It Shouldn't Be This Way (Old Titans)

[Deleted]

A month and a half had passed since the leader of the nearly defunct East Titans had turned off the lights in her Tower in Steel City, and disappeared - the only evidence of where she went, a rainbow of colors into the sky, headed straight upwards, a silent, lonely trail that left the orbit of the Earth, and faded away in space itself. No alert had gone out to her girlfriend, no notice given to her friends, her family was as clueless as all others - for all intents and purposes, the heroine appeared to have fled the world she was from, and gave not a single person any knowledge of why it would happen. The only video of her leaving - a security camera in the East Tower - revealed a single change, as her skin took on a yellow gleaming tinge, the same as her eyes, and she seemed unable or unwilling to suppress it, as her entire skin became the energy she once surrounded herself in.

Her communicator left behind, all of her personal effects ignored - even her clothes all left, neat and orderly. The Eastern Tower was as if nothing had touched it in weeks, the food all dated as expired long before the lone East member had left - as if the last time it was restocked had been before her only comrade had left. The heroine had been only seen for weeks beforehand when saving others, but she had been doing so - she had been thwarting robbers, and murderers, she had still been a hero.

So why was it like this now?

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The scene in Jump City was chaos, the roof blown off a part of the mall, where an orange streak had apparently drop kicked its way inward, sending hundreds of shoppers screaming and running for cover. A bright, orange colored woman stood in the middle of the wreckage - short, easily under five feet tall, but with her features completely hidden by the skin tight solid orange energy surrounding her. The only hint that this may be a person at all the prismatic arrangement of hair, yellows and reds seemingly fighting with greens, blues, and pinks.

"Good god  be quiet, I am not in the mood for your idiotic screaming!"  The short orange clad villain screamed at the a nearby sobbing woman, who a large portion of roof was now crushing - there was no pity or compassion in the person's voice at all, as they stepped over the roof piece and woman - pressing it down on her more at the same time - striding into a nearby store jewelry store, where a few customers and employees cowered, trying to stay out of sight - not that the entity seemed to care at all, as it punched open a display with a large orange energy hand, and began to empty it into a bag of similarly orange energy, hanging onto the girl's back.

As she stepped around the store, more limbs broke their way into the displays, depositing more and more of the stores jewelry into the bag - the orange woman utterly ignoring the civilians around her, to the point of stepping on one without so much as the slightest reaction, the orange pointed heels digging into their skin. There was no ill will or intention to it, as if the poor man she had stepped on had been entirely invisible to her eyes - which he may have been, judging by how even her eyes were covered by the catsuit like outfit.

Notes: Uh oh
Words: 590
Tags: Athena 'Shift' Logan @irazehl  stephenjconstantine  

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Between the new Teen Titan members and the distressing, weird rumors of other, strange look-alike villains and heroes in the city, it was hardly a surprise that Shift wanted to get to the mall quickly when the distress call came through to the Tower. Landing on the crumbling edge of what had once been a solid roof, the heroine perched as a tiny green sparrow. A swoop of her wings and the sound of boots hitting the floor could be heard - if one listened past the shouting, alarms, and crying going on in the mall. The area where she'd landed had been mostly cleared out - all the patrons that hadn't - Athena had to turn her head away and swallow to keep her lunch down as she saw the blood seeping from beneath a chunk of roof - hadn't made it were hushed. The air was almost electrified with tension, her fur starting to stand on end - or maybe that was the smell of blood, something the shape shifter avoided whenever possible.

A few animal shifts later, some concrete moved out of the way, and paramedics were helping those that could be helped as Shift followed the trail of destruction, flickering light glinting off of shards of glass and the occasional dropped jewel. The people could be handled by professionals, Athena reassured herself. She didn't need to be there - and she didn't need to toss her cookies, either. Other heroes and Titans would be arriving soon - it wasn't like the whole thing had been subtle - so she was confident moving forward, boots crunching on the dust and grit that layered the tiled mall floor.

A movement caught her eye, a flash of orange, and Athena turned quickly, breaking into a run to catch up. "Hey! Hey, you! Yeah, in that tacky orange bodysuit and terrible heels! Put the bag down and surrender, or you aren't gonna to like what happens!" Shift shouted. How had this person - woman? - caused so much destruction? She was so tiny, body-wise, and short even in her heels, almost like... But no, it couldn't be. As much as her heart might ache with the need to see that familiar, grinning face, Athena berated herself for thinking Rainbow might ever do something like this. Not her compact ball of light and sunshine; no way. Someone who flirted and laughed like that...they could never do something like this.

words: 400 | tagged: @chae, @irazehl, stephenjconstantine

[Deleted]

Someone worth attention had finally shown up, and the thief turned in place on her gaudy heels, staring. Logan, Shift, there were many names for the green woman who was threatening her now, for the hero that came for her - she was a little disappointed, really - a shapeshifter was fun to fight, but this one, had she even unlocked the truth of her powers at all? What was she capable of when she really pushed herself? The orange woman couldn't help but smirk, allowing her mask to open enough to show the smug confidence upon her lips, her voice teasing, disrespectful, "Oh no, the big bad wolf is here to gobble me up, and I have no woodsman to save me~" She giggled, then raised a hand, any likeness to the power of the missing Rainbow made both more and less apparent as energy grew in her hand, as a large man seemed to be formed out of orange energy, hefting a woodsman axe, a pattern of plaid made of different shades of orange.

"Oh, wait, yes, yes I do have exactly that!" She gave another giggle, and the fully formed humanoid construct became... disconnected from her, the orange tether between her hand and the creation retracting into her costume, "I always did love fairy tales - lets see if this one plays out the same!!! Go get her, Woody!!" She practically cackled her order, to the construct, which opened its eyes as she spoke the name, limbs moving in a way that seemed completely... natural, as if it were a living, breathing human being, only made out of the mysterious light energy.

No words were spoken by the construct, as it hefted its axe in both arms, and took one slow step, then a second, and then practically darted at Shift, swinging its axe in a wide arc as it tried to take out the Shifter's legs. While slightly faster than an average common criminal may be, however, the construct was still slower than most supers, giving plenty of time for Shift to dodge the first blow, while the orange clad woman continued her trip through the store, more glass being broken and more jewelry stolen as she turned her back to the fight entirely, as if it meant nothing to her, as if the outcome were already decided, and she felt no need to watch for it.


Words: 399
Tags: Athena 'Shift' Logan

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

That teasing voice - Shift might have doubted herself, doubted her ears and her mind, if she hadn't heard that familiar giggle. How often had she heard that, in the living room - on shared patrols and frequent 'breaks' - even in their rooms... But the voice was off, somehow, for Chae, she thought. Maybe it was the scorn in her taunts, underlaying the mocking words, or the twist of her lips, all the orange-wrapped woman allowed her to see, so alien on the half-aliens' usually chipper face. Maybe this mysterious stranger was the same alien species, whatever that was, that Chae and her mother were? It would explain the powers, the glint of softer colors, the familiar violet and blue fighting the harsh orange-yellow-red that made up most of her 'costume'.

Whatever she decided, Athena didn't have time to say anything in response; no, the thief was too quick with her powers, her quips darting off-the-cuff with an ease the Titan envied. She only had time to take a step back, tensing to see what the orange energy would form, before the woodsman was lumbering toward her, breaking ceiling tiles and carelessly smashing other fixtures as it attacked. Gulp. "You'll need more than that to take the Teen Titans down!" Okay, so maybe she was just one Titan...but Nightshade would be hot on her tail, Shift knew, at the very least, while the others helped where they could. This definitely wasn't Chae, Shift decided - she had only just been able to fly from Steel to Jump without crash-landing most of the time; a tether-less construct that moved so easily was way beyond her...right? No time to think about it now, not with that axe swinging her way!

Jumping as high as she could, Athena shifted - aha! Monkey hands gripped the axe handle as it flew by her, and Shift climbed quickly up the relatively easily-climbable 'Woody', the green fur dusting her monkey form standing on end as she screeched a challenge at Chae's retreating back. Leaping off one broad orange shoulder of the woodsman, a green blur flew through the air, landing and curling into a roll as a human as she raced after the jewelry thief. The woodsman, she hoped, would disspaite - or maybe, if she got close enough, Rainbow would drop the construct to make something less...axe-weilding. Hey, she could hope!

"This 'fairy tale' can still have a happy ending if you hand over your loot and give up." Shift quipped, now within easy hearing distance of Chae. It might have sounded tougher if she hadn't been panting, but, well, a girl could only do so much after escaping becoming kindling.


words: 445 | tagged: @chae

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The orange woman had barely been paying mind to the scene behind her as she practically skipped through the store, filling her bag with loot galore, the entire front of the store now emptied out of goods - just in time for her to hear the screeching ape coming towards her as it avoided her woodsman's axe, a hand raised up nonchalantly as she formed a shield to prevent the Titan from approaching - not expecting the mid flight shift and taunting rather than a rocketing monkey to attack her. She looked a little disappointed, like she had expected more from the green woman, "Oh no, you got past one guy with an axe. I am powerless, and thus must surrender, before you beat me in my beautiful  face." Eyes were rolled and she shook her head, the shield forming little spikes on the outside as she did so, "You know, I wonder how good you are at your own game~ maybe we should see~"

The spikes multiplied, ten, twenty, a hundred - and then kept growing out, until as many small hornet like constructs filled the air of the store beyond the shield, "Oh nooo, not the bees~!" She happily giggled as she released the shield - and the swarm of orange hornets started to buzz around the store, each one moving differently than the last, as if they were independent of each other - none of them focusing on Athena as the high heeled girl bounced up and down just a little in anticipation, before raising her hand to the air, and the pointing towards the green woman, "Protect your queen, my little darlings~!" She had a sickly sweet tone as her non-pointing hand ran up the skin tight costume, before stopping at the corner of her mouth, "But make sure you don't kill her, it's no fun if you can't make fun of them for losing~!"

The hornets moved in a pattern that was anything but a pattern, a chaotic mess of orange stingers that came towards Shift, some directly, others flying around her, some from above, more from below - the only good part was that they seemed to completely ignore the normal humans, who were by now crawling out of the store, trying to escape the super powered fight scene. Their distraction would do particularly well with the other, much larger, construct that was behind Athena, and had not disappeared at all - hefting its axe once more. "You know, it'd probably be a lot more efficient to just close you in a box and suffocate you! Buuuut that's boring, lucky you!!!"

Note: Bees
Words: 430
Tags: Athena 'Shift' Logan

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

"Don't tempt me, I already wanna punch you in general." Shift growled, eyeing the shield as it formed and grew before her eyes, spikes poking out of it organically. About to make a joke about a hedgehog, Athena was deterred as Chae's shield seemed to brake apart. She wondered for the second she had why Chae hadn't simply dissolved it - before she saw that the shield was still up - it was just hard to see past the massive swarm of angry, brightly colored, and very pointy, bees. Great, the chick she was fighting alone had all kinds of irritating powers.

Oh, this was not going to be fun. Athena tensed, brain working overtime as she tried to decide how to handle both the fearsome orange bee swarm and the axe-wielding woodsman. (She was disappointed but not surprised that Chae had kept him; stupid axe, stupid constructs...what had she done to deserve this?) "Queen bee? More like bi--" Shift snarked in return, cutting herself off as she dropped to the floor, the sharp edge of the woodsmans' axe slicing a line against her arm; she'd moved a little too slow, distracted by the wasps and their 'queen bee'.

Her green form blurred on the ground, shifting - growing, growing larger and larger, expanding and knocking over shelves in the unfortunate shop. A female African elephant stood where the Titan had been a moment before, shaking her head lumberously - showing off the tusks that were unique in female elephants of that species, in case the huge bulk and thick hide of her new form weren't enough of a deterrent. Scraping a thick foot against the tiles, Shift charged at the orange-clad thief. She closed her eyes and ears tight against the oncoming bees - an elephants' thick skin could withstand bullets, but she didn't even know what the bees were even made of - it was a gamble that she didn't see a way around.

words: 320 | tagged: @chae

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There had been endless expectations on how these moves would be handled by a professional opponent - an examination into those she knew she may fight, and a setting of plans for them. This was not within the orange girl's expectations, as she watched the green skinned elephant charge through the razor sharp stingers of her hornet-constructs, the constructs shattering to pieces even as they barely cut through the elephant's thick hide. No worse than papercuts, no blood even being spilled from them, perhaps painful, but not at all life threatening or dangerous - the hornets appeared to be doing very little actual damage to the hero, their shattering forms flying back to the tiny woman, reforming the mask over her mouth as she held up her hand again, an intense glowing in the palm of it again. "And here I was wondering how much uglier you could possibly get!"

That suddenly flashed out, not as a construct of light, but instead a simple flash, the momentary brightness hiding the woman's lengthening 'nails', as the fingertips on both hands of her costume extended out into short blades, each nearly a foot in length. No yellow tinged her hair, as she crouched low, and then charged, her heels not slowing her body in the least as she fearlessly met the elephant head on. A jump into the air was accompanied by the audible shattering of the remaining bees around the elephant, and the woodsman behind it, the shards of energy flowing to her with a speed reachable by light, the blades on her left hand growing more intense, sharper, longer, as she plunged it forward, aiming the blow towards the elephant's trunk, no taunting, no grunts, no noise coming from the woman at all.

But there was something else, besides the impending blades - as her body came down with gravity, aimed directly towards where the elephant's ivory blades jutted outwards. No attention seemed to be paid by the villainess to the impending tusks that would - if not pierce directly through her - cause great harm to anything that was hit with them as the speeds they were going. Besides the costume itself - if even that - she seemed to be paying absolutely no power to her defenses, as she greedily assaulted the giant animal woman.

Words: 380
Tags: Athena 'Shift' Logan

[Deleted]

Arriving a bit late was unprofessional and quite unlike Nightshade, whom now arrived on the scene to find a green elephant fighting what looked like Rainbow. These things never did seem to happen at a convenient time. His dark blue stealth suit, with robes and cloth hood, did more harm than good to remain undetected in the flickering fluorescent lights that struggled to stay on amid the destruction.

Nightshade could hardly believe the sight he was seeing and had to get in closer. A bit of a blur snuck through the peripherals, quickly scaling rubble and fleeing citizens alike. Could it possibly be Rainbow? She didn't strike him as having the capacity for evil, nor could he believe she had become so much more powerful so quickly. In a way, he was a bit tickled to see he had been right about her untapped potential; but then, not like this. This wasn't what he had in mind.

Assessing the situation characteristically quickly, he unwound from his hip pack the correct tool for the job and waited for his moment to strike, hoping that she couldn't sense his presence behind the malls roof support pillar that now held up nothing. Worried that this could be the work of mind control or something of the sort he would need to keep his attack as non damaging as possible. Hence the iron bola he was starting to spin in his right hand. Certainly she would simply use a construct to free herself from such an intanglement, it would certainly give Athena a moment in a critical situation. Peeking around the corner with a small palmed mirror, he found that the critical situation had already arrived.

As Rainbow plunged downwards toward Athena, threatening not only the elephant but also to impale herself, he greeted her with lightning fast iron spinning toward her. The arc was not for where Rainbow was but rather for where she was going to be, aimed to knock her out of the air and onto something safer right before hitting Athena, and save the both of them from the mess that would be impalement.

"Sorry I'm late" It was a bit lame and completely free of puns about getting tied up, but all he could manage in the rush of things. Now that he had revealed his location, he'd need to reposition himself quickly.

edit: Added link for bola

[Deleted]

The bola flew through the air, snatching up the orange clad girl and throwing her to the ground, away from where she could stab Athena 'Shift' Logan, as well as away from where she could be impaled herself. Almost the instant she hit the ground, rather than any sort of pained noise, the woman giggled softly, with a loud, giddy, "Oopsie daisy! How silly of me~! I guess I'm dead!!!" The voice was even more high pitched than it had been before she was hit, and sounded almost... robotic. The reason why became apparent as she stopped speaking - suddenly exploding, the store suddenly filled with a form of energy-like shrapnel, just a bit sharper than the bees, as if a bomb had just gone off inside of the woman, leaving behind nothing as the energy faded - and shot out the door that had been near the woman most recently. The shrapnel pierced the wooden displays, clearing through it - luckily, all of the civilians had evacuated, leaving only the elephant and a lot of inanimate displays to take any harm.

@irazehl had a perfect view to track the light, it becoming obvious that a fake was made during the blinding flash of light, while the real one took off. Unfortunately for her, the trail of light while difficult to spot for a regular human, was extremely obvious to anyone with honed ninja-like senses, and that was what she was dealing with now. The woman the light went to however looked like anything but Chae - or even anything like the woman who was clad in orange looked like, tall and blonde, looking more like a supermodel than a super-villain But it was unmistakable where the light was going, though no change in expression happened as the woman kept walking, shades keeping her eyes hidden. She was running - along with a few other stragglers - but something about her fear felt... fake.

The oversized purse she was holding didn't make it seem any more convincing - it would almost certainly be large enough to carry the goods she had taken from the jewelry store.

Words: 350

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

The arrival of Nightshade on the scene was a welcome relief - although the end of it was certainly a bit of a surprise. Most of the people the Titans fought didn't regularly implode, and as Athena shifted back to her human self, she hurried over to the spot Chae had landed on, peering down at it. She was definitely gone, as far as the shape shifter could tell. Unlike @irazehl, she didn't have ninja-esque senses and so was entirely oblivious to the trail of light that led to the fleeing blonde.

"Thanks for the assist. That was rough - but where'd she go?" Shift eyed the destroyed shop; shelves knocked over, glass and wooden displays demolished and shot through with what she assumed were the bee-constructs. Dismayed at their inability to catch Rainbow, Shift kicked a bit of rubble, scuffing her boot even more. The green woman put her hands on her hips, turning to look where she thought Nightshade would be. "I'm sure she'll turn up again. She was having way too much fun for this to be a one-time performance."

Gloved hands brushed along her shoulders as the green young woman surveyed the mall, walking out of the store. The cuts she'd received as an elephant had mostly disappeared when she shape-shifted back into a human - one of the perks of shifting that nobody could explain. But some of them, the deeper ones, still lingered, barely paper cuts but still annoying. "You know, that - that looked a lot like Chae." Athena's admittance to the fact was quiet, as if part of her hoped Irazehl would deny it, or pretend he hadn't noticed. neither were likely to happen; he'd seen Rainbow in action, they'd trained and fought together. He knew her powers and fighting style, and only a blind and deaf man wouldn't have been able to see and hear the resemblance.

words: 314 | tagged: @chae, @irazehl