Author's Note:

Corrections – I've been told that I made some mistakes in the first chapter. I shall explain. Although Slade has fire powers, I'm making him have telekinesis as well because those powers also come from the demon heritage. Raven's powers are from her demon side, so why can't Slade have them? Also, since Raven needs to say what my reviewer says is Azar's Peace Chant (I haven't read the comics, so I can't dispute that) in order to use her demon powers, I don't see why Slade can't do the same. (Maybe he doesn't in the series, but I'm going to give him these extra powers anyway.) As for Brother Blood's signature, I always thought "Brother" was some title, not part of his name. I didn't think a signature starting with "Brother" looked right, but then again maybe it should be that way. It's also entirely possible that Raven's powers do not extend to healing. I'm going only off the Cartoon Network series, and I haven't read the comics. The show and most of the fanfictions seem to imply that Raven can do more than remove pain, but that doesn't prove that they're all right. I may indeed have been mistaken, but in any case, I am too lazy to replace the first chapter, so I am leaving it as it is.

Chapter 2: Youth Leaders

The first of many weeks of calm passed. The Titans had surprisingly long periods of free time to visit their leader and in turn receive visits and condolences from other heroes. It was as if the entire world of villainy had ground to a halt to observe a moment of silence for the Boy Wonder. None of the major super-powered villains attempted anything. More often, in fact, members of the HIVE came to visit Robin and wish him well.

On the seventh day after Robin's injury, the calm was broken. The Titans had gone for seven days without a single alarm and had been hoping for an eighth, but some random street thug had just run out of money and decided that it was time to do another bank robbery.

The alarm showed on the Titans' communicators as they were at the hospital to check on Robin. Robin glanced at his communicator on the table as well.

"Hmmm…a single guy with a gun. He seems not to have any powers," commented Raven.

"Actually," stated Robin, "I think this could be complicated. We've never had to deal with a lethal case before. Those villains with superpowers were only ever trying to subdue us, not kill us. This man's different."

With this in mind, the four mobile Titans reached the bank quickly. As they approached, the gunman had already forced the teller to fill a bag with money. He now took the money and tried to back away from the Titans, keeping his gun pointed.

"What's the plan now?" asked Beast Boy.

"Beats me," answered Raven.

"Then are we simply to stand here and do nothing?" questioned Starfire.

The others shrugged. The robber was nearing his car.

"If Robin were here we would have captured that man by now…"

"Then why don't we do it?" demanded Cyborg.

"You're the leader, you tell me," replied Raven.

"Fine," Cyborg said, "Let's figure out how to take him down. First we need a way to protect ourselves from the bullets…"

"I can shield us," offered Raven, "or I could try to take his gun, but I can't do both at the same time."

Cyborg nodded. The robber had already gotten into his car and was starting it up. "Okay, you shield us while we distract him and one of us needs to sneak up behind him and snatch his gun."

The robber got his car started and drove off, exulting in his escape from the heretofore-undefeated superheroes of Jump City.

Cyborg leveled his sonic cannon arm at the escaping car and fired. The blue beam struck the back right wheel of the car, knocking it off. Sparks flew from the car's corner as it skidded to a halt.

"Titans, go!" shouted Cyborg, and the Titans ran towards the broken car. The robber left the bag of stolen cash in the car and drew a gun, pointing it at the four Titans.

"Raven, shield!" called Cyborg. Raven spread out her hands and a black hemisphere formed around the Titans. The frightened robber fired his gun several times. White cracks appeared on Raven's shield, but they soon disappeared as Raven painted them over with dark energy.

Cyborg turned to Beast Boy. "Find a way to get behind him and get his gun before he sees you," he ordered. Beast Boy transformed into a green fly and flew out under Raven's shield and high into the air. The robber, too far away to see the green fly and thinking that Beast Boy had disappeared, looked frantically around, expecting Beast Boy to reappear any second. About ten seconds passed before the robber remembered the other three Titans. Thinking that Beast Boy's disappearance was only a distraction, he re-pointed his gun at the other Titans. Beast Boy, who was actually the unnoticed green fly on the man's shoe, suddenly morphed into a green monkey, grabbed the barrel of the robber's gun, jerked the gun out of his hands, and threw it to Cyborg. Raven released her shield and caught the gun. The police had surrounded the area by now and the robber, deprived of his weapons, went handcuffed into a police cruiser.

Later that day, Robin heard the account of the Titans' unnecessarily long standoff with the robber.

"…So Beast Boy tossed us the gun, Raven got it and the police showed up just in time to take the credit," Cyborg finished.

"Good job Cyborg!" said Robin, "But it seems like you guys had some confusion at the beginning, and that could have been really dangerous. We're extremely lucky that robber didn't shoot you while you were talking. You have to know at the start who's going to be giving the orders."

The Titans understood and nodded. They knew their leader was right.

"Cyborg?" Beast Boy prodded Cyborg forward.

Robin nodded. "Well Cyborg it looks like you've been elected the leader for now," he said. "But there's something else that's bothered me. The superhero business is very dangerous. Any moment something could happen to you, Cyborg. Something could happen to all of us, like what happened to me. It's important that any of you be fit to take over if something happens to the leader. To put it simply you all need to learn how to lead the team."

"Okay…now how do we do that?" asked Cyborg.

"I think we can take advantage of the period of calm and practice," suggested Robin. "Why don't you take turns leading? The doctors say it'll be a year before I'm well again, so you can each be the leader of the Teen Titans for 3 months or something…I think the first turn goes to Cyborg."

Cyborg shrugged. "Seems pretty easy; all I do is say 'Titans go' at the beginning of every battle…"

"No, there's more than that, you have to decide the strategies and choose courses of action. It's pretty complicated."

End Chapter

Next chapter: What happens when the inexperienced and rash Cyborg commands a weakened team in battle? It's the perfect recipe for a crushing defeat...