That shit was tough to get out.

I'm talking about the goo of course. The alcohol had dissolved the goo for the most part, but it was still like having glue all over my body. The clothes were salvageable but they would need a few rounds in the washing machine.

I heard a light knocking on the door of my bathroom. I assumed it was Robin coming back after thinking up a witty retort to throw at me. I turned off the shower and threw on a towel.

"Alright Robin, what do you have to say now? Oh shit Starfire!" I opened the door to see the orange Tamaranian standing there, and I was wearing a frickin towel. "Um... hi"

"Greetings Reaver. I have need to speak to you." She sidled past me and sat down on a stool in the middle of the room.

I flipped on the fan to get rid of the steam and the reek of alcohol that I'm sure was there. "Alright, but can you make this quick? I was sorta in the middle of something."

"Out in the hall I spoke to Robin. He seemed... upset. I saw him coming from your room and I wondered if you knew why."

I grimaced a bit. "Uh, yes I know all about what happened to Robin."

Starfire bolted to her feet. "Then you must inform me. I wish to know what is the matter with my friend."

I sighed "Alright Starfire, I'll tell you. But I'm gonna put on pants first. I find it very difficult to properly explain anything without pants."

She stomped her foot. "NO, you will tell me now, I must know what is the matter with Robin!"

I looked down at the floor where Starfire had stomped her boot, and saw a spiderweb of cracks in the tile emanating from the point of impact. I then looked back at the alien standing before me. Head leaned forward, teeth clenched,arms straight down her sides and her hands curled up at the ends. I smirked knowingly "Your really concerned for Robin aren't you?"

"Of course I am. Robin is my best friend."

"Is that all?"

Her eyes softened slightly, losing that hardness born from concern for her friend. "Huh?"

"Nevermind. You want to know what's wrong with Robin, fine I'll tell you. I told him a little about himself. I let him know about a few things that have been happening that he is blind to. Anerror in his judgement and alapse in observation."

"What error do you speak of?"

"Not informing me about Red X's abilities is the one I mentioned. If he had told me what X can do then I would have been able to catch him."

"If that is all you said then why is Robin the way heis? I have not seen him this upset since he first built the Red X suit. When I spoke to him he did not have the spirit he always possesses. The confidence that he always carries with him was gone."

"My intent was not to hurt Robin in any way Starfire. My intention was to help him fix an error with himself. When all this is said and done Robin will be a better person for it."

I shifted my towel "Now can you please get out here? I'm getting mighty cold."

She looked down and seemed to notice that I was only wearing a towel for the first time. "EEP!" and she darted out of my bathroom like a bat outta hell.

I shrugged and started to dry off.

Later that day the alarm went off again. It was around eight o'clock.

We got no reports of who it was. Just a tripped security alarm in some rich guy's penthouse apartment. Robin said that he had several remarkably valuable items there so he had it set up so that if there was a tripped alarm the Titan's were alerted.

I called over my earpiece. "There wouldn't happen to be any Zinotheum in that man's apartment is there Robin?"

"I don't think so, but there may be. He is a major shareholder in a tech company, maybe he keeps it in a safe somewhere in his house?" There was a pause. "Just in case this is X, I'll tell you about his abilities. Just to be safe."

I smirked slightly. "That would be great Robin."

We arrived less than two minutes later.

We pulled up to an enormous apartment building in the middle of downtown. I found it amusing that even though this thing was a good sixty stories there probably weren't more than five apartments in the whole thing. Ahh, human excess.

Of course the apartment we wanted was on the top floor. When we got in we found the elevator was out of commission. It must have been locked or require a buzz from upstairs or something.

After using various modes of transport up the stairwell to reach the top, we burst into the scene in the penthouse suite.

Before us was an enormous ballroom complete with crystal chandelier and tall staircase, filled to the brim with various finely dressed people. There were at least forty people all sitting down in chairs and looking positively dumbfounded. They were all blank faced and stared off into nothingness.

The only animate person was a man in the far back of the room, a good hundred feet away and at the top of the stairs. He was holding a sack that he was using to take material goods off of the stupefied guests. On his back was a guitar, and a kickass guitar I must say. The entire thing was a weird fractal ruby color that shimmered in the light and the strings were shiny and well polished. He was wearing a pair of torn off jean shorts and tennis shoes. His shirt was black and had a logo for a band of some sort on it. A red bandana was tied around his head to keep his red tipped blonde hair out of his face. A sparse patch of blonde covered his face in a pathetic attempt at a beard. He couldn't have been any more than eighteen.

Robin called out "You there! Stop! Who areyou! What did you do to these people!"

The blonde kid turned to us and smiled widely in amusement. Without a word he twisted the guitar off of his back and in front of him. He took a mighty windup and struck a chord.

This pluck of the string manifested as a titanically huge wave of sound that flew away from him in a circular tube shape, emanating from the struck point on his guitar. Dust, carpet, and furniture was swept up in the blast, not to mention us. All six Titans were knocked back from the sound blast and into the far back wall of the room.

The sound made no noise, except for the powerful sound of an electric guitar being struck perfectly.

The blonde kid ran to the opposite side of the room and hopped on a table. When he spoke it was with a very powerful and projecting voice."Who am I, you ask? I am the supreme master of all that is awesome! I am the king of all that is good and hardcore in this land! I am HardRock, and I'm gonna rock you so HARD!" And he struck another string.

We were ready this time. Starfire and Raven flew up and I jumped up to avoid the blast. The other three Titans fell away to the sides. The blast of sound passed by harmlessly and tore an enormous hole in the wall. Looking out you could see a beutiful view of the Jump City skyline.

Robin yelled "TITANS, GO!"

Cyborg and Robin ran in while Starfire and Raven flew in. I jumped like a grasshopper. BeastBoy grabbed a nearby person and started hauling her out of the room.

The three fliers were almost on him when a rippling cone of sound flew out at them and forced them back. The three scattered, and hard rock kept blasting and missing. Great swathes of destruction were rent from every place he shot.

Robin and Cyborg dashed up while he was distracted. Cyborg converted his arm to sonic cannon mode and fired.

He would have hit were it not for a chair falling over and tangling up his legs. The large man stumbled and missed his shot, causing a large section of wall to crumble about six feet away from HardRock. The blonde man saw the shot and looked down, seeing Robin. He pointed the guitar's neck at him.

Robin whipped out a fan of birdarangs and hurled them, only to have them knocked back by a crushing wave of sound. HardRock started firing off tiny, rapidblasts of sound by playing a very fast beat on his guitar.

The Boy Wonder was able to dodge about half of them before he slipped up and got nailed in the shoulder. He jerked back and was hit again not a second later, and then again.Robin fell to the ground, clutching the worst of his injuries.

Starfire stopped her midair acrobatic maneuver to shout out "ROBIN!"

It was around this time that HardRock noticed me standing on a chandelier further down the room. He noticed me because I fired off an armor piercing bullet right into the neck of his guitar.

Contrary to what I thought would happen, the guitar only moved a little bit instead of shattering. The blast of sound he had been aiming went wild and tore up a few tables. Robin took his chance and ran to the back of the room, well, limped is the better word for it. He was tailed by Raven and a panic stricked Starfire.

HardRock forgot all about the black haired Titan, and turned his attention to me. He prepped a blast of sonic. I jumped to the next chandelier, landing on the top of the decoration. The hanging I was on a moment ago was obliterated by another blast of sound and was smashed into the ceiling. HardRock started firing rapid blasts again, but each one had alot more power to it, enough to send me sailing into the ceiling.

We continued like this for another five chandeliers. HardRock unable to draw a proper bead on me, and I was unable to jump down because that would slow me down enough to get hit.

Suddenly there was a lull in the shots. I looked down and saw that HardRock had turned his attention to Cyborg. The metal man had dashed up the middle and was currently lunging at the blonde teenager. HardRock rose his arm for another blast, but Cyborg grabbed it and pressed his hand against the back wall. HardRock's guitar fell to the floor with the one hand still around the neck.

Cyborg smirked "Boo yah! I gotcha now!" He pulled back his fist for the finishing blow.

HardRock twisted his grip on the guitar, and swung it like an ax. The base of the instrument nailed Cyborg right on the top of the head. The metal man clutched the large V-shaped dent on his titanium skull with both hands, leaving HardRock's hands free.

"You about to go for a ride motherfucker." He grinned

There was another loud guitar riff and Cyborg went sailing into the back of the ballroom and skidded to a halt just outside of the stairwell we came in through.

I jumpedfrom my perch and whipped out my Glocks. In midair I emptied them at the musician. He protectively rose his guitar to shield himself, and successfully did so. My aim wasn't to hurt him, only force him to move his hands on his guitar.

I shot out my claw and twisted in midair to bring it to bear. HardRock lowered his guitar and gasped. I grinned.

Suddenly a well dressed, quite oldman was standing in between me and my target. My eyes widened and I retracted my claw. My swing came up just short of touching the man's nose.

When I landed I looked up and stared daggers at the man. I was mad because the idiot had ruined my shot. He sidestepped and I found myself looking down the neck of a crimson guitar.

"Shit!"

"Shit's right motherfucker." And he strummed his guitar.

I rode the wave of force along the length of the ballroom, and crashed into the opposite wall a hundred feet away. Bits of plaster and drywall cracked and flew off the wall like an explosion of snowflakes. I landed heavily and started to regenerate the damaged bones from the blast. I looked over and saw that Robin was fully healed from his recent encounter.

Three minutes of fighting and we were all back exactly where we started.

HardRock let out a loud horse laugh, "HA haa, that's right motherfuckers! You can't touch HardRock, I'm too awesome for you bitches!"

I called out "You got a foul mouth punk, about time someone cut it off." I shot out my claw.

Robin growled and hurled yet another birdarang. It closed the long distance as fast as, well, as a robin would. Irony is awesome ain't it?

The projectile missed the teenager by a few inches, and almost struck the elderly, posh looking woman behind him. We all winced at the close miss.

"Ah, ah ,aah, motherfuckers." He shook his finger at us like children. "You don't want to go and hurt these good people. These aren't just the commoners of Jump City, these are the ruling elite. The business people that let this whole city keep going."

My eyes widened with realization "Oh shit..."

Starfire piped up. "Why do you speak of feces Reaver?"

"Because I know where he's going with this."

"If any of these people get hurt, even in the slightest bit, they'll sue your asses so much you won't have two nickels to rub together. And since they're all under the control of my perfect rocking, you ain't gonna have any choice but to hurt'em." He spread his arms wide. "Gather to me, my roadies!"

From the hallways next to the landing that HardRock was standing of emerged several more guests, except these were armed. They held various hunting rifles, shotguns, and even a few automatic rifles. The guy who owned this place must have been a gun aficianado.

We all huddled together, mostly out of fear and partially out of not having any clue what to do. A protective shield of goons surrounded HardRock, blocking off all forms of attack.

Then the man in the back said "EVERYONE ATTACK!" and it turned into a ballroom blitz.

Raven erected a protective shield of black around us just in time as the armed hypnotized people opened fire. Bullets pinged off of the shield with a thunderous noise.

Robin yelled over the din. "Titans, be careful not to hurt them. They're still just civilians, we can't hurt them. For moral and financial reasons, if we so much as scratch one of them they'll cry 'incompetent law enforcement'."

I loaded my Glocks with rubber bullets. "Robin, my forte is hurting people. It's really what I'm best at."

"Just try to be gentle Reaver."

The bullets stopped, and Raven lowered her shield. All six of us darted out as quick as we could.

I ran out and ducked behind an upturned table, BeastBoy was close behind me.

I sat down, and loaded my Glocks. "BeastBoy, I'll jump up and distract them, you turn into something that will work for not hurting people."I didn't give him a chance to respond and I jumped up, my Glocks blasting.

I disarmed three people before they shot at me again. The three had their guns broken, the barrels bent into uselessness. An emerald rhino crashed through the table and knocked over another two hypnotized goons. I dropped the guns and shot out my claw.

When I landed I saw that HardRock was not where he last was. A quick survey of the room led me to see him running down one of the hallways that a gun toting goon had come from. I started to give chase.

My chase was stopped prematurely when I fell down from a chair being busted over my head. I rolled over and saw a provocatively dressed young woman standing the ruins of a chair. Shehad that slack jawed expression, same as the others. She stabbed down with the pointy end of the broken chair. I rolled away and she missed.

I hopped to my feet and looked around, and spied the ultimate weapon to use when your fighting people you don't really want to hurt.

I ran over to a table and dumped the bowl of oranges onto the table cloth. I grabbed the ends and tied them off, forming a sack of oranges. I whipped around and clubbed the woman across the face with it. She stumbled back and fell to the ground, rather unconscious.

The rest of the Titans had pretty much taken care of the rest of the gun toting goons, all that was left were the unarmed hypnotized people.

I spied Robin and spun the sack. "YO, ROBIN!" I called out at the top of my lungs. He turned to me and I launched the sack He caught it and looked at me quizzically. I yelled out "GOOD FOR BEATINGS!" And I ran down the hall after HardRock.

The hallway emerged into a study of some sort. I saw no sign of HardRock, so I focused on my lifesense.

There was no life in the immediate vicinity, so I focused and expanded my sense, encompassing the entire apartment in my life seeing gaze.

I swept over the battle going on behind me, I sensed the birds on the rooftop, and saw the tiny pin pricks of light that indicated insects. I saw through the walls and decorations and wires and vents and saw a form on the opposite side of the penthouse that was bursting with youthful energy.

"Yeah, that's him." I said to noone in particular.

I started dashing through the rooms. twisting and turning through halls and corridors. God that place was enormous.

I finally exited into an enormous and rediculously posh bedroom. There was an enormous bay window that actually had a grand view of the bay. Though I wasn't interested in the decor, I was worried about the blonde criminal rummaging in a wall compartment over the bed. His guitar was on the bed.

I whipped out my Mossberg and aimed at the back of his head. I cocked it, and he stopped dead. He slowly turned around and was almost biting the barrel of my gun. He grinned "Howdy Motherfucker."

"Freeze punk."

He opened his mouth but I stopped him "No, just shut the hell up. I have not had a good day and I do not want to deal with another smartass villain who tries to talk me to death. Now be a good boy and just get down on the floor so I can put mr. handcuffs on you, and if you so much as say another word I swear to god, allah, and all that is holy and good that I will shoot you in the testicles."

I motioned with my gun for him to get off the bed. He sidled off of the bed and stood up.

"You know, if you would just let me finish I would-"

I shot him in the testicles.

He was still for a moment before his hands flew, that's right flew to his groin. He fell to his knees, and then fell to the ground without making a sound.

A minute passed.

He reached into his pants and pulled out a metal cup, a large dent in the front of it. He resumed holding himself. I heard him whimper slightly. I'm glad I used a bean bag round.

I pulled out a pair of handcuffs and cufffed his hands. He didn't even resist.

"Sorry about that man, hope I didn't cause any permanent damage. You should be fine, it'll just hurt for a good long while." I grabbed his leg and started dragging him back to the ballroom.

I suddenly felt a very sharp pain in my back all the way down my back. I stumbled forward and let go of the man I was dragging.

I whipped out my claw and whirled around, my face a mask of rage.

I expected HardRock to have cut me with a knife or something, instead I saw the black and red clad form of Red X standing over the musical villain. My blood dripped down the red tines of his X shaped blade.

I was flabbergasted. "Red X, what the hell? Why are you here?"

His electronic voice replied back "Helping out my friend here. Mighty unsportsmanlike to shoot a man below the belt." He pointed his hands and fired off a pair of red shurikens.

I lifted up my shield and the shurikens bounced off of the blue energy. The projectiles flew back and X caught them. I was right behind them.

I swung my claw and X ducked under the blades. He whipped his palms up and pointed them at me. An enormous rubbery X flew out at my chest. I matrix dodged backwards, and slammed my hand onto ground and lifting myself back up in the process.

I reached out and grabbed X's hands at the wrist. I pulled him forward and simultaneously slammed a metal laced fist into his mask. He flew back and collapsed on his ally.

He groaned "Uhh, fuck it. I'm outta here." He grabbed his belt.

I lunged to keep him from teleporting. He rolled over and I accidently hit his friend in the gut. He puffed out his air and yelled. I winced for him.

X slammed his hand into the ground and shot out an enormous red cross that spread over the floor, and under my feet.

The ground separated like the red sea, and I fell into it. Luckily I landed in a comfortable bed, unfortunately the bed was occupied by a very scared woman. The rich woman screamed and threw a pillow at me. "AAAAHHH! RAPE! RAPE! MOLESTATION!" I kicked off the cushion. "Maam, calm down. I'm not, gah! Not it off with the damn pillow!"

I flipped over and looked at the giant missing X in the ceiling. I saw the midnight clad thief hop over the hole with a blonde muscian slung over his shoulder. He fiddled with his belt and was gone in with a fluttery sound like insect wings.

I slumped back onto the bed and sighed. The lady hit me in the face with a lamp.