Really, it should have been a normal day for the team. Well, as normal as things got for them. Let's face it, when a martial artist, an alien, a cyborg, a shape-shifter and a sorceress get together, it's not really that normal in the first place. But it depends on one's viewpoint, I suppose.
Regardless, the day had started out relatively okay. Cyborg and Beast Boy clashed over the tomato sauce (For ham and tofu-bacon, respectively), which eventually led to Raven losing her temper and taking the condiment for herself. Starfire had to intervene on the two complaining boy's behalf, successfully convincing Raven to give it back.
And by convincing, I mean she distracted her with herbal tea while a green tentacle sneakily grabbed it back when she wasn't looking.
During this, Robin drank coffee, stuffed his face with eggs and read the newspaper. Nothing interesting on the paper, to be honest; a sales offer here, a report on a missing cargo there, football was the most popular sport in Jump and a piece dedicated to Beast Boy's single-handed foiling of a bank robbery, simply by scaring the robbers with his Tyrannosaurus form.
Anyway, after breakfast, Starfire took Silkie and Beast Boy for a walk, Cyborg and Raven played chess and Robin indulged himself in watching a nature documentary about eagles or something like that.
Eventually, right after Raven had flattened Cyborg for the fifth time and Starfire had returned, clutching Silkie in her arms while Beast Boy complained of worm poop, the alarm went off.
Robin sighed as he switched the television to display the problem. Oh boy, looks like a giant robot was tearing up the stadium. Another sigh, and the Boy Wonder declared: "Titans, go!"
Thanks to the ability to defy gravity, Starfire and Raven got there first. The robot was an impressive construction; massive treads propelled it across the ground as the humanoid torso blasted rockets and lasers everywhere with arm-like appendages, causing a real mess of things. The girls went into action; flanking the metalloid menace from both sides, they blasted it, testing its defences. The robot responded with a swarm of missiles, which were no trouble to dodge.
The T-Car, carrying the remaining three Titans, chose this moment to burst through the entrance, showing off an impressive cannon on its roof.
"Oh yeah! Let's see how my new and improved proton cannon handles this hunk-a-junk!" Cyborg hollered, pressing the bright red button on the dashboard.
The cannon fired a blast of light that slammed into the robot, leaving an impressive scorch mark on the silver metal. It turned to face this new threat, and fired a sort of wave of energy that was heading right towards them.
"Might wanna dodge that." Robin said, as casual as you can imagine, and Cyborg heeded his advice with a skilful swerve to the left.
Beast Boy slipped through the back window as a hawk, zooming into the air, before diving down as a rhinoceros. The robot saw it coming, but was too slow to react-
CRASH!
The machine smashed into the wall of the stadium, engine sputtering and upper half flailing.
Beast Boy reverted to human form and grinned: "Alright! Time to show this thing what I'm made of!"
The robot promptly fired a massive missile at him.
"Thankfully, I'm made of RUN AWAY!"
As Beast Boy did exactly what he said he would, managing to avoid the missile, Raven, observing from the air, called out to Starfire: "C'mon, let's just finish this already."
The alien grinned and seized her friend's hand, and the two zoomed as one for their target. Hands alighting with their respective powers, they span around, creating a cyclone of green and black, which hit the robot head-on.
Impressively, it didn't blow up, rather being flung to the way on the far side of the arena, but it was clearly on its last legs; the treads were ripped, the panels were dented, the single optic upon the machine was beeping wildly and sparks zipped out of the numerous cracks and tears. Nevertheless, it was ready for a final stand, as one mechanical arm split apart to reveal a truly intimidating energy cannon, that began to charge energy-
With a blur of red, a single birdarang impaled the 'chest' of the robot. The optic blinked once, then twice, before the machine wheezed, the cannon powered down, and the whole thing shut off, fully deactivated.
Starfire and Raven landed next to it, turning to see Robin grinning at them, leaning lazily out of the T-Cars window, while Cyborg declared: "BOOYAH!"
"Well, now that we've sorted this out." Raven mused. "I guess we need to figure out who built this thing."
"I think our green bean has that covered." Cyborg sniggered, pointing forwards. And sure enough, the green velociraptor had a reptilian smirk of triumph on his face, as he shoved forwards a stammering man, a weedy chap, perhaps in his twenties, with brown hair and glasses. Most ominous was the remote control thing in his hand, most assuredly for the robot.
"Please! I admit it, it was me! I built the robot!" The man blubbered, clearly in a panic. "Just don't let this thing eat me!"
The raptor simply hissed, baring sharp fangs, but it was clearly for show.
As Robin and Cyborg exited the car, Starfire stepped forward, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes in a similar fashion to a mother who has caught her young son trying to sneak cookies from the jar, and her tone was exactly that: "Why would you unleash a robot upon the stadium of the sports games? You could have endangered many people."
The man, still cowering from the dinosaur, whimpered: "My parents always told me to do football. They forced me to sign up for classes, made me go to all the sports lessons. I couldn't stand it! I HATED IT! I liked science, not crude sport! I built the robot to teach everyone a lesson!"
"Yeah, that's real sad and all, but we don't tolerate mass property damage over simple dislikes." Robin drawled, drawing out a pair of handcuffs, which he promptly put to use. "Sorry, buddy, but you're off to jail."
The man simply sobbed some more as Robin led him to the T-Car, while Cyborg mused: "Man, I can't believe him. Football rocks!"
"To some, maybe." Raven snorted.
"Don't believe her." Beast Boy snickered. "I caught her watching recordings of the last season a few nights ago. Raven does in fact like football!"
Cyborg burst into laughter, and the mystical girl turned away in angered embarrassment, muttering threats under her breaths.
So, that was that. Starfire took the robot to the dump, Cyborg and Robin took the inventor to jail and Raven and Beast Boy went off to the Tower, where, away from prying eyes, she gave him a super wedgie.
All in all, it was a pretty normal day. The other three Titans returned, and Robin and Cyborg began to play video games, Beast Boy went for his nap ("I need my beauty sleep, dude! Don't deny me my beauty sleep!"), Starfire watched the gamers and Raven settled with a nice book.
Occasionally, Starfire would ask which character was which, if she could have a go later, and if Raven wanted to do some hair-braiding later ("Robin is the red one, I'm blue, you can have a go later, and Raven wants me to say no.")
The boys themselves traded trash-talk and exclamations of rage when one lost the battle, followed by more trash-talking, which itself was followed by Raven telling them to shut up. They would shut up for a minute, and then the cycle would begin again. Beast Boy eventually returned, and joined in with the laughing at losses and sniggering at arguments.
It was as normal a day as the Titans got. What more could one want?
Then there was the sound of someone knocking on the door.
Robin paused the game and exchanged a confused glance with Cyborg, Raven raised her eyebrow, Beast Boy wondered aloud who that might be, but before any further questioning could occur, Starfire cheerfully exclaimed: "I shall answer it!"
With that, she flew off, zooming through the corridors, down the stairs, across the hall and landed in front of the door. With a skip and a jump, she reached the button next to the massive door and pressed it.
The great wall of metal split in half and slid open, revealing the bright light of the beautiful day outside, but what was catching to the eye was the figure standing just before the door.
He was a man, but he was utterly huge; at least eight or nine feet tall, with a massive torso without any kind of clothing and thick arms brimming with muscle, supported by equally muscular legs, clad in ragged crimson shorts tied to his waist with a length of rope. The head was covered by a black mask with white decal, showing only the mouth and eyes, which were an odd green colour.
The massive man had a kind of tank upon his back, with three tubes connected to the back of his head and the broad shoulders, and a smaller tube leading to a black gauntlet on his wrist. The final touch was a ragged teddy bear on his rope belt, but this was not the most striking feature.
No, what was really striking was the bright neon glow that moved through the tubes. And most disturbing, even under the tanned skin, one could see the green glow pulsing through the veins upon his skin, as if his blood was shining with whatever substance was contained in his backpack.
Starfire's eyes widened in shock as she nervously took a step back, leaning her head back to better take in the sight of the huge glowing man, whose eyes locked onto her with unnerving intensity.
"Greetings, niƱa." He said, his voice deep and tinged with an Earth accent she did not know, polite but focused. "Forgive the sudden intrusion, but I have a question for you."
The stunned alien could only nod dumbly at that, which he took as a cue to lean forward, his eyes set on hers like the barrel of a sniper rifle, and he spoke, the polite tone replacing itself with cold danger:
"Where is the Boy Wonder?"
