Just a short story about Red X, my favorite character in Teen Titans. :) The Teen Titans, The Pizza Corner, the Titan's Tower, and Red X do not belong to me. Lemme know what you think.

It's been a good week; he's been able to double up his stock on Xenothium to power his suit, got to bribe the Brotherhood of Evil, and has successfully gathered the information he's needed to rob his target bank. But nothing could top what's gonna happen today: going out with the hottest girl in school, Emma Kruse. Emma was beautiful, smart, sassy, and rich but not conceited; there's no one better in the whole tri-state area. His original plan was to kidnap her for ransom but her natural charm made him think twice to scare the innocent girl. Either way, he caught her attention around the school with his devil-may-care attitude and sexy voice, mocking the teacher from the back of the class. As annoying as it was, they were opposites attracted.

He drummed his fingers on the picnic bench outside of The Pizza Corner. He hated waiting…for 3 minutes. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Emma plopped down on the opposite side of the table.

"I hate waiting." He slouched back in his seat and crossed his arms.

"Was it worth it?" She leaned slightly over the table and he was able to see some cleavage; maybe not so innocent after all. He raised an eyebrow, "I like the red." She smiled at him and leaned back, grabbing a menu on the way. She glanced up on her left at the entrance and saw her ex coming out with some of his buddies. She turned back to the menu and made a stink face.

He looked towards where she was looking at just now, "Yeah, I hate him too." She looked up at him and smiled, "I want to thank whoever hung him on the flag pole last week."

"Then you better start kissing up, sweetheart. I don't think 'thank yous' are enough." He smirked. She grinned, "You?"

"As if anyone else could pull it off." He shrugged. She smiled and motioned him to lean across the table. He raised an eyebrow and leaned forward and so did she. They were an inch away from each other's noses, "Thank you." She sat back down and looked back down in the menu. He stayed there, "I don't think so sweetheart. I'm not feeling all that appreciated for my work." She shrugged, her eyes daring him to make a move. He reached across the tabled and grabbed her wrist, undoing the buckle on her diamond, platinum watch with one hand and sat back down, "Now this is a 'thank you.'"

"I'm expecting you to give that back by the end of today, Jason." She warned as she stared at her watch being pocketed into his jacket. As if.

"Depends how this date goes." Oh, he's not giving it back no matter what. They finally ordered their pizza and then silence fell upon them. Emma looked at the big T on a small island a little ways away from the coast, "I want to go inside and see what a hero's lair is like." He looked over at the Titan's Tower and snorted, "They're not gods. They can't stop every criminal." Like me.

"You don't like the Teen Titans?" she asked.

"They're none of my business and I'm not theirs." That's only half true; he doesn't keep tabs on them but they meddle into his business and it's irritating, but it doesn't stop him.

"You're a citizen and they protect the city. You are indirectly their business." She pointed out. He rolled his eyes as the pizza was put on their table. The two muttered a thanks and started to dig in.

"Speak of the devil." He nodded towards the entrance. The Teen Titan's came up the stairs and went out to the pizza shaped balcony on the second floor, where his date was as well.

"Boo-yah! Tofu-topped pizza are calling for me." Beast Boy pumped his fist in the air.

"Nu-uh. I ain't having any of your vegetarian garbage. It's all about sausage and pepperoni, and an extra large milkshake." Cyborg rubbed his tummy. Beast Boy turned into an alpaca and spat at him.

"The green one gives me the creeps." Jason turned back, munching on his pizza. Emma looked at him, "His color shocks you but the power is pretty cool. If you could change into any animal, what would you be?"

"An eagle."

"Why?"

"Cause it's free. It can fly. And it's the fiercest predator in air. What would you be?"

"I don't know. Some sort of feline, like a lion or cheetah. Fiercest predator on land." She mimicked him.

"Copycat."

"Am not." A rumbling from a distance reached the restaurant and they both looked up the street. Some huge robotic thing from the other end of the street came rushing down, terrorizing the town.

"Teen Titans, go!" A voice from behind them shouted. Robin, ran up and stepped on their table and jumped off to be caught by Starfire, flying them both into battle.

"Looks like it's time to go." Jason got up from the table and watched Emma who was slowly getting up, watching the fight. He grabbed her hand and led her away. They were almost towards the door, leading back inside the restaurant and he heard Emma scream, "Jason!" He looked back and the huge robot was being thrown by the Teen Titans towards the restaurant. Even if they went back inside, the building could be crushed by that thing. Instead, he ran towards the side of the balcony, grabbed Emma by the waist, and jumped over the railing. She screamed and hugged him tightly. He hit the ground first and knelt down on one knee and held her close. "You're safe; you're okay." She peeked over his shoulder and looked around.

"How'd you do that?"

"Well our lives depended on it. I took a chance." A large crash above them made them look up at the restaurant. Jason got up, grabbed Emma's hand, and ran across the street as the building crumbled.

"Well, trouble sure finds the Teen Titans, doesn't it?" He chuckled. Emma was still in shock of everything that just happened and was staring at the crushed building, "There are people in there." He knew what she was thinking. He grabbed her by the shoulders and made her look at him, "No, Emma. We have to get out of here." She breathed in heavily.

"I just want to call in there, and see if there are any survivors." She got out of his grasp and ran across the street.

"No, Emma." He ran after her. She stopped by the broken entrance of the Pizza Corner and shouted, "Hello?!" She heard some coughing, and two voices yelled for help.

"There are people in there." She grabbed her scarf and tied it behind her head, just above her nose in order to filter the particles. She climbed through the broken glass doors and searched for survivors. Jason gritted his teeth. Ugh, this woman. He followed in after her. The first one they found was right next to the entrance, underneath one of the booths with his friend. Jason pushed some of the concrete away and pulled the two out and pushed them towards the entrance.

Emma used the light on her phone to peer through cracks of concrete, "Hello?!" There was a rumble from the fight still going on outside. Dust and little rocks fell. She stood still, waiting for anything big before moving on.

She found someone unconscious with a big concrete block over his legs, "Jason, help me!" They both lifted the concrete and moved it next to the guy. Jason carefully picked him up and brought him outside. Emma went to search for someone who was calling out to help his son. Paramedics rushed to Jason and they carefully put the man down. Jason was about to go back inside but someone grabbed his arm, "Leave it to us. You did great." One of the paramedics told him.

"My girlfriend's in there, helping others." He ripped his arm away from the paramedic and was walking back inside when he heard a scream inside. He ran in as he recognized that was Emma's voice.

"Emma?!" He called out. There was a big hole across the building that wasn't there before. He darted through the hole and looked around. The big robot has gotten a hold of her and she was struggling to get free.

"Emma!" The robot ran away. Robin was on his motorcycle, about to pass Jason, but Jason grabbed Robin and got him off the motorcycle, which came to a halt when it sensed that the rider got off the motorcycle.

"How did you let that thing get away?!" Robin pushed him away, "The longer you hold me off, the farther it gets!" Robin got a call from his communicator, "Robin, he got away." Robin glared at Jason and turned around to talk to Cyborg, "It took a girl. We have to find it as soon as possible." Robin turned back to ask Jason who the girl was but he was gone.

Jason threw his helmet on the floor furiously as he stomped through the house. He flipped the light switch by the stairs with a rhythmic pattern. The bottom half of the stairs was lifted to reveal a hidden room.

He went in and roughly sat down on his chair and looked up to big screen, angrily, punching the keys on the keyboard and a map showed on screen. He took out Emma's watch, thanking his lucky stars that he took it from her during the date. He put inside a box on top of a short pillar. The computer scanned all the different DNA on the watch and sifted through hospital records of finger prints. A list of people showed up on the screen and he chose Emma.

Emma's background showed up on one screen and a red x showed up on the map, zooming in at a warehouse outside of the city. He wasted no time in preparing himself and rode his motorcycle through a tunnel that led away from his home so no one would ever see him coming out of his house as his alter ego, Red X.

Emma continued to struggle from the robot. The robot was idle now but its hand would not budge. A camera, which was hung by a robot arm, came down in front of her and the red recording light turned on.

A distorted voice spoke, "Mr. Kruse, I have your daughter. I want $150 million transferred into this Swiss bank account within the hour. If not, your daughter will die. You can call the police if you want, but I will know, and I will kill her as soon as I get the news."

Emma searched around the warehouse for the person the voice belonged to but she couldn't find anyone. The voice announced the account and routing number, "Time is running out." The camera turned off and the robot arm retreated the camera. Emma went back to struggling.

"It's no use. This will be over soon." Emma still couldn't find him, "Please, my dad doesn't have the money for this."

"Oh yes he does, if he sells his company stocks, he will." The voice chuckled. This must be one of daddy's company's rival.

"Honestly, I don't think he'd do that."

"Well let's take this chance to find out just how much he loves you." The voice went from a chuckle to a cackle, making Emma shiver.

"He hasn't been happy lately; his stocks are probably dropping. He doesn't have the money." She tried to reason with him. Not to mention that he might not think I'm worth $150 mil. Her dad loved her, but did he love her more than his company?

"His stocks have not dropped! I'm sure of it." Okay, he's definitely the company's opponent.

Emma was about to argue more with him, trying to get any clues as to which company he's from but a she heard a crash from the left side of the building and saw the Teen Titans rushing into the dark side of the building. She couldn't see them because she was too high up on the robot and the second level hid the action from her sight.

She heard fighting, grunting, blasting, and all sorts of noises and she wanted to move her head lower to see what was going on. She was slowly able to inch forward more and more. She finally realized that she's been able to bend her entire upper body and looked back to see a masked man. She was about to yell but his gray gloved hand stopped her from screaming. He used his other hand to signal silence to her. Who was he?

This guy was dressed all in black except for his gloves and belt which were gray and a big red x on his chest. The front of his mask was skull shaped and was gray with another red x on his forehead. His mask was creepy to her.

"Who are you?" She watched him work on some sort of panel on the back of the robot's hand.

"Someone who has something to gain from getting you out of here." The robot's hand completely relaxed, letting her to move freely and climb out of its hand. The masked man held his hand out for her but she climbed back over the railing herself.

"Thanks?" She still wasn't sure if she could trust him. He was obviously not a Teen Titan. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in really tightly.

"Oh don't thank me yet. I said I gain from getting you out of here. I never said I was going to let you go." The masked man raised his other arm with some sort of grappling hook gadget but once it hooked on to one of the pipes for the roof structure, a red and yellow boomerang looking thing cut of the rope. They both looked to the direction the boomerang came from. The Teen Titans have successfully captured Emma's kidnapper, who she recognized as Conrad Welch, her dad's biggest company rival.

"Let her go, Red X." Robin shouted. Emma looked back at her…rescuer and second kidnapper?

"Sorry Kid, but this girl seems to be worth a lot of money. Kidnapped by someone that the Teen Titans can't even catch? Oh, I definitely think I'm a bigger threat than that guy over there." He nodded at Mr. Welch. Robin gritted his teeth, "Titans, go!"

The team rushed up towards them. Red X pushed Emma out of the way as he used judo to throw Robin to a wall and shot some red goo from his glove to keep Robin from moving. He flipped over and over and over to dodge Starfire's star bolts and threw a red x gadget that busted out into a flash bomb, disorienting Starfire. Cyborg was about to use his cannon but Red X jumped up and stuck some red x in front of the cannon and Cyborg was electrified into immobility. Raven used her powers to throw a big pipe at him but he easily dodged the incoming pipe and shot her with the red goo. A green cheetah was rushing at him and Red X through a giant red x that wrapped around each leg of the animal and no matter what Beast Boy turned into, the red x would not let go of his limbs. Raven's black energy wrapped around the red x and broke it, freeing Beast Boy.

Red X looked up, the Teen Titans had gotten themselves free of the mess he gave them. He looked back at Emma. All his dodging and fighting the Teen Titans had made him distant from Emma, who was now across the warehouse.

"Fine, ransom isn't the only way to get money. See ya later, sweetheart." He jumped over the railing and pressed the red x in the middle of his belt and he disappeared. She stared at the empty space the masked man was just at.

"Emma, did that guy seem familiar to you?" Robin asked Emma as the Titans were bringing her back home. Emma kept an unemotional face as she shook her head and looked back outside the window. Robin looked at her for a bit before turning back to the front.

She didn't know what to think. It was too easy to believe it was Jason. The skills, the "sweetheart" nickname, the jumping over balconies, the fact that he had rescued her, pretending it was a second kidnapping and backed out at the last second, now that she was safe.

This guy was mysterious and exciting. It was thrilling. She was sure that he was who she thought he is. And to keep this as a secret between them.

At the front of the car, someone else was putting pieces together as well. Robin knew Red X. Kidnap and ransom was not his M.O. He recalled the guy who grabbed him off his motorcycle, freaking out that his girlfriend was taken away by some giant robot. When Red X flirted with Starfire, he called her cutie, but he called Emma sweetheart. Red X was not careful this time. Robin smirked. Of course, there needs to be evidence, but he had no doubts. He glanced back at Emma to see an ever-so-faint twitch at the corner of her lips. Emma seemed like a sweet, smart girl. Hopefully when they catch Red X, she would end her relationship with him so there would be no unnecessary emotional disturbance.

The next day Jason sat down at some random table for lunch and started munching on his sandwich. Emma plopped down in front of him and held out her hand. He looked at that hand, looked at her, and then raised an eyebrow.

"My watch." She reminded him. Jason rolled his eyes and took it out of his jacket. He put it on the table and she took it to put it back on her wrist. She leaned over the table like yesterday.

"Thank you." She gave him knowing eyes and kissed him. He responded and kissed her back. She sat back down and rested her face on her hand as she used her other hand to eat her food. He quickly looked at her outfit, grey skinny jeans, red top, black jacket. He gave her a knowing smirk and chuckled. She smiled back and they ate in silence.