Initiation... [Open to all]

[ferus]

"Tattoo... under...my choker..." he rasped. "It's my...lab ID. Use it to... find the... lab..."

All of the kids in the lab got a barcode tattoo identifier which was used to verify their identities. The experimentation often changed their features so that they weren't identifiable in any other way. Ferus hoped that if they could track down the man who gave them the tattoo, he would be able to tell the Titans where the lab was.

One man was in charge of going to the lab and doing all of the tattoos. He was paid extremely well for his services, with the instruction that he was not to reveal what he was doing to anyone. Of course, someone who was willing to do something like that and say nothing to anyone about what was happening there wasn't likely to be of upstanding character. He was probably open to persuasion.

He closed his eyes and the barest hint of a smile touched his face, despite the cold fire in his chest. He had failed to get them out more than once, and he'd barely escaped with his life every time he'd tried, but he had an ironclad promise that someone would still keep trying, even after he was gone. With that worry gone, he had no regrets about the way it had gone down.

"Shiro..." he said, still not opening his eyes. "Listen... Surviving is not... the same as... living. Live, my friend... Live."

His last word was carried on a breath, and he gasped two short breaths and was still.

He was dead.

[Lillith Tiller]

Shiro glanced at the boy who had come up next to her, the one that could control electricity. She blinked at him. "Ferus jumped in front of a bullet for Robin," she said flatly. It was a stupid decision, one that had taken his life away and one that might just make Shiro stay in Jump City. The boy walked off and ripped a robot in half, and Shiro looked away.

And then Ferus addressed her. She looked over. "Shiro..." he said. "Listen... Surviving is not... the same as... living. Live, my friend... Live."

She didn't reply out loud. She wasn't sure if he would hear her even if she did. But she answered in her head, stepping away from him as the light went out of his eyes. Surviving not the same as living? I know that. But the thing is, Ferus, I can't live. I can't go home, and I can't make friends. There's nothing for me expect surviving and having a little satisfaction here and there. That is living for me.

And look at you. You, lying on the ground, in pain and then dead. You call that life? Living? I don't I call it dying.

Then there was an explosion, and a store next to them burst into pieces, firing rubble at the "heroes" as well as fire and everything else that came with an explosion -- Shiro didn't bother to know what. Instinctively, she leapt up and transformed a pebble into a flying disk, and rose up above where the explosions had been -- and where the next wave of soldiers had come out.

From above, Shiro looked down at them. They still didn't look human; that was good, so there was still nothing she had to worry about. But they definitely looked tougher, and judging how worried the electricity guy looked and how another dude was shielding the purple-haired girl. Either way, though, it wasn't Shiro's problem. She zoomed further up, watching from above.

[virgil]

Static pounded his clenched fists on the railing a split second before the explosion rocked the mall and sent Blaze flying, the levels shifting as well as the floor shook, his feet becoming unsteady for a moment as traces of smoke and the metallic sounds of springs and gears came to his senses, spurring him to action...


"Robin! The new kids are pinned down!" he yelled as he saw the guy shield the girl from the opening volleys, then form some kind of heat shield and at last start to move to some cover behind an extra large steel girder.

Adding to the layer of thermal protection, Virgil formed an electromagnetic barrier that helped deflect the more accurate disks that where flying at the two from...

"OH boy, this isn't good..." Static said as a dozen mean looking Robots walked into the area, smooth and slow like a well trained commando team, a human commando team...

Must be the new advanced command bot Slade had bragged about over the PA system, which meant his powers where no longer as effective as they had been before...

[thomascryos]

Frostbyte managed to brace himself using ice. He saw the new robots coming and saw the expression on Statics face. "....let's work as a team, if I can manage to freeze your electricity, we would have a high speed attack with high piercing power..." Frostbyte said, turning to Static. "I have no idea if it will work, but it's at least worth a shot if we can find a more efficient way to take these things down." Frostbyte created ice claws one hand, just in case any of the commandos got close. "By the way, I'm Frostbyte." Frostbyte said, readying himself for whatever he would need to do in the next few seconds. "It's static right? Static Shock?" Frostbyte created a lance of ice on his free hand. He dawned a determined expression, ready for anything.

[Tim Drake]

Robin held Feurs' hand until it went limp, then set it over the wound lightly seconds before he hear the cut short yell of Blaze and the explosion that sent tremors across the mall...

As soon as the shaking stopped, he stood, a look of pure unholy fury on his face, his mask enhancing his glare as he pulled out a pair of folding steel knight sticks, and then looked off to Static, as Shiro hovered up and away, the look on her face was...

Unimportant, according to Static, Blaze and Violet where pinned down by a new group of Slade Commando bots, and these where likely shielded from EMP's, otherwise how could they be moving and be mechs?

Running for the balcony, Robin roared out in righteous fury as he dropped down into the middle of the dozen bot's, his weapons flailing around, smashing in faceplates, and bending limbs, popping joints out of place and crushing energy weapons...


The legend of Robin versus Slade was as true now that Tim Drake was the leader of the Titans, as it had ever been when Dick Grayson had been the leader of the boy wonder, and with good reason; as hard as Slade had been on Dick, he was even harder on Tim, for reasons, only Slade knew...

[Violet Schultz]

Her head snapped toward the sudden explosion, her eyes flaring purple in alarm. Her powers prepared to protect her, and the closest of the flames turned lavender at the edges before she was consciously aware that she was using her powers. A split second later, she engulfed the flames in her powers and extinguished it, smoke rising from the wreckage. The next thing she knew, Blaze had flung himself at her. Violet grunted softly at the unexpected impact, but her reflexes allowed her to catch most of the impact with her hands. Still, she would definitely have bruised palms in the morning.

Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she saw streams of blue blood running through his fur and dripping onto the ground. She ignored her first instinct, which was to ask if he was alright. She knew from experience that whether or not a person was alright was irrelevant until they were out of the line of fire. She was hoping that he wasn't all too seriously injured, given the fact that he was still able to talk without undue strain in his voice.

"Cover," she said, jerking her head toward the girders nearby.

Watching the disks for just a second to calculate the line of fire, she half pulled him toward the girder. She wasn't about to abandon him if she wasn't sure of his condition. She knew that there were still some of the disks embedded in his body, so as soon as they were clear, she turned him around to inspect the damage.

"This is going to hurt," she warned quickly before setting to work. She pulled the disks out swiftly, like a nurse removing a bandage. She knew that he had healing abilities, and if they were still in there when he healed, it would be even more painful when they tried to take them out. She clenched her jaw at the sight of the wounds. There were more than half a dozen of them stuck in his furry back. She was relieved to see that almost as soon as the disks were removed, the bleeding slowed. His healing factor must've been setting to work.

[William Talbot]

Even as she tugged on him, Will was moving for the massive girder that she motioned at, his shield holding off most of the sharp projectiles until a foot long, polished spike shattered the hot kinetic barrier and lanced into his left knee, his leg buckling as they at last got behind the girder, the pings and clangs of steal on steal ringing throughout the mall now as Will pushed himself into an upright position and breathed heavy.


"This is going to hurt," she warned quickly before setting to work...

Smirking, even in his werewolf form, he face projected irony at her warning, as he bent forward some and let her work; "It already hurts..." he said with a soft groan as the seven or so disks where pulled out, bits of fur and thick slate grey skin stuck in the jagged teeth of the blades, which where stained with his hot blue blood. As they weapons clattered to the floor, he could feel his body start to repair the damage, the pain slowly ebbing away as Violet worked, making Will even more thankful that he'd been closes enough to protect her, since had she not been there, they would have shot him anyways.

"You're hit." he said as he looked at her upper arm, a slash across it at a slight angle meant a ribbon of warm bright red, blood was working it's way down her arm as she worked on him and his wounds. So without another thought, he reached under the top of his suit, and pulled his undershirt out, ripped the bottom off (since it was both the easiest to get too, and the only part not ripped, or bloody) and with little effort, wrapped and tied it snugly around her arm, done even as she tugged at the last bladed disk stuck in his back, and then removed it.

But he still had a spike through his left knee, and it was starting to hurt bad, and bleed worse.
“I’ll have to get this one, it’s wedged in there good, and I doubt you could get either the leverage or grip for it…”

Now came the fun part. He looked at her for a moment in silent thought, despite the sounds of battle, then he closed his eyes, reached down, and broke the sharp end off before he started to pull the once foot long weapon out of his knee, a low hard grunt of pain and effort rippling from his throat as it slowly moved out, blood dripping from the wound and his breath coming, both at a growing rate...

[Lillith Tiller]

Well, everyone definitely wasn't doing very well. Shiro didn't like watching the expressions on their faces -- at least, the expressions of those that hadn't done anything wrong. But Shiro refused to helped. There was no reason to. Clearly, these friends could all help themselves. If they fell, they'd fall together. They wouldn't want to be saved by some random stranger.

Still, she didn't like watching them fail. They weren't watching her, though, so Shiro decided that she'd leave. They wouldn't see her. Shrugging to herself, she zoomed higher into the air, and she was off.

[virgil]

"No clue if that would work frosty, but I'm game to try anything at this point." Static said to the chilly looking new comer, his hands glowing with the crackle of electricity as he sized up this newest threat, set his jaw and then formed up a ball of lightening and fired it at the farthest pair of advanced commandos before he soared down to help Robin as he started to thrash on the new group of robots.


Recalling the many times he had fought robots that where protected from EM pulses, Virgil knew that a direct current into any part would simply interfere with the on board computer, and even them, not for long, so a more powerful and permanent solution was needed...


"Ice boy! Hit them in the head!" he yelled, an idea suddenly coming to him.

[thomascryos]

At first, Frostbyte tried to go with his original plan and tried to slow down the ball of lightning. Then he heard what Static said. Thomas immediately launched a bolt of ice at the robots head. The bolt was sharp enough to pierce steel, Frostbyte made sure of it. Even if it wasn't what static meant, the lightning would probably hit the bolt, or one of the other Frostbyte launched, and A. Melt the spikes then B. The electricity would probably conduct through the resulting water and cause probably somehow. "That was what you were aiming for, right?" Frostbyte asked,turning to static, then attacking the joints of a robot that came near him, which didn't cause as much damage as before, but still served the purpose Fostbyte wanted, knocking it over.

[Tim Drake]

Robin pulled one of his knight sticks from the head of the last commando he had beaten, this end of the mall again quiet (for now) the sounds of skirmishing still in the air, as the low pulsing hum of magnets and the metallic sliding and clicking of gears and springs denoted the location of the four robots still firing at Blaze and Darkbrand with their mechanical disk launching rifles...



Finding a somewhat hidden space, Robin caught his breath and then called Darkbrand on her com-unit; "Robin calling Darkbrand, what's you're status?"

He looked over his shoulder and saw the ice kid and Static attacking a small group of advanced commando's as he checked the time: they had just over ten minuets to locate, and defuse the bomb, and while all the sensor sweeps pointed to a spot under the food court in the mall, until they could get there and check it out them self's it might as well still be a mystery...

[Violet Schultz]

"Jesus, Blaze..." she murmured, looking for something to stem the bleeding.

Her uniform didn't have anything one could tear, but they were in a mall. There had to be something. She noticed the debris from the explosion, strewn all over the floor. Grabbing a cotton pair of pants, she flicked out her switchblade and cut long strips. Closing the switchblade with expert smoothness, she slipped it back in her leg pouch. Her hands were as gentle as could be, given the situation, as she wrapped his knee in the make-shift bandage. His blue blood wet the cloth as she pulled it tight.

"I know you heal quickly, but healing won't help you if you bleed to death first," she said.

Tying off the last strip, she picked up the communicator. She looked around before answering. The robots were still firing their razor disks in their direction, but the girder was still protecting them and keeping them out of the line of fire. Still, there was no way to peek their heads out without catching some of them.

"Darkbrand to Robin. Blaze and I are pinned down by some sort of razor disk fire. I'm fine, but Blaze is injured. I'm not sure how bad off he is. He's bleeding badly, but I don't know how quickly his healing factor will work."

[William Talbot]

Blaze kept his eyes closed even as the now broken spike clattered to the floor, his knee oozing out onto the ground even after she wrapped it, a soft clicking sound forming from his knee, as it popped back in place and began to heal, his breath still heavy and coming in slowly as he stilled himself, his powers broiling under the surface for a moment, until he focused and then looked off behind Violet at an unbroken window, and the reflection of the robots that where still firing at them, as they moved around, adjusting their positions, and covering them self's well, just like a real live commando team...


Eyes glowing brightly, Blaze gently touched Darkbrad's arm and then pointed with two fingers at his eyes, and gestured from his face out at the window, sweeping his fingers side to side for a moment before he broke into her thoughts via the little link they had stumbled on only a few days ago; "Vi, They're closing in on us, I can feel the heat and see them in the reflection of that far window... I need you to use your disappearing act and clear this area, I'm going to try something, and I doubt you could react fast enough to avoid everything..."

He then suddenly lurched up to his feet, his eyes glowing bright like twin stars, his fur now holding a incandescent sheen as he limped around to the corner of the massive girder then had taken cover behind, then turned his head and yelled at her, his very breath shimmering with heat, his teeth glowing red hot; "GO NOW!" he boomed at her as flames started to form on his arms, licking up from his fur like heavy water being blown up and away from him, a sizzling sound coming from the floor around his feet.


The Advanced Commando's where closing in with reinforcements...

[virgil]

Rather than trying to zap the robots, Static decided to use his powers on all the metallic objects around him, as well as on the robots them self's to attack, chairs and baseball bats and other items that had any kind of steel or nickle or copper content he could use his magnetic powers on he grabbed up and rained down on the commandos, smashing and impaling them with the items, as well as knocking them back into walls, and each other, as the ice kid attacked as well, the numbers they where all facing staying frustratingly constant as more and more robots began converging on the mall...

[thomascryos]

Frostbyte started propelling sharp shards of ice at the robots. He also created a short wall of ice on the ground in hopes of tripping some up. Frostbyte watched as metal objects impaled and crushed more robots. "...Excellent idea, Static...." he said. This was inspired an idea for Frostbyte. "...Static, instead of dropping the metal, thus losing it, why not keep one piece in the air, I'll create ice spikes on the underside then drop them on the robots..." Frostbyte said. Until he got a response, he kept with his original plan.