Teen Titans

Disclaimer: All characters appearing here, excluding original characters, are the property of DC comics and their respective writers, editors and creators. They are used here for non profit purposes in a fan work and no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters belong to me and if you use them in your own fanfics I'd appreciate being credited. Thanks!

Authors note: Okay, I'll make this quick. This fanfic series is basically my own re-imagining of the Teen Titans series from DC. Using pre-existing characters while some are the same, others have been completely overhauled while some have been tweaked and changed here and there. R&R and tell me what you think.

Roll Call

Black Alice: Lori Zechlin. Quick tempered magical sponge. Not crazy about the whole "hero" thing

Wonder Girl: Cassie Sandsmark. One of only two Amazons left in the Modern world. Technical Pacifist.

Red Devil: Eddie Bloomberg. Former Sidekick. Violent. Man of few words.

Hawk and Dove: Holly and Dawn Granger. Personifications of Order and Chaos. Act in the reverse way you'd expect them to.

Raven: Rachel Roth. Chosen One of the Church of Trigon. Destined to bring about the End of Days. Not that thrilled with the idea.

Beast Boy: Gar Logan. Skittish, good humoured and slightly naïve. Not the brightest guy in the world.

Inertia: Thaddeus Thawne. Former supervillain. Desperate to get rid of the label "Evil Flash Clone"

Ravager: Rose Wilson. Classified.

Issue One

Teenage Wasteland: Part One

New York

His name was Hardrock. A name he had earned for fairly obvious reasons, his body being composed almost entirely of solid rock, at least externally. Internally he wasn't too sure about. He guessed he must have muscles of some kind to be able to move around like he did but he had no way of checking. There was no medical check up for this kind of thing. You didn't go to the doctors when it turned out you had super powers. You put on a dumb ass costume and got on with it.

Except Hardrock had to admit he was finding it hard to just get on with it. The power had been cool at first. He'd been all but invulnerable to harm, able to lift cars over his head. But lately it seemed like he'd lost a lot more than he'd gained. He'd had to leave school because the other students had been terrified of him. He'd had to leave his family because they couldn't bear the sight of him.

And now he was chasing some two bit gang banger down a dirty alley and wondering if this was it. Sixteen years old, his whole life ahead of him and what were his prospects? He couldn't make money doing what he was doing. And somehow he doubted many businesses would want to employ a man made of bricks.

"Shit. How long is this guy gonna run for?" Hardrock muttered as the criminal he was chasing took another wild swerve into yet another back alley. The whole place was like a maze.

Hardrock rounded the corner, his hands clenching into fists as he saw the man he'd been chasing less than a foot away, his escape blocked by a high fence. For once he'd actually had a stroke of good luck, which made a nice change.

"Alright. We gonna do this the easy way, or the hard way?" Hardrock asked, putting on his best "Scary" voice.

"Oh god. Oh god…" the gang member muttered, falling onto the ground weeping. To be honest, Hardrock thought it was a little pathetic.

"Christ, I'm not gonna kill you or nothing. But you're going to jail for knocking over that convenience store", Hardrock said.

Even as the words left his lips he was struck with how small and un-ambitious it all sounded. While Superman and the rest of the "Just Us League" were busy moving planets with their bare hands, he was chasing some gang banger hood that'd knocked over a crappy little store. Hell, the guy would be on the street again in a month.

Was this really what he had to look forward to for the rest of his life? Was this IT!? What the hell had he done to deserve such a miserable fate in the first place?

"Look kid, get the hell outta here. I aint gonna hurt you. I aint in the mood", Hardrock growled, suddenly feeling as if he barely had the energy to move, let alone beat up the idiot in front of him and drag him to the cops.

The thug looked up at him, his eyes red and puffy from the tears, with an expression of confusion and relief on his face. Hardrock guessed he must have thought it was his lucky day.

"You're letting me go?" the man asked as Hardrock nodded.

"Yeah, I am. Get the hell outta here, alright", Hardrock replied.

The man took a few weak, trembling steps forward before breaking into a run, dashing out of the alley and into the night. Hardrock let out a deep sigh, looking down at his two massive, three fingered stone hands. He couldn't even operate a cell phone with the damn things. All he was good for was beating people and smashing things. And tonight he didn't feel like doing either.

"Oh but you're good for so much more than that, dear boy".

The voice was a strange electric hum, unpleasant to hear. Hardrock turned around, a sharp stinging sensation in his head; a sure sign a telepath was reading his thoughts. He brought his fists up to defend himself in case this was some kind of attack, but moved too slow. Far too slow.

The first blow caught him in the chest and left a smouldering hole in the granite like exterior. A strange liquid that he guessed must be his blood began to pour from the wound as he crashed to the ground hard. He struggled to stand and then a second blow caught him in the leg and he stumbled to the ground again.

It was funny, he thought to himself. He hadn't bled once since he'd changed. He'd thought he was invincible. Obviously he'd been wrong. Several shadowy figures stepped into view, his vision so blurry and limited that Hardrock could barely make out any details. One was wearing power armour by the looks of him but that was about it.

"Not too much damage. Repairable, certainly. I think we can consider this the catch of the day", the humming voice called out. Then darkness. Eternal darkness.

Dayton, Ohio

It was a bright summer morning in Dayton Ohio as Lori Zechlin, aka Black Alice rolled over in bed, to press against the woman sleeping next to her, one Cassie Sandsmark. This earned her a muffled groan of annoyance and she smiled, noting that Cassie had never been what you'd call a morning person.

"Sweet Athena. Is it too much to ask for a few more hours sleep?" Cassie mumbled, rising into a sitting position as Alice shot her a cheeky grin.

"As I recall neither of us did much 'sleeping' last night", she said.

"My point exactly".

Cassie looked over the various articles of clothing strewn across the room. fortunately her own were easy enough to pick out, as it was highly unlikely that Lori owned a metal breast plate, chain mail or leather mesh skirt. Although…Cassie wouldn't want to bet on it.

"Gotta tell you. Last night was Olympian. How the hell did you learn to do that…thing you did?" Lori asked.

"On my home of Paradise Island where we play many binding games, it's considered the safest method of tying a girls arms", Cassie replied with a wink.

"Well I guess there's a reason it's called Paradise Island, right?" Lori asked rhetorically.

Lori stretched out and caught a glimpse of her reflection, grimacing as she did so. Six bottles of vodka and twenty tequila slammers had taken their toll and taught her it was a very bad idea to try and beat an Amazon warrior in a drinking contest.

"Ugh. Why is it that with all the mystical power I can steal, not one of these assholes has the ability to cure hangovers?" Lori asked angrily as Cassie finished putting on her costume, sheathing the large and sharp looking sword with a flourish.

"I did warn you. Amazons lack the capacity to get drunk. YOU do not. So, what have you got planned for today?" Cassie replied as Lori shrugged.

"Same shit, different day. Another miserable day spent being mocked by the idiots who, for some reason, I'm forced to share a high school with. Oh I just can't wait for the first 'Marilyn Manson' joke", Lori growled, her expression sour.

Cassie offered her a sympathetic look, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Having been raised by her Amazonian sisters before journeying to man's world, she couldn't really understand what Lori went through. The idea of your peers tearing you down, rather than encouraging you to reach new heights was alien to her. But one thing Cassie had learned was that the outside world, for all its supposed comforts, was far more dangerous and hostile than her supposedly "primitive" homeland.

"It will be over soon. And I promise, as long as nothing goes wrong today, I will be here to comfort you", Cassie said.

"Well comfort sex is a plus. So, which nefarious evil doer you gonna be keeping the world safe from today?" Lori asked in a mocking tone.

It was no secret from Cassie that Lori didn't think much of her chosen path in life. Lori had tried the costumed hero thing and quickly learned the hard way that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. But while Cassie knew it would make Lori very happy if she were to just quit the whole hero thing, she knew she could not. Hippolyta had chosen her and her sister Diana as the two protectors of the mortal plain. And that was a duty she could not abandon.

"With luck, today will be uneventful", Cassie said.

Lori finished applying her black lip stick and eye shadow, before turning to look at Cassie, one eyebrow arched and a grin on her face.

"You do know you just jinxed yourself, right?" she asked.

"Most likely. Anyway, it's not as if these people make an appointment. I'll just go on patrol and if anything turns up…." Cassie began, before Lori interrupted.

"Go on patrol? God, do you realise how stupid you sound? Seriously, I get that the spandex gives you a thrill but seriously. Could you try and not sound like a Saturday morning cartoon hero?" Lori asked.

Cassie shrugged, not wanting to get into another argument about this. She knew beyond Lori's mocking attitude towards super heroics in general, there was something a lot darker. Lori genuinely hated the fact she was a costumed hero, with a passion. Most likely because of what had happened to her sister Misfit.

Cassie could still remember that day, in the final moments of Young Justice. Misfit up against Darkseid with no one thinking there was any way in hell the planet had a chance. The heroes had fallen and all that was left was a bratty teenage girl in a Batgirl rip off costume.

But Misfit had done it. Teleported herself and Darkseid and, as with all things she teleported, Darkseid imploded. But a literal GOD dying didn't come without fallout. Misfit's body had been scattered across half the east coast and there hadn't even been enough left to bury. Cassie had to wonder if Lori imagined that happening to her, every time she saw her in the Amazonian garments bestowed upon her.

"Old habits die hard. Try not to kill anyone today. And I'll be carefully not to die", Cassie said in her most flirtatious tone, as Lori planted one last kiss on her lips.

And with that Cassie was gone, out the window and into the morning sky. Lori stared up at her for a moment before heading to her closet and pondering what to put on.

"Ugh. I have gotta get this stuff organised. And…", here she paused, noting a pink and frilly abomination in one corner of the closet.

"Pink? When in hell have I ever worn pink? Shit. Okay, I must have SOMETHING clean to wear that won't make me die a little inside", she muttered, rifling through the various articles of clothing.

It was then that she heard the faint vibrations of her cell phone on the bedside table. Abandoning the fruitless task of searching the black hole that was her closet, she walked over to it and flipped it open, hitting the answer button as she did so.

"Hello?" she asked, curious as to who would be calling her at eight in the morning. Worse case scenario it would be her father, needing her to bail him out after another drink fuelled indiscretion.

But the voice that answered her wasn't her fathers, or one she recognised. It was small and pitiful. And scared.

"Please…oh god…their going to take my mind…my beautiful mind", it hissed as Lori held the phone away from her ear and stared at it in confusion.

"Okay, I think you've got the wrong number", she muttered, getting the horrible feeling this was yet another stupid prank by one of the assholes she had for classmates. If it was it was at least a little more original than their usual attempts, which amounted to copious use of the word "Emo".

"Wonder Girl…please. You have to…" the voice hissed, before halting, as the line went dead.

Lori realised the phone in her hand, despite looking like hers, was obviously Wonder Girls. Which meant that whoever had been calling was probably someone who was genuinely in trouble.

"Shit. Okay, this can't be good", Lori muttered.

She knew she shouldn't care. She'd stopped being involved with the idiots in costumes after they'd gotten her sister killed last year. She'd hated her sister for so long, for really terrible reasons and then, when she'd died, she'd been denied the chance to apologise.

It hurt more knowing that she probably never would have. Her sister and she were just too different to ever really get along, polar opposites in every way. And somehow the knowledge that the girl she'd hated as dead didn't bring comfort. It brought a guilty, queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

But even if she hated the asshole "Super heroes" whose self righteous bullshit had convinced her sister to kill herself for the "Greater good" she knew she wasn't going to be able to just leave someone to die. Whoever had been on the line had sounded hurt and scared and she could relate to that.

The only problem was that she now had no idea what to do. If she had Cassie's phone she had no way to get in touch with her. Unless…it was always possible that, their phones being so similar, Cassie had grabbed HER phone by mistake. Dialling in the number Lori hoped like hell she'd get an answer.

In Keystone city, home town of the Flash, the streets were paved with gold. To clarify, on this particular day the streets were literally paved with gold as, once again, Dr Alchemy had decided to carry out one of his "Experiments". All around the citizens were frozen, not in ice but due to being transmuted by his Philosopher's Stone.

Dr Alchemy himself bore a wide smile as he stood over a man, holding his stone above his head as he prepared to transmute him once more.

"You must understand, you see. This is not an act of malice. I just have to see what happens. If I make half of you flesh and half metal? Will you live? Will the shock kill you? What if your organs are normal but you skin is metal? So many possibilities", Dr Alchemy said, his tone flat.

In the opinion of the cowering citizen before him, it was worse than if he had been ranting, or speaking in some sinister, threatening tone. The dead, cold monotone betrayed the fact that Alchemy really didn't posses any empathy or feeling. Here was a man who would slaughter a thousand, just because it interested him. Worse than evil, he was simply a being of emotionless curiosity.

"Your eyes first, I think. Transform them into diamond…some kind of reflective substance, yes. And then see if you're able to see still. I'll need you to be frank and honest with your reactions", Dr Alchemy said, as if giving a lecture.

The stone began to glow as the man wept bitter tears, thinking of the loved ones he would never see again, certain his death was at hand. And then, suddenly, the stone was no longer in Alchemy's hand.

It felt like a passing breeze, a gust of wind. It was in fact a sign that Thaddeus Thawne, aka Inertia had arrived on the scene, his bright emerald costume gleaming in the morning sunlight, the sun glinting off his goggles. With a cocky grin on his face he held Alchemy's stone aloft, noting the look of frustration on the Rogues face.

"Hey. What's up Doc?" he asked, relishing the anger and irritation that he was causing his enemy.

"Thaddeus. Well well, the traitor. Still preying on your own, I see", Dr Alchemy noted as Inertia shrugged.

"Cut the crap Doc. You'd murder every one of the rogues on a whim. You're not one of them. So don't lecture me on loyalty, kay?" Inertia asked, tossing the stone carelessly to the ground.

"Still playing hero I see. And still as foolish as when you were standing on our side of the fence", Dr Alchemy replied.

With a snap of his fingers the stone was transported back into his hand, though Inertia noted with a satisfied smile that the man he'd been preparing to torture with his sick experiments had fled. At the very least he'd saved one life today.

"You forget, Inertia, that my control over the Philosopher's Stone is absolute", Dr Alchemy said as Inertia rolled his eyes.

"Seriously doc? All that 'Philosophers stone' crap makes you sound like a fucking Harry Potter character. You really need to get a better name for that thing", Inertia said, his tone openly mocking.

It was Dr Alchemy's one obvious weakness. While normally he was impassive and emotionless, once you got him riled up he lost his cool. And once he lost his cool it was harder for him to control the Stone, his attacks became more basic and easer to dodge.

"I warn you, boy. You're standing in the way of scientific progress", Dr Alchemy said, his voice now containing a hint of anger. Raising the stone he sent a blast of its mystical energy Inertia's way.

He was dodging before the blast even left the Stone, already zooming towards Dr Alchemy. However he didn't count on Alchemy transmuting the pavement into some kind of slippery liquid substance and so went skidding away from him, hitting a brick all hard.

His accelerated healing began to take care of the injury almost instantly, but the pain was still there, keeping him down for precious minutes. If there was one thing Bart had taught him it was that every second counted.

"Still…you're corpse would be very useful. Studying you would be an enlightening experience", Dr Alchemy mused, rubbing his chin.

Inertia couldn't believe people really did that when they were thinking and considered pointing out how goddamn stupid it looked. However he decided that right now he had bigger priorities.

"Sorry Einstein. Schools out", Inertia said, wishing that he could have thought of a better one liner than that.

Still he shot forward, landing a solid right hook on Dr Alchemy that sent him falling to the ground. However in the next moment he felt a terrible pain from his legs and, looking down, he saw why. Alchemy had changed them into steel, doing who knew what kind of damage to his soft tissue in the process.

Inertia guessed he was pretty lucky. If Dr Alchemy had been thinking clearly, rather than reacting, he might have turned his legs into hydrogen or oxygen and just permanently crippled him. As it was he still had a chance to undo the damage, albeit a slim one.

"Shit!" Inertia screamed out, as Dr Alchemy approached him, the stone glowing with strange mystical power.

Inertia was tempted to just run, or crawl away. It would wear off and he'd be able to go after Alchemy later. But if he left these people to Dr Alchemy they were as good as dead. A few years ago he wouldn't have given a damn but Bart had made him promise to do this. And he wasn't going to screw up if he could help it.

"A foolish mistake. Challenging an intellectual superior such as myself, you were doomed to failure. Still, take comfort in the fact that you will at least be advancing my research, once I dissect your corpse", Dr Alchemy said.

"No offence Einstein…but fuck you", Inertia stuttered out, crawling away as Dr Alchemy shrugged off the insult.

"Yes, by all means. Insult me all you wish. It will not change the final result", he said.

"Maybe not. But this will", Inertia said.

And with that he brought one of his legs upward, swinging it towards Alchemy. The blow caught the mad scientist square in the crotch and his eyes went wide with pain, the stone dropping from his now limp fingers. In the next instant he was tumbling to the ground, clutching at his groin as he let out a feeble cry of agony.

"Should have transmuted the upper part of legs, as well as the lower half. All you did was give me solid steel boots to kick your ass with", Inertia said, as he grabbed hold of the stone.

It was fairly intuitive to use he'd learned, from previous battles, and it only took him a few moments to turn his legs to flesh and blood again. As Alchemy began to rise, reaching out a hand to summon the stone once more, Inertia rushed forward and delivered several punches to Dr Alchemy, rendering him unconscious and unable to use the stone.

"Next time, use all the brain power to invent a cup, dumb ass", Inertia quipped as he stood over the fallen Rogue.

It was a few hours later that the cops arrives to cart Alchemy away and get any of the people he'd permanently injured to a hospital. Inertia couldn't help but notice the fact that the cops looked a hell of a lot more scared of him than they did of Dr Alchemy. He knew it should sting like it did, but that didn't change anything.

He knew why they were scared of him. It hadn't been too long ago that he'd been a vicious killer, out to get revenge of Bart and the world for his own crappy life. He'd murdered people…kids even. He still felt sick sometimes about what he'd done. The person he'd been.

But his stupid grudge with Bart had ended the day the two of them fought Zoom. The day he'd cradled his dying clone in his arms as he swore to keep Keystone safe. But as far as the pigs in blue were concerned, he was the same evil son of a bitch he'd always been and sometimes it felt like nothing would change that.

"Screw this", Inertia muttered, tired of looking at the fear and hatred on the faces of the people who should have been grateful to him. In the next second he was fifty miles away.

His home was over in Central City. He'd thought about moving a few times, but decided against it. Everything and everyone he knew was in Central City. Jay Garrick, the only person in the hero community who would give him the time of day, was in Central City.

He'd expected Jay to be the worst of the lot, given that he was one of the Golden Age heroes. The others he'd met had been close minded, self righteous assholes, the kind of dicks who made the worst of his former villainous comrade's look like stand up guys. But Jay was different. Jay looked out for him, helped him out. He never judged, was never intolerant. He was a genuine hero.

Inertia came to a halt a few miles from his house, his sensitive ears having picked up what sounded like someone calling his name. He glanced up and down the street and saw no one, coming to the conclusion that he must have misheard them. That or he'd just shot past them on his journey.

But as he prepared to take off once more, he became aware of a weird tingle in the back of his head, like someone was in his brain. Squirming uncomfortable he once more looked around, trying to see if anyone was nearby. The streets were deserted though, not a single soul visible.

"You can't see me, Thaddeus. But we can see you", a voice called to him. A taunting, girlish voice, filled with childish malice.

The first blow hit like a brick wall. And, as he fell to the ground, he saw out of the corner of his eye that a brick wall was what he'd been hit by, more or less. Another of the heroes, some guy with a name like Bad Rock or Hardrock or something stupid like that.

"Wait! Shit, listen to me! I'm not…"Inertia began; assuming this was another of the stupid "Misunderstandings" he got from morons who didn't know he'd switched sides. But the rock man didn't let him finish, instead kicking him so hard that he skidded clear across the street.

He could feel a few broken ribs and tried to concentrate some speed force energy towards repairing them, as the rock man lumbered towards him, followed closely by several others. A girl with green skin, a man in powered armour and a boy in a tuxedo and top hat.

He had to wonder at the last one. After all, he thought, what kind of freak wore a tuxedo and top hat to fight crime? Outside of Sailor Moon, anyway?

"What the hell is this?" Inertia asked, as the man in powered armour grinned. His skin was horrible, looking almost rotten. Inertia didn't know who he was but decided that Necro-Lad would be a fitting code name.

"This? This is the future, Thaddeus. And the future needs help from the past", he said. Then darkness.

In Los Angeles, so called city of angels, Holly Granger was sighing in frustration as her sister, Dawn, finished beating the living crap out of a poor, luckless mugger. Really and truly, she had to wonder if her sister got more enjoyment than was strictly healthy out of this kind of thing.

"Bloody hell, sis. You gonna put him in the hospital or the morgue?" Holly inquired curiously.

She was clad, as usual, in the read and white "Hawk" costume given to her by the Lords of Chaos, the domino mask covering her face glowing with crimson power. Her sister was wearing the blue and snow white outfit the Lords of Order had given her, the day they appointed the two the champions of order and chaos.

Hawk often wondered if that had been some sick jest on their part. She'd never been in a fight in her life, hated violence, was a vegetarian and didn't even like killing insects. And she'd wound up the champion of Chaos. While her sister, a violent, anti social puppy kicker had been put in charge of safe guarding the forces of Order.

The luckless thug whose teeth Dove had just finished loosening evidently didn't see the funny side. In fact he looked like he was on the verge of collapse, both eyes blackened, his nose broken and bleeding and his arm bent at an unnatural angle.

"Now say it. Say you're my bitch, Mikey, or I dislocate you're fucking shoulder", Dove growled, a twisted smile on her face.

"I'm….y…y…your bitch", the thug groaned as Dove dropped him to the ground.

"Now the next time you think of robbing some poor guy of his life's savings…or shooting an innocent man for chump change…you remember this moment, Mikey. You remember ME", Dove said, delivering one last kick to her victim.

As the sauntered away Dove noticed the look of disgust on her sisters face with growing irritation. Finally, when she'd had enough she decided to just come out and ask.

"Alright, what? What the hell is it Holly?" she growled.

"Nothing. Just wonderin if you had to knock the piss out of him like that s'all", Hawk replied, trying to keep her voice level.

Dove snorted derisively. She should have expected this, she supposed. Her sister was weak and always had been. She didn't have the stomach for what had to be done, didn't have the guts to take on the scumbags prowling the streets. If it wasn't for the fact their powers only worked when they were together, she'd have ditched her sister long ago.

"Look, that prick had it coming. One less scumbag on the streets means we did a good job today", Dove said.

Holly replied with an indecisive "Mmhm" which Dove knew meant that she didn't agree but didn't want to argue. The same passive crap her sister had been pulling for years. Holly had always been a weakling, ever since they were kids. Frankly, Dove was surprised she had the guts to go out on patrols with her in the first place.

"Look, you gotta get over this wimpy crap Holly. We're heroes. Their villains. It aint rocket science", Dove said.

"Yes, thank you. I'm oh so bloody thrilled you cleared that up", Hawk replied, irritated by her sister's attitude.

Holly wished just once she and Dawn could have a conversation, a real conversation. There had been a time, when they were very young, that they'd been inseparable. But the minute they'd hit twelve the arguments had started, the stupid fights. Dawn had bleached her hair shock white just to look different from her twin sister, something Holly had always taken as a personal insult. It was like Dawn was ashamed of her. And even now it was the same.

Holly prayed for the day she could actually get through to her sister, but didn't think it was coming any time soon. It wasn't that she hated Dawn, far from it. She loved her sister. It was just that most of the time she was more than a little scared of her. And for her.

Dove took to the air and Hawk did likewise, the two landing on the roof top of one of the many Lexcorp buildings that dotted the skyline, Dove walking as fast as she could to maintain a distance from Hawk. She didn't like being close to her sister if she could help it.

"So what now? Do we just keep patrolling, beating the crap out of muggers? Or can we call it a day?" Hawk asked.

Dover never got the chance to respond. The beam of light that struck her down would have been invisible to most people, but not to Hawk's trained eyes. She spun around, to be greeted by the sight of a man in power armour, flanked by a girl in a bright yellow tube top and a man in a tuxedo, all three smiling unpleasantly at her.

"Actually now…now you beg for mercy", the man in armour said, as Hawk ran towards Dove, feeling for a pulse.

Relief washed over her as she found one, confirming that her sister was unconscious but alive. This just left her with the problem of the three menacing teenage costumed types facing her down across the roof top.

"Who the bloody hell are you three?" Hawk asked as the grin of the armoured man widened.

"Well the bodies we own were named Fever, Zatara and Mal Duncan. Our real names are unimportant. And collectively…you may call us the Futurists. And you…you are our prey", the armoured man hissed.

To Be Continued…