TEEN TITANS: Diamonds Are A Titan's Best Friend
Teen Titans and related characters are property of DC Comics.
On the outskirts of Steel City, an armored truck was making an unexpected stop. The driver, a young 20-something white man, had pulled over for a smoke break. While he was preoccupied, he failed to notice a burgundy sedan approach and pull over. Two men exited the car. One of them had no visible face and was wielding a Thompson gun. The other had his face wrapped in bandages.
The man with the Thompson gun opened fire and gunned down the driver in addition to the guards, while the bandaged man dashed toward the truck. Putting the key in the ignition, the man started the vehicle and signaled his accomplice to get in.
"How'd we do tonight, Hush?" the gunner asked.
"Scored enough to get your head screwed forwards again, Torque." the bandaged man answered.
*Teen Titans theme song*
The next morning, the area where the truck had been stolen was a police zone. Bumblebee and Speedy were there, seeing as this fell into "special crimes".
"Found something." Bumblebee announced.
"What? Cigarette butt? Used syringe?" Speedy retorted.
Bumblebee picked up a depleted drum magazine and presented it to Speedy.
"Who uses a Tommy gun anymore?" Speedy asked.
"More common than you think around these parts, thanks to the crooks fleeing Gotham and Blüdhaven." a policeman answered.
"Can it, Boles." Speedy snapped.
Bumblebee glared at her fellow member of Titans East.
"I'll take this to Bibbo at the Ace of Clubs." Speedy announced to his teammate.
In Gotham City, Batman was following the diamond truck heist with both pointy cowl ears to the ground. So far, the only evidence consisted of discarded bandages and a depleted drum magazine.
"Master Bruce, should we contact Robin?" Alfred asked from behind Batman.
"No. I'll send out Batgirl and Spoiler for this one." Batman answered.
At the Gordon residence, Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown were finishing up a slumber party when Barbara's cell phone went off.
"Barbara Gordon speaking." Barbara announced.
"I need you and Stephanie to investigate the Steel City murders. You'll be working with Titans East for this one." Batman replied.
"Got it, Batman. We're as good as out there." Barbara acknowledged.
Stephanie turned around.
"Down we go." Stephanie muttered as Barbara raced toward the fireman's pole that had been installed per Batman's orders.
Once the two reached the bottom of the pole, Barbara quickly discarded her street clothes and opened the locker that contained her Batgirl outfit. Stephanie watched as her red-headed best friend threw on the familiar costume, all the while grabbing her Spoiler outfit.
"Jealous, Steph?" Barbara playfully teased, noticing that her friend was looking at her minimally-clad form.
"Yeah, Babs." Stephanie replied.
As was typically the case, Batgirl finished throwing on her costume first, while Spoiler took a good ten minutes extra to put on the armored bits of hers. Once it was on, Spoiler grabbed her augmented reality/night-vision goggles and carefully put them on, taking care to not snag her blond hair in the goggles' straps.
"Let's roll." Spoiler deadpanned.
The two heroines got on their motorbikes and left for Steel City.
"Batgirl, remind me why you don't wear a helmet." Spoiler requested.
"Kinda redundant when you wear a cowl that's built like one." Batgirl answered.
"Right. I forgot." Spoiler replied.
Roughly two hours later, the two arrived at the Titans East tower.
"Anybody home?" Batgirl yelled.
Spoiler lowered her goggles and turned them on. Suddenly, two small figures snuck up behind Batgirl and tapped her on the shoulder. Sheer reflex kicked in and she slapped the two.
"Ay!" (Ouch!) the two figures cried.
"Who goes there?" Spoiler asked.
"Who are you?" a man with long black hair asked as he walked out of the shadows.
"Batman sent us." Batgirl answered.
The man eased up.
"Welcome to the tower. I'm Aqualad." the man announced.
"Who are the two little guys?" Spoiler asked.
"Mas and Menos." Aqualad answered, pointing to each one.
"Hola!" (Hello!) Mas and Menos exclaimed in unison.
Spoiler turned around and shook their hands, while Batgirl was looking dreamily at Aqualad.
"Ay carumba." Spoiler muttered under her breath.
Just then, Speedy returned from his investigation.
"Got anything on that drum?" Aqualad asked.
"Yeah. Serial number's the same as one purchased by the Blüdhaven Police Department." Speedy answered.
"Limits our killer to someone who has access to Blüdhaven police material." Batgirl piped up.
Spoiler zoomed in her goggles.
"I got some prints on here." Spoiler yelled.
A result flashed up.
"Prints belong to Dudley Sloame, aka Torque." Spoiler announced.
A long pause ensued.
"Who's Torque?" Aqualad asked.
"Ex-cop from Blüdhaven. A hitman got his head to do a full 180." Speedy answered.
Aqualad grimaced.
"Let's get him." Spoiler announced, throwing up her hood.
Just then, Bumblebee entered the room.
"What's going on?" Bumblebee asked.
"Going after our Thompson gunner." Aqualad answered.
"Who are they?" Bumblebee asked, pointing at Spoiler and Batgirl.
"Batman sent them. Now let's roll!" Speedy replied.
Bumblebee sighed as she readied her "stingers". This was going to be a long fight…
In a warehouse near the waterfront, Hush and Torque were waiting for their contact to arrive for the diamonds. Torque was finishing a bit of cleaning on his guns while Hush was applying new bandages to his face.
"Boss, I was just thinking-" Torque began.
"Dudley, I don't pay you to think. I pay you to unload bullets." Hush interrupted.
"Yeah, but what if the Teen Titans East come for us?" Torque replied.
"Teen Titans? Bah! If you said the Justice League, the Batman, or even the Birds of Prey, then I might take you seriously. But the Teen Titans? They're too busy dealing with other criminals, especially around here." Hush scoffed.
Just then, an arrow landed at Torque's feet.
"You were saying?" a young man snarked.
Hush looked up and caught Speedy.
"I called it, Hush." Torque whispered.
Hush drew two pistols from his longcoat while Torque loaded fresh drums into his Tommy guns. Suddenly, Batgirl and Spoiler crashed in through a window.
"Just wonderful! The Batman sends girls to fight me!" Hush declared, his voice dripping with bitter sarcasm.
Suddenly, a torrent of water forced the doors open, allowing Aqualad, Bumblebee, and Mas y Menos to enter. Torque opened fire, but Mas and Menos managed to dodge the bullets.
"Stand still!" Torque shouted.
While he was distracted, Batgirl got up behind Torque and removed his mirrored glasses. Suddenly, his aim became terrible. The bullets from his guns managed to hit everything but the Titans, who were now ganging up on Hush.
"Give it up, bandage-face!" Speedy mocked.
"How…dare…YOU!" Hush screamed, firing his pistols at Speedy.
In his rage, Hush failed to notice Spoiler and Bumblebee getting behind him until he felt a sharp electric sting and then a blow to the back. The bandaged mastermind fell over in pain, while Batgirl finished off Torque with a single punch to what was supposed to be the back of his head. It was just then that the police arrived to take the duo to prison.
Back at the tower, Batgirl and Spoiler contacted Batman.
"You're going to do what?" Batman asked.
"You heard us. We're joining Titans East." Spoiler answered.
A long pause ensued.
"Very well. Batman out." Batman replied.
A few minutes later, Bumblebee gave Batgirl and Spoiler their communicators.
"Welcome to the Titans East." Speedy muttered.
Back in Jump City, Robin was sitting around doing next-to-nothing when Bumblebee's face appeared on the communications screen.
"Meet the new recruits." Bumblebee announced.
"Hey, Robin!" Batgirl exclaimed.