This chapter is very wordy, mainly because I was trying my hardest to describe what these newer characters look like while still including a little bit of fighting action at the same time… Not the easiest thing for me; especially considering I've got an online college summer course to worry about (and it's a literature class, which already means lots of papers to turn in), ugh! Anyway, I was half-asleep when I wrote most of this- so if there are parts that don't seem to make much sense, that's why. Seriously, though, I strive to give very vivid mental pictures- so PLEEEAAASE, for the love of humanity (and all the DC worlds in between), let me know if my descriptions are too much or perhaps even lacking something you wanna see more of. Remember what I've mentioned before: Just say, "Elien, we don't need a effing play-by-play!" And whenever you do say so, I'll try my hardest to keep these chappies shorter and more to-the-point.

Hope y'all enjoy and share this with your friends! Peace and blessin's!

E

Chapter II: Rendezvous and Who Are You… (?)

When Robin, Starfire and Beast Boy came barging through the warehouse entrance, they were not sure what else to expect other than something that was usually one big group scuffle- which (about nine times out of ten) came after someone's cover had been blown. Among the things these three Titans most certainly did not expect to see was that Cyborg and Raven were, in fact, nowhere within the midst of this group scuffle. In their place, a different couple of vigilantes were fighting the group of men (which turned out to be over a dozen more than Robin had originally surmised) and these 'visitors' were holding their own with much gusto.

One wore a uniform that was mostly made of dark purple material, which had a slight velvety shine to it; complete with boot-cut pants and long sleeve gloves- which opened up with extra fabric (about two-to-three inches long) dangling at the wrists, leaving her hands exposed. Her top (also dark purple) was some kind of sleeveless vest that cut short at the front, while the fabric stretched longer as it lowered diagonally around her sides until it completely covered her back- there, it stopped somewhere at the edge of her hip with the tailed end of a waistcoat. The front part of said top opened wide just above the swell of her chest like a V-neck, with a light green collar folded over her shoulders that matched the color of the belt fastened near her waist. Since this waistcoat-designed vest she wore was held together by just one or two buttons located over the center of her torso, the bottom half at the front of her top opened up in an upside down 'V,' which meant a fair portion of her stomach could be seen above said green belt. And of course the stomach (including any other exposed portion of her body) revealed skin that appeared as though she had been painted head-to-toe in solid white. However, the color of her hair- and also her lips at which the lengths of said hair stopped- had a deep blood red shade, which stood out even in the dark lighting of the warehouse.

She was quite literally dancing around the men that approached her, throwing in a few kicks and back-handed slaps in the midst of twirling away from their attacks. And she was laughing- smiling and laughing while they tried to face-off with her, like she was playing a game with them. One of these men, with a crowbar in his hand, happened to shout at her to hold still.

"What's the point of being still—?" She began to ask, while she back shuffled every time the guy took a swing at her, "—especially when ya get plenty of time to do that when you're pushing up daisies," and then in one swift movement (after ducking under the crowbar one more time) she was practically nose to nose with the guy, right before she pressed a button on a yellow daisy broach she had next to the right (that is, her left) collar of her shirt.

A smoky substance emitted from the center of the flower, blinding the man while apparently doing a number on his lungs when he went into a coughing fit. The strange red head used the moment of distraction to land an effective uppercut directly at his chin, with enough force to make the guy topple backwards onto the ground and hit his head hard- knocking him unconscious. As he fell, another group of men charged toward her blind side, but it seemed she had already anticipated their approach (hearing their heavy footsteps behind her).

"Five against one, eh?" She smirked and- without bothering to look back at them- quickly popped something small and round into her mouth, before she turned to face her opponents, adding: "Now, that's just not playing fair." Then (almost like a jumping-Jack), she sprung up in the air, executing a rather graceful dropkick on the first closest adversary. And while still on the soles of her feet, she launched herself again. Only this time it was more of a front flip, as she used the leverage she had from her feet on the first man's chest and from her hands now grabbing hold of the next closest man's shoulders (that is, right after she distracted said next man by yanking his dark beanie over his eyes). With this man temporarily blinded, she pushed herself up with her hands on his shoulders, flipping over him and the other guys close behind him. The second she landed on her feet, the red head gave the dumbfounded men yet another brief distraction, when she quickly turned to face them once more while blowing a piece of the bubble gum she'd apparently put in her mouth a moment ago.

The bubble grew bigger, surprisingly bigger, and then enormously bigger- to the point where the remaining group of men realized too late that they really should have ducked for cover. After one loud resounding pop, though, they were definitely covered alright; all wadded up in a ridiculously thick, sticky and pink mess. "Lucky for you guys," the red head continued. "I don't care how the game is played, as long as I'm the one having fun."

All of this was happening in only a short matter of moments, just long enough for the three baffled Titans to hardly even notice Cyborg and Raven quietly join them at the warehouse entrance.

"Um," Robin heard Cyborg's voice behind him the same time his large robotic hand met the Boy Wonder's shoulder. "Doesn't that girl's style look familiar to you, Rob?"

Robin, still debating on what action to take next- yet also somewhat intrigued with the combat techniques he was seeing- brushed Cyborg's hand away. "I know what it looks like," he muttered in answer.

"And that…?" He heard Raven add, as he caught her pointing finger in his peripheral vision and followed it to the other girl fighting alongside the red head.

This one had deep honey-blonde hair (or perhaps even a bit strawberry blonde, depending on the lighting) that might have been about the same short length as the red head's (if not, only a couple inches longer); it was difficult to tell with her wavy locks being pulled up on either side of her head in small high pony-tails. Her bangs hung above her dark green mask, which- unlike Robin's mask- closely encircled the girl's eyes, but did not exactly hide or cover them. The majority of her outfit shared the same dark green as her mask. This consisted of matching green boots, hand gloves, along with a short sleeve leotard and white-striped tights. What really stood out, though, was a huge question mark emblem (also white) that took up most of the green leotard covering her torso.

She carried what looked like another version of Robin's bo-staff. Only this one was made of a material which, in a way kind of similar to her hair, appeared either gold or coppery (again, depending on the light). One other difference was that her staff had been curved at one end, resembling a hook. Although, upon getting a closer inspection of it- when the girl happened to slam the side of her staff right into an attacker's solar plexus- the Teen Titans could have confirmed that the end of said staff better resembled the question mark emblem on her outfit.

"Didn't Momsy ever tell you not to play with your food or frienemies, Trix?" The girl grinned mischievously over at the red head, who was still dancing through and around her opponents as if in a game.

"Oh, yeah," red head answered, "the same one who told me not to walk and chew explosive gum at the same time!"

"That's enough, you two," another female voice called from somewhere above. However, this particular voice sounded vaguely familiar to the Teen Titans.

And just as the five of them raised their eyes to try and find the source, a net full of heavily stocked crates had supposedly been cut loose from the rope keeping them suspended. The heavy cargo fell on top of yet another group of men trying to gang up on the red head, leaving most of them unconscious and/or trapped beneath the heap while a couple others managed to crawl their way out. As these few men attempted a hasty retreat towards the back (since the Titans continued blocking the main entrance), the cowards were stopped in their tracks when a shadowy figure dropped down from the ceiling and landed in front of them. They cautiously started backing up as the figure stalked towards them, until she'd stepped into the dim lighting and the tell-tale design of Slade's mask covering the top half of her face became visible. That along with the gleam of the two katana blades she held in her hands (and the long white hair tumbling past her shoulders) gave the Teen Titans enough indication of who this was- who the familiar voice was…

"Holy spawns-of-a-bad-guy, Batman," Beast Boy breathed. And Robin would have clobbered the green changeling on the spot for using such a reference to the stereotyped cheesy sidekick-puns used to ridicule the Boy Wonder for years.

However, he couldn't argue with the statement- not while seeing three teenage-slash-female reflections to some of the toughest bad guys he'd ever faced gathered here, together in one place.

"Hey," Robin blinked and briefly shook his head after realizing he and his group were the ones being called this time by the Slade look-alike. "You guys want to start helping out now?" She eyed them expectantly (at least with the one eye that was not hidden beneath the mask), and then tripped one of the retreating men by sweeping the edge of her blades beneath his feet.

Two more ran past her, but the first was stopped in his tracks again when just one out of the same pair of swords barely missed the side of his face as it firmly made contact with a string of twine, which held together an even bigger pile of crates (stacked up high like a bunch of other similar piles on the ground floor). The sharpness of the katana blade easily cut through the twine, just as it had done earlier with the net up in the rafters, and so the crates came down on the man- trapping him like the crates from the net did his comrades. The second man that had been running with him, who (unlike his friend) somehow managed to dodge the avalanche of wooden boxes, made another bee-line for the back exit.

Fed up with standing around, Robin finally took command again, pointing towards said guy: "Titans, don't let him get away!" All five of them charged into what was left of the fight and soon, Robin was the only one who wasn't preoccupied with any other attacker. He was practically right on the guy's tail and probably would've had him by now if the idiot quit pushing and pulling crates from other piles into Robin's path as an attempt to slow the Boy Wonder down.

He cursed inwardly when he saw the punk drawing closer to the exit, but then Robin felt a strange surge of something reminiscent to electric energy- at least in the sense that it made the hair near the back of his neck stand on end. It rushed past him in the form of a strange warm mist that assembled in a cloud of beige, chasing after the man until it surrounded him. The Titan leader heard the guy's shouts of protest as his silhouette was raised higher into the air by the cloud. It carried him over the group fight that had begun to slow down, dropping the man on top of the last thug wielding a gun. His surprise from the impact caused him to accidentally pull the trigger, setting the weapon off.

Everyone ducked and Robin used the opportunity to incarcerate most of the remaining brutes while they were still on the floor. More loud bangs sounded when the blonde girl with the question mark emblem also took advantage of the distraction to throw a few round explosives that resembled green cherry bombs at the feet of the other men Robin didn't reach. They staggered backwards and collapsed into their fellow partners in crime, now trapped with them in the sticky pink substance of the red head's bubble gum from earlier. The only ones left were the man with the gun and the guy that was dropped on top of him.

The two made a last attempt to escape- but as flustered as they were, all they could do was try to crawl. Seemingly out of nowhere, a grappling cable encircled them, causing them to fall on their faces and the gun was dropped from its owner's hand. The weapon slid across the floor until it met the underside of someone else's boot.

A beat or two of silence passed before the beige cloud hovering above the final pair of captured men lowered to the floor and evaporated to reveal a fourth young woman. She was not dressed similar to any renowned villain like the other three were; instead, this white-blonde girl with shoulder length hair wore attire that somewhat coordinated to said hair and her pale skin, including her long beige trench coat (buttoned at the top like a turtleneck) and matching shoes, as well as an off-white undershirt and a tight pair of off-white pants. She looked sheepish while turning to the direction where the fifth visitor stood with the gun still under her boot.

"Sorry," the white-blonde said quietly to the stranger, gesturing to the weapon beneath said stranger's foot. "I thought I could make the guy drop it, but didn't expect him to actually pull the—"

"It's fine," Robin recognized this stranger's voice, too- only it wasn't familiar to his other teammates. The person in question used the foot she had on the gun to scoot it closer to her, and then leaned over to pick it up. As she did, her face came out of the shadows and into the dim lighting of the warehouse. "Not your fault these fellas don't know how to handle a firearm…" she added, briefly glancing up to meet Robin's eyes, which immediately began to widen behind his mask.

She looked to be taller than Raven, though just barely an inch or two shorter than Starfire. Also, her uniform was neither that much more different nor revealing than either female Titan. Some of the material had a murky purple-bluish indigo color. This included her long sleeve gloves, the utility belt hanging kind of low on her waist, and her mask; although (like the other masked girl, who wore the question mark emblem), it didn't completely hide her eyes, but it still covered just as much of her face- at least up to where the fabric formed a sort of 'V' shape right above her brow, so the pointed ends stood straight past her forehead almost like a thin pair of horns. Other colors on her outfit included hints of white- such as the outer trim of her lengthy cape (stopping a couple inches above her ankles) and two lines intersecting almost into a thin 't' across her chest. Everything else was as black as her thick, long (nearly to mid-back) hair; including her short sleeve top (still black besides where that thin, white 't' was printed) and her cape, along with her boots and shorts (both covering just as much as Starfire's own boots and mini-skirt), though these spandex shorts were attached to her short sleeve top only from the back- so a fair portion of her stomach remained exposed (kind of like her red headed friend with the purple vest), but the skin there was also no less covered than Starfire's was.

It only took a split second for Robin to register all of these features, as he already recognized the uniform and its wearer. And of course when those dark silvery eyes behind her mask met his gaze, memories came flooding back; then Robin's hands were clenching into tight fists at his sides, and all his fellow teammates could do as they regrouped next to him was watch awkwardly at the silent, yet tense exchange. Luckily, the silence didn't last long.

"You," Robin exclaimed in a tone not quite like any kind that the Titans had ever heard before- not even Starfire. The best she could discern of it was some sort of mix between disbelief, accusation, and perhaps slight unease (or regret; Starfire couldn't decide which).

The masked, dark haired young woman merely straightened her stance and raised a brow at the finger-pointing Boy Wonder before she smirked. "You," she echoed, though very nonchalantly as if she weren't anywhere near as surprised at seeing him.

"What are you doing here?" Robin grounded out through his clenched jaw.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She folded her arms defiantly, both brows now raised beneath her mask. "My team just bagged these men, and now we're bringing 'em back to our headquarters for questioning."

Robin's mask grew almost impossibly large- the Titans had not seen his eyes get that big 'round since Starfire lip-locked the civilian boy in Tokyo to learn Japanese.

"Your team… Your headquarters…!?" His voice was steadily becoming louder with outrage. Of course, none of his friends could understand why.

Their leader was gradually heading towards being suspiciously out of sorts- which was fairly… un-Robin-ish (especially when they were all outside the Tower, since he normally stayed as professional as possible on any of their missions); and with this in mind, the four other team members decided it was about time for someone to intervene. Starfire just happened to be that someone.

"Um, Robin," she cautiously inquired after hovering up closer behind him to lightly tap his shoulder. Robin's whole frame remained tense as he briefly granted the alien girl a sideways glance. "May I ask who this girl might be, to whom you are speaking in such a hostile manner?"

The smirk that had been on the masked young woman's face grew wider, into more of a Cheshire-cat grin, as she sauntered towards the Teen Titans and their leader. "Yeah, Robin- why so hostile…? Don't you wanna introduce me to your friends?"

Robin's eyes narrowed into tight slits. "Didn't you just say that you and your friends had to bring the culprits back to your headquarters?"

"I don't think these bozos will be getting away anytime soon," the young dark haired woman scoffed. Looking back at the scene behind her, even the Titans could strongly confirm that the other four girls were now making sure the suspects stayed detained fairly well.

After taking a deep breath, Robin exhaled with a rather reluctant tone in his voice. "Titans, this is Huntress- another former partner of mine before I first came to our city."

I purposely didn't name but one of the five new characters included in this chapter, which is Huntress- or technically, I gave away a name-&-a-half (Huntress' name and one other girl's nickname) if you were paying close attention… They will all be properly introduced in the next chapter, but I just wanted to see if you caught the gist of what at least the first three girls might look like (hint: remember what Beast Boy said, "Holy spawns-of-a-bad-guy, Batman"). Call this one of my experiments to see how well or even how awful I am at my descriptions. Again, let me know if I actually gave too much- description, that is… Like I said before, constructive criticism is very much appreciated in comments.

So yeah… I've already got more of a head-start on this next chappie, and hopefully it won't take as long to finish and update.

NOTICE: Favorites &/or Follows + Reviews = Inspiration (which also equals faster updates).

Just sayin'. ;-)