Metal Soul (Saturn, open)

1:30 AM.
An unlikely party of four landed on top of the Titan's Tree Launch Pad. Without the lights from the tower, they would have been in total darkness.

The first to land was a man in a suit, who had apparently been flying through the sky while sitting on a chair. As the chair touched down, he fell to the ground, his legs shaking too hard to stand. He really hated heights. He was the gangster and professional hacker, Jazz.

The second person landed far more gracefully. She had been telekinetically lifting the chair Jazz had been sitting in. She was the Teen Titan, Kristen.

The third person looked like an innocent human child, but in reality was something entirely different. She approached the landing pad, but hovered a foot off the ground, instead of actually making contact. She was the Lord of Chaos, Shivering Jemmy.

The fourth...thing that landed was a humanoid duck wearing a suit and a fedora. Jemmy let his unconscious body drop face first onto the landing pad. "Oops."

Jazz managed to find his feet and stood up, gripping the briefcase tightly in both hands. "Thank you. I better tell you what this is all about." He opened up the briefcase, revealing a large, heavy, reinforced, computer chip. "This...is a human soul. Or at least, there is a soul inside it. A meta-human named Evan Hauges has the ability to manipulate the souls of people, and has discovered how to put them into computer chips, like this one. This chip contains the soul of Evan himself. As far as I can tell, the chip is indestructible. The mob would like nothing better than to get this chip back. We can't let that happen."

Kristen looked at the computer chip intently. The abilities of meta-humans were as diverse as the planets in the universe, and more diverse than the variety of abilities that Nephilim were brought into the world with. The idea that someone was genetically born with the ability to manipulate souls was intriguing to her.

"So, what purpose would the mob have for this chip that they would need it so badly?" Kristen asked. Normal organized crime units only really cared about money. Would they want to sell Hauges off, or did they have some other purpose for him?

Jazz took a deep breathe. This wouldn't be easy to believe. "They want to turn everyone into robots." Jemmy burst out laughing, but Jazz ignored her. "Using Evan, even now, they could put other people's souls into computer chips. Once someone's soul is on a chip, you can use the chip itself to limit or influence their behavior. Mind control, more or less, through programming."

Jemmy noticed that she was being ignored. She didn't like that. Her eyes narrowed. "Why don't they just make robots without human souls? Wouldn't that be easier?"

"It would be, but the bosses also want to become robots themselves."

Jemmy had to reconsider at this point. Being a robot would be kinda cool. She spoke again, but earnestly this time. "So they can shoot lasers out of their eyes?"

Jazz gave Kristen a look of annoyance before looking back to Jemmy. "So they can live forever, genius."

"Hey!" The thick sarcasm on that last word did not go over well with the Lord of Chaos. "It was a good reason."

"Whatever. Once they..." The darkness of the night was interrupted by a bright flash. In the distance, on the edge of Jump City, a building was on fire, apparently caused by an explosion of some sort, judging by the boom that reached the Titan's Tree a moment later. Fire, smoke, and debris all threatened the people in the building.

Jemmy looked at the building, then back to Quackers, then back to the building, then to Kristen. Her week's worth of life experience had not prepared her for this. "What do we do? Do we help save those people, or do we stay here with these guys?"

The explosion caught Kristen's attention as her gaze rested on the location of the fire. The building seemed to be caused by an explosion, and a strong one at that. The event did not seem accidental. While it was most likely possible that the explosion was not related to the group's escape from the mob, Kristen had a gut feeling that it was a diversion.

Kristen brought a hand to her temple as she devised a plan. "Innocent lives have just been put in danger, and I have reason to believe that the explosion might've been caused by that mob group to act as a diversion. So, I've developed three plans of action: 1. We all go together to save the people in the burning building and take Hauges with us, running the risk of him being retaken by the mob at the scene of the explosion should it actually be a diversion. We'd also need to leave the duck behind. 2. We split up - have one or two of us, either myself, Jemmy or both, attend to the explosion site. Jazz, you'd be staying behind to watch Hauges and the duck alone. Finally, the third option is that we alert the Titans below of our presence and request their backup."

Kristen waited for what the other two thought of the idea, and wondered if any Titan below was yet alerted of their presence.

Jemmy listened to all three options. Which on was the best? "I think we should split up," she said. She had seen Kristen in combat. The girl had a force-field, as well as some other really useful abilities. If it did come to a fight, she was sure Kristen would be okay. And of course Jemmy would be fine. She was a Lord of Chaos, after all. "I'll go. I can get there the fastest, and I should be able to put the fire out the fastest, too. You should stay here and protect Jazz and the robot thing. I think you're better at protecting people than I am."

Jazz didn't know what to do. He realized that he hadn't really thought of an end-game plan beyond running away. But if the mob was willing to hurt people to get the chip back, what was the right thing to do? He wasn't sure, and he felt sick to his stomach because of it. Jemmy said that she would go to put out the fire alone, and he couldn't say anything in time.

Jemmy disappeared, teleporting all the way to where the fire was blazing. It was uncomfortably hot. It felt like her skin was on fire, and she was still 50 feet away from the flames. Holding the palms of her hands out towards the burning buildings, Jemmy focused her magic power, conjuring two jets of water, trying to put the flames out. The air filled with steam, but the fires burned on. Jemmy bit her lip. This wasn't going to be easy.

She heard screaming, and teleported inside the building. Looking around, she didn't see anyone, and had to teleport a few more times before finding a woman trapped under a collapsed wall. Jemmy grabbed her hand and teleported both of them to the safety of the street below.

Something caught Jemmy's eye. There was an armored man with a katana walking intentionally towards her. That couldn't be good.

Meanwhile, back at the Titans Tree, two pairs of black wings descended from the black night. A man and a woman touched down lightly on the landing pad. Each drew a katana as their wings dissipated into shadow. "You know what we want," the woman said. She spun her katana and took a combat stance. "And we already know your answer."

The armored man broke off into a charge, seemingly going straight towards Jemmy before vanishing not 6 feet away from her. The ninja would then appear from the sky, dropping down behind her to attack from above and behind, blade poised to meet its mark.

Back at the Titan's Tree, Kristen and Jazz squared off with the two newcomers. Kristen's eyes widened at their familiar abilities. Her brother's dark wings and armor were almost identical, if not a bit more ornate. 'N-Nephilim? Here? That's not possible...' Kristen refocused on the task at hand summoning her forcefield and started to charge her Smite Gauntlets. 'Even if they appear similar, there's no way that Nephilim like my brother would stoop to aid humans.'

Kristen took an improvised fighting stance that would be otherwise unfamiliar to anyone observing. "Straight to the point, I see. Very well. I'll be certain to make your defeat just as swift!" she summoned her wings of light, and took off towards the one ninja.

With the force Kristen had tackled her with, it should have been enough to send them both off the summit. Kristen bet on the idea that after she would release the ninja, she would resummon her own wings to fight in the sky. As Kristen was a person who spent two years travelling by air, she was in her element, fighting like this.

The armored ninja started running at Jemmy, and the Lord of Chaos prepared her defenses. Once he got close enough, she was planning to teleport out of his sight. Hopefully, that would give her time to figure out how to...

The ninja vanished. No way! He could teleport too? Who was this guy? And more importantly, where was he? Jemmy didn't have time to find out. She teleported out of instinct. No attacker ever teleported to a less advantageous position. His sword ended up missing her by a few inches as she vanished, reappearing about 100 feet away, facing him.

A teleporting battle like this would be interesting, Jemmy thought. She still had to put out the fire, though, so there was time pressure. She couldn't afford to go easy on this guy.

Conjuring 6 steel spears out of thin air, Jemmy sent them flying at 100 miles per hour towards her opponent, all at the same time. Hopefully, her attack would catch him off guard.

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At the tree, Kristen had tackled the female ninja, knocking the two of them off the ledge. Without deploying their wings, it would be a fatal fall for either one. Kristen was holding the ninja tightly, and it seemed that the end would come soon. The female ninja, however, did not seek to escape. Instead, she clasped her arms around the nephilim in a vice grip. Her strength was impressive, and she started squeezing even harder, as though trying to squeeze the life out of Kristen. "Well," the female ninja said. "What's it going to be? You going to kill both of us, or save us both?"

Back on the landing pad, the male ninja calmly approached Jazz. Jazz was shaking. He knew how this was probably going to go down. He could sense a few devices inside the tree connected to the internet. He could email himself to them, and escape this ordeal with his life. If he did that, however, the ninja would grab the briefcase and get away with Hauges. The briefcase held special properties that prevented it from being teleported in any manner. What should he do? Be a hero and die now? Or be a coward and die anyways, a few weeks later with the rest of the human race?

He decided to be a hero.

Jazz pulled out his gun and shot a few bullets at the ninja. The ninja deflected them with his katana, swatting the bullets out of the air with ease. A second later, the same katana impaled Jazz through the chest. Jazz gasped for breath. He was...actually dying, wasn't he? He spat up blood.

"I admire the courage," the male ninja said. "Only the weak have a chance to display such courage. The strong, of course, have no need of it." The ninja removed his blade from Jazz and picked up the briefcase. He turned and walked towards the edge of the landing pad, but was stopped by a single word.

"Quack."

The ninja had mere milliseconds to act upon Jemmy's attack. He vanished again in a moment, but re-appeared just above the steel beams, stepping lightly on one as it zoomed past. The ninja landed on the ground again, biting his thumb and dragging it across the flat of his blade. The blade glowed red as the ninja thrust the sword forward and the blade extended at a blazing speed towards Jemmy.

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Kristen released the Smite Gauntlets she had been charging up since the arrival of the assailants. The force of the charged up blast at the range (or lack thereof in this case) it was released would've been enough to force the female ninja to release her grip from Kristen and throw them in opposite ends of the immediate area. After this blast, Kristen summoned her wings and hovered in the air to see what had become of the kunoichi. If the woman preserved her life, she would need to summon her own wings and retaliate.

The ninja managed to evade Jemmy's spears. He was quick, and Jemmy knew it was going to be hard to hit him. She had the advantage, though. Even if they could both teleport, she was still the only one with ranged weaponry.

She was immediately proven wrong. The ninja rushed towards her, his sword glowing red. Suddenly, the sword got longer, a lot longer. Jemmy felt the blade pierce through her chest. Blood sprayed from the wound. It hurt. It hurt so much.

To avoid further damage, Jemmy teleported again. The ninja would notice her another 100 feet away. Jemmy took advantage of the distance to examine her wound. A wound like this would kill a human, but her body healed itself almost instantaneously, leaving behind not even a scar. Her clothes mended themselves and the blood on them disappeared. She was a Lord of Chaos, an eternal being tied to the cosmos. She would not be killed so easily.

But she would be angered. That had hurt. How dare a mere human harm her!

Jemmy glared at her enemy, trying to think of that. All that came out, however, was "You'll pay for that." Oh well, she'd leave the words to the poets. She did not attack right away. Instead, she conjured 10 small metal blades. Then she summoned 20 more. Then 40 more. Then 80 more. With 150 blades floating around her like an aura of steel, Jemmy grinned. A mental command sent 50 of the blades flying in a cluster at the ninja.

She teleported, appearing above the ninja and 50 feet to his right. At least, 50 feet to the right of where he had been. She waited for him to dodge the first salvo, and then fired off another 50 blades. She teleported again, to his left this time, sending the remaining 50 blades at him. They would fly at the ninja at 100 miles per hour, seeking to slice and tear his flesh to pieces.

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The female ninja was pushed away from Kristen. She hadn't been expecting that, and was a bit shaken. Still, she managed to deploy her wings. She got too close for comfort to the ground, but changed her course with a gut-wrenching turn. Swooping back up, the female ninja came around to face Kristen again. She doubled her speed, slashing at Kristen with her katana as she passed.

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"I don't have time to help you, Quackers. I have a mission to carry out."

But Mr. Quackers didn't want to hear it. He was the mob boss. He called the shots. He had been beaten up and abducted, and he wanted the male ninja to carry him to freedom. "Quack quack!"

"You have your own wings."

But they didn't work. Mentioning his poor, flightless wings only angered Quackers more. He got to his webbed feet and started shaking a feathered fist at the male ninja.

"We'll be back for you later, but this takes priority." Not willing to listen to any more quackery, the ninja turned around, summoned his wings, and lifted off into the air...only to get shot 5 times in the back. Mr. Quackers had picked up the gun Jazz had been holding. Nobody ignored the mob boss. Nobody told him to wait, or that some briefcase was more important than him. At least, nobody did that...and survived. The ninja felt his strength failing him. "You...jerk..." He fell.

The ninja dodged the first and second waves of knifes, however he did not see the third in time to dodge. Instead, the ninja attempted to deflect most of the blades headed his way. He managed to deflect maybe ten or twenty, but the rest of the blades sliced past him, tearing up his leather armour in the process. Slightly dazed and minutely injured from the ordeal, the ninja rose from his now crouching position and disappeared again. Moments later, he would reappear 20 feet behind Jemmy, glowing katana extending once more to pierce her again. She had recovered from an attack from the front, but maybe it was possible that an attack she couldn't see from the back would do more damage? The ninja realized that this girl he was fighting was no ordinary foe.
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When the woman separated from Kristen, she saw her fall very close to the ground before deploying her wings. When Kristen saw her circle back up to counterattack, Kristen raised her forcefield and instinctively brought up her arms to block the blade as it made contact with her light enshrouded metal bracer. At this point, Kristen used her other arm to grab the ninja's attacking arm. Then, with a beat of her wings, she lifted herself above the ninja and fired another blast of light energy at the ninja's upper back. She would then attempt to dart away to put some distance between the two of them.

Aha! Her third volley managed to hit him before he could evade it. Still, the ninja managed to prevent most of the damage by deflecting the blades. He emerged with only a few small scratches. Jemmy pouted. His skill with that sword was too good.

The ninja disappeared again, and this time succeeded in stabbing her in the back. Jemmy gasped. It wasn't fair when other people could teleport, too.

She flew away from the Ninja. Eager to get away from that sharp sword. Her wound healed in two seconds, and the pain disappeared with it. Still, Jemmy was in no hurry to get hurt again. She held her arms out and focused her magical powers of creation on herself. A heavy suit of dark grey armor appeared out of thin air, enveloping her. The suit was actually far larger than Jemmy herself. It would be better fit for a large man. But if Jemmy was going through the effort of making a suit of armor, than she was going to make it impressive. An equally large halberd appeared in one of the metal hands. Jemmy's tinny voice emerged from the hovering knight. "Very well, then. I shall fight you in close combat. Prepare yourself, mortal."

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Kristen formed a force-field at just the right moment to repel the female ninja's sword. The ninja scowled at her. If she had known Kristen could do that...

But suddenly, she had bigger problems. Kristen fired a blast of light-based energy at her back. Her wings dissipated, the darkness that comprised them scattered by the light. "No!" She started to fall, Kristen flying away from her. The female ninja close her eyes, accepting her fate. "I'm sorry, Master. I have failed."

"Not yet you haven't."

The female ninja's eyes shot open. Her mentor was falling right beside her. He was covered in blood. Bullet holes? Impossible. There's no way a fool like Jazz could have hurt a great ninja like him. "Master, you're..."

"There's no time for that now," her mentor snapped. "You need to carry out the mission." He shoved the briefcase in her hands. She almost dropped her katana, but managed to sheathe it and accept the gift. "I'm going to break your fall, but that will be the last of me. You need to escape. You need...to save the human race."

The female ninja nodded. She felt tears in her eyes, but willed them to leave her. The Master was right. They were still on a mission, and they didn't have time to waste.

Meanwhile, back on the landing pad, Mr. Quackers stood above the bleeding body of Jazz. The mobster duck decided that this turncoat wasn't going to die near fast enough. He aimed the man's own gun at him. These words would be the last Jazz would ever hear, Quackers thought.

"Quack quack quack, quack."

While everyone was fighting ninja with wings and cool stuff like that, there were people who's lives were in danger. A middle aged man was taking a late night jog when the explosion occurred in the building next to him. He panicked and started to run away, a piece of debris barely missed him. He yelled and ran to the side, however, another piece of debris rained down that he wouldn't be fast enough to avoid.

He opened his mouth to scream, but when he had been screaming for a few seconds he realized that he should be dead. He blinked in confusion and looked around, the debris that would have killed him had been deflected somehow and he'd been moved to safety, but whatever had done so had already moved on.

While the man had been screaming before he realized he had been saved, the blurry figure that put him there had dashed over to a girl who was falling from the building. The girl felt hands on her and then she was deposited safely on a rooftop. The person who had saved her took a momentary break and she instantly recognized him, he was Kicker, one of the most famous heroes in the city. He noticed her staring and smiled Hey, I'm too busy to have girls falling for me he laughed at his own joke before setting off again.

He went on saving as much people as he could, several people that would have died were it not for him were now in a safe location. He had searched the inside of the building as well as much as he could. He had just saved one person when he noticed two people outside, both falling. They must have fallen out of their windows or something. Whatever, that didn't matter, Kane used his air dashing powers to move through the air, sort of like small jumps that he repeated before he lost their momentum to gain an effect similar to flying.

They would both feel themselves being grabbed by Kane before their fall stopped, Kane was rapidly kicking against the air to act against the force of their fall. Kane couldn't move through the air while supporting two people, so he instead just let them go down slowly, kicking off against the air every now and again to stop them from going too fast. He'd drop them both down on the ground Are you guys okay? How'd you fall anyway? What's with that briefcase? Kane did not actually realize they were enemies, or that the briefcase was important, this may work in the duo's favor.

The ninja charged at the suit of armour with his sword, teleporting again but reappearing at the side of Jemmy that did not bear the halberd. With Jemmy's armour now stronger than the ninja's own, he knew that he had met his match. All the same, he was going to go down fighting.
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Kristen flew back to the summit in time to see that Quackers had come to and apparently had shot down the other ninja. The anthropomorphic duck had now set his sights on Jazz, whom was now mortally injured by the ninja. Without a second thought, Kristen flew her forcefield protected form in between the duck and Jazz, blocking the duck's line of fire. "I believe in taking the necessary means to neutralize an opponent effectively, but kicking them while they're already down? Unforgivable."

The ninja teleported again, going to the unarmed side of Jemmy's armor. It was a smart move.

But Jemmy was smarter, and the Ninja was in for a surprise. Jemmy had teleported out of her armor, while using her telekinesis to hold it in place, as though she were still in it. Her actual body was not behind the ninja. She conjured a heavy orb of steel and sent it flying at him. On impact, it should carry enough force to break a few ribs, which should take the ninja out of the fight without killing him.

Hopefully this would end things. The burning building wasn't going to put itself out.

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The two falling ninjas looked at their unexpected savior in surprise. This guy was Kicker, a hero. It seemed that he didn't know who they were. In answer to his question, the female ninja pointed at her bleeding companion. "Forget the briefcase. He's dying. He needs help right away. Drop me off so you can move faster. Get him to the hospital now!"

If Kicker honored her wishes, she would start running into the night, holding tightly to the briefcase. Her master might die, but no matter what, she would not fail him. This briefcase could end the war.

___________________

Jazz greatly appreciated not getting turned into Swiss cheese. As Kristen approached, he laughed. "You wouldn't happen to have any healing powers, would you? I could seriously use another quart of blood." He coughed. "But hey, at least I wasn't useless." He reached into his pocket, weakly, and pulled out the computer chip. He had pulled it out of the briefcase before the fight had begun. That female ninja was carrying an empty box. "Just don't let him do it, okay? Don't let Evan...hurt anyone."

Short on blood, Jazz feinted. Quackers was still shooting at him, in frustration.

Though the duck was too annoyed to notice the looming shape behind him, he would as soon as a gloved hand shot out, grabbing the bucking gun and squeezing till the barrel was crushed. Toji shambles past the fuming duck, yawning and rubbing one of Hus eyes."Siiiiiiiiis.......couldn't yah have fought a tad more quietly? I need my sleep, or I'll wind up shrinking....Manic said so..." Quacker's let's out a yap, and Toji turns to glare at him, his eyes and teeth transforming in aggrivation ."Shut it.....I'm annoyed enough as it is. I abvise you quiet down before I punt you into the sea....." E halfling grins
menacingly, then tur s around to Kris." Well,what do you need done, Big Sis?"