Uuuh… Remember what I said at the end of chapter 2 about hopefully not taking as long to submit…? Forgive me if I kept any of y'all waiting. Online college classes can be really time-consuming and brain frying and it's definitely not as easy as it sounds.

Any-who, I should probably warn you… This is a chapter that specifically focuses on introductions… In other words, SPOILER: what you'll mostly get from here is a chance to meet the new team you read about in the last chappie- only now, you'll get to learn their names and see a bit more of their personalities- while everything else that occurs in between is basically a bunch of banter. Yeah, not exactly a very exciting entry after such a long wait; but I promise once the formalities of bringing in these new characters have been delivered, which is hopefully by the end of this submission, there will be plenty of excitement and funny moments and fluffy moments (and perhaps even a few flashback trips here and there- I'm still deciding on that part).

So, yeah. Please, enjoy! And I promise to try and make these remaining chapters worth the wait!

Chapter III: Introduced, Confused or Refused…

His teammates were almost immediately curious at their leader's choice of words. 'Another former partner'…? They were all, of course, aware of Robin's mentor- and they only scarcely heard him speak of Batgirl when the five of them first formed as a team- but this Huntress… She was different. If not from Robin's mouth, the Titans had heard at least a few stories through community grape-vines that involved the Boy Wonder's adventures with the Dark Knight and occasionally the other bat-eared female juvenile sidekick. However, none of the Titans could recall any stories they might've heard about a Huntress.

"Pleased to meet you guys," the woman in question nodded at them respectfully, before she began taking the next couple of steps towards them. "Now, I think I've seen enough publicity to know who's who- so let me make sure I got it right." She'd circled around Robin to where she now stood directly in front of the green Titan at one end of the group.

"You… must be Beast Boy." The young changeling smiled in response. "Funny, you seem a bit taller in person."

He let out a short chuckle. "Yeah, well, guess I'm finally getting that growth spurt I've been waiting for."

"Keep dreamin', grass stain." Beast Boy scowled at the murmuring android beside him. Huntress then moved to stand in front of the next said Titan.

"And you should definitely be Cyborg," she eyed him playfully, taking a slight interest in his shiny armor. "The technological genius of the group, I assume."

"You assume correctly, Miss." he replied, not bothering to have a single hint of modesty in his tone. Huntress took another step so that she stood before the goth.

"Hmm- hooded cape, intense stare… I'm pretty sure you're Raven." Huntress didn't appear to have any trouble keeping eye contact with the half-demon. The pale teen nodded in greeting, not saying anything at first, but thought twice about it when she quickly cast another spare glance at the four other girls gradually approaching the team. "Interesting company you keep…"

Huntress merely smiled crookedly. "I could say the same about the rest of you," she indicated to Raven and the other Titans, just as she moved over one more step to face the final red-headed member. "And you," she mused, curiously looking at the Tamaranian's figure up and down. "I've been very interested in meeting you, ever since you and Boy Blunder finally came out on that news feed from Tokyo."

Starfire wasn't entirely certain what this masked female meant by the words 'came out', but her reference to Robin and their visit to Japan was just enough to fill in the blanks… So Starfire couldn't stop herself from blushing at the knowledge this stranger already had on her.

"The alien girl, right…?" Huntress cocked her head a little to the side. "You must have a lot of patience to deal with Earth and its strange ways- let alone enough patience to be dating someone like—" she began to gesture a thumb towards Robin, but he quickly interrupted.

"That's none of your business." He grounded out as he stepped between the two girls- Starfire now behind his right shoulder.

Huntress backed away, hands held up submissively. "Yeah, you're right, it isn't." The Titans could see the eyes behind her mask watch him knowingly. "At least, it hasn't been for a while…"

That last comment was fairly questionable to the other Titans- even Starfire wasn't sure how to take it. However, no one chose to respond to it, now that the four remaining girls had all reached Huntress's side. Lined up similar to how their team was, the young women (no older than any of the Teen Titans were) stared back at them evenly.

"So, Titans," Huntress began. "Allow me to introduce you to my teammates, the Outsiders."

"Is that what you decided to call your group?" Robin vaguely chided, with a voice that mostly portrayed dullness or disinterest as he folded his arms.

"Problem, here…?" Robin redirected his cold stare to the spoken person who stood closest to him and Huntress- the one whose position now faced Starfire- as in also the same person who was the only face that all of the Teen Titans recognized (from a previous encounter, not long ago); otherwise the white-haired swordswoman and blood descendant of Slade, himself- the ex-villainess and ex-rival of the Teen Titans, called Ravager.

"I thought you said you were going train on your own for a while before joining a team." The Boy Wonder replied to the stone-faced daughter of his worst enemy. "Actually, I think we were under the impression that you planned to eventually join our team."

Ravager shrugged. "Things change," she stated plainly. "Besides, it's not like I'm turning my back on this whole hero business. These girls—" Ravager, then, gestured her arms at the group she stood with, "—they're all looking for second chances, just like me."

Robin looked back at Huntress incredulously. "Second chances, huh?"

Huntress continued to wear that crooked smile of hers. "We all carry a dark side to our history, Robbie." Something in her eyes changed, but only for an instant- too quick for any of Robin's fellow Titans to distinguish. "You and I both know some of us carry a darker side than most others, which needs to be rectified. That's what makes us the Outsiders." Huntress winked, then, and nodded toward Ravager.

"Seems like your team already knows her history," Huntress's cool demeanor still wasn't fazed when Ravager rolled her unhidden dark blue eye at the comment. "The rest you see here share similar shadows. Maybe someday you'll get to learn a little about each of them."

At that point, Huntress indicated the Titans' to the girl in the long beige coat standing at the other end of her group, who was closest to facing Beast Boy. "This one we call Secret."

The pale skinned white-blonde blinked her bright brown eyes and politely bowed her head. "It is a pleasure, Teen Titans." Her earthy soprano voice was soft, yet somehow resonant- sort of like how Raven could make her raspy voice echo eerily in her teammates' heads when she wanted their undivided attention.

It seemed that the girl, Secret, either completely ignored her effect on the team or simply did not even register it. She just stood there and smiled patiently as Huntress continued down the line. "Next, we have the dynamic duo," the group leader gestured to the honey-blonde with small pony-tails and the red head beside her. "Presenting our criminal profiling specialist, Enigma…" Upon hearing Huntress mention her name, said girl wearing the pony-tails and question mark gave the Titans a lopsided grin. "And of course her best partner in tracking," Huntress went on, nodding in indication toward the red head. "The ever comical, Trixter."

The porcelain-skinned female's blood red lips curled further up until she donned a fairly wide mischievous smirk. "Friends call me Trix or Trixie," she answered in a rather minx-like tone.

"Yes, I've already heard of you," Robin surprised his fellow teammates with his recognition of yet another strange and unheard-of vigilante. "Girl like you must have a pretty vast number of friends, to be called so many nicknames," he said in a taught cool manner while one side of his mask lifted as he quirked an eyebrow at the red head. "Like Scarecrone, Card Queen, Harlequin…"

The red head, Trixter's cocky grin gradually shrank further and further down into a guarded blank stare with each alias Robin mentioned. The rest of his team did not know what to make of the situation now. While sometimes known to be cautious about trusting others, as their leader, Robin was still often considerably polite to any newly-encountered crime fighters and/or meta-humans- willing to at least give most (if not, all) of them the benefit of the doubt. The way he was talking back to the members of this group, however, hinted a rather thick air of tension.

As he continued, Robin's lips were just about to hiss an additional fourth name onto Trixter's list. His teammates could barely make out what sounded like the words "Joker's Dau—" before the girl in green- the one with the question mark emblem, who Huntress introduced as Enigma- rested a comforting hand on Trixter's suddenly rather stiff shoulders.

She regarded Robin through a poker-faced and leveled gaze; her eyes, on an off-note, sharing the same murky green as her aforementioned red headed partner. "I think you've made your point, Boy Blunder," Enigma sounded younger than she looked; basically a teenager with a near-childlike voice, though the tone in her voice (at least right now) wasn't to be taken lightly. "Apples may not fall far from the tree, but they don't haffta share the same color as its leafy branches."

"Heh, got that off a fortune cookie or something?" Beast Boy laughed nervously, hoping to ease the awkward tension.

A subtler version of Enigma's lopsided grin returned as she eyed the changeling, answering dryly, "It's not easy being green."

"I do not understand," Starfire said quietly. "How did this introduction lead to the references of food and colors?"

How did a thoughtless ally come to lead a team including the daughters of Joker and Riddler? Robin thought cynically, as he avoided answering his confused girlfriend and shifted focus to Huntress once again. "Why are you here, anyway?"

Huntress raised her brows beneath the mask and began tilting her head a little way's back at the grumbling detained henchmen. Not a word passed her lips, when Robin quickly added: "I mean, what are you doing here in this city- our city…?"

"Still feeling hostile, huh?" She tut at the Titan leader, "And I thought being part of a team was supposed to teach a person how to share."

"Not when it involves separate vigilantes charged onto separate zip codes." Robin immediately retorted.

"As informative as this conversation has been," Raven's voice did that echoing thing in Robin's head (again, like it always did when she wanted the Titans' undivided attention). "I suggest we decide what to do with these bad guys before the cops arrive. Otherwise, they're all going to the city prison and none of us will be taking anybody home for questioning."

"Not tonight, at least," Cyborg finished.

"Technically, they will be going to the prison located in our area." Both teams glanced at Secret, whose calm pixie-like face had been watching each of them (ever since they were properly introduced), with a strangely observant air about her. "We were following the men for weeks and later traced them outside our city limit. Capturing the suspects in your town does not exactly rule out the fact that they originally came from ours."

Beast Boy blinked. "Yeah, so?"

"Sooo," Both teams turned again, only this time it was toward somewhere over Secret's shoulders, where several of their suspects had remained stuck in the pink, gooey pile of bubble gum. Trixter's smile was back now as she'd somehow materialized next to the brutes without anybody noticing. "Finders-keepers!" she sang, while pressing the button hidden beneath the petals of her daisy broach. However, rather than emitting some kind of toxic fume like last time, the center of the flower spurted water instead.

… Nothing cute like a squirt gun, of course, but more like a ridiculous amount of water one would definitely not expect to all come out of a tee-tiny girl accessory; because the amount and speed of the liquid coming out of that little broach was not unlike what one sees coming out of a pressure washer, and it soaked away most of the sticky bubble gum surrounding the trapped men. What was left stuck only to their bodies and nowhere else, so they were still detained…

"How does that work out?" Cyborg asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's just a matter of water and temperature," Enigma answered nonchalantly. "See, the sturdy material in the gum's attracted to solid heat, so it clings to warm bodies and even tightens when rinsed with cold water while the rest that isn't attached to anything warm washes away. To get the rest off of these guys, all we'll need is to do the opposite and rinse 'em with hot—"

Raven interrupted once more. "I think he means, how does it work out that you get to bring all of these new prisoners back to your city…?"

Enigma placed a hand on her hip. "Our territory—"

"Our mission," Trixter added, walking back to Enigma's side.

"Our criminals," Ravager joined in.

"And therefore our business," Huntress finished, "as in we'll take it from here." With that said, she nodded at Secret, who took it as a signal to reach out one of her pale hands, which soon faded into a smoky beige substance similar to the cloudy form Robin and the Titans saw her use before. The creamy-colored smoke extended like a serpent, hovering across the room and slithering around the scattered captives, as it dragged them all together in one big huddle. While wrapped around the men, the smoke extended even further and bunched into a thick cloud that opened up like a portal behind them. "Now, if you Titans could establish this with the cops, we'd greatly appreciate it." But when Huntress said these words and began to walk with the rest of her team towards their detainees and the portal leading to their exit, Robin suddenly grabbed her arm and yanked her back to face him.

"We're not done, here," he sternly emphasized with the unquestionable look that he gave her.

Huntress let out one short (though loud and mocking, sort of) laugh. "The Bat glare? Really, Robin?"

"Right now, I don't care about any of your bounty hunting tactics." He let go of Huntress's arm, but kept his gaze locked on hers despite her ill-timed jest. "We have an obligation to investigate these criminals, too, and any other threat that comes through our city."

"Don't start with me, Bird-Boy," the cool-tempered leader of the Outsiders was finally beginning to look a little aggravated. "This is our investigation- has been for the past few weeks."

Other members from both teams suppressed a groan or eye-roll out of exasperation. The two leaders were never going to stop at this rate unless someone came up with a compromise before the cops arrived to pick up the prisoners. As the argument between Robin and Huntress escalated in volume, Starfire (feeling more awkward by the minute) averted her eyes and noticed the van still parked outside the front entrance. Struck with an idea, she hovered a few inches to where she could discretely whisper into Cyborg's ear. He immediately opened the screen on his arm and Raven- who was standing close by- saw that he was pulling up pictures of the vehicle, which were taken earlier when their team had first arrived. One close-up photo showing the back of the van stood out in particular.

"Hey," Cyborg called, failing to get the bantering pair's attention. The two leaders were shouting now. And by the awkward looks on the other girls' faces, the Titans could tell it wasn't normal for Huntress to be this out-of-sorts on a mission, either.

Starfire, then, took it as her turn to try and intercede. Floating closer to Robin's side, she cautiously tugged at his sleeve. "Um, Robin," Starfire hoped that her voice didn't sound as tiny to him and Huntress as it did to her.

Robin, not paying any mind at all, shooed her hand away. Unsure what else was left to do, Starfire looked back at her friends with concern in her eyes. The boys just stood there, bewildered. Raven, on the other hand, was growing tired at playing the role of intervention today; Robin's little almost-tiff from earlier- on being called out for his twitterpated-ness by Cyborg- was a small kind of mishap that she could understand (every once in a while, that is)… But the behavior she was seeing in him at this moment nearly border-lined ridiculousness.

Raven swatted the side of Beast Boy's shoulder without so much as turning her head, and he gave her a confused look.

"Wha—"

"Wake them up," was all she said.

It took a couple seconds for Beast Boy to understand what she meant, but he quickly recalled the same code phrase Cyborg would give him when they wanted to bring Raven out of her deeper meditations- most of the time so they could properly beg her either to play on one of their teams or be referee in their epic Stank-Ball tournaments. Beast Boy decided to use his favorite form; one that he believed could wake Raven whether she'd be meditating, comatose or even downright catatonic.

Robin and Huntress were close at being nose to nose, while exclamations of duty and rights and jurisdiction continued to fly, as well as a few spare (and very brief) side comments having something to do with the words 'old bat' or 'reckless' or 'conceited'. Both of them ducked at the sudden loud and mediocrely-trumpeting sound of a full grown green elephant standing only a few feet away, and they instinctively withdrew the first conveniently stored weapon from their utility belts.

The deep crimson bowing-wing shaped bird-a-rang held in Robin's hand was not too unlike the murky indigo crescent-moon shaped blade that Huntress had in hers (most likely made for the same effective use). Having noticed this, the two of them cast the same reminiscent distant look at each other's weapon from the corner of their eyes, and then gradually- even simultaneously- straightened out of their defensive stance.

The blaring of sirens had been drawing closer to the warehouse while they were bickering, and they could now hear the high-pitched spills from the wheels at what sounded like less than merely several miles away.

Eyes guarded and trying to hide their self-consciousness- after basically exploding into a non-professional dispute in front of their teams and their gawking captives (at least the ones that were still conscious) - the pair looked at the other Titans, this time rather patiently.

Since she was the one who made the discovery about to be told, Starfire used the opportunity to speak:

"You have been investigating these men for a while, yes?" Of course the question was directed to Huntress.

Said dark haired Outsider grazed a hand over her crescent shaped blade- a weapon that the Titans would later find out to have ironically been called a lunarang- and once folding it down, she placed it back in her belt. "I don't see where you think you're getting at by asking, but for the fourth time, yeah. We have been tailing them."

Starfire cast a discrete glance to the screen left open on one of Cyborg's arms, which were folded at his chest, before she returned her line of sight to Huntress. "Have you not ever discovered the chance to inspect their means of transportation?"

Huntress noticed the alien's fleeting look at the android's armor and eyed the two of them suspiciously. "Why?" Knowing that something was up, she didn't bother adding an actual answer to Starfire's question and instead waited for the catch she'd vaguely suspected to hear.

Just so you know, I do not own the Outsiders any more than I do the Teen Titans (sad for me)… BUT the organization of team members in the group was, in fact, done by moi. Originally, the Outsiders preceded their name as a sort of outer branch of meta-human rejects whose questionable heroic records didn't get them accepted into the Justice League; instead these misfit vigilantes were recruited by Batman as more of a 'black-ops' group not directly connected to the JL, but they were technically allies willing to face public opinion with their slightly harsher crime fighting tactics- taking chances the JL normally would not. You know the whole good-cop/bad-cop scenario? While the Justice League played the good cops, the Outsiders (as allies) basically played bad cops.

Like most cases with DC comics, the story behind the Outsiders can come in different versions. For instance, the Outsiders kinda had this on-&-off thing of being recruited, led and/or dropped by Batman; other times the team was somewhat started (again?) by someone else- like in some early 2000s' comic editions, the Outsiders started instead with a few similar misfits as well as a number of previous Titan members (including Arsenal- a.k.a. Speedy- and even Nightwing), so one could say this version of Outsiders branched more from the Titans than the Justice League… but that's just my opinion.

Anyway, the Outsiders I've presented in this story were not among the original members from DC comic's version(s) of Outsiders- at least, I don't think any of them were. I just decided to add a little bit of a twist by making the majority of these girls Outsiders due to their familial relations/past. Also, I chose Huntress as leader mainly for two reasons: One is because of her past connections to the Bat family (which you'll find out about later) making her leadership in the Outsiders feel a tad more 'believable' to me, since both Batman and Nightwing were involved with the team in DC comics. The second reason… well… you'll have to find that out later, too.

I'm debating on whether or not I should somehow include the back-stories from the rest of the Outsiders in this fan-fic; y'all are fairly likely to hear more of Huntress's history, but PLEEEAAASE let me know if you might wanna learn about Secret, Ravager, Enigma (Riddler's Daughter) or Trixter (Joker's Daughter)… The name, Trixter, was something I made up by the way (as she's usually referred to herself as the latter [JD] or her civilian first name in most DC comic appearances) - so I wanted to give her a title that didn't automatically associate her with somebody else or her human identity.