Teen Titans #51: "The HIVE War", part 4

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The HIVE War, part four
Story by Jay McIntyre
Art by Jamie Rimmer

I was partial to tragedy in my youth. That was before experience taught me that life was tragical enough without my having to write about it.
--from Clash of the Titans (1981)

In Greek mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods. They ruled their universe with absolute power! Well that football field out there tonight, that's our universe. Let's rule it like Titans!
--from Remember the Titans (2000)

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Troia and Cyborg plowed into the new wave of HIVE soldiers and armored units, wreaking havoc; Terra's remote-controlled rock monstrosity was just a few steps behind, and began to stomp and thrash in their wake.

The trick was to use enough force to damage the armored units, but not enough to kill the men inside, or the soldiers on foot. For Cyborg and Troia, this was an old game and they knew how to best gauge their attacks; but for Terra, doing this at range, she had to be careful. Not that the HIVE didn't deserve a few broken bones, mind. But she didn't want to push it too far.

Cyborg tried a new trick, and closed in on an armored unit. From his robotic arm, three computer interface spikes flew out on long silver cords and embedded themselves into the machinery, seeking out it's internal computer networks. It wasn't so different from interfacing with the Tower computers, really; the significant different was that it was a form of hacking, and the HIVE computers first had to found, then forcibly accessed.

While he was doing all that, bullets spanged off his metal parts. He could take several direct shots in the flesh parts if he had to; fortunately, Troia and Terra were taking care of that. But it was only a matter of time before one of those bullets hit something vital.

The first of his three programming spikes found it's way through cracks in the system to the HIVE targeting computers. The hacking proved harder than getting the probe through the armor itself; the HIVE's greatest strength was their technological prowess. But Cyborg was certainly no slouch in that department, either.

Troia stepped up on his left and used her bracelets to deflect several energy bolts aimed at his head. The second probe connected; now it was a matter of will.

In Cyborg's mind, he could now see the inner workings of the HIVE computer as a series of glowing pathways, with the occasional angry chomping monster as a defense program, like something out of an early 80s video game.

Terra's monstrosity covered his right flank as the third probe struck home. From there it was just a matter of will; and without will, Cyborg's cybernetic half wouldn't have been enough to keep him alive this long.

Less than two minutes later, the armored unit shut down. Cyborg disengaged his computer interface spikes, and started wreaking havoc once more.

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Deathstroke abandoned his vehicle three blocks away from the Tower. The cops had set up a cordon to keep the civilians away, and apparently had suffered some losses themselves, as well. Deathstroke wasn't surprised.

He had no qualms about cutting the cops down, save that wasn't his objective. Doing so would cost him time, energy and ammunition spent on his actual targets, Titans and HIVE alike.

That said, he had to sneak through the police lines first. It wasn't anything he hadn't done before; and the police attention would certainly be focused on the battle.

The cops were also smart enough to stay out of the way of the encroaching HIVE waves that were still coming in. Or maybe they'd learned the hard way by trying to stop them....yes, that seemed more likely.

But no matter. Slowly and quietly, he edged around the side of the police cordon. It wasn't that hard, as he hadn't been wearing his uniform in the car, and while eyepatch-wearing men were unusual, they weren't unheard of.

He snuck into a disused (and somewhat damaged) storefront, and changed.

After that, it as simple to sneak into the HIVE rear lines. The chaos and confusion of their battle against Cyborg, Troia and Terra's construct. Deathstroke took in the chaos and noise; the hue and cry of battle were meat and drink to him.

He waited for the HIVE to regroup for a counterattack, then snap-rolled to the right and slammed his sword through a HIVE soldier's spine. That one went down with barely a groan. Two other soldiers turned, and he drew a pistol and started firing.

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Cyborg saw Deathstroke tearing through the enemy's rear ranks, even as he himself was pounding him down.

"Deathstroke on the premises," he reported.

Another wave was coming through, they all knew that. They also knew that pitting any Titan against Deathstroke one on one was....not a good idea.

"All right," Nightwing said after some thought. "Finish off this wave of HIVE, then retreat. See if we can't lure Deathstroke into the traps we originally planned for the HIVE."

"They won't work as well against him," Troia said over the communication link.

"True, but it would be better than fighting him out in the open."

There was no further discussion. It was a risk; but what wasn't?

They pounded down the remaining HIVE soldiers, and retreated as Deathstroke advanced.

Deathstroke followed them a few paces, then frowned, noticing their retreat. Troia, Cyborg? And presumably the giant rock golem belonged to Terra, who had rejected his offer and wanted to pound him own more than any other?

"A trap, is it?" he mused aloud; and while they could not see his face, they could hear the smile in his voice. "Very well then." He continued to advance, but more slowly and cautiously.

"You sure this is gonna work, chief?" Beast Boy asked Nightwing uncertainly.

"No," Nightwing admitted.

And thew knew there was another wave of HIVE coming. So Nightwing ordered Terra to keep her heavy rock beast outside to greet them. She didn't like that, wanting to pound on Deathstroke first; but she grit her teeth and waited.

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This was not the target Dagon had in mind, or had wanted. But as Deathstroke himself could have told him, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

And well did Dagon remember the sensory deprivation coffin Deathstroke and the HIVE had contrived to put him in.

So when Deathstroke came slowly and steadily into the darkened Tower after the retreating Troia and Cyborg, he did not cry out, shriek, and drop on him the mercenary the way he would have if it had been HIVE troopers.

Instead, he floated down as mist, and formed into reality just behind the mercenary. "Hi," he hissed.

Deathstroke whirled at faster-than-normal-human speed; but that was Dagon's speed, too. He ducked Deathstroke's devastating sword swing, grabbed the mercenary, and suplexed him into the floor.

But Deathstroke went with the motion, rolling back towards the entrance. Hefting his heavy blade in one hand, he used the other to pull a gun and shoot Dagon three times. The vampire grunted and staggered back, frustrated and annoyed but not seriously hurt.

(Lead him further into the Tower,) Raven said inside his head.

He had already figured that, but didn't waste time arguing, not even telepathically. He lunged, slashing with his claw-like fingernails. Deathstroke swung his his blade in response, and Dagon's talons sparked off the blade's surface.

Troia was instantly there. Deathstroke ducked her first swing as he kicked Dagon away, and thrust his sword at her. Her relatively newly-discovered powers as Troia would probably have defended her anyway, but out of habit she deflected the blade with her bracelets. There was an unpleasant brannggggg sound and the sword went high.

Cyborg came in, got in one punch to the ribs, which Deathstroke's armor mostly absorbed; he responded with a strike to the flesh side of Cyborg's face. Cyborg rolled with it, and brought up his white noise cannon.

Troia and Dagon got out of the way as the noise drilled into Deathstroke's skull. He squinted and stepped back, towards the elevator and stairwell to the basement; exactly where the Titans wanted him to go.

But he already knew that; and while focused and wary, was unconcerned.

He thrived in situations like these.

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"So this is your training area?" Deathstroke said with such saccharine politeness that Nightwing cringed. "Not so different from my own, really. Throwing these drones and laser cannon into the mix won't really change your fate any. But I appreciate the workout."

They rushed him en masse. He threw down two smoke grenades and leapt to the side.

Kid Flash evaded the smoke and was instantly there, hurling superspeed punches into his face. Deathstroke flashed his sword up, but Kid Flash knocked it away....which took exactly long enough for Deathstroke to jab the mini hypo in his other hand into Kid Flash's chest.

Kid Flash gasped and went down.

It was a toxin that would kill a normal man. But of course, Kid Flash wasn't normal, and between his metabolism and Raven's healing abilities, he would survive it. But for the moment, he was out of the fight. And by forcing Raven to focus on healing him, he evaded her attacks as well.

Dagon was on him again, slashing claws into his armored shoulder; Deathstroke kicked him away. Troia and Cyborg closed in on him; he ducked at the last possible moment, and they collided with each other instead.

Beast Boy literally bull rushed him, taking the form of a bull and charging; Deathstroke smiled and simply pointed his sword at the charging form. But the changeling anticipated this attack, leapt up and to the right, and slammed one green horn into Slade's body armor. The armor held, but he was knocked back.

So he brought up his gun instead, and fired a pair of shots. Beast Boy shifted to frog, shrinking down to avoid the bullets themselves, then hopped out of the way.

Two training laser cannons opened fire, and Deathstroke flipped away in a move that seemed almost to mock Nightwing's acrobatics, then took them out with well-placed gunshots. A training robot approached, and Deathsroke's sword tore it apart.

Terra was hampered, not only by having to divide her attention between the construct and the room, but also not being able to risk bringing the roof down on the team. Best she could do was turn the ground to mud under Deathstroke's feet.

This she did while Nightwing and Scarlet Wing closed in on the mercenary, Starfire right behind. Dagon was recovering on the steps behind their foe.

Deathstroke held his blade ready, waiting for Nightwing to move in with his escrima sticks. But it was Scarlet Wing who advanced first.

She was something of an unknown quantity to him. He had kept tabs on the Titans, of course; even when he had focused most of his attention on the Society. So she knew he had been recruited, and had a rudimentary idea of her powers. But even so he was more than moderately surprised when she threw one, two, three eggplosives at him.

He stumbled back into Dagon, who threw a flurry of punches into his back, dazed and still healing, Deatstroke whirled, bringing his blade up. Dagon tried to retreat in turn, but Deathstroke scored a hit across his chest, not deep, but enough to hurt. The vampire stumbled up the stairs, and Deathstroke followed him.

Starfire blasted starbolts at him, whch he leapt to avoid. He aimed a gun to fire at her, and she darted back.

"Uh, guys?" Terra managed feebly. "Next HIVE wave is here....."

Deathstroke heard her, too. Dagon started up the steps and he followed, slashing at the vampire all the way. The others followed, Terra bringing up the rear, so glad to be able to engage on the front lines again. Only Raven and Kid Flash stayed behind, as she healed the poison that Deathstroke had injected into his system.

"I won't lose you," she said to him.

"No," Kid Flash agreed with an angry, pained grin. "You won't."

Slowly he got up, and mere second later they were ready to rejoin the others.

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This was the largest of the HIVE waves, and the last save for DeGoss and his men, who were not that far behind. Four armored units, more than two hundred troopers. The New York authorities officially put out the call for superpowered assistance. But the Justice League were in it up to their necks elsewhere; and the only other group that was close enough to mobilize in time were Checkmate. And by the time they arrived, it would be over, one way or another.

Dagon came out of the Tower backing up, dodging Deathstroke's attacks. The mercenary pursued the vampire, slashing at his helmet now, trying to break it open and expose him to sunlight. The vampire dodged back, then turned to mist and vanished into the encroaching HIVE army.

Even Deathstroke had to be impressed by that sight. He had faced similar odds before, early in his career before donning his mask, during wetwork operations in Southeast Asia. But never so well armored and equipped. Not that he thought much of an individual HIVE soldier. But in these numbers...yes, they represented a real threat.

Terra's monstrosity lumbered into the enemy. Deathstroke met the first soldier head on, and smashed his weapon with one swipe of his sword.

Scarlet Wing flew high, the sun behind her. She was in her element now, and hurled eggsplosives at the first armored unit.

Raven's powers coudn't work that well against the armored units themselves; but the people inside were another matter. Her soul-self settled on the crew inside the second armored unit; within seconds they were screaming in horror.

Troia plowed through the third armored unit, tearing it open; the captain of that unit recovered enough from his shock to try to shoot her point blank range. She deflected her shots with her bracelets; but these special, new experimental piercing rounds he was using threatened to crack her bracelets and certainly hurt her wrists. Shouting in pain, she kicked him in the face.

Deathstroke leapt aboard the fourth and was trying to crack it open when Starfire blasted him with starbolts; gritting his teeth in pain, he rolled and returned fire with his gun once agian. She avoided his shot, but the HIVE unit took advantage of the opportunity to blast at her with it's laser cannon. They only barely missed; a dazed Starfire fell out of the sky.

Deathstroke returned his attention to the armored unit. Starfire landed heavily, and several HIVE troopers pointed their weapons at her, meaning to finish her off.

Kid Flash was there, still not fully recovered from Deathstroke's poison, but more than fast enough to tear through their ranks before they could touch her. As she sat up and groaned, Kid Flash blurred on, and struck not the armored unit, but Deathstroke atop it.

Focused on the armored unit as he had been, Deathstroke didn't sense Kid Flash's attack until it was too late. He had only begun to lift his sword when Kid Flash's supersonic fist impacted; he was sent flying off the armored unit, and tumbling yards down the narrow (and now much damaged by HIVE traffic) road that connected the Tower to the mainland.

Dazed, he got up slowly and began to shake it off. His healing powers had already begun to kick in; while not as rapid as Kid Flash's own, they were considerable. Waiting only long enough for his head to clear, he slowly began plodding back towards the battle.

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Cyborg tried his hacking trick on the final armored unit, but the HIVE computers had already learned from that event; to his amazement, the firewalls erected and computer defenses had already learned from the previous encounter. How was that possible? Wireless connection? He didn't waste any time thinking about it; he disconnected his hacking probes. But before he could wield his white noise cannon, the armored unit fired on him.

His armor took most of it, but his flesh was also burned. Raven was there almost immediately to start healing him.

Kid Flash returned to the armored unit at the same time Terra's earthen construct arrived. Terra's rock construct stomped on the armored unit with authority; but the armored unit crew, however badly shaken, got a shot off, and sheared off the construct's right arm.

It was fortunate that Terra was not hurt by this physically. As it was, she winced.

Kid Flash rattled the construct with several hard strikes, and then Terra let her construct simply collapse atop it, which ruined the unit's effectiveness and put it down for the count.

This left the troopers, and the Titans fighting amongst them. All but Troia, who went after the recovering, returning Deathstroke. Troia had had enough of him; she meant to hit him hard enough to knock him out.

Deathstroke, unfortunately, saw her coming.

As she closed in at speed, Deathstroke almost casually fired what might be described as a taser, if you were willing to describe a tsunami as a gentle mist. She threw up her bracelets to block, just as he knew she would; the electrictiy coursed through her and made every last strand of her hair stand on end.

Finally he let it go and she dropped to her knees; but almost instantly she looked up at him, eyes gleaming. Deathstroke brought his sword down; she blocked, then shoved him away.

Deathstroke felt a burst of frustration; while he had some idea of how tough she was, surely he could finish her off! He went for a killing thrust; she grabbed the blade and threw it away, then threw him after it. Shakily, she turned and returned to the battle.

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DeGoss, his four commandos, and their stealthed AI cannon approached the battle from the rear. They saw Troia stumbling back towards the fight, and DeGoss grinned. "Let's finish her first."

They charged. Troia turned, heard them coming. Her mouth firmed into an angry line. She grabbed her lasso and threw it at one of the commandos, and threw him after Deathstroke into the water. DeGoss retaliated by unleashing his own electrified whip. It tangled around Troia's lasso and she was electrified again; but not as severely as Deathstroke had done. Somewhat shaken but mostly irritated, she yanked and forced DeGoss to lose his grip on the whip, depriving him of one of his weapons in the process.

She flew at them, and DeGoss got out of the way. She impacted with another commando. The stealthed AI cannon opened fire on her, and she did not get her bracelets up in time. Knocked down, she screamed in rage and stumbled back to her feet. The cannon unleashed a steady stream of laser fire at her, which she now began to block with her bracelets.

DeGoss led the remaining two commandos into the fray ahead, as Troia forced her way to the cannon. It was still stealthed, but i was also still firing; all she had to do was follow the beam. The AI finally wised up and stopped firing on her, but it was too little, too late; she simply reached out and broke it in half.

Deathstroke swam up behind the commando who had been thrown in the water, and almost casually ran him through, then climbed onto the access road. He saw Troia flying unsteadily back towards the combat, and followed her.

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Nightwing backflipped away as DeGoss slashed at him. He remembered well what had happened to Beast Boy last time they had faced this fool; and then he hadn't had open HIVE backing and such numbers.

Starfire came in and blasted away with her starbolts, but DeGoss merely grinned and deflected them with his plasma blade.

Deathstroke came in from behind, tearing through several HIVE troopers along the way. DeGoss somehow heard him at the last possible second, and whirled to meet him, sword against plasma blade. Sparks flew.

"How does your blade survive?" DeGoss shouted, desperately parrying and backing up.

"It's no ordinary metal," Deathstroke chided. "You forget how such weapons were forged."

DeGoss had to conceede that one, at least privately; the HIVE would have provided him such information, if he had only thought to ask.

Nightwing planted his feet in DeGoss's back; at the same time, Starfire bolted Deathstroke. DeGoss stumbled forward, and Deathstroke stumbled sideways, barely missing eachother. Deathstroke, of course, recovered first, pulled a gun, and started firing at Starfire.

Around them, Terra, Kid Flash, Dagon, Scarlet Wing and Cyborg were fighting their way through the crowds. Raven was also inflicting her soul self upon the HIVE. Whatever else he might be, DeGoss was tactician enough to understand they could only face one enemy at a time and hope to win.

"Nightwing," he said to the vigilante. "Have your pet witch arrange a private conference."

Nightwing thought about simply trying to take him out, but he too was mindful of wrapping this madness up. So he nodded. "Raven," he said into his communicator, "I need you and Terra to arrange a shielded truce area with the good general, here."

Terra's opinion was colorful and loud. Raven wasn't exactly happy, either. But following his instructions, Terra formed a stone enclosure around them, and Raven added her soul self as shield on top of that.

So it was that the Titans, Deathstroke and the HIVE Operative DeGoss found themselves, alone, in a pocket of air surrounded by rocks. Terra maintained the small enclosed chamber, allowing only tiny micropores for airholes; and Raven added her own mystic powers as a shield, to keep any HIVE troopers out. At least long enough to conclude "negotiations."

"You wanted to talk," Deathstroke said. "So talk."

"Not to you," DeGoss said. "To the Titans." He turned and looked at Nightwing expectantly.

"Oh, this should be good," Terra mutered.

"Good is not the word," Troia answered.

"Exactly what do you have to say to us?" Nightwing folded his arms.

"It is true, I will not lie; we are enemies. I have no interest in changing that, and neither do my superiors."

"Everyone is your superior," Deathstroke put in.

Terra snorted.

"I'm gonna have to remember that line," Beast Boy said.

DeGoss hissed a sigh, but did not otherwise acknowledge the mercenary. "Deathstroke was your enemy before he worked with us; and with his failure he has turned against us as well."

"Yes, we noticed." Nightwing was not impressed. "Get to the point."

"We came here to fight you, but we are willing to stop that fight long enough to resolve our mutual problem."

There was a long, stunned pause. None of the Titans said anything.

Eventually, Nightwing turned and looked at Deathstroke, half expecting the mercenary to have run DeGoss through already. Nightwing would have given a lot to see Deathstroke's face in that moment; as it was, the Terminator merely gave a small shrug.

"Assuming we were even willing to consider such an offer--" Nighwing began.

"Please say you're not!" Scarlet Wing gasped.

"Easy," Troia muttered. Cyborg looked back and shook his head.

"Even if we were, we couldn't let you kill him."

"Then he will merely escape and attack again!" DeGoss protested.

"Like you did?" Kid Flash interjected.

"Terra, answer him," Nightwing said, turning away.

DeGoss abruptly dropped halfway through the floor; the mud then re-solidified into rock. He desperately slashed around him with his blade, but it was of no use.

"You don't want a repeat of what happened last time, do you?" Terra asked in a soft voice. Remembering that occasion, DeGoss paled and stilled himself.

Nightwing turned to Deathstroke. "In my turn, let me make the same offer to you."

"Oh no!" Scarlet Wing said.

"We really need to take those rose-tinted glasses of you," Dagon said, not unkindly.

Deathstroke stood there thinking about it for a second. "You won't try to stop me from killing them?"

"You'd be doing that anyway, and trying to kill us as well. I'd prefer it if you didn't, of course."

Deathstroke considered a moment longer. "I will not help you directly," he finally said. "But I will focus my attacks on the HIVE until they are fallen."

"Good enough," Nightwing agreed.

They didn't shake hands or anything so trite; instead, Raven let go of her shadow shield and Terra simply caused her little rock cocoon's upper half to explode outwards, pelting the HIVE soldiers with earth and mud.

As DeGoss was struggling to escape his earthen prison, Cyborg almost casually wandered down and dropped a metal fist on top of his head. That was enough for DeGoss.

Deathstroke might have considered killing him right then and there, but there were HIVE behind him. He ducked and spun as three bullets arced through the air where he had been, sighing inwardly as he turned to face the troopers behind him.

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The HIVE plan had been to overwhelm the Titans with simple numbers. If they had concentrated all their troopers on the Tower at once, instead of hitting all of Deathstroke's safe houses at the same time, they might have succeded. If they had waited until some of their metahumans had graduated from their training and were ready to fight, that also would have improved their chances.

But between splitting their forces and Deathstroke's own involvement and revenge against them during the melee, they had not killed a single Titan, and the only one really shaken was Troia, and that was mostly Deathstroke's doing.

Terra and Raven were free to use their powers to greatest possible area of effect, and Kid Flash had shaken off Deathstroke's poison. That mercenary worthy himself was killing not a few of the HIVE soldiers. Nightwing leaped and lunged, Scarlet Wing performed her own areial acrobatics, Starfire and Troia flew hither and yon, wreaking havoc. Dagon leapt and clawed, Beast Boy took various forms, mostly reptilian, taking down HIVE soldiers one by one. Cyborg unleashed his white noise cannon with devastating effect. The remaining battles were time consuming and difficult--by the time it was done Nightwing had several cuts and scrapes, and Scarlet Wing had two lacerations--but the result was certain.

Only the Titans and Deathstroke were left standing.

Deathstroke stared at the Titans.

They stared back at him.

All of them; not a single one had fallen.

There had been a time when Deathstroke had been able to take the Titans on one at a time, or all together. They had several fewer members then. Then he had done it with the help of Rose and the HIVE, both of whom had betrayed him.

On his own now, with no time to prepare, he might be able to kill a couple of them. The new girl with the red wings, most likely. Possibly Terra as well, for refusing the chance he had given her. And hopefully, Nightwing himself.

But Slade Wilson had not gotten this far in life by taking unnecessary risks, or moving before things were at optimum advantage to him. He had hoped to use the HIVE attack to his own advantage while also taking them down, as well. He had succeeded in one of two objectives.

The Titans would be his, yes. When he was ready for them. When he had the planning, preparation, and advantage.

He sheathed his sword. "This isn't over."

Scarlet Wing tensed; Nightwing held her back with one hand. The young vigilante knew the odds as well as he did. And almost certainly didn't want to risk the lives of any of his people trying to take him down. They might be able to do it, but at significant loss to themselves. While not the planner that Slade himself was, he was far from stupid.

So instead the Bat-brat gave a small smile. "We'll be waiting."

Deathstroke turned and walked away, not looking back once.

He wasn't finished with the HIVE, yet.

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Portland.

A robed HIVE leader punched a computer monitor hard enough to smash it in, bloodying his hand in the process.

"Yes, that was helpful," another said dryly.

"This was supposed to be our final victory," he seethed. "We were supposed to put the Titans and Deathstroke down. We didn't kill any of them! Not one! And now Deathstroke has suspended his own vendetta against the Titans long enough to hunt us down!"

"He does not know our exact location yet," said the other, "But a relocation would be prudent."

"No, not again! This is where we make our stand!  We shall finally destroy that fool and then the Titans, as should have happened today!"

"Calm down," the other said, strain in their voice. "Our forces are decimated, and none of our metahumans have completed our training. We must rebuild."

"No! No more reorganization! No more rethinking! We will unleash our full technological might and--"

He stopped talking, because the other HIVE leader had slipped a knife between his ribs.

He let out a confused moan and collapsed to the floor.

His murderer pushed back their hood to reveal a harshly formed (but not ugly) female face, short black hair and piercing, heartless blue eyes. The other leaders of the HIVE cadre stared at her mutely.

"Anyone else suggesting we commit suicide? Hold the line, like our falsely heroic enemies would, and be destroyed?"

None answered. The HIVE leader with steel teeth was annoyed by her violating protocol by exposing her face (and thus her identity), but sensibly kept quiet.

"This turn of events is unfortunate," she admitted, "But nothing we cannot overcome. We will do what we have always done to sustain our organization, and continue the path that will lead us to bringing true technocracy to the world. "We shall evacuate, taking our metahuman recruits with us, seek an alternative location, and start anew."

"If I may suggest," the steel-toothed leader said as diplomatically as he could, "I would believe that we should continue to hide in plain sight, rather than returning to the mountain and underground bases of old. Deathstroke knows where most of those are, anyway."

"Sound planning," she agreed, "But not in the States this time. Europe, perhaps...."

There was no further discussion; the HIVE began systematically dismantling their base. They had been through this many times, in many different countries, and were good at it.

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At the Tower, the Titans has begun cleaning up, tying up the surviving HIVE soldiers for arrest by the police and Checkmate. Raven was healing the survivors; Cyborg was already at work on repairing the damage to the Tower.

The rest were cleaning up the bodies.

"Did we....accomplish anything here, really?" Scarlet Wing sighed.

"We successfully defended ourselves against attacks by both the HIVE and Deathstroke, broke the resolve and strength of the former and earned at least a temporary reprieve from the latter. That's something; that's a lot." Nightwing understood her objection, though. This was more like survival than victory.

"We didn't ask them to come after us," Troia put in. "And laying down and letting them kill us wasn't exactly an option I'd take."

"No, I know," Scarlet Wing sighed. "I just wish we'd achieved something more lasting."

"I'll be tracing the HIVE after this," Nightwing promised. "I have the feeling Deathstroke will leave me a bloody trail to follow."

"They'll keep coming back until we break their organization apart," Terra said. "I think even old one-eye won't finish them off by himself."

"No, that's true. But eternal vigilance is part of what we do," Nightwing said. "To stand against the darkness."

And in the end, that was more than enough.

The End

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