This is the transcript for the episode "Calling All Titans!".
Prologue
(Opening shot: a fast overhead pan across an expanse of calm water. It is daytime. The shadow of the T-Ship casts itself over the surface after a moment, and the craft itself descends into view to fly low. Zoom in.)
Beast Boy: (from inside) Finally. (Cut to him in the center cockpit.) After months of fighting the Brotherhood of Evil, we're heading back to the Tower.
(A thought balloon appears over his head, showing his "Super Deformed" self in the operations center of Titans Tower and amusing himself with the game he mentions.)
Beast Boy: First, I'll play Mega-Monkeys 4.2, then I'll eat a tofu burger. Or maybe I'll eat a tofu burger, then play Mega-Monkeys 4.2. Or I could eat a tofu burger while playing Mega-Monkeys 4.2.
(On the first sentence, SD Beast Boy drops the control and picks up his favorite chow; the monkey he was controlling falls flat on its face. On the second, it whacks him over the head, causing him to bite his tongue, and screeches angrily. On the third, he leaps through the screen and starts brawling with the primate, which jumps clear after a moment and swipes the burger.)
Robin: (headset) Sorry, Beast Boy...
(These words end the daydream in a flash; the balloon disappears in favor of SD Robin.)
Robin: (headset) ...but that tofu burger will have to wait. (Cut to him at the helm.) We've got one last mission before we can go home.
(He presses a button; cut to a close-up of a control panel hatch, which flips open so a communicator can be slid out. Pull back to show it in Beast Boy's cockpit and getting a bit of puzzled scrutiny. During the next line, cut to Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire in turn, each being presented with a spare device in like manner.)
Robin: (headset) The Brotherhood of Evil is targeting young heroes. (Back to him.) There are still others who need to be warned.
Beast Boy: (picking his up) Haven't we already given these things to everyone we know? Titans East have them, Kole, Gnarrk, Kid Flash, Tramm the fish-boy, the Russian dude--
(As he mentions each recipient, a photograph showing him/her appears by his head. Notes: only the hands of Más and Menos are in view on the Titans East photo; Kole flashes a V-for-Victory hand sign; Gnarrk tastes his comm; "the Russian dude" is Red Star, sitting on his laser-equipped snowmobile and wearing his star-emblazoned coat and hat.)
Robin: (headset) Not everyone. (The photos slide down o.c; cut to him.) Your coordinates have been programmed into your pods.
(Exterior of the T-Ship.)
Robin: (headset) We'll meet back here once they're delivered and fly home together. (Back to Beast Boy, twirling the comm on one finger.)
Beast Boy: Can't we just send them a letter instead? (He fumbles and bends over to get it.)
Robin: (headset) If we split up, we can get this done faster. (Cut to Cyborg, at the stern.)
Cyborg: And the faster we finish, the faster we can go home.
Beast Boy: (straightening up) Maybe it's better if we stick together. I-I've been fighting those guys most of my life, and I'm telling you, you can never underestimate the Brotherhood of Evil's evilness.
Robin: This is the best way.
Starfire: Robin is correct. I wish to make with the haste so I can see Silkie.
(A mental picture of the happy little larva winks into being by her head on this line; after she finishes, pull back to put Raven in the fore, riding port. Starfire is at starboard.)
Raven: Let's just get this over with.
Robin: Once all the Titans and honorary Titans around the globe are connected, we'll be ready. (holding up his comm) Anything goes wrong, I'm just a call away.
(Back to Beast Boy, clearly not convinced of the merits of Robin's idea; he blows out a visible, annoyed sigh.)
Robin: (headset) Titans! (Close-up of a button as he presses it.) Separate!
(Pan to a small world map on the control panel. A cluster of triangles glows in the Pacific Ocean, well to the west of South America, and it splits into five separately traveling marks to represent the T-Ship's separation. In an overhead view of the vessel, light traces along the seams where the bow connects to the rest of it and Robin is driven free before lifting off. Starfire peels off next, then Raven, each section unfolding a pair of wings and rocketing away. The last break is between the central section and the stern, which sends Cyborg off into the wild blue yonder and leaves Beast Boy gazing worriedly after his departing comrades. Uncertainty gives way to resolve as he leans toward his controls; cut to an overhead view of his section, which pops out two pairs of small wings and climbs sharply up past the camera.)
(Close-up of the five triangular marks on the map. The next voice tells us, though, that this is not Robin's control panel, but somewhere considerably more sinister, the Brotherhood's Paris hideout. On the start of this line, pull back to show the speaker studying the wall-to-wall world map, with Monsieur Mallah eyeing something just o.c.)
Brain: Our young Titans are spreading out far and wide.
(The giant gorilla lifts one hand into view, revealing a white chess pawn in the fingers, and brings it down again. As in "Trust," there is a game in progress. Head-on view of the two, tracking slowly around.)
Brain: But that will not save them.
(Now Mallah sets down a black pawn. Cut to a close-up of the chessboard as he places this piece on its square to complete the starting layout, then tilt up to his face as he speaks.)
Mallah: Soon, they will join our collection.
(He looks across the room on the end of this, and the camera shifts to bring the object of his attention into frame: an elevated platform at the other side of the black-and-white checkerboard floor. Two dim outlines stand atop it, frozen in some terrible struggle, and after a short pause, a spotlight comes up on each to reveal them as Wildebeest and Hot Spot. The latter has extinguished himself, so that he appears as a normal teenager; both are tinted blue head to toe, reflecting the Brotherhood's successful captures in "Trust." Cut to a slow pan across these two.)
Brain: (from o.c.) Hot Spot, Wildebeest...one by one, your young friends will fall.
(Cut to it on the end of this, then tilt down to the chessboard in front of it on the next line. It is positioned behind the black pieces.)
Brain: Shall we play a game?
(Fade to black.)
OPENING THEME
Act One
(Opening shot: a zoom in on a cloud-wreathed mountain peak during the day. Dissolve to a stretch of ridges and cliffs high up the slope, where Beast Boy, as a bighorn sheep, bounds nimbly upward through several dozen yards. Stopping for breath, he resumes human form.)
Beast Boy: (sarcastically) Great idea, Robin. Hand out communicators to everyone. (looks uphill; the camera follows) Could this Jericho guy live any farther away?
(He has paused not too far down from the summit, and he turns back into a bighorn and gets working on the home stretch. Dissolve to an overhead shot of a badly cracked dam in the evening, with water gushing through the fissure and a red spot glowing a short distance above it. Starfire flies into view, takes in the situation, and swoops down toward the light; a close-up shows a pair of large, luminous crimson hands and arms extended just into view. The left has bee pressed against one crack, while the right stretches out to stop up another one, and the camera pans back along the arms to show who is on the other end.)
(It is a girl floating in midair, arms held straight out in front of her body; the red ones are emanating from her hands. Her skin is so pale as to appear gray-white, her unruly hair is short and black with bangs dyed red, and her face is dominated by two large dark eyes heavily ringed with mascara. Clothing: strapless black dress with scarlet skirt, black knee-high stockings and what appear to be matching full-length gloves, scarlet Mary Janes, black ribbon around the throat. This is Argent. Starfire stops to address her.)
Starfire: You are Argent?
(The latter speaks with a British accent and sounds rather jaded.)
Argent: Who wants to know? (She flies toward the dam.)
Starfire: Starfire, of Tamaran. (Argent has plastered herself against the cracking concrete.)
Argent: You're one of those Teen Titans, right?
(Cut to a close-up of Starfire and pull back to put the young repairwoman in view. Now we are close enough to see an untidy A tattooed just above the bustline of her dress and a small clip doing its best to keep the hair out of her eyes.)
Starfire: Yes.
Argent: Cool.
Starfire: (flying closer) May I assist?
(Argent shifts her grip, after which both girls' attention is drawn by a loud crumbling sound from o.c. Cut to behind them; a new split opens up to one side, water pours through, and Starfire dives out of the way as Argent conjures again. This move exposes her gloves as having their fingers cut away entirely. Now the long arms have been replaced by a gigantic set of vise grips, and the camera tilts down slightly as she moves them toward the fresh break. Once they are clamped onto the sides and tightened, Starfire warms up her hands and directs a sustained beam through the torrent to help weld the fault. Steam boils up beneath her.)
Starfire: I came to notify you of the Brotherhood of Evil. They plan to harm us all. They are quite evil. (By now, this stretch has been patched.)
Argent: Hence the name. What do you want from me? (She releases the vise grips; Starfire reinforces the patch.)
Starfire: We do not desire anything from you. (Both cool down; she flies closer.) We only wish to give you this.
(She holds something out; cut to a spot just in front of her, the camera pointing down at the water and framing her from waist to toes. Her two hands are laid over one of Argent's, and the cover of the communicator she was issued can be seen through the fingers.)
Starfire: (removes her hands) If you need our help, please contact us. (Pull back.)
Argent: (smiles slightly) Sort of clashes with my outfit. This come in black?
(Dissolve to Beast Boy, still a bighorn and still laboring to get up the mountain. After a few steps, he stops to rest and resumes human form, pulling out a handkerchief to mop his sweat-soaked face. A weary groan, the cloth is tucked away, and he turns back into a sheep and climbs up o.c.)
(Dissolve to the full moon hanging low in the night sky over a Japanese village. All is right with the world until Robin swings into view on the end of a rope and lets go, dropping out of sight for a moment. He crouches on the spire of a tower, digs out his communicator, and flips it open.)
Starfire: (over the comm) Argent has been made aware. I shall see you all in the near future.
Robin: (smiling) Great work, Starfire.
(He breaks the connection and tucks the unit away, then stands up for a look around the area. After a couple of seconds, he cups his hands to his mouth and calls out.)
Robin: Bushido?
(The shout reverberates in the still air as the camera cuts to an overhead view of one street. A lone figure walks into view, clad in a short, sleeveless white kimono with black edging and a high wing collar. Black wrist guards protect the forearms. The kimono is tied with a broad gray belt, into which a sword has been tucked, and black pants cover the legs. A close-up reveals more details: male, young, well built, hair tied in a short topknot at the back of his head, suspicions alerted by the sound. This is Bushido.)
(He stops short and is again caught by surprise when three pairs of glowing red eyes open in the blackness of the alley next to him. A sword flashes out toward him as its wielder emerges into the light, a ninja, and he leaps to avoid the blade An instant later, the other two pairs of eyes have rushed out, also attached to ninjas, and all three let their swords sing out. The sushi maneuver gets them nowhere, though, as Bushido nimbly dodges every strike and flips backward to a clear spot several yards down the street.)
(He reaches for his own sword; extreme close-up of it as he begins to draw it from the sheath, then pull back. Once it has been pulled out completely, the camera pulls back slowly to frame the trio of attackers facing him down. The young fighter points his blade straight ahead in his left hand while lifting the joined right index and middle fingers; in response, one of the three ninjas raises his weapon high overhead and charges.)
(Steel clashes against steel, throwing sparks at every contact, as Bushido masterfully parries every thrust and cut with no visible change of expression. A quick flip carries him over the foe's head, and a waist-level swing slips in to find its target dead on. The ninja disappears in a cloud of smoke that fills the screen, cut to a close-up of Bushido, raising his head, then pull back as he stands to face down the second charging enemy. He has just as little trouble blocking this one's swings, and even the entry of the third one, making it a two-to-one fight, is not much of a strain for him.)
(The same old same old ends when he grabs the sword arm of one and twists the entire upper body around. Using his own blade to deflect the other's offensive, he swings the trapped arm in low and scores a cut at the waist that causes the ninja to vanish in a cloud of smoke. Next, he flips his sword end over end and stabs backward, vaporizing the one he still has wrapped up.)
(Cut to a long shot of the battle zone, seen from roof level, and pan slowly ahead of Bushido to an unlit niche. Now a fourth ninja shows up and readies a shuriken; zoom in on the other side of the street as Robin drops into view from above.)
Robin: Bushido! Look out!
(The swordsman barely bats an eyelash when the razor-sharp missile flashes down toward him. All he does is raise his sword, letting the points grind against its length as the shuriken spins nearly in a perfect hover. Ever so carefully, he brings his own weapon back over his shoulder and lets go with a major-league swing that sends the star flying right back the way it came. The overall impression is that of a baseball player using his bat to sling out a yo-yo.)
(The impact of shuriken against flesh and bone causes the latter to disappear in a mighty red flash and a wall of smoke. Cut to Bushido and pull back slowly as four more blasts roar up and clear to show two pairs of fresh attackers now on the scene. This time, the Boy Wonder scores the first point by jumping down from the roof to destroy one of them; he straightens up alongside the hero he came here to find.)
Robin: (extending/twirling his fighting staff) Let's make this a fair fight!
(They get down to it, laying about themselves and propelling bodies in all directions. Tilt up to roof level and dissolve to the uppermost reaches of the cloudy peak Beast Boy has been trying to scale. Here he comes, still a bighorn sheep, and he stops to get his third or fourth wind before bounding up and out of sight.)
(Dissolve to a crowd of cheering fans, some of whom are holding up a banner with the word "PANTHA" while others chant it. Cyborg strides into view at the fore and looks around a bit, after which the camera cuts to a from-the-ground view of two grappling masked wrestlers. Seen from the waist up, one is a white man in a red outfit and wristbands, with his head hidden underneath red and black. The other is a brown-skinned woman whose grimacing mouth is the only feature visible beneath a black-striped yellow cat hood, complete with ears. She wears black wristbands and a matching sleeveless outfit. This is Pantha.)
(Pull back to frame both in full detail; now short black boots and a mane of wavy brown hair are in evidence, along with a yellow belt. Pantha flips onto her back and hurls her opponent away hard before standing up; this move reveals yellow stripes on the wristbands and below the belt, which sports a yellow P in a black circle. She has little time to savor her triumph, as a blue/orange-masked wrestler, the opponent's tag-team partner, runs up from behind and gets her in a half nelson. However, she manages to throw this one to the mat; a quick 360-degree spin builds up enough momentum for her to sling him out of the ring. Now Cyborg comes to ringside and climbs up to the ropes as the red/black masked wrestler gets up, rubbing his head.)
Cyborg: Hi. (holds out his hand to shake) My name is Cyborg. I came here to--
(He is caught by surprise when the fallen man's palm slaps against his; evidently, he has been mistaken for a third tag-team partner. Pantha, meanwhile, gives him an unpleasant little smile before dragging him over the ropes and throwing him bodily across the ring. His terrified yell hangs in the air behind him as he bounces off the ropes and ends up flat on his back. Natural and cybernetic eyes pop wide open, lips peel back from teeth, and he rolls out of the way an instant before the formidable female jumps toward him, trying to pound his face into the canvas. Now he starts to back up toward one corner.)
Cyborg: I'm trying to give you this!
(On the end of this line, he gets one hand, holding the spare communicator Robin gave him, extended toward the approaching Pantha. What he gets for his trouble is two hands wrapped around his own, followed by a sudden upward jerk that lifts him over her head. She then spins him as if he were a wad of pizza dough in a blender; his really terrified yell tears the air for a long moment. Cut to his perspective of her.)
Cyborg: Hey! Cut that out!
(Close-up of her raised hands; he has managed to reach one of his own toward her, and now the other extends from the tiny tornado and grabs her wrist. This breaks the spin so that he can hurl her toward the corner, where she lands on her back and he touches down safely alongside.)
Cyborg: (holding out the comm) Just take it!
(Nothing doing; she leaps straight into his face, gets both arms wrapped around his upper body, and topples him to the mat. When she finally speaks, her voice is very husky and carries a Central or South American accent.)
Pantha: Why?
(He throws her off and pins her, stomach to the canvas, but she flips him away and then starts driving her weight into his back on the next line.)
Cyborg: (rapid fire) Your friend Wildebeest is missing, and we think that the Brotherhood of Evil might have gotten to him! (She stops, surprised; zoom in slightly.)
Pantha: Those guys got Wildebeest? (She gets up, plenty angry.) Where are they? (Cyborg gets up.) I'll go after them myself!
Cyborg: (offering the comm again) We just need you to be ready. (She takes it.) Stay in touch.
(She nods assent as he walks away; once he is gone, she throws a frightening smile down toward the canvas.)
Pantha: (picking up both opponents) You didn't think I forgot about you, did you?
(Long shot of the ring; she throws Blue down and starts beating him with Red as Cyborg makes his way up through the stands toward the exit. Out comes his own communicato, -a standard-issue unit, not the one built into his forearm.)
Cyborg: Mission accomplished. I'll meet you guys soon.
(He puts it away and winces, clapping a hand to his back where Pantha tried to flatten him.)
Cyborg: Ow!
(Dissolve to the top of the peak Beast Boy has been struggling to surmount. Still a bighorn sheep, he lopes up the last few ridges and stops on the small plateau to survey the clouds hat surround it. Tilt up to frame a considerably higher slope some distance away; only its topmost stretch can be discerned above the thick cloud cover. His eyes tear up at the sight, realizing that he has to do all this again with interest, and he looks as if he might have a total breakdown here and now.)
(Clouds drift past to obscure him entirely, after which the view dissolves to an expanse of red and black streaks and splotches against a white field. Fair-sized boulders or asteroids float amid the chaos, which would either make Jackson Pollock proud or cause him to question his sanity. Tilt down through some distance-just how much is impossible to determine, and stop in a place that looks just as deranged as the first. A black sunburst flares up at the center of the screen and resolves into Raven's "soul self" before a rock floats past, right in front of the camera.)
(When it passes, the bird-shaped apparition has turned into a white-outlined, black copy of herself with glowing white eyes. She looks around the eerie landscape for a long moment before starting to float through it. Cut to a stretch that contains the orange-splotched planet on which the Titans crashed in "Stranded." She flies into view and lands atop this; a trick of perspective has made it appear to be as wide across as she is tall.)
Raven: (hand cupped to her mouth) Herald?
(Long echo, resounding time after time, as she walks around to the "south pole," framing herself upside down in the process. Evidently, the laws of physics have decided to take a long lunch.)
Raven: You here?
(Dissolve to an asteroid-strewn patch of this surreal place; she flies in and touches down on a long slab. In close-up, the camera follows her as she walks along its length, passing a number of huge blue globes spattered with green muck; these are embedded in the surface and nestled in gray-spotted yellow cushions. Two of these erupt behind her in fountains of dust, exposing themselves fully as grotesque jellyfish-like creatures, and the camera pulls back as she turns to find an entire horde of them now gathered here.)
(The lead critter swings forward and lashes Raven away with a tentacle; she thuds down amid a group of half-buried others, which emerge after she clears her head. Long shot of the asteroid, pulling back to reveal just how badly the odds are already stacked against her, along with more reinforcements busting out all over. In the foreground, a black pants leg ending in a short blue boot plants itself near the camera; back to Raven.)
Raven: Azarath Metrion Zinthos!
(Her spell scores a direct hit on the lead jellyfish, but is absorbed with no visible effect except to make it good and sore. A tentacle whips out to wrap her up, and energy ripples along its length and makes the black-tinted Titan scream in pain. She is dumped prostrate to the surface, another one closing in fast. Before it can score the kill shot, a low, bellowing note makes itself heard, as of a shofar or ram's horn being blown, and a portal opens up to expose a different bit of the landscape.)
(The owner of the previously seen boot is within it, right where we left him. He is a young black man clad in black pants and long sleeves, blue hooded tunic, gray gloves, blue cape with black lining, black belt, and a gray eye mask. Raised to his lips is a trumpet, which sounded the note just heard. This is the Herald.)
(He leaps through the opening, which closes behind him; the movement brings him close enough to show a gray horn emblazoned on his tunic. Another tone from the one in his hand sends out an energy wave that washes by the fleet of jellyfish and opens a new vortex behind them. All are sucked neatly in, the rift seals itself, and the camera cuts back to him.)
Raven: (from o.c., impressed) Cool horn!
(She stands up; he turns to face her.)
Raven: (crosses to him and pulls out her spare comm) I came to give you...
(Close-up of her hand as she holds it forth and he reaches to take it, then dissolve to Robin's and Bushido's hands in the same configuration.)
Robin: (from o.c.) ...this.
(The Japanese fighter accepts his offering and the camera pulls back to frame both on a roof. Not a single ninja is in sight now, they were able to clean house very effectively, as they bow respectfully to one another.)
(Dissolve to the very top of one of the mountain peaks Beast Boy has been struggling through, so high up now that all the clouds are below this level. The notes of a simple acoustic guitar melody are heard from o.c. as the hapless mountaineer gets his bighorn hooves up over the edge and pulls himself into view to collapse, utterly spent. He throws a weary glance at the camera; cut to behind him, panning across this plateau. Nearly every square inch of ground is carpeted with trees and lush golden flowers, and seated on a large boulder is the musician.)
(Close-up. It is a young fellow with shaggy blond hair and prominent sideburns. Shirt: white, long sleeves, high collar, under a violet vest. Pants: black. Boots: calf-length, violet, topped with gold bands. Wristbands and belt: gold. Face: placid and peaceful, with his eyes closed for the moment. At Beat Boy's approach in human form, he stops playing and smiles, exposing a pair of expressive green eyes. This is Jericho, whom our hero has been trying to find all this time.)
Beast Boy: (fed up, stomping toward Jericho) I told Robin we shouldn't separate, but he sent me up here and I just climbed up to this big mountain, (pulls out a spare comm) and so here's your stupid communicator! (Jericho takes it.) If bad guys come, you know what to do!
(Badly winded from both his exertions and this rant, he pitches onto his face. The young guitarist gazes down at him with obvious concern; cut to a close-up of the prone green joker, who comes to and turns on his own communicator.)
Beast Boy: Beast Boy to Robin. Can we go home now?
(He conks out again, whereupon Jericho reaches into view and pats his head gently in appreciation. Cut to a long shot of the T-Ship's bow, riding low over the ocean waves, then cut to Robin inside and zoom in. He brings up his own comm.)
Robin: Calling all Titans.
(Cut to the night sky above a blizzard-swept landscape and tilt down quickly through the earth, fading to black and emerging into the underground Arctic jungle in which the Titans met Kole.)
Robin: (over the comm) This is a test of our communications system.
(Zoom in slightly on one patch of undergrowth, dissolve to a long shot of Kole and Gnarrk at home, and keep zooming in. They are seated at the living room table; she is holding the comm given to her by Robin.)
Robin: (over comm) Is everyone ready?
Kole: We're ready in the north.
(The big caveman leans across and voices an affirmative by saying his own name, after which the view shrinks to attach itself to the north point of a compass, showing only the two faces. Fullscreen, pulling back slowly: Pantha has her two opponents pinned helplessly to the mat, with one hand free to hold Cyborg's gift.)
Pantha: And in the south.
(Same shrink, putting her face at the southern compass point. Fullscreen: the Tower stands under a peaceful midday sky, and Más and Menos step into view and regard it from the shore of Jump City Bay. Each has his communicator in hand; Más brings his up.)
Más: Estamos listos en el oeste! ["We're ready in the west!"]
(Shrink to that heading, showing only his face. Fullscreen: they join hands and instantly tear off across the plains. Cut to the exterior of Titans East Tower that evening, tilting down from roof to base. The high-speed twins race across the water and stop at the door, and it is Menos' turn to call in as both leap up happily.)
Menos: Y el este! ["And the east!"]
(Shrink to his face on that heading. Now, one after another, heroes appear in fullscreen, comm in hand, and are shrunk down to different locations on the compass. Aqualad; Speedy; Bumblebee; Killowat; Thunder and Lightning; across from each other. The newcomer is a humanoid with bluish skin; black hands, feet, and tights; fuchsia lightning-bolt accents, with a matching one standing on the bald head; and four bolts in this shade forming an X across the chest, with a large white circle at the center.)
(As the fullscreen shots click into place on the dial, other faces appear as well, in this order: Tramm, the Herald, Argent, Bushido, Kid Flash, Jericho, the powered-down Hot Spot, Wonder Girl, and finally, Melvin, Timmy, and Teether, the young trio Raven looked after in "Hide and Seek", in the same panel. This second unknown is a serious-looking young girl with long black hair tied back in a ponytail. The presence of Hot Spot can only indicate that Madame Rouge is on the line in disguise, since the genuine article is out of commission for the time being.)
(Now the compass is tiled two layers thick with pictures of the young heroes, leaving the needle still exposed at the center. Cut to Robin at his controls.)
Robin: All sectors are secure.
(He is shrunk down to cover the pivot point; around him, a third layer of faces appears, his four teammates, to fill in the rest of the area.)
Robin: Await further instruction. Beast Boy, we're heading home. (Cut to the recipient of these last words, back in his cockpit.)
Beast Boy: Wahoo!
(Cut to an extreme close-up of the Brain, still in the Brotherhood's lair as at the start of this act. A heavily hotwired communicator, the one Rouge tricked Robin into giving her in "Trust", is attached to the front of its dome.)
Beast Boy: (over comm) Race you to the meeting point!
(Pull back slowly. Behind the wad of neurons, the world map shows the Titans' five position signals converging on each other.)
Brain: Your little reunion will have to wait. It is time we start taking out their pawns.
(On the second half of this, pan to bring Mallah into view at the chessboard, then cut to a close-up and tilt down as he moves a black knight to capture a white pawn. Next, we see an overhead view of the dam Argent was fixing; now the repairs are nearly complete, and her red glow shines near the top edge.)
Brain: (voice over) General Immortus, make your move.
(On the end of this, cut to a close-up of the last crack and tilt up; several red staples have been punched into it, and a tilt up shows her setting the last one in place. She eyes her handiwork with pride, but suddenly glances off to one side in surprise, and in the distance a saucer-shaped craft rises above the riverbank to face her. There is a figure balanced atop it, and a close-up shows the wizened gray visage and bald scalp of Immortus.)
(Argent takes a few steps along the dam toward him and puts up her dukes, only to be greeted by the ascent of a great many of the old commander's robot soldiers. Anger gives way to wide-eyed fear, and without a word Immortus points down at the Brit. The troops zoom past him, passing the camera, as the view fades to black.)
Act Two
(Opening shot: the bow of the T-Ship, still making good time over the Pacific at low altitude. Zoom in slowly, then cut to Robin in the cockpit.)
Robin: I've got all of you in my sights.
(During this line, cut to just over his shoulder and zoom in on the control panel's world map. Next up is a close-up of the ocean, with the Titans' markers closing in for a rendezvous.)
Robin: (from o.c.) We should be in range soon. (Cut to Beast Boy.)
Beast Boy: And soon, we'll be home sweet home! (rubs his hands) Tofu burger, here I come!
Robin: (headset) Wait a second. (Beast Boy's eyes pop.)
Beast Boy: Not again! (Cut to Starfire at her controls.)
Starfire: Robin, is everything okay?
Beast Boy: Don't tell me we're not going home! (Back to Robin.)
Robin: (as an alarm beeps) I'm sorry, Beast Boy, but we just got an SOS.
(On the end of this, zoom in on the map and cut to a close-up of one spot, an island off the coast of Australia. A red flasher here indicates the source of the alarm. Dissolve to an overhead shot of Argent racing along the top of the dam and zoom in as she turns to glance fearfully over her shoulder. A sudden flash, and the camera has pulled back to show Immortus' floating observation post and thick smoke billowing from the point that has just been shot out.)
(Argent slams to the concrete face first, looks up, and finds the mechanical shock troops flying in too fast for her own good. One after another, the chest panels flip open ad a canister drops free from within each body; the besieged hero breaks into a fresh run as these clatter down and explode. The repair work she and Starfire brought off so expertly is undone in an instant, unleashing the thundering force of the water held back. She has no time to play fix-it again, as the robots have started an aerial laser strafing run; she dives off the dam and flies low, through a passage cut along a neighboring slope. The Titan-issued communicator is yanked out.)
Argent: Argent to Titans! I'm surrounded! (The screen shows Robin's face.)
Robin: We're sending help. (Cut to Starfire; he is heard on her headset.) Starfire, I want you to fly back and help her. (She grabs her comm.)
Starfire: (pulling away sharply from the camera) Argent, I shall be there as soon as I can.
(Back to the honorary Titan on the fly along the passage.)
Argent: Just hurry!
(Breaking the line, she stops short at the end of the railing and finds herself staring up at Immortus as a squad of infantry pulls in to hover behind him. A laser cannon on the leading edge of his saucer warms up, but she uncorks a gigantic crimson uppercut before it can fire and sends the craft bobbling crazily away. Down comes a flurry of shots from the robots; she dives over the railing and flies low over the water, with the whole gang hot on her tail. Argent holds to a dead-steady course, weaving smoothly through the merciless exploding barrage. One burst fills the screen; dissolve to Beast Boy in his cockpit.)
Beast Boy: If she's in trouble, (Cut to Robin; he is heard over the headset.) maybe we should all go and help her.
Robin: No.
(Close-up of the Australian offshore island alert on his map, panning quickly to a second one off the western coast of either Africa or South America.)
Robin: (from o.c.) I just got another SOS. Aqualad's in trouble. (Back to him.) Beast Boy, I need you to go to Sector Seven. (A new alarm; his eyes pop.) Huh?
(Back to the Atlantean's position, tilting quickly up to the North Pole; a third red blip appears.)
Robin: (from o.c.) We've got an SOS in Sector Thirteen! (Down a bit; a fourth pops.) And one in Sector Twenty-Seven! (Back to him; zoom in.) Calling all Titans!
(Cut to the Brain in the Brotherhood's hideout, that stolen gadget still fixed on its dome.)
Robin: (over comm) Prepare for battle!
(Pull back slowly; the warning spots are flaring up on the world map behind it.)
Brain: It is too late for the Titans to save their friends. (Cut to Mallah, studying the chessboard.)
Mallah: It is all just as you planned. (Close-up of the pieces; slow pan toward him.)
Brain: (from o.c.) All of our pieces are in place.
(Dissolve to a close-up of Trident, riding a large sea creature underwater, then dissolve to a quick pan down a snowy slope. Here we can see all of Billy Numerous but his head; he is racing downhill, and Gizmo slides by on the next line.)
Brain: (voice over) It is time we finish what we started.
(On the end of this, dissolve to an extreme close-up of Kardiak, being lifted past the camera in a darkened sky. The similar transitions that come after this one show the following. A long shot of a cliff overlooking the pounding surf at night, with a distant figure rushing to the edge and diving in. Johnny Rancid, twisting open the throttle of his fearsome motorcycle, a replacement for the one Red X blew apart in "Revved Up", under threatening clouds in the evening. The Brain watching the chessboard; pull back to show Mallah hunched over it.)
Brain: With the Titans scattered across the globe, we will easily defeat them.
(Extreme close-up of a black bishop on the end of this; the big ape slides it ahead to take a white pawn. From here, cut to a two-lane bridge lying under those same clouds. Más and Menos walk nervously toward the camera, but stop short at the sound of a distant rumble.)
Más: Qué es eso? ["What's that?"]
(A tiny prick of light begins to grow at the horizon, in time with the approaching roar, and here comes Rancid straight down the double yellow line. The twins break for cover in opposite directions as the red glare of his headlight fills the screen; snap immediately to him skidding through 90 degrees to a stop and brandishing a vicious curved knife.)
Brain: (voice over) We will defeat them on the land.
(He turns back for another pass. Cut to the unnerved boys.)
Más y Menos: Es un problema! ["It's a problem!"]
(They are off and running at normal speed in a heartbeat, but the cycle thug keeps pace easily.)
Más y Menos: Más y Menos! Sí podemos! ["Más and Menos! Yes we can!"]
(Joining hands, they instantly hit overdrive and rocket along the bridge. Rancid pays no mind for the moment-but in one swift flash, he has effected a transformation similar to the one he underwent in "Fractured." Red arm tattoos, no shirt, steel helmet gone, hair streaked red, flames roaring from both wheels of the bike to form a lingering trail on the roadway. Cut to his perspective, now catching up on the boys with frightening speed; they yell in fear and do the sharpest U-turn in recorded history.)
(Cut to a screenful of roiling ocean water, which resolves into an underwater view as the turmoil subsides. Some gargantuan thing pulls into view and away from the camera, and as it backs away, it is seen as some sort of misshapen whale creature. The plethora of lurid green eyes and the revolting maroon tint give it away as Plasmus, and Trident stands atop his back-this was the thing he was riding earlier.)
Brain: (voice over) We will defeat them in the sea.
(The gruesome twosome zeroes in on Aqualad, who takes a hard hit and nearly wipes out on some rocks. Next, we see an aerial view of a metropolitan area partly hidden by clouds during the day; these slowly drift away to expose Bumblebee on patrol.)
Brain: (voice over) We will defeat them in the air.
(Out of nowhere, Punk Rocket swoops down into view atop his eardrum-shredding electric guitar. He is followed by a figure in red boots and sleeveless top with a short blue skirt, sporting a chromed aviator helmet, matching wrist guards, and large white wings. Ducking away, Bumblebee yanks out her laser stingers and opens fire. The bleach-blond anarchist is blasted off his perch; only a lucky grab at the guitar's head keeps him from taking the big dive, and he swings himself back up onto the bridge. One scrape across the strings produces a screeching chord and shock waves that cause Bumblebee to drop her weapons and nearly go into free fall.)
(The other figure darts in close enough to give us a head-on view now. It is a girl whose hair is entirely hidden under the helmet; she has chromed armbands and belt to match the wrist guards, her eyes are pure yellow with no pupil or iris, and her top sports a blue collar. This is Angel. Her wings cover a span at least three times her height, and she swings them forward to envelop Bumblebee wholly. Fade to white, followed by a mighty flash and an aerial view of the Titan dropping out of the sky with a scream along with her stingers.)
(Cut to the upper reaches of the ice dome over the subterranean Arctic jungle.)
Brain: (voice over) Wherever there are Titans... (Tilt down.) ...we will be there to stop them.
(At ground level, Billy and Gizmo confront Kole and Gnarrk.)
Brain: (voice over) Evil will prevail.
(On the end of this, cut to a slow pan across the two villains' broad, unwholesome smiles.)
Kole: We're ready for you!
(She executes a high vertical leap and turns herself to crystal with arms stretched partway overhead. Down she comes; the huge caveman grabs her by the legs and taps her head into his free hand angrily. He takes a few steps forward and glares down with an angry little grunt, and the camera cuts to his perspective: Gizmo, just standing there in that enormous shadow. A tap at the waist controller brings out the runt's metal spider legs, lifting him high above Gnarrk's head.)
(Back to the Neanderthal, whose anger has given way to complete bewilderment. He drops to the ground with a terrified cry, huddled into a ball and holding Kole in front of his head as a barrier; she reverts to flesh and blood and turns to him.)
Kole: It's okay, Gnarrk. There's only two of them. We'll take 'em easy!
(That gets him fired up again, but Billy pays no mind as he steps ahead beneath Gizmo. It takes him only a couple of seconds to copy himself several dozen times and surround the pair completely. While they close in, Kole whips out her communicator.)
Kole: Kole to Robin! We've got trouble!
(One Billy sidles up to grin over her shoulder, after which the camera cuts to the Brain's world map and tilts down slowly to frame the mastermind. The next four lines are heard on its comm.)
Robin: Cyborg! Kole needs help in Sector Thirteen.
Cyborg: I'm on it.
Robin: Raven! Go to Más and Menos in Sector Twenty-Seven.
Raven: Right.
Brain: My players will make sure the Titans never reach their destination.
(Cut to a shot of the chessboard, zooming in quickly as Mallah moves a black piece ahead, then to a snow-blown stretch of the nighttime frozen north. Pan through the area.)
Brain: (voice over) Mammoth to Sector Thirteen.
(The stern of the T-Ship lands here, and Cyborg is on the ground in less time than it takes to say "inclement weather." He switches on his communicator.)
Cyborg: Kole, Gnarrk, I got your message. I'm on my way.
(He gets barely two steps away before something erupts from the snowdrifts just in front of him, pushing him backward. It flies high into the blizzard to expose itself fully as Mammoth; he drops with a feral, silent scream and barely misses the big Titan thanks to a lucky dive.)
Cyborg: I might be a little delayed.
(He powers up his sonic cannon and closes the comm in the same motion as one huge black boot plants itself near the camera. Cut to an overhead view of an urban center at night; the T-Ship's port section zooms into view and on ahead. This, then, was the site of the bridge on which Rancid started his charge against the twins. In the cockpit, Raven looks down at the controls; a moment later, the camera pulls back and a small tornado swirls up just outside her canopy. It resolves into Kid Wykkyd, who plants both hands on the Plexiglas, and she pulls out her communicator.)
Raven: Robin, I think they're expecting us.
(A swish from o.c. draws her attention; cut to outside the craft and tilt up slightly. In midair above it, flying in a standing position, is an elderly man in a long black/magenta robe. The entire top half of his skull has been replaced by a transparent dome to expose his brain. We have just met Psimon, who turns his face slightly toward the camera as his gray matter begins to glow. Raven brings up one black-charged hand, ready to throw down.)
(Cut to the ship's central section, swooping down toward the nighttime ocean, then cut to its uneasy pilot and zoom in. Now he is sweating profusely and all his nerves are twanging like piano wires strung too tight, judging from the easily audible heartbeat.)
Beast Boy: Okay. Everybody's being ambushed. But I'm not scared. (smiling hugely) Ha. My heart's not even racing.
(The rhythm makes itself heard more prominently, catching him by surprise.)
Beast Boy: Wait a minute. (Tilt down slightly; hand to chest.) That's not my heart.
(His eyes pop wider than they have any right to as the camera pulls back. Right behind his cockpit is the red bulk of Kardiak, the source of those thumping beats, and he lets go with a long, piercing scream. The steel blood vessels punch into the fuselage, throwing up sparks, and he grabs his communicator.)
Beast Boy: Beast Boy to Robin! They're everywhere!
Robin: (over comm) Where are you? Did you find Aqualad? (Long shot; the section skids crazily over the water.)
Beast Boy: (over comm) I told you we shouldn't have split up!
(Long shot of a small rocky island. Robin zooms smoothly into view under the tranquil evening sky, and the camera cuts to the shore as he comes in for a landing. In one swift action, he opens the cockpit, unbuckles his harness, and pulls out his communicator.)
Robin: Starfire! Are you okay?
(Overhead view of the dam Argent was fixing, with water roaring at full force through the breach Immortus reopened. Starfire cruises by, comm in her hand, but the dark-eyed heroine and only a wrecked robot remains of Immortus' forces.)
Starfire: I am, but I fear that Argent is not. (She descends to the spillways and stops.) Robin, there is no one here.
(She immediately has to eat her words when a high-energy whip lashes down into view and yanks the device out of her hand. A short, panicked scream accompanies this, after which she looks toward the source and the camera cuts to just behind her, pointing up into the sky. The whip is dangling into view next to the head of a moth blown up to unearthly size, a dead ringer for Silkie's insect form in "Can I Keep Him?" The presence of this beast gives away Killer Moth's involvement in the Brain's plan, but the head that pokes out is not his, but Kitten's.)
Kitten: (reels in the comm) Guess again!
(Close-up; she picks it free of the whip and opens it, beaming ear to ear.)
Kitten: Hi, Robbie-poo! (grinning madly) Remember me? (Cut to Robin; her face is on his comm's screen.)
Robin: Kitten?
Kitten: Oh, you do remember! (Back to her, pulling back.) Say goodbye to your friend!
(The camera movement brings Starfire into view, now at this level as well.)
Robin: (over comm) Kitten! Wait!
(Two green-glowing fists come up, ready to turn the crazed blonde into a speed bag, but Starfire's attention is abruptly diverted by a swarm of Killer Moth's "children." The proud papa is among them, mounted on the head of a moth just as large as Kitten's. In a moment, the Titan finds herself hopelessly outnumbered.)
Kitten: (to Starfire) No one can help you now.
(She flicks the whip toward the camera. Its glare clears to show Robin gripping his comm almost hard enough to crush it; a scream from Starfire comes through loud and clear on the speaker. Overhead view, pulling back.)
Robin: Starfire!
(Fade to black.)
Act Three
(Opening shot: the Brain, still in front of the world map in the Brotherhood's hideout, still with the fully wired communicator stuck to its "forehead." Zoom in slowly.)
Brain: Robin's strategy has failed...
(Close-up of the chessboard, pulling back slowly. The view is centered on the white king; on the next line, Mallah reaches in and captures the queen with a black castle.)
Brain: (from o.c.) ...and one by one, they will fall.
Mallah: (from o.c.) The young are no match for your intellect.
(On the end of this, cut to an overhead view of Robin, standing up in his cockpit, and zoom in slowly before cutting to a close-up. The open communicator is still in his hand.)
Brain: (voice over) Indeed.
(Cut to just behind him, panning across the readouts. One side shows a rapidly scrolling list of heroes' names under the word "ALARM": things are getting completely out of hand. Stop on the world map and zoom in, then cut to a close-up and keep zooming toward two spots near South America. From here, cut to Aqualad, the source of one such alarm; he is swimming for his life, backed up by a pack of sharks, and he dashes Trident off Plasmus' back. The Atlantean soon finds himself on the wrong end of the battle, with the fork's wooden shaft being pulled toward his throat to choke him.)
(Cut to the undersea cave he calls home, near the half-clamshell that covers Tramm's entrance hatch as seen in "Deep Six.")
Robin: (over comm) Tramm! (The shell flips open; he pokes his head up.) Help Aqualad!
(Stuffing the device back into his pack, he little guy vaults up out of the shaft and runs across the cave. Before he can reach the water, he is brought up short by something arcing high out of it and onto the shore. Landing and straightening up, it reveals itself as a humanoid male with light blue skin, pure red eyes narrowed in hostility, and two thin antennae atop the bald head. Clothing: black pants, dark blue gloves and boots, black belt, dark blue sleeveless tunic stenciled with a light blue arrow pointing up toward the head. This is XL Terrestrial.)
(Tramm backs up a few fearful steps before finding his nerve and raising his fists. Snarling and gibbering, he does a little bit of bobbing and weaving around the new enemy; XL responds by pressing the arrow on his outfit. It goes bright red as his height suddenly triples, and the suddenly overmatched fish-boy runs for it as a jumbo boot stomps toward him. A stalagmite affords him a chance to turn his dive into a swivel and stop himself cold. He then squeezes his eyes shut, a second set of black membranes flicking closed before the lids themselves, and in a split second, he, too, has had a growth spurt. Its result is to leave him with a gigantic, muscular upper body and turn the collar of his overalls into a ring of shredded cloth around his neck; the legs are roughly the same length as before.)
(Super Tramm snaps off the stalagmite he used as a pivot and hurls himself at the leaping XL. Rock formation and blue fist swing toward each other; there is a great flash when they hit, which subsides to an extreme close-up of the headlight on Rancid's motorcycle. Pull back to frame all of the flame-wreathed vehicle and its rider, then cut to Más and Menos running at their turbocharged fastest. Rancid has no trouble catching up to them, and he zooms right between them to break the contact of their palms.)
(After he has rolled o.c., the boys trade a relieved smile and nod, sure that they have escaped the danger. However, the fun starts again when the pavement erupts at their feet, throwing them in opposite directions with a pair of yells.)
Menos: Más!
Más: Menos!
(They disappear into the curtains of dust, after which we see the cause of the radical roadwork, Cinderblock, having thrust his head up from below. Cut to the Japanese village in which Robin found Bushido; it is again nighttime, the honorary Titan is backed up against a wall, while Katarou has punched into it in an attempt to floor him. A jumping uppercut sends the brawny, nunchuck-wielding thief to the ground, but he gets up almost immediately. Drawing his sword, Bushido braces for Katarou's growling charge, and both leap toward one another to strike.)
(When they are just about to connect, the screen flashes white and clears to show a pan through a forest at night. Speedy races into view while a second figure bounds catlike through the trees on a parallel course. We see flashes of a thort green kimono, long black hair tied back into two thick bundles, a broadly grinning face whose expression never wavers, and long deadly claws on the fingers. Close-up of Speedy; a rustle of leaves makes him stop and ready an arrow. His perspective, panning from one side to the other as he swivels the bow, now, floating above one branch, are the disembodied eyes and grin from that face.)
(The arrowhead roves on past this sight a bit more, putting it out of view, before swinging quickly back to the spot. Now the rest of the kimono-clad figure, a female, has appeared to back up that face, and she jumps clear to avoid his shot. The face is now seen to be a mask with cat ears, the last details needed to establish her identity as Cheshire.)
(Back to Speedy, who stares dumbfounded up at the spot where she had perched. He whips another arrow from his quiver and knocks it while turning on his heel, just in time to sight Cheshire on the way down from her leap. The masked enemy simply stares straight at him and slashes her arms toward his flying arrows, chopping them all in two with hands still swallowed up by her kimono's sleeves. When the barrage stops, she throws the cloth back to reveal her claws fully, as attachment to a pair of wrist guards.)
(Speedy goggles at her prowess for a second, then gets yet another arrow to the bowstring. Its head glows bright red as he lets it go; Cheshire flips away, letting it explode on impact at her former position, and his next shots are gutter balls as well. As he is about to have another try, she darts in close and claws the bow itself to pieces. A swing of her head sends her thick hair lashing into his face to knock him sprawling, and she lunges toward him as he backs up to a tree. One hand goes to his belt and comes out with his communicator; he presses the button to start a transmission, but instantly gets the thing kicked out of his hand. Now she has him pinned against the tree, keeping her leg across his upper chest, and the toothy grin on her mask almost starts to look like a gloating leer of victory. Cut to his perspective; Cheshire swings her head again to whip that hair right into his face.)
(There is a flash on impact, which clears to show a close-up of the dropped communicator, a red light blinking to show a message coming in.)
Robin: (over comm) Pantha, you're closest to Speedy.
(Cut to her, comm in hand in the wrestling ring where Cyborg first found her.)
Robin: (over comm) Go to Sector Eleven! (Pull back; she is facing off against Atlas.)
Pantha: I can't!
(The combatants thunder across the canvas toward each other and lock up at the center of the ring. As Atlas begins to get the upper hand and force her down, cut to the mountaintop on which Beast Boy found Jericho. The quiet boy slides down the ledges, guitar in hand, and is promptly pursued by Private HIVE and Fang.)
Robin: (voice over) Herald!
(Cut to the surreal landscape in which we first saw the Herald; zoom in on an asteroid where he is standing.)
Robin: (voice over) Help Jericho in Sector Nineteen!
(Close-up. He raises his trumpet to blow, but before he can get a note out and create a portal, one opens behind him and an eyeball shoots out of it to hit him in the back. As he and it both fall away, the shooter steps in, See-More, who adjusts his eye as Warp, follows him. The time traveler opened the passage to give the Cyclops his shot.)
(Cut to Cyborg, sliding backward in the Arctic snowdrifts with his cannon armed.)
Robin: (voice over) Cyborg!
(A shot tears through the blizzard and very nearly scores a direct hit on Mammoth; the giant dives to one side, then comes up to swing at the camera. The next thing we see is Raven, flying free of her section of the T-Ship, as Psimon circles around her.)
Robin: (voice over) Raven!
(She thrust a black palm toward the enemy, who concentrates every shred of his brainpower in her direction. The screen fills with a flash of energy, after which the camera pulls back to show their respective beams canceling out halfway between them. After a moment, the glare at this point grows to fill the screen and then subsides to a view of Kardiak still having its way with the central section of the T-Ship.)
Robin: (voice over) Beast Boy!
(The already-unnerved green Titan turns in his seat, gets a good eyeful of the assailant, and completely loses it with a shrill scream. Just as quickly, he gets himself back under control and starts a tentacled transformation; in midair, Kardiak is shoved off the hull by his new form, that of a giant squid. The two drop o.c. and water washes over the lens from their splashdown.)
(Cut to a mob of Billy clones charging through Kole's jungle.)
Robin: (voice over) Kole!
(Pan ahead slightly; they are piling so heavily on Gnarrk that even he cannot stand up under the sheer weight of all those bodies. However, a strained groan from ground level throws a scare into them, and after a moment the prehistoric man gets up and throws them all off with a yell and a little help from the crystallized Kole. No rest here, though; a metal spider leg slams down near the camera, and here comes Gizmo for a little fun of his own. Gnarrk brandishes his little buddy, who returns to normal, bends at the waist with arms raised, and crystallizes again. Now her body has taken the shape of a rough boomerang, and she is flung like one to slice through all four legs.)
(Gizmo, hanging precariously in midair, retracts the stumps into the central unit on his back and brings out his propeller and shoulder-mounted lasers. As the shooting begins, Kole curves back into Gnarrk's hand, goes organic, and curls into a ball before solidifying again. This move allows him to use her as a shield against the laser shots, but the Billys sneaking up from behind catch him slightly off guard.)
(The screen fills with static and resolves into a close-up of Control Freak, who has aimed his remote control at the camera.)
Robin: (voice over) Killowat!
(Pull back to just behind the human spark plug's waist, one hand glowing with a few million volts, and cut to a pan across his grim-set face. Control Freak points his remote, clicks, and conjures up the enormous black-and-white scaly beast he commanded in "Episode 257-494"; the creature from "Jones Lake". Killowat socks it with one sparking punch, causing it to de-resolve into static and disappear; another click, and the big geek has called in the gun-slinging "Offworld Outlaw" from the same episode. Even before he can finish drawing his revolvers, an electric bolt puts him out of action. Next, Control Freak proceeds to bring in Baron Ryang, the huge armored double-lightsaber fighter whose place he usurped in "Clash of the Planets"; same fate as the Outlaw. Next click: here comes the robot Seven-Gorn-Seven, with the same result.)
(Killowat's next blast sends the remote clattering away, and an instant later he has come up to stare Control Freak dead in the face. This time, though, he is the one caught off guard due to the arrival of the Puppet King, who hurls himself onto his shoulders and dumps him to the ground. A big grin from the overweight fanboy is followed by Killowat's struggle with the animate marionette; the lower jaw clicks like a nutcracker as he strains toward the blue throat.)
(Cut to a close-up of Atlas in some distress.)
Robin: (voice over) Pantha!
(Pull back; she has him down face first in the wrestling ring, all four limbs bent backward as if trying to hogtie him. As she tries to dismember him single-handedly, something blue hurtles across and plows her away. It slams her down on her back, revealing itself as Adonis. Where he donned a yellow racing jumpsuit in "Revved Up," he now wears a blue/gray armored suit whose design is identical to the one he used in "The Beast Within.")
(A bit of struggle results in a reversal of their positions, but Atlas comes to his partner's aid by throwing himself down on both of them. When everything has sorted itself out, the two villains have Pantha in a most undesirable
(Tilt up to the overhead spotlights, whose glare grows to fill the screen. A flash, and we are in a city at night. Overload is thrown backward to crash into a row of buildings.)
Robin: (voice over) Lightning!
(Electricity crackles all over his body, gathering into a blinding sphere that encompasses him completely. Cut to Lightning in midair, moving in at full throttle, as a mass of super-high-voltage tendrils snakes toward him; a bit of weaving about carries him to clear sky, but only for a moment. The lines fuse into one and are caught at one end for a swing back and forth, filling the screen with the blazing white corona. It clears to show Thunder somewhere outside this city, his back to the camera and a retaining wall right in front of him. This is battered down from behind to admit two very large and unwelcome intruders into view. One of them is Steamroller, while the other is the I.N.S.T.I.G.A.T.O.R.: a robot just as broad as the hard-hat hooligan, but with no distinct head. A huge face grimaces from the chest, with the HIVE insignia set above it to mark the thing's origins, and the arms end in pincers.)
Robin: (voice over) Thunder!
(Overhead view of the blue elemental, zooming in as he warms up both raised fists and slams them together with a yell. Now the glare from the Lightning/Overload battle plays in the distance as his booming clap shoves this pair of enemies backward. When they have regained their balance, the Instigator returns the shout and hurls himself across the open space. Thunder finds one set of pincers clamped firmly around his midsection and struggles against their hold as he is yanked off his feet.)
(Cut to a long shot of Robin on the rocky shores where he touched down; he is still in the cockpit.)
Robin: Anyone!
(Silence; he flops back into his seat and props his head in one hand with a frustrated little groan as the alarms sing out. The sound of a bit of shifting rock shakes him back to the matter at hand, and he gasps softly and looks to one side. Cut to the feet of a shadowy figure, the cause of the sound, and tilt up slowly. It is half-crouched in shadow among some tumbled boulders, and only three features can be immediately seen: red stripes on a pants leg, a brown-skinned forearm, and eyes that shine white in the moonlight. These parts belong to the powered-down Hot Spot, who has apparently managed to escape his imprisonment in the Brotherhood's hideout.)
(Cut to just behind his foot; Robin bucks himself out of the cockpit in a twinkling, birdarang in hand, after which the young black hero puts his head out into the light.)
Robin: (straightens up) Hot Spot! (runs over) Am I glad to see you! When I didn't hear from you, I thought you'd been ambushed, too. I don't know how they're doing this.
(Close-up of Hot Spot's face, whose expression has not wavered in the slightest.)
Robin: (from o.c.) It's like the Brotherhood of Evil knows every move we're making.
Hot Spot: (Rouge's voice) They do.
(This is not the genuine article, then, but the mistress of disguise pulling a honey of a fast one. The sound of these two words hits Robin like a concrete block upside the head; a flash, and he has been hammered backward at least twenty yards. A camera shift reveals that Rouge has socked him with a long-distance right jab, and she reels in the arm while crossing the beach and resuming her normal appearance. It takes the Boy Wonder a moment to come up to his knees.)
Robin: Madame Rouge. (standing up) I thought Hot Spot took care of you. (Cut to her; pull back.)
Rouge: You thought wrong.
(She lashes out again, but this time he is able to avoid her attacks.)
Robin: How did you get away? (He keeps up the footwork.)
Rouge: Hot Spot could not stop me. You cannot stop me!
(Both arms whip out, intending to wrap him up; he ducks away and backs up, trying desperately to stay out of reach. The retreat ends suddenly when his back touches a cliff wall, and he is forced to bob and weave in order to keep his head from being karate-chopped in half. Just as he digs a grenade out of his belt, five fingers dig into the rock, forming a cage around his head, and the others grab the wrist of the loaded hand. He lets the ordnance fall; a mighty flash and smoke cloud, and Rouge comes up empty-handed. A couple of arm swings clear the haze to show that Robin has managed to elude her.)
(Rouge glares around the area, now truly furious, and the camera pulls back to show Robin behind her. He has a disc in hand, which he scales in her direction; back to her, throwing up arms for protection. However, the usual explosion does not come and she looks upward confusedly. Tilt up to bring the disc into frame-embedded in the rock face not far above her head and ready to blow. Its detonation sets off an avalanche that buries Rouge in seconds; pull back to frame Robin looking on with grim satisfaction. He pulls out his communicator, but the next words kick any thoughts of a distress call right out of his head.)
Rouge: (from o.c.) Your communicator is of no use.
(On the end of this, cut to the piled-up rubble; she works her head up through the rocks, followed by the rest of her rubbery body. Not so much as a scratch or bruise.)
Robin: Communicator? (Close-up; it dawns on him.) The Brain has been tracking our every move with the communicator I gave to Hot Spot! (Back to her on the next line.)
Rouge: Don't you mean the communicator you gave to me?
(She forms one hand into a replica of it as she finishes, after which the camera cuts back to the stunned Titan and zooms in slightly.)
Robin: It's my fault. I'm the one who got us into trouble.
Rouge: (crossing to him and vanishing the "comm") Game over.
Robin: Not yet. I can still warn the others!
(He races away, but she takes one huge leap and plants herself in his path. One index finger waggles from side to side as if chiding a naughty toddler; he counters by hurling three discs at once, then a birdarang. She dodges the first two projectiles easily, but her face goes slack as the last two, disc and birdarang, sail straight and true toward her. In slow motion, the latter's point punches through the casing of the former, just short of her head, and sets it off.)
(When the glare clears, Rouge has been frozen solid, her head turned to one side and her hair blown back from the shock wave. Pull back briefly, then cut to Robin, gearing up to deliver a brain-busting spin kick. It shatters the frosted-over villainess into a shower of ice chips, and Robin grabs for his communicator almost as soon as his boots are back on the ground.)
Robin: Calling all Titans! The Brotherhood of Evil has been listening! I'm breaking off all further communication!
(He looks over one shoulder, the camera panning that way to bring the mass of ice into view. It has begun to assemble itself back into humanoid form, and in short order it thaws out into a pile of red ooze and take on Rouge's contours. Thinking fast, Robin pulls out a lockpick and uses it to pry off the comm's screen; behind him, his worst nightmare takes her time regrowing her arms. A bit of frantic poking at the exposed circuitry; now the arms are almost complete and the head starts to emerge. Sweat stands out above the panicked Titan's eyes as he continues his hotwiring job, after which the camera cuts to an extreme close-up of the device. One last connection rewards him with a red light and the words "SIGNAL SENT" on the tiny display next to it.)
Robin: (softly) Take care of yourselves. You know what to do.
(Rouge is now fine-tuning the last stages of her regeneration. Her arms are stretched out and flailing a bit, and her head is still a red lump on which only the mouth has emerged. However, she quickly puts herself all the way back in order and leans in with a truly terrifying smile; the arms wrap Robin up, but the hand holding the communicator is still free. Extreme close-up: the display has gone dark, but he presses a button to bring it back to life and start the whole thing beeping.)
(Cut to a patch of ground in another location-the bridge where Más and Menos said hello to Rancid and Cinderblock, judging by the yellow line on the pavement. A beeping, closed unit clatters down into view and blows itself out; pull back to show Más eyeing it a short distance away, he threw it down. Cut to a long shot of the lone, totally befuddled twin and pull back slowly. Robin's emergency signal has triggered a worldwide self-destruct sequence.)
(Up on Jericho's mountaintop, Fang has been knocked out, and a punch is heard landing just before Private HIVE crashes down unconscious next to him. The boots that step into view by the pair belong to the blond recluse and are accompanied by the same warning beeps. He then sees his comm spark out of his hand and ditches it.)
(From here, cut to just inside the ropes of Pantha's wrestling ring. She backs into view, seen from the waist down, and the camera tilts up to frame the rest of the powerhouse. Her communicator, tucked in at her belt, starts to beep and smoke, and she gets rid of the thing before it can electrocute her. In the Herald's netherworld, he has his floating just in front of his face and is studying its smoke thoughtfully. Its sounds reverberate through the weird expanse as the camera pulls back to frame the dazed See-More and Warp, and plenty of the former's eyeball shots, floating around him. Their two-way attack came to naught, it seems.)
(Extreme close-up of the one on the Brain's dome, the connecting wires now severed. The gray matter backs up sharply with a scream as the circuits overload, and a blowout drives it past Mallah to overturn the chessboard and go flat on its "back." Picking up the boss, Mallah pulls the comm free and dumps it to the floor, where it shorts out for the last time and goes silent. The two villains eye it, the Brain having calmed down again.)
Mallah: We can no longer follow the Titans' every move! (Zoom in on the Brain.)
Brain: We no longer need to.
(Dissolve to an overhead shot of the inert Kardiak and the T-Ship's smoking central section floating adrift in the ocean. Zoom in on the craft, on whose edge Beast Boy has perched, then cut to a close-up. His entire attention is focused on the now-useless communicator in his hands.)
Beast Boy: (softly) Robin...where are you?
(The next shot, a patch of the hideout's checkerboard floor, answers his question when the sound of Robin's labored grunting makes itself heard. His feet advance into view, followed by the rest of him, securely bound, being pushed to the tiles. One of Rouge's boots rests behind him, giving us an idea of how the rest of their fight played out after he hit the kill switch. When he raises his head, his eyes pop and the camera cuts to just behind him and zooms in. He is near the platform seen in the prologue, the one on which Wildebeest and the real Hot Spot stand frozen.)
Robin: (straining against the bonds) The Brotherhood of Evil will be defeated!
Brain: (from o.c.) No, Robin.
(His eyes bug out even farther; cut to a long shot of the Brain and Mallah and zoom in.)
Brain: It is you who has been defeated. (Close-up, zooming in.) I have captured the king. (One of Immortus' robots hauls in Speedy and Menos.) Your pawns cannot save you.
(On the end of this, cut to the robot's feet, where the two Titans and Aqualad are dumped in a heap. Tilt up to show the insensate Argent about to be added to the pile, she lost her battle with Immortus, then cut to an overhead shot of the floor and pull back on the next line. Many more troops have surrounded the captive leader.)
Brain: You have lost.
(Fade to black.)