Chapter 3

Ongoing robbery. Multiple armed perpetrators. Piece of cake.

The team raced to the scene, a museum that had recently acquired a very famous collection of priceless jewels.

Superboy flew up next to Raven, "Um isn't this a little overkill for a few robbers?"

Raven smiled softly, "Yes."

Nightwing, who was running along below them on the rooftops heard him, "Who cares? Jewel heists rock! No death rays, no overly competent super villains! Just good old fashion thugs who need a beating." He whooped as he vaulted over an ac unit before summersaulting across a chasm between two buildings.

Raven gritted her teeth as she watched her friend. He had always made her nervous, the way he took risks, but now he seemed so careless with his feats of acrobatics she couldn't help but worry he would miscalculate and get hurt.

"Geez, has he always been like that?" Superboy asked, he was used to the current Robin. Tim was calculating and smart, hardly the daredevil Dick was , but still athletic. Tim also was much more reserved than Dick, and watching Nightwing, he felt Tim had to be much more serious about the "hero gig," than Dick.

Raven pondered for a minute and chuckled softly, "Not…exactly."

She followed the black figure sprinting below them with her eyes. She remembered him as a teenager, and leader of the Titans. She had joined the team a year or so after it had been founded. She had been surprised to see the leader of the infamous Titans was so young. He seemed to be the youngest of the team before her, yet all of the young heroes followed him without question. He was kind, but a fierce fighter and a tactical genius, and he kept the team together. She remembered days where she and the other Titans worried, in fact, if he took things too seriously.

But, as Nightwing he was different, more jubilant.

A green-feathered falcon dove past her and bobbed up and down happily. At least some things don't change, Raven thought.

Well that's not true. Beast Boy's antics used to make her skin crawl with annoyance. Now every time she saw the changeling she felt warm, and happy in her own skin, something she never would have been able to say before. He kept her sane… a strange thought to think of someone with a personality like Gar's, but she realized it was true. She felt more in control of herself and her powers around the shapeshifter, which considering how her emotions and feelings seemed to be heightened with him that was also a strange thing to think.

They halted outside the museum, which was surrounded by police and emergency vehicles.

Nightwing rallied everyone to the side of the building, "Alright everyone, this is an easy bust. These guys are armed, but nothing we haven't taken care of before. Recon squad will go in and disarm them and the second squad will take a frontal approach and bring them down. "

Nightwing and Flash led Raven and Robin for the recon team and Cyborg and Beast Boy led everyone else for the frontal assault. Nightwing had wanted to bring Impulse as part of the recon team, but Flash vetoed that idea immediately.

Impulse hadn't quite mastered the art of subtlety or being quiet. Of course he probably deserved more credit than Wally gave him. The kid had matured a bit since he first dropped into all of their laps, not much, of course, but there was progress.

As soon as the Titans entered the museum, something seemed a little off about this heist. For one thing, the thugs didn't seem that interested in the jewel collection; in fact, they didn't seem particularly interested in anything.

They barely glanced at any of the priceless items around them; even hired guns took a few things for themselves here and there.

When the recon group started to disarm them, the thugs just looked around in a daze as if someone had called their name, but they couldn't see them. At one point Robin practically just walked straight up to one of the robbers and took his weapon. The assault group charged in ready for a fight, but the thugs were sluggish and went down without much effort.

The team stood around as the police escorted the criminals to the prison transports. There were enough of the thugs that this should have at least been a bit of a workout, but the young heroes weren't even winded.

"That was…"

"Yeah."

"So, weird?"

"Very."

They couldn't help but stand around scratching their heads.

Flash looked disappointed as he watched the last van pull away. "So I guess we are done?"

Wonder Girl pouted, "Aw we didn't even get to show off a little."

"Um, while no one should be showing off, I agree this was…too easy. Anything on the scanner Robin?" Raven asked.

Nightwing cut in before Robin could answer, he was looking at a small display attached to his gauntlet. "Nothing's showing up, but I don't think we are done here, something's off."

"Yeah dude, I was all ready to go all 'bear' necessities on their butts." Gar, who happened to be in the form of a bear, growled, "I barely laid a claw on 'em, and they went down."

Cyborg rolled his eyes at Beast Boy's joke, "Was anything even taken?"

"Yes, I'm afraid. " A voice made them turn around.

The museum's curator stood in front of them looking a little timid. "They didn't touch the jewels, but they took something else, a relic. It isn't even that valuable…"

"What is this item?" Kory asked

The curator started to leaf through a file in his hand, "Like I said it's not that valuable. It came a couple of weeks ago as part of a small new exhibit about mysterious objects found in remote places. The objects all have strange stories about them, but the exhibit was supposed to teach about the detective work that goes into archaeology. Most of the artifacts…well not much is known about them. The exhibit hasn't been greatly popular what with the jewel collection. Here."

The man handed a photograph to Superboy who was closest. Superboy raised an eyebrow.

"Aquagirl? Raven? You guys know more about this stuff." Conner handed the paper to Tula and Raven glided to her side.

"It's not Atlantean." Tula said, "And I don't recognize it from any of my studies."

She looked over at Raven whose eyes were wide, and her teeth clenched. Her cape was starting to billow from her powers

"I…do."

It was obvious something was not right. Gar returned to his original form and rushed to Raven's side.

"Rae…Rae, look at me, it's ok. What is it?"

"Gar, it's not. It's not ok. It's-"

Then the world exploded.

Beast Boy shook rubble off his back and straightened out, his T-Rex body very sore. Something had blasted the building next to them sending rubble falling towards them. Raven tried to create a shield, but whatever she had seen had shaken her, making her powers erratic. Gar had acted quick and transformed, wrapping himself around everyone.

He was mostly ok, definitely had some bumps and bruises, but thankfully T-Rex bodies were pretty tough. He felt like there might have been something wrong with his shoulder a rather large piece of debris had crashed into it.

He transformed back, the speed of the changes made his head spin, but slender hands steadied him. He looked over to see Raven, she was paler than usual and shaking, but she was worried about him.

"Thanks B, you ok?" Nightwing asked.

"I'm fine-ah!" Gar gasped as his shoulder spasmed with pain. Raven's breath caught in her throat, and snatched her hands away, thinking he had hurt him. Everyone took a step towards Gar, wanting to help.

"I'm good, really guys." Gar said through gritted teeth, "What was that?"

They looked around dust clouded their vision. A familiar voice spoke from above.

"The green one is quick. Too bad." The dust cleared and the Titans saw a massive gorilla standing above them.

Wally squinted, "Grodd?"

Nightwing shook his head. "Mallah."

Robin let out a little gasp, "So, that means…"

Mallah set a trashcan shaped object in front of him. At the peak of it sat a pink brain within the container, attached to electrodes and sensors all over.

"Hello Titans."

Hey guys thanks for reading this chapter! So yep the main villain in this will be the Brain and the Brotherhood of Evil. I hope you like it!.