Chapter 1: Settling In
"Alright, now bring those panels over here so I can weld them down!" With a snap-hiss, Cyborg's finger reconfigured itself into a compact yet powerful blowtorch as he yelled out.
A week had passed since the Gordanian invasion was duly averted by the efforts of Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, Ben, Gwen and Kevin, while the collateral damage was high, had they not been stopped, damages would've easily exceeded minimal. Since then, things were moving along as smoothly as they could be. The island in the bay had been designated as their new headquarters and the idle drop ship had been scrapped and plundered for parts.
Cyborg and Kevin had immediately started construction on a home base, using the free labor also known as Ben's aliens to quickly speed up production. The Ultimatrix bearer, currently as Fourarms, was carrying any heavy equipment the tech experts required. The others did what they could to help but the job was mostly left to the group's resident tech junkie and former criminal.
Gwen, Robin and Raven used their time to teach the original Starfire about the world she was in, also keeping Beast Boy well away from the Tamaranian so as not to poison the young alien's mind. For Starfire, it was the simple things that astounded her such as what food should not be mixed together as well as the facets of earthling interaction. It seemed the alien race was much more open with their relationships when they grew emotionally close to someone, and the redhead had trouble grasping the fact that simple actions such as successfully answering a question didn't warrant one of her death hugs.
Today Ben and Kevin were working with their new cybernetic buddy so they could finish up the living quarters of the building which oddly enough was shaped like a giant 'T'. It was crafted that way so people would recognize who they were and what their new team name was: the Teen Titans. It wasn't the first name that was thrown out but it was the one that stuck.
(Flashback start)
We're back and we've got good news!" Robin shouted as Jetray released the hold he had over the brightly colored boy's shoulders, allowing him to safely drop to the uneven ground. Clutched tightly within his hands were a few sheets of pristine white paper. The others moved closer to the duo, wondering exactly what Robin was so happy about.
"So what's got you bouncing around, sir?" Beast Boy asked before withering under the look he received. He would have to be broken of that vocal conditioning soon.
"Starfire and I spoke with the mayor of Jump City and we were able to get his approval for basing our team here in the city. It makes things easier when the government actually knows you're on the right side of the law…" He seemed to drop into his thoughts for a moment before shaking his head and coming back to reality. "He also allowed us to use this island as our base of operations."
Jetray turned back to his human form, "And we've also got the mayor's permission to allow Starfire to stay in the city with us as long as future invasions are avoided."
Starfire beamed "Oh it is most glorious to be allowed to stay in my new home with my new…friends."
The term friendship was still foreign to Starfire, but the concept was becoming easier to say with each passing.
"Great," Kevin said in approval "now that all the legal work's out of the way, we can get to work."
"Hold up!" Everyone stopped, looking at the green teen curiously. "If we're now some super duper crime fighting team, we need a name. Something cool like the Doom Patrol!" The others began arguing, coming up with strange or exotic labels. Ben, Gwen and Kevin just watched the argument in amusement as conversation continued until the soft-spoken Raven opened her mouth and somehow caught the attention of the others.
"How about…the Teen Titans?" The others contemplated her input silently before the ashen-skinned girl found herself being pulled into one of Starfire's bone-breaking embraces.
"Oh, Friend Raven! That is a wondrous name!" The mage struggled within her grip, thanking the fact that her fellow female was giving her a 'happy hug' and not an 'ecstatic hug'.
"Let…go…" Thankfully she did, releasing the girl making her stumble back into Gwen, who then steadied her with both hands on her shoulders so she could inhale precious oxygen.
"So we get to do whatever we want with the island right? Because I know just the perfect place to start as a base…" Cyborg grinned slyly, casually pointing over to the empty shell of alien technology.
(Flashback End)
Kevin and Cyborg had already finished with most of the tower, the last thing that needed to be finished was the common room as they, with Fourarms' help finished putting up the last wall.
From bottom to top, the tower had: A submarine launch bay, basement, garage, foyer & storage, lobby, infirmary, crime lab, evidence room, gym, danger room, monitor room, and GPS Room at the apex, the topmost floor being corridor that led to the twelve rooms situated on the sides of the big T. At the very top was a large open courtyard-like area with a heli-pad installed in case anyone needed a place to land, since the aptly-titled Titans Island had no plots of land flat enough for a helicopter to use. Facing the east, Robin, Starfire, Ben, and Cyborg's rooms were situated on the north side of the tower (or the right tip of the big T), while the south side of the tower (or the left top of the big T) were Kevin, Beast Boy, Raven, and Gwen's rooms, all of which had their own private bathroom –or ensuite-. The rooms were uniform in size and quite large with window size set according to the owner's request, the remaining six rooms vacant and uniform until new members joined the team. Overall from its foundation Titans Tower was at least 200 feet tall, and below the foundation the facilities stretched to eighty feet underground at the basement, excluding the elevator for the submarine launch tunnel. There was also an underground tunnel connecting the garage to the highway just outside Jump City, and aside from air or by the sea, the undersea tunnel was the only way in or out of the tower.
For all intents and purposes, the GPS Room, or Main Operations Room as one of the technicians stated, was intended to be a multi-purpose room at the apex of the tower and among one of the biggest. Equipped with a kitchen, fridge and pantry, and communication suites, it was also designed to be a common area, a large circular yellow table in the center with a black eight-segmented couch behind it set in front of the TV, which folded out of the situation, the main wall situated so that the group could look out over the bay.
Around the island, a "super hero standard" security system had been set in place. Motion detectors, video cameras, seismograph, and various other forms of monitoring equipment acting as the early-warning system for the island's inhabitants, all made by Cyborg with the help of Ben and Kevin. The rooms had all been made by themselves, so that personal preferences could be reached.
"So, that is how the Crime Detector works." Kevin finished explaining to the others, who were now in the main Ops room marvelling at the advanced technology at their disposal. If what he and Cyborg had explained was true, the computer's systems were linked to every camera in the city and the adjacent prison.
Speaking of the prison, sirens began blaring as a wall was forcibly knocked down and several guards were forced to pursue someone that had broken into the prison. The tower got an immediate signal and the screen zeroed in on the prison cameras.
Robin saw the perfect opportunity for the team to gain more combat experience. "Alright Titans, we've got work to do. We're lucky the prison is close by."
"Yeah, but why would someone break into prison? Aren't people supposed to break out of it?" Kevin asked as he stepped onto a solid mana platform that Gwen conjured up for transportation. Ben shrugged as he hit the Ultimatrix dial again.
"JETRAY!" he yelled as he transformed before flying off.
Meanwhile at a prison a few miles beyond the wastes of Jump City's south sector, sirens were blaring, signalling that someone or something was breaking out of jail. But that was not the case as the doors to the main courtyard were kicked in, and a massive humanoid...whatever it is, made out of stone and concreate lumbered towards the doors of the central building where the prisoners were housed. Blocky, yet somehow flexible enough for articulated movement. As it trudged forward, a few of the white-armored Jump SWAT team entered before firing on the stone-borne monster, their laser rifles designed to incapacitate escaping prisoners doing no good apart from bouncing off the thing's back.
Turning around to growl at them, the thing then stomped its left foot down, the seismic waves causing slabs of concrete to rise up and cover its advances into the prison, leaving the SWAT team behind. When it made its way into the prison, the thing looked around with red angled eyes, as though it were looking for something in particular. However before it could get too far, a voice from above cut its train of thought short.
"You know Cinderblock, normally the bad guys break out of jail," Beast Boy's scathing remark sounded through the quiet prison hall.
"And I can think of eightgood reasons why you don't want to break in," Robin said before dropping down into a crouch in front of it. "One!"
Starfire flew into view next. "Two!"
Then Beast Boy jumped out as a tiger, shifted back to his human form and said "Three!"
Gwen ran into view. "Four!"
Raven jumped into the fray. "Five!"
Kevin walked casually into the room, knelt down, absorbed the concrete and said "Six!"
Cyborg jumped down from the upper floor. "Seven!"
Ben stepped up to the concrete behemoth. "Eight. Although to be fair, I count more than once." He added.
The eight teens stood tall and strong ready to face their massive opponent. Nothing was known about him other than the fact that he was like that for as long as anyone currently living in Jump could remember. The monster dubbed Cinderblock had mostly performed acts of random violence and mayhem in the past, but nothing this complex in the past. All this aside, the Teen Titans rushed him like any other criminal, ready for their first super-villain battle together as a team.
"RRRRAAAAAH!" Cinderblock roared as it began running at them, the ground thundering with each step.
Ben activated the Ultimatrix, and scrolled through the alien holograms. When he found the alien he wanted, Ben slammed the dial down. Once the flash of green light faded, standing in Ben's place was a humanoid, tailless tiger, with a single, large claw that sprouted from the back of his hands, with the Ultimatrix disk on his chest.
"RATH!" the creature cried in a deep voice, then glared at Cinderblock.
"Lemme tell you something, big ugly rock guy! No matter how you do the math, it all adds up to… hold, on a second. One, two… well whatever it adds up to, Rath's gonna smash you up real good!" and he charged at Cinderblock.
The Titans turned to Gwen "Is he serious?" they said in unison. "Unfortunately, yes." She answered.
"APPOPLEXIAN CORK SCREW!" Rath cried out, as he put his claws in front, spinning around like a top. He looked like a striped torpedo, as he slammed into Cinderblock, sending him skidding away.
"Nice one!" Beast Boy cheered.
Rath landed on the floor, and looked to the behemoth, pointing out, "KNOW YOUR PLACE YA BIG PALOOKA! YOU MAY BE BIG BUT RATH…IS EVEN BIGGER!"
Cinderblock stalked over to Rath showing he was bigger than the Appoplexian. Rath cocked an eyebrow, as he ranted yet again, "EXCEPT FOR THE PART WHERE YOU'RE TALLER AND HEAVIER THAN ME..." but shook it off, as he shouted, pointing his claw at Cinderblock, who was readying himself to attack the Appoplexian. "BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER! 'CAUSE THE BIGGER THEY ARE, THE HARDER…" Rath didn't get to finish as he was backhanded by Cinderblock, sending him skidding into a wall.
As he got up, Rath groaned, "Ugh, Rath doesn't remember how the rest of that went." But he shook his head, clearing it, as he shouted, "THE BIGGER THEY ARE, THE HARDER THEY FALL! THAT'S WHAT RATH WAS GONNA SAY! BY THAT LOGIC, YOU'VE GOT NO CHANCE!"
As the Appoplexian charged in again, the rest of the team did likewise.
While Rath was holding Cinderblock in a chokehold, punching him in the face several times, Robin leaped in for a powerful roundhouse kick to his cement midsection. As soon as Cinderblock broke free of Rath's hold on him, Starfire shot two blasts of green energy at his back, which upon contact had quite a profound effect. As Cinderblock stumbled, Kevin morphed his hand into a stone hammer and intended to smash into Cinderblock's chest. At the last second Cinderblock raised his arm and their attack met, sending Cinderblock fumbling backwards.
Beast Boy, transformed into a hawk, took the opportunity to attack him with his talons, which hardly did anything more than annoy the stone giant as he made his way towards Raven and Gwen. Ravens eyes began to glow white as Gwen's glowed pink. As a slab of concrete was raised by Raven to defend the two teens, Gwen shot several mana energy disks at Cinderblock when he demolished the chunk of concrete.
When Starfire, Kevin, Cyborg and Robin ran into the fray intent on delivering pain, Cinderblock's arm punched the latter three away in one fell swoop. Star threw a couple starbolts at Cinderblock, only for the creature to stumble back a bit before it grabbed her.
"I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am stronger than I look." Star said with eyes glowing green, her right foot delivering a powerful kick to the thing's chest and sending him flying back, landing against one of the walls. Rath was quick to jump at the chance to attack.
"LEMME TELL YA SOMETHING YA BIG SLAB OF ROCK, NO ONE MESSES WITH RATH'S TEAM!" and he delivers a strong right uppercut into Cinderblock's gut.
At that moment Beast Boy dropped down before transforming into a massive green, black-striped T-Rex, stomping towards Cinderblock only to get decked by a left-handed swing, being sent flying back through the air. As Raven began her chanting, she looked up to see the giant T-Rex change back to Beast Boy. Gwen intercepted the changeling's decent by surrounding him in a mana rob, giving the mage a thumbs up before she finished her chant, several slabs of concrete rising up from the ground and sent flying towards Cinderblock, only for the thing to shake the foot-thick slabs as though they were made of styrofoam. About to walk off like the Titans were no more than an annoyance, Robin suddenly dropped down onto his back and tried to wrap his arms around the thing's neck, only that it didn't have a neck which left him grabbing the crevices of its face as it tried to shake him loose.
"Thrashing only makes me hold tighter!" Robin taunted even as Cinderblock tore a large girder from the wall, intent on using it like a club. The next moment like in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, the thing sung the girder over its head to hit Robin, only for the column of steel to bend around its cement skull.
"Now there's an idea. Hrrah!" Cyborg grunted as he pulled out a girder from the wall as well and holding it like a large sledgehammer, the two clashed with their makeshift-weapons. Despite Cinderblock being a few heads taller than Cyborg, the latter proved to be on equal strength with the thing as they two continued to clash. Coming to a standstill, Cinderblock pushed Cyborg back before it suddenly used the cement-tipped end of the girder to send him flying across the ground, sparks arcing off his body as he scraped across the floor.
Ben, who had somehow convinced himself that Rath was doing more harm than good, decided to switch his alien forms. In a flash of green light, Rath was replaced by what looked like a giant oven with arms and legs. The armor was mostly grey, with an orange glow coming from the three slits were his face should be. The Ultimatrix symbol was positioned on the round disc on his chest.
"NRG" the alien called out in a thick Russian accent.
NRG shot a beam of radioactive heat at the steel support beam in Cinderblock's hands. Cinderblock immediately dropped the melting metal as it became hot to the touch. Starfire laughed at the long-distance use of NRG's powers to make the threatening weapon completely useless, prompting the armored alien to smirk proudly behind his vent-like visor.
Cinderblock turned to run down a corridor, and Robin reached down to help Cyborg up. "Wanna, give this guy the sonic boom?" Robin asked,
Snarling, Cinderblock ran back at slightly-impressive speed given the thing's size and mass, ignoring the Titans in favor of something deeperin the prison's main building.
"Wanna give this guy the Sonic Boom?" Robin asked as he helped the metal teen up.
NRG, having heard the question, replied, "How about the Sonic Doom instead?" He touched the dial and transformed again. In a flash of green, standing in NRG was replaced by a three foot tall white humanoid with a round head, earphone-like objects on its head, and two green eyes.
"ECHO-ECHO!"Ben shouted in a stereophonic voice.
Echo-Echo then slapped the Ultimatrix dial again, causing four prongs to stick out from the dial rim. Another emerald light blinded the corridor as an evolutionary surge overwhelmed Ben's body. Standing in the wake of the flash was a humanoid with blue metal skin, an oval shaped head, long arms and legs. It had an overall rounded design with circular components on its shoulders, hands, chest, head, and legs.
"ULTIMATE ECHO-ECHO!"the teen announced, his voice sounding more robotic. "You guys might wanna cover your ears." He instructed to everyone, who obliged.
Using his flight abilities, Ultimate Echo-Echo flew in front of the retreating Cinderblock and raised his right arm. "Take this!"
Suddenly, a blast of sound-waves powerful enough to crush a mountain discharged from Ultimate Echo-Echo's hand. The brute was thrown back all the way down the hall. Cinderblock recovered and looked up to see Ultimate-Echo-Echo hovering above him with folded arms.
"You're not going anywhere, brick for brains." The hyper-evolved Sonorosian stated.
Cinderblock roared angrily as he lunged at Ultimate Echo-Echo with his right fist cocked back; however, the hyper-evolved Sonorasian quickly crossed his arms over his chest, making an X. Suddenly, a dome shaped barrier of sound was created, which deflected the rocky fist. Ultimate Echo-Echo switched to offense, pulling off a couple of disks from his shoulders, and throwing them at the behemoth.
The hovering, blue disks duplicated into ten and formed a circle around Cinderblock, who was oblivious to what was happening.
"Let's see if you can handle this, big boy. Sonic…" Ultimate Echo-Echo seemingly took a deep breath, "DOOOOOOM!"
A barrage of super-sonic blasts fired out from the disks and bombarded Cinderblock from every direction, encasing him within a sphere of immense sound. It was too much for giant as he was forced to his knees and covered his ears, or rather the spot where he would have ears, if he were human. Unable to stand the agonizing soundwaves much longer, Cinderblock collapsed into an unconscious heap. By this time, Ultimate Echo-Echo ceased his attack and the guards had surrounded Cinderblock; and Cinderblock was taken into custody.
Meanwhile, in an unknown location.
Several giant gears could be found in the building, and they were working overtime to do whatever it was they did, be it powering something or just spin for no reason. A man in black and silver armor with a brown and black half-and-half mask with one eye on the brown side was staring at a video feed of the prison battle that had taken place moments ago. "So…Cinderblock failed. Pity. Computer, play back file 203.7 minutes four through six." The screen flashed with Images of Rath pummelling Cinderblock. "Interesting… Computer, Relay minutes eight through eleven." And the computer showed NRG, then Ben, then Echo-Echo going ultimate. The man in armor thought for a moment, then slammed his fist down on the console of the computer "I will find out what that boy is… I swear it."
"Friends, I wish to initiate a group hug!" Starfire said cheerfully as they entered the Tower after helping with the prison clean-up.
"I'll pass." Raven said casually as she headed to her room.
"Ummm… I wouldn't mind a hug." Ben muttered under his breath. Unfortunately for him, Kevin heard what he said.
"Dude! You totally have a crush on Starfire!" Kevin taunted. Ben was just glad Starfire didn't understand the concept of a 'crush' yet.
"Say what now?" Cyborg asked a little shocked. "She's an alien, dude. You can't seriously expect her to return the-oooof." He was elbowed in the gut by Beast Boy.
"So? Let the guy dream. I mean, he's more alien than she is with that thing on his wrist." Beast Boy stated.
"By the way, what is that device, Ben? You never told us." Robin asked.
Ben sighed. It was about time they knew anyway. "It's called the Ultimate Omnitrix, or Ultimatrix for short; and it allows me to change into any known species of alien I have available." He whispered the next part so Starfire wouldn't hear "I still don't know why it hasn't scanned Starfire, Beast Boy or Raven. I mean, I'm assuming their genetic code is different from humans, so apparently I will have to manually override the system using a voice command."
Beast Boy nearly wet his pants from excitement. "You can scan people and get their powers?! Dude you should totally see if that thing can scan me!" He yelled, making Ben wince. "There's a reason I whispered that, Beast Boy." He said as Starfire had heard what he said and was now focused intently on Ben, and more specifically, the Ultimatrix.
Starfire's eyes widened in realization, "Friends!" she addressed Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg and Raven. "We have Plumbers in our presence!" she said, indicating the green hourglass symbol on Ben's Ultimatrix.
"...they're...super powered toilet uncloggers?" Beast Boy asked, blinking in his confusion.
"...You know about the Plumbers?" Gwen asked in surprise.
"They are not the Plumbers of Toilet Repair," Starfire explained, "They are the Plumbers...they are guardians. They fight to protect. Some even visited Tamaran at one point, though we had no specific ambassador."
"What does plumbing have to do with aliens?" Cyborg asked, trying to keep up.
"We ain't 'plumbers' in that sense. I thought she already made that clear?" Kevin insisted.
"So then…all three of you are aliens?" Raven asked Ben, Gwen and Kevin.
"Sort of," Gwen replied. "A lot of people have alien ancestry and don't even know it yet...Ben and I didn't know we were a quarter alien until a few months ago, and Kevin is half alien."
There was a loud squeal and suddenly Starfire was latched onto Gwen. "Cousin!" She responded. She studied Ben for a moment, then pulled him into the hug. "And my other cousin!"
"Uh...I don't think so. Ben and I are cousins, but...I think we've met all our other cousins," Gwen said, attempting to break free but finding this other redhead's grip far stronger than any human's she'd ever encountered.
"But...you are from Anodyne, are you not?" Starfire asked.
"...not...directly," Ben said, taking advantage of her distraction to get out of her grip. "Our grandmother was from Anodyne, though. Gwen and I are just a quarter...and I don't have any of those powers."
The response seemed to make Starfire absolutely giddy. She pulled Ben back into the hug and squeezed tightly.
"Star...what's going on?" Robin asked.
"A long time ago, there were two siblings...they fought terribly over power. One attempted to kill the other for more, and when her treason was found out, she was sent away. She started the planet Anodyne. The planet she was banished from was Tamaran," Star explained. "Our powers are slightly different, but our ancestry can be traced back to the almighty Glo'r'bork."
"Now that you mention it, you two do look a lot alike," Beast Boy noted, looking Starfire and Gwen over.
"They do not!" Robin and Kevin snapped in unison.
"Dude, touchy," Beast Boy said, rolling his eyes.
"So this 'Ulti-matrix' allows you to become a large quantity of other aliens, but can acquire new forms as well?" Starfire asked Ben, intrigued.
Ben gave a nervous half-hearted laugh "Yeah, but some forms come with drawbacks… My personality changes to be specific, sometimes so drastically that I can't remember what I was doing before I changed back, and I don't want to be misunderstood all the time, so…" He realized the mistake in what he said a little too late.
"YOU TROQ!" Starfire screamed as her eyes lit up green along with her fists. As the force of her breath impacted the startled group, their hair was blasted backwards, away from their faces.
Ben started to panic "Wait, Starfire, I didn't mean it that way… I-I-I'm sorry, Okay? Please! It didn't mean what you think it meant. I meant that when I use certain forms, I don't understand my situation when I change back."
"Riiiiiight. Keep telling yourself that." Kevin goaded.
"Shut up, Kevin." Gwen said worriedly, trying to fix her hair.
"Fine, you wish to do the making up? Then perform the scanning on me! Maybe if you were Tamaranian, you would understand why Earth language is so difficult!" Starfire was holding a starbolt two inches from Ben's face now.
Ben sighed in defeat. "Alright, alright, I'll see what I can do." And Ben raised his arm to head level. "Ultimatrix user access voice recognition mode. Commence Scan for unknown life forms."
As everyone looked at the Ultimatrix, which had turned yellow, green and black. Suddenly the dial on the Ultimatrix popped out, shooting out a yellow ray toward her, then circled a full 360 degrees around the room hitting everyone.
"Well, that's new, when did you learn that voice recognition command?" Gwen asked as not one, but six new forms showed themselves around the Ultimatrix. "Ummm… Last week." Ben admitted sheepishly. Starfire was still holding a Starbolt dangerously close to his face.
"Change!" she ordered him, to which he sighed and replied, "Well, here goes nothing." And he scrolled to the alien form that looked surprisingly like a simple change of Ben's clothes. How wrong he was about that. As he hit the dial, Raven asked "What did he do to us?" her face seemed to have two extra eyes and she looked angry enough to kill.
"MALGA'KORI!?" Ben shouted, then looked very confused. He looked very much like himself, but his skin was now an orange hue, his eyebrows had changed shape and his clothing, while mostly green, had purple hues woven into the sleeveless shirt, a pair of purple shorts along with silver arm bands and the Ultimatrix symbol on a silver pauldron on his left shoulder. His boots were a silver metal he didn't recognize.
"You are going to need to kiss an earthling to speak English again, Malga'kori." Starfire said as Ben began freaking out. He promptly began to hyperventilate. A kiss! He couldn't do that! He briefly began to contemplate changing back to his human form. Then he saw the expectant look Starfire was giving him, and he turned to Gwen with a pleading expression on his face that clearly read "Help Me!"
"No way are you kissing me. I have a boyfriend. Besides, I'm your cousin." She said. Kevin was in complete agreement with her. "If you even try kissing my girl, I'll punch your lights out." Was all he said.
Ben hadn't ever expected an alien he acquired to have this big a problem. For the first time since he was ten, he felt powerless.
And there's chapter 2. I've made a slightly extended version of Stormez The Wolf's version. Hope you enjoyed it. Please read and review.
