Titans Reborn: Part Three
Robin stood at the head of the Titans meeting table with his arms folded as he surveyed the newly formed Teen Titans. He looked around the room and saw them all getting to know each other. Cyborg was laughing with Beast Boy whilst playing with their hand-me-down computer, Raven was ignoring Kid Flash with all her ability, Wonder Girl was chatting up a storm with Tsunami, Arsenal was mingling with everyone as he moved around the room. Robin smiled to himself, Roy's Titans venture had never really got off the ground but Robin could see how happy he was with this group already. Arsenal walked over to Robin and clapped his hand on his shoulder.
"Good team," was all he had to say. Robin knew the underlying implication, "Better than I did."
"Thanks," Robin said patting his old friend on the arm before turning back to the table, "okay Titans, lets get started."
"Ooh I'm so excited!" Tsunami said in a very high-pitched voice, Raven groaned.
All the Titans arranged themselves around the table and looked expectantly at Robin, "Now I can't take the credit for this new Titans initiative," he started as everyone looked at Raven, "but I can say how impressed I am at the calibre of heroes we have gathered here. I've fought side-by-side with some of you many times, some of you I'm meeting for the first time. I'd like to heartily welcome you all into the Teen Titans, and I'd love to spend more time getting to know you all better but we just don't have that luxury."
All eyes around the room were on Robin, even the normally flaky Kid Flash had a straight face.
"Above the streets of Metropolis there is an alien warship flying cloaked as it searches the streets for an escaped slave who just happens to be princess of a faraway planet called Tamaran. The first thing we have to do is find the princess and bring her back here to the tower, then from there I suggest we wait for them to come to us."
"Sorry?" Cyborg said speaking up, "I know I'm new here but aren't they an organised army of alien special forces and aren't we just eight teenagers with fancy powers and a dilapidated T-shaped clubhouse? No offence anyone."
"Dilapidated my foot," Kid Flash mumbled from the other side of the room.
"None taken Cyborg," Robin said with a smile, "I have faith that we can beat the Gordanians, especially on our home turf. And of course not everybody will be going after the princess, some of you will be staying here to fortify the Tower," Cyborg nodded agreement and Robin continued, "I want us working in three teams," Robin said stepping slightly back from the table, "Team One will be fortifying the Tower, defences, booby traps, shielding. Arsenal, you're in charge, Cyborg and Tsunami as the least experienced members of the group I want to see you do some training before you see combat. Any questions on that?"
"Rob," Arsenal protested, he didn't like being sidelined, "I've got buckets of experience, why are you benching me?"
"I'm not benching you," Robin replied stoically, getting emotional wasn't going to help this at all, "you're proficient in weapons design, you're handy with a screwdriver and you're an efficient leader. We need you here," Arsenal shut up, but Robin could tell he was still unhappy, "Team Two will comprise of Raven, Beast Boy and Kid Flash."
"Yes!" Kid flash exclaimed under his breath, Raven groaned again.
Robin chose to ignore them and continued, "You will be scouting the Gordanian ship, finding weaknesses and getting to know how the Gordanians function."
"Why are you sending me?" Beast Boy chirped up.
"Lucky for us, Gordanians are green," Raven said with a slight hint of humour.
"Score!" Beast Boy punched his fist into the air, "recon duty."
Robin looked to Wonder Girl as she was the only other free Titan, "Wonder Girl, you and I will be searching Metropolis for the princess seeing as you were there recently," inadvertently Raven looked at the empty seat next to her, Superboy's reserved position, "I'll need you to fly me places I can't get to by jump-line, I'm not as home in Metropolis as I am in Gotham."
Wonder Girl nodded but said nothing, her recent rejection still played heavily on her mind.
"Everybody understand?"
All the Titans responded positively except for Arsenal who simply nodded and Wonder Girl who seemed distracted. They all stood up from their seats and Robin put his hand out in the middle, everyone else put their hands in, Raven and Arsenal reluctantly. Robin smiled and looked around the group.
"Titans," he started, everyone threw their hands into the air and they all shouted in unison, "Go!"
Her attempts to remove the collar where met with just more frustration and she started to weep again, "I can not go back," Kory whispered to herself, "I will not go back," she said with renewed resolve. Her stomach began to rumble the familiar tune of hunger and she decided to brave it back out in the main streets.Wonder Girl and Robin stood on top the Daily Planet building, shaded from the rain by the large golden globe. Robin had been stood still and silent for some time, Wonder Girl supposed he was thinking and hadn't wanted to interrupt but it had been at least ten minutes now and her costume wasn't really all that warm in bad weather.
"Robin?" she asked tentatively, "you got any idea where to start? Because I got a little wet bringing you up here and now its cold and my costume is going to stick to me and I'll probably catch hypothermia or something."
"No you won't," Robin didn't turn to look at her as he spoke, just carried on looking at the city, "you're an Amazon, your people don't get sick."
"Maybe that's because it doesn't rain on Paradise Island," Wonder Girl walked up to stand in Robin's line of sight, "maybe Amazons are like super-susceptible to hypothermia or pneumonia or some other cold diseases that end in monia," Robin ignored her ramblings and she grunted with annoyance, "that, and when my suit gets wet and sticks to me I look all cheap and slutty."
Robin smiled thinly at that last comment, "I'm sure you could never look cheap," he pointed to the large cloud that hid the Gordanian ship and pulled out his miniature binoculars from his utility belt, "I can see Raven flying the others up to the flagship, I hope they're careful."
Wonder Girl simply rolled her eyes at his first comment then looked along his arm at his second, "Me too," she replied with a hint of worry in her voice, "I'm really glad we're back together, I don't want anything to happen to any of us. I haven't even had the chance to get to know some of the new people," deciding to change the subject Wonder Girl looked back at Robin, "can we get started now please? All this waiting is killing me."
"How's Terry?" Robin asked, only half-listening to her as he thought of crash trajectories in his mind then cross-referenced that with the recent news reports he'd read in the Planet.
"Oh he's fine," Wonder Girl replied, surprised Robin was even interested, "I didn't know you knew that much about my social life?"
"I'm team leader, its my job to know," Robin turned back to smile at her, "and I am the resident detective after all. You're my friend, why shouldn't I take an interest?"
"We just weren't all that close the first time round," Wonder Girl said moving a little closer and taking a seat on an air filtration vent, "we disbanded before we really got to know each other. And I hadn't even met Terry then."
Robin extended a hand towards her in a show of trust more than anything, "I'm Dick," Wonder Girl's eyes went wide with the shock of the revelation that Robin was in fact a person under the mask. She had almost thought his name was Robin and he'd been raised by the Batman from a little test tube in some creepy underground cave. She also knew that out of the other Titans only Arsenal knew his real name, although Raven probably did too as she knew pretty much everything.
She accepted his hand with a smile, "Donna, thanks for trusting me."
"We're team-mates now," Robin said running a hand though his black hair, "and I'm team leader, if we don't trust each other then not only could we not function properly as a team nor would I feel comfortable giving you orders."
"Ah, so its for the good of the team."
"That," Robin paused, "and I like you, I've always trusted you. More so than some of the people I know best, because you're a good person."
"Thanks," Wonder Girl stood up and smiled, "that means a lot." She stepped out of the shade of the globe and was suddenly ravaged by a shower of rain, "This is going to be the death of my hair. And then consequently, my modelling career," she joked with a faux frown.
"I suppose we should get going then," Robin said as he stepped to the edge of the building, "the Titans' are strapped for cash as it is," he pointed towards the hidden ship, "we're going that way, but I want you to look out for any large bodies of water."
"Okay boss," Wonder Girl said, taking off and swerving around to pick up Robin by placing one arm around his waist, "let's go."
The two Titans flew over Metropolis' main park, around five or six hundred yards from the Gordanian spaceship at a slow pace so both Robin and Wonder Girl could survey the ground. It was then Robin spotted a lake in a secluded area of the park ambushed by trees.
"Down there," he shouted over the wind, "that lake in the trees looks quite deep."
Wonder Girl simply nodded and they arced down towards the lake, they slowed down even more as they reached the ground and Wonder Girl took them down quite low so they almost skimmed the water. Even with the ripples of the rain on the water Robin could make out the alien escape pod drowned deep at the bottom of the lake, he motioned for Wonder Girl to put him down and then examined the edge of the lake.
After a few moments of examination he spoke, "The craft crashed here roughly three days ago, and its occupant exited fairly swiftly, within two minutes I'd say. She was a young woman, about five foot six and weighing roughly 110 pounds. She was barefoot but didn't tread carefully, running at full pelt away from the escape pod and off towards the east."
"That's impressive," Wonder Girl responded with wide eyes.
"You should see Batman do it," Robin replied, "of course he would've done it in half the time and not bothered to explain it. He would've just gone 'follow me' and walked off all mysterious like he always does. You know the longest I've ever heard him speak in one go is about a minute?"
"I always liked the strong silent type," Wonder Girl said with a giggle, Robin smiled and shook his head before beckoning for her to follow as he went in pursuit of the escaped princess.
"My dear Kory," it said in a disconcertingly pleasant tone, "I was so worried about you."
"Why Emperor?" Kory shouted in response, "did you think you might have to force your disgusting scaly body on some other poor slave?" she hoped her false bravado would make them think twice about attacking her.
"You've developed quite a mouth during your stay on this primitive world," he scuttled a little closer and his foot-soldiers pointed their energy spears at her, "I shall have to beat it out of you."
"Try, I would like the excuse to vaporise you," Kory bluffed, "I managed to deactivate my power inhibitor collar. Your technology is no more advanced than stone knives and bear skins."
"You just had to say that didn't you?" the Emperor tutted at her, "now I'll just have to get the boys to stun you first," he smiled maliciously and a pair of pincer-like fangs appeared from the side of his mouth, "boys?"
"I don't know what you're doing here or what you're fighting about, but if any of you make even a single move you'll regret it," a voice called from above. Robin landed in a combat stance in the alley and Wonder Girl glided down after him with a determined look on her face.
"You humans really don't want to involve yourselves in our business," the Emperor sneered pompously and gestured to Wonder Girl, "I seriously doubt you have any dangerous weapons hidden in that outfit."
Wonder Girl leapt into flight and threw an incredible uppercut at the Emperor's chin, sending him flying into the building across the street, "I'm more dangerous than any weapon you've seen," Wonder Girl turned and glared at the rest of the Gordanians, "so don't piss me off."
"And stay away from the princess," Robin threatened with a glare that could shatter granite, "she's under our protection now."
The Gordanian guards made a sort of clicking, gurgling sound before turning to retrieve their injured Emperor. They gathered him up between three of them and scuttled off back towards the park, Robin reasoned they also had traced her from there and had a ship of some sort hidden for the return journey. Robin and Wonder Girl now turned to the scared princess, who was now not backed right up against the wall, but still tense with fear.
"Stay back, I've got this one," Robin whispered to Wonder Girl who then turned away to make sure that there were no lingering alien soldiers, "hello? Princess Kory do you understand me?"
"Yes, I can learn the basics of languages through observation," Kory said with impeccable politeness, "could I possibly ask how you know me? Or why you saved me for that matter?"
"A friend of ours heard about your situation," Robin said moving closer, "she thought we should help you. That you were suffering," Robin moved another step closer, "and I can't stand to let anyone suffer."
"Thank you for saving me," she replied and stepped up quickly to hug a very surprised Robin, "ooh you have deceptively well developed muscular structure," she said as her hands roamed his back, feeling his muscles unashamedly.
"Uh thanks," Robin said extracting himself from her hug with a little difficulty, Wonder Girl giggled from her position further up the alley, "I'm Robin by the way."
"And I'm Wonder Girl," she called out by way of introduction.
"I'm Princess Korian'r of Tamaran," she said bowing gracefully, though with a slight wince of pain from a bruised muscle in her lower back, "but you can call me Starfire."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: 1) I don't own any of these characters and intend to make no profit from this story. So please don't sue me as I don't have any money.
2) No feedback from my second chapter, which was kinda disappointing. Although I find writing to be relaxing and fun I don't just write for me, I want to know others are enjoying it or else I don't see any point in writing so please R&R or read and review to people who aren't acronym fans.
3) As always my site is at www.anotherworld.gq.nu and any questions or comments are welcome to samsgcharrison.freeserve.co.uk. I love getting feedback on my stories so don't hesitate to e-mail me, and if you've ever got a little free time look at my site and read my Captain Britain story. You'll be able to see the evolution of my writing from that to this, which is in fact my first Titans story and my first and only team story (I almost always have a sole main character, but in this I've got 8 main characters so far with more on the way).
