Hey all. Just so you know, the wonderful V.K.M.Kimball, my co-author, did a ton of work on this. You should all go out right now and check out her stuff. She is awesome. .
But anyway, this is a story seperate from the regular Titan universe. It's set in the Old West. But don't you worry, we're still going to see all our favorite teen heroes and their most dangerous foe duking it out! It'll just have a spicy flavor to it!
Read on, Titan Fan! Read on!
Chapter 1 - Wild Beginnings
Chapter 1 – Wild Beginnings
Tumbleweed blew across the road. A sign reading 'Jump City: Prosperity of the West' creaked eerily. A figure strode up to the sign and regarded the seemingly empty city. He wore a black mask, black boots with spurs, green pants, red shirt, and a black vest. His black hair contrasted with his pale skin, and appeared to be spiked. Around his waist was a yellow belt, with boomerangs and spheres attached to it.
"So this is Jump City," he mused. "Nothing seems to be 'jumping' in this place. Except for the weeds that is." He began to make his way through the city, looking to see if there was anyone around. The figure looked into windows of nearby houses, but still didn't see anyone. He continued on, beginning to consider that the place might just be a Ghost City. "Great." He muttered. "Bruce must have got his information mixed up. He sent me to a deserted city." His shoulders slumped, and he was just to turn around and leave, when he heard a commotion. He turned and followed the ruckus until he came across a fight. In the middle of the street, Richard could see seven figures. Two figures were standing in the middle of a circle that the remaining figures had made. The duo looked nervous. Richard began to make his way towards them. "What's going on here?" He asked when close enough.
"Who are you?" one of the five figures, Richard could see that they were bandits, asked. He was a massive figure dressed in black with yellow trim and had wild brown hair. On his head was a black cowboy hat, also with yellow trim.
"I'm the new sheriff in town," Richard replied.
"Sheriff?" the two figures trapped in the circle chorused in unison.
"Ha!" one of the bandits snorted. "You, the new sheriff? You have to be kidding me!"
"You're just a scrawny kid," the first bandit who had spoken spoke again.
"Yeah," another bandit, an adolescent in green, smirked. He had what appeared to be spectacles fastened with leather onto his hat. "You're almost as puny as Nature Boy here." He jerked his thumb at the smaller of the two figures trapped in the middle of the circle.
"Hey!" the figure retorted angrily. "Who are you calling 'puny?'"
"He has a point Gizmo," a female bandit with pink hair and wearing a purple and black dress replied. "You have no grounds to call anyone 'puny.'" Gizmo scowled at her. She turned to Richard. "You're new here." She crossed her arms. "So I'm only going to explain this once. We run this town."
"Yeah," the first bandit spoke again. "So you better learn fast that we're in charge!"
"For some reason," Gizmo piped up. "These two cludge-heads won't get this fact through their thick skulls." The smaller of the two figures scowled.
"I'll cludge your head you little…" the other figure was dark-skinned, and raised a fist at Gizmo. Richard noticed that the majority of the dark-skinned figure was actually prosthetics.
"So as long as you stay out of our way, we stay out of yours," the female bandit ignored the dark-skinned figure. "Got that Law Man?" Richard appeared to consider the offer.
"So you want me to just lay face-down in the dirt and let you do whatever you want?" he asked at length.
"That's the idea," the young woman smiled. "So we have an under…" A boomerang hit the ground at her feet, causing the female to jump backwards.
"I never was good at doing what I was told," Richard replied, his arms crossed over his chest. "Just ask my mentor." The boomerang at the female's feet bounced up and returned to Richard. He reached out his hand and caught it. The female scowled at him.
"HIVE Five attack!" she ordered. They ordered themselves into the shape of a pentagon. Richard sprinted forward, taking in their positions as he did. The female sent a band of pink energy towards him. Richard dodged it, and sprinted past her. He ran up the massive form of the black clad bandit, and used the bandit's head as a springboard to launch himself at a dark-skinned bandit wearing white with an eye emblazed on his chest. This bandit also wore a green hat also with an eye emblazed on it. Richard kicked this bandit in the head. The bandit fell to the ground, his hat rolling away.
"Hey!" the bandit whined. "My hat!" Richard quickly punched the bandit in the stomach, jabbed him in the head, and leapt up into the air to deliver a kick to the head which knocked the bandit out. This seemed to be the kind of inspiration the duo in the centre needed to help out. The dark-skinned young man with the many prosthetics launched out his fist and struck the bandit with wild brown hair in the face. Richard could see that the fist was attached to the young man's wrist by a chain.
"Ow!" the bandit exclaimed, holding his nose. The young man promptly ran over and started punching the bandit over and over. Eventually the bandit went down.
"Booyah," the young man grinned. His accomplice had leapt into action as well. He had launched himself at Gizmo, and tackled him.
"Get off me you giant zit!" Gizmo shrieked.
"I'll show you who's puny," the other countered. Gizmo tried to punch him in the face, but the young man dodged. He leapt off on all fours, and kicked Gizmo, like a mule, in the stomach. Gizmo let out a shriek as he went flying. He landed in a heap, and did not get back up.
Richard in the meantime traded blows with the remaining bandit. He was wearing black, and had a black cloak. Each blocked the others blows. The bandit moved fast, faster than Richard expected. Richard spun to hit the bandit, but he had already moved to a different spot. Richard spun around and was met by a fist in the face. He fell down with a thud. The bandit stood over him, and said nothing. Abruptly the young man who had kicked Gizmo pounced on the bandit. He reminded Richard of a wolf as he did this. The bandit was down, and out.
Jinx, who nobody had been fighting, chose this time to hit the three young men with a blast of pink energy. The blast kicked up a bunch of sand into their faces, blinding them. When they finally got the sand out of their eyes, the HIVE Five were nowhere to be seen.
"So," Richard said at length. "Who were they?"
"The HIVE Five," the shorter young man replied. "A group of bandits that's been terrorizing the city. Vic and I have been trying to stop them for months without success."
"So you two are the ones I've been told about?" Richard inquired. "The two men trying to protect this settlement?"
"If you count him as being a man," the dark-skinned man replied, jerking his thumb at his companion. Richard simply blinked at him. The other young man scowled at his companion. "Anyway, I'm Victor Stone." The man outstretched one of his prosthetic hands. "Pleased to meet you."
"Richard Grayson," Richard replied shaking Victor's hand. He turned to the other young man. "And you are?"
"Garfield Mark Logan," the other replied. He offered Richard his hand. Richard took it, and noticed that the young man had long blond hair that was braided and had a feather in it, tanned skin, blue eyes, green face-paint in the pattern of paws on his cheeks and chest, and was wearing Native American attire.
"Nice to meet you," Richard smiled. "Well, like I said before, I'm the new sheriff, sent from Gotham City." Garfield and Victor looked at each other.
"Did you say Gotham?" Victor asked.
"Uh, yeah," Richard replied.
"The city of the famous Sheriff, Bruce Wayne?" Garfield asked reverently.
Richard sighed, "Yeah."
"Wow!" Garfield and Victor said simultaneously. Richard looked at his feet. There was an awkward pause.
"I guess you want to go back to headquarters now huh?" Victor asked.
"Headquarters?" Richard repeated.
"We call it the Tower," Garfield replied.
"Why the Tower?" Richard asked. Garfield blinked, and his cheeks flushed red.
"It sounded good," he replied. Richard blinked back.
"Well," he considered. "Okay."