Half way through their pizza, Robin's communicator beeped. He opened it up and read the message.
"What is it?" asked Cyborg.
"It's not Slade is it?" asked Beastboy, "'cause I haven't finished my pizza."
"Beastboy!" said Raven.
"What?" asked Beastboy.
"Don't worry," said Robin, "It's just a robbery down town, but we'd better sort it out."
They all stood up and walked away, apart from Beastboy who was dragged away by Cyborg.
"Can't I take it with me?" asked Beastboy.
"I ain't letting you in my car with pizza!" said Cyborg, "Now get a move on!"
Other than that the only one still there was Jericho. Raven turned around.
"Come on," she said, "We're not allowed to leave you alone remember? Plus you might come in useful!"
Jericho grinned and got up, running after her.
Once at the store currently being robbed, they stationed themselves outside the door. Robin looked in through the glass in the door and ducked back down.
"They're heavily armed for average robbers," he explained Robin, "My guess is that they're from a group, but we can't know until we stop them."
"If they're heavily armed, how're we going to get in?" asked Beastboy.
"We need a distraction," said Robin.
"Why don't we send in Star?" laughed Beastboy,"Most guys find her distracting!"
"I do not understand…" started Starfire.
"Don't worry," said Robin, "I'll deal with him later, right now I think we need something a little more ordinary…"
The Titans looked at Jericho who started to look very worried.
Jericho put the headphones on, hiding the ear piece given to him my Cyborg. He took a deep breath and walked into the shop. The robbers all pointed their guns at him, but he was already walking in another direction, looking at things on the shelves as though he hadn't seen them.
"Kid," said one of the robbers, "Drop to the ground!"
Jericho ignored them, trying to stay looking calm. He knew that Raven was outside, ready with a shield in case they started firing.
"Boss," said the robber, "This kid won't listen."
The leader of the gang walked up to Jericho was pulled off his headphones.
"Stay calm" buzzed Cyborg's voice in his ear, "be confident 'look him in the eye', so to speak"
Jericho let himself give smile. The leader pulled Jericho around and faced the gun at him.
"Raise your hands!" he said.
Jericho did as he was told and looked straight into the leader's eyes. The leader suddenly found himself hypnotised by the glowing green eyes; completely black apart from the green glowing rings…
The next thing he knew the kid was gone and he was walking across the store without telling his legs to move. He was completely out of his own control and not only that, but he could hear whispers in his head, telling him what to do.
"Boss? What happened to that kid?" asked one of the gang.
"I…dunno…something strange is goin' on!" he said.
The next thing he knew he was doing thumbs up out of the window.
"Who are you signalling to?" asked the member of the gang, staring out of the window.
What the gang didn't know, was that Raven had just used a dimensional hole to bring the Titans straight into the store without the gang noticing (they were all too busy staring out of the window). Suddenly one of the gang glanced around.
He opened his mouth to raise the alarm as he looked at the leader, but he gave Jericho the time he needed to jump from the gang leader into guy and made him smack his own head against the wall, knocking him out. He fell onto the floor and Jericho jumped out of him and lined up with the Titans.
"Quick thinking Jericho," Said Robin.
The rest of the gang turned around and were all suddenly either being knocked unconscious or attempting to dodge attacks. Soon all of the robbers expect one where lying unconscious on the floor. The last one was trying to sneak up behind Robin. Jericho turned around quickly and made eye contact, jumping into him. Robin turned around to see a gun inches away from his face, but the guy was staring, confused at his own hand as it dropped the gun without being instructed to. The next thing he knew, his wrists were being held out and Robin was clipping handcuffs on him.
"Thanks Jericho," said Robin and Joey jumped out of him.
Slade stopped and looked into the distance. The town where he had lost two apprentices. Not only that, but now his own son had joined the same team his two apprentices had been members of. At least this made it easier for him to find…
There was a loud beeping of a car horn behind him. He didn't move from where he was stood, in the centre of the road.
"Hey!" called the middle-aged man, leaning out of the window, "Get out of the damn road!"
Slade began walking forward. The driver stayed hanging out of the window, watching the strange man walk down the middle of the road. As he walked away, Slade pull the ring out of a grenade and threw it backwards. It exploded within seconds of landing inside the car's sunroof.
"Not bad aim," said Slade, smiling behind his mask.
The Titans walked in through the door of the tower and through into the living room. The purple liquid was currently sleeping, curled up in a ball. Very carefully, Cyborg scooped it into one of his specially designed containers and slammed down the lid as it awoke and started trying to smash the container.
"Put it with the others," said Robin before turning to Starfire, "Now this time listen! No-living-food!"
Starfire smiled sweetly and nodded before sitting next to Beastboy on the sofa. Robin turned to Jericho.
"You did really good in there," he said, "I wonder if you might consider staying with us for a while so we can try you out as part of the team?"
Jericho grinned and nodded happily.
"Keep in mind you might change your decision when this is all over…" started Robin.
"Guys!" said Beastboy, "Come look at this!"
The Titans all made their way over to the sofa and sat down to watch the news channel that was currently on. There was a serious looking woman speaking.
"The body was found approximately five hours ago when the landlord went to collect rent. It was later identified to be the body of Mrs Adeline Wilson, who only recently moved to the area."
Jericho stared at the screen, a look of pure horror on his face as the Titans turned around to face him.
"We were later informed that the victim was killed with a powerful blast at short range from a heavy hand gun, the sort of which is unknown."
"Jericho…" said Starfire, taking his hand.
Jericho pulled it away and sat with his head down low and ran his hands through his hair.
"The whereabouts of Adeline's family are unknown. We have been told to as that if anyone can give the police any information of her son Joseph Wilson and husband Slade Wilson, they are to approach their local police station immediately…"
A picture of Jericho and a very serious looking man with white hair and an eye patch in an army uniform appeared on the screen.
"That's Slade?" asked Beastboy, "Explains the one eye."
"It's okay Joey," said Raven, "Now we know where he last was we'll be able to get him faster!"
Jericho moved his hands slowly.
'This-wasn't-supposed-to-happen.'… 'He-was-after-me.'
"It's okay," said Raven, "We'll go to the police and you can tell them what you know and we'll tell them that we'll handle it and…Joey we'll stop him! No matter what happens, we'll stop him!"
Then next thing she knew she was hugging him and he was crying as the Titans came round to comfort him.
