Everything was quiet on the ocean cliffside of the mansion.
A faint vrrrrmmmmmm… began--
--and a city of bats exploded out of the cave, screeching as the black car, the black jet, and the black sub came screaming out of the cave after them - Red X's car tearing out of the place as well, but doing so under the water.
“WHOO-HOO!” yelled Robin as the black car went airborne for a moment. Starfire was glued to the back of her seat as the black car, with its insanely powerful rocket engine, pulled a Jesus and roared along on top of water’s surface.
“YEAH! NOW THIS IS TRANSPORTATION!” Shego yelled as she pulled the pilot’s controls up and the black jet shot into the air. Shego increased the thrust, and the black jet shrieked upwards, eventually climbing up through the layer of smoke that covered everything below in the shroud of darkness.
“I'm feeling the need for speed. Yeah.” Raven’s voice was utterly devoid of emotion as she increased the black sub’s speed and streaked past Red X’s car in the water.
In Red X’s car, Rufus cheered as the black sub shot by them.
“Hey guys, wait up - some of us can't go faster than 800 miles per hour, y'know!” Beast Boy yelled into the comm.
Señor Senior, Sr. watched them all take off from the window. He shook his head. “Kids…”
When the black jet finally broke through the fog of choking smoke, Kim & Shego were aghast. They could see the stars. They could see the moon. They hadn’t seen either in utterly ages. Shego looked at the altitude monitor. They were low enough. She slowed down a bit, and put the jet on auto-pilot. Kim looked at her – as she took off the oxygen mask. Kim got the point immediately, and promptly took off her own oxygen mask. They leaned in to each other and kissed. “So how did that feel, now that we’ve disguised ourselves to look like each other?” Shego asked Kim when the kiss finally ended.
Kim grinned. “Like I was kissing myself.” They looked at the moon and stars together. “Beautiful…”
Satisfied, the two women mutually broke off their little romantic moment and returned to business. They put their oxygen masks back on. Shego switched to manual, brought the black jet up to shrieking speed, and tore off through the skies.
In the underground control room, a henchman's console started wailing its alarm. “MR. SLADE!” The henchman yelled. “Four unidentified vehicles are approaching us from the ocean – and they’re traveling at phenomenal speed!”
“Then they're here.” Slade grinned under his mask.
Aviarius, behind him, pressed a button. The platform the self-proclaimed Dark Master of the Winged World was standing on rose up through the roof of the control room.
“Now we come to the Opening Act.” Slade narrowed his eyes. “Blood?”
“UNDERWATER STRIKE FORCE! RELEASE THE GIANT MIND-CONTROLLED PIRANHAS – NOW!” Brother Blood commanded from his overlooking position at the top of the cliff.
Below him in the water, a couple dozen squadrons of the giant piranhas rocketed out of the cliff side towards Red X's car and the black sub.
In Red X’s car, Cyborg's arm scanner eruped with a shitton of beeping. Cyborg looked at it. “X! RAVEN! We got incoming!”
Raven watched as the piranhas closed in on her. “Noo shit, Sherlock.” She pulled the sub up at the last second as two piranhas circled and converged on her - making them crash together, putting the fish out of their mind-controlled misery forever.
Aviarius rose up out of the ground behind Brother Blood. Blood didn’t even look behind him as he spoke. “You made it. I thought you were going to miss the show for a moment there.”
“We need a faster platform elevator!” Aviarius grumbled.
“SURFACE LEVEL STRIKE FORCE! RELEASE THE MIND-CONTROLLED FLYING FISH – NOW!” Blood commanded once again.
The black car sped along over the top of the water. Inside it, Starfire was plastered to her seat, gulping in what the oxygen masks she and Robin were now wearing would allow her to gulp in. “ROBIN! YOU ARE GOING FAR TOO – SLOW!” she suddenly shrieked as she saw the water frothing up ahead of them.
“Huh? WHOAH!” Robin swerved the black car as the flying fish leapt out the water straight at them. “STARFIRE! TAKE THE STEERING WHEEL!” he commanded. Starfire could barely unbuckle, but she managed to do so – and Robin and her switched seats as quickly as they possibly could. Set, Starfire slammed her foot on the gas, her extra Tameranean strength nearly driving the pedal through the floor. The car's engine roared as the afterburner kicked in and its speed doubled - a sonic boom echoed over the ocean as the car barreled over the water. Its tri-pointed front now made the black car a rocket-powered 3-pronged spear - and Robin used the advantage, letting the black car just slice away through the armada of flying fish that continued to endlessly leap out of the water at them.
Brother Blood and Aviarius watched with evil glee in their eyes. “Now THIS is an award-winning show!” Blood sneered.
Raven deftly manoeuvred the black sub as more of the giant piranhas attacked, gnashing their teeth at empty spaces over and over as she swerved, dipped, and dove the sub away from their glistening metal teeth. She swooped the sub up out of the way of an oncoming razortooth - and the piranha didn't turn around after her, but instead headed straight for Red X's car.
In Red X’s car. Ron pointed at the oncoming fish. “Those are some HUGE TEETH!”
“BUCKLE UP!” X yelled.
“What are you gonna d – WHOAH!” Cyborg was thrown around like a rag doll when X suddenly SPUN the car. X continued, spinning and looping and twirling around the piranhas, as if a drunk ballerina with good coordination was driving the car. The piranhas, trying to follow this dazzling display of underwater drunk driving, repeatedly slammed into one another, ending their careers as cops for good.
Back inside X's car, Ron was not happy. “I'M NOT LIKING THE SPINNING!” he yelled. Rufus, freaking out, just chittered in fear uncontrollably.
“This car may not be as fast as that sub, but I can out-manoeuvre these little fishies any day!” X gloated. He yanked up on the steering wheel as the jaws of another piranha almost grazed the windshield. A muffled explosion behind the car let everybody know they could breathe easy.
“All the piranhas and flying fish have just been completely destroyed, Sir!” came the henchman’s voice over Brother Blood’s comm speaker.
“DAMMIT!” Blood slammed his fist down. “Where's the Calvary when you need them?”
“I'm right here - though, obviously, I'm not really the Calvary!” Drakken’s voice cut through the comm. “Get your ass backstage, Brother!”
“Gladly!” Blood turned to Aviarius. “You're on deck, Birdman!” Blood hopped on the platform elevator and descended as Aviarius stepped forward.
“STARFIRE! YOU CAN SLOW DOWN NOW!” Robin screamed.
“OH!” Starfire eased her foot off the gas pedal, but not by very much. She made sure the car still had enough speed to keep it rocketing along the top of the water – even though it could go underwater….
Robin opened the weapons console on the dashboard. “Let's see what this baby can do.”
Drakken rose up out of the ground via another platform elevator to a spot above a small beach that was directly below where Aviarius was watching at the top of the cliff. “Dammit! Those platform elevators are far too slow…” he grumbled. But he quickly forgot his about the elevator and looked down at the small beach. A line of his henchmen waited there, all of them carrying powerful weaponry. They were backed by a line of missile-laden giant robots – special models that Drakken had been especially fond of and quite proud of building.
Submarines, manned by Slade-Bots, lined themselves up underwater, right below Drakken’s position.
In the black sub, Raven saw the Slade-Bot-manned subs first. “Uh, guys - we got more - oncoming.”
“I see them,” said Red X.
“Scanner shows they’re not being piloted by humans,” said Cyborg as he looked at his arm scanner.
“And that would make a difference why?” Raven asked over the comm.
“I think we’d all like to not kill an incredibly huge amount of people if we can avoid it, eh?” Cyborg responded.
“Even if they were trying to kill you?” Beast Boy asked.
“W – uh –” Cyborg quickly regained his composure. “Yeah. Killing is our last resort.”
X looked back at them. “Didn’t seem to be a last resort when I broke you out of The Cage.”
Ron pointed frantically. “Um, could you guys focus ON THE TORPEDOES HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US?” he screamed, ending the little argument as X barely had time to pull the steering wheel hard left. The torpedoes that had been launched at them narrowly missed the side of the car.
“I think I just became an Independent…” moaned Beast Boy. Rufus wiped his brow, chittering the equivalent of “Phew…”
“Oh, crap.” Raven’s voice came over the comm.
“Oh crap what?” asked Cyborg.
“We're going too fast,” said Raven, as she began to arm all the weapons on the black sub that she could find. “Arm your weapons and eject out of here. We won't be able to stop safely at all.”
“Gotcha. Pressurized suits are on,” came Cyborg’s voice over her comm.
“We have the same deal here,” Robin said into his comm. “Kim? Shego?” He’d almost forgotten about the women in the black jet. “How are you two doing up there?”
Shego began diving the black jet down through the smoke. The stars would have to wait until the fires in the cities were put out. “We're fine! Need some cover fire?” Shego yelled into her comm. She seemed to give Kim a deranged grin as Kim armed all the weapons on the jet.
Drakken raised his arm at his troops on the small beach. “Ready!”
Suddenly, the black jet came streaking out of the smoke barrier above, diving straight towards the beach. “WHAT?” Drakken screamed, startled.
“NOW!” Robin screamed.
Cyborg, Red X, Beast Boy, Ron, and Raven ejected away, blasting out of the water just as Robin and Starfire ejected from the black car, as well.
“FIRE!” Drakken screamed – but his platoon below could barely acknowledge before the black jet unapologetically unleashed upon them every last weapon the plane had apparently been armed with - and the combo of Red X's car, the black sub, and the black car all crashing into the cliff side at once caused a Brobdingnagian explosion that engulfed the small beach entirely. Before the explosion had even begun to subside, Drakken knew his beach forces were dead. He hopped on the platform elevator and descended away.
Shego and Kim hooted and hollered upon seeing the explosion. “YEAH! SUCK THAT!” Shego yelled.
“Waitaminute-” said Kim, who had been the one to fire all the jet’s weapons. “-I just killed people – and it felt good doing it!”
Shego looked at her. “Hey, dammit! We made each other a promise, Kim. And while you look like me, I ain't gonna let you suddenly turn evil on me – y’hear me? Though, now you know how I felt when I first went bad. It just felt sooo good…” She trailed off before she could form any thoughts about going evil again. They kept cropping up every now and then, but just looking at Kim reminded her she could never go back to her evil ways. It would mean the end of their relationship. And neither of them were willing to be apart from each other - ever - especially now, when they were the last of their families alive.
In the underground control room, Slade narrowed his eye. It wasn't over yet. “Now for the headlining Act - Aviarius.”
On the top of the cliff, Aviarius paid all the Titans, Red X, and Ron no heed as their parachutes dropped them down into a small valley of brush just below his position. He was focused on only two people – and those two people had to be the ones who were piloting that black jet that had just obliterated Drakken’s First Area line of defense. Luckily, they weren’t the only ones who had hidden in the smoke barrier…
“KAMIKAZE FALCON BRIGADE, ATTACK!”
Aviarius cackled as he watched his swarm of robotic falcons emerge from the smoke, spread their wings, and take flight - straight for the black jet.
END ACT TWO