((Time for part two of the Titan/Impel/Superboy team up extravaganza! BOOYAH!))

Chapter 4:

Before Allen could even blink, his feet were already placed onto solid ground and his entire surrounding had changed. The two were now hidden behind several crates in the corner of the underground warehouse. Impel was slightly disoriented from the speedy move, so Conner took the time to survery the area. Gunshots filled the air, along with the shouts of Titan, as the sight of what Conner would later describe as a "Titanic"; a term which would be used by Conner at later dates to annoy Titan to no end.

Titan had absorbed mass from the ground beneath him as he charged; powering up his body; making it grow to a point where he looked bigger than Bane did on the Venom drug. Bullets bounces off of Titan as he charged into the group of armed thugs. More men began to pour into the room, catching Titans attention as he sprang into action, throwing his body at the doorway and barreling over the men as they were caught off guard.

Superboy sprung into action as well, rushing in to aid Titan. Titan and Superboy got back to back as armed thugs began to surround them. "Imp." Titan said sternly as he looked over his back, his voice so heavy with power that his words practically jumped off of the wall.

"Doing what it does." Superboy said with a grin as one of the armed men started to step forward; Conner did his best to speak in a manner so the thugs wouldn't know they had Impel lurking in the corners. Conner reached out and grabbed the man by the collar before tossing him aside with enough force to break a few bones when he slammed into the nearby wall.

Titan took the moment and used it to his advantage, easily overcoming the first thug in his way by grabbing a hold of the mans uniform and putting enough mass into the outfit that the man would be unable to move in it. The pull of gravity soon intensified on the mans uniform as he was yanked from Titans hand and dropped to the floor; Titans physical mass lessening slightly. Titan did the same thing to several other thugs until his physical form was diminished to the point where he would just barely withstand their guns.

Meanwhile Impel took the time to analyze the cargo that the thugs were moving. He found several cases of high-end weapons; the kind of things that WayneTech worked to keep away from these kinds of people. Allen knew in a second that the tech wasn't WayneTech; but regardless of where it came from; these things had to be destroyed. Impel had pocketed one of the weapons cartridges and was able to get off one of the guns computer mods; just in case they could learn anything from them.

Impel continued to search through crates; and after six or seven crates of dangerous guns; Impel open a crate to reveal a shockingly familiar green glow; the crate was filled with strange looking harnesses which encases a solid rock of Kryptonite. "Well this is bad." Impel said cautiously as he quickly put the lid down on the crate; holding onto the hope that these guys didn't know what they had been moving.

"We've got the piece of Green-K over here in a box! Figures the second we get our hands on it one of those damn Supers show up for us to test it on. Gotta love karma." A thug said as they approach from behind Impel.

Meanwhile; as Superboy continued to fight against several of the other men, though Conner would have described it as a one sided display of awesome; a lone gunman began to sift through several of the crates until he found one full of high-impact sonic grenades. The man pulled out a harness which had a dozen grenades attached to it; and with the pull of a single pin which connected to the pins on every grenade, the man threw the harness to the ground behind Superboy.

A large pulse billowed out of the grenades explosion that sent everyone within a 25 meter radius flying backwards, including the trio of heroes. Superboy had the unlucky fortune to land directly on the crate which held the Kryptonite. Conner rustled through the debris of the crate, it took a moment for him to feel the sting from the light of the Kryptonite; but once he did feel it, it was more than enough to overwhelm him.

Conner couldn't find the strength to lift himself off the ground; yet thankful for Conner, Impel had not been launched far from the pulse. As Impel approached his fallen comrade, he was happily surprised to see Titan leap out from the darkness, his mass increased to the point where he was easily bigger than Bane. Titan went crashing down into a power generator, which exploded as he collided with it.

Allen rushed to Superboys side, tossing aside the piece of Kryptonite that had been left by his best friends side. "SB! You ok? This is not a good time for you to have a Kryptonite coughing fit!" Impel said with intense worry in his voice as Superboy rose to his elbows.

"I'll be fine. It's him we should worry about." Superboy said as Impel shot his head around to the sight of Titan being beaten by several of the smugglers; each of the men held a wooden baseball bat and pounded on him as Titan lay on the ground, craddling his head. Impel knew that Titan must have reduced his mass enough to leave him vulnerable. Something in Allen snapped; he couldn't bear watching his team-mate being beaten in such a manner.

As Allen began to approach, three more smugglers appeared from a doorway to the left. Allen instinctively reacted by leaping towards the door; and with one powerful kick the door slammed into the man who had opened it, knocking the man out instantly.

As Allen launched his kick, Titan was able to get a palm onto the ground; absorbing enough mass from the building to build his size up again, tossing back the thugs with one powerful upheaval. Impel looked back towards Titan with a grin on his face; "And to think, I was worried about you." Impel shouted out with a laugh.

The other two men poured through the broken door to face Impel; who grinned towards them. "Oh, you wanna dance?" Allen said, his worry of Titan now gone; receding every time he heard another of the smugglers machines explode. One of the men bound towards him; when the man got close enough Allen grabbed hold of his hands, then jumping up he planted his feet on a nearby pillar before kicking off, spinning his body as he did causing the goon to do several flips in the air as he moved with Impel to keep his wrists from breaking.

As the man hit the ground Impel was already off to the next, leaping at the man and landing several feet in front of him before sliding under his legs. As Allen passed under the man he grabbed his right leg, and with a strong tug the man came falling down. Allens feet planted on the wall as he stopped sliding, pushing off of the wall he did a hand-stand before flipping onto the goons chest; sending a well placed fist into his face.

Impel enjoyed the momentary victory; but as he did, Titan collided with another of the generators; causing a large explosion which sent Titan flying backwards. The explosion didn't stop however, and started a chain reaction of explosions which began to rock the foundations of the underground facility. Imepl looked up to the sight of a wall of fire as it closed in on him. A pair of strong hands gripped Impel under the arm-pits as he suddenly felt himself being lifted into the air. Impel watched as the fire chased him as he continued to ascend into the air.

Looking up, Impel saw that Superboy had obviously recovered from his bout with the Kryptonite; and watched happily as Conner punched through the ground above them; breaking through the earth as the plumb of fire chased them out of the ground. Conner dropped Impel on the ground as the heat of the explosion began to dissipate back into the ground. "Titan?" Superboy said with worry as he looked around; he had expected Titan to be leaping out right behind him. "Titan! Where are you?" Conner called out as he used his x-ray vision to examine the surrounding area.

"Why didn't you grab him?" Allen asked with worry as Superboy looked around; not answering Impel or even acknowledging his him. As Impel looked around, he was surprised to see Titan float up out of the ground; though his body was completely translucent. "Oh no, he's a ghost!" Allen called out as Conner turned around, casting a confused look at the ghost-Titan.

"That's funny. You didn't read my bio did you?" Titan said with annoyance in his voice as he reached over to a nearby rock, absobring enough of its mass that he became tangible again. "I can remove enough of my mass to allow me to phase through objects. I did that and just rode the explosive wave to the top." Titan said as he casually walked by the others. "Shouldn't one of you call in to your boss? Think they'd like to know what happened here."

Impel walked towards Titan, laughing about how he thought that Titan had actually been a ghost, while Superboy activated his Justice League communications device. "Superboy to Watchtower."

"This is Watchtower. Mr. Terrific responding. What's your status Superboy?" The voice of Mr. Terrific came echoing into the ears of all three heroes.

"We've cleared out the assigned area. I already did a sweep of the area, and most of the thugs have fled, or are trapped beneath the rubble." Conner said, remembing what he had seen when he had been searching for Titan.

"Rubble? What ever you did you're going to be debriefed by Superman and Batman. They just finished up with the Joker and are en-route to your position." Mr. Terrific said as he cut out on comms; clearly there was something else that called his attention.

"Great, you know they're not going to be happy about all of this collateral damage." Impel said as he approached Superboy, Titan following close behind him.

"There wouldn't have been any collateral damage if someone hadn't gone off blowing up power generators." Conner said as he pointed an accusing finger towards Titan. "What exactly were you thinking?" Superboy said as Titan became very defensive.

"What was I doing? I was just trying to keep fifty armed men away from you while you decided to take a nap half way through the fight. And thanks for leaving me behind by the way." Titan said, walking by Superboy, and making sure to bump into him as he did; Superboy however did not budge when Titan bumped him.

"I..." Conner began with a regretful tone in his voice; but there were no words that he could find. He had left Titan behind; after he had promised never to let anyone die because of him... As Conner thought to himself, Impel came up and put a comforting hand on his shoulder; Titan looking off into the sky.

"Looks like Superman is already here." Titan said as he noticed a streak soaring through the sky towards their position. "He's not slowing down." Titan said with worry as the streak grew closer, and looked to be gaining speed. "Everyone hit the - "

Before another word could be said, the streak collided with the ground behind Titan, cratering the earth and throwing up bits of rock as the three heroes now scrambled. Impel began to jump from one rock to the next; making a final jump which sent him clear of the debris field. Superboy and Titan both emerged from the rubble unscathed as they joined Impel on the nearby ground. A lone figure emerged from the rubble, covered in a strange black suit with a helmet which covered and protected its wearers face.

The mystery man stared down the three heroes as they returned the stare. Titan was the first to spring into action, jumping at the armored man in black. As he approached the man reached out with a strong arm and grabbed Titan out of the air; strangling him by his throat. With a powerful downward motion of his arm, the man in black slammed Titan into the ground with such force that he left a crater even deeper from the impact.

"He's got strength." Impel said as he and Superboy began to move in on their new opponent. In what was the blink of the eye, the man in black moved to Impel, grabbing him from the back and tossing him backwards. Impel smacked across the ground, coming to a halt not far from where he had started. "He's got speed too. Watch out SB." Impel said as Superboy crashed into the side of the man in black.

Conner pushed against him, hoping to unbalance the man, but the man used Conner own momentum, plus his own strength and speed to launch Superboy into the ground. The man in black planted a foot into Conners back, pressing him into the ground. "Do you know what they've done to you?" A distorted voice came from the helmet the man wore. "Do you know why you suffer as you do?" The man asked, lessening his push on Superboy; who took the opportunity to swing his body around and connect a powerful foot to the mans chest.

"Don't know what the heck your talking about pal. but if you think I'm going to let you man handle me and my friends, then you have another thing coming." Superboy said as he clenched his fists and readied himself for another attack.

"Do you really think you can stand against me, boy?" The distorted voice called out, an almost taunting tone could be heard through the distortion.

"Don't let the name fool you pal. They may call me Superboy, but I'm all man." Superboy said, and when he did he noticed that the mans fists seemed to clench. The man then began to charge towards Superboy at a speed that he could barely keep up with. Conner felt a strong hand at the back of his head which forced his face down to connect with the mans knee, repeatedly. A daze came over Superboy as a powerful punch to his rib-cage sent him tunbling into the ground behind him.

The man in black stood victorious over the three beaten members of the Justice League. The man stared towards Superboy with a longing, only to be broken by the sound of metal being unsheathed. He turned to the sight of Impel, holding a kunai in one hand, and Nightwings escrima stick in the other. The mans fists clenched even tighter as he began to glare towards Impel; who could feel the mans eyes through the helmet.

The man began to walk briskly towards Impel, yet the mans body language stated that he did not have nice intentions. Impel readied himself, prepared to do whatever he could to hold this guy off and protect his friends. Suddenly, the man in black stopped his approach and turned to look up into the sky. Then, turning back to Impel, the distorted voice said to him, in a voice that almost sounded sad, "You will pay dearly." The man was then enveloped by a strange green glow, disappearing completely from sight.

Impel sat there, staring at the spot where his attacker had once been; he could hear his breaths and how deep and fast they had become. Allen took a moment to center himself, allowing his breathing to steady. As Impels nerves began to calm he heard the worried voice of his God-Father call out from behind him.

"Superboy! What happened here?" Superman had appeared from out of no where, his attention being immediately drawn to his son. Not long after, Impel could rear the roaring sound of a familiar jet engine. A loud gulp came out of Allens throat as he looked up to the sight of the BatWing hovering above them, the escape hatch at the bottom of the plane opening up as Batman came gliding down. Allen knew that his dad was not going to happy.

"Explain." Batman demanded after he had landed and straightened himself out. Allen rubbed the back of his neck.

"We were checking out the smuggling ring when their power generators went haywire. The weapons were all destroyed though; along with the Kryptonite." Allen said, causing Supermans attention to turn instantly. Conner and Titan had both recovered slightly from their earlier thrashing.

"They had Kryptonite? How much? Did they use it on Conner?" Superman asked in a worried tone as he took a place beside Batman.

"It was a pretty big rock." Allen began as he recalled the nights events. "Conner was exposed briefly, but I was able to get it away from him before anything bad happened." Allen said with held back pride; he was always happy to help out a friend in need.

"Don't forget about the jerk in black." Titan said as he approached, looking slightly off-put by being so close to two of the founding League members. Impel then went into detail about the man who had attacked them after the facility had exploded; and Allen told them what the man had said to him.

"How did you say the facility exploded?" Batman said half scowling as he and Superman looked from Impel, to Superboy, to Titan, who all now stood side by side. Titan took a step forward.

"It was my fault." Titan said in a stern voice. "I got carried away during the fight; I started targeting their generators. I thought that," Before Titan could explain himself, Batman quickly cut him off.

"You thought you'd cripple the entire operation, but you weren't thinking about the collateral damage. You destroyed any trace of evidence that might have connected the dots for your Sleeper cell." Batman and Titan exchanged mistrustful looks. "For all I know this is exactly what they wanted you to do."

"Bats, thats not fair." Superboy said as he stepped forward in defense of Titan, which seemed to surprise everyone. "He was only trying to stop them from taking advantage of my being taken down by the Kryptonite." Conner could see the disapproving looks come from both Superman and Batman.

" It's okay SB." Titan said before turning back to Batman. "Just so you know, it's not like I trust you any more than you do me; for all I know you sent me here knowing that things would play out here exactly as they have.." Titan stood strong, facing down the Worlds Finest. "I've had enough of this for one day." Titan then turned to face Impel. "It was fun." Titan said with a wink through his mask; before turning to Superboy. The two said no words, but simply nodded at each other.

Elsewhere at CADMUS Primary Operational Headquarters. 8th sub-basement

The stranger in black who had attacked Titan, Impel and Superboy re-appeared at his headquarters. The man immediately threw a powerful fist into a nearby desk, splitting it into splinters. A distorted scream came out of the helmet the man wore as another fist collided with a nearby file cabinet. Papers were thrown about as the man began to calm himself; reaching his hands up to the helmet, he removed it to reveal the face Zod. His eyes were red with rage swelled tears as the words of his lost son echoed in his mind.

"Don't let the name fool you, I'm all man." Zod could feel his anger swell as his fingers clenched onto the helmet in his hands, crushing it under his strength.

:"Arrogant." Zod muttered to himself as he tossed the helmet aside. "He's arrogant as any human I've ever seen." Zod fell to his knees; the filth of mankind had been imprinted onto his son. Kal-El had turned Kon-Zod into the very thing that Cro-Zod hated with such passion. "I will make you pay, son of Jor-El." Zod said with contempt as he watched as the paper rained down around him.

Years of collected information; everything he would need to cripple and humiliate Superman and the Justice League. But during his time cultivating it he had failed to see the true cost of his revenge. His son was now as alien to him as the planet in which he now resided; and Zod would make Kal-El pay for turning his son as arrogant as the human filth that surrounded him.