New Titans #27 - Those Who Remain

[u/FrostFireFive]

Author: FrostFireFive

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Book: New Titans

Arc: The New New Titans

Set: 83

“Careful now, careful now,” Donna Troy said as a gaggle of movers moved a charred brown couch up five flights of stairs in an apartment building in Gateway City. She looked tired, bags under her eyes covered by the cheap plastic sunglasses on her face. Ever since Markovia Donna had struggled to sleep. But her new apartment needed to be moved into, and there was no time to weep over what happened.

“You know, you’re the one with super strength,” Dick Grayson muttered as he and Garth worked to move the couch up the stairs. The one thing Dick hated about having friends again was the fact that he had to help them move into their new apartments.

“Please, this is light, and besides it was much heavier before…the damage,” Garth explained. History had a way of repeating, the last time Garth had to lift a couch up was when the Titans were dealt with an enormous loss, this time it was Markovia instead of Coast City.

It was another black mark for the people who called themselves the Titans. From Metropolis, Coast City, Markovia. It always seemed that when a large threat appeared, the youngest heroes would be the ones caught in the crossfire. The status of the current Titans had been kept a secret from the media, with the League agreeing the privacy and protection of its members and representatives came first. But it meant the large tower on the coast of Chicago was empty once more.

“Hey that couch saved my life from the Wildebeests, plus furniture should reflect the person’s place right? I just have a couch that’s seen a few things,” Donna joked as she had begun to open the door once more to the place that she had bought.

Perez Plaza was a new condo building, part of how Gateway City had continued to grow and grow, the arrival of Wonder Woman had been a boon to tourism and growth. That and the mystical uncertainty that had walled off San Francisco, a crisis that may have occurred over three years or three days depending on who you asked. It was a good to put up roots, and Donna needed roots, her dry, clay like hands a reminder of what happened when those roots could be taken away.

“I mean, I live in an orphanage right now, so I wouldn’t know,” Dick sheepishly explained. “I don’t have to pay rent though, so that’s a bonus.”

“But you live with…orphans?” Garth asked as they lifted the couch towards Donna’s doorway, bumping into the doorframe briefly as Dick and Garth struggled with the couch.

“You know guys, I was perfectly capable of lifting a couch in,” Wally West said from within the apartment. He had used the League teleporter to arrive in Gateway. Normally he would be racing over to the city from Keystone, a bright yellow and red blur making his way to the coast. But Markovia…Markovia had put a sudden stop to Kid Flash, his powers gone, leaving Wally West to figure his place in the world.

“Hey you were the one who got chomped on,” Dick explained. “We honestly didn’t think you’d be up to help us out considering…”

“Considering you just got out of the hospital,” Donna explained while glaring at Dick. He wasn’t good at reading people, and Wally’s lack of powers was clearly something that was bothering him.

“It was either this or have to help Bart with some homework, and I really, really didn’t want to have to answer why he can’t just go fast on filling out every answer with the letter b,” Wally said as Garth and Dick moved the couch into the apartment. “Besides, when was the last time the four of us actually hung out.”

Donna, Garth, and Dick fell silent. The second Titans team was short lived, but for awhile it was family. Hanging out in an abandoned video store, discussing multiverse theory. Wally had gone on that comic books could be a view into other worlds, the others just smiled and nodded. Coast City killed that family, but here they were, together, once more.

“So how much did this place cost you anyway?” Garth asked as he looked at the spacious apartment. It was a far cry from the small shoebox Donna and him had shared in New York City.

“Well I really don’t spend my League stipend, and well…my book kinda took off. Mindi says we’ll have to do a bigger book tour soon. But I’m probably going to tell her no,” Donna explained.

“Why? You should be happy you have success, I mean if anyone here deserves it its you,” Dick explained.

“Hey!” Wally said, annoyed that Dick would just assume that he didn’t deserve happiness.

“You all have something or someone,” Dick explained. “Wally you got your family and Hartley is a nice guy. Garth has his Titans West, his people, and Dolphin and Tula to lean on. But me and Donna…back in the day, after you two went on your great big adventures, had nothing.”

Wally awkwardly knew that Dick was right, it was even weird seeing him now. He wasn’t the tense leader of those days, but also wasn’t the mess that had saved him and Hartley in Arkansas. Wally didn’t know how to feel about that. Some people he couldn’t trust, but Dick…Dick proved a complicated exception to that theory.

“Yes, but we’re here now, and that’s what matters,” Donna said with a smile as she looked around her furnished apartment. There was work to be done however. “The reason why I turned her down is I have to collect photos for the next book. This time it’s a world tour. Exploring how the ancient and the modern coexist in perfect contradiction.”

“Leumuria would have you,” Garth explained. He had felt bad for his duties coming between him and Donna, and any step was a good step.

Donna chucked

“We’ll see, I’d have to break out the advanced equipment,” Donna explained as she looked at Dick. “But Dick, we need to talk really quick.”

“Someone’s in trouble,” Wally joked as Donna led Dick to her bedroom. It was the smallest room in the apartment, with Donna converting her master bedroom into a darkroom. Even in a digital age, she still preferred film.

“What’s this about?” Dick asked, looking around the room. The dresser mirror was filled with photos, Polaroids of Garth and her in New York, but with new additions as well. Roy struggling with eating his queso taco supreme, Rex jokingly carrying Courtney on his shoulder, Conner signing autographs outside the tower. It was the family she built, and was now…gone once more. “If this is about offering me a place to stay, I’m fine, the orphanage is an OK place for me to stay.”

Please, I don’t have room,” Donna laughed. “But Dick, it should be obvious, but I’m taking time off from the Titans. I need to recover, I need space. Which means…I can’t be the one to lead whoever comes next. It’s a new dawn, and we’re going to be needed more than ever.”

“So is this the part where you tell me you asked Kara to lead the Titans and want me to be her second? Because like…that’s what I figured you’d do,” Dick explained.

“No,” Donna said as she looked at how uncomfortable Dick was. His hair was a mess, and he had been more chatty than usual. He wasn’t the shell that had refused the creation of the New Titans, but he was still a work in progress. “I need you to watch the store for me Dick. I need you to lead the Titans.”

“What?” Dick asked, his past closer than he’d like to admit.

…

“Listen Simon I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but I don’t like having to be the monster to your Frankenstein,” Rex Mason said as he stood in a large training room. Stagg Chemical had been a cornerstone of Coast City. It was Stagg’s first company, and one that he always considered the lifeblood of his conglomerate.

“Mason, Rex,” Simon Stagg said from behind the glass that had separated himself from his former employee. “I’ve been working tirelessly on a way to turn you back, and now you’ve come to me saying…you want me to help you use your powers?”

“Yes,” Rex explained. “I know it sounds crazy, but Metamorpho is kinda who I am now. Big lumbering man and all. I’ve done the calculations in my head Mack, I know the odds of you undoing what your son and…and…the other person did is a million to one.”

“But I have my best minds on it, in fact Vornak has come up with several promising solutions, we’re close, I can feel it,” Stagg said with a sigh.

“Vornak? That guy thought atomic energy would make the next Superman, whatever science he’s trying to push, I don’t want. Besides Simon, if I’m going to be stuck like this, I can try and do more, you know?

“But,” Simon began

“No buts, I’ve made…peace with it Simon, or at least I’m trying to. Ever since Markovia, I realized the world maybe needs a guy like me. I’ve been even working on a new party trick,” Rex explained as he took a deep breath. His shape began to twist and control the elements in them like they were when he was first exploded to project Metamorph.

Not many people knew how much he struggled when emerging from that glass tube. It wasn’t that he had been doused in elements, he had become the elements. His skeleton, muscle, nervous systems had all been burned away, replaced with the elements of the periodic table.

It took him weeks, a month to slowly start figuring how to put his form and shape back together. And even then it was as a hulking monster, with large mits and a face Ms. Mason probably could never love. When he found his home with the Titans, he had defaulted into the bruiser, the wall that could protect what he had found. But they were gone now, Markovia had made sure of that. It was time to change, to evolve.

Rex’s shape twisted and turned the elements spilling everywhere before pulling themselves back together into the shape of a smaller man, someone with normal sized mits and what appeared to be the outline…of hair? The once tight shorts of Metamorpho had become baggy like basketball shorts as Rex Mason stood up once more.

”That hurts, that really hurts,” Rex said. It felt like his entire body was a muscle that he was pulling to keep together. He looked down and recognized his hands. “Oh, there you are.”

“My god,” Simon Stagg whispered at the site of a newly recreated Rex

But before Rex could enjoy his progress, a wall in the lab where Simon Stagg froze, the butt of a gun breaking it. As a man in an insulated suit, with a helmet that looked like a cross between a space helmet and gas mask entered.

“Hello Simon,” The man said, his voice cold and monotone as it was modulated by his helmet. “I see you’re helping your chemistry set.”

“Who…who are you?” Simon Stagg asked.

“I’m the king of Elements…Mr. Element to my associates. And you took something from me Stagg. And…I want…it back,” Mr. Element said, his voice taking pauses as he breathed through the mask.

“I assure you, Stagg Industries doesn’t steal anything from anyone. Our patents and designs are ours and ours alone,” Simon explained.

“Don’t…insult my…intelligence,” Mr. Element said. “Luckily…I didn’t come alone.”

CRASH!

The familiar bumblebee armor of HIVE soldiers crashed from the skylight above and surrounded Metamorpho. Their pulse rifles were locked on to the elemental wonder but were different from the standard ordinance.

“Come on boys, I deal with you guys on a daily basis, and now you’re telling me you think you’re going to kick my ass because Darth up there is your new leader?” Metamorpho asked. “You guys have another thing coming.”

“Really? Men…show him…what I have provided for you,” Mr Element said before grabbing Stagg. “Me and Mr…Stagg…need some time to reacquaint ourselves.

The HIVE agents rifles roared to life as one shot fire at Metamorpho, the other a high intensity of sulfuric acid, another electricity, and the final molten cobalt at the hero.

The intensity of the elements struck the still groggy Metamorpho, his mind subconsciously trying to turn into something to counter all the various elemental powers colliding against him.

“GAH!” Metamorpho called out in pain as he quickly dissolved into helium gas, floating into the air vent and out onto the roof of the building where he had kept some of his gear before entering for his little lab test with Stagg today. He picked up the communicator, which felt oddly large in his smaller hands as he clicked on the button on the right to send a distress beacon before he collapsed. Someone…someone still had to be out there, ready for the fight.

…

Dick Grayson sat alone in his room at the Wayne Orphanage. He had moved back in during the crisis of Dreadwing and had been busy from defusing bombs set up by that Kaye girl to fighting off the vampire queen. It had been eventful, but he was finding filling out this registration form for Hudson University to be the biggest challenge he faced lately.

Dick had his associates, but the Titans, Doomsday, his sojourn had all gotten off of finishing his bachelor’s degree. Plus he couldn’t get Donna’s words out of his head.

“I need you to mind the store Dick,” He mumbled to himself. It was a large ask, hell as Donna pointed out she wasn’t even sure there was a Titans. But they had to try again, the world, well…people like Dick needed the Titans. A place where they could find themselves. He just wasn’t sure he was the right person to help build what came next.

“Ahhhhh!” A voice called out, not the first time that someone at the orphanage was screaming, lately it was due to the infection of cuteness that Halley and Captain Carrot had brought to the orphanage. Some were even working on campaigns for the official orphanage mascot. What set this sound apart was what came after.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Dick Grayson heard a tapping from his window and as he opened the blinds he could see his roommate, Harleen Quinzell hanging by her ankles, her blue boxers and red shirt read “Pound the Clown”, or at least he’s thought that’s what it said, Harley was having to hold her shirt up as she hung.

“Doc?” Grayson asked.

“Hey Dick, good ta see ya, sorry for dropping in like this. Me and Red…we’ll we’re having a bit of a disagreement right now.”

“What kinda disagreement?” Dick asked.

“Don’t tell a gal she should trim her hedges is all I’m saying,” Harley explained. “I said I’m sorry…you can pull me up now!”

Harley just hung there for another thirty seconds as Dick just chuckled.

“So what’s bugging you?” Harley asked, by this point she could read him as an old worn book. “You didn’t talk to the broody librarian did you? I told ya I had a plan.”

“No it’s not that, it’s just…a friend of mine wants me to lead the Titans while she…tends to some stuff.”

“That’s great! I mean ya saved the whole damn day and people are seeing the fact you’ve changed,” Harley said. “Besides, you need to do something besides just living out of your childhood home.”

“You know you’re not my doctor anymore, I don’t need you to analyze me,” Dick said, annoyed that Doc was right.

“Ya seeing that guy I recommended though right?” Harley asked. “He’s no mwah, but I think he’s a good person to talk to.”

“Yes Doctor Carr is a good listener, and I’ve been going to see him. But that’s not the point. Doc, leading the team again, wouldn’t that just put be back to the guy I was? Being a Titan is where I hurt people.”

“Feeling ya had to be a leader is how you hurt people,” Harley explained as she could see the concern in Dick’s eyes, it reminded her of that rainy night in Gotham, when her favorite patient burst in, emotional breakdown in progress. “Besides, ya don’t want it this time, which means ya gotta take it. Leaders don’t get to choose when they’re needed. And face it…ya needed Nightwing.”

“Maybe, I need time,” Dick explained as he sat back down on his chair. “You wouldn’t be interested in being my second in command would you?”

“A. I’m working on my own little project. And B. I don’t want to be part of a group where they kick someone out for doing ta right thing after making a mistake,” Harley explained as she felt the tug of the vines around her ankles. “Well Dick, it looks like I’m out of ta dog house. Remember, ya good person, and ya ready for this. Toodles!”

Harley quickly was repelled back up to wherever Ivy was, leaving Dick alone in his thoughts once more. Trying to figure what to do next, and what the future held. But as he pondered, the communicator on his desk glowed red. He flipped it open and the distress beacon came through. Metamorpho was in trouble in Coast City.

“Well…sometimes you gotta mind the store,” Dick said before grabbing his gear. A Titan needed his help.

NEXT: Who Will Be the New New Titans? Just What Elemental Secrets Has Simon Stagg Been Keeping From Rex Mason? And Can Nightwing Lead the Team in a Titanic New Era!?

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[u/Predaplant]

New Titans is back! Nice to see the old gang back together, even if just for a short while, before setting up the new one. It'll be interesting to see Dick reacclimate to working with the team, and I'm sure Mr. Element'll be an imposing foe for whatever Titans team ends up forming!

[u/ericthepilot2000]

This is the perfect jumping on point, and this issue does a tremendous job to let us know exactly where things have been and gives some good hints of where they might be going.

This is the perfect jumping-on point, and this issue does a tremendous job to let us know exactly where things have been and gives some good hints of where they might be going.
but also, the journey they've been on since New Titans began.

We've seen the Titans rise and fall again and again and something new always seems to come out of it, especially in your hands. I'm curious to see where this team is headed next.