Teen Titans: Ashes and Blood

Jotis was at first surprised, then the doors to the pod closed, a mechanical voice told them to keep their arms to their sides, though he ignored this instruction and crossed them in clear disappointment with Tiz. He grimaced at her, one eyebrow raised; the new leader was not amused.

"Once we get out of this pod, you're not returning to the tower." He told her.

Tizmael smiled a bit wider, her eyes narrowing as diabolical thoughts churned through her twisted little brain. “In all honesty fearless leader, you did not even know I was inside the tower till I let you. I’d like to see you stop me” It was a bit aggressive, but the demon had a feeling the Thanagarian wasn’t going to fall for the sweet-act, she’d have to be harsh like him and that was all too easy. The hard part would be not getting too carried away and revealing her sadistic nature.

“I’m going to keep showing up and helping you, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me---Boss” The demon said this with thinly veiled sarcasm, cocking her head back defiantly as she stared the larger male down.

Looper jumped into the pod with Zero and Sparky, a little  bummed she hadn't dragged Tiz in with her, but she could live with it. With the door closed, she peeked out the window to the other one and waved at her team mates. "Do you think they can hear us, Z?" she started knocking on the window and waving to the other pod. "HEY GUYS, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!

His eyes widened and his nostrils flared, Jotis could feel hot under the collar as his blood boiled and his fists clenched. The mechanical voice sounded again advising them to keep their arms to their sides, then began a count down.

"Don't you dare..." Jotis whispered as a red light began to flash, "I catch you setting foot in the tower again, I'm going to-" Having his arm extended unconsciously towards Tizmael had it's consequences as the pod launched and he felt his arm almost pop out of his socket.

Zero shrugged at Karmy's question, and was about to bolt out an answer when the adjacent pod blasted off like a rocket. "Well, if they COULD hear us, I doubt they can NOW." He observed. "I guess we've got like, two seconds before we blast off ourselves...." He guessed, waiting for the imminent launch in the cramped little pod. He didn't mind so much being cramped up with Karmy, but the guy looking around at the pod like he wanted to sleep with it on the other hand....
---
'Is this some kind of magnetic propulsion rail? Or prehaps more like a rocket? Is this always how the titans got around the city so fast...?' As usual, Sparky was lost in his own little world as he mentally tried to dissect the pods. When they got back, he'd have to check one out.....

The demons eyes widened like saucers, her teeth gritting against one another unpleasantly as excitement at his aggressive stance churned in her belly like fire. She loved that feistiness that some mortals possessed, it reminded her of the beautiful brutes back home.

Before she could really invest in Jotis’ threat she lurched forward as the pod rocketed off, she had been a bit more stable than Jotis, so Tizmael didn’t fly off her seat nearly as much as he did. She slammed her little hooves into the floor of the pod to stabilize herself, still grinning wildly at the Thanagarian across from her.

In the heat of the moment, Jotis lost his balance, and his sense of direction. He wasn't sure if he was up or down, though he felt his body being wracked left and right as he felt weightless. His eyes met the golden shine of the demon's. She was smiling at him. How dare she smile at his threat, albeit not fully realized.

The pod stopped and the doors opened revealing sunlight, Jotis kept his angry sharp eyes trained on Tizmael. He coughed, almost out of embarrassment in a half-clearing-your-throat kind of way.

"You're not returning." He concluded as the seat belts lifted above their head, roller coaster style, as he emerged from the pod, the lab wasn't too far from the distance. It had a sign above, it must have been an acronym for something, as it read S.T.A.R. LABS in bright yellow neon lights.

Just as soon as she had jumped in, Looper jumped right back out. "WHOOO!!!" she threw her arms over her head in excitement. "Let's do that again!!" Never had she been on such a wild ride. Now she was pumped and ready to fight the big gooey thug. Whipping out one of her batons, she twirled it in her hand and turned to the team. "So what's the attack plan, Hawkboy?"

Zero staggered out of the pod before re- gaining his balance. That was going to take a bit of getting used to. But it was only a breif second, and he was right back with the rest of the team. "Yeah, how's this going to happen?" He inquired, popping his knuckles in excitement. He couldn't help but have some lingering doubts about having Tiz with them, but he had chosen to put his trust in Jotis, so he kept his opinion to himself.

For now.
---
Sparky hung back silently, waiting for commands from Jotis. For one, he was eager to see how this team would flow. Not to mention get a peak inside of STAR labs, or at least what parts of it Plasmus hadn't made a disaster of...

Hawkboy? Did Looper not see him grab Beast Boy by the throat and toss him on the ground when he had called him that? Was she intentionally trying to piss him off? Was everyone on the team just trying their damnedest to piss him off? Between everyone, Zero seemed to be the only one who seemed tolerable. Jotis twitched and sternly said "Don't call me Hawkboy." He drew his sword, and his wings spread walking forward to the Lab. The pods behind them closed up and submerged back into the ground and the floor closed beneath them, effectively hiding the pods.

"It's simple, we go in, find out where Plasmus is, and take him out before he hurts anyone else or damages anything more. You," he said pointing at Tiz, "don't follow us." Jotis was curt, he looked down on the lithe girl. "You'll only stunt progress, be on your way."

"Sounds simple enough." Zero stated in agreement as he followed Jotis into the laboratory. He was worried at first that Jotis was going to twist Looper up like a pretzel or something for calling him Hawkboy, but he was glad- and in all honesty a little suprised- that he didn't. "Just in, whip 'em good, and out? Easy peasy." Zero reciprocated excitedly as he headed towards the lab with the rest of his team...

"Well, what should we call you, then?" Looper asked, honestly a little surprised that he didn't like the name. The title of "Hawk" was respected in the superhero world and to her. She may have never met the legends, Hawkgirl and Hawkman, but a lowly superhero like herself had definitely heard of the two big time Leaguers.

Jotis was getting tired of this. Didn't humans just call each other by their names? What was with the secret identities? He didn't get all the smoke and mirrors. Police officers on this planet go by their names, even Green Lanterns went by thier own names. Earth was very peculiar, the aliases and masks just didn't make sense to him. Jotis was familiar with the other Thanagarians who helped out the Leaguers, but didn't fully understand what the purpose of calling them Hawkman was. Did Earthlings just call all the Thanagarians Hawkman?

Jotis strode over to STAR Labs, deciding he was just going to ignore any further questions on what to call him and began to focus on their current objective. "Sparky, I want you to head to the control room and direct the civilians in the lab out, access the blue prints so you know what you're doing. You're crowd control, if possible help us locate the target. Zero, Karma, you're on me. We're going to take Plasmus down." He ordered as they approached the labs.

The lithe devil smirked and she climbed out after the Thanagarian, she stuck her tongue out and pinched it between her sharp teeth before mouthing at the back of his head. “you’re not returning” Tizmael made no effort to mock him quiet enough for him to not hear it, she wanted him to know she was belittling him.

Tiz looked over to the other pod, casting a much less devious grin at the other Titans, when Jotis spoke to her she lifted a brow at him and snorted at him derisively. Actual smoke gushed from her nostrils when she did this. She let them walk away from her, crossing her arms behind her back and kicking idly at some wayward debris as she considered her next step.

Of course she had no intention of heeding Jotis, not now and not ever; but she wanted to be smart about how she went about helping them. She couldn’t afford to die, not when she was so close to her goal, but she had to appear genuinely helpful.

“Lucifer's frilly frock---Mortals are so damn finicky” The imp skittered towards the Lab once the lot of them were out of range. She planned to wander the wreckage and join in after a while, she’d let them start fighting; that way it’d be easier to find them what with all the ruckus they would surely make.

"Consider it done." Sparky acnowledged as he bolted down a hallway. He was secretly glad he wasn't going to be going up against the hideous.... thing that was Plasmus. He dashed until he found a computer lab that was both active and didn't smell like 'Eau du Plasmus' and sat down at the keyboard. The security was very sophistacted- if he had the time, Sparky could've speny hours here and been a happy little camper. But he knew that time wasn't something he probably has a lot of, so he quickly got to work on taking apart the firewalls. As sad as it was of him to say, it wasn't quite as challenging as he thought.

'Now let's see, items of interest.... Hm, financial records, research reports..... Ah, here we go!' Sparky thought to himself in excitement as he found a file titled 'fire escape routes.' He'd seen these in every building and lab he'd worked in, the maps of the buildings with all the exits well indicated. Just what he needed. He quickly removed a small flash drive from a side pocked of his suit and jabbed it into the computer, quickly transfered the image, and yanked it back out, re- inserting it into a port on the underside of his wrist. He then quickly whipped out his communicator and, taking delight in being the first on the team to use it, used it to contact the team. "Got a map, i'm on my way to the control room now. Holler if you need anything else." He reported. The map of the building now displayed on his suit's visor, and he dashed off in the direction that the Control Room was at.....
---
Zero was a mixture of excited and nervous. "So, HOW are we going to take Plasmus down...?" He inquired of Jotis. A person was simple enough to fight, but a blob of raw sewage seemed a little tricker. As they approached the labs, he couldn't help but notice the bitter reek of.... what WAS that foul stink exactly called anyways? There probably was nothing to call it but just Plasmus, really. "Blow him up? Psychic attack?" He asked further as he looked about nervously, not wanting to be the first one to get a wad of sludge where the sun don't shine...

Oh god, oh god, oh god! Why was this happening? The intern locked himself in the bathroom and slung his backpack against the sink, if Plasmus blasted through the wall, he just might literally catch him with his pants down. He unzipped his backpack revealing a padded suit.

Why was this happening?

"Does he... It? Have a brain?" Looper bounced around nervously behind her two male companions. She felt all jitter from the excitement of their first battle with a big league bad guy, but she couldn't help but feel anxious about the whole thing. Villains that were a good head taller than her had fallen to abilities before, but this guy was huge! She wasn't sure what she would be able to do in this kind of fight. As they entered the lab, the stench hit her all of a sudden. "Ugh! What smells like death?!" she said, pinching her nostrils shut.

Despite her desire to solidify her position within the group in the eyes of its leader, Tizmael followed a different trail this time around. It was hard to do what with the more powerful smells all about, but the little demon managed to track after Sparky; labeling him as the lesser of two goods and figuring she had a better chance to get him to work with her than the larger group.

Tiz sprinted downed the various halls until she heard him utter something about acquiring a map. Perfect! The demon bolted after him, not bothering to hide her presence as she came up on the tech. “Ah---Sparky! Wait up!”

"Plasmus is a human." Jotis responded, as they entered the lab. He looked around, sniffed the air. "You're doing good, Sparky. Call us later." He then clipped his communicator back around his belt just as he heard an explosion to the left of them. "We'll have to improvise..." Jotis muttered more to himself than the rest of his team. "This way, hurry!"

Plasmus stomped about, throwing monitors around, it looked like he was searching for something and was unsuccessful in finding it. Enraged and frustrated he screamed "Where?! Where the hell is it?" He kicked over a wall that brought hiding scientists scrambling. "You scared of this?! Huh?!" He roared at them. His temper was waring thin and it only took a small glance on the inside of the room he created an entrance to. It was labeled SCNT. "Ah! There it is!"

Sparky raised in eyebrow in intruige when Tizmael dashed over to him. Whereas the other guys on the team blatantly didn't seem to trust her- although it wasn't hard to see why- she simply saw her as more of a curious, un-tested variable. Of course, he knew Jotis would probably crap a castle if he found out she was still trying to pal around. He continued at his pace, but did allow Tiz to catch up. "Honestly suprised you bothered to stick around." He observed. "If you're going to keep up, I hope you'll at least give me hand getting people out. None of that 'blood of the innocent' stuff, mmkay?" He relayed, keeping Jotis's orders fresh in mind. He wasn't sure if trusting her was a grand idea, but once he started hearing explosions nearby, he was secretly glad he wouldn't be by himself if Plasmus showed up.....
---
Zero, upon taking his first look at Plasmus, tried his best to resist barfing. Oh god, this was going to be.... interesting, to say the least. "What you just found, big guy, is a problem." Zero proclaimed to Plasmus, confidence in his voice masking his rampaging nerves. A bright blue force sphered formed between his hands, and he let the kinetic blast loose towards Plamus, hoping it would get his attention. He was worried for a split second that Jotis would've wanted something different done, but he would rather have Plasmus focus on THEM than the scientists...

Tiz trotted alongside Sparky once she had caught up, huffing at his comment and giving her eyes a roll. “A bad joke on my part. Thought mocking my appearance might alleviate some of the tension I know it causes.” The demon had to bite her tongue to keep from sounding too irate with the notion that she wouldn’t happily guzzle the blood of an innocent. “No blood shall be spilt by my hands; sludge maybe, no blood”

The demon easily kept pace with Sparky, her tail lashing behind her as a small wave of elation cut through her devious inner musings. “Even if that winged oaf said no, I’m not going to let you go it alone. I’ll be the muscle, you just give the orders and be the brains. I’m sure that’ll be easy for you, yeah?” Tiz gave a friendly smile, before her expression morphed from what seemed like a perpetually amused one to a stoic frown. “Where are we headed? What’s our mission?”

Looper forced herself to swallow the vomit that had rose in her mouth. So that's what hell smells like she thought to herself. Right now, she had to focus on the task ahead. But what could she do? Assessing the situation, she tried to figure out how she could help. She had her batons, but that would mean an up and close encounter with Plasmus, which could result with her getting stuck or worse. A well placed portal on the floor and another high above them might be a good trap, but that could go wrong in so many ways. Instead of going on the offense, she decided it would be best to help the scientist. Batons at the ready, just in case, she ran over to the frightened scientists to help them to safety. "Hey, is everyone ok?"

The monster turned to the group of teens that converged on him, oh great. Who was this the Goof Troop? The energy blasts did seem to blast bits of the gooey waste off his body, but Plasmus only barely seemed to notice the attack from Zero. He grunted and quickly extended his arm, almost shooting it at the young hero and pounded Zero against the opposing wall, leaving a toxic residue dripping from his jacket.

Zero is dizzy from the punch and needs a second to recover.

At first Jotis wanted to scream at Looper, he and Zero couldn't face the beast by themselves, where was Sparky? Several scientists were just as scared of Looper as they were of Plasmus, they ran from her still in shock. Maybe she would fall back in line, on her own. Jotis had his fingers crossed that she would. If he wasn't going to scream at her now, he was going to when they got back to the tower.

Jotis decided since his teammates were down or busy, the best course of action was to execute a faux attack; Jotis soared in the air, Plasmus looked up to him and used both of his arms to shoot blobs of sludge at him; swooping low, he swung his sword at the pink oozing blob's legs. The monster seemed unfazed as it only passed through completely unscathed, "Ah, ah, ah! My human body is a lot smaller than you think." He smirked, kicking in Jotis' stomach. "Who the hell are you guys anyway? Where's the real Titans?" Plasmus asked, almost laughing. "We are the real Titans." Jotis seethed, clutching his sword, as he got up from the blow, heavily breathing.

Jotis needs a moment to recuperate from Plasmus' kick.

This made Plasmus laugh. "Oh man, looks like this is going to be easier than I thought." He said still chuckling and the ooze made what it looked like he was cracking his neck in preparation for an easy beating.

"Hope you guys don't plan on having all the fun without me!" A voice came from what seemed to be nowhere. Jotis looked up as did Plasmus, he shifted his stance almost in concern. Unsure of what was going to happen. A swift blue bolt of lightning struck Plasmus on the back as hooded teen in an overcoat shot over the arena, he was on what seemed to be a hovering disc, his eyes glowing white, he landed on the ground in front of the Titans, fists at his hips, a confident smile looked upon Plasmus as he was getting up from the sucker punch.

"Just who the hell are you?" Plasmus spat.

"My friends call me V-Man, but you can call me Static!"

Static:

Zero spat a moutful of what tasted like raw, unfiltered death from his mouth as he peeled himself from the wall. he thought he could see Sparky entering the room out of the corner of his eyes, but his goggles were far too filthy to see out of. Thick, purple sludge dripped off him, and the more he tried to shake it off of him the worse the mess got. Not to mention his head was reeling from the impact in the first place- it was like someone just blasted him with a pressure washer full of sewage. Zero decided to just cut his losses and peeled off his jacket and tossed off his goggles- as poluted and weighed down with slime as they were, they weren't exactly doing him any favors. "That was my favorite Jacket, too." he grunted in frustration, dropping them to the ground with an audible SPLAT.

But when he saw Static zap Plasmus a good one, he felt his mood improve slightly. An electricity user against a liquid monster seemed like a huge advantage, and Zero had a good feeling in his gut that the odds had just improved in their favor. "I dunno who this guy is, but man, am I happy to see him." Zero relayed, using his telekinesis to hoist a table up off the ground, ready to loose it at Plasmus or use it as a makeshift shield. He was still a little disoriented from Plasmus's beating, but how hard could it be to see a bright purple slime monster...?
---
Sparky nodded in agreement. "Sure, that'll be fiWHOAH!" Sparky stopped mid sentence as he looked out from a corridor they were passing, whitnessing Zero as he got hammered into the wall moments ago, hacking and choking up bits of slime. "I think we just FOUND our mission." Sparky observed with an irritated twitch. He noticed Karmy also trying to evacuate people, but with portals and electric batons, she'd be better off supporting the boys. He dashed over to her with suprising speed. "I've got this, you'd be better off backing them up." He advised, waving Tizmael over. "Our mission, if you really want to help, is getting these people out of here in one peice. Got it?" He instructed, already prying one of the scientists out from behind a bookshelf and getting him to his feet. With the arrival of Static, he doubted Plasmus would notice the two of them sneaking out the remaining scientists.

Or at least he hoped so.

Looper came to a halt as soon as she realized the scientists were running from her as well. Why were they running from her? She couldn't fathom why, it wasn't like she was going to hurt them. The superhero always tried to save the innocents, and she was a hero, right? Deciding to cut her loses, she turned back to see how she could help her team when she saw him.

"Hey, Static!" Looper jumped up and waved at him. There was no way they had met before but she definitely new his name. Now would be a good time to act.

Feet planted firmly to the ground in a sturdy stance, she clapped her open palms together. As soon as the sound wave was produced, she quickly gestured to a spot about 10 feet away from Plasmus. A black portal appeared on the floor where she had aimed. Satisfied with the position, she quickly repeated the process, this time aiming the second floor high above the battle, to an open space that she could no one was standing underneath. "See if you guys can knock him in!"