Disclaimer: I do not own the teen titans just my OC Blane/Shadow.
Thanks for all the reviews, hope you guys enjoy this next chapter.
'What am I going to do? I have the Justice League after me and I can't show myself as Shadow or else the league will jump out at me, but I can't just abandon the Titans. And I can't talk to them unless I appear to them as Shadow. Why did fate have to make me her favorite plaything?' Red X was sitting in the same tree that he had watched the firework display from just weeks before with the Titans, although they weren't aware he was there. Yes, fate did seem to enjoy watching him try and just find his place in life. He was glad he had a minute to just rest, from the day the league had first come after him he had been constantly on the run at least up until he had helped Robin save the Titans and gotten the belt back. He had been on the move for a few days after that because he wanted to make sure Robin hadn't gone all Slade style obsessive on catching the elusive Red X. When it had become apparent that Robin was willing to let him get away he had decided to go find a place he could catch some rest. Man, how he wished he had his bike, but she would just make it to easy for him to be identified as the renegade superhero Shadow. Right now his bike was leading the league on a wild goose chase.
Yes his bike was very much alive. One of his more amazing inventions, his motorcycle, Shadewing as she liked to be called, was a vehicle the likes of which the world had never seen. One night he had been working on it when he fell into some sort of trance while working on the computer systems, When he had awakened he knew exactly how to succeed in making the most advanced AI system yet known to man. After he installed the new software into the computers hard drive, he realized just how cruel fate had been again when she had woken up. Shadewing or Shade for short, learned at an incredible pace but had an almost big sister kind of personality when it came to Blane. She was constantly asking if he had eaten or if he had had enough rest, but the most annoying aspect of he personality was just that, she had one. She constantly would change the shades of black or anything else on her paint job and was incredibly vain. She didn't have the conventional street bike look, in basic design she was remarkably similar to the R cycle but that's where the similarities ended. Instead of riding on top of her, the outer casing would split open on invisible seems to allow you to mostly ride inside of her, that was a safety precaution because of the speeds they had attained during their illegal racing exploits. She had a stealth mode that would actually fit the whole Red X thief business if he decided to go with that. She aften said she was the most advanced vehicle on the planet and not even Cy's precious T car could match her with her sci-fi movie look and hidden gadgets.
He knew that Shade wouldn't be caught, but he actually found himself missing her because he had to remind himself that she wasn't human every once in a while because she was his only companion that always stayed by his side. He knew that he had to do something, because the league would soon notice that he wasn't in his bike. He couldn't help but laugh at his mental image of Superman's face when he looks inside Shade and sees he isn't there. He was also wondering how xinothium would affect a kryptonian and how he could use it against him. This suit was amazing, no matter how wild his imagination went with his ideas on how to manipulate the xinothium, it hadn't failed yet. It was doing everything he could think of, he was even beginning to think that he could open a dimensional rift with enough of the stuff, it would have to be a last resort thing though because it would drain the suit and if it failed he wouldn't have enough time to refill the xinothium tanks before Superman or Flash went after him.
That was not a fight he was looking forward to. No one had ever single-handedly fought the Justice League and won yet, and he was just a teenager, not a super villain! At least this suit offered more protection than his Shadow one. 'Crap! I forgot that I'm going to leave that suit with Rich until it's safe for me to wear again. Better go and get that done before dawn and I get spotted.' With that, X quickly made his way across the city towards the tower.
Raven was on the rooftop trying to decide about whether she should tell Robin about Shadow becoming X, or just let it go. She knew that it would be better if he didn't know that it was his brother who had brought back the bad memories he associated with that suit, but everyone could tell he was worried sick about his brother, they hadn't had any word from him for weeks and Robin, with his obsessive detective side was busy conjuring up stories about what might have happened to him. Raven had to hand it to Shadow though, he knew how to just disappear, not even Batman really had any leads on his true whereabouts.
She smiled earlier that evening Speedy had sent them a transmission saying that someone called Shadewing had lead the league on a three week goose chase around the country. Raven would have to thank this 'Shadewing' if she ever met her. Apparently something about Shadewing was a huge joke to Robin and Speedy, but they had left the others in the dark saying that they would see how funny it was when they met her. She was just staring at the calm waters in the bay surrounding the tower now. Trying to decipher what had been so funny to the two boys.
Just then as she looked at the water she saw a figure start breaking into the tower. She scowled, it shouldn't be this easy for anyone to get in, apparently Cyborg's security system needed to be updated. Silently she phased trough the roof and into the common room where the would-be burglar soon made his appearance. Just as she was about to make him realize the big mistake he had made by breaking into her home she gasped, and with a small squeal of delight, tackled the startled figure of Red X.
"So you did figure out who I am." X said in a completely normal sounding voice. She realized that he must have turned off the voice distorter. She was a little stunned at hearing his real voice for the first time but quickly shrugged it off by being her sarcastic self.
"Well you weren't exactly hiding it were you? If I didn't know you stole your Brother's suit I would have said you had just painted it a different color and changed your name." She stressed the word brother to remind him that he ahd kept that little fact all to himself without letting her know about it.
X winced, he knew what she was mad about, but he had had every reason in the world. He decided to let her in on one of them. "Would you have trusted me if you knew about that? Would you have let me so far into your life if you had thought that I might turn around and report it all to him? And before you ask me, no Robin really didn't know I was talking to any of his teammates. If he had he wouldn't have acted so surprised when he found out." He stated these facts quickly before she had the chance to argue about it.
"Fine, but how did you know he was surprised, suspicion fringing her voice. How had he known about that, heck how did he always know when she needed to talk about something that only he could know?
"For that, all I really know is that when he's feeling an emotion strongly I feel it. The same goes for you and Beast Boy, sometimes I swear those bonds are bordering on one way telepathy." X was telling the truth here, he really didn't know what was going on with those bond things.
"You mean that what I feel you feel?" raven sounded a little worried. "But most bonds work both ways, why can't I tell how you're feeling?"
"Because I hide them, I haven't openly expressed emotion for nine years." X this whole time Raven realized had been talking in monotones laced with bits of emotion that were harder to catch than even hers were.
"Oh, that's why I can never tell what you're feeling, I always wondered if you were an azerathian monk or something." Raven told in a joking manner, which surprised even her, she never did anything like this, what was wrong with her?
"Nice joke Rae, BB would have died on the spot from the shock of it. But I have to hurry, take this to Robin and please tell him what I an doing, I have the strangest feeling that I'm going to be his favorite villain in the morning." While he said that he handed Raven his Shadow suit and teleported back to wherever he was staying. Raven just stood there shocked, that new suit, instead of making him easier to track and see had made him even more mysterious. She then headed straight to Robin's room to give him the good news, and his brother's suit.
When she got to his door, she hesitantly knocked on. Almost immediately Robin answered the door, he had apparently gotten up early to call Speedy and see if Green Arrow had heard anything new about Shadow from Batman. Raven, to her credit, got over being stunned by how quickly the door was answered and walked right past Robin into his room signaling for him to close the door. Robin, although puzzled closed the door and went to ask her what she needed.
"Ok Raven what do you want?" Robin winced, he hadn't meant to sound so annoyed, even though he was in a hurry to find out about Shadow it was obvious that Raven had something important to tell him.
"Don't worry Robin I understand that you're in a hurry, but trust me this is good news." Raven then pulled out Shadow's uniform from where she had been hiding it from view. "Don't worry Boy Blunder he isn't dead. He came by about an hour ago to give you this, but I was already up and told him I'd do it for him. He was in a real hurry and didn't have mush time so he didn't come and wake you up." Raven could tell that her news was giving the Boy Wonder mixed feelings about it. It was obvious that he was glad to hear something about him but worried about him leaving his suit with Robin. Wouldn't he want it for the likely chance that he was found.
"Once again, don't worry Robin, he'll be fine without this suit." Raven then paused and carefully chose her next words. "He's using a suit better outfitted for defending himself. He…uh… this is kinda hard to say, b-but he's the one who stole the Red X suit." She got really quite and timid towards the "Red X" part, but Robin heard every word.
"You mean he stole the suit and then threatened to slit your throat if I didn't give him back the belt?" Robin was almost to the boiling point about that last part but wasn't sure why it bothered him so much since he knew that his brother wouldn't have hurt Raven.
"Robin you just as well as I do that he wasn't going to hurt me he just needed the belt back and didn't want to reveal himself in front of Cyborg and Star. Besides weren't you saying that you were planning on giving him the suit before you found out it had been stolen? I think he stole it just to help protect you from being punished for helping him. All we have to do is act like we're trying to get the suit back, then the league won't have any proof that we sympathize with him and not them. He did it to protect you." Raven's voice got really quiet towards the end of her small speech. But she could barely hide the fact that she was pleased with the fact that Robin was mad at Shadow for threatening her, even if it was all pretend.
"I know I don't know what came over me just then. But I am glad to hear that he's fine for now. Lets go and see if Speedy knows anything new and have some breakfast. They headed downstairs and talked to Speedy, he didn't know anything new but was glad to hear that Shadow was in control of the X suit. Just a little while after the teens had eaten lunch Cyborg came charging up from the Garage, where he had headed to buff up his 'baby' the T car, yelling some incoherent thing about possessed girl motorcycles and hid behind an already annoyed Raven(Beast Boy had just pulled a ridiculous prank involving one of her cloaks and yellow hair dye).
As Cyborg blubbered on about some haunted motorcycle that was trying to ask him if he had any synthetic French motor oil, Robin started laughing about nothing in particular, or so the Titans thought. Cyborg stopped crying and shared confused looks with the other Titans. They slowly followed the echoes from their leader's laughter.
When they got down to the garage they saw what had to be the strangest sight they had yet witnessed in their young lives as superheroes(Beast Boy is convinced that he wont ever see anything stranger for the rest of his life). Robin was pouring some of the motor oil Cyborg had mentioned into the engine of probably the coolest looking bike they had ever laid eyes on, but that wasn't the part that was weird. No, the weird part was he was chatting with the bike and it was talking back!
All of a sudden the bike seemed to notice the other teens and turned it's attention towards them. "Why hello there, you must be the other Titans, I'm sorry if I starled you Cyborg, I didn't know Robin had decided to let you find out about me on your own. I had assumed he would have told you about me." Beast Boy and Cyborg's jaws dropped, this bike was talking to them, and it had a voice that they swore had to be human.
"Why, you must be Beast Boy, Shadow told me all about you, you're the one who can change into animals and eats only tofu right?" Beast Boy just nodded dumbstruck. How the heck did this bike know Shadow?
"Guys, I'd like to introduce you to Shadewing, Shadow's bike, and the most advanced AI on the planet." Robin was enjoying this, it used to be one of his and Shadow's favorite hobbies, introducing Shade to unsuspecting victims. "But you can just call her Shade for short."
Raven was the next to speak. She went up to the bike and ran her hand along the casing. "It's very nice to meet you Shade, I'm very thankful for all you did to help Shadow hide from the Justice League."
"Well now you must be Raven, I can see why Shadow always spoke so highly of you. You know just how to react in an awkward situation and you're very considerate. Most people don't address me like a person, with the exception of Shadow, Robin, and Speedy." You could see that Shade was enjoying having Raven around, you could hear it to as the engine purred beneath her touch.
That seemed to wake up the other Titans and they were soon crowding around the bike. They learned more about Robin's brother from his bike than thy ever had from him, which had the bike been just any other bike that would have just bee pathetic.
X watched the Titans talking to Shade, he groaned in his distorted voice. His bike couldn't keep a secret if her life depended on it. Soon The Titans would know way more about him than he was comfortable with. Oh well, he would have to deal with that later, at least she didn't know he was X. So the only ones who would know about it were the birds.
X decided that the time had come for Red X to make another appearance on the whole crime scene. Partially because he wanted a good stockpile of xinothium, and he needed money for food. But there was part of him that couldn't deny that he not only wanted to see the Titans again but he was also enjoying being a bad guy. It had a unique sense of danger and adventure that being a superhero had never held for him. So he decided that he would secretly get the xinothium, but trip a wire at the bank while he was there. After all, the sensors couldn't catch him unless he wanted them to.
While in the vault of the bank he found the alarm trip and well, tripped it. While he was gathering his dough, he heard the Titans sneaking up on the vault, but what they would later learn was he only stole money that was already his, or more accurately Blane Grayson's.
The Titans were whispering to the manger of the bank to try and figure out why the thief was only targeting this one vault. "Well all we know is that the money in the vault isn't even the banks and the owner of said vault goes by the name of Blane Grayson, Does that name mean anything to you?" the manager asked trying to see if anyone knew anything about the owner of the vault the thief was in.
"No it doesn't." came Robin's smooth reply. Even though the name meant a lot to him he couldn't let the others know about Shadow's secret identity. "All right Titans, begin to move in maybe we can catch him off guard."
Just as they began to head towards the vault the door swung open to reveal Red X himself. He was carrying only a small portion of the cash inside there and seemed to have done this more to get the Titans attention than for need of money.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite superheroes the Teen Titans. Listen I only took a small amount from the vault, just enough to get food. Any way, what I'm doing is only going to effect one person who clearly has more than he needs. What do ya say? Do I get a free getaway? Or do we have to do this the hard way?" Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire were sitting there expecting Robin to be the first one to attack, but to their complete surprise, Raven was the one to attack first. She pushed him through a wall phasing through after him. The others, with the unknown exception of Robin, didn't want to be X right now figuring Raven must have known the guy who owned the vault. They decided to wait until Raven needed help.
In the alley on the other side of the wall Raven had her friend pinned to the wall anger and rage threatening to consume her. "What the heck are you doing? I know this is only one guys vault but why?" Tears were beginning to form in her eyes. She truly was confused as to why he was stealing anything but the xinothium.
"Rae listen to me, that's my vault, if you want you can ask Robin about it later if you don't believe me but that is my money. I just didn't want to make a normal withdrawal because Batman keeps tabs on my cash flow and would immediately know that I was still in the City." X was doing his best to convince Raven, luckily for him she wanted to hear him say something like that and was willing to listen.
"Ok, but I will check with Robin after this and if what you said wasn't true I will come after you." Raven was beginning to regain her composure. And just in time to, because at that moment the other Titans rounded the corner and X used a new trick to disrupt her soul self. Thus, the fighting began with the Titans and X perfectly matched, but two of the Titans and X were holding back just enough to make sure no one got hurt.
As the fight began to sway towards the Titans victory, the oh so familiar voice of the 'beloved' Superman rang out, "Good work Titans you just cornered the renegade hero known as Shadow. We'll take it from here." The Titans looked around and saw the seven members of the league surrounding them testing them to see who they would side with.
"Now really supes, do you honestly think that you can take me? I mean after all, your little martian mind-reading trick doesn't work on me. You've lost the only advantage you ever had one me." The superheroes surrounding him stared at him in shocked silence. X was willing to fight the Justice League?
"So, my overall invulnerability, Lantern's ring, Hawk Girl's mace, J'onn's shape-shifting abilities, Wonder Woman's powers, Flash's speed, and your old mentor's mind don't count for anything?" Superman didn't like the sound of this kids voice, or the obvious smirk beneath the mask.
"Not with this suit they don't…"Please Read and review I hope you enjoy this one. The next chapter's contents are kinda obvious if you actually read this one. Thanks again.