Titans: Tomorrow
Chapter Ten: New Blue Zinthos

My name is Phoenix "Nick" Jefferson, and I'm new to this planet. Well, not completely. I mean my parents let me watch TV from Earth and seven other dimensions back at our home in the other-dimensional Fate Tower. And trust me, with that many channels, you can bet they made good use of the V-Chip. So I know a lot about Earth, but there's also a lot I don't know.

But one thing I do know—I always wanted to be like Superman. And that's why I came to Earth to meet him. Unfortunately, it seems my parents missed Metropolis and dropped me in their old stomping grounds, Jump City.

And that's how this all got started, really. I may be the last to the party, but the party didn't really start till I got there, and that was really thanks to my mom and dad. They're like living legends to the rest of these new Titans. To me, though, they're just my family. It feels weird, them hanging off every word they say. But they teach me things, and that means a lot to me. I'm learning to be like Superman from them. But first, I had to get started. And this is how it happened.

My name is Phoenix Jefferson. They call me Ignis, and this is my story.

Robin charged forward first, leaping over Elephant Man with her jet boots and dodging a magic blast from Aquarius. Then she slammed a boot into Shimmer's face, sending the criminal sprawling on his back against the roof top. Robin immediately turned and began hammering Glimmer in the stomach with a bunch of powerful punches. Simmer blasted her in the back with a beam of light energy from his finger, but it wasn't powerful enough to disable the heroine. Simmer punched at Robin, but she deflected it and pulled his arm into a joint lock, then transitioned into a judo toss that send Simmer landing on top of Glimmer.

Phaeism and Superboy both went after Elephant Man, Superboy taking the direct approach by slamming his shoulder into the mutant's solar plexus (or at least where he expected it to be assuming the creature was more man than elephant.) Phaeism, on the other hand, took a more indirect approach, bursting into gas and forming several tendrils of the cloud into hooks that dug into Elephant Man's flesh and caused the brute no small amount of pain.

Superboy waited for Phaeism to cause enough pain to draw a cry—well, more like a roar—from the mammoth and then delivered a crushing kick to Elephant Man's open lower jaw. Several ivory teeth clattered to the roof of the building, and Elephant Man fell on top of them.

Superboy smirked. "Nobody will call me a pretender after today."

"Ignis' dad still might," Phaeism said, now just a floating torso. His body coalesced back into a teenager.

"Bite me, Alex." Kevin turned and used his laser vision to slice Elephant Man's ivory tusks off.

Claire and Ignis both went after Aquarius, dodging a flurry of magic ice blasts from his twin magic gauntlets. Claire nodded as she went high, slamming a fist into Aquarius' face, even as Ignis went low, shooting a burst of fire into Aquarius knee caps.

Aquarius fell to the ground, unable to stand with his knees set aflame… And then Claire stomped his rubbery head so hard the shape shifting criminal fell unconscious. "Game, set, match, huh?" Claire said with a smirk, glancing at Robin.

The Teen Wonder walked over and the five heroes regrouped. "That was almost two easy…." Robin worried aloud.

"Famous last words," Kevin said. "Anytime something seems too easy, it usually is."

As if on cue, all the incapacitated Brotherhood of Evil members suddenly vanished into the white light of a teleportation beam. And to top it off, the building shook violently, as if suddenly struck by a wrecking ball. And then it happened again, harder, causing Robin and Ignis to lose their footing and fall over.

"This can't be good," Claire said, helping Robin up. "What exactly is this building we're on?"

Superboy shrugged. "I'll go check." He blasted off in a blur of blue and black, and returned just as quickly. "I'm not sure if this is relevant, but this is a cryogenics facility. They make those freeze-dried ice cream and stuff that astronauts eat on the trips to Saturn."

"Is it blowing up?" Phaeism asked. "I'm not sure why a cryogenics facility would be blowing up, but I don't particularly care to find out."

The Titans began to run towards the edge of the roof to escape, when suddenly, Robin stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait a minute. This is a cryogenics facility… What did Raven's kid just blast off the roof?"

"A giant… ice monster." Superboy said. Then he facevaulted when he realized what Robin was getting at. "You don't think…?"

The Titans turned and ran towards the section of the roof where Ignis had blasted the Ice Monster—when a massive icy hand slammed down onto the rooftop right in front of them. "Oh spiff!" Ignis cried, backpedaling into Clair.

The air cooled instantly as a second massive frosty hand slammed down onto the roof of the building, and the Ice Monster pulled itself up into full view of the Titans. Robin craned her neck all the way up and could barely make out the creature's head. "Titans… RUN!" she cried.

All the teens turned and took off in the other direction, but it immediately became apparent they weren't going to get away that easily—because the fastest of them, Superboy, was immediately blasted out of the air by an enormous burst of ice energy, frozen solid by the time he landed, pieces of his boots and shirt literally chipping off as he hit the hard metal roof.

"Kevin!" Alex gritted his teeth as he ran over to the frozen superhero. He tried to turn Kevin upright to see if he could get him to breath, but the Kryptonian's body was so cold Alex's hand recoiled reflexively as he touched it, and found himself unable to break it down into a gas for seconds afterward. "Holy Yao—we're spiffed..."

Robin snarled something unintelligible and pulled out an explosive disk, throwing it at the Ice Demon with as much strength as she could muster; the explosion made a small divot in the Ice Demon's abdomen, but it quickly repaired itself.

Robin glanced at Ignis. "You have any more of that magic fire?"

"I'll try!" Ignis ran forward, stepping backwards into a deep fighting stance again, and letting loose another burst of flame. But this time it was so much smaller than the Ice Monster that an explosion of steam from the creature's skin was the only visible reaction…

Ignis took a step back and fired again, blasting away chunk after chunk, but quickly exhausting himself. "FIRE BLASTER BALL!" he cried, creating a sphere of flaming death above his head, then hurling it at the Ice Demon…

But even that only managed to expose the monster's innards—innards that were quickly covered by another layer of ice…

And Robin could see Ignis wouldn't hold out much longer; he was breathing hard and drenched in sweat. "This isn't working," she told him.

"Could have… fooled… me…" Ignis said between breaths. He fell to his knees, continuing the hard breathing. "Sorry… Not used to this… yet…"

The Ice Monster stalked a bit closer, exhaling a powerful burst of ice energy at the thing that had attacked it…

When suddenly a twin pair of red lasers slammed into the ice and turned it into steam. Heads craned to see Superboy, still frozen below the armpits, hovering above the rest of the group. "Geez-Louise, I've never felt this cold in my life. I've never felt any cold in my life period! I never knew cold was this spiffing painful." Shivers wracked the teen's body, but he was also vibrating his atoms fast enough that the ice was melting fairly quickly…

"I'd ask if you were strong enough to walk," Robin said, "but with you're legs frozen it's a moot point."

"Funny." Superboy slammed his body into the ground as hard as he could, trying to break the ice that remained, but only parts of it fell off. "I guess I'll just have to wait.

The Ice Demon was now hovering over the Titans, and Superboy was doing what he could with his heat vision to keep it busy, but it was a losing battle. "Ignis!" Claire shouted. "Do something, call your mom if you have to!"

"I don't know how… But.."

"But what?" Robin snapped, trying to help Kevin out with the little ammo she had left. "Spit it out..."

"My mom told me I could say these magic words in an emergency, but only in an emergency… Is this an…"

"YES, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!" Robin shouted over the Ice Monster's loud roar and the sound of Kevin's eyebeams.

"Are you sure?"

"YES!"

Ignis took a step back. "Okay then."

He closed his eyes, and sat down on the roof, and then, he began chanting. "Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…. Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

The Titans were forced to back up as an aura of fire erupted around Ignis, and he hovered off the ground, still in the sitting position.. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

A pillar of fire shot straight up, and Ignis threw his head back, his eyes opening, now glowing pure white. His face was like a feral animal. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos Azarathmetrionzinthos…"

"DO IT NOW!" Superboy shouted, throwing himself at the ground as he was overwhelmed, his eyebeams vanishing and the Ice Monster's attack passing cementers above him…

"AzarathMetrionZinthos... AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"

Ignis final cry caused energy to explode off of him in all directions, and the Titans gasped as his Soul Self poured out of his body; but unlike Raven's, which was dark energy shaped like a raven, the Soul Self that came from Ignis was an enormous flaming bird, a searing heat pouring off of it as fire spewed from its mouth… And then it opened its wings, filling the sky around them with fire. Motorists and pedestrians fled, the gust of heat melting plastic for miles around the city.

The Ice Demon didn't stand a chance. It was instantly engulfed as Ignis' soul self slammed into it; the water from which it was composed began simmering off the rooftop as steam or running down into the streets below.

"Now I see why they named him Phoenix," Alex said, his face a mask of awe..

But Ignis' soul self was smaller now, the flames weaker, and it frantically turned and headed back towards his body, slamming into it and knocking it into Claire's arms, the flames flowing into Ignis mouth. His eye snapped back to normal. "That was a rush," he said, before promptly falling unconscious.

Hours later, Superboy and the rest of the new generation of Titans gathered in a meeting room at Master Tower, the same room where Kevin and Max Leech had reached their agreement. "So, it's official then?" Robin said, rubbing her aching temples. "We're going to call ourselves the Teen Titans or some variation thereof."

"I don't see why not," Phaeism said. "How many teams have called themselves the Doom Patrol? Or the Suicide Squad?"

"Um, the Suicide Squad were villains," Claire said. "Not a good example."

"No, no it wasn't." Phaeism looked across to the cyborg-armed lady. "Your thoughts on the subject."

"I really don't care," she said. "As long as we don't call ourselves something stupid like the Spiff-You Squad."

"Do you think the kid is gonna join us?" Kevin asked with a slight grimace. "There's no denying he's useful in a fight—and considering the Brotherhood got away, there's no doubt going to be another big fight—but…"

"He's green," Phaeism said, obviously aware of the irony of that statement coming from him. "And he doesn't seem particularly fond of you."

Superboy shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, he'll warm up to me. I'm a famous person after all."

"Somehow I doubt that will really matter to him," Robin said. "If what I've heard about Raven and Yin is correct, they moved off this plane into a pocket dimension about fifteen years ago, right around the time Raven would have become the new Dr. Fate—"

"And right around the time the kid would have been born," Claire added. "Which means he's been raised without any knowledge of Earth and it's ways. His only influence is his dad, and…"

Claire trailed off, and Phaeism looked at her concernedly. "And what?"

"You know a lot about old history, but you don't know a lot about turn of the century heroics," Claire said. "But living in the Undercity, I learned a lot about how great this town used to be. But they always said Yin was a bit of a hardliner—a merciless right wing propaganda machine."

"Well considering the down and out sources, they may have exaggerated a bit," Superboy said. "I mean, would you trust the history books or a smelly hobo from the Undercity?"

Claire glared at this dismissal, but said nothing. "Look, I'm not here to debate credibly, I'm just saying that Superboy's lifestyle isn't exactly the model of generosity and selflessness. Not saying mine is, just that Superboy publicly performed heroics for money. And most heroes are going to look down on that—I sort of look down on that—Yin is just less forgiving, or so my 'smelly hobo' sources tell me." Claire's tone dropped a few degrees Celsius upon repeating Superboy's epithet.

Suddenly, a loud buzzing noise filled the nearby living room, and light from under the door began pouring into the conference room. All the Titans ran out there, only to be blinded by pulsating sphere of energy, that receded instantly into the shape of an ankh…

From which emerged none other than Raven, a sardonic grin on her face that didn't match the warmth in her eyes. "Maybe you should ask him yourself."

Raven motioned to the portal, from which another figure stepped, this one taller, with a black and white costume and spiky blond hair.

The ankh portal vanished, giving the Titans their first good look at the two. "Dr. Fate…" Robin gasped. "It's an honor to meet you."

"I'm sure it is," Raven said, still smirking. She stepped forward, her long dress dragging the floor slightly. "Where is my son?"

"He's in the back room," Phaeism volunteered. "My caretakers Daniel Chase and his wife Samantha are with him. They say they see nothing wrong, he just needs rest."

"He needs lots of rest," Dr. Fate confirmed, adjusting the headdress that had once been the Helm of Nabu until an accident had shattered most of it. "That's the first time he's ever had to use his soul self, and I need to discuss some things with him."

Raven hovered above the ground and took off down the hallway, leaving the Titans with Yin. His costume was different than the one in the file photos Kevin had seen, but not entirely dissimilar. Now, though, instead of a symbol for simply Yin, there was a full Yin-Yang symbol on the breast. Yin seemed to smile at his wife as she flew down the hallway, and then turned to the Titans. "Please excuse Raven for being rude, she's not exactly in the best of moods."

"Is that so?" Phaeism said, suddenly popping up between Yin and the hallway. "In any case, I'm a historian of sorts, as a hobby, and I wanted to ask you a few questions about your early days as a Titan. Do you mind?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then, first question. How did you join the—wait, did you say that you did mind?"

"Yes," confirmed Yin. "I don't want to answer any questions until after I've checked on my son. Now please excuse me." He quickly brushed Phaeism aside and followed Dr. Fate down the hall.

"Smooth," Claire commented. "Real smooth."

Phaeism sweatdropped, but was not deterred. "I'll just talk later, assuming that Daniel and Samantha do the predictable thing and invite them to stay for dinner."

Kevin frowned. "I'd like to give the guy a piece of my mind, calling me a corrupting influence. Bah. Spiffing old people think they spiffing know spiffing everything."

"Speaking of old," Robin said, "why do those two still look thirty? They've got to be pushing sixty."

"One of the things I plan to ask in my interview," Phaeism said. He quickly jotted something down on his notepad. "As of two seconds ago."

"Hey, Nick…" The soft words helped ease the exhausted teenager back to consciousness… "How are you feeling, kid?"

Ignis pulled himself up and forced his heavy eyelids to open, and immediately realized one thing—he had no idea where he was. The room was big, with a rounded far wall and windows to match. But he didn't recognize any of it…

"Dad?" he whispered.

"I'm right here," came a voice to his left.

Ignis turned to see not only his father, but his mother as well. "You gave us a bit of a scare," Raven said. "We expected you to have a run in with the new kids who want to be the Titans. But we didn't expect you to have to use the Soul Self so early."

"Soul Self?" Phoenix asked.

"It's the source of you powers, Nick," Yin said with a smile. "Comes from your mom's side of the family."

"You mean… the T-word?"

Raven nodded somberly. "But Trigon is gone, dear. Your power is not evil, it just is. Evil is in the intent, and you used it for something good today. But in the process, you did cause a lot of damage to the city."

"Oh no… Am I going to go to jail?" Nick shuddered. "I don't think I could handle prison as tired as I am right now. I heard President Stewart wants to take all the TVs out of prisons. I'd get bored. You know I would."

"That's not something you have to worry about," Yin said. "It's okay. Nobody was hurt, and there is a team of lawyers that handles the damage. But just remember what you caused, okay? So you don't repeat the mistake. Having power is no excuse to abuse it."

"I don't think I could abuse this power!" Ignis laughed. "There's no way. I'd just pass out any time I tried."

"You seem to be in good spirits," a new voice said. "Ignis?"

"Hm?" Nick turned to the other side of the bed to see a woman he hadn't noticed before, and someone he didn't recognize. Behind her stood a man he also didn't recognize, but seemed somehow familiar. "Who… are you guys?"

"Nick, don't be rude," Raven scolded.

The woman smiled kindly, though. "It's okay. My name is Samantha Chase, and this is my husband Daniel." She motioned to the man. "We are sort of like Phaeism's parents, and this is our house. The rest of the kids brought you here after you passed out."

"It's quite an impressive power you have," Daniel Chase said. Ignis thought he had a funny smirk, like something that was really hilarious, but only to himself…. Daniel reached out a hand and greeted Ignis by his nickname Nick. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too…"

Despite the anxiety and despite how tired he was, Ignis smiled. He was not sure of what was going on. But he knew, somehow, maybe because of his mother's blood in his veins, that it was something good. Maybe something that would save the world someday. Only time would tell, though…

"So you fought vampires?" Phaeism gasped.

"Yup," Raven said.

"And the Titans of Myth?" Superboy's eyes lit up.

"Indeed," Yin confirmed. "Don't tell me you know nothing about the Near Apocalypse of 09."

"I thought that was started by one of Batman's enemies," Robin said. "Some Ghoulish guy."

"Yes," Raven said, "but the Titans of Myth, including Kevin's great grandfather Cronus, were pawns in his scheme."

Ignis stuffed his mouth full of pork rinds and said something to the gist of how Raven and the other Titans had saved the world from Trigon over five times. Raven dismissed that as ridiculous and said it was less than half that.

Soon, though, the mood got a bit more somber as the sun began to set. Raven—no, Dr. Fate—stepped forward, and stood by her son. But she spoke to the whole room. "The Chases helped the Titans out in the past," she said, "and now they've offered to let all of you stay in their home, at least until you can find a more permanent headquarters."

"Thank them for it one at a time to let them know you mean it." Yin laughed.

"If you five are really serious about this—especially you, son—then I'm not going to stop you, and I'm not going to give you a lecture. You know the risks and rewards of the job. It's going to get harder than you can probably imagine on some occasions. And the adults won't always be there to bail you out."

Then, with a sad smile, Raven turned to her son. "You wanted to meet Superman, but right now his grandson will have to suffice. Is that okay?"

"I can meet Superman any time," Ignis said. "But being a founding member of the Teen Titans? That's something only ten people in the history of people can say."

Robin shook her head. "Fifteen people," she corrected. "If everyone is okay with this."

One by one, the five teenagers all nodded, affirming their commitment to the new team. It was finally official. And none of them could truly believe it.

My name is Carrie Kelly. I'm Robin.

My name is Alexander Lambert. I'm Phaeism.

My name is Claire Brichton. Or just Claire.

My name is Kevin Kent. I'm Superboy.

My name is Phoenix Jefferson. They call me Ignis.

We're the Teen Titans. And this is our story.