Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, all rights to the owners.

Where was I…? Ah, right.

CYBORG

"Do we have a plan aside from getting these and finding the people in charge of the attack?" I sigh as I slide into the driver's seat of the T-car. As I pull out of the garage we've rented, I can glance down the street over the narrow straight and see our tower resting half in the ocean. I doubt it's air-tight, so quite a few things might be ruined. Changeling had a picture album there didn't she? I think I saw it in her room once. I really hope those aren't gone. I know we have a bunch of extremely expensive electronics in there, but those are replaceable. The pictures in that album might not be if she never had them uploaded to a computer.

Best not to think about it now. We'll deal with that when we get to it.

Changeling, incidentally, is in the passenger's seat right now, and she looks to be in a foul mood. Usually she's pretty calm when it comes to situations like this, so something must have happened that really ruffled her feathers.

"No." She growls. "Doesn't sound like it."

"Well great, we just have to hope we don't walk into an ambush then." I sigh.

Changeling doesn't respond further. I'm really not the person to cheer her up, realistically Crow would be better, but...

"Alright, talk, we got several minutes before we get back." I say. "What went down girl? You look like you ate old apple sauce."

Changeling visibly raises an eyebrow at that metaphor, then sneers. "Why do I need to tell you?"

"Look, I know I'm not your cuddle buddy." I respond drly. Maybe it will help to meet hostility with sarcasm. I don't think sincerity is going to be the most effective right now, Changeling is too bitter for that (at least from me). "But we are a team you know."

Changeling snorts, showing just what she thinks about that idea. "And that means I should trust you?"

"Not on it's own, but I'd hope I've done enough to prove myself by this point." I say, then pull (what is probably) my trump card. "Crow trusts me."

Even when angry, Changeling is still weak to anything involving her little demon.

"Crow's overly-trusting, first hurdle aside." The green girl grumbles. She lets out a long sigh. "So… I tried to kill Chang."

"Ah." That's not quite what I was expecting. That's actually… um… is that worse? Better? I was expecting her to be particularly hurt or disturbed by something, not that she tried to kill someone.

I've always known Changeling is a bit rough around the edges, but I guess I forgot just how much that is.

"I've probably told you this before, but I am not a good person." Changeling sighs again. "I've been a bounty hunter, a prostitute, killed several people who tried or succeeded in doing terrible things to me. Chang is the last person on a list of people from a particularly nasty offense. The only reason she's not dead right now is Crow and that pizza girl."

"The pizza girl." I frown… "Niu?"

"Yes. Apparently Chang is her aunt." Changeling growls. "So, despite knowing what a worthless fuckface Chang is, she still wouldn't let me kill her. Same with Crow."

"Ah…" Okay, so, she was stopped from doing murder which is (probably?) a good thing. On the other hand, Chang probably isn't in prison right now because the JCPD is in shambles, which won't be helping matters. This is out of Cyborg's area of expertise by a massive margin already. "Well, you can understand why, right?"

"Yes." She says. "Doesn't mean I agree. I still want that bitch dead. I told them as much, and if Chang ever acts against me again, no amount of pleading is stopping me." Her eyes narrow. "I gave that warning quite explicitly."

Well, it could be worse I suppose. "And you're still bitter?"

"Yes."

"You did the right thing, if it makes you feel better."

"It doesn't." She growls. "Look, I'm not a hero, I don't care about the no-kill code. From the start I've been in the Titans because it was free room and board for me and Crow. Doing 'the right thing' is a secondary concern to mine and Crow's wellbeing."

Can't say I'm surprised. We always knew the Titans was a temporary thing for Changeling. Dunno how long 'temporary' is, maybe years, but still. "And you did."

"Really?" She scoffs. "How?"

"Well, Crow's wellbeing more than yours." I admit. "His emotional wellbeing. Do you think he would have been happy if you killed Chang?"

Her mouth thins. "That's why I didn't. I still think I should have, but that's why I didn't."

I guess it's futile to try and explain to her that she shouldn't kill Chang. I can't change her thoughts. Still, it's a bit worrisome to think that the main thing holding her back from murdering Chang isn't her own morality, but Crow.

I could look at this in a few ways, but I'm gonna choose to see this as 'Crow changing her for the better' rather than 'unhealthy morality anchor'. It's probably a bit of both, but for now at least Crow is a positive influence (I think).

We're not even halfway back to the Wayne building. This is going to feel like a long ride.

ROBYN

We return to the Wayne tower to pick up Crow (who is curled up on the inside of the building, clutching a small gem in his hands), and we have a quick discussion. Just running around attacking Rose's commanders might not work so well.

"We need to establish something." Starfire says firmly. His arms are crossed as he speaks, looking somewhat imposing. "We cannot allow ourselves to be overwhelmed again. If it comes to fighting more than a few enemies of significance, we retreat. We cannot have a repeat of what happened at the tower."

"Fair enough." I nod. That's something me and Batwoman had to do sometimes. "We can hit and run if need be, at least until we get reinforcements."

"It'd be nice to find Kid Flash or some of the other heroes." Changeling mutters. One arm is wrapped around Crow, who has his face buried into the side of her chest and is trying to block out the light which is irritating his growing headache. "We couldn't beat Ternion last time, and I don't really think we'll fare much better this time. We need help."

"If we see any other heroes, we'll talk with them." I agree. Some coordination across the whole city could go a long way. Kid Flash and her ability to scout and quickly deliver messages would be invaluable at the moment. "But we have to be active, even if we're under-powered compared to our foes."

"What do we do when we beat them anyways…?" Ruban mumbles, peeking out at the rest of them. "The police can't hold them, right?"

"That's true." I grimace. "We need our own way to hold prisoners. We have the prison back at the tower, but that's sideways now and not really made for holding metahumans."

"Then should we instead focus on getting the JCPD running before we deal with Rose?" Cyborg suggests. "So we actually have somewhere to put people we take down?"

"That might be a good idea." Starfire agrees. His expression is a frown; he doesn't like not going out to fight, but it makes sense. You need the infrastructure before you can imprison people. "Then we go to the JCPD Detention Center?"

"It would seem so." I nod. "It feels wrong though, doesn't it?"

HEX

I have to give Red X credit, they held out for a lot longer than I expected. For being so outnumbered, they've done well. Still, the HIVE eventually catch them. One of Gizmo's guns clips X's shoulder, and Arachne nails them with a web. X tries to teleport, but the X on their belt flashes red and just… fails to work. Maybe they're out of power.

Either way, it means we got 'em. They tumble off the roof they had jumped to and smack onto the pavement below.

"Welp, that's that." I chuckle as I stride up to X. I mockingly tip my hat at them. "Pleasure playing with you, but we gotta scram."

"Why would Rose send one person against us? Why just this guy?" Seemore wonders. "Weird..."

"No kidding." I think, hiding a frown. I look down at X. "Don't bother coming after us again. We'll knock you aside as easily as this time. Might want to reconsider your employer if she gives you dumbass missions like this."

"Like I have a choice." X growls back. "Go on, fuck off! Do whatever you're going to doing."

"C'mon boss, we should get going!" Numerous calls.

"Just a sec'!" I call, and kneel down next to him. "You don't have a choice, huh? Rose got some blackmail over your head?"

"Maybe…"

"So that's a yes. But is it really worse than working for Rose? She kinda sucks in case you haven't noticed."

X doesn't respond.

"I mean, suit yourself, but is being Rose's lackey really worse than a stint in prison or your secret getting out? I mean, Prison sucks ass, but better a temporary hell than a permanent boulder held over your head, right?"

I think X is glaring at me. "You don't know my problems."

"Yeah yeah, whatever edgelord." Gizmo sneers. "C'mon Hex, we need to go."

"Fine, fine." I shrug. "See you X. Have fun being a lackey."

I saunter off with my team, with the villain glowering from the floor as we leave.

RED X

Hex has always been a smart ass. Not smartass (well, that too), but a smart ass. Intelligent, but condescending as hell.

I forgot how strong Ara's web is… and by that I mean I've never been stuck in Ara's web. Damn these things are strong. I don't have the xenothium left to power the super strength of the suit, or to do anything for that matter.

The fall from the roof wasn't exactly soft either. I'm lucky the suit cushioned the impact or I might've gotten something worse than a bruise.

It takes longer than I care to admit to squirm out of the webs. Rather than go after the others I go inside the house and get out of my suit. I stare at the core, which guzzled all that Xenothium I had down to nothing. Useless. Even with this suit, I still couldn't stand up to them.

Useless piece of trash. I went through all that effort to keep this thing, and I still get smoked. Stupid superpowers. At least I got to steal some things with it, but this suit really isn't worthwhile.

At least I got to steal some things for Ara…

Azarath Cat: It's hard not to include them even more often, but I've seen some stories go down the drain because of OC introductions, so I'm trying to keep them out of the main spotlight for the most part.

Trase: Well, you'll be waiting for a while. May I remind you that neither of those two pairs you mentioned have known each other for more than half a year? That said, I too am just holding my breath for when I can get into proper romance rather than this 'really close friends' stage. Glad you like the OCs too, I know they tend to be hit-or-miss, so hearing that they're a hit is nice.

bookgirl18: :D

Origami Stars: We'll get a bit more of Ava once Aftershock clears up, and I still need to progress Nathan and Kima's subplot so you'll see more of them too.

Yeah, the Titans really don't have a good option.