Disclaimer: I don't own the show Teen Titans, but do reserve the rights to all original characters I introduce. Don't steal them.
Chapter 1: The Titan in Disguise
As I look back on it now, now that the fighting is over, I often wonder at just how lucky I am, and how I came to be what I have become. I will not lie to you; I'm no angel. I've done many things I'm not proud of. But rather than try to explain now, how about I tell you the story behind the man, of how I became the sixth titan. Now, now, I won't say anymore, don't wanna jump ahead too far. Let's just go to the beginning…
It was cold…so very cold…the unforgiving snowstorm blasting the streets with a stinging barrage of crystallized water all about as a lone soul makes his way through the snow-clogged streets. " It's so cold…" He thought, as he trudged on toward his destination. " I've got to hurry, or I'll lose it again. This snow just weakens me faster." His long brown hair whipping in the wind. He draws his black cloak tighter about him to ward off the chill.
He could feel it within him, it that he'd feared ever since his rebirth. " Only she can help me, I must find her." Just then, he caught a movement from the alley across the street, a movement with eyes that watched…just watched.
" Who's there!" He demanded. " Show yourself, I know you're in there." He tenses him muscles for combat, ever at the ready.
"Excuse me?" It was a man of medium build. " Is there something you need?" He comes wearily from the shadows.
The warrior relaxes a bit and quickly ducks his head. " Yes, I could use some directions, if its not too much trouble."
" I'll help if I can. Where is it that you need to go?" The man from the alley asks politely.
" To a place, I'm told is called Titans Tower." The warrior spoke up after a moment's thought.
" Titans Tower you say? That's all the way on the other side of the town, on a small island." He points off to the west.
The warrior sighs, then shivers. " Wonderful, more walking." He says to himself. " Thanks for the directions friend." He raises his head to eye level with the other man.
" It was no trouble at ah, WOAH! He takes several steps back, nearly falling over himself. The warrior tries to come to the man's aid, but the man shrinks back even further. " Stay away! Please, just go away!" The man quickly turns and runs back to the safety of the alley. Back to it's concealing shadows.
Confused, the warrior walks over to a nearby car, and peers into its mirror. He sees nothing, but his reflection stairing back at him. His long brown hair, flowing down to mid-back, the hair only enhancing his normally good looks. His thin lips slightly chapped from the cold. His nose seemed to be right where it was supposed to be. What had spooked the man however, were the warrior's eyes. His eyes that were usually hazel were now blood red. " Oh no, no, no! Not yet, not now I'm so close!" He begins to hear a piercing ringing sound thrum from the deepest recesses of his mind, a sound that began to overwhelm his senses. " Oh god, please let them be the ones who can help me…with…" And then he remembers no more.
Meanwhile…
It had been a trying day for Robin. With it snowing so heavily, crime was at a low spike. He didn't mind that, but the constant closure with friends that were sometimes better suited to be enemies was beginning to get on his nerves. Cyborg and Beast Boy, in a never-ending game-athon were his biggest headaches since, inevitably, they end up arguing with one another. Raven, thank all that's good, finally decided to have her meditation session, which put to an end that annoyance. " Raven's a good friend, but she needs to loosen up" He thought to himself. Starfire, of course, being the one to get on Raven's nerves by interrupting her reading at almost regular intervals for Raven to come hang out with her. " Starfire's a good person, but she's just a tad too needy. That probably comes from having to live with a sister like Blackfire." He mused.
"Hey, no way!" Cyborg yelled at the top of his lungs. " There's no way you could've gotten that much better than me!"
"Well, the game doesn't lie Cy. I beat you fair and square." Beast Boy said, as he stretches back, knocking a piece of paper from the other side of the cushion on the floor.
" Hey, what do we got here?" Cyborg snatches the paper up before BB can recover it. " Well, well, these look like cheat codes. Care to explain fur ball?"
" Dude, gimme those back!" Beast Boy lunges for the codes, but only finds the palm of Cyborg's other hand. " Gimme those back right now! I didn't even use those in the last match!"
" Oh yeah, I'm sure you didn't. That's why you blew me away in that last race! There's no way to go that fast without these codes!" Cyborg said, emphasizing each point by ramming his finger against BB's forehead.
" Oh yeah? Well how 'bout a rematch then!" He sits down and picks up his controller.
" You goin' down little man!" Cy does the same, and soon enough, both are totally absorbed in the game, and quiet wins out again, for a little while.
As Robin continued to delve deeper into the recesses of his thoughts, he didn't notice Starfire come up to him. " Robin? Robin, is everything okay?"
" Huh, what?" He quickly snaps back to the present. " Oh, yeah Star, everything's fine."
" I was just wondering. You often seem to be lost in thought these days. Perhaps I can be of assistance?"
" No, it's nothing really…" He lowers his head and sighs. " I've just been wondering if maybe I did something wrong."
" How so? I have never known you to do anything incorrect."
" It's just that…I've never lost someone in the line of duty. I keep wondering where I might've gone wrong with Terra."
" Oh, I see now…but Robin you must understand that it was Terra's choice to join Slade. It is not your fault."
" I know, but…there's just something about the whole thing that doesn't add up. It could've been that Terra was just as much a victim of Slade's manipulation as I once was." He sighs again and looks up at Starfire.
" Perhaps you are right, and maybe we will someday have the chance to find out. Assuming we can find a cure for Terra's petrifaction." She reaches out and grips Robin's hand. " You can do it, I know you can."
" Thanks Star…" Just then, Robin's Titan communicator goes off. " Hmm?" He flips it open to see what's up.
" What is the matter Robin?" Starfire asks, as the other Titans stop what they're doing and come over to Robin.
" We got trouble," Robin turns to the rest of the Titans. " There's a report of a raging beast downtown."
Cyborg smashes his fists together. " Well then, lets go bag it."
Robin looks to Cyborg. " Right, get the T-car ready."
" I'm on it. You heard him, lets move!" Cyborg waves them on to the T-car.
Back downtown…
It was still snowing outside, but that was not the only thing falling to the earth. The monster's path had been crossed many a time by a car or truck, which was contemptuously tossed aside. The barrel-chested, seven-foot brute ranged at will through the town, destroying all as he went. And just as the beast rounded a corner, it was a young woman's unfortunate pleasure to bump into this monster, with his blood-red eyes.
The startled inhalation of breath brought the monster's attention to the woman. It then proceeded toward the woman at a slow, menacing walk, one-inch claws at the ready as he continued his advance. She slowly begins to back up inch by inch, so as not to provoke the beast further. Back and back until she came back against a brick wall. The woman then crouched down, waiting for the inevitable.
Sensing her resignation, the creature lunged for the kill. But the young woman was not giving up, just getting some mace, which she used liberally on her would be attacker. The beast roared in pain, stumbling back, and rubbing at his eyes. He quickly clears them, and with a snarl, he leaps up, and comes down with a slap to the back of the ladies head. The force of the blow was stunning, and she dropped to the ground unconscious. Not wasting any time, he goes to her, and scoops her up to deal a fatal blow.
Just as he was about to sink his fangs into the woman, the body is torn from his grip to float away and come to rest by Raven's feet. " Looks like we got here just in time."
" Good thing I thought of adding snow tires to the T-car." Cyborg agreed. " Now lets go hunting for big game."
" Titans go!" Robin yelled as he ran up, and delivers a solid kick to the creature's skull. The beast stumbles back, but quickly regains his balance. He shakes his head, and with a roar, charges at the Titans.
" Azurath Metrion Zinthos!" Quoth the Raven, as she launches a car at the giant terror, but he displays amazing agility, that his size would contradict, as he dodges the car. Now, he rushes at Raven, his claws held low and ready. Raven notices this too, so she leaps in the air to deliver a solid blow to his unprotected head. The action had some odd results though. All the sudden, Raven was assaulted by a huge surge of emotions and images from it. Images of a young man in a black cloak, as seen through an icy window, whose face was contorted in fear. " NO, NOT NOW! STOP, PLEASE STOP IT! I DON'T WANNA, NO!" the image wailed and then crumpled into a ball. It was with a start, that Raven snapped to. The creature was eyeing here, and rubbing its cheek. Beast Boy decided to take advantage of this moment and turned into an Anaconda. With great speed, he wraps around the beast, and begins to squeeze.
" Hold it still BB!" Cyborg shouts as he takes careful aim with his sonic cannon. " Robin, its sonic boom time!"
" Right, I gotcha covered Cyborg!" Robin says as he whips out his disc explosives, and launches them right at the creature. Cyborg quickly fires his sonic blaster. Beast boy, seeing the attack coming, quickly turns into a hawk, and flies off. The creature, now free, tries to dodge the stunning blast, but it was too late. The sonic boom slams into him like a runaway train, the blast kicking up a cloud of smoke. But as the smoke clears, the monster is still standing. Robin was stunned. " What? There's no way it could be standing after that!"
Starfire didn't hesitate to bombard the creature with a massive amount of star-bolts. " This creature has thicker armor than his fleshy appearance would suggest!" She said as she continued to hound the creature with more and more star-bolts. It was all the creature could do to protect himself from the down poor.
" Enough, Raven, launch me!" Robin shouted, as he jumps into the air. Raven complies and gives him a big push with her powers. The kick Robin landed to the stomach was perfectly executed. When he lands on the ground, Robin whips out his Bo staff, and swings at it's head, but again, the creature amazed with it's speed, as it dodged Robin's swing and claws Robin's chest with its claws. " GAAAH!" Robin screamed, as the monster's claws tore in deep.
" No, Robin!" With a low snarl, Starfire charges toward the creature, and delivers her eye-beams to his arm at close range. The monster stumbles back and regains his footing. Starfire quickly grabs Robin, and carries him away. " Robin, are you ok!?"
" I'm fine." He winces. " Just a scratch." He lied.
Starfire shakes her head. " Scratches do not bleed like this." She covers the wound with Robin's cape, and ties it in place. " There, that will have to do."
" Thanks Star." Robin says as he gets to his feet. " Now, lets end this." Robin takes out a birdarang and launches it at the arm Star blasted. It lands a glancing blow, no more than a scratch.
" My turn now!" Beast boy goes Gorilla and comes out swingin'! BB lands blow after blow to the creature, but with one mistake, BB was forgetting to protect himself, and a good hook to the face sends BB reeling. The creature also stumbled back, out of breath from the beating it was receiving. Cyborg steps in then to take up where BB had left off, sending out a flurry of jabs, and hooks. The creature was hard-pressed to find a gap in this trained athlete's fighting skills. Finally, in a desperate move, the creature pushed through Cyborg's punches to deliver a massive bear hug. But it was Raven that had the creature right where she wanted it. She located a brick and slammed it up against the back of the creature's head. Pushed beyond its endurance, the creature fell to the ground, unconscious.
" Whew, that was close, thanks Ray." Cyborg said through his panting.
" Ow, anyone got a aspirin the size of a semi?" BB quipped as he slowly walked over to join the rest of them.
" Yeah, and if anyone does, they'd better have two." Robin said as he clutched his side.
Starfire gasps and points to where the creature fell. " Look!" And everyone did so, just in time to see the creature slowly transform back into the form of a young man, no older than they themselves, with long brown hair. He was thin but still muscular, in a wire-frame sort of way. Here and there on his body vicious scars could be seen. " What has happened to the monster and who is that person there?"
Robin frowns. " I don't know, but I think he is the monster."
" So, what? He can transform like BB can." Cyborg says.
" No way that was anything like my transformations dude."
" He's right." Raven says. " There's something more to this." The images she saw flooded through her mind again.
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Well, that's the first chapter of my story! How'd you like it? Don't be shy, can't wait to see whatcha though of it!
Miss Myst