((standard disclaimers apply I do not own teen titans or any of the characters protray there in))
Chapter1: A new arrival
Raven stood looking down at the plack in the sidewalk, it read simply, "In memory of Jax Darius Striker, who died protecting our fair city" it had been over a year since Jax's death when he sacrificed himself to save the Titans as well as the members of the justice league who'd also been lured into the trap. Raven came to this spot every month, at first the others would come with her, or she would see them there already, but as time passed their visits became less and less, but not hers, she came to this spot every month, and every month she would leave a single flower on the makeshift grave before returning to the tower to weap over the stone that had been left behind after the blast. This time however as she was about to leave the building across the street suddenly erupted in an explosion, it only took out a few windows but what caught her eye more was the strange metalic being that leapt from the window and landed on the ground on all fours like some sort of animal. It had only one eye that was blue in color, its whole body seemed to be made of slim cords, however before she could get up gun fire showered it from above and it quickly ran. Raven meanwhile flew up to the window toward the men who had fired down saying, "what do you think your doing? their are people down there!" the men seemed to ignore her and headed for the door, but before they could open it black energy engulfed it trapping them within the room. Raven flew in and landed in the room, "your not going anywhere until I get some answers..." it was then she noticed another man, however this man lay on the floor assumingly dead. Her eyes were drawn back to the men as one of them approached her reaching into his coat. Raven instantly went into a defensive position, but instead of a weapon the man pulled a federal badge from his pocket, "we'll take it from here..." Raven knew something wasn't right, however she had no grounds to say or do anything so she left, but she did not give up, if she wasn't going to get answers from them, then she would find that strange being that had leapt from the building and get answers that way.
((several hours later in an urban area of Jump city))
Alex groaned as he stared down at his math homework, it wasn't so much that the work was hard, quite the opposite infact, but his grades were slipping due to missing homework assignments. He leaned back in his chair and looked at his ceiling then closed his eyes rubbing them some then opening them again, however when he opened them again he was staring up at a single blue eye. Before Alex could react the wirey being engulfed him and everything went black. when he opened his eyes his chair was toppled backwards on the floor. He looked around quickly then sighed and chuckled some, "wow, must have passed out for a sec...weird dream..." Alex got up and finished his homework...
((Two weeks later))
Alex sighed as he sat in the bank lobby while his mom dealt with the seemingly countless signing over of his late father's estate to her completely. two weeks earlier his father had been killed in what was called a lab accident. Alex and his father had not been what most would call close, but Alex still missed him. As Alex thought over the months before his fathers death he zoned out, until a laser blast shook the bank and shook him back to reality. The Hive Five were attempting to rob the bank, his eyes instantly flicked over to where his mother was, he sighed seeing she was safe, but then he felt his fingers twitch and looked down and saw a grey shade engulfing his skin until finally his entire body was covered including his head. He found he could breath easily as if nothing were there, but his vision was another story, he saw statistics on each person. without fully understanding what was going on Alex rushed at mamoth and before the gaint brute could even react he threw him through a wall. Private Hive quickly hurled his shield at Alex, but Alex caught it like it was nothing and threw it back at him, however he hit both See-more and Private Hive. Gizmo launched a super charged stun gun at him, however it seemed to have no effect. Before Alex had time to attack Gizmo however the Titans Arrived and quickly dealt with the remaining members of the Hive Five. Alex made a quickly getaway in the confusion of the clean up. Fourtunately the armor that had formed over him disappeared shortly afterwards so the police simply assumed he'd taken cover in the attack.
((Later that night))
Alex sighed some poking at his meatloaf as he sat across the table from his mother. It was not so much that he couldn't eat or that he wasn't hungry, but he was distracted by what had happen ealier in the bank. At the moment of the attack he had reacted almost on instict he hadn't really thought about what he was doing or what could have happened to him, it was like something inside him was controlling him. His mother said his name and he suddenly snapped back to the present, "huh? what?" his mother looked at him concerned and said, "I said whats wrong, you used to love my meatloaf. is something on your mind? or does it have something to do with what happened at the bank or..." he smiled and shook his head some, "no mom, I'm fine, just a little shell shocked" He chuckled and started eating. his mother finished before him since he'd not been eating, she excused herself saying she was going to sleep. Alex finished eating and started to wash the dishes after packing up the left overs. about mid way through washing the dishes he reached into the soapy water and cut his hand on a knife, quickly pulling his hand from the water he reached for a towel to stop the bleeding, he put the towel on the wound then felt his hand tingle. he pulled the towel away and watched in amazed horror as a greyish liquid slowly filled the wound, then slowly the wound began healing it looked like a jacket slowly being zipped up til it was completely healed. He rubbed his fingers over the wound pressed on it and examined it closely, but there was no trace of the wound at all. He backed up and took a seat at the table, "impossible... but..." suddenly a voice filled his ears, "hope I didn't scare you, your pulse are risen, you should try to calm down." he stood up quickly knocking the chair backwards, he spun around looking for the source of the voice, but he found nothing. He swallowed hard, "who... whos there? show yourself!" the voice came again, "hush hush, you don't want to wake your mother do you? look I can't show myself, my primary functions were damaged when I escaped. you were the closest match to the doctor I knew of so I had to enter you to survive..." He looked at his hand, "the dotor?" he thought for a moment then his eyes widened, "your what my dad was working on?" the voice replied, "that is correct, however he wasn't really working on me anymore, I was complete. He was training me." Alex sat down again after picking up the chair, "so why me? I mean why did you need the closest match to my father?" the voice answered him, "because your father's blood was the last genetic mapping I intergrated with and my scanners were offline so I needed a close match to bind to until I can identife another host, and lucky for you my scanners will be online in another day, then I just need to find a host, I was thinking one of those people who showed up at the bank, after the robbers, who are they?" five images appaeared before his eyes and he reached out as if they were before him as he named them, "This one with the eletronics is Cyborg, you'd proably fit him fine... um the Next one is Starfire, I don't even think she is human so... yeah... then there is Robin, he is human and he uses alot of gadgets you might like him, then there is Beastboy, don't know much about him other then he can change into any animal, and last but certainly not least, Raven, no clue there..." The voice was silent for a few moments, meanwhile Alex returned to the dishes finishing them up as the voice finally spoke, "the last one, Raven, you say you have no clue, but there are many images in your mind of her and you have some sketches of her in your note book..." Alex blushed some then chuckled abit, "I don't know anything about her, but yes I would like to... " a red light flashed in the corner of alex eye then the voice spoke, "it seems she has some interest in you also..." Alex chuckled some, "oh yeah why do you say that? " the voice replied, "because she is floating behind you..." Alex stopped right where he was and didn't move a muscle thinking, "please let that be some kind of a joke..." he slowly turned to see Raven was indeed floating in his kitchen looking at him with a raised eyebrow. he half paniced thinking she heard everything, then he realize she'd not been there long and even if she had she could have only heard half the conversation. He cleared his throat and swallowed hard, "um...hi? can I help you with something?" Raven landed and spoke, " 2 weeks ago, I saw a metalic creature leap from a building downtown, then this afternoon, I saw you at the bank in a suit of a similar matrial...so perhaps you can help me..." she spoke in her classic monotone voice, but Alex hung on every word, it didn't matter that it sounded kind of bad for him, he'd never been had abit of a crush on her since the titans first appeared in Jump city and this was a sort of dream come true for him. However he knew better then to stay silent, silence was sometimes a sign of the guilty or of a liar, "um... well see this um...thing.. was my Father's work and uh when he was... killed... it needed to find the closest match so it found me...and as for the bank, I don't know what that was about it just sort of happens... your not going to arrest me are you?" Raven looked at him a moment then walked toward him, " I'm not going to arrest you, but you can't stay here, if I found you so will the people who want that thing..." Raven made a portal, "go..." he took a step towards it, "wait what about my mom?" Raven nodded, "already taken care of, Robin will take he to a safe house now go." Alex looked at her, "but why do I have to.." he was cut off by her shoving him into the portal. Alex came out in a strange room followed shortly by raven who spoke as soon as she emerged and the portal closed, " this is your room for the time being, its for your own protection so don't do anything stupid. bye." she left without another word and the door slid shut behind her clicking softly as the locks slid into place. Alex sighed as he sat on the bed, "great... just great..."