Unexpected Chaos | Open

[Tim Drake]

As the echo's of the two attacks faded, Robin reached into his belt and then stood in front of the others as the gap slowly filled with more monsters, his mask now little More than a black strip with white slits in it as he drew in a deep cleansing breath and then tossed a handful of disks into the reassembling crowd and blasted a good two dozen of the demons to bits, his sword then swinging out as he pointed at the mob.

"No... We fight then head on now, defense won't work, we're too few... Stay close, keep it tight, and don't stop moving forward unless you need to help another..."

Standing to his fullest, he filled his hand again, and then rotated his sword once more before he shouted out at the top of his lungs and charged; "TITANS GO!"


It was a truly epic sight to see the four standing there ready to attack, the signal freezing all of time for just a moment before all hell broke loose...

[Violet Schultz]

Wow, those two had a pair of lungs. Violet had been back enough that she had been shielded from most of the two blasts, but even with that she didn't think she'd ever heard anything so loud. She lit a small fire near where the other Titans had gathered and flickered over, the last wisps going out as her eyes faded back and she came to stand with the other Titans. This was the line that they had to hold. There were civilians taking shelter past here, and no one wanted to take the fight to the mall again, especially since there were still hundreds of civilians in there. Her eyes glowed again as Robin announced a plan that seemed really reckless, but was still the best option available to them. Will had to be thrilled about that.

Violet raced forward and plowed into one with a flying kick. From the point of impact, a lavender shockwave broke from the creature in 120 degrees, the raw kinetic energy blasting those in the path of it to pieces. She was careful to aim it so that the others wouldn't get caught in it. As Robin had directed, she stayed level with him, not going forward without ensuring that none of them would get past her part in this line. She had a few more cuts from the demonic tentacles, but only one of them was serious, and that wasn't particularly worrisome. Just inconveniently placed on a muscle on her leg which she really needed use of. For now, she could just ignore it.

This last blitz would have to take the rest of the demons down, as even they had their limits and this attack would probably take a lot of their energy. Will was on the other side of the line, with both of them being the bookends, ensuring that Aria was at her safest, since both flanks were protected, and also being Robin's insurance policy, as they had proven time and time again that they could be relied upon in battle. As much as she understood why they were in this formation, she still would've preferred that Will had been right at her side, since they fought best that way, and it always felt the safest that way. They complemented each other's strengths, personally and in battle, and it felt a little odd to be fighting on opposite ends.

[aria]

Aria's powers weren't especially destructive, especially compared to the two pyros who could literally cause explosions with their minds, and her fighting wasn't as expert as Robin's, but she still put forth the effort and stayed with them in the fight, taking down demons as quickly as she could, although she didn't quite have the stamina to keep this level of fighting up for long. Twelve years of maltreatment didn't vanish overnight, and she was far from as in shape as the others, though not for a lack of trying. She just wasn't quite there yet, and she knew it. Still, she would not let her teammates down when they needed her. She refused to let herself stop, though her arms grew leaden as the battle went on.

There was just no end to these things, was there?

The determination and fire of battle burned in her eyes, pushing through the growing pain of her sore muscles and now numerous wounds from the battle. Even Violet hadn't been able to evade all of the strikes, and she was infinitely more maneuverable than Aria. What Aria had going for her was that she had the swords to parry the attacks, when Violet was pretty much unarmed, aside from her natural gifts. But even with the determination not to stop, her body had its limits, and she knew she couldn't take much more of this fight.

But they were driving them back, block by block, slowly driving them away from the mall and all of those people. The mall, where Kevin had died. She tried not to think about it, so that it wouldn't distract her, but she couldn't help but be aware of its proximity.

[William Talbot]

Blasting away at the monsters was good.

So was punching or kicking them hard.

As was grabbing a knocked over light poll and swatting at them from a distance.

But no matter what he did to aid his friends, it as just not enough, they where tiring, Robin, was human, a highly trained, perfectly condisioned and incredibly dangerous human, but still human... Well okay, so he had somehow mutated to be able to recover from or take punishment that a NORMAL human would have died from, but he wasn't super fast or strong or anything like that.

Violet was skilled, and strong and fast, more so than any normal person, but she had given him a boost, and he knew that sooner or later she would feel the effects of that, and that it would but her at risk if the went on too much longer.

And then Aria... Her powers where interesting, and formidable, but she herself was running on fumes, and pure will power now, her phsical recovery and condisioning had only just started, and she was now little more than hacking subornly at the beasts, the swords her only advantage now it seemed...


No, this had to end, and now, and Will was then only one who had the stuff left over to do it with.

Sweeping the whole of the street with a wave of power, Will took the lead, a sudden beam of blue energy arcing from one hand backwards to Violet, washing over her, waiting for her to absorbe it, as he reached his other hand out and poured a steady stream of flame into the horde.


After giving Violet back what she had given him, with intrest, Will then jumped in the way of a darkly burning blob of somthing that would have leved Aria instantly, the impact driving him to the grond with a grunt before he shot twin beams of light from his eyes into the crowd again, shreiks of demonic agony filling the air.

Light...

LIGHT!

Gathering balls of flame in his hands, Blaze looked over his shoulder to the others and yelled out: "Darkbrand! Start setting fires everywhere! Robin, Flask disks NOW! Songbird... One more vocal solo!"

Using his friends powers and gadgits, he was going to end this...

[Tim Drake]

He was getting tired, and he knew that Aria was running on pure grit and willpower alone by now, Violet would be good for a little longer, and then she would start to slow, and then William would keep fighting until he was run over by Trigon himself, and then get up again to fight anyways...


So when Blaze charged forward and started to ease the pressure on him and the others, Robin was both grateful, and worried, until he shouted at them.

Flash disks? What? But that was just noise and light, not anything...

Light!

"DO IT!" Robin stuck his sword into the cracked street, and filled his hands with every flash disk he could and then waited a moment until the others had readied, then he threw them up and over Will, the pops and flashes cascading down the street as he took up his blade again, and then tucked in just behind and to the right of Songbird, ready to protect her or lend her some extra strength to stand as she attacked...


Blaze was crazy, but he was also, not stupid...

[Violet Schultz]

Violet felt Will's power wash through her system, healing some of her wounds and banishing the ache of her muscles like a boost to her system, which was exactly what it was. Her eyes glowed a brilliant indigo as her system adjusted the energy to her inner flame's chemistry, and the sudden burst of heat felt as comforting as a gentle embrace, putting it at odds with the ferocity of the battle that raged before them. A small smile touched her lips, also not quite matching the grimness in her eyes. She nodded once at Will's request, sensing the power rising in his system as he took the lead.

His stamina was a lot more formidable than any of the others, partially because he had a lot more base energy to start with, and partially because his healing factor gave him a resilience that even Violet couldn't quite match. That was part of the reason that she would trust that what he was going to do next wasn't stupidly reckless, though knowing him, it probably was somehow reckless either way. She couldn't quite guess what he had in mind for this attack, which sounded like it would be the final assault, but she would have to just see what happened and prepare for the worst, just in case.

The indigo evened out into a lavender as Violet sent fire outward from herself in a powerful wave, making sure not to catch Aria or Robin in the inferno, but coating the rest of the ground in flickering lavender to encompass the rest of the demon army. It made the details of the terrain glaringly obvious, as if she was putting a microscope to it, and she could feel each creature, each crack in the pavement, down to each pebble. The brilliant lavender firestorm bathed the street in its glow, and Violet kept one hand extended outward to keep her focus, glad for the extra space that Will had bought them.

"I can't do this for long," she warned.

The sheer volume was wearing her out quickly.

[aria]

Aria had to stop, and she couldn't find the energy to move forward as the space between the Titans and the creature was extended. She panted for a few seconds before drawing in a deep breath for the final attack. This had the be the end, since if it failed, the team would have no more energy to keep going. She would trust him as the others did, and hope for the best. Her muscles ached, her throat was raw from exhaustion, and her limbs were shaking, but she had enough energy and wind left for one more sonic attack.

She released another shriek, channelling the soundwaves around the other Titans to protect them from it as well as she could, though she really couldn't completely silence it for them. The attack was still ear-piercingly loud, ranging through frequencies from ultrasound, which would be undetectable to the human and down to the infrasound range, audible to a select few species in the world. She made sure that the soundwaves were channelled away from Violet's flames, as they could possibly put them out, or at the very least make it more difficult to keep them going. She held the sound for as long as she could, but she was still winded from fighting, and her lung capacity was limited.

She gasped for breath as she broke off the attack, and leaned forward, her fists on her knees, still clutching the hilts of her twin swords.

[William Talbot]

Aria had acted a bit too soon, but she also had done her level best to spare the others as much as she could, and in the end, that was what gave Will his opening...



Flashes of light, licks of flame, and a clear and open field of view to the fissure in the street that spewed up sulfur and monsters in violent belches, Blaze acted, drawing every ounce of light and heat he could sense around him, from Robin's Flash disks, to Darkbrand's fires, he gathered strength and energy, balls of power in his fist as he stood and then ran forward and leap the distance, a roaring battle cry ripping from his lips as his fist crashed down, and the very surface of the earth rippled outward under the buildings and the streets, a massive, yet silent explosion of power suddenly becoming all that was in the universe for a few, frantic, rapid heartbeats...





Kneeling in the middle of the crater that had been the crack in the earth, Blaze panted, smoldered and slowly reverted to his human form, his costume in tatters about him, marks, cuts scrapes and bruises covering his body, the sand, dirt gravel and pavement in the bowl shaped divot smooth as glass, and hot to the touch, as if it had just been wiped away from the universe, like it had never been.

Hot, blue tinted, purple hued blood trickled from his wounds, drops falling from his nose and mouth, oozing from his knuckles, and tinged the whites of his steely blue eyes as he panted there, unable to move, think, or reason quite yet, the distant sounds of his friends tugging at him from someplace below him, in the mortal world...

"You did it William... Oh my beautiful, precious boy... You honor me..."

"... Mom?"

"Yes son... I'm sorry I ever denied your fate... You're Destiny..."

"But mom I didn't want to, I had to!"

"Shhh... I know... I know, and I love you... Now go..."

"Mom? Mom! Wait! Mom!"

"MOM!" He cried out aloud before he gasped and then his eyes rolled back in his head and he slowly fell over to his side, a pair of hands catching him...

[Tim Drake]

Bone weary, ears ringing, and eyes sore, Robin bent down next to Songbird and proudly rested a hand on her shoulder, as he looked around at the pleasant lack of monsters, then watched Darkbrand run to the crater where Blaze was, the bright California sunlight again fully shining down on them, the piles and puddles of goo shrinking away and steaming off under the solar onslaught, the sparse clouds in the sky a mercy now as the dark and dirty chill that had started to fill the air, was lifting...


"Are you okay Songbird?" He asked as they both panted, although it was clear that he was recovering faster than her, due to his training and conditioning.

[Violet Schultz]

Violet lowered her hand, her powers giving her a measure of just how much power was in the strike. Worry seized her as she felt it. Even Will couldn't expend this much energy without consequences. As soon as the blast faded, she ran to the new crater, arriving just as he tilted and fell sideways. She caught him and held him steady, as she knelt to the ground lowering him gently onto her lap with arms that were just barely keeping from shaking, though she hardly noticed their ache, concerned as she was about the low amount of energy she felt in his inner flame.

He was bleeding from multiple wounds, as well as from his nose and mouth, and her eyes glowed gently lavender as she placed her hand over his heart and fed his system more of her energy, which he now needed much more than she did. Lavender flames licked at his wounds, closing them in the peculiar brand of field medicine that they could only use for each other. Her eyebrows were drawn together, her glowing eyes intent on his face as she worked, starting to feel the missing energy through a mild chill that crawled along her spine.

She said nothing, focused on nothing but Will and the beating heart under her fingertips as the pale lavender glow began to pulse to her own heartbeat.

[aria]

Aria straightened slowly and returned the blades to their sheaths with shaking hands before answering, her eyes relieved as she looked around at the area. There were no more demons left in sight, just an abundance of black goo and a new crater in the concrete that Will had added to the landscape. She looked over at Robin after a few moments.

"Sì," she said, still breathing hard. "Just...tired. Is... is he okay?"

She could hear everything in the almost eerie silence that followed the battle, from the people stirring and beginning to come from their cover to the two heartbeats in the crater. Both heartbeats were racing like Robin's and her own, but from Violet's reaction, she had to wonder if there was something that they should be worried about. Will had sounded a little out of it with that last shout, and Aria knew that there was a good deal of energy that had gone into that last attack.

[William Talbot]

With a start, Will reached to his heart and grasped Violet's hand, his tired eyes flashing with a flicker of flame as he coughed lightly and then rasped; "No! Violet stop... I'm fine just... No... You need... It more... I'm fine..." he blinked a few times and shifted lightly before he then pulled her hand from his partly bared chest and then pressed his palm into hers and then categorically blocked the flow of power as the blue hot steel glow returned to his eyes, his power suddenly surging back, and while it was barely half what it normally was, it was coming back much faster than ever before.


Sitting up, a soft blue translucent glow formed on his skin, and bathed them in warmth as it moved over him and then formed on his back as two blades of light that softened into large feathery wings of warm soft light that arched and stretched out before then wrapped around himself and Violet softly, before fading away like a fond memory...

"Are you... Are you okay?" Will asked, a slight low lump that rung with a resonance like a distant church-bell now in his baritone, his hand reaching up to her face where a scratch was, his thumb lightly sweeping over it, and seeming to melt it away, a slight blink at that little trick sweeping over his eyes before he looked back from his hand to her and tilted his head and looked at her; "What?"


His face was still dirty, and he still had his scars as well as a few new ones, but there wasn't a mark on him otherwise...

[Tim Drake]

Robin took one more long breath before standing and looking to where Blaze and Darkbrand where before he looked back at Songbird, his face almost blank, the trace of worry only dancing a cross his features; "I don't know... Blaze is incredibly durable and has recovered from some bad stuff before but... I really don't know."


Moving forward a few steps, Tim was then frozen and transfixed by the sudden happenings in the crater, the soft blue glow like a beacon almost, and just as soon as it had happened, it was over, and he was left looking on for a few more moments before looking back at Aria and giving a small half smile; "I think he'll be okay... Let's get back to the tower and clean up Songbird, you look like you could sleep for a week."

[Violet Schultz]

Violet breathed a sigh, closing her eyes in relief as he responded, but almost wincing as she finally noticed her own injuries. Hot red blood trickled from various small cuts, and also from the more painful gashes that cut along her torso, and her muscles were rather sore, but overall, there was nothing too serious. Her eyes faded back to their dark blue as she cut off the power flow, sensing his inner fire flare quickly back to a respectable strength. As the blue wings appeared, she blinked in surprise, feeling the purity in his flame take over for a few moments before fading back to its normal presence.

"You had wings for a second there," she answered, returning her gaze from his back to his eyes. "How did you do that?"

Her sleek hair was a little tangled, giving it a windswept look, and her pale face was marred by ash, dirt, and blood, but there was otherwise no sign of the furious violence she'd been committing just a few minutes ago left on her face, her hard eyes almost gentle as she looked at him. She was unspeakably relieved that he was okay, and there was, as usual, a touch of exasperation in her blue gaze. There was no anger with it this time around.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack," she sighed. "Are you sure you're okay?"

[aria]

Aria couldn't help but overhear the conversation between the two in the crater, and she was surprised to hear the transparent worry in her tone. Of course everyone at the Tower was aware of the relationship between the two pyro's, but she'd never seen the stolid female Titan show a lot of emotion before. Aria felt like she was intruding on a private moment by overhearing, but she was used to overhearing things she shouldn't hear. There wasn't a lot that escaped her attuned ears. She tried her best to tune their words out.

"It feels like it," she replied to Robin's comment, her breath slowing at last. "Who cleans up the city after battles like this?"

The road was torn up and mangled in places, while puddles of black goo coated everything, and the closest windows hadn't had a shot at surviving the sonic attacks or the explosion that had ended the battle. No one who looked at the area could deny that it had been a battleground. How would they get it back to looking like a usable street?