Chapter 1: This Mystery Explore
I don't own Teen Titans, obviously.
Darkness, the scarred land suffused with its very essence. Any soul that could imagine such a place would most certainly look elsewhere and hastily banish the image from their memory. The barren and desolate land wasn't void of life, if you could call it that. Several beings traversed the expanse of this place hourly, though drone and emotionless. Sentinels fixed on a path, searching for anything which would be amiss and awaiting any further orders from those who command them.
The very rain that fell from the sky was unnaturally acidic, a direct result of the planets change in state over the past few years. The great seas that once occupied more than half of the planet's surface were now nothing more than deep craters and pits of molten rock. The sky radiated an ominous crimson color and the clouds were dark and threatening.
The remains of cities could be found; fallen structures and many dysfunctional machines were all that remain. The planet was in ruins, crumbling and falling apart more and more each day. This suited the new inhabitants perfectly, the faster it fell apart the better.
The majority of the planets habitable land had been scarred and burned so deep that it would take centuries for the ground to become fertile enough to produce life. Such was the intent. Life only got in the way.
A large and ominous spire loomed above one city in particular. The spire was gigantic, a necessity for the one who called it home. At times during the day, the shadow of the spire would eclipse the sun so as to cast a shadow miles in length across the expanse of the ruined city. The city was silent and void of life, not a creature was stirring. Save for the green mouse now scouting the area.
The mouse scurried around buildings and through broken pipelines, getting a good look at the surrounding area. It continued to wind in and out of alley ways and streets until stopping at the end of a road. It wasn't the end per say, but the rest of the road was nowhere in sight and in its place was a deathly hundred foot drop.
"Ktzzzkzt… BB, report…" He heard from his communicator. Beast Boy quickly surveyed the area, assuring there were no onlookers. He then shifted back into his human form, if you could call it human. It had been seven years since the planet had been overturned by Trigon, they had not been kind.
No longer was the short, skinny and comical young man present within him; only the hardened, battle-scarred man who was now much more focused and serious. Over the years he'd lost much, including his left eye. It was Her doing, and now in the eye's place was long and jagged scar which crossed most of his face. He'd found a larger white glass marble to replace the socket with, though he was still looking for a real glass eye. He would still crack a joke every now and then, he'd finally grasped the concept of appropriate timing.
He reached for his communicator out of his pocket, enjoying the luxury of actually having it. Only three years ago did Cyborg makeshift a satellite radio transceiver and put it into orbit around the planet, unnoticed. The previous satellites had been knocked out into space after the initial attack. Its only purpose was to keep the four of them in radio contact at all times, it certainly had saved their skins on multiple occasions.
"Beast Boy here, nothing new to report." He replied to Robin.
He had always pondered changing his name to Beast Man, considering his age. However, the resulting acronym nickname didn't sit well with him so he stuck with Beast Boy.
"Very well, head back to base. Robin out."He stated, ending the signal.
Beast Boy let out a sigh and shapeshifted into a hawk, flying towards the direction of their base. It wasn't much of a base, although it was in much better condition than when they'd found it. It was the old city arcade, refurbished courtesy of the city's resident half-human half-robot. A very large facility had been built underneath the arcade, it had multiple floors and every accommodation a team could need.
As he was flying he noticed a stone figure through the shattered window of an old office building. He dove towards it and landed next to it. After further inspect he decided that it had been undamaged.
"Robin, come in." He said into his communicator, still inspecting the stone form.
"Robin here, what is it?" He replied.
"I found another Terra, perfectly intact. I'll send you my coordinates."
He clicked the side button on the communicator and waited a few seconds.
"Coordinates received, we'll retrieve it on the next gather." The signal ended, and Beast Boy once again took off in the direction of the arcade.
The stone forms of people still remained throughout the city and most of the planet. The ones who were undamaged, Robin had brought back and was keeping them in a very large storage room for protection. Robin had dedicated the rest of his existence to figuring out a way to reverse the effects of Trigon. Beast Boy had been the one to suggest calling them Terras, as they all looked very similar to Terra after she had been encased in molten rock. Unfortunately the real Terra couldn't be reached. She was far too deep underground and the cavern that lead to her had collapsed long ago. One day they would hopefully find her.
He finally reached the arcade and went inside. There was much to the ground level; they had decided to build everything downward so as to avoid any unwanted attention. It was dusty and worn down, none of the games worked any longer and the only purpose they served now was as a good disguise. Beast Boy would always reminisce about his younger days while walking through the arcade; it was a place he visited frequently.
As he neared the back of the arcade, he began the all too familiar routine of opening the door to the elevator. Cyborg had done his job well and made it rather difficult for anyone to enter their base without prior knowledge of how to get in. Two randomly placed button clicks later and the door was open. This particular elevator could only go down to the fifth level, fortunately for Beast Boy that's their meeting room was.
As he exited the elevator he was greeted by a few welcome looks. Even though their current situation, most of the time they all kept an upbeat attitude. As soon as the looks were given, their owners returned to what they were doing.
Robin, as always, was on the Titan's new supercomputer, it was one of the first things they had constructed after discovering the abandoned arcade. It had been wired throughout all of the Titan's facility and was constantly alerting the team if anything was out of place. It had three gigantic windows, each of which had a different purpose. The middle window was the user interface portion, the left window being a still camera on the Terra storage room and the right being another camera focused at the entrance of the arcade. Robin was intently looking at them.
Cyborg was relaxing on the couch, he would be watching television but with the absence of a signal he wouldn't be getting very far. Their only source of entertainment was an older game system they had found that was compatible with their television, that and piles of books and magazines that survived the initial attack. Most of them preferred the former.
Cyborg was still his same size; he was relatively big in the first place. He'd added a few upgrades to his system, however. A couple tweaks on his boots and back panel allowed him to fly through the air relatively quickly, however not so gracefully. His arm cannon had been increased at least tenfold and had its power requirement halved. He was receiving recharges from a heat conductor he had placed near one of the lava expanses nearby the arcade; it converted the heat into energy and stored it in a battery that he plugged into every night.
Starfire had certainly gotten bigger throughout the years; her hair had grown in length and eventually reached her knees. She'd decided it would be best for her safety to keep it short from then on, after a few mishaps with flying too closely to lava and catching fire. Her hair was now only down to her shoulders, it was still the same light crimson color. She too had received a scar in the last few years of their fighting; well, she'd received several. The most prominent was the succession of three parallel lines that split her stomach diagonally. She'd gotten it in the same fight that Beast Boy lost his eye. Because of this, she now wore a much different outfit than before.
Her outfit was still purple; she'd still preferred to be wearing her favorite color. However it covered most of her mid section and had a little more plating on it for protection. It was more armor than it was outfit. Nonetheless she preferred it this way, this style of armor had saved her countless times from certain things that would have not been prevented with her old style.
She was still the happy and perky one of the group, always trying to be the optimist and cheer everyone up in times of gloom. It worked, for the most part. Every now and then it wouldn't, but given their predicament she supposed most of the time would suffice. Her English had been perfected over the years, and she had dropped most of the Tamaranian phrases she used. She hadn't returned to Tamaran since the incident, she'd felt no need to. She feared that she may be tracked and bring this arm to her planet as well. She still missed it dearly though.
"Yo BB, c'mere." Cyborg shouted from across the lounge. "Check this thing out." Cyborg motioned towards an object that was sitting on the table in front of the couch.
Beast Boy exited the elevator and grabbed the object off the table. It was a small cylindrical metal rock slab, or something. There was an imprint of three parallel lines cross the object, Beast Boy instantly connected the pattern with Starfire's scar.
"Hey Star, did you see this?" He questioned her as she glanced in his direction, folding the magazine she had been reading in her hands.
"Yes, I have. Curious isn't it?" She responded. "I wonder what it could be."
"It's a talon slash." Robin mumbled, without making a movement.
"We cannot jump to conclusions, Robin." She continued. "It could be anything."
"No, it's Hers. I can tell." There was a pause in the room, before Robin continued typing at the computer.
"What purpose do you think it could have?" Cyborg questioned. "It's just a rock."
"I'm not sure, but I will be looking…" He as cut off by the computer's alarm, the screen flashed red as the four of them stood up out of reaction. The screen showed a convoy of Trigon's fire sentinels making their way down the street, passing the arcade. There were hundreds.
