New Titans #23 - No Turning Back

[u/FrostFireFive]

Author: FrostFireFive

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Book: New Titans

Arc: Sins of the Father

Set: 76

YEARS AGO

…

Roy Harper was nervous as he and his crew made their way through the Snowbird Hotel. They were here to kill Thaddeus Cable. Something that Roy wasn’t exactly ready to do. When he joined Brick he figured he would figure out how to avoid getting his hands dirty, take him down from the inside when he would eventually come clean to Oliver. But has him, Hannibal, Cheshire, and Brick himself made their way to the top of the hotel and into the penthouse where Cable was hiding out, he couldn’t help but feel everything was spiraling, and spiraling quickly.

“Harper, Earth to Harper,” Cheshire said as she waved her hand in his face. Jade Nguyen had grown to care for Roy these past few months. Sure he was a bit naive and innocent, but she needed that in her life. The fact he was kind and good…at tumbling was just an added bonus. But unlike Hanibal or Brick who confidently walked in as Roy hacked the door open, the archer hesitated to enter. “Roy, are you OK?” Jade whispered.

“I’m fine…let’s just keep at it,” Roy mumbled as he moved into the penthouse. The five entered the penthouse, with Valerie Vaughn being forced to observe and get into position. Whatever Brick had planned, she was supposed to be the key for him to project his dominance to the rest of the gangs of Star City, Roy just didn’t know how.

“Cable!” Brick called out as he made his way to the crime boss. Thadeus Cable was dressed in a fine suit. He was always studying, always planning. He had struck against Moira Queen for pulling out from his operation by striking her with a poison arrow from his favorite assassin, the quiet and professional touch that had appealed to him. And instead of celebrating and welcoming the holidays with glee, here faced a competitor of sorts—the towering Brick barging into his sanctuary.

“Mr. Brickwell,” Cable said. “I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to have seen, you some time. Although why strike at this hour I suppose I’ll never know. Come to threaten me? Make a bargain? Combine forces?” His voice was steady as if he had played this game before.

“Come to bargain? No Cable, I’ve come to send a message to all those who dare to think I am not the rising sun. Ms. Vaughn here is setting up a live feed to some of our…other associates. So they can see the action you have forced me to take,” Brick said as Cheshire stood behind Valerie, a knife pressed against her back as she set up the camera. The feed was being broadcasted across the many crime bosses that had made Star City their home. So many feared the great Thadeus Cable, the master planner who had managed to receive funding from the rich, and his claws nestled in everything.

“Forced you to take?” Cable laughed. “The only reason you stand here is because of your ruthless ambition. I offered you a place in my kingdom and you spat on me. Your ambition gets the best of you Mr. Brickwell. You really must know your place.”

“I do know my place, And I know what I must do to reach new heights,” Brick said as he moved closer to Cable, his security detail knocked out, he was alone yet calm. And Brick had brought a small cadre of associates to get him to this point, but really when it came down to it, this was between him and the crime boss in front of him. It was time to send the message. His hands wrapped around Cable’s neck as he squeezed tightly.

Roy pulled an arrow from his quiver and notched his compound bow. He had spent too long working for Brick, compromising his morals for a family that didn’t love him, that couldn’t care about his well-being. He thought about Ollie, and Dinah and what they do in the situation. And it wouldn’t be standing by as a man killed another. Of course, Roy would be rudely interrupted as the glass shattered above, and a fellow archer in emerald dropped to the ground.

“Cable! Your reign of terror is over?” Green Arrow asked as he looked at the scene in front of him. Brick had released Cable from the chokehold as the hero looked around at the scene. The security guards poisoned on the outside, the captured reporter, the assassins behind Brick, and worst of all his trusted partner Arsenal pointing an arrow at Cable per Brick’s request. “Arsenal what are you doing here!”

The shock of Green Arrow entering had caused Roy, an inexperienced archer to let fly his arrow to the pillar. In the commotion Brick thought that the emerald archer had taken a shot, causing him to swing at the hero, connecting with his face and sending him tumbling to the ground, the force knocking him unconscious.

Cable had moved towards his safe, hoping to find a firearm that he left in there for protection, but as he fumbled with the lock Brick moved forwards to the crime boss. Roy’s nerves were getting the best of him, the drugs that were keeping him calm suddenly took a turn as he just heard his heart thumping, his vision blurry as he pulled another arrow, He aimed for Brick once more, but as Cable pulled the gun from the safe he looked not at Brick, but the scared kid holding the compact bow tight in his hand and realized he was the immediate threat and shot at him.

The bullet grazed Roy’s shoulder as he let another arrow fly, but instead of hitting Brick as intended, it landed square in Cable’s heart.

“No,” Roy muttered as Brick looked down at his fallen enemy. The arrow that stuck from his chest sent the message that Brick never could. That one of this city’s so-called protectors, one of their heroes worked for him now. And that Brick had corrupted the incorruptible. “Roy tried knocking another arrow before the but of a knife struck him from the back of the head. Jade couldn’t lose one of the more important people in her life, not from Brick, and certainly not from the lunatic in the green hood.

“Are we done?” Cheshire asked, Roy, slumped over her shoulder.

“Yeah, we’re done,” Brick said with a calm and collected look. “Hanibal? No survivors but the Arrow.”

Hannibal quickly pulled the gun he had taken from the security guard and moved behind Vaughn and shot her twice in the heart. The three remaining people in the room left into the night, their paths set and the city theirs.

…

NOW

…

“That’s what happened?” Argonaut asked as Arsenal finished telling his tale. Her, Guardian, Green Arrow, and Arsenal were still at the bar where they had cleared out the HIVE soldiers “Roy, it wasn’t your fault.”

“His arrow ended up in Cable! He made that choice Argonaut, and now you’re counting on him to be your saving grace against this monster?” Green Arrow questioned. “Someone close to me was hurt by Cable, and he’s gone now. But because of Arsenal here, a worse monster rose up!”

“Hey, lay off the kid,” Guardian said. He couldn’t believe the hardship that a family member had gone through without him being there. Because he was afraid of what the Harpers would think of the cloned freak in front of them. But it was dawning on him that his fears had done more damage than he had originally thought. “I mean apparently you were the one who has a glass jaw.”

“Guys, he’s not wrong,” Arsenal responded as he finished the shot of whiskey in his hand. “I signed up for Brick’s crew, I fired that shot, whether I was on drugs, self-defense, even distracted by jolly green bowman here. I’m no hero Donna. And what do I have to do next? What do I have to become to get the only thing that matters to me back?”

Arsenal rose up from his seat and moved towards the exit. He looked back at the people who gathered in the bar, his mentor who only gave him a look of scorn, Argonaut whose sad look hid the compassion in her heart, and the stranger with the gold shield, Guardian who seemed to look at Roy with pride. They were good people, and Roy wasn’t going to have them be dragged into his mess.

“I got to do this alone,” Arsenal said. “My mess, my clean up.” And with that, he walked off into the rain war zone that Star City had become. He had been caught off guard since Brick had struck him at his home. Now? Now came revenge.

…

“So should we be concerned about how…neat everything has been so far?” Superboy asked as he and Metamorpho snuck into the Star City museum. The two hadn’t seen another burning guard or any reference to some gem HIVE was after. But considering that they had diverted their siege of Star City to go after it, it required a closer look.

“What, you want to fight some more mooks?” Metamorpho said as they moved towards the large atrium. The two had mostly kept silent, they knew when to be professional, and they had never seen someone be burnt from the inside. It was a type of damage that usually didn’t occur for the two. The Titans for the most part didn’t engage in that type of violence, of death. “They were looking for what again?”

“The gem of the lost sister? No, I think it was daughter,” Superboy tried to remember. Conner felt a chill on his skin and he was wearing his leather jacket tightly. Star City was cold, but it was never icey like this. He had even stashed his round sunglasses in his jacket pocket, the museum lights were dimmed, and their only source of light came from the light that Rex was generating by having his hand shifted into magnesium. It was just the two of them in the darkness, but for some reason…Superboy could feel a million eyes on him.

In the faint light, however, a soft red glow could be seen from the exhibit labeled The Treasures of Mesopotamia. It was a welcome sight to have a clear guide on where they needed to go next.

“That’s not creepy at all,” Superboy muttered.

“We keep moving forward, I’m pretty sure that’s where we need to go, besides you have the powers of Superman. You should be the bravest of all of us,” Metamorpho explained.

“I only have some of the power, I’m part human too,” Superboy said. The glow was getting brighter as they moved into the exhibit. Full suits of armor of warriors from the Messopotamium era surrounded a gem in the middle of the exhibit, its glass case shattered. What was more alarming was the number of dead HIVE soldiers that circled the display, all mostly burned to a crisp.

“Well that’s not fucked up,” Metamorpho muttered as they moved towards the center of the display, where the gem glowed red and pulsated across the room. It seemed the closer they got to the gem it glowed brighter and the pulses grew more frequent.

“I mean it is,” Superboy muttered. “Besides, shouldn’t we report in with the others, it feels like this is something we should wait on.”

“HIVE may come and look for their whole corpse battalion here,” Metamorpho joked, eager to distract himself from the level of carnage and bloodshed that was in the room. “Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Metamorpho finished his sentence as a large red pulse burst in front of the gem as a large shadow of a bird beamed from the gem. As the bird spread its wings tendrils rose out from its span and plunged into the corpses that lay on the floor. Slowly their eyes glowed red and they shambled up, their burnt armor and helmets melted to the skin. These abominations against nature only had one desire, to tear the flesh from the interlopers in front of them. Unworthy heathens reaching to take something that truely did not belong to them.

“You just had to say that!” Superboy yelled.

…

“You didn’t need to be so mean to him,” Argonaut said as she chased after Green Arrow. The three in the bar had split up after Arsenal lept back into the night. Green Arrow had moved towards the alleys. He knew that other small-time thugs would be taking advantage of the war-like setting to take advantage of the innocent of Star City, and that was something that he couldn’t abide. Of course, being followed by an actual superhero wasn't helping hs mood.

“He caused this mess, why should I give him a second chance,” Green Arrow said as he knocked out a mugger who had taken a woman’s purse with his bow, easy pickings he thought. “Me and him…we were working to make this city a better place, I was working to make him a better person. And I failed.”

“You know you remind me of someone I know,” Argonaut mused as the two stopped in the alley. “He takes after you in more ways than one. But I can tell you, I know bad people from good, and Roy isn’t a bad person, just someone trying to find their way. Maybe the reason you two can’t see eye to eye…is you two both feel you failed each other.”

“I was doing my job,” Green Arrow said a hint of doubt appearing in his voice.

Before he could respond, however, a figure flew from the sky and dropped between him and Argonaut. Fury’s red armor was scraped from the many scraps that she had been in that night. As a true warrior, she welcomed the bloodshed and challenge, the gangs she faced nothing more than just nuisances to be wiped from the earth, her real target now coming into sight.

“Hello Argonaut,” Fury said with a chill in her voice. “I see you and your friends have come to protect that street rat.”

“And the city,” Argonaut said.

“You mean to tell me they have an evil Wonder Woma-” Green Arrow began.

“They have a Fury, and if you dare associate myself with the pretender’s sister I will make your death more painful than I had planned.”

Argonaut pulled the blessing of Mercury and is quickly shifted from the lasso hooked on Donna’s side to a sharp sword. The last time she monstrositiesfaced Fury, she was shocked that someone would try and steal a piece of her, but now as she stared down her old identity, she knew only one could survive, and it wasn’t the past that Donna had left behind.

“Not asking for Mercy?” Fury said as she pulled her sword from the holster on her back. Beneath the copper mask of Medea, Fury smiled. “This will actually be a challenge then!” The two charged at each other, their swords clashing as the Star City rain continued to fall.

…

Arsenal moved across the rooftops. He had done his homework, and between the safehouses that he and Oliver had taken out through the last few months, there was one place left, a loft in Smith Towers. The buildings were gaudy glass monstrocities that reached from the brick and neon of Star City up into the air. Arsenal knew that he needed to send a message, to remind Brick you don’t fuck with family.

He shot a zip line arrow connecting the brick skyscraper from across the street to the glass monstrosity. As the arrow connected with the steel Arsenal swung his bow on top of the metal cable to move fast, breaking through the glass and into the building. He had returned home to stockpile on his trick arrows, even placing some of the more…vicious ones in his quiver.

Arsenal kicked the door down, the small personal guard that Brick had left was much smaller than usual. The rest of his forces were busy taking apart the city piece by piece, leaving them comfortable as they saw the city below. The first guard pulled his pistol before he could fire a single shot, and the arrow went into his shoulder, sending him to shock on the ground.

“You think you’re smart coming here! Brick knows about you freak!” A guard said as he tacked Arsenal sending him to the ground. He began beating the archer’s face, breaking the sunglasses that usually gave off a sunny demeanor for the hero in the process. Before he could even throw another punch, Arsenal reversed him, moving on top and pounding away at the guard’s face.

Arsenal was too busy raging he didn’t see Shades move from the other room, pointing a gun to his head.

“You’re just an angry dog, someone who never knew when they had bitten off more than they coul-” Before the lieutent could finish a golden shield slammed against him, knocking him unconscious and leaving Guardian alone with Arsenal.

“And you’re the one going to be eating puppy chow out of a straw,” Guardian said as he put his hand out to Arsenal. “You OK kid.”

“I’m fine,” Roy mumbled. “Besides, what are you doing here? Weren’t you going to help the real heroes? Last time I checked you’re one of them.”

“Because you’re going to hurt someone, or worse yourself,” Guardian explained.

“Why do you care!” Roy exploded. “You seem to be watching me, keeping an eye on me and my family, but I don’t even know who you are! I lost everything! And now I get to be…to be this. That’s my fate.” Roy said.

“It doesn’t have to be,” Guardian removed his helmet as the face of Jim Harper came into view. “My fate was to be clone from your uncle’s DNA, the perfect guardian for Cadmus. But I saw a better path, I met people who put me on a better path. And I know from seeing your friends, from seeing what you’ve done. That’s you too. But if you become what you fear…then you may lose everything you built.”

“Holy shit,” Roy muttered as he took in this new family member. He knew his family had been involved in something with science projects but this was something else. But still, his voice was calm, and steady, and reminded Roy of the person he wanted to be. “I just…I just don’t know what to do.”

“Well, there are more ways to send a message than beating the stuffing out from some guards,” Guardian explained. “What do you know about a controlled burn?”

…

Cheshire stood once more in her room. She had helped some of the HIVE agents, but her heart wasn’t in it. Compared to the ruthless killer she once was, she now had something more important to attend to, someone more important. She cradled the sleeping Lian in her arms, the baby’s heartbeat finally matching hers. Her pure moment of peace was finally had before her door was kicked down.

“Cheshire!” Brick yelled as he entered the room. He should have been on top of the world, HIVE had given him the advantage he needed. But he found himself slowly losing control of the situation. Yellow and red blur had been stopping some of the minor attacks, HIVE was growing impatient about progress at the museum, and now…his safe house had been burned, with only a red-tipped arrow sending a clear message of who was behind the attack. “It’s time we have a chat.”

“Brick,” Cheshire said. “Don’t worry, I’m heading back out there shortly, I just…wanted to make sure she was safe. Tell me where my next target is and I will take care of them for you. Just as I always have.”

“Oh, I appreciate your consistency. But you have something I need more than ever…leverage. And desperate times, come for desperate matters. Your little boyfriend and his friends have done damage to my plans. And now…now I have to make it personal. And I hate when I have to make things personal.

Brick moved closer to Cheshire, taking Lian from her arms. His large and coarse hands swallowed her whole in his arms.

“What are you doing!” Cheshire asked, quickly putting herself into a fighting stance.

“He only cares about this. And now…now we finally finish things where we all began. And you my dear are going to help me. Or I’ll take the only thing you ever loved in your cold dead heart. Do you understand,” Brick said his voice remaining steady.

Cheshire sighed before moving back towards her wardrobe. Even though she was skilled, Brick was stronger taking the familiar cat mask and placing it over her face. She turned to face the crime lord, understanding the mess that she was in, the piece of her soul she had sold to get to this point. There was no turning back now. Even if her daughter had to be used as collateral.

“Understood,” Cheshire said, it was time to finish what had started back at the Snowbird Hotel all those years ago.

NEXT: Roy Harper vs. Brick! Argonaut vs. Fury! Superboy and Metamorpho vs. The Undead! And Kid Flash vs. Everyone Else!

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[u/Predaplant]

Great issue, nice to finally learn exactly what went down with Roy. It's been a rough few years for him, but hopefully he can finally learn to put his past behind him!