Chapter Two: A new villain
Ember sat in the T-Car with Cyborg, who drove them to the bank while the others went separately. Robin went on his R-Cycle while Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy flew.
"Cyborg... How are we going to defeat a ghost boy? That sounds impossible" She asked curiously, thinking that the Titan's powers would go straight through the ghost boy.
"I honestly have no idea. I think our main focus would be Megumi, whoever she is... She sounds like she'd be more trouble than the ghost kid could be. We'll find out when we get there" Cyborg replied after a while of thinking.
About half an hour later after stopping at several traffic lights, Cyborg and Ember arrived at the bank.
When all the Titans got there, they were surprised to see about six soldiers made out of Ice standing at the bank's entrance. The ice soldiers had a strange marking on their foreheads which looked familiar to Robin. "No!" Robin gasped softly to himself. "It can't be!" He looked over at all of the soldiers who each held a staff in their hands and the same 'S' marking on their foreheads. The soldiers had blocked the entrance of the bank so nobody could go in or out.
"Boyfriend, Robin?" Starfire asked, wondering what he had worked out, she stood next to him ready to fight them with Starbolts already in her hands.
"Titans get ready!" Robin demanded; he had a bad feeling about the soldiers.
"AH! I see you've met my lovely minions!" A female's voice came from the roof of the bank. "They're no ordinary men. They are robots and impossible to defeat! My husband helped design them aren't they charming? Their powers are unique too" The woman put her hands on her hips, looking down at the Titans from the roof in interest.
Robin looked up on the roof of the bank, watching as a female with icy blue hair wearing dark clothing, walk towards the edge of the roof.
"Wait...Slade's your husband?!" Robin exclaimed clenching his fists, getting ready to fight her.
"Well figured out Robin... And since I've heard so much of you, I've wanted to test you out my-self with my minions!" The woman said, signaling to her ice soldiers to get ready.
"I'm still surprised Slade's actually married! Who'd want to marry him!" Robin snapped looking disgusted, poking his tongue out at the thought of it.
"I married him. He's helped me with a lot of good deeds and so I've decided to help him with a lot... Starting with destroying you lot!" The woman cried out, clapping her hands twice.
At once all six of the soldiers on the ground raced towards the Titans and started throwing ice-bolts at them, using their staff.
"TITANS GO!" Robin commanded, as one of the soldiers shot out some ice-bolts at him. Robin dodged and threw a few Electric Disks at the soldier, hoping to slice him in half, the soldier dodged and continued throwing ice-bolts at Robin, who dodged the attacks.
Two of the soldiers started attacking Starfire, who fought back firing Star-bolts at them for a while, once she stopped throwing them, she gasped to see that the soldiers were still in good condition.
"Robin! They are not damaged when I throw my Star-bolts at them!" Starfire called out to him, watching as he fought with one, looking a bit worried.
"Hit them with all you got Star!" Robin commanded, busy fighting trying to defend himself.
Starfire continued showering the Soldiers with her Star-Bolts, she used her Eye-Beams on them too, hoping it would weaken them at least, the Soldiers fought her back attacking her with ice-beams which came from their staff.
"Who are you?" Robin asked, watching around him, he then noticed three of his teammates were missing. He hoped that the mysterious woman wouldn't notice that too.
Robin watched as Cyborg fought three of the soldiers, who ended up on top of him, Cyborg shook the soldiers off and blasted them with his Sonic Boom. The soldiers tumbled down to the ground like rag dolls, thinking the fight was over Cyborg grinned. "Booyah! Huh?" Cyborg then gave a loud exclamation when one of the soldiers climbed on his back and started messing around with his system.
"Yo! Get outta my system!" Cyborg yelled out, trying his hardest to shake the soldier off his back. "Can't ya hear me?" He then dropped onto his back to shake the soldier off, he sighed in relief when he got up seeing the soldier laying on the ground. He then aimed his Sonic Boom at the soldier and blasted him several times, smoke filled the air for a moment and when it cleared the soldier still stayed at the same spot, without a scratch or dent on it. "WHAT?! How is this even possible?" He asked himself. "Who is this girl?"
"Who am I? I'm Megumi, Slade's wife and your worst nightmare, while you were busy fighting my lovely soldiers. I managed to summon enough of my power to destroy you!" Megumi said, holding a giant ball of ice in her hands which was about the same size of a three-story building.
"NO!" Robin gasped when he saw the giant ball of ice, grabbing a few of his Smoke Bombs ready to leave the fight for the sake of his friends. He was about to give in with the fight when he saw three of his missing team mates on the roof behind Megumi. He grinned and put the Smoke Bombs back into his utility belt.
Raven and Ember had just finished defrosting at least twelve customers of the bank and had placed them in the recovery position they then called for ambulance and police, while Beast Boy turned into a dog to try and track down the ghost boy. He had no luck picking up the ghost boy's scent but managed to pick up Megumi's scent instead considering he already knew where she was, he then turned back to his normal self then looked back at the girls, feeling disappointed.
"I can't find the ghost kid's scent... It's almost like he wasn't even here! Maybe we missed him or something..." Beast Boy told them shrugging his shoulders.
"Then what happens now?" Ember asked, she suddenly looked outside through a window of the bank and gasped, seeing Cyborg being attacked by three soldiers.
"We should pay Megumi a visit... I have a plan, follow me" Raven responded, putting on her hood. The three Titans left the bank and went to the roof, Raven helped Ember up since she couldn't fly.
Beast Boy gasped watching Megumi bringing a large ball of ice over her head, ready to throw it at the other Titans.
"NOW Beast Boy!" Raven exclaimed, pointing to Megumi.
Beast Boy turned into a rhino and raced towards Megumi, head butting her off the building, Raven raced towards the end of the building watching as Starfire, carried Cyborg and Robin to the roof to safety.
The ball of ice immediately vanished when Megumi hit the ground hard. Her soldiers stopped fighting and raced to her side, to check if she was ok.
Ember jumped down from the roof landing on her feet, Raven watched the new Titan as she took her gloves off and shoved them into her pockets. Ember then pressed her hands against the ground hard, she focused on her powers to bring six totem poles made out of earth underneath Megumi. Ember pushed harder onto the ground and cried out, she watched as six large totem poles shot out from the ground at high-speed underneath Megumi and her soldiers, sending the group into the sky. A star twinkled once in the sky then vanished.
The Titans watched their newest member in amazement. Raven was impressed with Ember sending Megumi into the sky, but she didn't show it.
"Wow, that was so cool! How did you do that?" Cyborg asked, joining Ember's side once again.
"Terra used to have Earth Powers too" Starfire smiled, flying down by Ember's side. "It looks like we have a new friend with earth powers."
"Did she? What was she like?" Ember asked, thinking Terra was an amazing hero.
"Terra-ble..." Raven said, folding her arms making a face expression.
Beast Boy gave a chuckle at Raven's response. "Nice one Rae!" He held his hand to hi-five her, but she rolled her eyes and walked away from him.
"I was only speaking the truth. You know I can't stand her after what she did." Raven mumbled.
"Great job Ember, with some more training you'd make a good addition to the team!" Robin smiled and handed her a new communicator.
"Really? You mean it?" Ember cried out with excitement, accepting the communicator after putting her gloves back on. "Thank you so much! I'll do my best as a Teen Titan." Robin nodded smiling to Ember.
Cyborg smiled looking at her. "We'll be looking forward to see what you can do with your powers!" He said.
Ember put the communicator into her pocket. "Isn't this great Raven?" She smiled looking at the goth Titan.
"I can hardly control my excitement..." Raven replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
The Titans returned to Titans Tower, met up in the Main Room and began talking about Megumi, wondering who she was and what she wanted. They wondered what happened to the ghost boy.
"I couldn't find him anywhere when we went into the bank" Beast Boy said, putting his hand under his chin as if he was in a deep thought. After defeating Megumi and her soldiers, the Titans went back to the bank to see if they could find the ghost boy, however, they couldn't find a trace of him.
"Could he have been a mistake by the computer?" Starfire asked.
"We also scanned the bank to see if anything has been stolen, a large amount of money has but I presume that's what Megumi took" Ember said, sitting down on the couch in the main room.
"Or the ghost boy... When I heard the reports, they said he was taking money out of the safe..." Robin added, joining Ember on the couch, along with Starfire beside him.
"I couldn't sense him anywhere" Raven said, sitting down on the ground. "Either we missed him, or he was just a glitch in the system...It's hard to tell at the moment."
"My night vision scanners couldn't pick him up either" Cyborg joined in, with a frown wondering if this ghost boy even existed.
"Excellent work Megumi... Even though the Titans defeated you, you managed to find a new apprentice for us. That's if we can get this girl to join us... We'll have to watch Ember to see what she's like and how her powers work"
"Do you really think she'd make a good apprentice? I never expected her to have powers like that. She seems weak at the moment though..." Megumi sighed, rubbing a few bruises.
"True, she does appear weak. So did Terra but look how she came out, though Terra sacrificed her life to stop me."
"But that didn't work since you're invincible Slade."
"That I am... We'll have to keep a closer eye out on Ember and hope she doesn't have the power to sacrifice herself. You and I have tried many times unsuccessfully to restore Terra's life soon after she petrified herself. I wonder if we should try again on a stormy night" Slade said after a while.
"Why do you like Terra so much dearest?" Megumi asked, looking at her husband, she smiled and sat with him on the ground.
"I just find her useful. She gave me the list of the Titan's weakness, I'm sure Ember would if we can lure her over to our side..." Slade replied. "You could say Terra's kind of like a daughter to me..."
"Apparently Ember has fire powers too... According to these CCTV videos from the bank. She was helping the goth girl defrost the customers that I have frozen. The powers seem unique for her, I have never seen someone with Fire and Earth powers. I'm looking forward to see her future battles." Megumi said, watching the TV screen.
"Ember would make an excellent villain. I saw her when she set her house on fire. I've been watching her for sometime" Slade said imagining the chaos he, Ember and Megumi could cause in Jump City together. "The Titans may have her now, however, they might not have her too much longer!"
Robin had been telling Ember all about Terra, figuring she should know about her, either way she'd learn about the former Titan one way or the other. Ember listened in interest; she didn't know what to think of until Raven entered the room. He was sitting on the couch with Ember and Starfire while Cyborg busied himself with designing Ember's room. Raven and Beast Boy were noticeably absent for a moment.
"And when Terra went out on a date with Beast Boy..." Robin began, he then saw Raven entering the room, her eyes glowed red with anger at the mention of Terra.
"Hi Raven!" Robin quickly tried changing topic.
"We're just talking about Terra..." Ember began, looking at the goth nervously.
Raven's eyes glowed a darker red, at the mention of the blonde, a light bulb burst in the background.
"Raven?" Beast Boy's voice called for her. Raven calmed down and left the room.
"What was that about?" Ember asked, watching as Raven left the room after hearing Beast Boy call her name. She noticed that Raven got angry with the mention of Terra - though it was mentioned earlier Ember didn't really understand the situation since it wasn't on the news.
"Terra and Raven never really got along. For some reason she and I couldn't fully trust her like the others did... Beast Boy was closest to her." Robin explained.
"Terra was fun to do the painting of the nails with and styling the hair" Starfire joined in, holding some food in her hands, she had just been cooking. "I wish she were back."
"If Terra does come back...I doubt Raven would ever forgive her" Robin pointed out. "Especially now Raven's close friends with Beast Boy."
"I guess that makes sense. It's a shame Terra turned out that way" Ember said, wishing she could've been there when that happened.
"It's part of the reason why we're cautious about Titans joining us now" Robin said. "We've learned our mistake with her."
"Would you give her another chance if she was back?" Ember asked curiously.
Starfire looked at Robin excitedly when Ember said that. She had missed the blonde.
"I'm not really sure, honestly, Ember. It's a hard one. We promised Beast Boy one more chance with her but now he's close to Raven - I don't want Terra to ruin the friendship they've got together" Robin said.
To be continued...