In the Titan Tower, the Crime Alert was blinking and the alarm was buzzing.
"Titans! Trouble!" shouted Robin. It was unnecessary – the Titans were already assembling, ready for action.
"So who's it now?" asked Cyborg as he jumped behind the T-Car's steering wheel. "Cinderblock! Downtown!" came Robin's terse reply together with the roar of his bike's engine, soon followed by the screech of tires as both vehicles shot out of the tower and towards trouble.
The car and the bike sped down the streets, while above Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy streaked after them through the afternoon sky.
As they reached their destination, the Titans formed into a combat group, their weapons armed and their powers ready. But a quick glance at the target area told them that they didn't need to bother.
Cinderblock was flailing his massive fists through the air, trying to hit a lithe young man carrying a wooden jō staff, but was having a lot of trouble doing it. To Robin's trained eye, it was clear that the youth somehow knew exactly where Cinderblock's swings were aimed, and he showed a remarkable capability of moving himself away from that spot before the hit landed. On top of this, every time Cinderblock missed – and he wasn't able to connect even once – the youth would smash his jō into one of his vulnerable spots, like his eyes, nose, the back of the knee and so on. It was obvious that Cinderblock was losing badly, and that the fight would soon be over.
"Anybody for popcorn?" asked Cyborg, producing a large bag of it from somewhere inside his exoskeleton and offering it around. "This would be fun to watch if poor 'ole concrete-brain there had any chance at all. Way this guy is kicking his butt, this will be over quickly!"
The frustrated concrete monster lifted both hands to try and smash his small opponent into the pavement, but just as the two enormous fists started descending, the youth slipped between Cinderblock's legs and delivered a hard kick to the small of Cinderblock's back. The monster overbalanced, and pulled by his own momentum crashed into the pavement face-first.
"Right on! Great work, dude!" shouted Cyborg. Beast Boy had turned into a green chimp and was hopping up and down and screeching with appreciation. Starfire was laughing and clapping, Robin was grinning and Raven was watching everything with an amused smile on her face.
The young man heard the words of encouragement and turned to look at his new fans, a big grin flashing on his face. As he took in the sight of the Titans, his eyes swept across them until his eyes met Raven's. At that moment his expression changed profoundly. He suddenly stiffened, frozen to the spot, his grin turning almost into a rictus, and his eyes filling with shock.
Cinderblock is not a particularly smart or quick opponent, but even he was able to take advantage of his tormentor's sudden paralysis. Rising on one knee, he aimed a heavy swipe at the young man. Luckily, he was not able to see well because of the beating his eyes suffered, and he was using his last reserves of stamina. The strike missed the young man but smashed the pavement beside him, shock wave and splinters throwing him several feet across the sidewalk, to crash into the wall of a building.
"Ouch!" said Raven. "That had to hurt!"
"Titans! Go!" shouted Robin, and the Titans moved in on Cinderblock. It took only a few seconds to take him down in his current state, and they quickly turned to the other participant of the fight they just witnessed.
"Are you all right? Have you been damaged? Do you feel the pain?" fussed Starfire.
"Only if I breathe", replied the young man, his expression betraying the pain he felt. "Ow. Thanks, guys. Got careless. Deserved it."
Robin knelt beside him and quickly checked him to make sure there was no serious damage done. "You're fine. Nothing broken, just scrapes and bruises. In a few days you'll remember it only for the wounded pride. By the way, I'm Robin, and our team is called the Teen Titans. These are Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy." The Titans nodded their heads or waved as they were presented. "Who are you?"
"The name's Timeline, or Teale for friends and – Ow! – and those that think it's too long. You know, like – Oof! – like T-L. Just arrived to your – Ouch! – hospitable city an hour or so ago."
"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up and checked, there may be internal bleeding or concussion. We'll take you to the Tower."
Best Boy yelped with delight and immediately started jabbering nonsense at their guest. Raven looked at Robin and raised an eyebrow. Robin just smiled in response.
"All right, Teale, let's get you in the T-Car. Plenty of room in the rear seat" said Cyborg.
"I want to go with Teale!" said Beast Boy. "Besides, riding is easier than flying. Gotta move those wings all the time!"
"I'll go in the car with Timeline also", said Raven pointedly. "I'm the designated healer of this group in any case." It was now Robin's turn to raise an eyebrow at Raven, to which she responded with a small, smug smile.
"Don't mind Raven too much, Teale" whispered Beast Boy. "She is great, but she needs some time to warm up to people."
Teale looked at him, grinned and nodded his head. "Ouch! Should not have done that."
They got into the T-Car, Cyborg and Raven in the front and Teale with Beast Boy in the back. As Cyborg started the engine and began moving, Raven looked thoughtfully in the rearview mirror at Timeline.
He freaked out when he saw me. The others may think he got careless or complacent, that he thought the fight over and dropped his guard, but I know what I saw. The moment he laid eyes on me he was shocked, too dazed to think or move. Something is not right. There is a mystery here, and I'll be damned if I allow the same thing to happen as with Terra.
As they drove to the Tower, Beast Boy started bombarding Teale with all sorts of questions. "So, where you come from? That dude you fought was Cinderblock. We beat him up all the time. Do you have creeps like that where you come from? I hope not. Hey, you like pizza? I love it. But I'm a vegetarian. I like it with eggplant and tofu cheese topping. Do you play video games? I have this awesome one, 'Space Race 4', I beat Cy all the time (loud snort from Cyborg). You hungry? I guess we can whip up something in the Tower". Teale tried to answer the questions at first, but they came on in such a blizzard that he finally gave up and let Beast Boy jabber on. On the front seats, Raven was massaging her temples while Cyborg was chuckling to himself.