Greetings once more, true believers! As you have all probably gotten used to by now, I have to mention that all disclaimers apply to this fic; I do not own Teen Titans or Trigun. But this fic is all mine, and if any of you like it enough to want to put it on your personal web sites, please ask my permission first. Now, on with the show! Enjoy the Titanic Stampede!

Prologue

"Man, this is too easy." Gizmo chortled as he stepped over another unconscious security guard on the spidery-mechanical legs sprouting from the pack on his back. He moved to the panel on the wall, next to the massive lead door, and began to tinker with it, trying to hack the lock.
"Think the new boss'll be happy?" Mammoth asked as he tossed the two guards' he had been throttling aside.
"Of course he will. With a trio like us, how could he not be?" Jinx said as she checked her reflection in her compact makeup case. "He'll probably throw in a nice, juicy bonus."
"He better. Dealing with radioactive stuff gives me the creeps." Gizmo added as he finished hacking. The door opened, revealing a smaller chamber within, in which hung several radiation suits. Jinx, being the only average sized one out of the three, sauntered ahead of her companions and reached for one of the suits.
"Not so fast!" A fourth voice shouted. The three Hive students swung around to reveal a familiar sight.
"I was wondering when you snotwads were going to show up!" Gizmo said, the legs retracting into his pack, and a pair of wings sprouting in their place, a jet flaming up beneath them.
"Stealing uranium isn't like you" Robin snarled in response.
"What's the matter, run out of Quickie Marts to hold up?" Beast Boy hurled.
"Who you jerks working for this time? Lex Luthor?" Cyborg quipped.
"We don't deal with spoiled rich boys" Mammoth snorted, "And we don't deal with the likes of you!"
"Attack pattern Beta, go!" Jinx instructed, and with that the three leapt into action.
"Titans, go!" Robin shouted, and his companions also leapt into combat.
The battle unfolded, fast and furious. Jinx somersaulted through the air with acrobat grace, avoiding the birdarangs and laser blasts from Robin and Cyborg, but was thrown to the ground when a green buffalo slammed into her. Starfire threw several bolts at Gizmo who dodged them and returned fire with a pair of small weapons that were mounted on his shoulders. Mammoth charged at Raven, a massive fist drawing back.
"Azarath, Metreon, Sinthos!" Raven said softly, and a black glow appeared around Mammoth's fist, freezing it in place. His body was thrown out from under that fist by sheer force, and he was sent sprawling onto his back. Jinx rose back to her feet and looked up toward one of the large light fixtures overhead, which promptly fell loose from its place, landing right on top of the green buffalo, which morphed back into Beast Boy with a large bump on his head. But then she was caught by a bolo that wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her side.
"Yes!" Robin shouted, throwing his fist in the air. Jinx smirked, and the knots came loose, the rope falling to the ground. "No!" Robin snarled as he leapt forward and launched a series of kicks and punches at Jinx, all of which she ducked and dodged with expert skill. She slid down under one extender arm as he punched, came up right in front of his face, and planted a tiny kiss on his nose.
"See ya, stud!" she winked and with that somersaulted away from him, landing right in front of the door, which then made her escape through. Robin groaned in disgust and rubbed his nose as if it would remove the germs he was sure he had gotten from her.
"Titans, stop..." Robin started to say when he was jolted on the spot by the twin blasts Gizmo fired toward him. He leapt out of the way as more shots came.
"Ha, take that snotburger!" Gizmo chortled, but stopped when the orange-skinned arm wrapped around his neck and tore his pack away from his body. Starfire dropped him, and he promptly landed flat on his butt while she tossed his pack into the air and blasted it to pieces.
"Boo-yah!" Cyborg shouted, but was then knocked to the ground by Mammoth. The two grappled for a moment when a small, green insect landed on Mammoth's shoulder, inserted its stinger into him, and a few moments later the bullying behemoth slumped down into a deep sleep.
"Dude!" Beast Boy shouted when he morphed back into himself, "Someone, get me some mouthwash, some disinfectant, anything!" He stuck his tongue out and began wiping at it, as if that would somehow remove the taste of Mammoth.
"No time for fooling around" Raven interrupted his ranting, "We have to go after Jinx."
Jinx huffed as she ran down the streets, the twisting alleys and bowels of the buildings. She ran straight past a man playing a saxophone on a street corner. He watched her pass, his eyes narrowing in amusement, and then turned his attention back to some of the young women attracted by his lyrics. She continued to run, so distracted by her thoughts of escape that she had no idea she was being watched through the scope of a remarkably long sniper's rifle. Its owner crouched on a building ten blocks away, watching her curiously.
So distracted, she did not notice the click noise, and nearly ran into the woman who seemed to appear in front of her. She yelped and stumbled back for a moment.
"Hey lady, watch where you're..." her words left her when she looked up into the single eye of the woman, her other eye covered by a strange patch. Jinx struggled for something to say, and then remembered her pursuers, and quickly resumed running.
She ran a few more streets when a black glow tossed a garbage can from its place against a building out in front of her, and she tripped across it, falling flat on her face. As she regained her senses, she heard the footsteps coming up behind her. "Man, I'm calling Knives..." she murmured and reached for her own Hive communicator.
Robin snatched the device away from her hand and leaned in close, bringing his intimidating eyes close to hers.
"Who is Knives?" he demanded.

In a highbrow hotel on the far side of the city, in the pent house level room, the Hive Mistress addressed the current client. He was a strange looking man, with short blonde hair and cold blue eyes. He sat at a table, a bottle of fine wine and a strange looking gun set on top of it. He swirled some of that wine in a crystal glass, and then sipped slowly, savoring the taste.
"I assure you sir, such failures are not tolerated within The Hive. When the student's are retrieved from the authorities, they will certainly be expelled for this poor performance." She waited to see his reaction, but he totally ignored her, taking another sip of his wine. After several seconds of silence, she went on. "If you are still interested, we have other students, even more gifted, who I am sure will be able to..."
"A generous offer, thank you." He interrupted, placing his glass on the table, not even turning his head to address her. She watched his hand, waiting to see if it reached for his gun, but it simply rested on top of the table. If only she knew the gun was not what she should fear. "But I'm quire sure my people can take care of things from here. What do you think?"
The Hive mistress suddenly found her own hands around her throat, their grip tightening painfully. She blinked in shock and tried to send the command from her brain to her arms and her hands to stop, but there was no action in between. Her fingers only tightened their grip. She tried to say something, but it came out a hoarse croak. From behind her, though the quickly gathering haze, she became aware of another presence in the room.
"I assure you master, I shall not fail as these pathetic humans have." the blue haired man said as he came up alongside her, and then walked past her to stand next to the table. He and the blonde haired man continued to talk, completely ignoring as the Hive Mistress dropped to her knees, gasping and choking for air as her vision grew dark, and finally she fell to the floor, her body twitching for a moment before going completely limp. "You are certain this plan will work?"
"Of course it'll work. I thought of it, didn't I?" Knives said as he took another sip of his wine. He held his glass up toward one of the windows, looking out over the twinkling lights of the city. "To kill vermin, you wipe out the nest before they can spread. I should have thought of this a long time ago." He chuckled and took his final sip.
"And if these Teen Titans attempt to interfere?" Legato asked. Knives threw his hand in the air dismissively.
"What do you always do with trash? Dispose of it."
Legato bowed and left the room.