1
Today was a new day. And life can only be lived one day at a time.
Mammoth stood at an astonishing hieght in the lobby of the house. He stretched showing clearly superhuman muscles. Then he started fixing his torso armor.
Jinx was in her bathroom, busy at her mirror. She brushed her hair back into the two tall wafts before banding them. A clown costuming make-up kit lay open on the counter. The supercriminal glared at herself in the mirror while smearing two identical marks of pink under her eyes.
Gizmo came up from the basement. He was mumbling to himself and his hands constantly wandered over his own body. "Buckle 1 buckled? Check. Power pack powered? Check. Charger charged? Check. Goggles goggled?", he continued on like an needy insecure obsessive-compulsive genius instead of a brat with too many toys.
At precisely 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time, the three stood in a line from shortest to tallest in the lobby of the house. Only then did the Red X appear. Then he started his lecture.
"You have always failed.", he started. "Your previous...oppressor, Brother Blood, failed you. He taught you all you needed to be mind-controlled slaves that understood how to obey his whims. What he did not teach you was to succeed."
"You relied on his mind control. You don't have the strength of character to guide your own destiny. Until you do, there is a solution. As I have already spoken to each of you alone, I will continue to order you. You will obey what I say. When I say. Because I say."
The three snapped to attention.
2
The Teen Titans woke up lesiurely. A pleasant breakfast mixed in with voluntary opinionated arguing over tofu and sausage and sniflax and a 'suggestion' to compromise and completely ignoring everyone in favor of tea. Afterwards, the disharmony continued. One meditated on the roof top. One sat cross legged in mid air next to the one meditating on the roof top and waited for whatever it is that meditation does to happen, even though it never did. One had dreamed of an oscillation field cancellation operating unit's recieving sending echo and tried to build it, O.F.C.O.U.R.S.E. Another sifted through newspapers attempting to discern if any of the classified ads had messages written from top right to bottom left and vice versa. The last flipped through channels drooling until it occured to him that the health channel might have a special on drooling.
Then the red 'trouble in Jump City' alarm sounded. Somehow, Robin made it to the computer console across from the television before Beast Boy had turned around on the couch. Raven and Starfire seemed to simultaneously fall through open windows into the room. Cyborg was the last to arrive by the elevator.
The screen showed a map of a sector of Jump City. Four red arrows all pointed perpendicularly to a point on the map.
Robin punched one fist into the palm of the other. "X marks the spot."
3
The "Coins for the Quaint" openned at 10:00 a.m. Plenty of time for bankers to check the price of gold before heading over to trade bullion. Plenty of time for curators to double check their research on antique currency. Plenty of time for fringe religions to make sure their spells required a particular coin.
The front door, steel as it was, was torn open at precisely 9:53 a.m. Pacific time. Civilians evacuated, 9:54 a.m. Merchandise collected, 9:57 a.m. Bags filled with coins set down right beside the doorway, 9:58.
And then, right on schedule, a pool of shadow spilled onto the sidewalk from every other shadow. Raven Roth was elevated from this black, sickening goop as simply as the sky gives up a bird. The Red X nodded to her. "You're right on time.", he said. The Red X tossed her what looked like a PDA. "That map will show you where the bombs are and give you instructions on how to deactivate them. Or maybe you're willing to sacrifice about 3,498 hostages that don't even know how much danger they're in."
Raven glared at him. "There aren't that many people in there.", she scolded.
The Red X agreed. "You're right. They're in the neighborhood around us."
Raven looked at the screen of the device. It didn't display a coin depository. It did however have a group of red x marks all over its map. The shadows from her cloak coalesced into a monstrous, otherworldly entity and flew off leaving no trace of the girl that spawned her.
The Red X afforded a glance at Jinx. "You know, I never get tired of that."
Then he took in a breath. "Places people."
The Red X leaped through the air landing off to the right of the doorway. Mammoth stood between him and the door allowing his size to do the talking. Jinx stood just left of the door. And on the other side of her, antsy as anything, stood Gizmo.
The R-bird streaked into sight and skidded to a stop across from the Red X. From the oppositte direction the T-Car screached to a stop. As Robin approached the Red X, Cyborg approached Gizmo. A periguin falcon fell to the ground leaving a small green boy in front of Mammoth. Starfires eyes and hands already glew green as she floated to a couple feet above and infront of Jinx. "Teen Titan/"
"Switch!", the Red X called out. Mammoth jumped sky high and crashed into the ground that the Red X once stood on. The Red X tumbled out of his roll infront of Beast Boy. Gizmo's cyber legs extended from his left first and stabilized with the right leaving him eye to eye with Starfire. A one handed cartwheel landed Jinx in front of Cyborg. The HIVE graduates vs. the Teen Titans lineup instantly went from expected losses to unknown. Superheroes never have dealt well with the unknown.
The Red X was the first in motion. A fanciful kata was performed with Beast Boy serving as audience. Beast Boy's head followed the high flips and spinning kicks and whatever that move was. When the Red X was finished Beast Boy nodded in appreciation of phenomenal skill. Then he transformed into a Tyrannasoar, roaring like a whole pride of lions and baring foot long razar sharp teeth. Beast Boy was pleased at winning the intimidation contest. Then the Red X pointed down. Just as the Teen Titan looked down he saw the planted red, x-shaped blast coming up at him. As Beast Boy was knocked senseless he reverted to his default shape. "I'm done!", the Red X called out.
A millisecond behind the Red X was Mammoth. The behemoth punched through the space Robin should have been in and into the asphault. Robin swung from a rope around the lamppost just ahead of the chunk of street thrown at him. The boy wonder released his hold just as the street light collapsed under Mammoth's assualt. The sidewalk, cars, a fire hydrant...all became instnat casualties of Mammoth's pursuit.
"You know Stone,", Jinx started. "With all that cybernetic strength, armored invulnerability and simply massive...weaponry I'm more than a little intimidated."
"So you're going to surrender peacefully?", Cyborg asked.
Jinx exhaled noticably. "No, silly. I'm going todistract you with a double entondre so I can get close enough to touch you." With one hand glowing pink, the girl pulled on a barely noticablebolt under Cyborg's chest armor. Apparently, that bolt just happenned to hold that side of his armor and his arm to his torso. While Cyborg tried to piece himself back together, Jinx called out "Same here!".
Mammoth continued to chase Robin. The two led a madcap trail on the store fronts, across the street and through the air. The behemoth growled and roared more and more angrily as Robin dodged claw swipes, pieces of cars, chunks of asphalt andelectrical lines that just a second ago were attatched safely to things that wouldn't die from their glowing blue arks.
Gizmo's exoskeleton raised him up to Starfire's level. "Well, look at the goodies!", the dimunitive boy exclaimed.
"My goodies are not for viewing by the likes of you.", Starfire stated curtly. She then fired multiple energy blasts from multiple sources at Gizmo.
The forelegs of his armor collapsed, rolling Gizmo under Starfire and her starbolts. As soon as Gizmo was ground level and behind her, he fired missiles in an arc into the sky and down on Starfire.Starfire dodged by going to ground level and charging Gizmo.
The alien then collided with two yellow rays from weapons mounted on Gizmo's shoulders. This was followed by the Red X's foot across her face at blurring speed. That wasaccompanied by two sweeping arcs of pink energy from Jinx. One of the jinxes allowed the Red X to connect in a spot that actually stunned Starfire for over a millisecond. The other allowed her boot to lose traction on the ground while she was too dazed to figure which direction to fly in.
Starfire landed prone on the ground. Gizmo tapped the button that was glowing the whole time on his exoskeleton's controller. A spidery, metal tentacled device jumped off of Gizmo and onto Starfire. (A/N:Yes, a metal tentacled device jumped on an alien, scantily clad, anime-styleprincess. I'm not going there though.). Once the device had enveloped the girl, its hub started to glow.
"Cease fire!", the Red X called out. "Phase 3! Cease fire!" Mammoth responded just as Robin realized the trouble Starfire was in. Mammoth leaped through the air just as the boy's bo staff cut through the smoke that several bomb disks had created in the spot that Mammoth was just in.
Nearly before the Red X, Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth were huddled over the now struggling Starfire the group of bad guys were being charged from all sides. A repieced togther Cyborg came from one side with a sonic cannon powering up. A green raptor sprinted toward them. Robin swung from a rope connected to one of the gargoyles of the neighboring buildings.
Jinx looked into Starfire's eyes with a look of complete sincerity. "Please, please stop struggling before you kill us all, including your friends." Then she was forced to use her powers in a most improbable dodge as the green beams from Starfire's eyes told what the captive thought of that.
The Red X spoke to the other Teen Titans. "If you don't listen to me Starfire dies. Maybe all of us too."
The Titans slowed carefully. The still were in full combat mode.
"We have no intention of killing anyone. Or taking anyone captive."
"Then let her go!", yelled Robin.
The Red X glared at him. "In fact, Boy Wonder, that is exactly what we intend to do. However, you will notice the little matter of the ticking time bomb at the center of the tentacles. I will leave instructions to disarm it before it detonates that will take at least both you and Cyborg. It will take 2 minutes 38 seconds for us to get away with are ill, even if cleverly, gotten gains. It'll take 3 minutes 34 seconds for you to disarm the bomb. It's going to blow in somewhat less than four minutes-provided Starfire doesn't try to rip out of it with her strength or blast it."
Starfire immediately stopped pulling against the tentacles.
Robin glared back at the Red X. "So you're still just a greedy little theif."
"Just looking out for number one.", the Red X replied. But instead of the arrogant thumbs-up pointed toward himself, he gestured with a nearly affectionate one-armed hug of Jinx.
Robin whipped out four birdarangs, two in each hand."I can still take all of you down in less than 7 seconds."
Jinx formed a pink version of the team protecting barrier that Raven usually did. Everyone knew that she couldn't physically stop the objects, just that a sudden gust would probably knock them off course as soon as they touched the pink energy.
"We're runnin' out of time, Rob!", Cyborg stressed.
Robin's eyes narrowed to slits. "Fine."
As all of the criminals jumped over them, a PDA much like the one given Raven dropped to the ground in front of Starfire. Robin and Cyborg poured over the instructions while their opponents collected their bags of loot and took off.
"Uh, should I go after them?", Beast Boy asked.
"Says here, to get the cover off we have to turn some bolts that we'd have to be ant size to turn.", Cyborg declared.
"Guess that answers that.", Beast Boy stated. He then grabbed one of Robin's fingers. Upon shifting into an ant, he stood on top of that gloved finger.
After a hectic operation andseveral near explosions, the device fell away from Starfire. At that moment Raven reappeared.
"Where the hell were you!", a very cross Robin demanded.
Raven raised an eyebrow. In tandem, that side of her cloak raised. Out fell a score of explosives and a matching personal data assistant.
"Oh.", Robin stated.