A blue colored air craft landed on the roof of Titan's Tower, where five young heroes anxiously awaited their guests. As the engine cut, two pilots hopped out of the ship.
"Thanks for coming," Robin greeted his guests. He was the leader of a team of five heroes called the Teen Titans, who protected their home, Jump City, and its civilians. As leader, it was Robin's job to make sure every villain and criminal was brought to justice. It was also his job to know when they needed to call reinforcements.
"No problem. We're happy to help," Bumblebee replied cheerfully, with Speedy on her heels. Like the Titans, Bumblebee and Speedy were also apart of a team of heroes, called Titans East, who protected their own home of Steel City on the eastern side of the country. Bumblebee was the leader of their team, and Speedy had volunteered to accompany her on this particular mission. The other members of their team, Aqualad and Mas y Menos, had to stay behind to watch over Steel City.
Starfire, being the friendly optimist of the team, hugged and greeted her two friends first, nearly cutting off the air circulation of each of them with her inhuman strength. Raven simply shook their hands and offered a friendly smile.
"Hey guys!" Speedy greeted his old friends, giving Robin a friendly high five and fist-bumping Beast Boy and Cyborg. "What's going on?"
"Yeah, you were kinda vague on the mission when you called," Bumblebee added.
"Come inside and we'll explain everything," Robin said, waving them inside the Tower.
After they traveled through the grey hallways of the Tower, Robin led them through an automatic double door with a giant black T in the center. It slid open to reveal a high ceiling, capacious room with a sink-in living area.
The two Titans East member had spent a great deal of time in that particular room and knew it well. They stood in front of the center computer, observing a collage of pictures popping up on the center window panel, currently being used as a computer screen, projecting a larger-scale image of what appeared on the smaller computer screen. The rest of Robin's team sat on the half-crescent couch behind them, already knowing what Robin was going to explain.
"There have been several recent attacks by a group of genetically altered criminals," Robin explained, typing in commands to the spherical computer on the sink-in wall. "Their targets are random: banks, museums, schools, the park, the pier. Sometimes they steal money, other times artifacts and jewels, one time they almost kidnapped someone. Occasionally we find them just making a mess, but they don't seem to be doing it just for shits and giggles. They want something. Probably multiple things. We just don't know what." Pictures of people dressed in all black, every one of them wearing ski masks, continued to pop up on the screen. Some were seen lifting trucks, smashing into buildings, and other inhuman tasks. There was one picture that was zoomed in to feature a skinny girl who seemed to be throwing balls of light from her bare hands. There had to be at least twenty of them. A video feed from the local news station popped up, turned on mute, showing two different camera angles of the attack at the pier, and the Titans hurriedly trying to stop them. With all of them together the Titans couldn't handle them. They had the Titans outnumbered. But even with their numbers and their extreme abilities, the criminals were sloppy. And once it seemed the Titans were about to defeat them, the masked villains fled the scene into stirred up clouds of dirt and debris without any warning. Even from the poor video feed, you could tell Robin was more than pissed at their escape.
"All we know is that they're very powerful and hard to take down," Robin continued while the video played, "And they keep slipping out of our grasp. And once they get away, we can never track them. That's where you two come in." He turned to face his reinforcements. "We're hoping you can help us find them and bring them down."
Internally, the boy wonder was troubled that he had to call for assistance at all to catch a simple band of super-powered criminals. He'd always been able to keep his team on top of things. When things got bad, he made sure he picked them right back up. It was his job as leader, after all, to keep his team in shape and up to speed. Not that they weren't now, he just felt lousy and weak having to call for help.
Then again, he was also glad that he had help to call. Allies are always a good thing to have. That's why he gave communicators to young heroes who'd helped them in the past. He kept having to remind himself that that's why he'd made Bumblebee and Speedy and so many others honorary Titans in the first place. So that they could help each other in times of need. Like right now, for instance.
"It's weird," Bumblebee commented. "They don't act much like a team. They don't even have a single goal. What made them group up in the first place? What do they share in common?"
Robin pressed two keys on the keyboard, and said, "Glad you asked. Listen."
The video replayed, with sound this time. As the Titans fought and almost had them in a chokehold, a load buzzing was heard over the sounds of battle. As they listened further, they realized it wasn't buzzing at all. It was a chant.
"The master will defeat you all. The master is all powerful. You will never win." The band of meta-humans reiterated, right before disappearing.
"Master?" Speedy repeated.
"So they're working for someone," Bee discerned.
"It's still weird though," said Speedy. "Why would someone create a tiny army of suped-up delinquents just to steal random stuff and run havoc all over the city?"
"Gain power. Elicit fear," Robin supplied. "Trust me. There are tons of reasons."
"So we're not just hunting down the jar-heads," said Speedy.
"We're hunting down their leader," Bumblebee finished.
Robin nodded and replied, "And if we can't even catch them, finding their leader is going to take everything we've got. So that's exactly what we're going to give him."
"If only Aqualad and Mas y Menos were here," Speedy said in disappointment. "They would've loved this kind of action."
"Sorry Speedy," Bumblebee said in her leader-like manner, "but somebody had to watch over Steel City. All the other honorary Titans have their hands busy. You volunteered to come along, but if you wanna go back and have Aqualad take your place-"
"Are you kidding?" Speedy interrupted. "I'm just itching to send my arrows flying toward one of those bozos."
"Good," Robin noted. "Because I expect they'll be attacking again. And soon. Worst comes to worst, we may have to bring Aqualad and double-M over here to help us. I could talk Kid Flash and Jinx into watching Steel City for you guys."
"Let's hope it doesn't have to come to that," Bee replied, just as Robin cleared the screen and turned it off.
"Okay, well we've searched the entire city twice and have scanners looking for activity round the clock," Beast Boy explained, standing up from the couch. "Sooo, in the mean-time… Who wants to play VIDEO GAMES?" He made a beeline for the front of the circular yellow table in front of the couch, and took out two game cases, holding them up for everyone to see. Bee and Speedy, however, retreated to sit on the couch next to Cyborg, who was listening excitedly for his gaming options.
"Okay, dudes," Beast Boy started. "We've got Mega Monkeys 3: Battle of the Ultra Chimps, and Robot Battle 2, of which I am supreme-overlord, and I'll take down anyone who dares challenge the master."
Cyborg laughed, "Yeah. You're the master. That's why I whoop your butt every time!"
Raven cast a sideways glance at Bumblebee and said, "I'll help you carry your stuff to the guest rooms," knowing that that Titans East leader wasn't interested in video games, but her archer counterpart was. Bee smirked at her, and nodded.
Raven and Bee left -rather flew- out of the room to collect her and Speedy's things out of their T-ship. Starfire retreated to the kitchenette and pulled a bag of popcorn out of one of the cabinets, setting it in the micowave and pushing a button to cook it, humming joyfully.
Speedy, who hadn't moved from his spot on the couch, looked over at Robin next to him. "So if you've searched the city and couldn't find a trace of these guys, do you think this 'master' could be operating from a different city?"
"I've thought about that," he replied, sitting back into the cushions and crossing his gloved arms over his chest, "but if he was, why attack just Jump City? Why not send his troops to other nearby cities as well?"
"Maybe whatever he wants is in Jump City, and he just didn't want to move his base."
"They've stolen things nearly every city contains: money, jewels, artifacts, even people. They don't seem to be hunting down anything specific."
Speedy's suspicion rose. "I thought you said they almost kidnapped someone.
Robin nodded, eyes still glued to the screen where Beast Boy's video game was loading. "They tried taking a teenage girl from the pier. We got her back before they could leave with her though. We questioned her, but she had no knowledge or connections to the group."
"Maybe this 'master' is just looking for attention." Speedy said after a pause.
"Well if it's attention he wants, he's got it." Robin narrowed his eyes behind his mask.
The two masked heroes let the topic slide, and focused on Cyborg and Beast Boy's game. The conventional game of Robot Battle 2 began, and the "supreme-overlord" got his butt handed to him repeatedly. Robin and Speedy couldn't help but laugh as the changeling demanded a rematch. Starfire floated from the kitchenette holding a steaming bag of popcorn, the intense heat not seeming to bother the alien, and landed delicately behind the couch.
"Friends, would you like some of the popped corn? It is nice and-"
"BOOYAH!" Cyborg interrupted her, throwing a victory fist in the air inferring that he just won the game again, causing Starfire to squeal and jump, the popcorn bag flying out of her hands and landing near the window at the front of the room.
Cyborg looked behind him at his red-headed friend and smiled sheepishly, "Whoops! Sorry."
Starfire just smiled kindly, her eyes squinting together, "It is quite all right!" Starfire rarely got angry with people, and even less often did she hold grudges. She flew over to the window to pick up the popcorn pieces. As she stood with the soiled popcorn back in the bag, she glanced out the window at the grand view of Jump City. She'd always loved this view, especially the coastline of the tiny island their home was built on. Suddenly she wished it were summer, instead of March, so she could go down and sit on the edge of the rocks with Robin, who she'd been dating for a few months now. They spent a lot of time down there on those rocks…
Where a dark figure was protruding from the surface of the water.