Beast boy slouched into the mission room and collapsed on the counter. Robin was busy watching the news since it was five o'clock and Starfire was reading how to make spaghetti. However it was believed to be debatable whether she was actually learning anything outside of unintentionally developing a new means to poison all life forms outside of Tamaranians. Raven was sitting upright reading a book on something doomed to scare the crap out of him if he even tried to read for once. And Cyborg and Carda had been holed up in the Garage working on some sort of weapon thinga-ma-jigger. Whatever it was, it had better be worth it.

"I never knew that humans made spaghetti sauce out of tomatos." Starfire said cheerfully.
"What did you THINK it was made out of?" Raven asked unimpressed.
"The blood of a wild Derangimoose from Wramjak 4. It tastes similar." she smiled killing off whatever Beast boy was thinking of having for an appetite. Robin raised an eyebrow sceptically as the news reported something.
"In unrelated news, sightings of UFOs are increasing past the die hard fans of these peculiar alleged extra terrestrials. Average every day non-believers are now also reporting such fabricated phenomenon. The sightings are remarkably similar in nature and the locations match one another's reports with fascinating detail. We will report more latter at five thirty after World News."
"Huh." Robin said thinking thoughtfully.
"What is it Robin?" Starfire asked.
"If UFOs are being spotted, it could be a sign that the Imperium is moving their forces. Or at least what they already have here." he replied still watching the news.
"Carda better hurry up with those weapons he was coming up with. I'm bored without Cyborg." Beast Boy said obliviously. Raven shook her head and got up heading for the door when it suddenly opened and Cyborg and Carda stood in the door way, only Carda had a pair of large cylindrical gauntlets on his forarms. Three long circular narrow spikes extended out over his knuckles from the gauntlets.
"Wow. Is that what you were talking about?" Robin asked slightly stunned. Carda lifted them up and looked at them for a minute, Cyborg's titanium technology glowing blue in parts.
"Eh, kinda. Didn't have as many features as my first pair but I left those back at the palace in Catharia. These will have to do." He said smiling slightly.
"What do they do?" Beast Boy asked, voice cracking excitedly.
"The inner two spikes double as automatic exploding darts. The outside spikes can be fired and used as grappling hooks and the center ones are capable of extending into rapier scythes." Carda said pointing at each as he listed them.
"Coooooool!" Beast Boy murmured "Can you show us?"
"Maybe later." Carda replied. Suddenly the infamous warning sirens blared. Robin grimaced.
"Trouble!"


Red X stood at the foot of the pedestal, fingers mere inches from the vial of Xynothium.
"I wouldn't touch that stuff if I were you." Red X wheeled around at the voice.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Red X asked back. Carda walked into the room, gauntlets glistening.
"Mind if I ask the same question?" Carda asked.
"Doesn't the uniform say enough for you?" Red X asked sceptically pointing at the x on his hand. Carda stared for a moment then shook his head.
"Sorry, all I'm picking up is insecure dweeb. Must be a wrong number. Or in this case, outfit. You call those arms? I've got you outgunned kiddo." Carda said, throwing around some earth slang. He stretched his arms and flexed his fingers before taking a stance.
"Me? Wrong guy. See, your the new kid on the block. You haven't seen what I can do." Red X said, eyes narrowing.
"Does it really matter? Your going to lose anyway." Carda stated in a surprisingly polite tone.
"We'll see if you live to find out how wrong you are."
"Likewise." Carda replied and the two jumped into the air, clashing in the middle. Carda kneed Red in the gut and grabbed his arm before side flinging him into a wall. Red X grunted in pain while Carda landed lightly on his feet. When Red X had gotten back to his feet he teleported out of sight. Carda grinned closing his eyes and shot out his left arm, smacking Red X clear across the jaw as he materialized. As Carda rolled away to keep his distance from his opponent, Red X landed on his side.
"H-how did you-"
"Every one of your strengths is a weakness. Learn from that and you will see true and terrible powers surpassing the limits of imagination." Carda said getting to his feet.
"But that still doesn't explain-"
"Explanations are the reason why you're are losing. Your mind is too busy looking for reasons rather than weaknesses. Robin learned a bit of that, that's why he beats you every time." Carda said before spinning behind him and kicking his feet out from under him. Before he could hit the ground, Carda grabbed him by the collar and flung him into a wall. Red X jumped to his feet and took a defensive stance. Carda sighed.
"Alright, alright. I'll go easy on you since you need the tutorial. Lesson one; crime doesn't pay." Carda said and charged at normal speed. Red X jumped up and flipped firing Xs from the palms of his hands. Carda dodged and ran vertically up the wall before propelling himself in Red X's direction. Red bent backwards falling in a back-flip maneuver. As he landed on his feet he brought one X weilding fist up blocking a downward attack from Carda as he slammed his left gauntlet into his X. Only Carda had a second move in store slamming Red X in the lower chest with his right elbow and kicking him away with a spinning kick to the forehead.
"Come on, I'm not even warming up." Carda taunted. Red X didn't realize it, but Carda was actually just working his nerves down to the point that he simply didn't want to fight anymore. He had no real intention of chalenging him into seeing what he was capable of since he guessed that Red X was probably exhausted from bypassing security measures. They had been better than the last in that they prevented Red X's signature teleportation system.

Meanwhile the Teen Titans were seeing how well Carda was doing on his own from the door.
"How long should we let him go?" Robin asked to Cyborg who was leaning casually against a wall.
"Still waiting for him to use his spike rockets. I want to see how good he can use this weaponry." Cyborg said looking down at his wrist at a pair of diagrams, one of Carda's statistics and the other of the readouts submitted by the android "Red X" who he was fighting.
"You doubt he can use those things as weapons?" Robin asked.
"It's not that. I just haven't seen anything like them before. I want to see him in action before we go in field with this kid. Just out of curiosity." Cyborg shrugged.
"Increase the difficulty then. Carda is beating Red's butt!" Beast Boy said pointing. Carda was giving the android a beating for the records. Cyborg nodded and switched the android to full difficulty.
"Could that not be dangerous? He is not expecting such a surge of skill from his defeated enemy." Starfire asked nervously.
"You can never expect anything from your enemy in reality. This is a realistic taste." Robin replied calmly.

As Carda got up from his beating thinking the fighting had left Red X, he suddenly narrowed his eyes. Carda frowned confusedly. Without warning Red X sprang into action and kicked Carda clear across the room. Carda caught himself in mid air and flipped backwards landing on his feet bringing up his right gauntlet and firing a stream of glowing explosive spikes in Red X's direction. One explosion after the next erupted sending clouds of debris and flame everywhere. Red X narrowly avoided the explosions and jumped across the room with alarming speed towards Carda. Carda fired the grapling hook on his left hand up into the ceiling and began opening fire with his right at Red X below. Red X blocked with a massive x sheild and jumped up after Carda. Carda planted his feet against the wall behind himself and kicked while retracting his grappling spike before rolling to the ground and spinning around, scythe spike extended catching Red X's throwing x in a swift swing and sent it off in another direction where it exploded.
"Holy CRAP! HE IS AWSOME!" Beast Boy squealed and slumped on the floor.
"This is amazing! His fighting style is similar to eastern martial arts but has a more animal like aproach to it. Look at the low profile he keeps. He rarely stands defensively. It's always upright or crouch." Robin said pointing at the replay playing on Cyborg's arm.
"It is the traditional stance of the warrior family of the Catharians, the Cae-Vu-Don. They mirror the stance of the animals to allow for a smaller target to hit. Attacks are offensive yet not always designated to do harm. They are intended merely to disable and eliminate the will of the opponent to fight." Starfire explained.

Carda jabbed and lunged knocking aside Red X's x blades on the backs of his hands and kicked his feet out from under him. Red X rolled left and threw a handful of throwing xs in Carda's direction. Carda fired a single rocket catching all of them in the explosion. Red X teleported behind Carda but Carda was ready and caught the x saw in mid spin. They jumped away and returned at each other, striking back and forth. Carda got inside Red X's guard and cut off the belt at his waist while disabling his hands by wrapping them in a grappling spike cord. Suddenly the "Red X" toppled over and the mask slid off it's face revealing circuits and wires.
"Huh?" Carda asked confused and turned when the team walked in."Why didn't you guys help?"
"Didn't need to. I was at the controls!" Cyborg said grinning.
"What?"
"We needed to see what you were capable of before we saw you in field. We salvaged a drone of Slade's from one of our previous battles and gave it a 'Red X' like suit. Only it would only run the suit systems for around five hours before it shutting down but we had a hunch you could handle it." Robin said smiling.
"You mean you fight those every day?" Carda asked.
"Eh, on bad days when Slade is in town, yeah." Raven shrugged.
"Sure works up a sweat, and for me that's saying something." Carda replied smiling.
"So you're not all powerful?" Beast boy asked sort of let down.
"I just don't show pain or weakness in a fight. It helps discourage the opponent." Carda said shrugging.
"Weird." Beast boy mumbled.
"Naw, I think it's kinda cool." Raven said in a painfully concomital voice.
"Regardless, I think you would make an excellent addition to the team." Robin said stepping forward and holding out a Teen Titan communicator.
"Are you sure? I have enemies that will get in the way from time to time." Carda mentioned warningly.
"I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle."
"Then Robin of the Teen Titans, I would like to join your team."
"Welcome aboard, Carda."