It does feel like you guys have been dealing with skrulls for forever. Same for the regular marvel universe, actually.

Next squad:

R Nightwing 35
LE Arsenal 39
E Beast Boy 43
R Hawk 45
E Dove 51
U Terra 60
273

End Post

The Titans were winning the battle. They had taken down both criminals along with their bodyguards and all the robots…well, except for one. The final of Zahl’s creations skittered around like mad, firing bullets, strobe lights and lasers in all directions. The heroes scattered but the mad robot had picked out its target, the fallen Nightwing. All its weapons trained on the barely conscious leader of the Titans but before it could fire, a chunk of rock landed on top of it, flattening the thing.

Hawk picked himself up off the ground and moved his broken nose back into position with a sickening crack. He looked over at Terra, who had struggled to her feet in the midst of all the chaos. Then he started laughing.

“Ha ha! You missed!”

“I didn’t miss you idiot!” the young woman screamed. She winced in pain and put a hand on the back of her head where Nightwing’s batarangs had hit her. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m a traitor!”

“Gotcha!” Beast Boy exclaimed, landing on Terra’s back and wrapping all eight octopus tentacles around her middle.

“Ugh! I just said I’m on your side!”

“How do we know you aren't carrying a concealed weapon?” Gar asked, reaching a tentacle into the girl's pocket. We ought to strip search her, just in case!”

Cyborg pried Beast Boy off their new ally and put him on the ground.

“Stay.”

Beast Boy turned into a beagle as he touched the ground. Looking pleased with himself, he gave Terra a friendly wink, to which she gave a furious scowl in return. Raven dealt with Nightwing’s wounds while the other titans helped dig Roy out from under the pillar Terra had dropped him on.

“Sorry” she said, shuffling her feet a little.

“Don’t worry about it” Arsenal replied, dusting himself off. “You could have gone a little easier on us you know?”

The discussion was interrupted by the arrival of Robotman. Cliff had seen better days. His metallic body was covered in scratches, burn marks and even a few major dents. But the machines had not been built to pierce his armor or perhaps Zahl had merely underestimated Steele’s toughness again. Whatever the reason, Robotman had survived the battle but any of Zahl’s creations in his path had not.

“You kids gonna stand around talking or are we gonna do what we came here to do?”

“Do the honors” Nightwing said, motioning towards their captive friends. Robotman swung his fist, causing the first containment tank’s glass to crack. A second swing and the glass shattered. The water in the tank spilled out on the floor and Rita Farr fell into Beast Boy’s waiting arms. Two more punches freed Miles Caulder, the Chief.

“It’s about time” the Chief grumbled after he had pulled off the breathing apparatus and removed the various tubes and needles that had been inserted into his body. He had been awake for the whole fight and was annoyed as usual.

“Rita?” Gar asked the woman. It had been years since he had seen her if you didn't count having to fight Eclipso when he possessed the Doom Patrol. Now Elastigirl, his adopted mother, was alive again. Or else he was just holding someone who looked like Rita. No one but Caulder had spoken to her since her “return” and the Chief had been kidnapped or possessed ever since, as she had been. Would she remember him? Or was she just a different person, regrown from the cells of his dead mother? Well, he'd know soon enough. She was waking up.

“Gar.” Rita smiled up at him. “I knew you and Cliff would save us.” She stretched her neck out and planted a kiss on her boy’s forehead. “I never doubted you two for a minute.”

“I've missed you, Mom.”

“We've all missed you” Cliff added.

“Harrumph” the Chief loudly harrumphed. “If you're quite through, we need to get back to my lab. There's no telling what that...madman did to us. Not to mention the remaining tests that need to be run on Rita.”

“Raven? Can you take our friends back home?”

“Of course, Richard.” The Doom Patrol gathered around the empath.

“Come visit soon, Gar. We've got a lot of catching up to do. And I've got a lot of catching up to do with your father.”

“See ya around, kid.” In a flash of light and smoke, the Doom Patrol was gone.

“Awwwww” Hawk called. “Wooks wike widdle Beast Boy saved his mommy huh?”

“You're just jealous cause you never get to save anybody important” Beast Boy countered, turning into a giraffe and sticking out his foot long tongue.

“Okay!” Terra yelled, seemingly fed up with the whole conversation and causing the whole building to shake in the process. “You’ve saved your friends and broke all the robots. Yea for the good guys” she said with an overly enthusiastic grin. “Now you gotta go.”

“Much as we appreciate your help, Terra, we’re not going anywhere just yet” Dick said firmly.

“Nightwing is right” Cyborg agreed, putting his hand on Terra’s shoulder. It was massive compared to her tiny frame and made the girl a bit uncomfortable. “There’s a lot of cleanup to do. We need to make sure all the experiments have been shut down and all the bad guys find their way into the hands of the proper authorities.”

“No! If you do that, you’ll blow my cover. I...I don’t know any other way to help.”

“Well,” Arsenal rolled his eyes, “you could always fight crime. We’ve found that works best.”

Beast Boy turned into a green koala bear and fell into Terra’s arms.

“Can we keep her? Pu-leeeeeeese?”

“Well, she saved my life” Nightwing said. “That counts for something.”

“She has much to offer our team as well” Starfire agreed. “Her ability to move the earth could help a lot in a fight.”

“She’s cute too” the koala said, still hanging off of Terra’s right arm. She shook it a little but the green fuzzball clung tight to her.

“And smart” Cyborg added. “Infiltrating an enemy base like this and fooling these guys? That isn’t an easy task.”

“Needs to work on her aim” Hawk said with a smirk.

“I wasn’t aiming at you!”

“And that temper.”

“Like you have room to talk” Dove said, giving Hawk a friendly shove.

“She’s cute too” Beast Boy repeated, just in case anybody had forgotten.

“Now waita minute. Don’t I get any say in this?” Terra asked, still trying to get Gar off her arm.

“Well, you’d have to submit to a background check and either move into the Tower or at least somewhere close in San Francisco but I’d say the offer is definitely on the table.” Nightwing extended his hand. “So what do you say, Terra?” Terra pretended to think about the offer for a moment. There was no doubt in her mind what her answer would be, but she didn't want the others to know how eager she was.

“Well, I guess.” Terra said, ignoring Nightwing’s hand. “But you gotta do something for me first.” She held her arm, green koala and all, out the side. “Get this creep offa me!”