Control Freaks Contest Royal - TT RPG (Rated PG-13)

[TheCharredDragon]

Hunter Sigbin/Canis Ryder; Linda Matulin
City Square

"This will be oddly satisfying, will it not?" Archie said as he appeared near her. "Oh boy, I'm gonna enjoy this!"

As much as she hated that she even thought it, she couldn't help but silently agree with the first sentence.

Though she had a feeling it was for different reasons.

She was glad he came by though. She had fought these Max and Lucas copies for who knows how long and her injury was starting to get to her. She had to stick to one spot, using her Shooter. Thankfully, Sonic had her back too. He had more than once slammed or "flicked" away the doppelgängers that nearly got to her. Her anger (towards Max, at least) also was dispelled at this point thanks to both the fighting and her injury.

A sudden movement made her look to its source. She found Lucas was ticked off and sent two weird looking shadow creatures at the copies before rushing off. Oh great, two angry superheroes. Probably mad at Control Freak. But with Lucas's appearance, the Max and Lucas fakes started to thin out. The threat level was low enough for her to relax and let Sonic do the fighting. She sighed as she holstered her Shooter to let it recharge. She started breathing heavily as the pain in her right shoulder finally settled in.

It hurt like hell.

Even after a few years of being a "superhero", she hadn't had any serious injury before. Her doubts were starting to seep back but she shook her head slightly. This wasn't the time for that. She neared the others, slowly and steadily to not aggravate her shoulder, or her right arm even. It was easy to tell from her face what she felt and she was doing her best to not collapse from pain. She heared Archie's comments. Her expression was still pained, but it was hard to tell now if was just physical or something else.

First things first though. She said to all of them, "Hey guys... You think you can...handle things here...?"

Just as she said that, Sonic finished the last fake. Satisfied, he went near the group and stopped right behind Linda. He made a worried whine. Linda took notice and shot him a quick and tired smile. She looked back to the others as she explained herself.

"My...right shoulder's broke..."

 

[Sketchie]

Lucas Moncrief ; Nightmare
Town Square

HOLY FUCKING SHIT COULD PEOPLE JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE FOR A WHOLE TEN SECONDS. IS THIS POSSIBLE.

Lucas was about to lose his damn mind. He was going to have fun slaying the lizard thing, but who comes up to greet him? Lover boy. Lucas had to keep a scowl back. He did like the guy. A lot. Doesn't make him any less angry.

"Only a little done?" Max chirped, landing beside him. Max waved his arm, and produced several razor sharp violet hearts that looked like crystals, and fired them all at the lizard monster, impaling it. Lucas sighed. That was my monster, you prick.

"By now I'd expect you to be a lot done... Did you really think you could get away from me that easily? I told you, love is my thing! I don't care what weird little voices you've got going in your head. You're definitely not beyond saving. Besides..." Max grinned and put his arm around Lucas' shoulders. "I can handle a challenge!"

Lucas was about to respond, but look! Another half-wit that just loved to comment on EVERY LITTLE THING. God, what a loser.

"Oh, could you f***ing not?" Archie snapped at them. "It appears the enemies are either retreating, or dying. Either way, I have just enough juice left to take that squeaky little rat out for good!"

Could this loser be any more obnoxious? No. No he can't.

"It doesn't matter though. After I'm done with him, I'm done with you all as well. I'll be going home once this cools down." Well halle-fucking-lujah.

"Where is that fat little piggy anyway? Has anyone seen him yet?" Archie just like Lucas had, moments before.

"OKAY, well, this has been FUN and all, but I think I'm fucking done now!" Lucas shouted. He rolled his eyes before walking up to Archie, striking his fingers up to meet Archie's temples. In an instant, Archie's body swayed and began to fall. Lucas caught him, and hoisted him up. Yep. Archie was fast asleep. Good. He looked up at Max, and back to Archie. Okay. Well, everything is shot, so who cares about impulse control anyway? Definitely not Lucas, besides, an asleep boy was good enough.

Lucas lifted Archie's lips to his, passionately kissing him. A quick snap next to Archie's ear was enough to wake him up, so he at least knew what was going on. Lucas knew it was a dick move to kiss a sleeping boy, so he was going to be something of a decent person and linger a little while Archie was conscious. Lucas then politely dropped Archie, and stepped around him so he could be the center of their attention.

"Alright, are you listening?" he said, looking back and forth between Max and Archie. He pointed to Max, his emerald green eyes piercing and intense. "Could you leave me alone for like, five minutes? I need some time to chill and properly hate myself, m'kay? I appreciate your kindness and concern, but I'm tired and I want to go to sleep and while I'm clingy as hell, I need some self-hatred time so I can burn out. Great. Fan-fucking-tastic. Glad we got that squared away."

"And you," he said, turning to Archie with the same intensity, "Not everyone fits into your pretty little box of masculine. My little brother, the best little brother any boy could ever dream of, wears pink and purple dresses -- and his passion and dedication to the world of fashion, regardless of dicks like you who would tell him to 'man up,' makes him more of a man then you could ever be. And he's ten years old. If Max wants to dress in purple and fawn over other boys and kiss me when I least expect it and whatever, then let him do it! He's not hurting you! Kissing you out of nowhere was a little weird and yeah, I'm a little pissed over it too, but come on! 'Man up?' Getting after him for following me, and being who he is? Chill the fuck out! Thanks!"

Lucas clapped his hands out in front of him, taking a quick breath. "Okay. I think that's all I wanted to say. Probably. Anyway, uh, deuces." He was about to slip into the shadow plane, when he noticed Linda. She'd probably said something while he was ranting -- if that wasn't just great. "Oh God, you're hurt aren't you?" he said, a pained expression on his face. Wow, he really was a dick. Her shoulder looked bad. Lucas rushed over to her, taking her by the unhurt shoulder. "Are you okay? I-- Does anyone on this team have healing powers? Or do you need to get to a hospital?"

 

[Monster Guy]

Violet Lantern; Max Hudson
City Square

Just as Max was talking to Lucas, he heard a familiar voice. One that sounded irritated to"Oh, could you f***ing not?" Archie snapped at them. "It appears the enemies are either retreating, or dying. Either way, I have just enough juice left to take that squeaky little rat out for good! It doesn't matter though. After I'm done with him, I'm done with you all as well. I'll be going home once this cools down. Where is that fat little piggy anyway? Has anyone seen him yet?" Archie ranted.

Max raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, you're quitting?!"

But before Max could say anything else, Lucas piped up next. "OKAY, well, this has been FUN and all, but I think I'm fucking done now!" He walked up to Archie, striking his fingers to Archie's temples, and suddenly he was asleep. Lucas caught him, and hoisted him up. He looked up at Max, and back to Archie. Then, Lucas lifted Archie's lips to his, passionately kissing him. Max actually enjoyed watching it. Was this his way of getting back at him for kissing Archie earlier? Well mission failed! Watching two hot guys make out was always fun.

"Alright, are you listening?" he said, looking back and forth between Max and Archie. First, he pointed to Max, "Could you leave me alone for like, five minutes? I need some time to chill and properly hate myself, m'kay? I appreciate your kindness and concern, but I'm tired and I want to go to sleep and while I'm clingy as hell, I need some self-hatred time so I can burn out. Great. Fan-****ing-tastic. Glad we got that squared away. And you," he said, turning to Archie "Not everyone fits into your pretty little box of masculine. My little brother, the best little brother any boy could ever dream of, wears pink and purple dresses -- and his passion and dedication to the world of fashion, regardless of dicks like you who would tell him to 'man up,' makes him more of a man then you could ever be. And he's ten years old. If Max wants to dress in purple and fawn over other boys and kiss me when I least expect it and whatever, then let him do it! He's not hurting you! Kissing you out of nowhere was a little weird and yeah, I'm a little pissed over it too, but come on! 'Man up?' Getting after him for following me, and being who he is? Chill the **** out! Thanks!"

"Okay. I think that's all I wanted to say. Probably. Anyway, uh, deuces." Lucas was about to leave, but then he looked at Linda sitting here, looking hurt. In all of the drama that was unfolding, Max hadn't noticed her either. "Oh God, you're hurt aren't you?" he said, rushing over to her, taking her by the unhurt shoulder. "Are you okay? I-- Does anyone on this team have healing powers? Or do you need to get to a hospital?"

"Um... I do, kind of..." Max spoke up. "The power of love can soften all wounds. Even the physical ones." Max knelt down next to Linda's injured shoulder, and raised his hands which were now glowing with violet energy. He placed both his glowing hands on Linda's shoulder, and waited a few seconds before lifting them, and standing up again. "I think that should do the trick!" Max said with a smile.

He then turned to Lucas and Archie, his expression getting serious. and produced long arms of violet energy to grab Lucas and Archie to make sure they stayed. "Now it's my turn to talk." First, he walked up to Archie, and slapped his face. "Lucas already said what I would have said, so that's just because you just love violence so very much!" He said sarcastically.

Then he turned to Lucas. "I have a lot more to say to you though. First, did you think kissing Archie was going to upset me? Mission failed! Watching two hot guys make is just awesome!" He then proceeded to slap Archie again, just in case he was thinking of saying something snarky. Then he went back to Lucas. "Now, I can leave you alone... I guess... Whatever... But this self hatred thing... Yeah, I'm a being of love. Hate and I don't exactly mix... So, we're gonna have to fix that." Max sighed before continuing. "At least you have a cute little brother to come home to. I have no siblings, My mom is dead, my boyfriend is dead, and my dad is... for lack of a better word... a homophobic, abusive, asshole! Much like somebody else I know..." He said glaring at Archie. "So excuse me for clinging to any kind of love I can get!" He then proceeded to slap Archie a third time. "I've always wanted to do something like that to my dad. This is the closest I'll get!" He then let the two boys go, and sat on the floor to catch his breath.

 

[VampirateMace]

Everybody: New plot info, pay attention!

Amanuma [aka Dexter]
Town Square (& surrounding areas)

Having scrubbed the street clean, Amanuma instructed Gi to turn and headed back towards town square to look for more monsters. It was a pleasant surprise to see even fewer were left than he remembered. It was not surprising to see that emergency services were arriving. Sirens and lights blazing, police cars, fire vehicles, and ambulances were pulling in all around town square. It appeared to give comfort to the citizens as they were no peeking out of doorways and windows all over the area. Even the mayor was watching from the front steps of City Hall, surrounded by his security force. There was even a news van pulling up.

Some of the other heroes seemed to be fighting, the usual suspects, but it broke up when Hunter approached them. Violet tended to her shoulder. Ama filed this information away, it was good to know he had healing magic as well. Violet followed this up by latching onto Nightmare and Wonder Boy, this was less impressive to Ama, attacking teammates.

He directed Gi forward, interjecting with an eye-roll, “I'm sure all that was important, but can we focus on finishing this?”

A nasty Pixie flew by cackling. He reached out and crushed it's wings.

There really weren't a lot of monsters left, but he hoped they could at least finish before an all out brawl broke out, as unfortunate as Hunter's injury was, at least it defused the tension some.

*POOF* *POOF* *POOF*

Ama looked around. The bodies and remaining monsters were disappearing rapidly, presumably returning to the TV dimension. Was Control Freak's challenge over? Would he finally leave them alone?

Over at City Hall, the mayor and his security team, who were lucky not to be fired, were descending the steps as the news crew jockeyed around them for a good angle. Presumably the mayor was going to give a statement. Doing what politicians did best, Ama assumed.

The large middle aged man in a light grey suit cleared his throat, looked around, then zeroed in on the camera, with a cheesy smile, “It given me great pleasure to announce that the Teen Titans of Chromium City have shown Control Freak what they can really do! We're talking patriotism, not politics; in times of crisis we take our hatchets and we bury them, into the backs of the real enemies. . . ” Cue the dramatic pause.

Wait, what? Ama tensed, he'd heard that line before. Wasn't that a line on some conspiracy show PI Burke made him watch while he was staying with her and Harrison? . . .Agent something? Was the mayor really ripping off a TV show?

“. . . like each other! You guys really are a bunch Drama Llamas, aren't you?” laughed the mayor. Dramatic pause. Ama was sure now, something was not right. Was this mind control? The mayor reached up and grabbed his own balding scalp, yanking off his face, to reveal the pasty nerd beneath, “Okay, that's enough of that. You know, killing people is easy, but being politically correct is a pain in the ***!”

Ama was pretty sure Control Freak hadn't actually killed anyone, but that was an issue for another time, right now, they were finally within 100 yards of their perp!

Control Freak ripped his remote out of his pocket and pointed it at the news van. It shook to life, transforming into a mechanical monster. He subsequently zapped several emergency vehicles, bringing them to life as well, blocking the Titan's path to him. Great. More monsters.

 

[Schade]

=-------------------~♚~-------------------=
Wonder Boy
City Square​

"OKAY, well, this has been FUN and all, but I think I'm ****ing done now!", Lucas snapped back at Archie after his comment. "Well, excuse me for.. uhm.. What are you doing?" Archie started, but was interrupted when Lucas walked very close to him and touched his face somehow. Right afterwards, he startedfeeling dizzy and surprisingly tired. "Oh no you don't..." he mumbled before blacking out.

He didn't know for how long he was out, but as he started regaining conciousness, he heard that Lucas was talking. "Could you leave me alone for like, five minutes? I need some time to chill and properly hate myself, m'kay? I appreciate your kindness and concern, but I'm tired and I want to go to sleep and while I'm clingy as hell, I need some self-hatred time so I can burn out. Great. Fan-****ing-tastic. Glad we got that squared away.". Sounds like he was somewhat annoyed as well, though Archie couldn't really make sense of it right away, nor did he bother to. "Did you.." he began, but Lucas interrupted him.

"And you, Not everyone fits into your pretty little box of masculine. My little brother, the best little brother any boy could ever dream of, wears pink and purple dresses -- and his passion and dedication to the world of fashion, regardless of dicks like you who would tell him to 'man up,' makes him more of a man then you could ever be. And he's ten years old. If Max wants to dress in purple and fawn over other boys and kiss me when I least expect it and whatever, then let him do it! He's not hurting you! Kissing you out of nowhere was a little weird and yeah, I'm a little pissed over it too, but come on! 'Man up?' Getting after him for following me, and being who he is? Chill the **** out! Thanks!". this sounded like something a high school kid would say to their parents after being caught doing drugs or something, and it annoyed Archie more than usual. Had they learned nothing at all? This wasn't a personal attack, wel maybe a little, but if they don't pull themselves together, they could get seriously hurt in the field of battle. Though after hearing this same speech over and over, it was kind of losing its effect. Archie rolled his eyes in response and turned to walk away. "Fine, get yourselves killed if you really want it that much.".

It was now that Linda caught his eyes. She looked like she was in some major pain right now, and she honestly didn't look so good. Lucas had ran over to her, and Archie followed, standing a little away from the scene to observe, knowing he didn't know anything about healing. "Oh God, you're hurt aren't you?" Lucas said, rushing over to her, taking her by the unhurt shoulder. "Are you okay? I-- Does anyone on this team have healing powers? Or do you need to get to a hospital?". Archie shook his head, with a grim look on his face. "Um... I do, kind of..." Max said. "The power of love can soften all wounds. Even the physical ones.". "That sounds very cheesy, btu as long as it works." Archie replied, looking at Linda with a concerned look. "I think that should do the trick!" Max said with a smile. Archie sighed a sigh of relief. Hopefully this restored her properly, if nothing else.

He was then ripped, quite literally, out of his train of thoughts by the familiar violet grasping hands that Max had used before. Oh, goodie. We're doing this again.. "Lucas already said what I would have said, so that's just because you just love violence so very much!" Max said sarcastically. Archie rolled his eyes again. "Oh, goodie. Here I thought you were going tgive me a compliment on my dashing looks again.", he said with an equally sarcastic tone.

Max turned his attention to Lucas first. "I have a lot more to say to you though. First, did you think kissing Archie was going to upset me? Mission failed! Watching two hot guys make is just awesome!"he said. W.. What? Had he really? While he was knocked out? Archies eye twitched in rage by the slow realization of what Lucas had done. He was snapped out of it by a hard slap to the face by Max though. Annoying, at top. "Now, I can leave you alone... I guess... Whatever... But this self hatred thing... Yeah, I'm a being of love. Hate and I don't exactly mix... So, we're gonna have to fix that.", Max said to Lucas. Archie squirmed, trying to get out of the constructs grip, but to no avail. did he really need to be there for this part? "At least you have a cute little brother to come home to. I have no siblings, My mom is dead, my boyfriend is dead, and my dad is... for lack of a better word... a homophobic, abusive, *******! Much like somebody else I know...", Max said, glaring at Archie at the homophbic statement. "So excuse me for clinging to any kind of love I can get!" He then proceeded to slap Archie a third time, for some reason. This was just bullying at this point! And Archie felt his rage growing once again. If control freak wasn't gonna kick these guys arses, he would! "I've always wanted to do something like that to my dad. This is the closest I'll get!". He then proceeded to sit down, probably in await for Archie to somehow explain himself. The construct disappeared.

Archie didn't bother with the two for the time being. He ran over to Linda to see if she was okay. Are you okay there? That hit looked pretty serious." he then quickly scanned her body for injuries, but found none. "Huh, so Loverboy is good for something after all?" he said with a genuine surprised tone. He then sighed another sigh of relief before walking back to the other two.

"So, looks like you're not completely useless after all.", Archie said to Max, trying to maintain his temper, though he was failing pretty hard at it. "That should come in handy every now and then.." he mumbled, not bothering to look at Max. He turned to Lucas. "You. What was this he said about kissing me? I do not recall you doing that.", he had a very serious tone as he spoke, but he couldn't keep his anger in enymore, so he didn't bother waiting for an answer. He knew well what he had meant by it. He delivered a quick, powerful punch right in his stomach. Lucas went down, grasping for air. "Consider this.. A warning. Don't do that again!", he said, rage dripping from every word. "You." he then said, looking at Max. "Patch him up. This battle isn't over yet. And if you slap me again, I'll retaliate. Amazon strength beats a girly slap in efficiency.". He then flew off to scout the battlefield.

As he took to the skies and scouted the area, he was that the dead monsters were rapidly disappearing with a swift "Poof" sound. He sighed another sigh of relief. If nothing else, he would use this time to try and relax. He almost felt bad for punching Lucas.. Almost. And that was not good. The priestesses would have their hands full with him once he returned. He made a mental note to praise Diana and Donna on how they managed to deal with all this.

It looked like as if the mayor was going to speak, from where he was standing on one of the rooftops after Max had rescued them earlier. “It given me great pleasure to announce that the Teen Titans of Chromium City have shown Control Freak what they can really do! We're talking patriotism, not politics; in times of crisis we take our hatchets and we bury them, into the backs of the real enemies. . . ”, the mayor said, finishing off in a sly tone. There was a pause after this where no one said anything. something felt off. Archie wasn't accustomed to how politics of this world worked, but he was fairly certain they didn't praise violence over politics.

“. . . like each other! You guys really are a bunch Drama Llamas, aren't you?” laughed the mayor. Archie looked at him with a wary look. What was going on? Another pause... “Okay, that's enough of that. You know, killing people is easy, but being politically correct is a pain in the ***!”, the "mayor" then said, before.. ripping off his face? What? It seemed that the mayor was only some giuse of sorts, and underneath it was.. Control Freak. Every thoughts of calming down back home vanished as Archie summoned his spear again. Control Freak proceeded to use some sort of technology to make automobiles in the area into... fighting machines.. great. It appeared though, that this would be the final showdown. Why would the fat turd have come all the way out here to watch this? It didn't matter though, It was now or never. Archie knew with himself that Control Freak would not be walking away from this.

Taking aim, Archie hurled his spear in a straight line towards Control freak, but only missed by a few centimeters. "That does it. this time, he's dead!" he shouted.

 

[TheCharredDragon]

Hunter Sigbin/Canis Ryder; Linda Matulin
City Square

If it weren't for the fact that her shoulder hurt a lot, she would've reacted appropriately to what transpired in front of her. Specifically, she would've gotten exasperated and upset. It was like watching a real life sappy romance sitcom or something along that vein. Archie was upset at Max's attitude; for being rather relaxed and, apparently, for not being "manly". Lucas was mad at Archie for being such a jerk and at Max for kissing Archie, more so for the former for his behavior. She didn't blame Lucas and Archie--well...more for Lucas than Archie--for getting mad but this wasn't the time for this. It was clear to her the answer was, "No, we're too busy handling our personal problems right now, please try again later." The only thing that didn't make sense was Lucas kissing Archie. What was the point of that?

Thankfully, when Lucas was finished with his ranting (and kissing), he noticed h er and held her by her unharmed shoulder. She greatly appreciated that, mostly because it let her focus on something that wasn't her injury. Another good thing was Max's love powers also meant he could heal wounds. ... Some people might have thought that was ridiculous, but personally, it made sense to her. Wounds certainly don't feel as bad when you had people you love and love you to comfort you.

She sighed and relaxed as the he tended to her injury. It only took a few seconds and her shoulder felt fine, if a little sore. She smiled and was about to thank Max until...he started the drama again by holding the two other males still and slapping Archie, beginning to rant himself. Linda went back to frowning, at both the situation and at Max's past. If it weren't for how dark it sounded and their current situation, this scene would've been very ridiculous at how much "slapstick" there was in it.

Seriously, how much idiocy was going to happen until they were a proper team?

Ama came by and pretty much voiced her thoughts.

She wholeheartedly agreed.

There was only a brief reprieve from the drama in the form of Archie making sure she was fine. She greatly appreciated that--perhaps a bit more than she should have--but she would've really liked it better if he didn't add fuel to the flames... Thankfully, he flew off. ...She wasn't so sure how Lucas was going to take that punch. She remained silent for the rest of the stuff. If it weren't for the fact that she's still tired, she'd have intervene. Besides, she'd most likely make it worse because the only solution she could think of was no different from the drama she wanted to stop.

And just when she thought it couldn't any worse, the one who started this all in the first place showed up and made the cars turn into robots.

And Linda...gave an exhausted sigh. She pulled out her Shooter and armed it. She walked passed the Max and Lucas. She stopped a few feet in front of them, her back to them.

"Look, guys, can we focus on the mission first before we handle personal problems? We can deal with them better when we don't have anything else to worry about," she said a bit unsurely.

She was really worried over Lucas's reaction to that punch. She wasn't as worried over his health as she figured Max would handle him.

Then she gave a whistle. Sonic drove straight to her and she jumped in the air and landed on him. She aimed her gun at one of the various monster trucks and shot it several times. It recoiled from the attack but she right by it as it attempted to squish her.

"Go to the fat beared guy," she said as she barely flinched from another missed swing.

Sonic barked in acknowledgement. She really wanted this to end already. She's had it. After this she was still going to stick with the Titans, but first she was going to learn a few spells from her father. Sure, she could try learning from Ama but she had a feeling that how his magic worked was different from hers.

She kept her balance on Sonic as she shot at the robots. Sonic weaved his way between the giant metal monsters. In no time, *Control Freak was in sight of her. ...and just as soon as he was, a spear was heading towards his way. He gave a very pathetic screech as he, surprisingly for such a pudgy man, dodged it, the spear impaling the ground just beside him. She heard Archie shout something angrily.

"Hey! That's not fair. I'm not throwing stuff at you," he shouted.

Linda's eye twitched at that. Fair? she thought. Since when did he play fair anyway?!

Then Control Freak took out a remote. "But we can fix that!"

The next thing she knew, he directed it at a fire truck and it turned into a hulking robot as well. It reminded her of Transformers. Go figure. It even looked like Heatwave from Rescue Bots. It then aimed its hose nozzle at them.

"Sonic, dodge!" she shouted.

The Heatwave lookalike fired a jetstream of water. Sonic sped off, making it miss. She was quick to return the favor with a charged shot. It flinched and she fired again. This time though, it recovered sooner and this time its aim was true to its mark. Linda held her breath under the deluge. They were nearly slammed onto the walls of the city hall. But Sonic managed to get out of the streama and avoid the collision. She gasped for breath but she didn't have time to relax. As much as she wanted to get the guy himself, she didn't want these robots destroying property (at least a lot of it) or hurting people. So she'll let Archie handle Control Freak for now. She fired at the Heatwave doppelgänger again. She got its attention. Now time to shoot like crazy again.

 

[Titan500]

Armoury
City Square

Giant robots.

Giant transforming robots.

Giant transforming robots produced through the application of some form of reality manipulating power upon automobiles.

Given the sudden reveal of the mayor to in fact be the villain that had been hounding them for so long (had been in control of the city under such a guise for the entire time?), it did not require that great of a leap in logic to assign the responsibility of the machines' appearance to Control Freak. It fit his modus operandi quite easily. Create a suitable amount of chaos, irritate their team of gathered superhumans, and provide a show of titanic (they were disappointingly terrible jokes, but that was the reality of her life) proportions that would, if correctly performed, bring the eyes of the world upon himself. An attention-seeker. A figure with an ego that demanded people to watch and listen. A man with too much confidence.

Armoury's coilgun began to whir to life.

Personally, she wished she had even a fraction of that confidence.

She would be able to make up for her deficiencies with greater faith in her abilities.

Target locked.

Preparing for combat.

Fire when ready.​

That did not matter for now. What mattered was neutralising the giant machines that Control Freak had brought to life. Thus, she would be able to protect the city. Reduce civilian casualties. Keep collateral damage to a minimum. That was her role. That was why she was Armoury. Whether or not she had the confidence to do so, the abilities to do so, or the spirit required, it did not matter. She may not have deserved to be the hero her uncle was, but no matter her feelings on the subject, there was one duty a superpowered vigilante needed to keep in mind.

Their duty was to protect the citizenry.

And she would not let them down.

A storm of ferromagnetic projectiles fell upon the news van robot as if Gabriel himself had called down the Apocalypse.

 

[Monster Guy]

Violet Lantern; Max Hudson
City Square

After all of that had just happened, Ama came boy and commented, “I'm sure all that was important, but can we focus on finishing this?” He said with an eye roll. As he said that, he crushed the wings of some random laughing Pixie that happened to be flying by. Then, whatever monsters were left were all disappearing with a poof.

"I think we already are finished with this..." Max replied.

"So, looks like you're not completely useless after all.", Archie said to Max, "That should come in handy every now and then.." He turned to Lucas. "You. What was this he said about kissing me? I do not recall you doing that." He then delivered a punch right in his stomach. Lucas went down, grasping for air. "Consider this.. A warning. Don't do that again! "You." he then said, pointing at Max. "Patch him up. This battle isn't over yet. And if you slap me again, I'll retaliate. Amazon strength beats a girly slap in efficiency.". He then flew off.

Now it was Max's turn to roll his eyes. Just because he didn't feel the need to destroy random tables at the slightest provocation, did not make him useless. "Don't tell me what to do!" Max shouted. Regardless, he still ran over to Lucas' side. "Are you alright?" Max asked him. Lucas probably wasn't going to need that much healing anyway, because people usually recovered from being punched in the stomach on their own. He did run his glowing hand over him to heal any injuries he may have gotten, just in case.

"Look, guys, can we focus on the mission first before we handle personal problems? We can deal with them better when we don't have anything else to worry about," Linda said with her back turned to them before dealing with the cars that Control Freak had turned into robots Max was busy patching up Lucas.

Archie hurled his spear towards Control freak, but it narrowly missed. "That does it. this time, he's dead!" he shouted.

Max facepalmed and shouted back. "Oy, we're superheroes, not murderers Wondy!" He then waved his hand, and produced a large, glowing, Mecha suit made from violet energy around himself. It had the star sapphire symbol emblazoned on the chest. It was a literal love machine. He then ran over to one of the robots that had once been an emergency vehicle, and punched it, sending the vehicle-bot flying. "I hope we're not gonna have to pay for that later..."

 

[Sketchie]

Lucas Moncrief ; Nightmare
Town Square

Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. They had some healing powers after all, which happened to be very important when you're a superhero team prone to anger. Linda would be fine, and that's what mattered. Lucas opened his mouth to spea-- GODDAMN IT

Lucas was torn away from his train of through by two violet hands. Oh come on! He screamed in frustration, but only internally. Now was not the time for true screaming, but Lucas considered screaming later. I let you stand perfectly on your own, I didn't need HANDS MADE OF WHATEVER to hold you down! He listened to Max anyway. "Lucas already said what I would have said, so that's just because you just love violence so very much!" Max said sarcastically.

Archie rolled his eyes again. "Oh, goodie. Here I thought you were going give me a compliment on my dashing looks again." NOT THIS NOT AGAIN WHY IS EVERYTHING SO AWFUL

Max turned his attention to Lucas first. "I have a lot more to say to you though. First, did you think kissing Archie was going to upset me? Mission failed! Watching two hot guys make is just awesome!" he said. Lucas rolled his eyes. Well, that was not his intention, but whatever. Spur of the moment thing. "Now, I can leave you alone... I guess... Whatever... But this self hatred thing... Yeah, I'm a being of love. Hate and I don't exactly mix... So, we're gonna have to fix that. At least you have a cute little brother to come home to. I have no siblings, My mom is dead, my boyfriend is dead, and my dad is... for lack of a better word... a homophobic, abusive, asshole! Much like somebody else I know...", Max said, glaring at Archie. "So excuse me for clinging to any kind of love I can get!" Max then slapped Archie, presumably this was not the first time, but Lucas didn't notice the others. "I've always wanted to do something like that to my dad. This is the closest I'll get!" He then proceeded to sit down, and the hands vanished. Hallelujah.

Lucas sighed, putting his hands over his face and trying to process everything. He'd have to talk to Max later and explain to him what he was talking about. He could faintly hear Archie talking to Linda, and then Archie talking to Max. Then, Archie called to him.

"You," Archie's voice was sharp and piercing. Lucas snapped his attention to Archie, looking at him in the eye. "What was this he said about kissing me? I do not recall you doing that.”

Luc shrugged, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, well, spur of the moment kinda--” Lucas was cut off by a sharp pain in his stomach and a sudden lack of air. He dropped to the ground clutching his stomache. Breathe, dammit! he thought, taking shaky, deep breaths. He looked up at his assailant with a glare colder than ice. Okay, but we did kind of deserve tha-- actually fuck it no we didn’t, I’ll kick his *** later. But God did that hurt. That was going to leave a mark. Superhuman durability made life a little easier, but God.

"You." Archie snapped at Max. "Patch him up. This battle isn't over yet. And if you slap me again, I'll retaliate. Amazon strength beats a girly slap in efficiency." He then flew off like the damn prick he is.

"Are you alright?" Max asked him. He reached down to touch Lucas’s stomach, his hand glowing violet, but Lucas shoved him away, leaping to his feet, landing shakily.

“I’m-- fine. My mom could hit harder.” He winced as he was hit with a sharp pain from muscles not wanting to be used right that second, but he shook it off. Sort of. He coughed some, trying to alleviate the pain.

Right! The shadow plane. You don't feel when you're in the shadow plane. Well, it'd help with the pain. He gave Max a quick kiss on the cheek, before darting behind him and slipping into his shadow.

He stayed still, listening to Control Freak drone on, and… emergency vehicles turning into mechas? What kind of Transformers bullshit was this? Whatever. He had Important Business to deal with. He just prayed no one was in the vehicles when that happened. He quickly found his beat and darted off in Archie’s direction.

"That does it. this time, he's dead!" Archie shouted. As Lucas was passing by in the shadow plane, he noticed Archie taking aim with his spear, most likely at Control Freak. As the spear left Archie’s hands, Lucas tapped the spear’s shadow, ensuring it would miss his mark.

He zigzagged around in his dimension, changing direction with the beat as he went along. Eventually, he hit the building, and shifted planes so he was on the building. He flowed up against the wall, climbing the roof nearly unnoticed. It was so much easier moving around in this plane. Exhausting? Yes. Risky? Yes. Is there a chance that he may never be able to become corporeal the longer he stays in the shadow realm? Yes. Did Lucas care? Absolutely not.

As he switch planes once more to the rooftop, he could hear Control Freak cackling further. Time to put this relentless twit back in his place. Lucas positioned himself in Control Freak’s shadow, tapping his heel and swinging his hips back and forth. As he raised his hand, a tentacle of shadow rose from the ground and latched itself onto Control Freak’s wrist.

More and more tentacles began to slither out of the ground, clutching to Control Freak’s hands, wrists, ankles, and several began to wrap their way around his waist. Then he saw it. In Control Freak’s wriggling and attempts to break free, he noticed something in his hand. A remote, maybe? He couldn’t tell. It was boxy, lots of things were boxy, and it’s not like this plane was in prismacolor. Grab the thing, he commanded a tentacle, waving his fingers to control the tentacle in mind.

This was not a bad idea at all. Nope. Not whatsoever.

 

[VampirateMace]

Amanuma [aka Dexter]
Town Square

A bit of residual drama aside, the team got to work on Control Freak and the robo-vehicles. Wondy chucked his spear at Control Freak, just missing as the fat criminal shrieked and dodged it, before using his controller to have a firetruck spray at them. Hunter sent her bike out to distract it while she fired at it. Smart, though Ama could have helped out there given his water magic. . . though she was doing fine on her own. . . until Sonic got caught for a moment, and then Hunter managed to end up with the firetruck attacking her.

Ama leaned forward holding up his hands and focusing his magic, in an attempt to reverse the water flow. If he could hold it back enough to overload the high pressure hose, they would burst and effectively end the watery assault. (Where was it getting water from anyways?)

Meanwhile Armory took on the news van, and Violet made himself a armored love mech to take on one of the vehicles as well, managing to hurl it pretty far. Nightmare on the other hand, seemed to have disappeared? (Ama's too far away, and to busy to realize what Nightmare is doing just yet.) No time to worry about that, they had to stop these things.

Ama could see the fire hose was swelling now, just a bit further and it wouldn't be able to take the water pressure. He was tired, Control Freak had been running them ragged, but he'd had lifetimes to practice his magic. Water started to spray from leaks in the hose, before fully bursting open, and the jet dropped down to just a trickle.

Figuring Hunter to handle an unarmed fire truck, given the recent evidence, Ama pulled together the residual water and sent a torrent at a nearby police car gone insane. The flood swept it into a building causing a bit of damage to both. . . hmm, maybe they were being too reckless? Sure the robo-cop-car wasn't as vigorous now, but that building was going to need some serious repairs to remain usable.

“We got to end this before anyone gets hurt!” shouted Ama, to no one in particular, just hoping the opinion was generally the popular one. If they could just clear a path to Control Freak and take him out.

He turned his attention towards CF, who seemed to be struggling against some black Lovecraftian monster. Well, that explained where Nightmare got off to.

 

[Schade]

=-------------------~♚~-------------------=
Wonder Boy
City Square​

"Hey! That's not fair. I'm not throwing stuff at you,", Control Freak whined after he somehow managed to dodge Archies spear. Archie was certain in his throwing arch, and the only logical explaination was someone sabotaging him. Who would sabotage that? Maybe.. Yes, everyone would. Being a "Hero" meant no killing, right? As if, they were just too scared to do what was necessary. Control Freak respnded by pressing some weird device..

what happened next was somewhat extraordinary. Several veichles in the immideate area turned into... some sort of golems. they weren't like the Colossi back at Themyscira. they were equal in size, but they seemed to be built by the veichles nearby. What kind of odd technological sorcery was that?? Regardless, the automatrons started acting as if sentient, causing havoc in the town square. They shouldn't prove to be to much of an issue.

Archie fles over to one of the monstrosities, having emerged from a small yellow Car standing nearby. He tried ramming into it at full speed, which seemed to only make it fall backwards, with no visible damage. as if this ewas going to make everything worse! He had just taken care of a lot of odd magical beings coming from that thing Control Freak had placed there, and this suddenly happened? The monsters from before was probably just a diversion to tire them out while he initiated this whole ordeal. Archie was pretty darn mad right now. He just wanted this all to be over with, though he couldn't atop feeling this was some sort of twisted personal test to Test the titans. Wasn't that what the villain had said in the beginning? Sure, he was an avatar of justice, but he did not enjoy being played for a fool, or even worse; A pawn!

As he mounted the robotic thing, he grabbed its left arm with both of his own, and yanked it clean off, using al his strength. As if! He'd show Control Freak who's in deep water here! And once he was done with the robot, Control freak was next.

He was certain he had been talked to by.. someone. He didn't really care. As much as he disliked admitting it, he was seing red at this point. This whole situation was a big problem, and he was going to be the one going to stop it, regardless of consequences. Unfortunately though, the automatron he had disassembled earlier wasn't done yet. It came lunging at him with its last free arm, which hit Archie hard into the ground.

"Ow, That f***ing hurts!", he shouted angrily at the automatron, which gave him odd Beepy noises in return. Was it mocking him? It didn't matter, It would be the last thing it ever did. Archie got up and took a short second to rebrief himself before he re-evaluated the situation. He flung himself at the abomintaion, and punched it at its face, allthough that seemed to be ineffective. He roared in rage as he continusly punched it in the face, ripped off its last arm, crippled its knee and more or less ripped it apart. That was certainly one way to fuel his anger.

Not too long after that, the Automatron ceased to move, allthough Archie did furiously rip its head off, for good meassure. No one could think it was alive now. There were other robots like the one he had just taken down, but by the looks of it, his teammates had it under control for now. His own idea was very different. they had Control Freak right there. He was out in the open. right from the beginning, Archie had wanted to just put him in his place. But now? It had gone on for far too long for control Freak to just walk away now. He was standing on top of the building with a good view of what was going on on the battleground. Comletely unaware of his surroundings. Archie molded his plan in his head quickly. He'd take the consequences for what he was about to do, as long as what he did was for the greater good. He silently flew off into the shadow of the building Control Freak was stationed at, and silently flew up towards the roof.

As he gradually ascended towards the top of the building, he saw that Lucas had used his Shadow magic to entrap Control Freak. Perfect! he was all wrapped up for him, which would likely make everything a lot more simple. Sure, the others would not like the plans he had in mind, but in order to shut a threat up for good, this had to be done. He thought about this for some moments, but figured his task was more important. No one of the others had the guts to do what needed to be done; What he was about to do. He silently arrived to the rooftop, and saw how control Freak was standing, looking at the chaos he had made.

It wasn't difficult. Just hover above ground to avoid sound detection, and close in on him without him seeing you. Archie had to admit, it did feel somewhat satisfactory. seeing him this close, vulnerable. It just... Made him angry! He grabbed him by his shirt collar and yanked him backwards, to which he earned a surprisingly good "Eeep!". "So this is where you've hidden, eh?" Archie said in a very sarcastic tone, hiding his anger. It was very easy to see that it didn't work. "W..W..Why are you up here? you should be helping your fellow titans down there!" He yelped, trying to sound responsible. Archie frowned, eye twitching by the guys patheticness. He looked even worse up close. Fat, full of pimples, that sad beard you try to grow when your genetics don't allow anything else.

"You can't turn me in! Only I know how to disable these robots!" Control Freak stuttered, trying to sound threatening. Archie only scuffed at his attempt. "As if. Besides, no one said I was going to turn you in." he finished the sentence with an eerie grin, feeling his impulsive rage emerging once again. This made Control Freak visibly uncomfortable, though it didn't appear it had gone up for him what was about to happen. Archie ominously giggled as he yanked Control Freak out of the dark tendrils, and up into the sky, to which he obviously was not a fan of.

"What are you doing??! Put me down! you can't harm me, I'm the one in control of the robots!" he tried to argue, but Archie was beyond that now. He felt an overwhelming urge to shut him up, and punched him hard in the face. Two teeth fell out, as Control Freak screamed in pain. "Now, that felt good." Archie said, with a grin on his face. there was a part of him that knew this was a very very very very bad idea, but at this point he didn't even care. He'd fight off whoever tried to stop him. "S.. Stop! You're hurting me!" Control Freak whined.
"Oh, you think this is a game? How oddly ironic." Archie laughed. "You and me both knows where this will end, and I have no quarrels about it what so ever." he said in a very threatening tone. Control Freak had started crying at this point. "N.. No! You can't do this! You're supposed to be a hero! fighting to prevent things like this to happen!". He did try to squirm his way out of the situation, and allthough Archie agreed to a lot he was saying, the sentimental part of him was long gone. All he felt at this point was anger.

Suddenly, Archie stopped thinking straight, and anger had taken him over. He punched Control Freak again into silence, knocking out more teeth in the process. He was done with this. He was done with being treated like a lab rat. He was done with the team, he was Done with all of it!. He continously punched Control Freak in his blind rage until he heard a voice calling to him.

Arcturus of Earth. You have great rage in your heart.
You belong to the Red Lantern Corps!

The voice took him by surprise, and he managed to break free of his frenzy long enough to see a red little light in front of him. The light went for the hand he was about to hit Control Freak with again, and somehow attached to him. At the very moment, Archie los everything he once had of self control. He started furiously beating up Control Freak, whose whiny sounds started t o subside with every hit, every punch, every rip. all was red. Nothing made sense but the beautiful rage. Archie furiously punched Control freak until his face was un-recognizable. after that, he did an arch mid-air, and hurled the dead body of the villain, Control Freak to the ground, All those floors below him.

after this, nothing really made sense. He was angrier than ever before, and couldn't focus enough to even speak. He shouted in rage, and only now noticed having been engulfed in the red light he saw before. He didn't know if it was related or not, but rage was all he was now. It was difficult to focus, it was difficult to speak, it was difficult to speak. But only one word had hold in his mind. "Ysmault!". Archie let our a ferocious roar, and took off, darting towards the boundaries of earth.

 

[Sketchie]

Lucas Moncrief ; Nightmare
Rooftop, City Square, Shadow Plane

Restraining Control Freak wasn't that difficult. He held a strong grip on the tendrils, making sure Control Freak couldn't move. One had slithered its way into the villain's hand, wrapping tightly around the boxy object in his hand, and tearing it away from him. Everything was going well, and surely they could work all of this out peacefully. Worse comes to worse, force was always an option, but no one had to get hurt. Right?

Apparently some people didn't think that way.

Lucas jumped as another shadow shifted along the plane. He recognized it immediately. Archie. He hid in Control Freak's shadow, watching carefully. Archie yanked Control Freak by the shirt collar, causing Lucas to tighten his grip on the tentacles.

"So this is where you've hidden, eh?" Archie scowled. Lucas shuddered. He knew that tone. He knew that statement.

"W..W..Why are you up here?" Control Freak squeaked, "You should be helping your fellow titans down there!" There was a pause. The shadows were still. Tense. "Y-You can't turn me in! Only I know how to disable these robots!" he stuttered.

"As if," Archie scoffed. "Besides, no one said I was going to turn you in."

Oh my God, he's not-- Before Lucas could react, Control Freak was torn from his grip. Pain shot through his forearm as the tendrils were suddenly ripped apart, and he was shoved backwards. The tentacles fell into the ground and vanished. Lucas held his arms, trying to ease the pain, but to no avail. There is no feeling in the shadow world, unless you project out of it and manage to get those apperations destroyed. Beginning to panic, Lucas looked to find a way out of the plane, but the only thing casting a shadow was Archie and Control Freak, and they were too far away to make a difference. Suddenly, he couldn't breathe. Things were starting to become fuzzy. The distinct feeling of arms and legs were beginning to fade.

You have to focus. Lucas concentrated on his limbs, waving his fingers to keep feeling. He had to move, but where? Suddenly it was painfully obvious, the lighting around him. Slowly, he made his way to a vertical plane, dropping down the front of the building. Still, there was light. Only light, no darkness big enough to leave. He switched planes again, sending another wave of concentration to his hands. Sli p p i n g no no no we have to stay together it's okay we're okay archie won't do anything rash i sl i p p in g no please--

Crash.

There, in front of him, an ambiguous shape. He couldn't tell what just fell, but the shadow was just wide enough. Lucas said a silent prayer, before shooting out of the shadow. He stayed suspended in air, dripping with shadow, forcing himself to become coporeal again. The pain hit him in the stomach again. He breathed a deep sigh of relief, he was real again. As his feet hit the ground, he collapsed to his knees, coughing and holding himself. You need to open your eyes. Lucas nodded at his own command, and his eyes fluttered open to

Oh.

A scream tried to breach Lucas's throat, but no air would support him. Lucas expected a quick capture. He expected a fair trial. While this man could be considered dangerous, he hadn't killed anyone. Lucas expected mercy. He expected a great many things, but he did not expect the mangled body in front of him. His hands began to shake, and tears pricked his eyes, threatening to become a problem. What are we supposed to-- y ou k i ll e d h im-- That wasn't me, I couldn't hold on, I-- y ou c o ul d ha v e st o p pe d hi m-- Stop it, this isn't our fault, it was Archie-- b ut i f yo u w er e st r o n ge r-- Focus.

The boxy object. A shaky hand raised the one remaining tendril, still holding on to the object, and brought it from the rooftop down to him. He clutched to the object, examining it closely. A... remote? This had to be. He looked up at the heroes before him, still fighting the transformers. He held the remote towards the vehicles, and pressed the center button. Miraculously, the mechas stopped in their place, and converted back to emergency vehicles. Lucas immediately dropped the remote, and wrapped his arms around himself. There was no stopping the tears now. Was he really crying over this. This man tried to wreak havock on the city and could have killed tens or even hundreds of innocent people. And he was... crying? How pathetic. You really can't do anything on your-- WHY DON'T YOU JUST SHUT UP?

"Max..?" Lucas cried out, weakly at first. He cleared his throat, and tried to find his breath. "Max!" he said, stronger this time. "Get over here!"

Your name is Lucas Moncrief, and even after ten years, you still cannot erase the feelings that overtake you when you see a dead man.

 

[Monster Guy]

Violet Lantern; Max Hudson
City Square

After sending a vehicle robot flying, Max saw Archie tear apart the head off another robot, then flew off. He became worried when Archie didn't reply to his comment about not being murderers. This wasn't good... Since the rest of his team seem to have the mechas handled, Max made the love suit around him disappear, and flew off after Archie some distance behind him to make sure he wouldn't do something the whole team would regret.

He followed the male amazon to the top of a building where it was obvious Lucas had this whole situation under control. He was binding Control Freak with several tendrils of darkness. Still, for some reason, Archie felt the need to grab CF by his shirt collar, and yanked him backwards.

"So this is where you've hidden, eh?" Archie scowled. Max sighed. Why did he feel the need to threaten everyone who annoyed him? We could handle this peacefully.

"W..W..Why are you up here?" Control Freak squeaked, "You should be helping your fellow titans down there!" There was a pause. The shadows holding the villain were still tense. "Y-You can't turn me in! Only I know how to disable these robots!" he stuttered.

"As if," Archie scoffed. "Besides, no one said I was going to turn you in." Archie then yanked him from Lucas' shadows, and threw him upwards, then proceeded to punch the man in the face multiple times.

"S.. Stop! You're hurting me!" Control Freak whined. Even Max felt bad for him, despite everything he had put them through.

But Archie did not seem to give a damn, and just kept on punching him in the face, over and over again. Max wanted to do something to stop him, but was too shocked by what was happening to concentrate on anything.

And then things got worse. Max saw a glowing a glowing red ring floating past him, and towards Archie's finger. Max knew what that was as soon as he saw it. He was told about it back on Zamaron. "Oh no... Please no... Archie, don't accept that ring!" Max shouted.

But it was too late, The ring flew onto his finger, and Archie flew into a bigger frenzy than the one he was currently in. He beat up Control Freak even harder than he had been before, then threw his body off the building they were standing on. Then he shouted "Ysmault!" and flew upwards towards the home of the Red Lanterns. Max could have gone after him, but he didn't feel like getting into a fight with Archie when he was in that state. He also felt it was better to let him get as far away from here as possible before he hurt anyone else.

Max walked out from where he was hiding, and looked at up at Archie flying. "This isn't good... This isn't good at all!" Max said to himself, pacing around. "I knew he was pissy, but not this much..." Max wished he had done something to stop him from getting that ring. "Ugh, now what are we gonna do?..."

Max was interupted from his thoughts when he heard the sound of Lucas shouting."Max! Get over here!"

"Coming!" Max replied back, and flew over to where he was. He found Lucas crying with his arms wrapped around himself, and Control Freak's beaten and bloodied corpse in front of him. Max cringed at the sight of it. "Oh..." Max bent down to give Lucas a hug. Sure, Archie had a Red Lantern ring, but right now, there were other things to deal with. "There there, it's gonna be alright..." He whispered comfortingly, even though he wasn't entirely sure if that statement was true at this point...

 

[VampirateMace]

Amanuma [aka Dexter]
Town Square

Suddenly, as Ama watched, something else zipped down on Control Freak. It paused for a moment, taunting him. Wonder Boy! He and Control Freak fought verbally for a moment, then Wonder Boy pulled Control Freak up into the sky. No. No. This was not good.

He was beating the hell out of him now. Somebody had to stop him before he killed him, but Ama certainly couldn't reach him. But apparently something could, a small glowing red light. This was worse. Much worse.

Wonder Boy's rage seemed to increase tenfold as he continued to beat the hell out of Control Freak, until finally throwing his bloody body to the ground. The sound was sickening. Ama had seen many horrible things in his time, and quite his share of dead bodies, but he had never seen anything like this. A deep involuntary shudder went trough him, and he shut his eyes tight.

There was screaming now, "Ysmault!" Ama didn't know what the word meant, but he opened his eyes and looked up. Wonder Boy shot off higher into the sky. Where the hell was that murderer headed? They had to run interference on a former teammate now, didn't they? But no, somebody else was screaming. What else had gone wrong?

Nightmare was calling Violet, and he was visibly shaken. How close had he been to the body when it hit? Damn, talk about a nightmare. That be funny if they weren't all so close to the situation. At least the robo-vehicles seemed to have stopped rampaging.

Ama dismounted Gi, giving him a pat on the head, and walked towards Control Freak's motionless body. He had no way of following Wonder Boy, so he knew what he hand to do. He didn't want to, and he was pretty sure, like 99%, that he already knew what the result would be, but somebody had to do it, and he wasn't sure anyone else was in any condition to do it.

As he walked he unwrapped the bandages from his right hand. He needed as much physical sensitivity as he could manage for this task. Reaching the body, he was glad not to have a stomach, because he'd probably have gotten nauseous and thrown up. He bent down and placed his leathery fingers firmly against the man's chubby wrists.

He looked up at the rest of the team, he knew they knew too, but there was something important about confirmation, wasn't there? He kept his voice flat, he didn't know what emotion, if any, was appropriate for this situation, “No pulse.”

 

[Titan500]

Armoury
Town Square

Control Freak was dead. Brutally murdered before their eyes by one of their own. From within the safety of her machine, the person known as Armoury could only stare at the retreating form of the Amazonian, a streak of fading red light (another Lantern then?) in the distance. That ... that was not something she had expected to happen. She had been too preoccupied with the neutralisation of the news van robot to notice the actions undertaken by the other member (former member now?) of Chromium City's Teen Titans, but she had seen enough of it. The sheer ... animalistic savagery of the assault ... that was not how a hero should have acted. That was the antithesis of the image that so many heroes sought to cultivate. Wonder Boy had killed a man in cold blood. Rendered him from limb to limb.

Guess he lost control, huh? noted a more detached part of her mind, but she stamped down on it. It was no time for horrible jokes.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, she approached the corpse, which was being tended to by the mummy. It was a truly horrifying sight, but the young girl could not even muster the energy to feel any disgust. She was just ... so tired. The events of the week, and of today especially, had taken their toll on her. And now they were left to clean up in the aftermath.

And Control Freak was dead.

"What now?" she asked, her rarely-heard voice emanating from the armour. What now, indeed?

 

[TheCharredDragon]

Hunter Sigbin/Canis Ryder; Linda Matulin
City Square
The End of the Beginning

No. The word kept repeating in her head. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO.

Linda stared, as much as she wanted to take her eyes away from the sight, her eyes remained glued to it.

It all happened too fast. She was busy with the Heatwave knockoff when Ama stopped its hosing powers somehow. She used this oppurtunity to shoot the shiz-ditz out of it until it couldn't stand anymore. Having Sonic smash it as much as he could only made it even more of a mess. She dealt with some more monster robot cars.

Then it happened. The shout. The pummeling. The crash. Control Freak's body laid down in the middle of the square, mangled and face absolutely demolished. She vaguely registered Archie flying off to who knows where, Lucas appearing from the dead man's shadow and the robots shutting down. Her mind just went to a grinding halt. Control Freak was dead. She kept denying, again and again, why? Because she could've stopped this. Archie was right there and she left him with the villain.

Ama confirmed it, he was dead.

Linda dropped to her hands and knees. She heard Sonic go to her side and making worried noises but she didn't react. She just breathed in and out, in and out. She had to think this through. There was still much to do...making sure nobody else was truly hurt, calling in authorities to clean up...and maybe bury Control Freak. Evil as he was, that didn't mean he had to be killed.

...or did he?

Her eyes shot open and desperately shook her head. She...couldn't handle this... ... not right now, at least. She took another deep breath and sighed.

"What now?" she heard the voice of Armory from inside her suit.

Linda took stock of her surroundings, made easier with her superhuman vision. Every former robot was now either destroyed, incapacitated or shut down. There were some more people arriving, some of them more police, some of them civilians likely trying to do their part, and she noticed there was at least one reporter. She thought for a momnt.

"Finish things up. Check eveything's fine and everyone's safe, answer a few questions," she said. She glanced at Control Freak's body. "And maybe have the police bring him to the morgue..."

She looked at each of her teammates, before looking up to the sky.

"So much for the Titans..." she whispered.

She knew it was inappropriately timed. But that ws the only thing she could think of to stop herself from screaming.

...

Aftermath

She had found she was able to hold herself together much better than she expected. She had simply told the police and other authorities where the help was needed, pointed where the body was, and made sure nobody else was hurt...or killed. She talked to a reporter seeing as Max was comforting Lucas. Besides, she wanted the distraction. She wasn't sure how the city would handle a hero supposedly turning villainous so she merely said they were still figuring things out. It wasn't an entire lie though. At the very least, she was still figuring things out.

She wasn't so sure if how she was taking it was good or bad thing.

She eventually returned to the Titans Tower and immediately collapsed onto her bed, she didn't bother changing back. She was dead tired, and her mind wasn't doing any better. It just wouldn't do anything. It was running on basic functions. She decided to give up on thinking and go straight to sleep. The next day, she woke up at about noon. After eating, she had told her team she was going to stay with her parents but was still part of the team. First though, she had a quick nap and packed half of her things. Just as she stepped out the back door, she was greeted with an unexpected visitor.

She blinked. "Mom...?"

A tall brunette who just got out of a jeep looked surprised for a moment before giving a warm smile.

"I saw the news. Came as soon as I could," she said.

Linda lost track of when she slammed into her mother with a hug...and when she started to cry.

...

She wasn't herself for a while. She pushed herself unneccessarily, often exhausting herself, as she trained to get better, to get stronger. She had to accept the fact that it wasn't her fault as much as she thought it was. What was hardest was accepting the fact that she didn't care that he was dead. That was what upset her the most, she realized. That was the fact that she scared her the most.

"...and you're worried you might go evil?" her mother said one day after she and her father stopped her for exhausting herself from training.

Linda kept silent for a while, then she nodded.

Her mother wrapped her in another hug. Her father was close behind, enveloping both her and her mother. They were quiet for another moment before her father spoke up.

"Don't worry about it. You won't. Do you know why? Look how much you're worrying over this. You're worried because you care and you know you shouldn't be so callous. You care about other people's lives as much as your own. You'll never turn evil."

Linda's breathing returned to normal. She felt her mother smile even though she couldn't see it.

"Like how we'll never stop being there for you," she said.

Linda sighed. She felt her father tightened his hug just the slightest, as if to silently agree with that. She felt her eyes droop as her exhaustion finally took hold of her. For the first time since the Contest, she smiled.

...

...

...

Yes. She was Linda Matulin, the geriro of this city. She'll do her best to uphold her morals as she fights to protect the city.