A Shock to the Titans

"Where's Robin?" Static asked.

"He's with the Titans." replied Batman

"The who?"

"You'll meet them someday."

Chapter 1: Cinco de Mayo

"Starfire, you're up." said Robin's deep commanding tone. His voice had deepened in the two years since Trigon's defeat. In fact, quite a bit was different about him. There was a lot different about each one of the Titans. It had been two years of growing up for them all. Starfire had grown more accustomed to Earth. Beast Boy had matured. Raven was no longer the dark empath of bygone years. Mind you, she was still dark...and an empath...but more relaxed, with much more control over her powers.

The five Titans stood on the Tower roof, with a piñata tied to the basketball hoop. Robin placed a long wooden stick in Starfire's hands.

"I still do not understand the hitting of the papier-mâché creature with the stick." said Starfire, finding herself being blindfolded by Beast Boy, who still had a child-like fondness for parties. "Why would I want to do this creature harm? He has done nothing to wrong me."

"It's not a real animal, Star." explained Robin. "It's just custom to shape the piñata like that."

Starfire, looking reassured, took a swing, and, on account of her Tameranian strength, sent the piñata soaring over their heads. All 5 Titans watched as it cleared the stretch of ocean between their tower and Jump City and headed for downtown. Beast Boy looked sadly at the last place it was visible.

"Awww man, I guess that's the end of our Cinco de Mayo party." He whined. Behind him, Raven rolled her eyes.

"So you missed out on eating candy until you explode. Trust me; there are worse disappointments in the world."

Beast Boy turned towards the dark young woman, disappointment etched on his features.

"You know Raven; our relationship wouldn't be in such dire straits if you didn't have to rain on my parade all the time." He stated, hoping that she'd see his logic.

"Ohhh, what's this? Beast Boy using big words? I guess Hell's finally frozen over." Without waiting for his response, she melted through the floor, evidently to her room. The Titans didn't see it, but there was a slight blush on her face at Beast Boy's choice of words. She didn't mean to jeopardize their "relationship" in any way, but Beast Boy was being a tad juvenile.

Back on the roof, Beast Boy was flying into an Anti-Raven Rant, or ARR, something he had getting better at in the last two years. Although his friends mostly tuned him out during these, they knew that they could always get a good laugh from his rantings.

"...and why does she always have to act like I don't have a brain? It's not like I'm annoying her anymore! I don't ask her to do everything with us like I used to. I respect her space!" Beast Boy gasped out, before taking a big breath and preparing to jump into his rant again, when Cyborg cut him off.

"Listen, B. It's just her way of talking to you. She has her own way of speaking with each of us. It doesn't mean she cares any less. In fact, I think she treats you like this because she cares about you the most."

Beast Boy could feel his cheeks heating up. He knew he was blushing, knew everyone could see it, but could do nothing about it. Finally he muttered "That's just what you think." Before turning and stomping down the stairs toward the main Tower.

"I am most confused. Since when is friend Raven able to generate rain? And how long has she been precipitating on friend Beast Boy's parade? Perhaps it is time for us to do a 'girl talk'." Starfire moved toward the stairs, but turned around at the sound of her name.

"Star, it's just a figure of speech. It just means that she's ruining Beast Boy's good time." explained Cyborg. "She always does that when he becomes too much for her to handle."

Starfire gasped and looked up a Cyborg. She had grown at little more in those two years, but was still shadowed by the cybernetic teen. "You too have noticed the deep feelings our teammates share for each other?"

Cyborg looked into her eyes before gazing off at the sunset.

"Yeah. And I wish BB or Rae would just pluck up the courage and talk to each other about it----"

The rest of Cyborg's sentence was cut off by the Tower's alarm. A red light was flashing and a klaxon was blaring.

"Trouble!" stated Robin, rather obviously. "Good. The last few months have been quiet. I'm ready for something challenging. Something shocking."

Down in his room, Beast Boy was staring at a certain picture in his photo album. He kept an album to have a safe place to store all his favorite pictures of the team. He had all kinds, from pictures of Cyborg and himself pulling pranks on the other three, to ones of the Titans with the Doom Patrol. But his favorite picture by far was one taken a few months after Trigon's defeat. It was 4th of July, and the Titans, including Raven, were up on the roof watching the Jump City fireworks. Unintentionally and unconsciously, Beast Boy had snuggled up closer to Raven to stay warm. The other three Titans had quietly back off and Robin had taken out a small digital camera he had brought to shoot some pictures of the fireworks. Robin had had really good timing. In the picture, Beast Boy was sitting with his is head resting on Raven's shoulder, and Raven had her eyes closed, her head leaned against Beat Boy's head, the hint of a smile on her face. Both had immediately jumped apart and denied everything, but Robin had his photo, which was proof enough. Robin had eventually given the photo to Beast Boy, but was a little reluctant to give up "something so cute!".

Beast Boy sighed as he looked at the picture. Those were happy times. Raven had just been learning to express her emotions freely, without her father's dark taint. But since, they had grown increasingly distant. Raven had started taking more time in her room than normal. She never stayed in the same room with him for long, always raising and bidding the team "Good Night", or sometimes without a sound.

Beast Boy let out another sigh, before shoving his photo album back under his bed. He climbed to his feet and, opening his door, ran off towards the living room and an undoubtable briefing by Robin.

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Jadin Wyeth ran down a side street, hoping that he had lost his pursuers. It seemed like months since Static and Gear had first chased him out of Dakota, but he knew it had really been more like a few days. But in those days, he had taken the two teenaged Meta-Humans for the chase of their lives. From Dakota to Gotham, then Metropolis, and finally here to Jump. He knew why they wouldn't want someone like him anywhere near their city or their friends, but it didn't make sense that they would spend days chasing after him, what with superhero duties and such. A tidal wave could have killed everyone in Dakota, and they would be none the wiser.

When Jadin had chosen to flee Dakota, he had left a tangled web of crimes, victims, and lawsuits behind him. The courts had said it. The police had said it. Even Static had said it. He was sadistic. And disturbed. His most recent crime was the murder of a teenage girl and her two friends. When Static had arrived with the police, Jadin was long gone, leaving the girl with several bullet holes and knife wounds in her body. Her friend's corpses were never found.

Besides having an alarmingly high body count, Jadin was known for torturing his victims before they died. His most recent had been an employee of Alba Industries. Jadin had cut the poor man to bits, before leaving the mutilated corpse inside Dakota Union High, were it had been discovered by none other than Virgil Hawkins aka Static. So Static and Gear had taken up the chase.

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Beast Boy arrived in the Titan's living room five minutes later. Robin had his computer hooked up to a projector, throwing up a big picture of Jump City. A small red circle was moving in real time across the aerial satellite image.

"That's our man." started Robin, using a laser pointer to highlight the dot, which was a tad unessasary. "He entered Jump about an hour ago, and stole a car at 1321. Now he's ditched the car, and his on foot, heading for Chinatown."

Beast Boy watched the red dot cross two streets and enter an alley. Only this one guy? He thought, I can take him. Aloud, he said "I'll take care of it."

And with that, he walked out the door.