It was a cold and stormy night at the Titan Tower. The wind whistled like a powerful locomotive, rain was pouring from the heavens, lightning struck from the sky with rapid and mighty strength, thunder roared like an untamable lion.
Two certain brothers were having the time of their lives right now.
If one were to venture the Titan Tower, they would find two teenage boys playing mind-numbing video games, a alien girl searching for some mustard amongst an entire refrigerator of blue and moldy food, a young man testing his fighting skills against a punching bag, and a gothic half-demon girl meditating atop the tower oblivious the current storm.
Rain beat down on the Goth mercilessly. She paid it no mind, bigger things were dwelling her thoughts. What does this mean? What is this energy I feel approaching the city? It's like no energy I've ever felt. Definitely not a wicked presence, but I need to discover who or what has such potentially dangerous life energy. Should I tell my friends?
"No," she said to herself. "I wont bother them with this. I can handle this by myself."
The alarm rang.
"Raven! Let's go! We have a robbery downtown!"
"Speak of the devil." The half-demon muttered.
A young man was standing on top of a tall cliff; his green eyes were cold as he surveyed the city he had just come to. Wind and rain was blowing his wild hair and his torn and used cloak. His hand slowly reached for the picture he had been given. It was of a man with an orange and black mask.
Slade.
That was his target, and he couldn't let anything make him lose his focus or lose sight of his goal. His eyes hardened and instinctively reached for his sword. There! The local lowlifes should give him some info on Slade's whereabouts. But only if he got there first.
When there's trouble you know who to call, TEEN TITANS!
From their tower they can see it all, TEEN TITANS!
When there's evil on the attack,
You can rest knowing they got your back,
Cuz when the world needs heroes on patrol...
TEEN TITANS GO!
With their superpowers they unite, TEEN TITANS!
Never met a villain that they liked, TEEN TITANS!
They got the bad guys on the run,
They never stop till the job gets done,
Cuz when the world is losin' all control...
TEEN TITANS GO!
The Teen Titans rushed to the downtown of Jump City and were met by too familiar faces, Gizmo, Mammoth, and Jynx, members of a criminal group known as HIVE
The light of the lightning accentuated Gizmo's insane white eyes, while he was perched atop his robotic tentacles, looking like a demented puppet. With a chuckle, he looked down at the heroes. "Well what do we have here? You snot-munchers are really predictable." The boy genius said. Mammoth was holding the newly stolen jewelry in his soaked fist.
"Yeah, we were lookin' to bash some skulls and we knew just how to get your attention." Mammoth then dropped all of it the ground.
Robin glared. "If you're here for a fight, you got one! TITANS, GO!"
Jynx smirked. "Attack Pattern Delta!"
They all sprung into action at once, the titans attacking with sonic cannons, fangs, explosion disks, and dark and righteous energy, while the HIVE retaliated with massive strength, missiles, and bad luck. The battle appeared even, but as it progressed, it was becoming painstakingly obvious that the heroes were winning. Jynx got thrown onto her face from a massive starbolt barrage. She weakly stood up and wiped some of her purple blood from her lips. "I think its time we tried our new toy, boys."
Gizmo nodded and the metal tentacles on his back opened up to form cannons. "You're really in for it now, losers! We got this from Slade himself! FIRE!!" Gizmo pressed a small button causing blood red energy started to pour from his cannons. "TITANS! MOVE!" The command was useless however, as no matter how many times the teens avoided or try to block the blasts, they wouldn't lose their targets. Slowly the Titans fell from the powerful and accurate blasts until they could barely stand. Jynx smiled at the devastation. She then looked at Robin's prone form and said, "That was a pretty good weapon, wouldn't you agree, my songbird?"
"If you toy with weapons like that, you will only inflict them upon yourself." A mysterious voice said from the dark.
"Who said that?" Mammoth shouted. "Come out here and say that t' my face if you don't want to get hurt!" Mammoth was beginning to get scared by that voice with the same coldness as the Batman.
The mysterious voice chuckled. "And who would do that? Certainly not an over glorified geek, a muscle head with an IQ equal to a rock, or a wannabe witch with a few little hexes." "You ready to back those words up, snot- rag?" Gizmo asked. "Yes stranger, we've heard the bark, now lets see the bite." Jynx added.
The whoosh of a steel blade greeted them as Gizmo soon found his metal tentacles chopped up. "WHAT!! How could you tear apart my machinery so quickly?!?" The interloper, now in full view, said, "I wouldn't worry about your technology. I'd be more concerned about your life right now." His blade was pointed at Gizmo's throat but Gizmo managed to let out, "Aren't you forgetting my team? They won't let you just kill me." "Not if they're out cold." And it was true, the rest of HIVE had already fell, sprawled on the ground unconscious.
"Where is Slade?"
"Listen! I don't know anything about Slade's whereabouts!"
"I'd be willing to bet your neck you do."
Steel pressed closer to Gizmo's neck. Gizmo gave in and said, "Okay! Okay! I-I know a little about Slade." "Good to hear." "Slade doesn't let anyone know his plans! I was only one part!" "Is there anything else I should know about?" "Even if you find him, he has lots of guns!" "I'm shocked and amazed." His interrogator said sarcastically. "Slade has been getting new tech, odd weapons, and gave them to us to test." "I've noticed. Where is he hiding? Talk!" "Y-Yeah, he's hiding at..."
Slade's robots rushed to the scene, snatching Mammoth, Jynx, and Gizmo from right underneath the swordsman and with one flash grenade, they were gone.
Robin was lying on the ground recovering from the energy blast that hit him. He had been watching the mysterious teen defeat the HIVE and then move on to questioning Gizmo. He moved with amazing speed and strength, and the way he dispatched Jynx and Mammoth was incredible. It appeared like he showed up from nowhere, but Robin's trained eyes followed the attack after seeing a flash of light from the alley that he deduced as the unsheathing of his sword. The stranger hopped from the shadows, used the flat side of his sword like a baseball bat to effectively K.O. Mammoth and Jynx, sliced off the offending robotic tentacles, then pinned Gizmo to the ground before he even knew what was happening. It was truly an awesome spectacle for Robin who had spent a greater part of his life training in the dark shadows of Gotham City
Angered at the loss of his source of information, the stranger cursed loudly. Calm yourself, there will be other opportunities. Or perhaps I need to search elsewhere for info on Slade... "Thank you, friend, for coming to our aid and defeating our enemies. Will you please tell us your name?" Starfire inquired.
Bingo.
With a little less coldness in his tone, the stranger introduced himself, "It's War Mage, but we must continue this elsewhere. The storm is getting more powerful and you all are injured." "I can heal them." Raven said as she struggled to her feet. "Allow me to help you." War Mage put his sword away and lifted his hands towards her. Raven recoiled, unsure if she should trust him. Her distrust was misplaced however, as War Mage's hands glowed blue and soon Raven's blast wound healed and her energy returned. War Mage smiled at her. "Now, if you could help me with the others, we can get indoors before this storm gets any worse."
Cyborg, followed closely by Beast Boy, was the first back to the Tower, stomping inside, furious because of his defeat at the hands of Gizmo. He shouted, "Man, I can't believe we lost to those idiots... AGAIN!" "Well, on the bright side, but I don't think we'll need to take showers for a while." Beast Boy joked, then transforming into a Great Dane and shook himself in order to dry off. "BB! Watch it! You know I gotta dry off fast before any water sinks into my system!"
Raven came inside, wringing out the rain from the hem of her robes. "What is important is how they defeated us, that was no ordinary laser cannon Gizmo used against us." She muttered. Robin agreed completely. "She's right, the technology they used that shouldn't even exist. Those energy blasts were way too powerful and way too accurate to be from a blaster that Gizmo could fit on his back." Starfire was once again perplexed, "How can our foes use technology that does not exist? And what does Gizmo's new machine have to do with our new friend?" Her question caught everyone's attention. War Mage entered through the door and removed his hood.
He was of same build and height as Robin, with the same spiky hair, but the thing that set them apart was War Mage's dark green eyes, and a scar in the shape of the lightning bolt on his forehead.
"That is a long story, Titans."
