Disclaimer: I do not, never have, and never will own the Teen Titans or any other registered trademarks of DC Comics.
Chapter 1
Every single person in the world, no matter what their race, color, creed, financial or moral background, all have a morning routine. There are many different combinations of routines, and no two people's routines are exactly the same. They do, however, almost all start out the same way.
Step 1: Sit up in bed and try to figure out what day of the week it is and what you have to do that day.
Step 2: While rubbing your eyes rotate 90 degrees in bed so that your feet make contact with the floor.
Step 3: Drag yourself to a semi-upright position and scratch yourself in whatever spot(s) itch.
Step 4: Trudge to the bathroom to relieve yourself and do whatever else needs to be done.
For Beast Boy this routine was no different. Never an early riser, he was usually the last one up in Titans Tower. By the time he was walking towards the main room, he was already cringing at the smell of Cyborg's cooked bacon wafting out of the kitchen. He knew another verbal confrontation was about to begin with the overgrown battery about the nutritional versus moral advantages and disadvantages of tofu.
He walked into the main room of the tower and was greeted by much the same sight that he saw every day. Starfire was talking to Robin over on the couch while Raven was reading a book on the other side of the room.
"Morning Sunshine! Want some grub?" Cyborg said as he held out a frying pan of bacon and eggs.
"Dude, we do this every morning, you know I don't eat meat, you know why I don't eat meat, and I know you don't eat tofu. So why do you keep offering it to me?" Beast Boy said with a groan.
"Because though you won't admit it, your skinny butt needs some real protein in its system and deep down inside you know it, I'm just trying to make you realize it." Cyborg replied with a smile.
"Oh yeah, well I think that somewhere deep down inside, you desperately want to have some of this tofu, it's just you whodon't realize it." Beast Boy replied.
They continued on this way for several minutes. After a while Raven's eye began to twitch in annoyance until she could take no more. She slammed her book shut and walked over to the two.
"You guys argue more than a married couple." was all she said before she turned and left the room.
Cyborg and Beast Boy just sat there with their mouths halfway open for a couple of seconds.
"What do you think she was implying?" asked Beast Boy.
"We do not act like a married couple!" Cyborg yelled at the closing doors as Raven left the room. "So, what was I saying? Oh yeah, want some of this bacon?"
Beast boy was about to open his mouth when the alarm suddenly sounded.
"Trouble!" Robin leapt up from the couch and dashed for the door.
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The City was one of the most prosperous ones on the west coast of the US and owed this prosperity to its lucrative trade with East Asia and the Pacific Rim, as well as other commercial and industrial centers in the city itself. One of the more profitable of these was casinos. There were only a small handful of these on the outskirts of town overlooking the sea. Most citizens and the city government discouraged casinos in the area because of the crime and moral troubles they brought with them, but when they saw the amount of tax dollars that they could harvest from the flashy buildings, it was usually enough to keep any complaints to a minimum. From all over the city and surrounding countryside people came in droves to loose thousands of dollars of their hard earned cash on the slimmest of chances of coming out with more money than they came in with. Of course more often than not, people lost their money to the house and left feeling broken inside.
It was this prospect of all that cash being stored in a privately owned building on the edge of town that attracted a certain customer that day, also hoping to leave rich. He did not realize it, but he was also gambling, a big gamble. Nothing in life is certain and the chances that he would make a profit that day were a lot slimmer than he realized.
The vault door blew of its hinges as Dr Light walked into the vault and stared at the mountains of coins and piles of cash.
"There is enough money here to keep me happy for a long time." He said as he began to fill several duffel bags. "I only wish I had thought of this earlier. Now, only problem is how I am going to carry this all out."
"You may not realize it, but that's the least of your troubles Dr Light."
He spun around to see Robin and the rest of the Titans standing in the vault entrance. He let out a sigh.
"I expected you, and I am getting tired of having to deal with you all the time." He stood as his hands began to glow.
"Titans, move!" Robin shouted and all five of them scattered as glowing bolts of light impacted where they had been standing just a minute ago.
Not taking any chances, Dr Light grabbed all the bags that he had already filled and headed for the door.
"Oh no you don't." Raven said.
Suddenly the bags he was carrying turned black and were lifted from his hands. They then floated half way across the room before turning around and went flying back at him with tremendous speed. Before they could impact though he blew them apart with his light bolts and sent money flying everywhere.
"That was my money, you're going to pay for that!" he yelled shaking his fist.
He never saw the green rhino charging at him from the side. The impact made him fly several feet and into the wall where he impacted and crumpled to the floor. He stood up dazed and shook his head. Looking at all the Titans in the room ready to pounce him, his confidence suddenly faltered.
"Guess its time to cut my losses. Nice seeing you again, but I've got better things to do than mess with you kids." He then blew a whole in the wall and sprinted outside.
"Don't let him get away!" Robin yelled as the team ran after him.
Dr Light was in the middle of the gigantic parking lot and headed in the direction of the woods that bordered the casino. Starfire let out a series of starbolts but all of them missed and he continued to run. Robin was right behind him and took out a bird-a-rang. Taking careful aim he let loose with it and sent it right into Dr Light's leg causing him to stumble and fall. He lay flat on his face for a couple of seconds before rolling over and looking at the faces of his attackers.
"Give it up Light, your finished." Robin said.
"Yeah, you need to realize when to give up, and that time was a long time ago." Cyborg added.
"You think you can defeat me, you will never defeat Dr Light!" he said this as he raised one glowing hand in an attempt to release one last attack. Before he could fire though, a bo staff slammed into his face and he slumped over unconsciously.
"Good work team, now lets go take him to jail." Robin said as Cyborg lifted him up and threw over his shoulder.
"Glorious, we are triumphant!" Starfire said as she flew circles in the air.
"You know, its days like these that this almost gets kinda old. I mean, how many times have we defeated this guy and carried him of to jail? It's De Ja Vu all over again." Cyborg grumbled as he made his way over to the car.
"It's not our job to see how criminals are kept once they are turned over to the law, only to put them there." Robin said.
"Yeah, I know." Cyborg said sounding a little depressed.
They all pilled in the car and drove off to the police to turn in their captive.
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He watched them pull out of the parking lot and speed down the road to the city below. He still did not move from his hiding spot in the woods on the hill above the casino where he had been the whole time. Sun Tzu said that "Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements." At the moment he knew very little about these "Titans" he had heard so much about. From what he just saw he was a little disappointed. True, their opponent was no great challenge and a poor standard to judge them buy, but from what the people of the city had said, they were far less than what he had expected. Still, he would continue to watch and wait from the shadows and observe.