Slayer Anderson

HIVE-Minded IX

A Danny Phantom/Teen Titans Crossover Fanfiction

11/05/09

Chapter 9-First Impressions

Or

A Crisis of Faith

*A/N: The events of this chapter occur during the Teen Titans episode "Titans Go!" This is the 'origin' episode for the Titans, explaining their formation and their first battles.

"I still don't see why she put you in charge," Jinx stated in her best 'even though we're dating, and probably because of it, I'm still going to give you a hard time' voice.

"I have the most field experience," Danny stated, ice leaking through his voice as he tried to create the emotional detachment that had served the villains of the past so well. As long as he had the handicap of creating storms with his emotional turmoil, he might as well get some advantage from it. After all, to quote Technus, his emotions were 'his greatest weakness.'

After that insanity with Valerie?

He'd believe it.

He really wanted…whatever it was he had with Jinx to work. As such, he couldn't afford to be found lacking in the HIVE. Even more so than in a normal high school, weakness was frowned upon…just one of the reasons he'd gotten Gizmo to erase those practice tapes. Blundering on this mission would be tantamount to a declaration of incompetence.

Jinx was about as successful as HIVE students came. So, while no one would dare overtly interfere in anything she did…it would be frowned upon. Similar to the way Dash Baxter frowned upon Danny Fenton.

"So…very experienced leader," Jinx purred sarcastically, "What's the plan?"

Kyd Wykkyd tried his best to look as though he wasn't smiling.

Danny looked over the city from their perch on a mid-level skyscraper. It was a bit of an odd-ball among the stainless steel and mirrored glass of the rest of Jump City. The building was a relic from the early twentieth century and had survived the last earthquake that had turned the city into the ultra-modern edifice it was today.

As such, it had plenty of nooks and crannies to hide them, such as behind the gargoyle that currently sheltered the impromptu team. The view on the city around them, though, was anything but sheltered and calm.

Danny looked pensively at the swarm of green-blue space lizards that were crawling over the sprawling city. Normally, he would have rushed in headstrong, ectoplasm blazing, and completely assured that he was doing the right thing.

Normally.

Glacial ice crushed the guilt he felt from not going immediately to the rescue. "They're just destroying property. It seems the hologram was right, they're looking for something. As long as we don't interfere they should be gone in…"

The hologram reappeared, crushing Danny's hopes that there wouldn't be any violence. Evidently someone had decided to 'help' the escaped prisoner for some reason. Right now, he couldn't particularly donate any effort to figuring out why, but the irritation with whoever it was remained. Suddenly, his Spook Specks lit up in bright blue, highlighting a specific energy source.

A big one.

"Hey Jinx, Wykkyd?" Danny asked, his head tilting up and following the energy scans. "Does that look like an energy cannon to you guys or is it just me?"

The other two HIVE students looked up, staring blankly at the enormous alien ship. The dusky orange metal made it easy to pick out against the bright blue of the early afternoon sky and the rope-like cords of piping that were lighting up in sequence indicted…it was firing.

Danny hesitated for a moment, looking down at the increasingly violent aliens that had infested the city and the spaceship that looked to be charging to fire. Finally, he nodded to himself.

"I want you two down on street level. Take out any of the aliens you see threatening human life…permanently if you need to. If you have to choose between saving someone and revealing yourself…at this point it doesn't matter much so go ahead and save them. I'm going to take care of the spaceship."

Wykkyd nodded, not all that inclined to argue. Jinx stared at him before sighing, "Fine…I guess I can't tell you not to get yourself killed, but…"

Red eyes widened as Kyd was treated to the sight of Jinx shoving her tongue down Phantom's throat for a full minute. At last, the pinkette came up for air, breathing hard and grinning in a satisfied manner. She turned to Wykkyd and grabbed his arm, stepping into the darkness of his cloak as they both vanished, leaving the startled Phantom stunned and alone on the side of a building.

The ghost-boy shook himself and took off towards the spaceship. Still, there was a twang of guilt that he couldn't suppress over Jinx's comment. He still hadn't been completely truthful with her and he needed to change that…

As soon as he found a way to ensure she didn't run to Blood with the information. Phantom sighed and kicked his speed up a notch, turning intangible and phasing into the massive dreadnought. The section he found himself in was mercifully vacant, but alive with moving machinery and complicated mechanisms. He spent another moment looking around, trying to recognize any specific gizmo that would guarantee the destruction of the ship with minimal effort on his part.

Unfortunately, the ship itself consisted of primarily alien technology which was extremely unfamiliar. Case in point, he supposed he was in an engine room, but he just as easily could be in the utilities system or…

Anything, really.

"Well, I guess there's only one way to do this," Danny sighed, his hands glowing with spectral energy as he began to open fire.

Jinx fired a double set of hex bolts from her position in an alleyway.

Two giant lizards harassing a couple were thrown off their feet and into the concrete side of a building. Smiling widely, she raised her hands to her lips forming 'pistols' with them and gently blew on the ends. Turning to Wykkyd, she grinned.

"Top that."

Kyd Wykkyd raised an eyebrow before vanishing in a flash of shadow. The next instant, he'd covered twenty feet, grabbed a teen and teleported them away from an alien as the creature brought it's arms down, crushing the pavement. Wykyid deposited his cargo another dozen feet away and, in rapid succession, duplicated the tick another five times.

Jinx frowned at him before mowing down the lizards with a volley of hex bolts which turned the concrete and tar of the street molten and immobilized them in the quickly cooling stone. "Sure, guys take all the glory but leave the leg work for women."

Granted, Phantom was the only one of them who could actually fly and therefore got the spaceship by necessity, but it left her as the only one on the ground with any substantial offensive capabilities. Looking around her, she noted that there weren't any more aliens in her vicinity and grabbed Wykkid's shoulder as he ported them to a higher location to get a better view.

The lizards had really gone rapid when their leader had cut their leashes, injuring civilians out of sheer malicious glee than any apparent concern for finding the escaped prisoner they'd come for. The violence was disturbing in a way Jinx hadn't ever really contemplated before.

Sure, she'd beaten people to near-death.

She'd fought her share of knife-fights.

A smattering of robberies-gone-bad that had ended in violence…

But she'd never just gone out, picked someone at random, and tried to kill them. It was…pointless and while Jinx wasn't the most sane person in the world, pointless violence didn't belong on the streets of Jump City.

Honestly, she wasn't even sure why it bothered her.

She wasn't naïve enough to think that people didn't die for stupid reasons. Violence was a way of life, hers specifically, that she'd embraced. There was a difference, though, in kicking someone's ass for a twenty dollar bill and leaving a dead body on the sidewalk just to turn to the next person and do the same.

Damn…maybe Danny was getting to her with all his talk of morality and 'codes of conduct.' She'd always thought being a villain left a pretty clear cut morality.

Do what you need to…

Survive.

It was how she'd always lived her life, surviving the streets of Gotham, the Halls of Dark Way Preparatory Academy, and then the HIVE. Jinx shook herself from her reverie as Kyd Wykkid pointed out a building that was about to come under siege.

Jinx blinked, then looked at the blue-faced teen.

"Please tell me school's out, Kyd."

Kyd blinked, looked back at the building, and then turned a slightly paler face to Jinx and slowly shook his head. The two looked closely and could see panicking children inside the elementary school. Jinx scowled and looked around, trying to find some…thing. Something that could act as a force equalizer between two teenage meta-humans and nearly thirty super-strong alien lizards.

And then she smiled.

It wasn't a nice smile.

"You can drive a stick, right?"

Naomi was what most teacher would call a 'problem student.'

She cheated, blew spit balls, and had at least one fight per week. She was the most troublesome child in the third grade, and many of the adults could only dread and quiver in fear of what she would be when she grew up. Her vocabulary had made more than one seasoned professional faint from surprise and horror.

It should come as no surprise to anyone, then, that she had decided her time would be better spent in an extra period of 'art class' then in math. Granted, her definition of 'art' was a can of spray paint and a brick wall on the side of the school. She'd done such things before and nothing had come of it unless she was caught. Even then, the guidance councilors tended to blame the teachers for not properly motivating her instead of actually punishing her.

It had never occurred that today would be different.

Then the aliens invaded.

She'd ended up hiding behind a dumpster as the squad of vicious-looking lizards approached. They weren't looking particularly concerned with anything save the school itself and were heading directly towards the classrooms with children visible through the windows. Naomi bit her lip, feeling that she was supposed to do something to try and help, but not having the slightest clue what.

Then she appeared.

She had two pink horns of hair, a black and navy outfit, and pale-gray skin and was wearing a smile that mocked death and all it stood for. Naomi's jaw dropped as she spun into the horde coming at the school.

She moved like a cross between a dancer and an killer. As she wove between and through the beasts, she dodged each and every blow that came her way. She even reached out to touch them, a pink flash accompanying each errant nudge or shove and only serving to enrage the aliens more.

Finally, she jumped free of them and landed on to of the same dumpster Naomi was hiding behind, staring wide-eyed at the pinkette. Sure, it had been amazing, but what had bee the point of…

HOOOONK! HOOOONK!

As the air horn sounded, everyone's attention was drawn to the sixteen wheeler speeding across the street at eighty miles an hour. There was a dark figure at the helm, bearing down on the group with an intent to kill. A hundred feet before impact, the driver's cabin swerved ninety degrees to the left, throwing the tanker into a horizontal roll.

Each and every one of the aliens attempted to take flight, but found themselves held fast to the ground by pink energy, restraining them for the finishing blow. Like a giant rolling pin, the tanker smashed over them all and burst into a spectacular fire ball that left Naomi shaking in awe as a teen in a black cape with a blue face and red eyes just appeared from nowhere.

Jinx grinned and jumped down from her perch on the school's dumpster. "We bad?"

Kyd Wykkyd nodded firmly and held up a hand.

The pinkette slapped his open palm in the universal gesture of a high-five. "We're so bad we make it look good."

Kyd Wykkyd grinned toothily and waved to the kids who were looking on in amazement from their windows. Applause started up from the different classrooms as Jinx and Kyd took bows, trying to shrug off how nice it felt to be cheered for.

So much of their attention was on the kids that they never noticed one of the aliens stagger from the flaming wreck his platoon had become and raise his charred arms, preparing for a strike that would, at the very least, break bones and stun the teens for the follow-up killing blow.

Then Naomi moved.

She could never explain it, but she knew, knew that she had to protect the two. After all, they'd just done the same for her. Despite the fact that they were thirty feet away and she had only seconds to get to them. Time slowed down to micro-seconds as her body seemed to speed up, quickening inexplicably as the ground lost it grip on her form. By the time she made it to the two teens, she was almost flying.

She hit with all the force of a battering ram and knocked both Jinx and Wykkyd away from the now-crater of their former location. Then she blacked out, Jinx's startled face the last thing she remembered.

The bad luck witch hurled a bolt of pink energy at the last remaining alien as it combusted in an improbable reaction of fuel and skin. Then Jinx looked down at the girl who had most likely saved their lives and shook her head.

"Remind me to figure out how much sugar a brat like this has to have to hit that hard," Jinx snorted, rubbing a bruised rib and looking at Wykkyd.

The red-eyed teen nodded and picked up the girl, looking into the nearest window and teleporting into it, placing the girl on the nearest rest-mat, and popping back out in quick succession. He sighed as he looked over the destruction they'd wrought in the name of protecting the kids.

It made him glad to be a villain, he wasn't going to be taking the rap for this mess.

It was then that their attention was drawn to the falling alien ship and silently decided to high-tail it over to the bay area to meet up with Phantom. Provided, of course, there was a Phantom left to meet up with.

It turned out that he was in the cannon mechanism.

That was the good news.

After completely destroying the giant space cannon, he'd decided to be extra thorough and take his 'complaint' to the ship's bridge. Of course, he hadn't expected a third party to have the exact same plan and show up at almost the exact same time.

"Who are you!"

The question was asked by the groups apparent leader and, as Danny was about to reciprocate, he noticed what the other teen was wearing. Red, yellows, and blacks clashed in an outfit that was almost fit for a circus sideshow and culminated in the tiny domino mask that shielded his identity from view. Danny's eyes widened as he made the connection and was left with one, all important question.

What the Hell was Robin the Boy Wonder doing here!

He had a cadre of other teens behind him. There was a younger, green boy with elfin ears and a purple jump-suit on. A cloaked figure with glowing white eyes drifted slightly behind them, the blue cloth fluttering in a non-existent breeze. Another, orange-skinned girl hung in the air beside them wearing what looked to be armor as she charged two green energy blasts that seemed very similar to his own ecto-blasts.

Finally, his eyes drifted to the largest member of the team. His skin was a mix of African-American tones and blue circuitry with gray-silver lining. One normal eye and one red-cybernetic one stared at Phantom for a long moment before realization dawned. Danny took another few seconds, but eventually noticed the distinct similarity to another teen he'd seen, nigh on three months ago now.

The cool January air seemed taught with tension as the two teens stared each other down, knowing exactly what would happen when one made a move. Finally, Robin realized the unspoken stand-off as he surveyed their surroundings. All of the aliens, including their leader, were down and he'd been just about to call the operation a success. If this new figure was an enemy, though…

"His name's Phantom," Cyborg said seriously, his tone grave. "And he's trouble. He's the reason I have to worry about my people yelling 'freak!' every time I go outside."

Robin's mind spiraled for a moment, but he remembered the reports that had gone out on the meta-human. Batman had been preoccupied with a Joker-related matter, but he'd forwarded the newly created dossier on Phantom to the Justice League files. His course of action was clear, now.

"Danny Phantom, I'm taking you in on charges of attempted murder, theft, breaking and entering, destruction of federal and state property, and evading arrest." The other teens eyes widened at the charges their leader leveled against the floating figure in the white trench-coat and sunglasses.

Raven blinked curiously.

Phantom…where had she heard that name? She was sure someone on Azarath had mentioned the word as a name…referring to a specific person?

Danny frowned, he really wasn't looking for a fight right now. "Sorry, I don't have time to be arrested right now…curfew, you understand?"

Cyborg raised his newly converted right arm and focused the blue energy cannon on Phantom's figure. "Like Hell you don't! You almost killed my parents and you're gonna' pay for that…one way or another!"

Well, at least Silas had honored his wishes.

"I don't want to fight, but I can't just go with you, either." Danny stated boldly, wondering where he got the balls to talk that way to the Boy Wonder.

"Then we have a problem," Robin said grimly, drawing his staff and twirling it threateningly. "Last chance Phantom…come quietly."

"No."

"Let's Go team!"

On that cue, Cyborg opened fire with a rage-filled cry. Danny dodged the blast, not at all sure how the cannon would react with his own ectoplasmic make-up. The green elf seemed to run straight at him, then changed…

There was a brief flash of a bizarre mixture of claws, beaks, talons, and hooves before a green panther came clawing its way towards him. Danny went intangible reflexively, phasing through the changeling.

But not the follow-up starbolts that had been fired from the orange alien.

The impact was jarring as the spheres of energy detonated against his form. If he had to give an estimate, they were somewhere between Ember's blasts and Skulker's missiles. Still, they kicked like a horse on steroids and launched him backwards in a controlled fall. Taking advantage of the space, he phased through the floor of the lizard-alien's bridge, intent on escape rather than an outright fight.

He didn't expect to be met by a wave of black energy that forced him from the metal and back into the battlefield. His startled gaze met glowing-white orbs for a moment and then Robin was on him. As his mind rebooted, the Boy Wonder got in a lucky shot to the chin, worsening Phantom's already bad mood.

To make things worse, the alien craft had clearly been abused to the point of destruction, because it was now falling to earth in a controlled crash. Danny's Spook Specks lit up suddenly, tracking two energy readings…

And giving him just enough heads-up to dodge the second volley of starbolts and sonic cannon blast. Another phase through a green wolverine and Danny was left face-to-face with the dark sorceress.

"The is your last, chance," Danny stated, his voice practically glacial in it's chill. "You and your friends back off or I get serious."

Raven held his gaze as her innate empathy picked up just how dead-serious the ghost-boy was. The feeling of overwhelming cold was brimming with repressed emotions…rage, guilt, and a horrible anxiety that threatened ever her control. The fact that these emotions were second-hand made her wonder just what she was facing…

"I don't back down," Raven stated with as much confidence as she could muster, shaking off the feeling that, where ever she'd heard Phantom's name before, it wasn't a good association.

Danny nodded, "Fine."

Robin and Beast Boy were completely unprepared for another, identical copy of the ghost-boy to charge at them from seemingly nowhere. Starfire received another, and Raven yet another as the original turned to face Cyborg.

"I regret what happened to you and your family," Phantom said honestly. "But trying to arrest me won't change that fact and will get more people hurt."

"Like I'd believe a lying little spook like you!" Cyborg yelled, his sonic cannon firing again. Phantom dodged as he glimpsed one of his duplicates pelting the green elf and Robin with ecto-blasts and went intangible and invisible, ducking below Cyborg. This time, with Raven being harassed with another duplicate, there was nothing to stop him from getting below Cyborg and pulling him into the metal of the deck. When the black teen came out of phase, the floor held him fast as Phantom moved to double-team Raven with his duplicate.

Meanwhile, Raven had been fighting at her utmost limit of concentration. Phantom simply had too wide a range for her to easily match. Granted, she had enough tricks to play on even ground, too…

He would approach, she would hurl telekinetic objects at him.

He would go intangible and she would encompass him in black energy.

He'd phase through the simple binding spell and then go invisible.

She'd feel out for his emotions and then he'd fire off a few of those green energy orbs. Wash, rinse, and repeat. The stalemate persisted until another one of the four Phantoms took her from behind, disabling her with a burst of ectoplasm.

"Stay down," Phantom advised as the two took off, one each to deal with the slowly loosing Starfire and team of Beast Boy and Robin.

The Tamarainian flinched away from another volley of her opponent's energy blasts. Dear Clort! It was like fighting one of her own breed! Granted, she imagined even Blackfire would have considerable difficulty against this particularly opponent. His considerable strength, ability to conjure similar energy blasts, and flight were all on par with one of her own species…

The ability to copy oneself, phase in and out of the visible spectrum, and move through matter were all advantages that she did not possess, giving his the upper hand in combat without the use of great numbers.

Which they did not have.

Thankfully, high concentrations of energy seemed to affect the white-haired boy no matter his current state of being. Still, she could only throw so many starbolts before…

Robin stared as he watched another of his allies fall, taken by surprise by Phantom's duplicates. It was an amazing ability by itself…coupled with the others, though, it would most likely seal a win for the ghost-boy.

The Boy Wonder frowned as he hurled another ice-disk, watching in satisfaction as his aim held true and the element of surprise allowed the disk to actually hit for once. He'd learned the hard way that normal attacks simply didn't cut it with this enemy, leaving him outclassed in a way he normally only felt against seasoned villains.

Beast Boy took advantage of the momentary surprise that Phantom succumbed to when the ice encased his arm, turning into an anaconda and wrapping around his prey. Almost instantly, the duplicate dispersed, having taken too much damage to sustain itself.

Beast Boy threw a satisfied grin towards Robin, which rapidly faded as he perceived the three remaining Phantoms charging their way. Luckily for both the changeling and Boy Wonder, Raven had managed to pull Cyborg free from the spaceship's deck with her own unique phasing ability. The resulting cannon-fire and black energy dispersed two more clones, leaving the original hanging in mid-air, surprised and vulnerable to the final volley of starbolts from Starfire who had dragged herself from the crater her forced landing had created.

An advantage which surely would have been used had not the spaceship's engine given a last gasp and failed, dropping into the ocean in one final plunge. Thankfully, the craft didn't sink through some miracle of engineering, but all of the Titans and Phantom were thrown off due to the sudden, rocking impact.

As they reoriented themselves, Phantom gave them a level stare, "Please, stop this before someone is hurt. I don't want to fight you, but you're forcing me to stop playing around."

Robin frowned openly…the reports on Phantom had a decidedly negative tint to them, casting him as some bloodthirsty meta-human that didn't care what got in his way. The teen in front of him was….well, not. He was tough-skinned, skilled, and headstrong, but wasn't overly violent in any way…

Plus, there was the question of what Phantom was doing on the ship in the first place? Still, if he wasn't as guilty as the charges against him held…why was he so resistant to being taken in? No, Phantom's temperament was too complicated and a resolution would only come if he managed to get him under an interrogator's lamp.

"You're coming in. I can't make exceptions for anyone…least of all a criminal with this much evidence against them," Robin stated, his face blank of emotion.

"I was afraid you'd say that," Danny growled, some of his repressed emotions leaking through. His concentration had taken several hits with not only the combat itself, but the destruction of his duplicates and those Starbolts, which disrupted his ectoplasm somewhat. The crack widened and the sky started to darken, a cloud cover rolling in far too quickly to be natural.

Beast Boy's eyes switched from the sky to Phantom's figure as it glowed with green energy, his trench-coat ruffling in the increasing wind. "Guys…this might be a bad time, but…"

Robin's eyes widened as a series of lightning bolts! slammed into the water around the fallen ship, Phantom's hands seemingly directing them. The wind jump another notch, water beginning to funnel into the sky as a vortex formed.

Then, suddenly, the forming hurricane dissolved into a torrent of water that formed a deluge of water…which quickly froze mid-air into a bank of the thickest fog any of the teens had ever seen. Robin didn't need any of the others to confirm what he suspected.

Phantom was already gone.

But why, if he had such power, had he just used it to cover his escape!

Ah, updates. Well, I received quite a bit of feedback from the last chapter. I'm glad to report that most of it was positive and the rest was very interesting. Well, the Titans (even if they haven't named themselves that yet) are here. They're big, they're bad, and Danny really didn't want to kill them. Can you blame him? Me neither. Also, we've got a little Cyborg/Danny fight scene, but more will follow. There will also be some other changes coming up as I move through the episode list.

Now, from here on out I'm going to be moving into the actual episodes. There will be a block of time before 'Divide and Conquer' occurs, but after that you might be thinking that each and every episode is going to happen according to what's been laid out in the series. Now, I'm not bitching or anything, but I am warning all of you cannon-nazis...why are you even reading fanfiction in the first place, anyway?...that I'm going to be playing fast and loose with the Titans storyline. I'm not going to really alter any of the major plot arcs, but I will change up the order of the episodes sometimes.

Why?

Well, for an in-story explanation you could say that we've entered the whole 'butterfly effect' scenario. Danny's involvement in Jump City has changed things for better or worse. So, if something happens that didn't in the main storyline, don't yell at me. For an out-of-story explanation, it's more along the lines of...everyone here has watched Teen Titans, right? Do you want to watch the entire freaking series again? No? Thought not. Do you really want me to go, episode by episode and fight every battle...just with Danny Phantom there?

Whether you want me to or not, I won't. Why? It would be boring to read. More than that, it would be boring to write. I'm enjoying writing this story as much as many of you are reading it, but I have my limits. Being bored out of my skull is one of them. So...that's it for my little rant. Anyone who's curious about Danielle? I'm handing out a promise. Yes, a promise and as Naruto as my witness, I won't break it. The absolute latest I will get Dani Phantom in the story is chapter 16. So, mark your calendars, Dani's coming.

Ah...as always, Read, Review, and Enjoy.

-Slayer Out!