overwhelmed by the undead, luckily the wave managed to bounce them off on her way out.

Whirlpool exited the Tower's vicinity and was hurtling uncontrollably towards the ground in a somersault fashion. It took seconds for her to focus on the large bodies of water around her. She felt a tug in her gut and right after that she was met by a friendly giant waterspout that she'd just formed that was keeping her aloft. "This is more like it," she grinned as water formed sharp tentacles next to her, coming up like slithery serpents from the surface and flanking her sides as she ascended to the hangar.

Zombies in the hangar started getting speared, impaled, and grabbed from behind by "deadly water tentacles", being effectively killed on the spot or being effortlessly launched back out of the hangar at high speeds where the impact of wherever they landed would surely kill them. Ariel smirked with pride as she continued to work the horde with her water weapons. "Cool water pun!" she yelled, trying to sound as bored as possible. Just another day in the office. For sure.

[King Kindred]

JC might have preferred having his neck snapped. He didn't intend to withhold information. He didn't have the time to even tell them between their being drunk, playing games, moping in their rooms, and sleeping. He was more of a victim in this than they were. Not only did Rose practically leave him in charge of a bunch of idiots, but the same idiots wanted to fight and argue more than go and save the city. He now understood why she wanted them to get to know each other more and act like normal teens first. They couldn't possibly be true heroes until they learned how to control their teen angst and hormones.

Evan left in a rampage and it caused Jeremiah to wonder if he was trying to compete with Sentinel for the title of Rage-Filled Powerhouse of the Titans. Nothing good could have come out of that competition. Rufus returned asking why they were still there and where Ravager was. She really did choose the worst time to leave. "She's gone. She quit the team and left me in charge. So far I'm not doing a good job. We can vote on new leadership later after this is done. I'll gladly step down." Damn. He hasn't talked this much in so long. He already missed the days when he could be quiet and that was just the day before. Could his first and possibly final day as leader get any worse? It did. The alarms in the Tower roared to life indicating that not only were they under attack, but they were also infiltrated already. Their enemies had already broken through their defenses. A zombie attack in the city and some type of attack in the Tower.

Then he saw the zombies. "You know, it wasn't a fucking dare!!" He yelled to the ceiling as if he were talking to God or any other entity that controlled their fates. He still wondered how zombies could break their defenses. They really needed an upgrade. That was if they even had a home or base after this. He blamed Cyborg on this. He heard Evan on his commlink talking about how he was going to kill the zombies in the city. Thermo realized that these zombies were more than just zombies that you saw on TV. At least when you saw those you would think that you could reverse the change and save the people, but when he saw these actual zombies he realized that they were more than lifeless. They were soulless.

He lifted his communicator and spoke into it. "We may not have Ravager, but we have each other. We're Teen Titans and that means something even if we hate each other. Try to attack these brain eaters at a range. We don't need any teen heroes joining their ranks. Let's show them that they messed with the wrong team." God, he didn't want to say what he was about to say. "Titans...Together!!" If he had the time he would've puked.

Whirlpool had gotten into action and was pretty impressive at it. She made her way into and out of the Hangar using her powers over water as an advantage. Which reminded him... Rhea was in the T-Wing and there was a horde clawing at it. He sprung into action using the water Whirlpool summoned as his ride. He froze a path of water for him to slide and skate on. He didn't care about how much cleaning they'd have to do after this. He didn't care about the zombies heading towards him. He wasn't going to let one of his teammates die. He made that decision long ago. There was a distinct difference in JC today. You could tell by the way he was acting in this situation. The new look of concern and determination in his eyes. He wasn't giving these guys the chance to get a jump on him and his team. They made the worst wrong turn of their undead lives.

Fire. While JC was making a path of ice with one hand he was making a torrent of flames with the other. He targeted the ones that weren't being attacked by Whirlpool's tentacles and made sure to burn them extra crispy. He eventually made his way to the T-Wing and jumped through an open window. He immediately froze a zombie that was coming right for him and did the same to another. He wasn't going to use flames in this ship. He may have been able to survive going through his own flames, but Rhea wouldn't have. He was shooting blasts of ice as if he were Gru or Captain Cold using their freeze rays.

He formed a shield of ice that he'd use to repel others while also shooting ice through it. He made his way over to Rhea saying, "Come on. We've got to get out of here."

[The Grey Warden]

The Deadly Inspection

San Francisco. The city was beautiful as the sun was up in the sky, making the city shining brighter than usual. Static rode in his saucer to the city from the Teen Titans tower on the East Coast. He had been sent for a routine inspection on the team and see how they are doing so far. He was always sent to inspect them for some reason that he can't even explain. Arriving a day earlier than usual, he just wanted to explore the city before going to the tower for the check up. The water looked good enough to ride it as he decided to lower his saucer to the water. He rode along the water as he removed his glove from his right hand and dipped into the cold water. Dakota City didn't have water like the one in San Francisco. It felt cleaner than the water in Dakota City. Man, he missed home and his family.

He put the glove back into his right hand and look at the city as he saw the tower nearby. He looked at it and flew towards it until he heard something unusual. Gunshots. Static decided to go towards the sound of gunfire as he got close to the officers. People were running towards them as the officers opened fired on them, but they just took the bullets and kept running towards them. The officers were soon tackled to the ground by them as they started to bite on them. Static rushed towards the officers and shocked the people as they were biting on the guy.

The effect did nothing for the people as they got back on their feet and marched towards Static. He said towards the people walking to him, "I need you to stop moving.". Still in the air, Static looked confused as they were still coming to him. "Did you hear me? Stop." he said once more towards the people until he saw the officers getting up. "What's going on?" he questioned the whole thing as he saw the officers getting up and walking at the same pace as the others. Then all of the sudden, he heard and saw a car crashing into a pole near him. Static immediately raced towards the guy on his saucer and got off of it.

With his powers, he torn opened the car door and tried to help the guy out. But, the guy pushed him away as he tried to get out of his car as fast as he could. "Shit. Shit." the guy said as he was trying to get out of his car. "Wait, what's happening?" Static quickly said as he was trying to find out what was going on around him. The other guy said to him, "Well, the dead have risen as I saw my friends getting eaten by those things.". Confused, Static started to question him, "What do you mean by that?".

"Are you that stupid? They are here to feed on us!" the guy said as was trying to explain it with Static until he heard some more sounds. "Oh no." as he finally got out of his car and pointed towards the zombies. Static looked at them as they came towards them at an alarming rate. "Sir, listen to me." Static tried to get the dude's attention as he used his powers to grab the car door, "Get on the car door and I will lift you to the fire escape.". "Alright" the man said as he got on top of the car door and waited for Static to do his thing.

Static started to lift up the car door as he decided to go to ground level and use all of his powers on the car door, since the man had a lot of weight. He tried to make it quick as it took all of strength to carry the man to the fire escape. It worked as the man jumped to the fire escape and Static dropped the car door, tried. He needed a second to breath, but a person jumped on Static as he was turning around. That caused him to fall to the ground and tried to push the thing away from him.

Static looked at the person as he was trying to bite on his shoulder, but that ended as Static shocked the person off of him. "Shit. They are coming to me fast." Static said as he had no choice, but to make a barrier to protect him against the horde of these things. The barrier sent some back as it was big enough to knock anyone back and to protect Static at the same time. He sighed as he didn't know how long the barrier would last, but it was the only thing protecting him from death. With one hand, keeping the barrier active, he used the another to signal the tower and it's members inside the tower.

"Static to Tower West, do you copy? I am stuck in the middle of a street as there are people surrounding me, trying to bite me. Repeat. Do you copy?" Static said with fear in his voice as he was determined to keep on calling the tower until someone answers back.

[Weird Tales]

Max was taken off guard by the sudden appearance of the zombies starting overrun the tower, but thankfully he had teammates to help repel the undead. He took out his riot shotgun and began to fire off several shots at the zombies' heads.

"Dude you shoot em in the head! Haven't you ever played a zombie game or watched Night of The Living dead?! Staking the heart is for vampires" he called to Even when the demigod asked if they staked them in the hearts to destroy them. Hearing Thermo's words was refreshing, it looked like they might have a leader after all and he felt more ready to stand by his teammates. Max eyes then went to Ariel using her water abilities to take down a good number of the undead and he smiled.

"Let's put these poor unfortunate souls under the sea" he said jokingly as Stunt Devil then proceeded to whack a zombie with his aluminum bat. There were large number of the fiends and not having any special powers for strnegth or movement meant that he would have to keep moving and not get stuck in one area. The second Max would bash a zombie's head in he would move quickly to the next undead to give a taste of his hitting skills.

"Have a taste of this!" he shouted as he shattered a zombie's jaw and teeth with a might swing of his baseball bat and then finished the beast off with a second blow to the head. Stunt Devil decided that it would be better to stay closer to JC since he seemed the closest to giving any sort of command to follow. Max then blew out the brains of a zombie that tried to come at Termo from behind. He quickly went over to him and Rhea.

"So once we get out of here what next? I would suggest that we keep in open areas, that will give us a better chance for mobility and a way of maneuvering around these monsters" he explained to JC while he took several more shots at the zombies coming at them.

[FacePunch]

Sentinel watched as the armored Paladin took flight and left him there, in the street. Isaac looked around at the madness surrounding him. San Francisco was under attack by a horde of the undead. Moments ago Rufus had stomped off, looking pissed off. That worried the Kryptonian. Accelerate was usually the most level-headed of the Titans. What set him off like that? Gah. That isn't important right now. Sentinel made a mental note to approach his teammate about his little outburst later. A sonic boom echoed throughout the streets as Sentinel took off into the heart of the city. He used his powerful senses to locate groups of survivors, and steered himself towards them at supersonic speeds. The Kryptonian arrived at an apartment building crawling with husks. Isaac furrowed his brow as he watched the creatures scale the building's walls to get to the people hiding inside. The new hero he'd talked to earlier said that these...things...Couldn't be saved. That they were, for all intents and purposes, dead. They just hadn't been put six feet under yet. Sentinel took a deep breath. This was the closest thing to killing innocent people as he'd ever done. It bothered the Kryptonian. Isaac always thought he'd be able to kill on a moment's notice. But now that he was here, watching these monsters try to kill people..He had to. There was no other way. Rao, forgive me.

The young hero launched into action. He used his heat vision to bisect the zombies on the outside of the building before rushing inside. He froze a pair of walkers standing just in front of the door before crashing through them and making his way upstairs. Sentinel sliced through another half a dozen husks with his heat vision as he reached the top floor. About twenty people had barricaded themselves inside a single room, which was now under assault by a horde of the living dead. It all felt so surreal as Isaac crashed into the horde of zombies and began to tear them apart, limb from limb. Sentinel had been told to avoid hand to hand combat. But Isaac had to do this. He had to feel these beasts with his own hands. They felt just like normal humans. Yet their skin was cold. And their hearts did not beat within their chests. They were monsters, through and through. Not people. Not anymore. Sentinel slammed his hand through the last of the zombies' skulls. His life force rushed back inside Isaac's body like a tidal wave. The creatures had tried to drain the Kryptonian, but they had failed. Sentinel wouldn't fall so easily to mere fodder. The Teen Titan knocked on the door of the apartment. "It's safe." For a moment, there was no reply. Then the door opened and people started to come out. Men, women, and children of all ages flooded the halls and surrounded Sentinel. "The city is under attack. You need to get out of the city before more of those things come this way. Follow me. I'll protect you."

The Kryptonian led nearly two dozen people out of the apartment. Sentinel found a nearby school bus, and sighed with relief. "Alright. Everyone get inside." Sentinel ordered. The people were quick to oblige. Isaac stood to the side, watching the civilians' backs as they made their way onto the abandoned bus. The last of the people to get on, a little boy, tugged on Sentinel's cape. "Superman?" The little guy said as he clutched a teddy bear. Sentinel couldn't help but smile as he bent down in front of the kid. "Yeah?" He asked. "Thank you." The little boy wrapped his tiny arms around Sentinel. Isaac blushed as he returned the hug. Such affection, and from a total stranger? "Alright, buddy." Sentinel began as he stood up, placing the boy inside the bus. "I'm putting you in charge of all these people. You have to protect them after I get you out of the city. Can you do that for me?" The little guy nodded and Isaac ruffled his hair. "Alright, everyone take a seat!" Sentinel ordered before closing the bus' door.

Superman's protege lifted the bus full of people. He couldn't fly, so Isaac would have to run them out of San Francisco. Sentinel gripped the bus with all of his strength as he began to make his way through the city. He accelerated to just under the speed of sound, his bio-matrix field protecting the bus and everyone inside from the dangers of moving so fast without proper equipment or protection. Within minutes Sentinel and the bus full of civilians were out of the city and in the evacuation zone. Sentinel set the bus down and people poured out of the vehicle. Isaac watched them for a moment before leaping back into the city. He wasn't done yet. Not by a long shot.

Hordes of zombies that once roamed San Francisco now lay motionless in the streets. Sentinel rocketed across the city, dealing death to the undead. Huge swathes of husks fell to the Kryptonians powerful heat vision and freeze breath. Nothing would stand in the hero's way as he cleared out dozens upon dozens of husks with extreme prejudice. These beasts had hurt people. Killed them. Now that Sentinel knew the people they once were was long gone, he set to work massacring the monsters in mass. He saw mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters. Now they were nothing but shriveled shells, trying to consume the living for some unknown purpose. Rage and sadness swirled within Sentinel's heart. He felt nothing else as he committed what could only be described as genocide. "I couldn't save you!" Isaac yelled as he ripped one of the beasts' heads off. "I was suppose to protect you!" A pair of husks fell as Sentinel tore them apart. "I'm..." Sentinel grabbed a husk that seemed much smaller than the rest. A child, once upon a time. "I'm sorry." Isaac broke the creature's neck and tossed the tiny, lifeless corpse to the side. He leaped into the air and landed on a nearby building, panting. They had nearly killed him. "All my fault..." He muttered as the husks dashed towards him. "DIE!" Isaac let loose his heat vision at full bore. The beams stretched as far as Sentinel could see, turning hundreds of husks to ash as they tried to attack the Teen Titan.

Isaac fell to his knees.

Sound rushed into Sentinel's ears. He could hear the Tower's alarms going off in the distance. He tried to stand, but he'd drained his reserves dry with that last attack. Isaac let loose a small cry as he struggled to breathe. How many people had he killed today? Seventy? A hundred? Two? Yet the armies of the dead seemed endless. All of this power, and yet Sentinel couldn't save them. All of these people had died. And it was all his fault. "I'm done." Isaac muttered as he stared at the top of the roof, on his hands and knees. Sweat dripped from his entire body. Voices echoed from his communicator. Amazon yelled out battle cries. So much hate..How uncharacteristic of Evan. Static Shock was asking for help. What was he doing in San Francisco? Sentinel could hear the sounds of combat through the communicator. The Tower was definitely under attack. His friends were in danger. But Isaac couldn't get to his feet. Sentinel looked to the sky, and saw that dark clouds covered the sun. He wasn't recharging. Isaac sighed, a feeling of uselessness creeping into the back of his mind.

Then Thermo activated his communicator. "We may not have Ravager, but we have each other. We're Teen Titans and that means something even if we hate each other. Try to attack these brain eaters at a range. We don't need any teen heroes joining their ranks. Let's show them that they messed with the wrong team." Sentinel looked at his communicator, and then back at the dark sky. "Titans...Together!!"

Sentinel pushed himself to his feet. Those guys needed his help. Isaac looked towards the tower. The dead were crawling all over it. An endless wave of the husks climbed onto the island and into the hangar. This enemy was without number. Without remorse. "Rao..I need you. Give me your strength." As if by some miracle, the clouds began to split. Light poured down from the heavens and over Sentinel. Isaac felt his strength returning in spades. Isaac soaked in the suns glorious rays before activating his communicator. "Static, this is Sentinel. I'm coming." The Kryptonian quickly examined the city, looking for the senior Titan. Combining his telescopic and X-Ray visions, this shouldn't take too- There he is! Sentinel leaped into the air, cracking the rooftop under him with the force of his take off. Sentinel soared through the air, landing a block away from Static and the horde attacking him. He wasn't at full strength, but Sentinel had enough power to save his fellow hero and Titan. Another sonic boom announced Sentinel's arrival as he slammed into the crowd of zombies trying to get at Static. "The Titans are under attack! We need to finish up here and get to the tower." Sentinel's heat vision sliced through husk after husk as he smashed and tore them apart with his bare hands, unafraid of their life draining touch. Isaac felt invincible as he fought side by side with Static, felling the beasts with swift and righteous anger.

As the last corpse fell, Sentinel looked towards Static. "Let's go." Sentinel panted before launching into the air and soaring towards Titans Tower. Isaac crashed on the island, sending rock and dirt flying as he landed opposite the tower. He set to work attacking the husks, brute forcing his way toward the hangar. He was going to save them. He was going to save them all.

"Sentinel to the team, I'm coming for you! Just hold out for a little longer. I brought a friend."

[Cubix]

"Oh, come on..." Rhea moaned as piles upon piles of the infected rushed at them from all sides. "Where in da name of da seven hells be they comin' from?!" the healer shouted, abruptly, noticing that she was surrounded. "Well..." the single word escaped her lips, filled with much emotion than usual. Was this really how she was going to die... zombie chow? She imagined going down in a much more honourable path... 'tis a shame that she would meet her end here. Suddenly, tendrils of ice shot through the ship, impaling her pursuers. It didn't take a genius to know who the person was and, by the gods, Rhea's eyes beamed in hope as she saw her comrade coming back for her. Instantly, the thoughts of surrender and helplessness were sundered from the fabric of her psyche as she gritted her teeth, the look of determination and righteous fury burning in her eyes. "Thanks, Thermos." Rhea smiled as she pulled back her sleeves. "Dun worry... Lil'o me be not as helpless as I think I am." the healer smirked proudly, producing a myriad of all types of cells, gathering her strength into both her fists. Rhea bent down upon one of the impaled zombies and easily pulled out one of the long shards of ice from the body; a weapon was finally in her hand. Damn, it was cold but it would have to do.

She would show them, she would show Thermos, she would show Sentinel, she'd show them all that this healer wasn't going to go down without a fight. Using the same window that Thermos used to enter, Rhea slipped out and landed on the ground, rolling forward as a result. Instantly, hordes of the undead lunged at her with unrelenting voracity. Bone cells, skin cells, blood cells and every type of cell in her body divided and multiplied rapidly, causing an unnatural surge of strength to overcome the woman. Of course, her strength could not be compared to that of the demigod and Sentinel, but it was damn sure enough to launch waves upon waves of zombies writhing through the air as the icy weapon in her hand collided with her enemies, shattering her weapon in the process.

As she got a brief breather, Rhea nearly collapsed from the overexertion as she turned to Thermos. "I be needin' a better weapon, Thermos! I'll have to be goin' to Rose's room. Assist me, pretty please?" she said between breaths and pants. Her eyes went over to one of the nearby tool crates and, as quickly, pulled out a crowbar, examining it in the process. "Will this do?" she quipped before a cadaver went to her, prompting Rhea to shriek loudly before swinging the weapon, launching the zombie flying sideways. "Oh..." Rhea exhaled. "Yep, it'll do!" In her mind, more weapons equals good, so, she picked up an iron pipe in her other hand and began running towards the senior dorms, sprinting past Whirlie with a wave. There was a great difference between the two women at this point... While Whirle was coolly and effectively impaling and mutilating the undead, Rhea was flailing her arms, running and screaming for dear life. "A LITTLE HELP?!" Rhea roared as a zombie grabbed her robe, causing the healer to immediately feel nauseous as if... the zombie had this aura of decay. Rhea spun around, swinging the iron pipe with great force, knocking the zombie away whilst a part of her robe was torn asunder. "Now ye done it!"

There was no way that she could reach the top floor by herself. She'd have to wait for her team to assist her. For now, she'd have to content herself with crowbars and pipes. Besides, she stood a better chance at survival together with her comrades. She could only hope that Smoker, Hatty, and Sandy could bring her some weapons to use... that is, if they were still alive. They were mighty enough to stop this invasion assuming that they could work together. A rough transmission echoed through her communicator, the voice of someone strangely familiar reverberating in her ears: it was Static, one of the senior titans! Rhea lifted the communicator to her lips, her voice as shaky as her soul. "Cell, here. We be copyin' ya, Static. Ten titans surrounded by, probably, da same things dat be attackin' ya; six in the hangar and the rest be up in da upper levels."

Rhea could feel that her strength was waning, her body bending over to the fatigue that she could feel ever so increasingly. At this rate, with only six of them in the hangar, they'd get overrun soon. The hordes of hell were relentless in their numbers and, unlike the titans, the cadavers were never getting tired. Suddenly, another transmission echoed through her communicator; there was a voice that she recognized ever so easily. "Sentinel!" Rhea beamed with joy before swatting a zombie with the crowbar. "Take yer time. We can be handlin' dis!" Cell looked at her comrades, realizing that this was their time to work together. After all, a team that kills zombies together, stays together. "Our team be comin' fer us, guys! Let's be showin' dem dat we can clean up faster dan dey can get here!" Rhea rallied through the communicator before picking up two iron pipes and swatting them at the invaders. "Let's be fightin' our way out of da tower! We'll be meetin' up with Hatty, Smoker and Sandy en route. I can already be guessin' dat dey 'ave a'ready cleaned up there." At this Rhea, battled her way to the upper floors, confident that, for once, they wouldn't be just 'teen titans', they would be something more: a team.

I dun 'ave much time left... I can't... keep... fightin'...

[King Kindred]

JC was glad that he was able to save Rhea from the horde. He'd hate to admit it, but he would have missed hearing her broken English. He almost corrected her when she called him Thermos, but then he remembered that she tended to give her teammates nicknames. He also should have picked something better than Thermo for his hero name. Now that he was thinking about it, it really did sound stupid and lame. He just wasn't the creative type when it came to things like that. After Rhea slipped out of the window he turned to Max. "You're right. We need to get them to open areas. We need to push them out of the Tower." It was honestly easier said than done. Despite the amount of zombies that they killed the others still tried to press forward instead of trying to retreat. They had a one track mind right now and that was eating themselves some Titans.

Thermo then jumped back out of the window and followed Rhea. He attacked zombies that she didn't and kept on moving with her. When she said that she needed to go to Rose's room to look for weapons he nodded and opted to go with her. "Devil, stay down here with the others and keep trying to push the others out. I'll continue heading up with Cell." What was this feeling inside of him? Leadership, compassion, camaraderie? They were mostly unfamiliar to him since he had both recently just joined the Titans and even more recently became a stand-in leader. It felt... weird yet oddly satisfying in a way. He shook his head. He didn't have time to think about his feelings right now. There were still team members to save and corpses to re-kill.

He heard a distress call on his communicator and was going to respond to it, but Rhea did before him. It was Static and he needed their help. He didn't know how they would be able to get to him from here though. They did have members out there like Sentinel and Wonder Boy, but he wasn't sure how they were fairing against the zombies while also protecting the civilians. Fortunately soon after Sentinel smoke into his communicator telling Static that he was on his way.

They continued to battle and battle and they were getting tired doing so. He was sure that he was going to have to sleep after this, but he wondered if they would even get to sleep in the tower for a while. It seemed that Cell was almost ready to give up until Sentinel spoke into their communicator again. He was on his way and he guessed that the friend he was bringing was Static. They needed one of their powerhouses back to the tower and now that a senior member of the team was coming with them they might really stand a chance.

This seemingly revitalized JC as well. He spoke into his communicator again. "Titans. I know some of us are getting tired and that this seems like an endless horde, but I know that we'll overcome this. We're wo---." He blasted a zombie coming for him. "Working together to fight this. Cell and I are heading to the upper levels. I need the rest of you to push these glorified corpses out of the Tower. I have a plan." He wasn't entirely sure that it'd work. He used his ice a lot so far and he could feel his body growing colder. Oh right. He forgot the thing. "Oh yeah. I don't like saying it, but insert call to action here."

He hoped the others would be able to push out the zombies. He had confidence in them. He just hoped that they had confidence in him. Things started out rough in the beginning, but he had no doubt that they'd stand tall through this.

[The Grey Warden]

The Deadly Inspection

Static's barrier wasn't going to hold any longer as he heard that help was coming from both Sentinel and Rhea. The tower was under attack from those things, people dying as those thing bite into them. Man, he knew that he needed to write out the report and he didn't know where to start. But, his barrier was slowly disappearing as Static was getting tired of using his powers this long. He was going to give up right on the spot, but a sonic boom sent those things away from the barrier. Some even hit the barrier as well as the ground nearby him.

"The Titans are under attack! We need to finish up here and get to the tower." Sentinel said as he was still fighting those things with his laser eyes. Static only needed a moment to take a breather and start helping out Sentinel with the hoard. With his ball of lightning, he threw it into a crowd and it shocked them into the ground. Then, he grabbed a car nearby with his powers and threw it into the crowd. After the battle, Sentinel panted into the sky and Static didn't even have a change to ask questions. He sighed as he walked towards his saucer and then saw a metal pipe on the wall nearby his saucer. With his powers, he grabbed the pipe and pulled it out of the wall as steam roared in the air.

He looked at it and smiled at his new weapon for now as he put it in his pocket, where the saucer goes. Then, he got on it and raced towards the tower as he was told that it was under attack. He didn't know what to expect and do as he raced there and saw the tower overrun by those things. His hands were lighting as he got ready to attack and then Sentinel said that he brought a friend. Static aimed his hands towards the hoard and fired on them as they were too shocked to move.

"Hello, it's nice to see you all again! But, I'd like to see you all while the city is under attack." Static said as he raced towards the hanger after he fired his lighting towards the hoard. After getting inside the hanger, he got off of his saucer and watched it fall apart; but, he used his powers and launched the hexagonal disks into those things as most of them hit them in the chest area. As soon as he landed in the hanger, he grabbed the pipe and said towards the hoard, "I hope that you're ready for this shock.". He then used the pipe as a melee weapon as one of them came towards him and Static hit him in the face as he was sent flying to the ground.

Then, he kept using the pipe as a way to push forward until he reached one of the titans, Thermo. After reaching to him, he threw the pipe towards a changing husk and hitting him in the face. He needed a second to breath and turned to him and said in a demanding voice, "Can you tell me what's going on?".

[An Outsider]

Blue Paladin IX

Kid Flash zipped off pretty quick, sounding pissed off about something, though what it was he never really said. Something about Paladin speaking to much, though if that's all it took to get Speedy Gonzales' dander up then Mal was really unsure if he was the kind of individual you'd like to have the fate of the world resting in his hands. Seemed too unstable by half.

Whatever. His issue was his issue, no point two people getting worked up over nothing. Blue Paladin IX got back to the task of patrolling the skies, scanning for the anomaly that had gotten away from him earlier, all while helping the evacuation process in any way he could, a job Kid Flash had left half finished. He was just in the process of escorting a little old lady out of the fifth floor bedsit she had been left stranded in when he glimpsed a speck in the distance, bounding away from San Fran towards the harbour. Curious as to what it was he zoomed in, only to see Superboy bounding away towards the Titan Tower.

What in the world. . . He could hardly believe his eyes. These so called superheroes where abandoning the city in it's time of need, leaving the weak and the defenceless to fend for themselves. Yes, Mal had heard the other Titan's distress calls, and he could understand the worry that Superboy must have felt for his team-mates, in dire peril while he was removed from them. But is that an excuse for abandoning the city to it's horror? A city wholly unprepared for that which assailed it, while he ran off, playing cavalry to a group of teens with enough power to level cities? Teens that had picked this life of danger for themselves?

No, it wasn't. They were supposed to be heroes, and heroes saved people. They didn't leave them while their cities burned.

Well if the Titan's weren't going to do it then Mal would just have to pick up the slack on his own. Gritting his teeth he abandoned the search for the anomaly for the moment, knowing that he'd need all his concentration levelled towards the task at hand, stopping a city from devouring itself. Easy. He quickly devised a plan, and instantly began to act upon it. Admittedly it was a stop gap effort, but it wasn't the only one he could think of that wouldn't end with complete and utter mayhem.

Using his scanners to identify an area of the city that had been completely cleared of live innocents, he designated that as the 'paddock'. Then he spent the next ten minutes moving the undead to the paddock. The easiest method was to fly just out of reach, and use himself as bait to lead them where he wanted them. Though he was surprised by how few there seemed to be. According to even his most conservative calculations there should be at least several hundred more of the zombies. Then again, as problems went 'Not enough zombies' was hardly the worst one in the world. Maybe he'd judged Kid-Flash and Superboy to harshly, and they had managed to save more people than he'd first thought. Seemed he owed them an apology.

He had the zombies corralled, and was just about to enact the second portion of his plan when the call came through, a stern, tightly clipped voice that still carried a great depth of paternal fury, one that Mal knew all too well.

“Malcolm, what the hell do you think you're doing?”

“Oh, hi dad. How's it going?” Malcolm was going for non-chalant. He was in trouble anyway, might as well really tick the old man off. In for a penny, in for a pound. For his part Edward Summerhold didn't lose a shred of control. That's the benefit of years of military training.

“Jesus wept, Malcolm! You're still treating this like a game! Think of how dangerous this is, you could--” Edward sounded like he was going to continue, but Mal cut him off.

“If you're going to say 'could be killed' then don't bother finishing that sentence. Instead think of how dangerous it must be for all the thousands of non-genius inhabitants of San-Francisco, who don't have the added benefit of wearing super-advanced, multi-billion dollar armoured suits.” Mal imagined could almost hear his dad's forehead vein throbbing all the way across the planet. He was gonna be in trouble when he went home.

“That's it, shut him down Glen.” There was no response, or at least not an audible one. Glen, Mal's uncle and the principal designer of the Paladin, was a brilliant scientific mind, and a man who much preferred potent action to useless words. He would be launching override codes and puppet sequences into the Paladin's CPU, aiming to order the Father Box to open a portal that would return the Warframe back to the relative safety of South Wales. . . .Or at least he would have been if Mal hadn't planned for that eventuality.

“Ooh. . . We're no strangers to love. . . ” The opening lines of Rick Astley's hit single, 'Never going to give you up', began in the background, providing the perfect counterpoint to Mal's dad's flustered swearing.

“Oh come on old man, you honestly thought I wouldn't realize you'd put a kill code in the armour!” Edward didn't reply, or at least not constructively. Yup, Mal was definitely in trouble when he got home. He couldn't help the wide grin that stretched from cheekbone to cheekbone. He'd definitely earned it.

He cut the line to his father and uncle, and got back to the task of saving the world.

[Hillan]

The Zombies all started to break in, but Rufus was devising a plan against them. It wasn't a serum to cure them, nor was it to blast all of the zombies into space. It was a cruder plan, one that would require a lot of legwork. Turning, he found his teammates tearing through the zombies to avoid dying themselves. The idea was survival of the fittest, and Rufus wasn't completely against killing, sometimes it was necessary, and these things weren't even alive. Right?

Dashing through the tower, he went through all of the armories and got every piece of restraining equipment he could find, police issued handcuffs, batcuffs, zipties, chains and rope. He even found some fuzzy cuffs in Rose's room. Each Zombie he came in contact with, he incapacitated without killing, breaking their legs were fine, though. He threw all of the gear into boxes that he dashed down into the hangar with, succesively restraining any zombie in his path, restraining them in their hands and feet to avoid any damage at all they could do. As he arrived in the hangar his teammates were already tearing through the Zombies. He had to stop them, it wasn't evil demonic beings they were slaughtering, it was mostly people.

"Titans, stand down." He said via the communicator as he dashed around his teammates, restraining the zombies they inevitably would have killed. "Titans, I repeat, stand down." He said, as he was panting, his hands on his knees as he was trying to catch his breath, sweat was trickling down onto his black mask. "We need to keep the people safe. Both those that are already 'gone', and those that aren't. Amazon, you fly into the suburbs and find out if this is spreading, one of you join him. Remember, no killing. Lock & Load, use your abilities to find a way to inhibit the zombies, like the meta collars in Belle Reve, but for Zombies. Rest of you.. Fuck, I don't know. Thermo, stay in charge."

As he was just about to head into the city to find Sentinel, the Krpytonian arrived with a senior Titan in tow. The blood on Isaac's hands made Rufus start to worry Was there even a city left if Isaac had let loose? They needed to find whatever it was that was behind this all, provided that the dickhead in the tin can suit was right about that. Once they had settled that, he was gonna have to figure out a way to deal with the Kryptonian.

[Lord Wraith]

Despite saving Rhea, it would seem that Thermo had either ignored or was completely oblivious to the presence of the twins instead the T-Wing as it was being ripped apart by the zombies who were desperate to get at those inside. Having buckled up for the flight, the pair of blonde twins struggled against their restraints, but in the panic it turned out to be all for nothing as numerous pairs of hungry jaws were set upon them, their screams barely audible in the chaos as they were practically torn apart, nothing left behind to be zombified.

Stronger! The Zuggernaut scream through the hive's mind as he turned his eyes towards Sentinel, the power of the Kryptonian's lifeforce practically oozing off of him.

"The 'S'." Matvei hissed as his jaw practically dislocated, hanging down low before chattering his black teeth together. "Feed on him!" Matvei yelled as every zombie simultaneously turned to look at Sentinel. Scrambling from the remains of the T-Wing, the zombies grasped at pieces of sheared metal which turned into crude blades thanks to the powers of the twin. Slashing their way through the rest of the Titans, the blade began to evolve from crude to razor sharp.

---

Hearing Rufus' voice on the comm, Evan rolled his eyes. It would seem in Rose's absence that everyone was calling out orders but him.

"Acknowledge." Evan muttered, pulling several gold coins from his pocket and placing them over the eyes of the zombies he had downed. Jumping into the air, he kicked off against a wall, pushing himself into the air as he let out a sharp whistle. Jumping again, Evan flipped into the air, landing on Bellophron's back as he headed off towards the suburbs. As he flew through the air, Evan spotted another airborne figure. Urging Bellophron forward Evan caught up to the flying armored suit as he called out to him.

"Hey! Help me secure the suburbs?" Evan asked observing the areas below were essentially clear. It seemed that most of the zombies had headed to the tower and as much as he would have liked to go assist the other Titans, someone had to stay with the city. "I need to ensure the zombies haven't made it out that far yet. Ideally they haven't but at worst we need to ensure they haven't made it out of the city."

[Weird Tales]

Max was pumped up and ready to kick some zombie ass after hearing JC give his speech over the intercom. He was reluctant to stay down with the others and not follow Thermo, but he did as he was told. He was surprised to see Static suddenly come into the fray with his flashy electrical powers, but then he remembered that the hero was a senior member of the Titans. Max was also slightly pissed when he heard Sentinel's voice, fancy of you to show up airhead he thought to himself. If him and Rufus hadn't just taken off then things may not have been as bad as it had become. When he heard Rufus shout over the communicators for them to stand down, he thought the speedster was insane.

"Are crazy?! We're being surrounded in here" he replied back as he whacked a zombie with bloody bat and then swung the other direction doing a 180 to slam a zombie coming at him from behind in the jaw. He listened to the rest of Rufus' orders and rolled his eyes when the speedster didn't come with a plan for everyone else except Evan and the twins. The twins! He had forgotten about them and looked for them only to see the horde of the undead rip apart the T-Wing and gorge themselves on the two inside. He gave a cry of fury and tore at the zombies more ferociously.

"The twins are dead! I repeat the twins are dead!" he shouted into the communicator as he busted open a zombies skull with a might swing. Two of their own had just become a snack for these retched creatures and they would have to wait to mourn their death. He hadn't expected to already lose teammates so soon and he felt sick at the brutality of their death. They weren't just murdered, they had been slaughtered and eaten by grotesque fiends. Stunt Devil then saw the zombies start to manifest abilities similar to those of the recently deceased twins and realized that these things could learn abilities from the metahumans they consumed. He would have to be more careful and faster with his bat to avoid suffering a fate like Lock and Load.

[Brodie]

Zane was asleep when the call to arms had been sounded. He woke up in a dazed stat no knowing what was going and only caught up by listening to his team mates frantically through the intercom. He heard that Rose was gone and not coming back so Thermo was left in charge. The boy had a good speech and it gave Zane the energy he needed to get down the rest of these steps to the hangar. But then something else he heard on his way down troubled him a lot, Zombies. He was always told to never practice death magic and stay away from undead things. Mostly because there was a scale that needed to be re-balanced or something like that.

Zane teleported back up to his room and grabbed a book on the undead magic and spells he was worried about using it but his team needed him now so time to suck it up and move on. The he heard about the twins death through his communicator. That struck a blow to him on the deepest level, and now something else was on his shoulders to think about. Sadness turned to anger and he stood up and clenched his wand, remembering he had still had an endless power at his finger tips.

"Drows" His wand turned into a sliver short sword meant for him especially, he hoped his usual enchantment worked, it let him cut through most material especially skin. "Lived Tunts ot og." In a flash he was right next to his teammate in the hanger and looking around. He saw zombies everywhere and they had already taken over the T-Wing with is fallen comrades in it. He slashed and cut throught the first few that got close and turned to Max. "Sorry I'm late do you need some help."

[Cubix]

With Thermo alongside her journey, Rhea managed to ascend to the senior rooms with a few zombies knocked away by her iron pipes. For the most part of the journey, Rhea had always avoided any fatal attack but when the news of the twins' death reached her ears, a dark void began to surge within her. Instantly, memories of the ones who had died in front of her began to haunt her mind. The blood, the tears, the cries and the nerve-wrecking moment when their final breaths would leave their lips, overrode her psyche to the point where her body felt hot and jumpy; revenge would only be the only verdict now. With a guttural scream of horror and fury, Rhea dashed towards one of the last few zombies blocking the way towards the senior dorms, forcibly launching the two iron pipes towards them, impaling the cadavers to the walls with a sickening splat. She burst through Rose's rooms, realizing that the senior titan's room was in shambles, Rhea got to work on finding anything, just anything that could do more damage than a mere iron pipe. After a few minutes of snooping, she finally found a japanese katana, probably one of Rose's favoured weapons since the titan did excel in swordsmanship alongside her martial arts prowess. She unsheathed the blade, realizing that the faint vibration upon pulling out the sword was similar to that of a melody of death-- for those damned zombies, specifically. Suddenly, she heard Tulip echo to her communicator, telling them to avoid killing any more of those monsters. "Negatory dat, Tulip." Rhea responded as a few bladed zombies came shambling towards her. "Dey killed Lock and Load... true, dey ain't no demons but dey ain't no humans either... not in my book, they ain't." With that, Rhea swung the blade in a wide arc with her empowered strength.

All she could see was red and darkness; she wanted to blame herself. She wanted to put all the blame on herself but, for some reason, three faces appeared in her mind almost too forcibly. Sentinel, he who sped away without a second thought, leaving his team behind to die. Tulip, he whose consciousness would never be able to understand the pain of losing a comrade when you were there to witness them die. Finally, Evan... he whose arrogance and deceit left them with none of the strongest titans remaining. Oh, how she wanted to tell herself that everything was her fault but, no... she was just human. "Be sendin' my regards to hell, you sons of bitches." Rhea cussed, noticing that after she had beheaded the first wave of cadavers, another set barged inside the room. Oh, yes, bring it on... Rhea would never satisfied until a river of heads would roll. The enraged healer swung the sheath with much force, sending a resounding blow to her foes, a great torrent of emotions fuelling her every attack.

The zombies were knocked back a few inches but were undeterred as they continued on their rampage. Rhea eyed the bed beside her and, with a few breaths of preparation, she lifted the entire furniture and threw it towards her opponents, pinning them against the room before plunging the katana into the wall and slashing it horizontally, slicing their necks off. As she stepped out of the room, the empowered zombies began to attack her from all sides as she tried her best to stay alive. Slowly but surely, bits of her clothing were beginning to get torn up as wounds were inflicted on her body, although, the incisions healed almost too quickly due to the trillions of cells pumping through her system. The pain that coursed all over her body was welcomed by the healer, believing that the pain would help her atone for her inability to protect Lock and Load; the pain would help her not to blame the three dumbbells. But, no, after each incision was dealt to her, she would only remember the three boys, blaming them for the wounds on both her soul and body.

Finally, after what seemed to be ages, the last zombie fell at her feet. Rhea looked terrible, her own blood staining her shredded robes with crimson liquid. Her nerves were too frayed to even care for the blood that covered her figure from head to toe. She noticed the zombies that Tulip had restrained as a twisted smile crept up on her face. Her lips parted as her voice sang a melody she knew all too well from her childhood.

“Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head,
Chip chop chip chop – the last man’s dead.”

As Rhea began walking down the steps, she left behind her a trail of the restrained zombies, their heads rolling on the floor. It seemed that something else was attracting the cadavers; there was someone much more important than them. It didn't take a genius for her to know who it was though. She saw a zombie at her feet as her eyes glared at the writhing restrained cadaver; after a few seconds, the katana was swung high as the head rolled away from the body. "Scum..." her lips spat out with much venom. Finally, she saw Thermo once more. Her eyes were blank and cold, her mind suppressing her emotions or else... she would be a whimpering pile of mess by now. Beside, Thermo was Static... supposedly, a good sight but for Rhea, he was nothing; she felt nothing. She had sworn that none of her comrades would suffer while she was alive... for her to fail so quickly was too much for the healer to bear. "Thermo, I think I done somethin' bad. I couldn't save dem and, now, I be killin' dis people." Rhea mumbled, the katana gripped firmly in her hand. "If I can't save anyone... what am I good for?" Her shaking shoulders betrayed how much in shambles she actually was, her teeth biting her lower lip to such an extent that sanguine liquid dripped out of it.

What am I good for? What am I even worth for? Should I even be a titan?

[King Kindred]

Thermo waited on the steps while Rhea went to the Senior Dorms. He decided that it would be best for him to stay there and deter any remaining zombies from coming upstairs and catching them by surprise while she looked for a weapon. Why did it seem like there was a limitless amount of these things anyway? He fought while listening to the communicator. When Rufus spoke and told them not to kill the zombies he didn't understand why he wanted them to refrain from killing them when that was how most of the team would have been able to handle them. JC had been either freezing them in place or impaling them with ice. He had even just created a spear of ice to help him with the job. Soon after Rufus spoke Max did as well revealing to the team that the twins had died.

It was at this moment that Thermo stopped in his tracks. It was his first day in charge of the team and he lost two members already. How could people respect him as a leader now? Why did he even care? He didn't even want to be a leader, but it started to feel so natural. Was his father right? Pain and death will only follow him. This was all his fault. It just had to be, didn't it? JC then felt an eerie presence of cold. It wasn't the normal cold that he was used to. It was much different. He couldn't see what was happening around him. He was blinded by the tears flowing from his eyes. He felt his body becoming numb and cold. What was going on? This wasn't his doing, was it? No... He could tell what was going on now. He was being drained... JC could feel himself growing weaker by the second. More zombies had arrived. He could end this right now. He could let them take him. End his eternal suffering right here and now.

No. That wasn't who he was. That wasn't Jeremiah Cooper and it certainly wasn't Thermo. He could feel the temperature started to rise around him. His ice spear melting right in his hands. The tears in his eyes were evaporating and clearing his eyes. He looked at his enemies with a look of pure death. He was their Undertaker. They were closer now and even some had been able to grab hold of him. That would be the last thing they were going to be able to do to him.

He closed his eyes for what seemed like a second and when he opened them there was a new ice age in the stairwell. The husks were frozen in place. If Rufus wanted them preserved then they'd be preserved. Soon afterwards Static came up to him and asked him what was going on. He didn't think that it took a genius to figure out the basics of what was going on. JC was silent for a moment before finally responding. "Zombies took over the city. Now they're attacking the Tower. We don't know anything else."

He turned to Rhea when she came down the stairs to him. She was covered in blood. He wasn't sure if all of it was hers or if some of it belonged to the zombies that she had to fight. When it came to combat maybe she wasn't useless. She had proved that to him today. She however wasn't convinced that she had a purpose. That if she wasn't able to save them what else was she good for her?

The next part may have been the most confusing part of it all. What JC was doing was so out of character that it seemed like a retcon. He made sure to avoid the katana in her hand and hugged her. He didn't care about her blood stained and tattered clothes. He didn't care that her blood was soaking his outfit now either. None of that mattered. "I'm sorry..." He started. "It's... all my fault. I left them... I'm no leader, but you are still a Titan. That doesn't change."

He finally removed himself from her body and turned to Static. "Take her downstairs and continue pushing the zombies outside. I'm ending this now. I'm going to the roof."

It was time for him to do something right today. He immediately started heading upstairs not stopping to respond to any words that they might have had.