First off, I'll bet there'll be like a hundred something mispelles on this fanfic, for a very clear reason: my spellcheck only does Hebrew, folks, take it out with it!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, or anyone else in that matter.
Full summary: In the episode "Revved Up" Red X fights Robin while using his belt, also, in the wideshot during "Homecoming II" Red X is shown wearing his belt. How did it get to him? This little fic will try to shed some light on that mystery.
Chapter one: an Offer You Can't Refuse
"Titans, GO!"
"Oh, no" Red X turned his head right, to see three explosive discs heading his way. Leaving the safe he was cracking half opened, he took a chance and leaped out of the window, 45 stories high. As he jumped out, a wave of flames created by Robin's discs erupted from. the window behind him, scorching the air. The burgler streched his arms and legs out, forming his body into the shape of an X and dove down the long drop to the sidewalk below. Back in the office building, Robin and Cyborg stood, looking down to see the masked thief rocketing down towards the floor
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" Cyborg exclaimed, Red X was a lot of things, but crazy wasn't on the list
"Beast Boy, Raven, he jumped down" the Boy Wonder annouced through his communicator. Outside the building, Raven responded
"Last time he pulls one of these stunts off" she commented dryly as X flew past her and Beast Boy in eagle form. She directed herself downward and flew after the dark teen, untill he was in grasp range of her powers, it was then when Red X noticed that he had stopped falling and was levitating through the air inside a black orb
"I have him" Raven radioed in
"Lock him in the T-Car, I don't even want to give him the slightest chance to escape" Robin replied. The Sorceress then proceeded to lowering both herself and the orb down, but she made a mistake; she came too close. X noticed a way out, the eye slits in his mask narrowed
"Gotcha!" he said and grabbed Raven by her cloak, pulling it off her and making her lose concentration, thus making the orb burst and allowing X to resume his amazing 30 story drop. Eagle Beast Boy wasted no time and set off after the thief who was now using Raven's cloak as a parachute, he gained enough momentum to swing himself into the building window, feet first and dodging Beast Boy's attack which now just tore Raven's cloak in bits
"He's inside the building again, dude, 26th floor!" Beast Boy, now in human shape said through his communicator as he stepped inside the building through the window X broke. Inside, the Shape Shifter walked in the form of a green snake, allowing himself to slither into one of the nearby ground level vents and to the ceiling, from which he could observe the entire floor without X seeing him. It didn't take the Anaconda too long to find the theif, who was creeping in and between cubicals, always checking his surroundings for any unforseen interruptions. Beast Boy waited his time and made one final mind set
"Go!"
The ceiling tiles broke as a huge Anaconda snake burst through them and attacked X directly, warpping itself around the young man and beginning to squeeze harder and harder in order to drive enough air out of him to pass out.
X felt the strong muscles of the green serpant crushing every bone in his body, his legs were starting to feel cold, numb, out of control. They collapsed. He fell down to the ground while feeling the cold sensation now rising towards his torso, he had to do something fast, or it's the play pen for him.
"Bingo"
He found his salvation in the form of a loose electric wire, just a few feet from him. Using every remaining ounce of strength he had left, he rolled sideways, slowly, untill the green body of the snake touched the exposed wiring and got a massive joult of voltage running through him. Both the snake and X writhed in pain due to muscle contractions, but the Anaconda gave way first, shifting back to a passed out Beast Boy, now lying on the floor. X got up and was about to walk away when he noticed the wire was a tad too close for comfort. He gave the sparks one last look and then kicked the wire away from the young boy
"Fighting's fun and all, but that's just not safe" he commented and left through the open door
(S)
"Beast Boy? Beast Boy, come in" Robin radioed. No response. He slipped the communicator back into his pocket and proceeded down the darkened hall he was standing in.
"Beast Boy said X was in the 26th floor. He couldn't have gone too far down" He
muttered to himself as he busted through an elevator shaft using his staff. Robin then jumped on the elevator cord and repelled down in an amazing speed, his gloves protceting him from any friction burn.
As he touched down on an elevator roof, Robin's senses went hyper. He knew that feeling; Red X was close. Quickly opening the metal box's roof, Robin slipped in the floor, the electric monitor inside the lift read 14 in bright red numbers. The Boy Wonder stepped outside the lift, trying to make as less noise as possible as not to alert his counterpart. He saw a shadow coming in from a corner and quickly ducked behind a large sculpture, planning a sneak attack. The shadow was coming closer and closer, Robin's muscles tensed, and the exact moment, he leaped out of his hiding place
Nearly nailing a blow on Starfire's face
"Robin!" She exclaimed while jumping backwards, panting in fear. Realising what he had done, Robin retracted his staff and sighed
"Sorry Starfire" he began "But I was sure you were-"
"The Red X?" She cut him off. "I too am looking for him, but I'm afraid he has escaped"
"No he didn't" Robin said, determind "I know he's still here. We just need to keep looking"
"Yo Robin!" Came a voice through his communicator. It was Cyborg
"What is it, Cyborg?" He asked
"I hacked into the building's security system. Movement sensors show a track heading towards the parking lot on the underground floor"
"X" Robin hissed through his teeth "Come on!" he told Starfire, who quickly followed her team's leader
(S)
As one of Starfire's Starbolts knocked down a large steel door with a blue P branded on it, Robin's nose was blasted by the scorching smell of gasoline, his eyes on the other hand, were completly free, as all he saw was darkness
"Gimmie some light, Star" he asked. As a response, Starfire raised one of her hands and charged a starbolt, lighting the underground sector in an eerie green light. It was then when he saw the trail of X's tattred cape vanish behind a large cement column, his eyes narrowed
"I know you're here X!" He exclaimed while running like a madman, Starfire flying closely behind him, both headhing towards X's hiding place
"Please, surrender! We wish not to use violance!" Starfire shouted
"Speak for yourself" Robin thought while drawing his staff. At that second, they were both startled by the loud noise of a motorcycle engine being turned on
"You're gonna have to catch me first" X's distored voice echoed through the large underground lot. His hand gunned the bike's throttle and he rocketed past the small barrier he was hiding behind and in between the startled Robin and Starfire. They both snapped out of it together, with Robin throwing another wave of discs at the bike and Starfire just blasting away with her Starbolts.
X steered his bike skillfully through the sea of explosions all around him. He knew that if he made it to the exit ramp, he will no longer be in their line of fire. In order to achive that, he threw his bike sideways, dodging an oncoming eye blast and gunning his bike again, forcing his engine to chuck up more and more speed. Tires screeched and the smell of burnt fuel filled the air as the bike zoomed past indicator signs and explosions, nicking the onramp just a few miliseconds before a freezing disc hit the corner he just took, erecting a large pillar of ice.
Robin stopped running and took a few deep breaths while starfire flew past him, still aiming to help her friend in capturing the elusive criminal
"Cyborg, he's making his way out of the building. Don't let him escape!" Robin cried through the communicator while still trying to settle his breathing.
"Gotcha man. He's not making it out. Now way" Cyborg replied. Robin gave him a sharp smile and signed off, now contacting Raven. Still outside the building
"Raven, I need you to check up on Beast Boy. He's not responding"
"Where should I look?" she asked, a slight note of worry in her voice
"I lost contact with him after he went into the 26th floor. Robin, out"
(S)
A turn of the ignition brought the powerful V-6 engine of the T-Car to life, a voletile mixture of fuel and nitro ran through the tubes, powering a miniature power plant mounted inside the roaring machine, bringing the onboard computer, along with the weapon systems to life. Cyborg, the half man- half machine member of the titans team rolled the car to the parking lot's exit, readying the weapon systems to use. It didn't take too long before his scanners picked up a target, and it was coming at him fast. A few seconds later, he could see the motorcycle's headlights in the darkened tunnel.
X screeched to a halt, right in front of the T Car, he couldn't take it on, he knew that
"I'm gonna give you one last chance to surrnder, X" Cyborg shouted through the car's massive speaker system "We don't have to end it this way" In response to that, X just twisted his bike's throttle, pumping some extra high octane fuel into the engine
"I'm serious man, don't!" Cyborg yelled. At that moment, two rows of the T-Car's heat seeking missiles were drawn out, already locked on X's heat signature
"Beleive me, there's nothing I'd like more" X told himself and gunned his bike, speeding right towards the T-Car's hood. Cyborg, not surprised by X's action, fired the missiles which flew in a direct ninty degrees angle, leaving a trail of smoke as they made their way towards the dark sky. X nicked his front wheel on the hood and rode across the T-Car, and from there to the ally. A quick order from Cyborg's CPU caused a series of direction rockets to be fired, causing the large car to make a one hundred and eighty degrees turn. The nitro engine fired up and the T-Car roared it's way afrer the small bike.
-Receiving positional Data-
-Target Locked-
-ETA: 15 Seconds-
The target data from Cyborg's computer was finally fed to the prelaunched missiles, which now stopped their free-fall and fired up, tracking X's bike
"You can't be serious!" The thief exclaimed once seeing the six missiles diving towards him, he took a sharp corner and vanished into an ally, the missiles still after him.
In the meantime, Starfire made her way out of the tunnel, to see a huge orange and red explosoion towering from a city block, not too far from her. She flew higher to get a better view of the damage
"On no..." She let out silently and pulled out her communicator
"Friends..." She said with a shakey voice "I... I think the Red X is dead"
(S)
He awoke. Not knowing where, or when is he. Slowly opening his eyes, he discovered his field of vision has been turned to a wide smear of blue and black, his vision was as blurry as it can get
"Must be an optics problem caused by the explosion" he throught and blinked hard, activating his mask's optics unit in hopes of switching to a functional vision mode, but when he opened his eyes, the blue smudge was still there. He tried again, with similar consequences and then decided he needed to force a manual overwrite, which was done by touching two touchpads on the upper right portion of his mask, but as he did, he touched something unlike the usually cold material of his mask, something hairy
His eyebrow
As the painful realization hit him, he tried to take a deep breath, to calm his nerves down, but realized he couldn't
There was something in his throat. Choking him
He gasped for dear air, grabbing and yanking on the large tube sticking out of his mouth. He could feel his lungs burning up with lack of oxygen, and then, the tank he was in exploded, sending a shower of glass and liquid everywhere. The young man crumbled down to the cold wet metal floor that was under him and with one final pull, took the tube out of his mouth, taking a deep breath and with it, coughing up a blue substance that was in his lungs.
He remained on all fours for quite a while, gasping and fixing his breath, untill he was finally ready to get up. As he did, the young man looked down on himself and saw he was stripped down. Not panicing, he scanned his surroundings; he was in a lab of some sort, in the middle of a dark room, poorly lit by some dark blue lights, placed in random locations. In front of him was a large black glass window underwhich was a small metallic table with none other but his suit, resting neatly folded on it. He quickly picked up the top item; his mask and secured it to his face, using the black headpiece. Only then he was able to relax, beacuase he had stopped being naked, and have an identity. He had stopped being a man and got back to being just a name
Red X
"Ah, so you can get dressed for yourself, that's good" Those words, along with a quiet snicker, came like a lightning bolt down X's spine. He quickly jumped back and turned around, switching his mask to Thermal mode, turning his world deep blue and quickly scanning the room. Nothing
"Who are you? Show yourself!" He demanded and in response got another snicker
"I am afraid you're in no place to make demands, my friend" The voice answered. It was a man's voice, with a heavy hispanic accent. X could still not find the source of the voice, it was bouncing off the walls and echoing back. His eyes narrowed
"Well, I was kinda sure that blast killed me... The least I deserve are some explenations, Pedro" As he finished his sentence, a gun went off and a silvery objecet bounced near his right foot, forcing him to jump left and roll across the cold floor
"Okay, not a big fan of sarcasm. I can work with that" He muttered and rubbed his aching right leg. A loud noise caught his attention; the large black screen has now turned into a yellow-ish color and displayed the dark outlines of a large figure
"I would recommend you to watch your tongue, my friend, that is, if you desire to keep it" the figure said. X just narrowed his eyes in response. Sensing his untold submission, the shadow continued
"I have saved you from a certain death for a reason, my dear Red X. There is something I want-"
"You mean 'Something I need'" X cut him off, taunting. Another gunshot went off, right between X's legs
"You need to understand, my dear theif. I have the advantage. You, on the other hand, are with a slight handicap. You lack a certain..." the figure held up a tube of some sort, containing a bright red radiating liquid
"Flare"
"Xenuthium" X mouthed the word. The precious fuel for his suit, the very thing that turns him from a mere professional theif to a danger with such a magnitute that it requires the personal care taking of the Teen Titans.
"Blackmailing me with Xenothium?" He chuckled "Apperantly you havn't been keeping up with the news, Pedro. You can pump me with all the Red you can get, it still won't matter without-"
"Your belt?" the figure seemed amused "It is most amusing that you mention it, my friend, because the object I wanted you to steal is located next door to a certain...Fassion accesory that you desire" In response, X just narrowed his eyes, annoyed
"You're full of bull!" He spat, throwing his arms forward "It's common knowledge that the belt is in cold storage at Titans Tower. Breaking in there is crazy..." He paused "Even though I did it once"
"And what if I told you that Bruce Wayene did not allow Robin to keep the remains of the Red X weapon system at the tower? What if he had them transoprted to an off shore stealth storage unit? Wha-"
"Whoa, whoa. Rewind" X told him "What did you mean when you said 'Remains'? The suit and the belt are Red X, nothing more"
"Ah, you are mistaken, my friend" The hispanic one said, surprising X "The weapon system also consists of a high speed assault motorcycle, much like Robin's R-Cycle" X started thinking up his options. He needed a plan to make it big with this given goldmine
"What about the Titans?" X asked. Without his belt, he'll be traget practice for the team of superheros, he knew that the escape he pulled off was nothing more than a lucky break. The figure laughed.
"The Teen Titans? Oh of course, you do not know...So much has happened during your...Eh, absence"
The sceen was now emitting a television broadcast. X recognized the background. City hall, it was a press confrence. Behind the wooden stand, on which several microphones were mounted, stood the Teen Titans. Robin in the middle, in front of the microphones. To his right, a sobbing Starfire and Raven, who seemed gloomier than usual. To his right, Beast Boy and Cyborg, the latter just staring blankly into the air, looking pale. Cameras flashed in their faces, and then the Boy Wonder raised both his arms into the air, calling them to stop. Once the flashing has stopped, he lowered his arms and addressed the press
"After the incident that took place last week at SotoTech, I hereby declare than the Teen Titans are... " He gulped "Are shutting down all crime fighting operations in Jump city untill further notice—" Starfire broke in tears and he was bombarded by questions from the numerous press members, but raised his arms again
"I ASSURE-" He raised his voice, the people settled "I assure you the saftry of Jump City will be kept by another team of superheros. The Titans East Who will contact the local authoraties three days from now. Untill then, the Titans will remain operaional. That is all" With that, the five teens walked off stage. The Camera continued to follow them untill it met two Jump City officers. Te screen now displayed the black outline of the figure once more.
"I will give you some time to concider my offer...And get dressed. I will return shortly" As the sentence was finished, the screen faded to black. Leaving X with the same poorly lit space that he started with. He preceeded to unfolding his suit and fitting himself into it; the Jet Black uniform, the grey gloves, the combat boots, and last but not least; the tattred cape, becoming Red X, the theif, once again.
"I'll do it"
(S)