Disclaimer: Own the Titans…I do not…

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Titans Tower, later that afternoon.

"Here we go," said Cyborg as he typed away at the main computer while the rest of the team was seated at the couch behind him.

The huge screen in front of them began to display a profile of the villainess know to them now as Fallacy. The file that Cyborg retrieved was just something from a database he copied from the original HIVE academy system during his infiltration into the organization. The database held all the student records of every villain-in-training in the HIVE up until its destruction. The Titans mainly used this database to keep tabs on the many HIVE students that went missing after the destruction of the HIVE Academy.

"Fallacy, huh?" mumbled Beast Boy. "So she really has those kooky spellbinding powers that madfe me and Satar see all those things that weren't really there?"

"Yup," replied Cyborg. "The girl really lives up to her name."

"According to this record," said Robin, "she was the top of her class. That true."

"Well, she was always the overachiever. She idolized Brother Blood to the point of obsession. She was always the first to volunteer whenever Blood had a big assignment. She was out of town when we originally wrecked the academy. That was when she went AWOL."

"Do you think she's the one leading the HIVE Five now?"

"Possible. She was at the scene of the arena. Not sure if she was coordinating the whole thing though."

"Perhaps, she is," said Starfire. "The way I have viewed the situation, it was as if we we're drawn to the arena structure where the HIVE Five distracted us for this Fallacy to use her powers on our friend."

"She may be on to something there," concurred Beast Boy.

"I agree," said Robin. "Beast Boy may not have been their specific target for the illusion but the general objective of the HIVE Five…or I guess they're six now…is still quite obvious. They were indirectly questioning us on the location of Professor Chang."

"The same guy we're looking for. What a coin-ci-dink!"

"In this line of business, there are hardly any coincidences."

"No, he may be right," said Raven, grabbing everyone's attention. "When I think about it, they had no reason to have ever believed that we we're after Professor Chang in the first place. The way they questioned Beast Boy, it was as if they simply assumed that we knew already where Professor Chang was. But of course, we didn't and that lead to a failure on their part."

The rest of the group took a long moment to consider Raven's word. She had good points. But that only raised another concern which was already there to begin with. Why were the HIVE Five after Professor Chang? What was he to them?

Ever since the start of this case, The Titans have never really given much thought to Professor Chang. They simply thought he just went tomb raiding over the weekend and was selling whatever he found to the highest bidder which was what he usually did. But now their interest seemed quite peeked as now the HIVE had somehow developed an interest. True Professor Chang did work for the HIVE Academy for a short time during when Cyborg helped establish the Titans East but he was being mind-controlled then. And they doubted that has anything to do with this current case.

"So the real question here is," said Beast Boy, "why would those guys want to go after the old man so badly?"

"Indeed. And unfortunately, that's a question only they can answer."

"I doubt they shall share that answer with us," said Starfire truthfully.

"They probably don't even know we're after him as well."

"And, if anything, they won't have any mutual objectives with us even if they did know. They made it velar earlier today when they attacked us out of the blue. They were just using us. But since we can't give them anything that they can use, they'll just have to look somewhere else."

"Great!" said Cyborg. "The less I have to deal with Fallacy the better!"

"That's not necessarily a good thing though. They might hurt somebody in the process of looking for Professor Chang. I mean, look what Beast Boy almost did to me."

Raven raised the part of her cloak that Beast Boy shredded when he was transformed as a lion for everyone to see. Beast Boy scratched the back and threw Raven an apologetic look. Raven gave back an understanding look knowing that it wasn't really the changeling's fault. And beside, her point was that it could've been worse but fortunately it wasn't.

"So, it's decided then," said Robin. "A new priority for us is to apprehend the HIVE Five and their new member, Fallacy. But at the same time, we still need to keep looking for leads on where Professor Chang is. Chances are we'll actually run into the HIVE Five along the way seeing as we're after the same guy. But we can't let them have him. Who knows what their planning? And now on to our other concern…"

"Are you referring," spoke up Starfire, "the strange young man who was conflicting with Fallacy in the arena of the Jump City?"

"Yup. Him."

"Anybody got a name to share?" asked Cyborg to the rest of the group.

They all looked to each other for a few moments until everyone just shook their heads. They didn't know who he was and they never had any reason to until now. The stranger was a complete wildcard that came out of nowhere.

Robin was the most concerned at that moment. He knew how dangerous a wild card can be. The things you know about his are concerning and the things you don't know about him are worse. You can tell they have skill and an agenda you can't be sure that is a benefit or a problem to your own. But you don't who or what is the motivation. Wild cards, by nature, can almost never be predicted and often they catch you off-guard. Wild cards are always the most dangerous element on the battlefield. But to whom the danger is directed to is a question that always needs answering.

"Right now, we have nothing on him," said Robin. "Absolutely nothing."

"Is there any way," said Starfire, "for us to possible find out who he may be. I am quite curious about that boy."

"We can't find out anything about him unless we confront him directly, Star. That's a lot easier said than done. We don't know where he's operating from…"

"Or who he's working for…" said Beast Boy.

"Or what his powers are if any…" said Cyborg.

"Or if he's our ally or enemy…" said Raven.

Everyone turned to Raven, again raising the point of trustworthiness between strangers. The incident with Terra never really wore off from her even though she has long since resolved her differences with the misunderstood geomancer. But then, that has always been her nature. She always questioned the loyalties of the people around her. That could be because of her own distrust in herself.

For the most part of hr life, she wanted to do nothing but good. But with her inheritance of her father's blood, all her life she always knew she was destined for beckoning the worst evil that mankind will ever face. Truthfully, the first person's loyalties she ever questioned were her own. Raven was the first person who Raven couldn't trust. This line of paranoia towards her self has often rubbed of on others, more often leading to dire consequences. In some way, deep down, she blamed a bit of herself for Terra's demise. Raven figured that some of the distrust she was throwing at Terra contributed to her decision into leaving the Titans. Could she have prevented it? If she only had been a bit more understanding, more accepting? Sadly, she'll never find out now and all that's left for her is the regret that came after, same with all her teammates.

She wanted to get rid of all that distrust that was inherent in her but for Raven that was a lot easier said than done. And as much as possible she didn't want it to influence her friends so much. At the same time, she couldn't help but be paranoid. With so little to call her own, including her friendships, she doesn't want to loose anymore than she has to.

"This is something we have to clear up," said Raven. "We also don't know whose side he's on. However, it was clear from Fallacy's actions towards him that he wasn't on the HIVE's side. I could sense the enmity between those two when we busted into the room."

"Then could he be our ally?" asked Starfire.

"Well, on Earth we do have an old saying, Star: The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"But that won't suffice it for me," said Robin. "There's always the possibility that he could be from a rival criminal organization we still don't know about. Or he could be a solo act like Red X."

"Do you have to be so paranoid all the time?" asked Cyborg, calling everyone's attention. "Look, why don't we think a bit more positive, man."

Cyborg was more than tired of Robin's pessimistic attitude towards unexpected events during cases. He always had, even though he was right over half the time. It wasn't in Cyborg's attitude to always look in the gloomy side of things. Ever since he became confined to his new metal body after his accident when he was younger, he figured that he went about as low a point as possible in his life. There was nowhere left to go but up. He never ceased looking at all the positive things and he wished some of his teammates do the same.

"What do you mean, friend Cyborg?" inquired Starfire.

"C'mon, it's obvious that this case is bigger than we originally figured it to be. I mean, we're after Chang, he's after Chang, the HIVE Five is after Chang…Right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the Salvation Army started putting up wanted posters for the guy as well! As much as we can, why don't we hope for more help to our side rather than more opposition?"

"I guess you have a point there. It would be nice if we had a new ally. However I cannot negate the suspicions of Raven and Robin. I feel that they are also valid."

"Let's just pretend for one second that he is a friend and that, even though we don't know each other yet, we're actually after the same thing. What then?"

"Well if he is our ally," said Robin, "then we'll have to find a way and work together with him. But I doubt he wants anything to do with us, judging by the way he escaped us at the arena. But this may be because he too doesn't know about us looking for Chang as well."

"But I think we'll run into him again soon enough," said Raven. "Since we're all after the same thing now, encounters are inevitable."

"And when we do meet him," continued Robin, "if he's really our ally, we'll find a way to help him."

"And if he proves not to be?" asked Starfire.

"We beat the crap out of him."

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In the HIVE Five's secret lair.

The five boys arrived soon after the whole debacle at the Jump City Arena. Gizmo was fiddling with his backpack which had taken off earlier and checked it for any extensive damage which Robin might have caused when he went and turned Gizmo into a piñata. Billy Numerous, just one of him this time, was rubbing the inside of his ear with a finger to get rid of the ringing caused by Cyborg's seismic attack. Mammoth, Kid Wykkyd, and See-More, who all generally just received major physical blows to their persons, were massaging some sore body parts.

Understandably, the group was not to happy with their situation. Not only did they get their butts whopped, they also didn't walk away with anything that they were after in the first place. The plan failed and they were back to square one.

More accurately, they never left square one.

"Well this was productive day…" said Gizmo, "NOT!"

"Will ya simmer down there, buddy," said Billy Numerous, rubbing a finger into his ear. "Ma' ears are still ringin' like a fire alarm on Apokolips! Dang them Titans!"

The door to their main room suddenly opened and Fallacy walked in rather briskly. She was obviously in no state of relaxation.

"What kept you, girl?" asked See-More. "We've been wondering where ya' were."

"Something happened?" asked Mammoth.

Fallacy gave them a look that said that she really didn't have any interest in answering that inquiry. But after all the boys have been through, she didn't want to be rude to them. She answered anyway. "I had…an unexpected complication."

"Care to expound on that a bit?" asked Gizmo with a mix of curiosity and frustration in his voice.

"We have unexpected competition," continued Fallacy, with more than enough loathing in her tone.

This picked the curiosity of all who were in the room. Everyone had that look of inquiry in their eyes and was genuinely interested in what Fallacy had to say. She looked over their expressions to confirm this and gathered the words she wanted to convey to her team.

"Someone else wants our target," said Fallacy. "Exactly who and for what reason, I cannot say though. But whoever he is, he has skill and powers enough to be a nuisance."

"Greeeeeaaaat…" said Gizmo with obvious sarcasm. "Just what we need."

Fallacy curved one side of her lip and looked towards Gizmo. "You despair so quickly, my young friend. You should be a bit more positive of the situation."

"Exactly what has been 'positive' in this whole situation? We got our butts kicked today! And we didn't even get any info on Chang!"

"So we may have been unsuccessful today. But this needs not to be despaired over. Wasn't it you yourself, little inventor, that said that we might need to consider alternatives?"

Gizmo was about to say something when he suddenly remembered that she was right. During the initial planning of their little escapade, Gizmo, in his ever whimsical manner, was the first one to say that not all their planned sources of information may actually have the information they needed so he told the team that they needed to consider more sources should any of the previous fail. Among their sources were, of course, the Teen Titans. Gizmo and the other boys immediately wanted to go after them first, perhaps to try and get them back for the incident in the electronics store. Fallacy couldn't persuade them otherwise. They soon found out that the Titans were a mistake and now they need to look elsewhere.

"Yeah, right…I forgot."

"Well then, we'll just have to explore other means of getting the information we want."

"But what about the Titans?" asked Mammoth.

"They have no clear Idea of what we're doing so I doubt they're going to be much of a problem since they cannot predict out movements. But…that boy…could be a problem."

"Exactly, who ya' talkin' 'bout anyways?" asked Billy.

Fallacy thought back to her encounter with the boy called 'Watcher' in the VIP Lounge of the Jump City arena. "I was confronted at the arena. The boy was young, but I can tell he has seen the battlefield before. He had skill and abilities that were not normal. He's a meta-human, that much was clear."

"A Titan?" asked See-More all of a sudden after hearing meta-human statement.

"No. He did not know the Titans directly, nor the other way around. He was alone and he had a different agenda to our own. But whatever that agenda may be, it involves our target and he was quite insistent when he questioned me about the treacherous old man."

"So that means what exactly?" asked a Billy clone who appeared out of nowhere.

"It means he'll cross our paths sooner or later. We need to be prepared for that instance."

"So what?" said Mammoth as he stood up brimming with confidence. "When I get my hands on the little squirt, I'll turn him into a pancake!"

"The problem is that you might not be able to get you're hands on him no matter how close you get."

"Huh?"

"You'll understand what I mean by that soon enough, my friend."

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In the middle of Jump City Park.

A place that's green is often few and far between in the middle of a bustling metropolis like Jump City. However, the people took the trouble to actually have a really big one right in the middle of the city. The city's central park, with its wide open area of grass, trees, ponds and an almost serene like quietness that was a stark contrast to the ordinarily noisy grounds of the city streets, is sanctuary for those who just want to find a quiet place to sit back and relax.

Coincidentally, Watcher just loved to relax.

He was on a park bench in front of a man-made pond, throwing pieces of bread on the ground which a whole flock of pigeons were more than happy to pick up on. Behind him, children were happily playing a game of catch with a Frisbee. Watcher looked back and smiled to himself while he continued to feed the birds.

He started to contemplate on his next move. The police didn't have anything useful in their databanks but he wasn't really expecting much from them in the first place. Maybe he should start looking in the more underground aspects of society. But who first to question? Well, he was pretty sure the HIVE Five didn't know where the old man was, otherwise why go to so much trouble at the arena. The Titans probably didn't know or maybe they didn't want to say anything. He'll just have to confirm it later on. Maybe he should try one of the villains that Chang supplied weapons and equipment to. There might be better prospects there.

As he was about to get up and leave, his pants pocket began to ring. He sat back down and picked up his PDA from his pocket which indeed was receiving a call from someone. He read the name of the caller being displayed. He grinned to himself before answering it.

"Hello?" he said to the phone.

"So, how badly have you screwed up this time?" said the distinct voice of a girl on the other line.

"Nice to hear from you to," replied Watcher with a slightly annoyed tone. "Do you always have to assume that I screwed up at something when I'm on assignment."

"Well, I've seen your track record."

"But, you've only been on a few assignments with me."

"And how many times did you screw up in each one?"

Watcher slapped his forehead in a bit of frustration. "Get off my case and just tell me why you called already."

"Touchy…well anyways I wanted to call about your target."

Watcher sat up straight and face turned serious. "What?"

"I've been doing as much digging from my end. Chances are you didn't find anything from the police didn't you? Well it's the same as me. I couldn't find a record of Chang anywhere on any "official" databases. However I managed to uncover a bit of a paper trail. It's not complete but at least I was able to learn something that's, I guess, a little bit important."

"What did you learn?"

"Chang's left the city completely so you won't find him there. He moved somewhere else, I can't tell where at the moment. Point is he's no longer in the mainland."

"I see. How did you know this?"

"I simply followed a paper trail I managed to dig up for the last known incident where the old fossil was involved in. During his last operation he operated with a partner. But that little project of theirs never really took off. I know that for sure. Anyway, looking back through some old files I hacked from their old facilities, he made a couple of side deals and purchases while he had that huge operation going on. I'm thinking those side deals might be involved in what his doing now. He managed to avoid detection all this time but we got lucky."

"Interesting. So he's actually been planning this for a long time now. Right under everyone's noses."

"Exactly. I also took a look at the interrogation records from the men of his that were captured in during his last operation. They didn't know anything exact but he was supposedly planning to move somewhere else."

"Got an exact location."

"Nope. But there are indications that he might have gone…north."

"North? Could be more specific?"

"Sorry, but that's all I got. Why don't you pull some weight around on your side. Maybe you could still find something in that city. If not, we'll just have to find better sources of information."

"We? As I last recall, this was my assignment. Aren't you supposed to be busy with that thing in--?"

"I was done with that yesterday and since I have nothing to do…why not do you a favor. I mean like I said, you're not exactly our model operative. I just thought you could use the help and all--"

Watcher let out a long sigh of exasperation. He knew all to well the real reason why she wanted to help so much. And he knew it wasn't because of him. "C'mon…you know that's not it."

Silence from the other line.

Watcher sat back on the bench. "You we're offered this assignment. The master even encouraged you herself. But you decided not to take and I ended up stuck with it. But even though you rejected it, I know you still wanted to take this assignment despite your initial rejection. Is it because it's him we're after? Is it because this is the Titans' city?"

More silence from the other line.

"You still there?" asked Watcher.

"…I guess you're right."

"And here I thought you were past that."

"C'mon, Watcher. You know what I'm going through. This isn't exactly easy for me either."

"I know that. I've had lousy experiences in the past so I know how hard it might be to get past that. I know what you're going through and I sympathize, believe me."

"Thanks."

"But I need to know if you're still dedicated to the objectives. You do know how important this assignment is, right? I need to know that you're not loosing focus."

"…No, I'm not. I know what's at stake. I know what the importance is. You know me, Watcher. I'll never let you down, or this world. Too many precious things here to loose."

"Great. I'm glad we're on the same page."

"I'll keep you posted when I get some new info. Until then I think you can handle that city for a while, can't you? Even if you do run into the Titans…which I'm sure you already did and that you're just not telling me…I'm sure you can handle them as well."

"What was that tip you gave me about them again."

"It's simple. Just…don't give them a reason to hate you. That's the worse mistake you could ever do to them."

"Right…you would know about that won't you?"

"No…I wouldn't"

Watcher snickered slightly to himself. "Of course…Anyway, thanks for the heads up."

"No prob, dude!"

With that, the caller hung up. Watcher snickered to himself again as he pocketed away his PDA. It was nice to hear a familiar voice. Now the plot became a bit bigger than he had expected. He was closer to his target, but not as close as he would've wanted. He'll just have to keep going from this point and simply roll with the punches. Even though he knew his target was nowhere in the city, he still had some things to do here. With a newly regained determination, he suddenly got up from the bench, startling several of the pigeons as he did. They all took to the air surrounding Watcher in a swirl of wings and feathers.

One day is over, soon starts another.

Leaving behind the bread for the birds to finish, Watcher walked away and disappeared back into the depths of the city.

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Author's Note: Slow progress in the meantime but the action will pick up in the next chapter. I just wanted to show that this plot has plenty of depth into it. Thanks to all those who have reviewed so far. Pls. R&R! See ya next time!