A/N: Well hello and welcome to the first chapter of Burning Rage. I hope you will enjoy. Be warned this is my first Teen Titan fic plus my overall first fic so go easy on a guy. I will ask though the people will give me helpful criticism as to how I can improve.
Chapter One
"Mom, dad where are you," desperately cried a young child as he sat on a park bench in the rain, staring teary-eyed at his surroundings as he awakes from a nap. Getting up the little boy searches hysterically for any sign of his missing parents. Suddenly he trips over a tree root and lands in a patch of mud.
Getting up he begins to cry screaming, "Mommy, Daddy did I do something bad?"
They young man was broken from my thoughts by a man wearing a greasy apron with a small tuft of hair asking, "Kid, hey kid you gonna order something or not?"
Tearing his eyes away from the dreary rain outside the window he turned to the man and said, "Yeah can I get a burger, thanks."
With a slightly worried expression the man asked, "You alright kid? You look kinda depressed."
Looking at the window once more seeing his reflection of a young black haired boy, he answered, "I'm fine the rain just makes me…remember."
His expression didn't change as he went away to prepare my food.
Sighing, the black haired shook his head and slapped both cheeks "Gotta stop being depressing all the time," he muttered under my breath.
Suddenly he felt his leg begin to vibrate and reached down to answer the phone on his thigh.
Seeing the number he clicked talk and said, "Yo Mickey what do you want?"
"Hey kid what's up," asked the man known as Mickey on the phone with a thick Italian accent.
Annoyed at the man's lack of focus the dark haired teen angrily said, "I'm fine Mickey whaddaya want?!"
"Alright, alright jeez kid cut me a break. Anyway I got a job for you over in California. Jump City, ever hear of it?"
"Yeah, it's on the news all the time. So what's the job?"
"Some guy named Slade's been asking for your particular service. Apparently he wants to meet you, so you in."
"Yeah I'll be there, thanks," he said quickly excitement clear in his voice as he hung up. Sliding out of the booth he was in at the diner he ambled up to the chef who seemed to be the only person working there, to pay him for the trouble.
"Hey I'm not gonna be eating, but here," he said handing the man a ten dollar bill.
Waving me off the chef replied, "Nah it's on the house kid."
Smiling at him the boy made to put the money away but instead put it in his tip jar and went out into the rain. Walking over to the black and red Mustang GT he slid into the driver's seat and cranked up the heat as he made his way to Jump City.
7 long hours and 3 cups of coffee later the boy finally reached Jump City, California. Cruising through the city looking for the meeting place which was located in abandoned warehouse north of town he spotted an odd sight. There were 5 people around his age sitting at a pizza joint except they were the famous Teen Titans protectors of the city. Chuckling to himself he continued driving to meet Slade.
10 minutes later the teenager reached the abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. Pulling up he did a once over of the place. Even though it was old it seemed it was pretty sturdy. Getting out of the car he grabbed his black trench coat (1), and mask (2) both of which are made of Dragon Skin; a material that is 5 times stronger than Kevlar. Walking into the warehouse he looked around to find his client. Realizing that whoever it was wasn't there yet he walked over to a crate that he then promptly sat upon sat on. After a half hour passed of nothing he sighed in annoyance and kicked the crate he was sitting on across the warehouse and made his way back to the car.
The boy angrily grumbled, "God dammit Mickey sending me on a crap job," as his bright green eyes turning red in anger.
The boy was halfway to his car when the tell-tale sound of a sniper went off. Instinctively he put up a wall of fire between himself and the bullet as it melted against the wall of flames. Using fire to launch himself onto the roof to confront the sniper he instead saw a man in black and gray armor, with a black and orange mask, and one eyehole standing on the roof with his hands holding a Barrett .50 caliber sniper.
"So you are the famous Ignis, master of fire. You are an impressive person with exceptional powers. And I have a proposal for you," the man said in a creepy monotone voice.
"OK man I don't know how many mercs you've hired before, but shooting at them does not motivate them to work for you," Ignis said bitterly, glaring holes through the man's armor.
He chuckled lowly before answering, "I suppose so, but that didn't stop me when I was a mercenary. Well it seems I am beginning to go off topic, my name is Slade and I would like for you to be my apprentice."
Sighing, Ignis looked at the man in front of him, "Sorry man but I already had a mentor, and he taught me everything I need to know so deals off," I said as I made my way to the edge of the roof.
"Oh, but I know so much about you David. Age 17 abandoned at age 7 by your parents when you started manifesting your powers and adopted by Gregory Marshall. You went into mercenary work at age 16, where you have had numerous completed missions ranging from assignations to theft. Oh I know more than you think I do Mr. Marshall. Speaking of which how is young Samantha doing?"
Coming to a stop the boy now known to be David, looked up at the strange man his eyes burning crimson red and all but growled, "Don't you ever talk about my family! I came here to accept a job, now I'm just going to kick your ass!"
"Humph, well then boy come at me," Slade said getting into a fighting stance.
Grinning wildly he crouched low and launched off like a bullet using fire to project him to Slade. When he was in range he reared his fist back and blasted fire out of his elbow to make his punch stronger. Landing a hit to Slade's midsection Ignis blasted himself upwards and delivered a fire enhanced spinning kick to Slade's face launching him back several feet.
Getting up Slade dusted himself off and looked at me, "Well I see why you're in such high demand."
Grinning madly Ignis yelled, "Really, you do, well how 'bout I show you some more huh?" In a flash he was next to Slade delivering a flaming elbow to his side making him fly off again. While he was in the air Ignis sent a volley of fireballs at Slade's defenseless form. Crossing his arm as a rudimentary defense Slade took the full brunt of the attack.
Landing limply on his side Ignis stalked over predatorily and crouched next to him and whispered, "That'll teach to talk about my family," covering his hand in flames he reached for Slade's chest I continued, "And this'll make sure you never touch them."
Just before he made the killing blow though his hand was grabbed by a grappling hook with a birdlike end. In a fit of fury he burned the rope wrapped around his hand and looked on at the intruders in anger. There were five of them. One holding the other end of the grappling hook he just set ablaze wore a costume that resembled a traffic light with a domino mask and spiky black hair. The second was a boy a few years younger than David with green skin and hair with pointed ears wearing a purple uniform. Another was a hulking African American man was made of mostly blue and white robotic parts. There was also a strange looking girl with orange skin bright green eyes and red hair. The last was a girl a few inches shorter than David with short purple hair amethyst eyes who wore a black leotard and purple cloak with a red gem on her forehead. They were the Teen Titans, and they were in the wrong place.
Turning back to the prone form of Slade Ignis realized he had managed to escape during the distraction provided by the Titans. Growling in anger he punched the roof of the warehouse breaking open a rather large hole. Getting up he ignored the titans and made his way to his car. Well that's what he doing was before he was alerted to a slight whining sound. Moving on instinct he blasted fire out of his side launching him out of the way of Cyborg's sonic blast.
"Stop, we need to talk to you. What were you doing with Slade," Robin questioned holding up two birdarang incase he needed to fight.
Looking at him with crimson eyes ablaze Ignis launched himself at Robin and gripped his shoulder as he stood next to him and whispered simply, "I was going to kill him," before launching himself off the roof.
Realizing he couldn't use his car with them following him, so he ran off the roof with Robin's cries of stop falling on deaf ears. Once in the air he sent fire out of his feet to propel himself. Too shocked to follow he made a clean break clear across Jump City. Slowing down once he spotted the woods east of Jump City Ignis landed in a small clearing. Walking until he found a cave he sat in the cave and rested. Realizing that using his powers so quickly in quick succession drained him. Taking off his cloak he rolled it into a ball and leaned his head against it. Right before being claimed by sleep he realized he'd left his doors unlocked. Crap!
*Meanwhile*
Beast Boy happily as he sat in the driver's seat making fake driving noises saying, "Man this dude's car is awesome!"
"Yeah well it's still not better than my baby," said Cyborg refereeing to his precious T-Car.
"Stop talking about his car so we can go. I need to find out who this guy is," Robin said angrily.
"Does it really matter who the guy is? He clearly doesn't want anything to do with us, so why not leave him alone," Beast Boy questioned.
"It matters because he took down Slade like it was child's play. Who knows what he's doing here. Let alone what else he can do." Robin snapped. He wasn't really angry at Beast Boy he was angry because the one man that had eluded him so many times was taken out by some unknown person.
Raven, sensing Robin's frustration, suggested, "Why don't we just go home and think about it then." Nodding Robin goes to his R-cycle and rode back to the tower. Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire flew.
While flying Starfire asks Raven, "Raven what troubles friend Robin?"
Looking ahead Raven simply replies, "It's been a long day Starfire," and flies off.
A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you decide to review.
Also some footnotes:
1 & 2- The links can be found on my profile page.
This is the Wolf signing out.
P.S. This is slightly edited version thanks to the wonderfully helpful review of Whisper Dark Ros. Thank you for your help because I don't have an editor and I must have skipped over it when I reread it.