I'm an absolutely horrible promise breaker, I know, but here you go!

Warning: Because I'm THE procrastinator, this is unbetaed. I'll have an edited version up soon.

Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I don't own DC Comics or Cartoon Network but let me check…yea, no I don't. My lawyers lost that case.

"You mean you didn't see what he typed in?" Chiyuki removed her hand from Nebulo's shoulder and clenched her fist nervously.

Nebulo was kneeling over the square Jack Smith escaped through and gawking up at his partner. His answer was obvious, Jack had been moving to quickly.

"And you mean you did?" Nebulo would have rolled his eyes if she hadn't looked so serious.

"Of course I did." Chiyuki leaned down, tapped on the file cabinet, and the key pad popped out.

"But you were on the other side of the room." Chiyuki silently typed in the code while Nebulo questioned her. "That's impossible."

"I have great eye sight."

Click

And with a giggle they were falling through a narrow tube.

Nebulo looked up as the floor closed above them and slipped farther and farther away. A mixture of screams and laughter erupted from the two heroes as darkness wrapped around them. Chiyuki searched for Nebulo's hand as air whipped through her blond hair. Nebulo met her act of affection with little defiance and whished he could have seen her face as their fingers intertwined. He honestly never could have predicted this, but that didn't mean he didn't like it.

The rush of twisting and turning reseeded as a violent red beam appeared under them. They landed on a strange green floor with a crash. Several surprised clatters filled the room. As Nebulo's vision cleared he noticed test tubes and glass tanks reflecting the crimson light around. The clatters came from the lab coated scientists that surrounded them. With a second look he realized the tanks each held a child. Only feet away Jack Smith was dusting off his suit. He still looked frazzled by the fall. Nebulo sneered at him in disgust; he couldn't understand why someone would allow testing on people just a few years younger if at all.

"Great." Jack shoved his hands in his front pockets leaving his hair as distraught as his expression. He took a second to clear his mind while the heroes helped each other up. Mr. Smith signaled for the scientists to leave and directed his scariest scowl at the titans. "This is your warning. Follow them out of here, forget this whole thing, and nobody gets hurt. You really don't want to get involved."

"Not without the kids." Nebulo braced himself for a fight and Chiyuki copied.

"Oh?" Jack backed up between two counters and for a second Nebulo though he was going to give-up without a fight. "You want the kids? If you really do, I can't stop you." He lifted his fist out of his pocket and jammed it through an emergency box on the wall, shattering it, and setting off the large red button inside.

Blasting sirens caught the heroes off-guard. Fog filled the lab and Chiyuki side-stepped in front of Nebulo. "Look!" The tanks were opening and water spilled out. A sickening thump followed the bodies of each of the children as they fell into the water. They slowly crawled to their feet and created a wall around Jack. Their ripped clothing and gross, green skin made them seem half dead. Each boy was bald and around the same size. Their uniformity was terrifying.

"The water piped into these building is rancid at its best." Jack was causally leaning against the wall watching the titans panic. "See what it does to the kids?"

Chiyuki kept her eyes on Jack as she elbowed Nebulo. "Do we fight them?"

"I-" The children approached before he could make the choice. "We have to. You go after him." Nebulo cocked his head towards Jack to make the message clear before lunging for a child and throwing it over his shoulder.

Chiyuki nodded and slipped under a pair of legs. "Just don't hurt them, you know, too much, okay Neb?"

Nebulo smiled for a second and ducked to avoid a flying zombie-child. It crashed into a small pack, knocking them to the ground. He paused to analyze the situation while they recuperated. There were at least ten boys and they looked between twelve and fifteen, but otherwise they were a mystery. Nebulo could only cross his fingers and hope that they were powerless.

Unfortunately he was wrong. The smallest child in the group hopped over the zombie pile-up and ripped off the floor where Nebulo was standing with one hand. Nebulo was sent tumbling backwards and just barely stuck the landing. As the hero ran towards the little one a teen appeared out of thin air and punched him in the face. Nebulo hit the ground and rolled onto his side. He created a rip in space and rematerialized behind the boy. He reached out and wrapped his hands around the boy's neck. The boy flared his arms around in vain, soon he was unconscious. Nebulo let go once the boy went limp, he silently thanked God that he did it from behind. It didn't feel right attacking a fourteen year-old test subject. It would kill him if someone did that to his brother.

Nebulo turned to face the little one again and look a step back when he saw the kid's face. It was twisted in an angry way that he'd never seen on a twelve year-old, or anyone. He looked like he was about to pounce on him. And he did. Nebulo spun in circles trying to shake the monster off.

Chiyuki caught his eye on one round; she was dealing with the last few and looked about ready to kill Jack. They were only on the other side of the room but they felt miles away from Nebulo.

Finally, Nebulo caught the child on his back and slammed backwards into the wall until the boy fell. Along with knocking the little devil off, he also sent several circuits crashing to the ground.

Nebulo tried to make his way to Chiyuki as the lights flickered and finally died. He swung his arms forward to feel his way in the dark. "Chiyuki."

"Yea!" He could hear the children struggling to bring her down. There was a drastic drop in the temperature, she was freezing them.

"How close are you?"

"Pretty close. Just keep coming this way."

"Is he still there?" The horrible yelps of a child gave him his only response.

Jack's calm voice broke the "silence". "I can hear you, you know." Nebulo was close enough to make out the outline of his relaxed body. He was standing above Chiyuki with his hands dangling carelessly to his sides as she wrestled the last child to the ground. In a flash Nebulo was strangling Jack in the same way he did to the other boy, only now he didn't feel so bad.

Chiyuki chuckled. "I'll be good cop, you be bad cop."

Nebulo grinned before directing his attention to Jack. "You're sick." He flung Jack around and pinned him to the side of a cabinet.

Jack glanced at the silhouettes on the floor. "You've got to do what you've got to do. You seem to know that." Jack's retort was quickly met with a broken nose. "Ow! Hey, you must be the new titans! My father's a…big fan."

Chiyuki got up slowly and stood behind Nebulo. "Do you do this for money?"

"Would you do this for free?" This time Nebulo punched him in the chest. Jack hardly flinched as one of his ribs cracked.

Chiyuki elbowed Nebulo gently. "Maybe you should lay off a bit Neb."

Nebulo hesitantly loosened his grip. He could see the hint of a smile on Jack's face as he looked from Chiyuki to Nebulo and back again.

"She seems sweet."

"Shut up."

"Right, so, back to the investigation." Chiyuki crossed her arms. "What is all of this?"

"You think I'm going to talk? What's the point?" Nebulo pressed him a little harder. "That's really not going to work."

"You're just a pawn, what can they give you that we, or someone else, can't double." Nebulo was as experienced as anyone else on the team when it came to breaking villains. They all just wanted something; he just needed to figure out what that something was.

"You're right; I'm just a pawn, a dispensable pawn, just like those kids. But you've got nothing on me. I'm just a guy with a job. I don't have a record. You've got no proof." The lines on Jack's face were blurred together by the dark but he was obviously unhappy.

Chiyuki scoffed. "You're at the scene of the crime. When the cops get here-"

"You think I'll be here when the police show up? If the police show up? Do you even know where here is?"

"No, but-"

"That's something I can tell you. I'll tell you where here is, or rather what here is. As of two weeks ago this lab came under the protection of the government of the United States of America. It's one of ten now contracted with the Super Soldier Project, which is no secret if you've read any newspaper printed in the last month. It's also the number one provider to secret services and bodyguard agencies across the globe and has been since 1980. Those kids are orphans past adoption age and they signed up for this, okay? Who cares what happens to them? In fact, if their parents were around they would want them to do this! There's so much riding on this, this is literally bigger than you could possible imagine. If they get this to work do you know how many lives could be saved? Firemen could run into burning buildings and there wound never be a single loss. Wars could be fought without casualties. And if they release it to the public? We could practically eradicate death. You really want to know what 'all of this' is? You have no God damn idea what I-you've gotten your selves into. No God damn idea!" Jack spoke quickly and fiercely. Nebulo stumbled backwards in shock, giving Jack a chance to catch his breath. "No…idea…"

Chiyuki helped Nebulo regain his balance as she spoke. "All those people, they let them test on children?"

Jack wiped his face, ran a bloody hand through his hair, and sighed. "What they don't know…won't hurt them."

"Will they shut this down if we tell them?" Time seemed to stand still as Chiyuki waited for an answer.

Jack looked at the outlines on the ground again. "You don't have proof."

"But they're-"

"You don't have proof."

"Where are we?"

Jack searched the wall and pressed the red button for a second time and then the button under it. "'St Peter's Home for…Girls'"

Chiyuki opened her mouth to ask another question but Jack was incased by a different tube and sucked up. As soon as he disappeared the sirens started again. She laughed despite herself. "I knew it! I knew something was up with the orphanages! But what did he mean about not having proof? The kids are still here."

Nebulo searched his belt for a flash light but only found a small lighter. He shook his head. "I don't know. We could follow him." He pulled out his communicator and used it to bounce the light around the room.

"Nah, he-Oh my God!" Chiyuki shrieked as the piles started to stir. "What was that?"

"What ever he pressed must have brought them back. We took them down once I sure we can-is that one glowing?" It was the little one again. A bright purple flame covered his body and it grew with every second. "We need back-up." Everything the boy touched caught on fire and he was coming directly towards them. Nebulo flipped open his communicator but Chiyuki grabbed it before he could make a call.

"It's too late Neb. He looks like he's going to explode."

"How do you know?"

"You said you'd trust me?"

"But the others. We can save them."

"It's too late for them too. If we go now we might be able to evacuate the boys' home." Chiyuki softly moved Nebulo towards the door. The boy's flame shrunk and then expanded again with every step.

"This is the girls' home right? There might still be girls here." Nebulo pitied the young boy. He turned from Chiyuki to the boy and smiled. He had to at least try talking the boy out of this. "Hey, kid." He slipped around Chiyuki and waved. "We're here to help you. We can take all this bad stuff away."

"It was a cover up, Neb, there never were any girls. This isn't safe. Come on." Nebulo ignored her and kept walking towards the boy.

"I'm sort of an orphan too, well not really, but I was adopted. My…friend is an orphan though. My parents are alive, they're just far away. My new family's pretty cool. And we can teach you how to control your powers." The boy's flame reseeded as he approached Nebulo.

"Don't you want a family, some friends too? We're going to help you. We're here to help you." The hero extended his hand and waited for the boy.

"Neb, gosh, Nebulo! Nebulo don't get so close!"

On the mention of friends the boy stopped in his tracks. "I have a friend."

"You can talk?" Nebulo pulled his hand back.

"Of course I can. I'm not an idiot. I have a friend, and he's the best friend I've ever had. Look what you did to him!" He pointed to the teen Nebulo had choked. "Nobody hurts my friends and gets away with it. So I don't need your help, or your stupid friends, and I don't need control!" His force nearly doubled along with the fire surrounding him.

"Nebulo!" Chiyuki incased the boy in ice and tackled her partner. "Get us out of here!" The ice held for a moment but soon the whole room was covered in fire and in another it was nothing but rubble.

Nebulo and Chiyuki were slumped on the sidewalk across from the orphanages breathing heavily. They had gotten out just in time. Nebulo was the first to role over and see the damage. Not only was the girls' home in ruins, but so was at least half of the boys'. The survivors were streaming out into the street, and behind them was Mrs. Rother in her ugly wool sweater, she ran past the titans and away from the children in a panic, covering her face. It could have been the smoke messing with Nebulo's eye, but he could have sworn that between her fingers he had seen a metal skull instead of skin.

If everything Jack said was true then he had to get as far away from the crime scene as possible. He was so glad he had thought to use the T-car's disguise functions before driving, if they were identified as Titan everything could come crashing down. Nebulo turned back to Chiyuki and gently shook her into consciousness.

"Wake up Snowball, it's time to go."

"Five more min-Oh!" Chiyuki jumped up quickly as she remembered the last four hours. "I, gosh…" She looked at the burning buildings quietly. Nebulo sat for another minute before getting up. "I'm so sorry. This is my fault. I shouldn't have rushed into this. I thought it would be fun, and we'd save the day together, but…It's too big for just us."

Nebulo gingerly wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Now we know what we're up against." The sirens rolled their way.

"But Jack said-"

"Somebody will care." Nebulo pulled her into a half hug as they walked to the T-car. "Jack's a liar."

~Teen Titans Midwest!~

All eyes were glued to the chess board in the middle of the meeting table. It wasn't intentional, but the rest of the team had been gravitating towards the match since its start. Even Stitch seemed interested.

"Check."

Fuchsia watched Aqualad's mixed reaction. He had been teaching her how to play chess for the last hour. He was equally shocked and proud of his pupil. Everyone else was holding their breath. Aqualad made one last pointless move before the inevitable happened. Fuchsia picked up her queen and flicked his king over with it.

"And check mate." Fuchsia spun around her stool waving to her cheering fans.

Aqualad smirked. "Pff, beginners luck."

"Sure it was." Poseidon elbowed Aqualad with a chuckle.

"It's all thanks to my awesome teacher, you know." She was practically glowing from the victory. Akai, who was sitting next to her, helped her put the pieces back.

"Well, I think it's time Akai and I played." The Teen Avenger tapped on Akai's shoulder. "Are you up for it?"

"Why not." Akai put the last pawn into place and looked up. "I beat Poseidon in fourteen minutes; I think I can do you in ten."

"Oooooooohhh. Burn."

"That sounds like a challenge." The Teen Avenger chuckled. There was a bit of a flirtatious edge to voice.

"Just remember that I warned you."

The Teen Avenger hopped out of his seat next to Akai and walked around the table. "Hey Poseidon, could I grab that chair? You can have mine."

Poseidon sent a wary side-ways glance towards the Teen Avenger as he gave up his seat. "Fine."

To be continued…