The Italian Job (AJ)

Lance would more or less be pleased with the abilities of Scope now. Lance would be bringing the rocks back into formation and then they would erupt into smoke, both of them. His seismic sense would let him feel the cryogrenade that stuck onto the bottom of his platform. Lance would bring in the two rocks with smoke grenades closer in to provide himself with cover. In the smoke he would jump off of the rock and onto one free of the grenades. Lance would bring two more and make a structure on the platform with the cryogrenade that was built to have the same shape as Lance's body. The five pieces of rock with the smoke grenades, crygrenade, and the two to make the look-a-like structure fell to the center of the Coliseum. The last two pillars came together around Lance as he buried himself in between the two of them. Lance would cause the rocks he was hidden in to fall closer to the edge of the Coliseum.

Lance would tunnel out of the rock and into the ground under the Coliseum. He would wait underground for Scope to take back to the ground. If needed, Lance could use the two rocks he used for cover as a distraction to get Scope off of his guard.

(Thought)
"Much better than I expected."

Once Scope would step off of his board and touch land, Lance would immediately know. Each step that Scope took would send out waves of vibrations that would be picked up by Lance who was underground. Lance would be able to feel Scope get closer and closer to the place where he had assumed Lance had gone down. Lance would now roll in the two rocks he had hidden in before to circle Scope from afar, out of his sight in the smoke. The sound was able to be heard, but the stones were not visible. This was a maneuver to catch Scope's attention.

Away from the smoke and away from the center of the Coliseum Lance would pop out. He would continue moving the stones around Scope, but also see that the smoke was starting to die out. Lance decided to bring in more cover by bringing up a large dust cloud that combined with the smoke to cover the entire battle area of the Coliseum. The dust was so thick that you could only see what was ahead of you for about five feet. This wasn't a problem for Lance as he did not have to use his eyes now. Lance would easily navigate closer towards Scope in the dust. If Scope was to try and hop on his hoverboard Lance had already planned to quickly send one of the rocks hurling at him. Lance was about twenty-five yards away from Scope, while the rocks circled him at about a fifteen yards out in a circle.

"C'mon Riley, you know as well as I do that I wouldn't be taken out that easy. I have to admit.. the Titans have trained you pwell and you've learned a lot in my absence. We know that you and I have been long ranged fighters, but tell me how much have you improved in your hand-to-hand fighting."

The sound of Lance's voice could have came from anywhere in the Coliseum and did not really give a clear sense of where Lance was standing. The mystery of not knowing where Lance could come from was what Lance was betting on could strike some fear or reassure Scope's thought of he could possibly lose this fight. Lance was not planning on eliminating Scope, but was going to use him to send the Titans a message.

Once scope dared Lance to go and find out, he immediately would hop at the opportunity. Lance would start to run straight at Scope, his foots steps being shrouded by the movement of the rocks. Lance would close the circle the rocks were forming around Scope to about a seven yard diameter. Each step that Lance would take would send clear images of where Scope was and the sneakiness of him holding the blades that were in his hands. Lance would go in anyway and hop off of on of the rocks and go for a front flip down-kick onto Scope. As he jumped Lance would be yelling out.

"Those blades in your hand *grunt after jump* aren't gonna help you!"

Lance would know that he was right. In fact he figured that the blades in Scopes hands would be more of a disadvantage for him that it was giving him an edge. This mistake by Scope would be most likely because of the time that Lance learned how to control metal came not too long after he was abducted and not everyone had known about it just yet.

Lance would land firmly on his feet after his strike as he watched Scope jump back away from him. Lance would give a smirk as he started to bounce back and forth on his toes, fists up in ready to fight, and with a quick thumb of his nose. Lance was in a boxing stance that he had slightly altered a bit so that his taekwondo could also be in use as well. Scope's left arm would practically drop to his side as it had been temporarily taken out with the kick Lance had landed. Scope tried to play it off like the attack didn't faze him in any way. Lance's smirk would grow slightly wider as Scope talked. He would then use his powers to drop the dust cloud that was around them.

"Let's go then!"

Lance would yell out just as Scope would come running at him. Lance would notice that Scope's left arm would be placed behind his back, so this would mean the Lance was going to try and place a strike on Scope's left side. Once Scope seemed to be in striking distance, Lance would go for a straight right jab, but Scope would jump over him. Lance would then feel the metal of a blade come into his back as he caused it to bend upon contact with his body giving the impression that he had super durability, but it was Lance using his metal manipulation powers.

"I told you those blades of yours would be no use."

Lance would calmly say to Scope as he stood there for an extra second and then would go for a good old fashioned Shawn Michaels Sweet Chin Music, otherwise known as a superkick.

Lance would keep his leg raised up for a few more seconds that were necessary after the kick, to show off his flexibility and a little of how much more control he has of his whole body. Lance would slowly bring his leg down as he got back into his fighting stance. He would watch as Scope would stagger back. Scope's nose had now started to bleed a bit, his sunglasses had been smashed upon the kick, and his arm was still of minimal use to him. Even though Scope was laughing, you could still see the anger that was starting to overwhelm him.

"That's the kinda fire I like! Too bad it won't be enough for you."

Lance would be ready for Scope's next barrage of attacks that were about to come at him as Scope once again rushed into engagement. Lance would tighten the space between his two forearms so that he could block the first punch that was coming and would also lean into a bit so that it would not be as hard as it would be if he let the full force come and hit him. Lance's eyes would never close, as any experienced fighter's eyes, so that he could see perfectly what was coming at him. Scope then decided to go left for left on his next strike. This strike would be easily avoidable with a lean the the left to let the punch glide right pass his head, but then the sweep started to come towards Lance's legs on the same side he had leaned. Lance would get swept by Scope's move and as he was falling Lance would stick his forearm down. Right now at a quick look it would almost look like he was in a side-plank position. Lance would then use his powers to pop himself back up with a small column of rocks that popped out of the ground. Lance using the momentum would go for a right hook towards Scope's cheek. Lance was aiming to create some space between the two of them rather than hit him, a hit would just be a plus to the strike.

Lance had gotten the space that he wanted between both himself and Scope. Scope would get in a few short questions, but Lance would not be able to answer any of the few questions that had to be tearing Scope up on the inside to know the answers to. It seemed that Scope had started to become more rash in his decisions and instead of waiting went on the offensive. Lance was got back ready for another onslaught of attacks that were about to come at him. Scope would rush in and throw a round house kick straight at Lance's head, but it would easily be countered by a round house from Lance. Lance didn't exert anymore energy than he had to to match the strength of Scope's kick. After the kick, Scope would grab onto Lance's arms and pry them open the make Lance open to attack. Lance would have no choice but to tighten his abs and eat the three punches that came into his abdominal area. A little more power than expected from Scope, but still not enough to impress Lance. It would seem that Scope would think that he had Lance on the ropes as he went for a punch that was aimed to try and strike Lance from his blind side, the back of his head. The transition between Scope's punches gave Lance enough time to gain his guard back though and Lance would bring his good hand, his right hand, to grab onto the wrist of the arm that Scope was throwing the punch with. Lance grabbed his wrist with what seemed to feel like a crushing grip that just stopped the punch a mere inch from hitting him.

"I don't know whether I should keep having fun with this defensive game or if I should start to mount my own offensive."

Lance give Scope a very light kick to his rear-end to make him stumble off to the side a bit. Lance would slide back a bit to give some space between the two of them once again. Lance would continue to bounce back and forth on his toes as he dropped his arms and shaked them a bit. It wasn't cause he was tired, but it was to prevent his arms from becoming tired. Lance would look at Scope.

"Kill you? Why would I kill one of my favorite Titans? I only need you to send a message to them backstabbers that you probably still call friends, Will and Grace (lol thinking of the show). They're the real problem in this situation and they have now pitted you against me!"

Lance yelled out towards Scope as the fight came to a momentary pause.

"Really...?"

Lance would ask in a soft voice as he dropped out of his fighting stance. Lance had thought he had removed all care for Will, but hearing the fact that he had died and not only that but at the hands of Nightmare really hit Lance harder than any punch could. This was almost as hurtful as hearing about Sage's death. Lance knew that Scope wasn't lying because he knew Scope wasn't like that and wouldn't lie about something this serious. A sudden surge of emotions would start to come into Lance's heart.

"And what about Grace?"

Lance in his mind would be confused to why he asked that next question. He had thought that he wanted to go get revenge on both of them for his thought of them betraying him. Maybe these emotions had come because of the common foe and overwhelming hatred that Lance had held for Nightmare above all. Lance wasn't sure if this would be another turning point in his life, but he knew one thing. He knew that Nightmare is a common threat between himself and the Titans.

"Nightmare.. again. I can't take this anymore, Nightmare has to be stopped."

Lance would say as he slightly looked away at Scope. He looked at the ground, but had his head slightly turned so that his hair would block his eyes. He wanted to block his eyes because the emotions had taken him over and he was starting to cry. The teardrops could be seen hitting the floor. Lance had both of his fists clenched at his sides. He teeth were gritted very tight as he had nothing more to say at the moment.

"Good."

Lance would say as he wiped his face of his tears and would give a tap to the ground with a foot causing a small cube-shaped rock come out of the ground for him to sit on. Lance took a seat, slouched over with both of his elbows on his knees and his hands on both sides of his forehead. He would be thinking for a second.

"Even Will couldn't win.. I really don't know then. Damn I really wish Sage was here."

Lance would say as he would start to look up at Scope. He knew that Sage would know how to deal with this situation whether it would be revenge by killing or some other tactful way of taking down Nightmare. But he wasn't here! Nightmare had taken him out as well. Lance would feel like he was in a lost place right now, stuck in a hole with no way to get out.

"How could Nightmare's powers have grown so much in such a short time!? Flames that can melt almost any material on the planet, a love for pain, and a healing factor that is much more than two times better than Sage's was."

Lance would then start to think back of old times from when he was a Titan. He would think back to their first great enemy, Zoltan the demigod like being that was extremely powerful and had an indestructible magical sword. Then another great enemy that came and gone. She was a former Titan, but had gone and let evil take her over. Backlash or Kat is what she was known by mostly. Then the final great enemy that they would have was a defect Titan from the main team, Primarch Joshua. He was a demigod in his own right as well and caused major destruction to the whole city. The one thing that all of these great villains had in common was that they were all taken down. How did the Titans do it against these powerful beings? They did it as a team.

"That really is the only way."

Lance would utter to himself not explaining what he was thinking to Scope.