"I'm not sure I like this idea."
"Come on, Robin, it's not that bad. Or do you not want to actually help people who asked for it?" said Kid Flash.
"'Uh, can you help me get my cat out of a tree?' 'Well gee, we'd love to, but there's kind of an alien invasion. Wait, we missed that because it's buried under everyone else's cats and trees,'" Robin replied.
"I'm sure no one's going to the trouble of writing a letter about a cat."
"Still, you have to understand my point. If it's important enough for a super team to deal with, we can find out about it on our own."
"Not everyone has million-dollar computers, Robin."
"Hey, you two. Mind not bickering for a moment? We've got a letter here. Looks like it was written pretty hastily," said Wonder Girl, sitting down next to them. She opened it up, and Kid Flash grabbed a coin from the pocket of his coat hanging on the wall of the small cave serving as a temporary lair for the Teen Titans.
"Hey, Robin. I'll bet you a quarter it's something important."
Aqualad turned to them.
"Seriously?"
Robin looked from Aqualad to Kid Flash.
"Alright. You're on."
He took out a quarter of his own.
Wonder Girl began to read.
"Dear Teen Titans
I need your help. We need your help. It all started last night. I was in bed, but I couldn't sleep. I heard a knock at the door. I looked outside, and there were a bunch of people in this weird armor. It made them look a little like bees or something, but they seemed to be human underneath it. My parents answered, and I heard a loud crash. I hid, and in the morning, my parents were gone. Everyone in the whole neighborhood was gone. I escaped. I tried to go to the city to get help, but Green Arrow-"
"Green Arrow? He works in Star City. Just got settled in, and now we've got to head clear across the country…" said Kid Flash.
"but Green Arrow is out of town. I asked Speedy for help, but I'm not sure he can do it on his own. Please come and investigate. I've got nowhere else to go. If you do help, go to the return address, but be ready for a trap. There are people I don't recognize living in those houses, probably to fool passersby. Wait, I think they found me. I've got to get this sent before they take me too.
Well? What do you think? Seems worth checking out to me."
Robin gave the quarters to Kid Flash.
"Alright. I guess we can go. What do you two think?"
Kid Flash and Aqualad nodded in assent.
One of the few technological elements in the cave was a link to the Justice League Watchtower's teleportation systems. As Robin activated the device, Kid Flash mumbled something to the effect of "I still think a helicopter would be cooler."
The four Titans walked up to the house with the return address from the letter. Robin knocked on the door. It swung open, revealing a woman who did not appear to be a threat. She was dressed in civilian clothes and apparently unarmed. Suddenly, they heard clicking behind them.
"Don't. Move."
They turned around. There were five armored people, like the letter described. They were all armed. The one closest to the Titans spoke.
"Why are you here?"
"I don't think that's any of your business," said Aqualad.
"We just made it our business."
The Titans could see a sixth armored figure, this one with a sniper rifle, in the window across the street. The woman at the door also took out a concealed handgun.
"And at this point, you've already seen too much."
The sniper was pulled backwards into the house. An arrow with a rope attached imbedded itself in a wall inside the door, while three more landed near the armored squad and released knockout gas. A young man dressed in red and yellow and armed with a bow slid down the rope and kicked the woman who had answered the door in the face.
"So the letter did get through."
"Speedy, I presume," said Robin.
A shot rang out from inside the cloud of knockout gas, and was deflected by Wonder Girl.
"I've got this," said Kid Flash, leaping into the cloud.
Within the span of a second, a pile of disassembled guns lay at his feet. Robin put on a gas mask of his own, and began breaking the bee-like armored troopers'.
"Nice of you to show up. I've been stuck here for a while. They wouldn't let me leave, and there were too many to take down on my own. Now if you'll just explain why you four in particular responded to the kid's letter…"
Robin emerged from the knockout gas dragging the one armored man still conscious.
"We've started a team. Until we get a more efficient notification system, we're responding to written distress calls. Right now, I'm more interested in why these clowns are here."
He threw the man down on the ground.
"And I'm about to find out."
Author's Note: Just for the record, since I'm basing this on the original five titans (Note: not the animated ones – I enjoy the animated series, but this will be more a mix of the comics and my own ideas), the Wonder Girl shown here is Donna Troy. Cassie Sandsmark may appear in the sequel, if/when I write that.
