This is my first crack on the Teen Titans section. Hope you all like it. Now for the formalities: If You Recognize It, Most Likely I Don't Own It.
Chapter 1: The Magnagarian
"You got it yet?" Griff Tankman growled. "Those kids will be here any second."
"Hang tight," his younger brother, Sam, retorted. "One more... got it."
The vault lock clicked, causing the door to slowly open with a high pitched whine due to the lack of lubrication on the hinges. Within, sparkling jewels, pearls, and other precious metals sat, waiting to be claimed.
"Damned beautiful sight," Griff mused, rubbing his gloved hands together with anticipation. "Ain't it nice, Sammy-boy?"
"I'm sorry," A voice... a familiar voice, said, "but Sam's a little tied up."
"Oh God," Griff sighed, his eyes shooting wide open.
"Not quite," the voice from behind him said, followed with the famous battle cry of, "Titans, go!"
Not wanting to be placed in a police ambulance, Griff quickly threw up his hands in surrender.
"Smart move," another, deeper voice, laced with a slight urban undertone, noted.
A green gloved hand brought Griff's arms down and promptly placed them into metal bird shaped hand cuffs. Once turned around, he got a good look at the five heroes: the green skinned Beast Boy, the bionic Cyborg, the dark cloaked Raven, the glamorous alien Starfire, and their fearless leader, Robin.
"I told you to hurry it up before the Titans got here," Griff growled to his brother.
"How 'bout you kiss my ass," Sam fired back as he was being forced into a police paddy wagon. "Damn it, ma's gonna kill us."
The five let the Jump City Police handle the rest as they causally.
"Dudes? Is it just me, or has stuff gotten really slow lately?" Beast Boy inquired.
Since the defeat of the Brotherhood Of Evil, the sum of the Titan's heroic deeds were nothing more than simple nickel-and-dime robberies and the occasional public appearance.
"Just means more time for me to school you in Madden," Cyborg noted.
"There is a school for the gaming of the video?" Starfire wondered.
Robin chuckled, always finding Starfire's naivety appealing. "He means he's going to beat Beast Boy."
"This Madden sounds violent if it means Cyborg is going to inflict physical harm," Starfire stated with concern.
Not listening to their conversation, Raven focused her sights to the muted stars up above, most drowned out from the lights of the city. She had to admit, she enjoyed the minor missions they did as of recently as it gave her time to just sit and truly ponder about her life up to now. Since becoming a Titan, she had been slowly, but surely moving away from her dark, introverted self and beginning to embrace others—particularly the other Titans—as they had embraced and accepted her.
Raven then turned her attention to her friends; Beast Boy and Cyborg planning another Stink Ball game back at the tower, Robin and Starfire chatting about something irrelevant like dating or relationships. In all honesty, she was jealous of the connections the others had with each other.
No. I don't need companionship.
To her, such distractions as relationships were just that: a distraction. Nothing more. However, deep within, she wondered just what it would be like.
"Guys!" Cyborg announced, staring into his forearm mounted scanner. "I'm pickin' up something. Comin' from space. Comin' fast—"
Before they could react, a pair of thunderous sonic booms rocked the city, followed by a vibrant, fiery scar that burned across the night—headed directly towards the Titans Tower. Without haste, Beast Boy instantaneously morphed into a massive prehistoric pterodactyl, with Cyborg latched to his feet. Starfire snagged Robin by the hand while Raven nonchalantly levitated.
"There it is," Robin called out, noticing a smoking crater near the shoreline of the small island the T-shaped tower was perched upon.
"I'm pickin' up some high radiation levels," Cyborg warned.
The five set down in a safe area away from the crater, but within visual range.
"Starfire? Go check it out," Robin ordered. "See what it is and report back."
Starfire let out an acknowledging sigh, then flew off towards the smoldering crater. Wisps of smoke filled the air and orange-yellow flames licked over rocks.
"Do you see anything?" Robin inquired through the small, hand held communicator.
"I do not see anything yet," Starfire replied.
Cautiously, she continued her search, slowly descending deeper into the crater.
"By the stars of Kremlorg," she gasped.
"What!?" Robin cried.
"Not what..." she began. "It's a who. I strongly suggest you all get here very quickly."
In a matter of seconds, the four remaining Titans joined Starfire within the crater.
"Whoa," Beast Boy gasped. "Is he... de—"
Before he could finish, the person slowly moved, coughed twice, then fell back into unconsciousness.
"I don't see any signs of a ship or anything," Cyborg informed. "Whoever he is, he came in as is."
"Get 'em into the medic tube," Robin demanded. "As for us, we need to decon before we do anything else. Hopefully, when he wakes up, he'll have some answers."
Carefully, Starfire lifted the being from the smoldering hole. Noticing a nearby duffel bag, Raven telepathically created a magic force field around the luggage and followed suit.
"Friends?" Starfire stated, staring at the figure encapsulated within the liquid recovery tube. "I believe I can explain who the being is?"
Robin examined him—if it was a him. The being looked exactly like a human from the outside.
Starfire continued. "By the reflective silver color of his hair, I believe he is... a Magnagarian."
"A who-da-what now?" Beast Boy questioned.
Starfire looked puzzled. "I am sorry, but what is a who-da-what?"
Robin walked closer to the tube filled with yellow fluid. "What's a Magnagarian, Starfire?"
"My K'norfka told me stories about them when I was very little," she explained. "There were very few of them. Each had hair the color of precious metals, denoting their social status.
"They come from the planet Magnagar. From what I recall, it was in the same system as the planet Krypton."
"Whoa!" Cyborg cried. "The same Krypton where Superman's from? That Krypton?"
"Yes," Starfire answered. "The Magnagarians were a very peaceful race, but..."
"But what?" Robin wondered.
Starfire pondered for a moment. "From the stories my K'norfka told me, they became extinct many, many thousand Earth years ago."
"Apparently they aren't all extinct," Raven dryly stated, staring at the dark skinned being. "And if he is like Superman, but turns out to be evil, we might need to stock up on Kryptonite."
Ten Hours Later
Sunlight poured through the large picture windows of the tower's main living room. Beast Boy sat in front of the massive seventy-two inch flat screen television, laughing hysterically and munching on a bowl of Frosted Flakes that were drowned in a cup full of sugar and vanilla soy milk.
"Ain't you a little too old to be watching the Powerpuff Girls movie?" Cyborg asked, his arms loaded down with various breakfast entrees, including hash browns, bacon, scrambled eggs, and thirty Eggo waffles.
With a dead seriousness in his gaze, Beast Boy faced Cyborg. "You are never too old for the Powerpuff Girls."
As quickly as it appeared, the serious look in Beast Boy's face vanished as he went back into laughter.
Within the medic room, Raven stood near the occupied recovery tube. She glanced at the vital read outs on the monitors, taking note that the Magnagarian was stable, but still out cold.
"Hmm..." she sighed, noticing his heart beat was beginning to accelerate.
Raven thought about sending a pulse of dark energy to knock the being out, but squelched the thought. She instead, found herself staring at the helpless being, who's closed eyelids started to flutter. Slowly, the Magnagarian's eyes opened and affixed to Raven, who focused right back. Like the being's chrome hair, she could see her reflection in the eyes of the Magnagarian.
"Guy's," Raven announced into the tower's comm system. "The Magnagarian's awake."
Within seconds, the others filed into the medic room, finding a semi-bewildered Raven and a fully conscious alien. Cyborg typed a code into a keypad on the shell of the tube and soon, the liquid within began to drain.
"Be ready, everyone," Robin warned, making sure he had a few birdarangs in case the Magnagarian was indeed hostile.
In a subtle manner, the others also readied themselves.
"Open it, Cyborg."
Cyborg pressed the RELEASE button, causing the clear reinforced plastic to lift, exposing the Magnagarian, who's hair clung to the sides of his face.
"Who are you?" Robin began to interrogate. "Why are you here?"
Robin's questioning was met with silence.
"Perhaps I should try," Starfire offered, then asked the same questions in her native Tamaranian language.
She too was met with silence.
"You think an alien cat's got his tongue?" Beast Boy wondered aloud.
"We don't even know if he is a he." Robin stated.
"I would bet the dollar of my bottom that he is a male," Starfire said. "He does not have grebnacks."
By the confused looks on the others faces, Raven attempted to clarify. "I'm guessing you mean 'your bottom dollar,' and I also think he's a guy, too."
She examined his trim, six-foot-five physique. His skin tone was roughly the same as Cyborg's organic areas. And though his eyes were chrome silver, they had a slight inviting warmth to them that seemed to draw Raven closer.
"Raven? Maybe you can connect with him telepathically," Robin suggested.
"It's worth a shot," Raven sighed as she stuck her palm toward his forehead. "Hmm. I'm not sensing anything."
"That's usually what you say about B.B.," Cyborg commented, causing Starfire to giggle.
"Hey!" Beast Boy scoffed.
Raven's eyes remained affixed to the Magnagarian's as she retracted her hand. "It wasn't the usual mindless elevator music i usually pick up when I try to listen to Beast Boy's mind. Or lack there of."
"Yeah..." Beast Boy said proudly, then realized, "Hey! It's not my fault!"
"Yeah it is," Cyborg smugly stated. "It's called a book, B.B. Ya might learn something."
"I learn plenty from the back of the cereal box, thank you very much," Beast Boy exclaimed.
Raven continued. "I mean, I couldn't pick up on anything. It was as if—"
The tower's alarm klaxon blared throughout the area, jarring the Titans from the issue. From a nearby computer terminal, Cyborg connected a fiber optic cord from his wrist into a small port in the terminal.
"Oh man," Cyborg gasped. "There's a disabled space plane on reentry. It doesn't look to good."
"Titans, go!" Robin cried.
"What about big guy?" Beast Boy asked.
The Magnagarian's hands were shackled out to his sides and his mouth and nose were covered by a special mask.
"He'll be fine," Robin informed. "But if he tries anything funny, the security system will handle it."
The five raced off towards the T-Ship, though Raven paused for a brief second, just long enough to take another look at the alien. Though his mouth was covered, she could tell by the gaze in his eyes that he was warmly smiling at her. Not the warm type in the least, Raven, however, found herself cracking a small grin back at him.
Once on board the submersible-spaceship hybrid, Robin went over the launch checklist. "Batteries to power."
The ship's electronics systems powered up, greeting the five, each within a separate pod on the ship, with a myriad of bright illuminations.
"Turbines to speed."
The translight engines spooled, charged, then roared, spewing a conical blue flame.
"Let's kick the tires and light the fires!" Cyborg called out, relishing in the noise erupting from the rockets.
"Ignition!" Robin yelled, forcing the throttles fully open.
The T-Ship shot from its berth and exploded through the launch tube, out into the open blue Saturday sky.
"When we get to the space plane," Cyborg said into his headset, "we'll need to slow it down. Space planes reenter a lot faster than the T-Ship can fly in an atmosphere. Space planes come in nearly 10 times the speed of sound and the T-Ship can only sustain Mach three."
"That means we can't keep up with the space plane," Raven quipped, knowing Beast Boy would ask a pointless question.
"I knew that!" Beast Boy scoffed. "Cartoons do have their smart moments too."
"There it is!" Robin announced.
Sure enough, a a space plane—a very large space plane—ripped towards the comparatively small, sun orange, boomerang shaped craft. Taking control, Robin spun the ship about and chased after the space plane.
"Fire grappling tethers," Robin demanded.
Starfire and Raven, their compartments making up the port and starboard sides of the ship respectively, complied, firing a pair of reinforced steel cables. The space plane, however, buffeted at the last moment, causing Raven's cable to miss.
"Damn," she cursed to herself.
Starfire's tether made contact with the plane's left wing and held in place.
"Counter thrust!"
Cyborg tapped the reverse thrust verniers in an attempt to gradually slow both craft to a safe speed. Before they realized, however, they entered the thicker atmosphere causing fiery ionization to swallow the two craft. A violent groan resonated through the T-Ship as the space plane refused to remain tethered any longer.
"We're losing it!" Beast Boy cried, watching everything unfold from his pod that made up the rear of the ship.
The left wing of the space plane buckled, cracked, then ripped away from the space craft, causing it to tumble out of control. Instinctively, Raven stuck out her hand.
"Azarath, Metrion... Zinthos!"
A stream of black energy emerged from her hand, shot through the three inch thick glass of her compartment's canopy, and swallowed the distressed space craft.
"Nice—" Robin began, but was, along with the others, devastated by what was about to happen.
The inertia of the space craft tugged on Raven's diminutive body, pulling her forward against her seat's harness.
"Let it go, Raven!" Robin pleaded, but to no avail.
The force of the falling space plane ripped Raven from her seat, momentarily pinned her to the canopy—which quickly failed, shattering to shards.
"No!" Beast Boy screamed.
Raven, still linked to the space plane via her dark telekinesis, was ripped away from the T-Ship, the brunt forces upon her body causing her to lose conscious, though, somehow, maintaining a link to the craft.
Robin gunned the T-Ship's throttles. Not only did the space craft need rescuing, but one of his best friends needed help as well. Though Starfire and Beast Boy could both fly, neither would be able to catch Raven, who was lassoed to the falling space plane.
"Engines are at three hundred percent," Cyborg announced. "We can't push 'em anymore!"
"But what about Raven?" Starfire asked, watching her friend being tugged by the massive craft.
Suddenly, a series of sonic booms shuddered through the environment.
"What the..." Beast Boy started to say.
The helpless four in the T-Ship noticed a blip on their radars... a fast moving blip. A very fast moving blip. Time seemed to both slow down and speed up as the four watched something... no... it was someone... rocket past their ship then dive towards Raven.
"No way," Beast Boy gasped, noticing the figure, adorned in a black, form-fitting suit and long, flowing, black cape.
Slowly, Raven opened her eyes, then gasped for what little air there was.
"Oh God," she gasped, remembering she was no longer within the confines of the T-Ship.
She managed to catch a glimpse behind her at the vain effort her friends were attempting to stop the falling craft as well as herself. She also saw something else. A small black dot that was getting bigger... and closer.
"Hold on," a deep and heroic, yet warm and calm, voice said to her. "Help's on the way."
Though she wanted to talk, the lack of air and concentration kept her mute. The small black dot rapidly emerged into a person, draped in a black cape and black suit with a metallic blue M insignia upon his chest. However, what caught her attention, was the mop of chrome-like hair emerging from the top of his head.
The figure snagged Raven by her belt and reeled her into his body, the inertia causing him to barrel roll once.
"It's... you," she weakly said. "The Magnagarian."
"Release your hold on the plane," he requested. "I'll take care of it."
Raven closed her eyes. The black energy enveloping the space plane vanished, sending the craft into a spiraling nose dive. Opening her eyes, she took a look at the Magnagarian's new face, which was a black mask that wrapped around his head, except for the top, which allowed the lot of his hair to flow in the wind. His eyes were now large, opaque, silver lenses that moved with expression—much like Robin's eye mask—and the mouth portion of his mask moved as if it was his skin.
"We've got to get that plane," she informed, her energy starting to recover. "It's powered by a nuclear core and if it crashes into the city..."
"I know," The Magnagarian huffed. "I'll get it."
Raven felt them accelerate forth, catching up to the two hundred foot long craft, its black belly still glowing from reentry. Quickly, they overtook the craft, U.S. AIR FORCE scripted upon its sides.
"We're getting close to the ground," Raven's typically dry voice, cracked.
The two, along with the 300 ton space craft, were still some thirty thousand feet above the sprawling Jump City, but it was closing. Closing fast.
With Raven still slung under his right arm, The Magnagarian placed his back just under the nose of the craft as well as his free left hand. With every ounce of will, the Magnagarian fought the laws of physics, forcing the craft to slow its rate of descent.
"Y'all seein' what I'm seein'?" Cyborg wondered aloud.
"It really is him," Starfire gasped.
Robin gritted his teeth, noticing they were catching up to the space plane. "Let's help 'em out, then."
"Auxiliary tethers on line," Cyborg called out. "Fire!"
A pair of back up tethers, half the strength of the previous two launched by Starfire and Raven, spat forth and latched onto both sides of the rear of the craft.
"Beast Boy! Atmospheric thrusters, now!"
"Gotcha," Beast Boy cried, activating the landing jets.
The T-Ship's main rockets cut off. The ship paralleled itself to the rapidly approaching cityscape. Next, the small ship's thrusters ignited, spitting blue fire.
Raven looked down, past her dangling feet, only to see Interstate 21 closing in below them, then at her counterpart, gritting his teeth, lenses narrowing in sympathy with his eyes. The prominent post-modern towers of Jump City were almost close enough to reach out and touch.
"I feel my energy returning," she informed. "I can get the astronauts out."
The Magnagarian released his arm from around her waist, allowing Raven to levitate before him.
"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" she chanted as a rush of dark magic, taking the form of ghoulish gauntlets, erupted from her hands and tore open the cockpit and freed the two astronauts within, both knocked out from the gravity forces exerted on their bodies.
One of the astronauts managed to come around. "Explosion... imminent... nuclear..." He managed to mutter.
"Oh great," the Magnagarian muttered, then realized. "Tell your friends to detach from this thing now! It's about to explode!"
Raven did as she was instructed, keying her headset's microphone, her voice showing a slight amount of increased emotion. "Guys. Ditch the ship, now!"
"Raven?" Robin's voice resonated.
"Just do it! It's nuclear core is about to blow!"
"I''m detecting a very radiation reading comin' from that thing," Cyborg's voice noted.
"We are now clear," Starfire added in. "Is there anything we can do to assi—"
The black and white space craft righted itself, then angled nose up, the Magnagarian actually doing the righting. Soon, the space plane ascended into the sky. Onlookers, and the five Titans alike, in the area now watching the occurrences as the hulking machine rose into the morning sky, its alien guide manhandling it the whole way.
Within a minute, both the Magnagarian and the plane were on the edge of space. With a grunt, he hurled the 300 ton craft like an over sized javelin. The plane, under the power of zero gravity, soared into the black, slowly beginning a pivot on its vertical axis. Suddenly, the craft mushroomed into a hellish nuclear fireball, illuminating the black of space.
Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, Robin, Starfire, along with the citizens who stopped in their tracks to observe the incident, shielded their eyes as a second sun burned into the sky. Cheers roared throughout the region, knowing that their fate could have been swallowed by the inferno of a nuclear blast. Many of the onlookers chanted "Titans! Titans!"
"Is... he..." Starfire wondered.
Beast Boy morphed into a bald eagle in order to get a visual while Cyborg check the ship's, as well as his own, scanners.
"He made it!" Beast Boy cried, morphing back into his human self.
Sure enough, the chrome haired, black uniformed, hero emerged from the heavens, warmth evident through his visors and half grin on his face.
"Galfore always told me about him," Starfire whispered to herself. "I never thought I, myself, would see the Magna Man."
Well'p, thats the first go, so please do review. Tell me if it sucks, tell me if it's good. Flames are also welcome too... but I will be forced to... er... I dunno. We'll see... Okay, please go review now!