Future's Folly
Chapter 1: Timely Travels
"You can do this...you can do this...you can do this...you can do this..." the young teen murmured to himself over and over again. His red hair blent in with the reddish sky, and he wore a rather large brown cape, the hood of which was lowered.
Behind him were the torn and run down remains of what was once the city. Buildings were crushed and ruining, some already piles of rubble on the ground. The teen walked forward, in the shadows of the still standing building, but tensed as he heard footsteps. He quickly ducked into an alleyway, just as a hoard of silver, robotic humanoids marched that way.
He breathed a sigh of relief once they were gone, then looked around before he jogged across the open ground—really bad to do now, but needed to be done. Once he reached the other side, he hid in another alley, then looked around once again to be sure of no more robots.
He jogged for a few more minutes until he was in what once was the park. It took a lot of willpower to actually be there, in the open, with little to no cover. The grass was now dead and the trees leafless or broken in half. A creepy aura could be felt throughout the park. He shivered.
Yet he still walked until he reached a rather large oak tree. He looked at it, then touched it, memories flashing by. Suddenly, he could see a young boy running towards it, then around it, tagging a blonde girl. Then a raven haired girl, a few years older, ran up, giggling along with them. He shook his head, closing his eyes as he did. When he opened them, they were gone.
A sigh followed the memory, and he stood there for a moment, remembering all that had happened in the last eight years. He looked back up at the red sky, and tried to remember when it was blue, but failed. He bit his lip, then took his hand off the oak.
Then he reached for something on his belt, and pulled out a rather familiar circular object. It was different from what the villain Warp had used; it had settings on it and a blinking timer in front, which was currently blinking a mass of zeros. He set the settings on there for 01:28:49, another for 6/23/2010, and sighed again. Then he looked around, as if to say goodbye, and slammed his hand down on the contraption.
A vortex erupted from the device, quickly moving up and down his body, then consuming him, making him disappear with a bright, white flash.
What the red head didn't realize was the robotic eye retracting and zooming in on him, recording what had just happened.
Boy, was he in for it.
It was a normal day in Jump City—as normal as it could get with frequent attacks happening almost daily. There hadn't been an attack all day, so the city was definitely due for one soon.
The park was as full and lively as ever. Children laughed and played on this glorious summer day, and parents talked and smiled as they did. Picnics were set up all across the freshly watered grass. Kids played innocent and fun games like Tag and Hide and Seek. A large oak tree stood, shading the children who chose to sit and listen to the calming breeze and enjoy the relaxation of summer.
But then, a large clasp of thunder sounded, and the few children that were under the oak scattered back to their parents, frightened. Only two remained, a little blonde girl and brunette boy.
"What was that?" the girl asked.
"I don't know, Lil," the boy said back, a tad frightened.
"I think it came from back here," the girl said, peaking slowly behind the large tree. The boy grabbed her shoulder and tugged her back.
"Lil! You don't know whats back there!" he said. "It could be one of those crazy monster people from TV!"
"Oh, Rory," the girl said, "If it was a monster, the Teen Titans would come and save us!"
The brunette seemed to think this over. "Mmm...okay. But if its dangerous, we run!"
"Okay, Rory!" she said, but he quickly shushed her. She nodded in affirmation, and the two tiptoed around the oak. They poked their heads to the side, where they saw a teen—about fourteen or thirteen looking—with red hair and a large, brown cape on that made him look like a Jedi, lying against the oak, a look of awe on his face. His palms were facing up and the ground beneath him was singed.
Lil blinked, then took a step forward, a twig crunching underneath her foot. She squealed, and Rory hurriedly placed a hand over her mouth. But the teen heard this, and turned his head to them. They cowered behind the tree.
"Oh, no...its okay, I won't hurt you," he said, getting up and squatting at their level. He offered them his hand—it was brown, like he'd been playing in the dirt for a while. Lil eyed the hand nervously.
"Its okay. I'm a friend, see?" he said, picking a flower out of the ground and offering it to her. She blinked, then took it from him.
"Pretty..." she breathed, watching it with interest. Rory ooo'd at it, then turned his attention back to the red head.
"You look hurt, are you okay?" he asked, noticing the rips in the teen's clothes. He shook his head.
"Nah, I'm fine," he said, smiling. Then his eyebrows raised as he thought of something. "But I do need to ask you something..."
"Really?" Lil asked, looking up. "What is it?"
He dug something out of his pocket—a paper—and unfolded it. It was a very old looking paper, and once unfolded, he showed it to them. It had what looked like a technological device to be installed to a wall on it, like blueprints.
"Can you direct me to where I might find something like this?" he asked.
Rory examined it, but shrugged, stumped. Lil looked as though she had an epiphany, though.
"That looks like something you'd find at Cook's Electronics!" she said, a smile finding its way to her features. The teen brightened.
"Can you tell me where that is?" he asked, then added, "Please?"
"Yeah, its just down the road, there," she said, pointing behind him into town. "You just gotta go a couple blocks down into the shopping area. You can't miss it! Big red words!"
"Gotcha!" he said, giving her a thumbs up. "Thanks!"
He then pocketed the old looking blueprint and stood up, running in the direction Lil had pointed.
"See ya around!" Lil called. The teen waved, then pulled up his hood.
"I'm glad we could help him," Rory said. Lil gave him a look.
"I'm the one who told him where to find it! All you did was notice that his clothes were old," she pointed out, folding her arms to her chest. Rory rolled his eyes.
"Whatever, wanna play catch?"
Along with it being a normal day in Jump City, it was a normal day for their superhero protectors, the Teen Titans.
Raven, the purple haired empath, was reading a book on the sofa.
Starfire, the pretty alien, was playing with her mutated moth-worm thing, Silkie.
Robin was reading the newspaper, for any leads on Slade (Insert Robin hissing and spluttering incoherent noises at the name here).
Beast boy, the green person you could never forget because he was green, was making himself a bit of tofu, seeing as, along with being green and being able to transform into any animal alive or dead, he was a vegetarian.
And Cyborg...hey, wait...where's-
"And it's done!"
Oh, there he is. By the security system. All happy and proud like.
His exclamation gained the attention of his teammates, who gave him a curious look (well, Raven raised an eyebrow, but its sorta the same thing).
"I finally installed the newest version of the security system!" Cyborg said proudly, smiling brightly.
"Well, good job, Cyborg," Robin congratulated. Starfire nodded.
"Yes, friend! That is most glorious that you have completed it!" she said.
Beast boy blinked. "Uh...whats the difference?" he asked. Cyborg's smile, if it was even possible, widened even more. Beast boy suddenly regretted his question.
"Well, its voice activated, for one thing!" he said. "And it talks!" He took a deep breath, then said, "Security system, on!"
"Security system online, Sir," the machine bleeped, causing the other Titans to stare at it. "DNA hand print verification required."
Cyborg placed his hand on the screen, and it scanned it. "Thank you, Sir –blip– Cyborg!. Any other requests?"
"No, just go on standby," Cyborg said. The machine bleeped.
"Yes, Sir -blip- Cyborg!." Then it went on standby.
"Woa!" Beast boy cried, almost dropping his tofu. "Are you sure it won't gain intelligence and take over the world or something using robot monkey slaves?"
"Like that'd ever happen," Raven muttered, rolling her eyes. Beast boy slumped his shoulders, giving her a 'c'mooon!' look.
"BB, if that were even possible—which it isn't—it wouldn't happen! This baby is linked to my hard drive, so I can type in commands to it even if I'm away," he said. "So there won't be any taking over the world."
"With robot monkey slaves," Beast boy piped. Cyborg rolled his eyes.
"Right," he said. Then, his stomach growled. "Woo! I'm hungry! Lemme at that meat!"
"Dude! I'm right here you know! Take your crummy meat somewhere else, why don't ya?" Beast boy cried. Cyborg, now in the kitchen, shook his head.
"Nope, why don't you take your stinky tofu somewhere else?" he asked, poking the green changeling's forehead. Beast boy quickly shook his head.
But before the argument could go any further, the alarm sounded. The five titans quickly dropped their doings and Robin rushed to the computer, where he began typing furiously. A map of the park popped up, with a red dot blipping.
"Strange activity at the park, guys!" Robin said.
"Titans, GO!"
The now hooded teen ran though the city, and into the shopping area, like the little blonde girl had specified. He looked around; all the people here were a little unnerving, seeing as back in his time there weren't this many people left...
Shaking the bad vibe he suddenly got off, he looked around for this, "Cook's Electronics." He looked, and spotted a nice looking restaurant.
He looked inside from a distance—he kept to the shadows to feel safe—and saw food being served to the customers inside. Suddenly, his stomach growled. Startled, he wrapped his arms around his stomach. He looked around, then pulled out his time travel device. He looked at the time, which stated 01:02:21. He still had time.
Carefully, he looked around, then bolted towards the restaurant on the other side of the street.
"Closer...closer...we're getting closer..." Robin muttered, as he and the team walked through the park. They were following the tracking on his communicator, which said that the spot of suspicious activity was just ahead.
"Here!" he said, as the beeping got even wilder. The group looked at the oak tree they had been led to, to find singe marks on the ground and some of the wood of the tree itself.
"Yee-eeuh..." Cyborg moaned, sticking his tongue out. "That looks painful."
"Its like it was scorched," Raven stated.
"But why?" Robin asked, bending down. He took some of the burnt grass in his hands, which instantly turned to soot. He stood up.
"I'll take some of it and scan it," Cyborg said, already predicting his leader's command. Robin nodded.
"Right."
"Soo..." Beast boy began, shifting his weight from his heals to his toes.
"Beast boy, try seeing if you can pick up a scent," Robin said. Beast boy nodded.
"Right!" he said, turning into a hound. He sniffed the scorch mark.
"Woa!"
"Look! The Teen Titans!"
The team turned around to see a little blonde girl and brunette boy running towards them, happy looks on their faces.
"Wow! Its really you guys!" the girl cried.
"Yes! Please, have you seen anything of a suspicious nature today?" Starfire asked. The boy blinked.
"Suspicious how?" he asked.
"Like, out of the ordinary," Robin provided. The boy blinked, but the girl's eyes widened.
"Oh! Rory, I think they mean like how we saw that red haired guy who appeared out of nowhere!" the girl said. Raven raised a brow.
"Appeared out of nowhere, huh? Do tell," she said. The girl scratched her chin, as if it would help her recall the incident faster.
"Uh, well...we were sitting under the tree there, and we heard a loud bang! Like thunder! And then he was there! He needed help locating something, on this really really really old piece of paper. It was like a really old blueprint, actually. It looked like something you could get from Cook's Electronics, so me and Rory told him where it was and then he took off," the girl explained. Robin nodded.
"Hm..."
"She sounds right," Beast boy said, now human once again and on all fours. "The smell goes in the direction of Cook's Electronics."
"Then thats where we go!" Robin said. But then his communicator started beeping wildly. He looked at it, his eyes widening. "Titans, trouble! Theres been a robbery!"
"What? Where?"
"On the way to Cook's. It sounds like this could be the same guy," Robin said. He then turned to the two children. "Thanks for the help."
"No prob, Rob," she said, waving her hand as she smiled.
"Now, Titans, GO!"
He entered the restaurant, hood still up to conceal his identity, and looked around. The food smelled so good, his mouth watered; it was an all you could eat buffet, if he recalled correctly. He walked farther in, and the lady at the register greeted him.
"Hello, sir, can I be of service to you today?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah, I'm kinda lookin' for something to eat," he said.
"Well, how old are you?"
"Uh...thirteen?"
"Wow, thats a bit young to be out on your own, isn't it?" she asked. He gave her a confused look.
"It...uh...is? I guess?" he said, nervously smiling.
"Okay, well, that'll be nine dollars and ninety-nine cents, Sir," she said. He gave her a blank stare.
"Dollars?"
"Yes, you know, money," she said, talking to him like he was stupid. She rolled her eyes but smiled.
"Er...uh..yes...uh..." he started digging through his pockets, but only found the paper and his time travel device. He cursed his luck. "Uh..yeah..uh...can you just let me in? Like on a tab?"
She gave him a confused look this time around. "I'm sorry, it doesn't work like that around here. So either pay up, or go somewhere else."
He frowned, and his stomach growled again. He looked over at the food once more, and decided drastic measures were to be taken. He held his hand up and concentrated, a blue starbolt forming. The woman's eyes widened.
"Look, just let me in. I haven't eaten in two days, and I'm on a mission-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Instead, she screamed. She slid down to the floor, cowering with fear, attracting the restaurant's attention at the same time. His eyes widened under the hood.
"Lady! Quiet! Please!"
"J-just take the money! Take it! Its in the register!" she screeched. "Somebody call the police!"
"No! I'm just hungry!"
But no one listened. Instead, they all ran out in a frenzy of terror, abandoning their tables and meals. He sighed. The lady behind the register shivered violently, holding herself. He gave her a sorrowful look.
"Its in the register! Just leave me alone!"
Instead, he rushed into the now abandoned concession and began stuffing food in his mouth. As he chewed, he stuffed some food in his pockets and swallowed, then bit into a bread roll. Once he was sure he was good—and no food was touching the paper or the time travel device—he rushed out of the restaurant, continuing to Cook's Electronics.
He just narrowly dodged the Teen Titans.
The Teen Titans entered Hometown Buffet in the nick of time, only to find it devoid of most living things. The only person left was the oddly familiar register girl.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Robin asked, once she got calmed down. She blinked a couple times, then spoke.
"Well, there was this boy, in a hoodie-cape-thing who said he was thirteen. He wanted to get in for free, and I told him I couldn't do that for him, not even on a tab, and then he made this blue...thing...like Starfire's starbolts, and threatened me! Then...he left," she said. Robin raised a brow.
"That was it?" he asked. She nodded. "No money was stolen?" She shook her head.
"Nope, nothing except some food."
"Weird villain," Beast boy commented. Raven slapped him. He held his now-aching cheek.
"Strange...Did you see where he was headed for after that?" Robin asked. The woman thought it over.
"I think he went in the direction of Cook's Electronics," she said, pointing. Robin's eyes narrowed, his mask doing the same.
"Sounds like the guy the girl told us about at the park," Raven said. Robin nodded.
"Right. Titans, to Cook's Electronics! GO!"
He entered the electronics store, which was surprisingly still inhabited, what with all the commotion back at the buffet. He looked around for about fifteen minutes for anything that looked like it would match the picture on the paper, but came up empty handed.
He looked at his time travel thing; 00:31:23. Ug. He had to hurry. He pulled another bread roll out of his pocket—those things were good—and munched on it, then went up to the register. He was greeted by what looked like a man with no life.
"Why, hello, fella!" he said. "What can I do ya for?"
Surprised by the statement, he dismissed it, and slipped the paper on the counter. The man looked at it.
"You got anything that'd resemble this?" he asked. The man picked it up and looked at it.
"Hm...we had one of these a couple days back, but someone's bought that."
The teen could've sworn he heard a record scratch to a halt; Sold?
"Who'd you sell it to?" he asked, his hands slamming on the counter.
"I'm sorry, but its policy that I can't tell you that. Customer privacy 'n all," the man said. The redhead soon became annoyed.
"Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough," he said, grabbing the man's shirt. He lifted him at least a foot off the ground with ease. "Who'd you sell it to?"
"Help! Help! Someone, HELP!" the man cried, struggling in the teen's grip.
"Tell me!" the teen screeched. The man relented and told him.
"T-the Titan! Cyborg! Yeah! Cyborg! I sold it to him! Hahahahaha!" he laughed, a scared look on his face. The teen's eyes narrowed.
"Of course! That would explain so much!" he said, as if it were a miracle he just figured it out.
"Can you put me down now?" the man asked. Before the teen could respond, a birdarang hit the redhead's hand, and he dropped the man instantly, rubbing his now bruised hand. The man scrambled out the front door, where the teen now saw the Teen Titans—and the fact that the store was now deserted.
"Threatening civilians with strength? That's just wrong," Robin said. The teen quickly grabbed the paper, folded it quickly, and stuffed it in his empty pocket. Robin saw this.
"Empty your pockets," he ordered.
"Why should I?" the teen shot back, backing away. Robin glared.
Just as Robin shot another birdarang at the teen, he jumped, easily dodging it. He stepped on Raven's, Beast boy's, and Cyborg's heads, like a hopscotch, and made it out of the electronics store.
"After him!" Robin ordered. Beast boy turned into a cheetah and raced after him, while the others ran on foot. The teen pulled his time travel tech out of his pocket and started pushing buttons. It still said 00:28:27...26...25...
"C'mon c'mon c'mon!" he said through gritted teeth. "I can't wait for a half hour!" He managed to get the date changed to 6/23/2034, but then he looked up to see a green rhino infront of him. He quickly skid to a halt, ran to the left, and watched as Cyborg collided with his teammate. He sighed with relief, looking back, but then found himself almost colliding with the sorceress, Raven.
He quickly tried to stop himself, jamming his feet to the ground, and saw that his opponent was using her magic to shoot object at him. He quickly used his blue starbolts to fire at them, destroying them on contact. Raven, shocked, just held her hands out, forming a shield, which he just jumped on, his boots allowing him to quickly make his way over it. Raven, shocked, watched as he ran off.
He continued to mess around with the controls, and finally saw that it went from 00:26:35 to 21:05:32. Though it wasn't the desired effect, it was something. And it was going up.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon!" he hissed, as green starbolts were fired his way. He quickly dodged them, which made him look like he was doing a crazy dance, and ducked, just as Cyborg was about to punch him. He quickly dropped the device and grabbed Cyborg's torso, and threw him onto the green changeling, who was a bear, and watched as they fell back. He grabbed the device and tried pressing more buttons.
Robin quickly used his bo staff to knock the device out of his hands, to the teen's surprise, and watched as he came back in for another strike. He quickly grabbed the bo staff and snapped it in half. Robin's eyes widened momentarily under the mask, but he soon gained his composure back.
"Who are you?" the hero demanded. The teen seemed to choke on his words.
"I..uh...I..." he looked back at the device, then shouted, "VORTEX!"
The villain, now dubbed Vortex, grabbed Robin and tossed him, then slid on his knees to the device and picked it up. He watched as it went from 35:21:03 to 48:32:02 in less that four seconds.
"Oh no," Vortex said, color draining from his face. Now he'd done it, he broke it!
To his surprise, his hood was jerked back, revealing his red hair to all. He jerked around, to see a stunned Robin, who probably recognized the Tameranean shade of red. But he looked even more stunned when he saw the familiar blue eyes.
"What the..."
Vortex quickly pulled up his hood, and ducked as a few more stray object flew his way. He ran, still ducking, as starbolts were fired his way and a sonic-cannon blast just narrowly missed him. He looked back at the device's clock-like monitor—68:32:54.
"Crap!" he hissed, shaking the device fiercely. "Crap crap crap crap crap!"
Then, he found himself tackled over by Robin, the boy wonder. He lifted his face from the ground and spit out the gravel that had been in his mouth. He stuck his tongue out, groaning as he tried to get rid of the taste of dirt.
"Now, what have you got here?" Vortex heard Robin say as he took the device from his hand. Vortex's eyes widened.
"No! Don't touch it!" he shouted, flipping himself over, causing Robin to hit the ground. Vortex hastily tried to grab the device out of Robin's hands, with little to no luck.
"Whats this?" he asked no one in particular, examining it. The screen now showed 74:54:29, and Vortex was growing more worried by the minute.
"No!"
"This looks like..." Robin's eyes widened. Vortex inhaled sharply, realizing Robin found out it looked like the time travel device Warp had used. He then took the device from the shocked teen—86:36:42. Crap!
Robin, though, grabbed the device back, and the two entered a severe case of tug o' war. Cyborg, aiming his sonic cannon and the speedy duo, couldn't aim at Vortex without aiming at Robin as well.
"Yo Rob!" he called out, "Get away from him!"
Robin, though, just pushed a button on the time travel disk unknowingly, which stopped the count at 97:34:39. Vortex pushed another button with his thumb in an attempt to get the device, but only started up the travel process.
The boy wonder noticed the vortex opening up and traveling up his arms and body, and saw it was happening to Vortex as well. Vortex seemed to get even paler than before.
"No! No! This can't be happening! This can't be-"
Starfire gasped, somehow getting an idea of what was happening. "Robin!"
But it was too late. A bright light flashed, causing the Titans there to hold their arms over their eyes as shields, but as the light dimmed and they looked back...they were...gone.
Robin was gone.
-If there was a theme song, it would go here. Listen to it if you like-
It took her a moment, but Starfire flew over to the scene, where there was a scorch mark—one much like the one they found at the park. She held her hands over her mouth, tears brimming and threatening to fall. Raven floated over and placed a hand on her shoulder, comforting her the best she could.
"Dude...what just happened?" Beast boy asked. Cyborg scratched his scalp.
"I dunno, man," he said, then looked at his arm. He opened up a screen and tried something. "I can't find Robin's communicator signal," he said after a while. "Its like he just...vanished."
This only made Starfire cry. Raven closed her eyes, as if to try something, and after a moment said, "I can't sense him at all. Its like that time you went to the past, Cyborg."
"Does that mean..." Beast boy began, pointing to the scorch and then to Cyborg and the sky with different hands.
"He's time traveled?" Cyborg finished for him, scratching his chin as he thought about it. "Huh, must be...otherwise we'd be able to find him."
"Oh, I hope he has not gone to the horrible future I had gone to!" Starfire said, trying to wipe her tears. She smiled ruefully, but only started crying again. Raven gave her her best attempt at a one-armed hug, only to have the alien princess hug her fiercely back.
"Well, if thats the case then we should go back to the tower, so you can try and locate him, Raven," Cyborg said. Beast boy nodded.
"Yeah, just like how you had to meditate and find Cyborg through the timestream-thing!" he said. Raven nodded as she finally got Starfire to stop squishing her.
"Right. So lets get back to the T-car..."
Suddenly, there was a loud clasp of thunder—in the middle of summer? It wasn't even cloudy. But that girl had said she heard thunder when she saw that Vortex fellow...so...
"Suzan!"
"Dude..." Beast boy managed to splutter, holding a shaky finger up. Starfire turned, and with everyone else, saw Robin—Robin! Well, his hair was messy, his suit was tattered slightly, but it was still him!
Starfire gasped, a joyful smile making its way to her lips. "Robin!" she shouted, flying over to the shocked boy. She hugged him like she hadn't seen him in years. Robin's eyes bulged slightly, surprised by the sudden hug. Then he caught sight of the red haired Tameranean and smiled.
"Starfire!" he cried, hugging her back. He inhaled her scent and sighed peacefully. The other three Titans allowed them their moment, and soon the five were driving back to Titans' tower.
Robin sure had some explaining to do.
DISCLAIMER: Before y'all sue me, I own NOTHIN'! 'cept Vortex and characters to come.
Hm. So. Hows that for a first Teen Titan's fic? I like it. Though it is long. But this is what I see the prologue/chapter 1 as being. This is my first try at a Teen Titans/Time Travel/Next Generation fic that I actually approve of—I have draft upon draft upon draft on my computer that I tried writing but didn't like. This is the newest version. Vortex isn't Vortex's proper name either, but stick around for future updates to find out his real name. I've got a couple other chapters written up, too, so expect some quick updates. But that doesn't mean don't review now! Please! Drop a review and tell me if you would like to see more of this or not! Or if you liked it! Or not! But please, don't flame me too bad if you choose to do so. Though I don't really see the point, other than your wasting your time writing it.
CMK