A/N: Hey, everyone! I am floored every time I open my email and see more reviews. It's so awesome! Thanks for reading! I thought I had best explain something that I thought I had cleared up in the Author's Note in Chapter Three. I know nothing about the Titans' pasts, and I don't have the time to look any of it up. I was aware of the whole Koriand'r (sp?) thing, but I made a decision when I started writing this that since I knew little to nothing about it I would keep to what the TV SERIES had. And on the TV SERIES Starfire is Starfire, Cyborg is Cyborg, Beast Boy is Beast Boy, and Raven is Raven – at least in the episodes that I have seen. I know about Dick Grayson's past because I've been a big Batman fan since the animated series first debuted back in – what was it? – 1991? I'm old. So, for those of you who've been asking, I hope this explains it. I'm going to do another TT fic sometime that actually reflects their "true" pasts, but this isn't it. Sorry if you were looking for something along those lines. I'll try not to disappoint with this one. Thanks again for reading! OH! And just to reassure you, none of the Titans look as bad as they did in last Saturday's (Oct. 2) episode!!
Firestorm
Teen Titans/Batman: The Animated Series
By Amos Whirly
Chapter Eight: An Unexpected Development
Cyborg whistled under his breath as they approached Nightwing's jet. He had covered it with a camouflaged sheet, and it had remained undetected.
"Nice wheels, man," Cyborg ran his robotic fingers over the fuselage.
Nightwing smiled at his old friend and jumped into the cockpit. Starfire descended on his right and watched over his shoulder as he entered a code into the keypad below the view screen.
"Batman?" Nightwing spoke aloud into the radio. "Are you there?"
Nothing but static answered.
Nightwing frowned and leaned back in his chair.
"What if it's a text message?" Beast Boy wondered from beside Cyborg. "Like last time?"
"What's going on?" Cyborg scratched his slightly balding head.
"The Mr. Batman finds the information to where everyone is," Starfire replied cheerily, "and he informs us of his findings. That is how we were able to find both of you so quickly."
"There's no message in the Inbox," Nightwing muttered.
"Maybe he forgot," Beast Boy said with a shrug.
Nightwing leveled a glare in his direction, saying, "Batman doesn't forget. Not even the things he wants to forget."
A light suddenly switched on and flashed.
"What is that?" Starfire whispered, hiding slightly behind the edge of the cockpit.
"Looks like we got an email," Nightwing nodded succinctly and tapped a few more buttons. Instantly, a text message appeared on the screen.
It was short, clipped, and cryptic.
Batman Drake Ave.
Old friends returned.
Request immediate return.
Nightwing cursed through his clenched jaw and buckled his seatbelt. "We have to go back to Gotham."
"Is that where Raven is?" Beast Boy morphed into a tabby striped cat and perched on the cockpit ledge.
"No."
"It is Blackfire," Starfire covered her mouth with her hands.
"Cyborg, get in," Nightwing jerked his head over his shoulder. "Beast Boy, you're either flying on your own or staying small. Star—"
"I am capable of transporting myself, Nightwing," she patted his arm. "I did not fly in a ship when I came from Tamaran."
He smiled slightly at her and closed the cockpit glass as Cyborg buckled in.
"There's only one buckle!" he heard Beast Boy panicking. "How am I going to buckle in? Buckle up? Buckling's important!"
The jet's engines whined as they powered for take off.
"Let me out!" Beast Boy was crying. "I'll fly!"
"Too late," Nightwing countered and jerked back on the flying column.
The jet shot into the air.
The momentum flung Beast Boy, still in cat form, against the glass of the cockpit, flattening him there spread-eagled. He wheezed loudly, and Cyborg laughed. "You've got your own Garfield, man!"
If there had been sixty of them, the thugs would not have been a problem. As it was, however, over a hundred was asking too much.
Batgirl ducked under a punch and kicked her high-heeled boot into the midsection of a man three times her size. He stumbled and fell, and another landed beside her and backhanded her against a trash dumpster. She reached up, gripped the handle, and flipped, driving her boots under the man's chin as she did so. She landed solidly on top of the dumpster, and instantly a pair of huge arms crashed around her, jerking her bodily into the air!
Robin was avoiding blows with ease since most of the thugs toward multiple feet above his head, and none of them could move as quickly as he could. However, he could not knock any of them down. His fists, though strong and hard as iron, were still small. As a result, he had basically taken to hit-and-runs in hopes that by wearing them down, he could knock someone out.
Batman was another story. He punched, kicked, blocked, and kicked again, taking down every thug that challenged him with grim determination and unfaltering confidence. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a particularly large man snatch Batgirl off her feet. The old protective instinct deep inside flared up, and he flung a batarang across the roof. It struck the man squarely on the side of the head. He dropped Batgirl fell unconscious to the ground. Batgirl flashed him a look of appreciation and moved to tackle the next thug.
It had started as a few purse snatchers on Drake Avenue. Nothing to worry about. The moment Batgirl had intervened to stop it, the thugs came from out of nowhere. Robin arrived soon after, and Batman after that. He had hesitated on leaving the search for the last Titan, but on hearing Batgirl and Robin's desperate voices yelling at each other over the radio, he left quickly, leaving Alfred with instructions to tell Nightwing as soon as he checked in.
The three vigilantes fought for what felt like hours until every thug on the street corner. When it was over, Batgirl was sporting a bleeding lip, and Robin had three long scratches down the side of his face. Batman was uninjured.
Wild, maniacal laughter suddenly echoed around him.
"We should have known," Batgirl growled turning. Batman did not move as the Joker hopped merrily out of the shadows.
"Bravo!" he laughed obnoxiously. "Wonderful show!" he clapped his hands. "And working bird one down too. I'm impressed. Really I am."
"Where is she?" Batman glared at him, his voice darker than the night surrounding them.
"She?"
"Blackfire," Robin spat. "Where is Blackfire?"
The concrete at their feet suddenly erupted in purple light! The force drove them to the ground! Batman fell to one knee before he regained his balance and grabbed hold of Robin's cape to steady the teenager. A quick flash of movement to the left caused Batman to turn. A metal fist impacted with the side of his face. He vaguely heard Batgirl yelp, and the purple light dissipated.
Batman and Robin stood by themselves on the street, surrounded by another hoard of club-wielding thugs.
Neither Blackfire nor the Joker were anywhere in sight.
And Batgirl was gone.
They really did not talk much as they flew quickly toward the north. Cyborg revealed how he had met his wife, some of the details of their wedding, and every unimportant tidbit of each of his children's school records.
"It's great, having kids," he laughed heartily. "Better than I thought it would be." He looked at the back of Nightwing's head. "I have to say, though, I never expected to see you again."
"Why not? We didn't part on bad terms or anything."
"I know," Cyborg shrugged. "But—Your goodbyes—They just always seem so – final." A beeping sound filled the cockpit. "Hey, we've got a contact on radar."
"What is it?"
"Don't know, but it's small."
Nightwing peered through the gloom and scowled darkly. The flash of the moon sparkled off metallic body armor.
"It's Blackfire," he cursed. And he cursed again as he eyed the figure the Tamaranian fugitive was carrying.
The moon shone on blood-red hair.
Batgirl.
Nightwing watched a flash of red hair streak by his window. Starfire had seen them too.
"Beast Boy," he said tersely.
"I'm on it!" Beast Boy replied. "Get me out of here."
"Hold on, Cy." Nightwing pulled a lever, and the floor beneath Cyborg opened. Beast Boy jumped out and immediately changed into a huge condor.
Batgirl had stopped struggling long before as Blackfire dragged her higher and higher above Gotham. The air was thin and cold. Her lungs burned for oxygen.
"Now," Blackfire purred, lifting Batgirl up by her shoulders until they could see eye-to-eye, "you are going to tell me—" Blackfire yelped as a blast of green light exploded at her lower back. She dropped Batgirl for a moment before snatching her wrist and whirling around in the air.
Just in time to take Starfire's glowing green fist in her face.
Blackfire dropped Batgirl.
She tumbled end over end, plummeting through the clouds helplessly. Even if she had a tow line, she could not have fixed it to anything.
She heard a condor screech above her, and she looked up with some effort. A massive bird was diving toward her. She gaped in shock as the huge bird's talons closed around her falling body and pulled up, carrying her gently down toward the city.
The shriek of a jet engine reached her ears, and she saw Nightwing's plane touch down on a building top.
"He made it!" she laughed.
"You bet, sister!" the massive bird laughed.
She gawked at it again, and it winked at her.
"Batman! Look!" Robin shouted.
Batman knocked a thug over and glanced up. An enormous condor flew down toward them from the clouded sky, Batgirl safely in its talons. The bird dropped her on the street, and instantly, the animal shifted forms and morphed into a golden lion, charging after the thugs like a creature possessed.
Robin stared in awe as the lion suddenly changed again into an octopus with far too many tentacles and began grabbing thugs left and right and holding them up in the air.
A huge blue blast of light burst off of a rooftop and sent five thugs through a building wall, and a tall, burly black man landed solidly at the other end of the street. He sported a glowing mechanical arm with a pulsing sphere of energy gathering in his fist.
"You want some more of this?" he shouted and shot again, knocking another ten thugs halfway down the street.
Nightwing landed behind him, smirking slightly. He jumped, though, as a burst of purple light erupted at his feet. He and Batman traded a glance as two blurs flew overhead, the vortex behind them nearly knocking them all over.
Starfire and Blackfire were fighting.
Batgirl watched with rapt attention as the two sisters hurled huge energy bolts at each other, blowing holes in buildings, melting concrete, and snapping street lamps as if they were nothing but toothpicks.
At last, they stopped flying, but only because Blackfire had a handful of Starfire's thick red hair. Brutally, Blackfire flung her sister into the street, shook herself off, and clenched her fists.
"You weren't supposed to be back yet!" she shrieked.
And flew away into the clouds.
Starfire slammed into the concrete viciously. The rough pavement shredded through her uniform and tore into her skin. She stopped herself, though, and moved to stand, but Nightwing stopped her.
"She's gone, Star."
"But—?"
"Let her go."
She nodded quietly and winced at the blooded patches on her arms and legs.
A quiet footfall sounded behind them, and Nightwing looked up at Batgirl.
"Hey," she smiled and kneeled down to look at Starfire's wounds, "are you guys all right?"
"You are the one for whom we should be concerned," Starfire protested.
"The octopus gave me a lift," Batgirl cast a look at the octopus who was presently twirling the thugs around like a merry-go-round at a carnival.
Instantly, he sprouted another tentacle and waved at her.
Robin was still staring blankly at the two new arrivals. Batman moved silently to Nightwing's side and nodded.
Nightwing nodded back. "This is Cyborg, and that's Beast Boy." Cyborg nodded. Beast Boy instantly changed back to his normal form, dropping the twenty-odd thugs he had been swinging around.
"Thank you for coming," Batgirl smiled at them. "Come on. Let's get out of here before the police show up."
She helped Starfire stand up, and Beast Boy and Cyborg instantly fell into a conversation with Robin as they headed back toward Wayne Manor.
Nightwing and Batman stood side-by-side, gazing into the dark clouds.
"Was it just Blackfire?" Nightwing asked softly.
"The Joker was here too."
"What did they want?"
"I don't know," Batman admitted with a decided amount of chagrin in his shadowed voice. "And that's what bothers me."