Legacy of the Tamaranian
Chapter Three

Robin doubted if it would work. Not because of arrogance, no. Well. Not his own arrogance. Collin "Ragnarök" Roberts had been altogether far too self-assured. And if Starfire's description of the battle against the Wyrms held any merit then, there was no way that he was the newbie he claimed to be. He had most certainly had training; either self-training… or he had learned from someone else.

What upset Robin the most, though, was that he interacted with the Titans with an eerie air of familiarity. It was as if he knew them, as if he had met them before, and yet Robin was sure he hadn't, and nobody else knew who he was. Robin had asked his mentor Batman to search the Watchtowers enormous database of metahumans and super powered artifact-wielding heroes, aliens…

But there was nothing. As far as Batman, supposedly the world's greatest detective (Besides Tim Drake himself, of course) could tell, this specific Collin Roberts didn't exist in any of the 50 States.

"Cyborg," Robin said, using Victor's personal frequency, "Is it just me or is there something about that guy that doesn't seem right?"

"He seemed alright to me, Tim," replied Cyborg. "Are you sure you're just not a bit jealous of Starfire's taking to him?"

"Of course not." But part of him wondered if that was the truth.

"If you say so, man."

Meanwhile, high above the T-Car and R-Cycle, Starfire flew, holding on Collin. His ability to launch himself with rocks was pretty ineffectual over Jump City's bay.

"Are you sure this isn't too much trouble, Ko..Starfire?"

"Of course not, Friend Collin," she replied. "I am glad to be of assistance." And that was the truth. Sure, a sudden addition to the team would create a bit of a logistics problem, but leaving a new member alone at the Tower would be an act of the utmost stupidity, especially someone who possessed earth-shattering powers as Ragnarök did. But it was more than helping out. There was something about him… or perhaps not Collin himself, but something about him. She certainly did not feel the same way about this stranger as she did about Robin, three years and something more was a gap that Collin didn't begin to cross.

It was more of an aura, something that flared when he used his powers, as if her home world of Tamaran was calling her, and as if he possessed some of it. Later, she would confide in the original five what she suspected. But for now, she would focus. They had criminals to foil.

"There, up ahead," Raven said as she hovered closer to Kori. "I feel a lot of fear in that bank. They must have taken hostages…"

In another universe, with a different history, long before events destroyed worlds and worlds fused into one, there had been a precursor to the Justice League, and a lair before the Watchtower. It had been called the Hall of Justice.

Jump City Federal Bank faintly resembled this structure, but something like five extra stories, with walls of red brick, jutted from the top of this base. It was, an altogether fairly ugly structure, Starfire thought as she landed.

Beside her, the changeling Beast Boy transformed from a crow back into his humanoid form and landed. Raven hovered in beside them, and Robin and Cyborg soon followed in their respective vehicles.

"Report?" Robin asked Raven as he jumped off his bike and ran over, quickly lodging himself in the middle of the group as closely as he could to Starfire.

"Panic," Raven replied. "They have taken hostages."

"They?" Robin asked.

"There are two… people in the bank that aren't in state of mild-to extreme panic."

"Think I could sneak in there as a Spider and bite 'em?" Beast Boy asked.

"Venom will take too long to be effective." Robin replied. "And if they feel you bite, they might start shooting."

Gar Logan looked rather discouraged. But typically, he shrugged it off.

Cyborg soon joined them, after fulfilling his standard role as police-relations. He did this because his T-Car more closely resembled the myriad law enforcement vehicles than anything else in the Titan's collective arsenal. And something about his computerized ability to store hundreds of criminal profiles in the hard drive his right thigh made him very useful to the cops.

"According to the cops, they have about 5 tellers and 15 clients trapped in there, and have threatened to start burning them if anyone comes inside."

"They're both walking flame-throwers?" Collin's gestures seemed almost comical. "This is just great."

"I have an ID on one of them," Cyborg continued. "Name is Hideo Kawabe, calls himself Flare. He thinks he is the son of the Japanese thunder god Raiden. Clinically insane. Not the type we want to be dealing with."

"Ooh… All this standing around is giving me the triggering itchy finger." Starfire complained. "I wish to stop them now, please."

Robin was more focused on knowing who he was facing. "What about the other one?"

"Hotstreak," came a youthful voice from above. "Real name is Francis Stone, calls himself F-Stop."

The Titans looked up and had to squint as a brightly glowing circle blinded them. Crackling with electricity, it somehow hovered by manipulating Earth's magnetic field.

"Static." Robin smiled. It had been a while.

"The one and only." Replied Static Shock, a black teen superhero also known as Virgil Hawkins. "Nice to see your voice has finally broken, Robin. And nice pants." Indeed, Robin realized, the last time they had met in Dakota City three years ago, he had been merely Batman's child sidekick, and had worn red pants to differentiate himself from the first Robin, Dick Grayson, and to confuse The Joker into thinking he was the second Robin, Jason Todd… who had tragically died in an explosion some years back. (The Joker did NOT like it when his murdered victims continued to thwart his evil plots.)

"Right," replied Robin. "You've gotten a new outfit yourself. Actually, I like the old one better."

Virgil just glanced dangerously at Robin.

"Please, Tim, I am confused…" Starfire said. "You know this purple and black one here?"

"He saved mine and Batman's life, actually," returned Robin.

"Your name is Tim?" asked Static. "Funny. I always figured you more of a Richard or Justin."

"Forget it. We can catch up later. We have criminals to catch. You know this guy, Hotspot?"

"Hotstreak," Static corrected. "He's one of the local villains up in Dakota. Surely you remember the flaming hair guy? We got in a meta-scuffle a few days ago, and a bystander got killed. He's been on the run ever since, and I've been after him."

"Hm... That day is a bit vague, what with the Joker almost killing me and all. I sort of shut it out. You said his name was Stone?" Robin glanced at Cyborg "Any relation of yours?"

Cyborg shrugged.

"I doubt it," Virgil said. "He's a cracker, if you know what I mean. By the way, who is this guy?" He said, thumbing towards Ragnarök.

"New recruit," Robin answered, as Raven stepped forward and Ragnarök fumed. "Raven?"

"I have a plan," she said.

A few moments later, the daughter of Trigon was on the roof of the bank. Beast Boy fluttered over to her and regained his human shape. "They seem to be arguing, Rae, so you should be good to go. You sure you can pull this off?"

"I've learned a lot since I did this to Jinx," she replied.

Summoning her dark powers, she transformed into the form of a giant raven and swooped down into the bank, phasing through the walls and floors and ceilings. The two pyrokenetics ceased their argument when they saw Raven appear, and began to run. But there wasn't much they could do as the two massive talons grabbed them and dragged them out of the bank and threw them on the concrete. Raven emerged from the dark energy and fell to the ground, tired by the technique.

"Titans, GO!" Robin yelled.

"I told you we were taking too long," Hotstreak yelled at the Japanese teen that Raven had evicted along side him.

"Not at all," replied Flare. "I wanted this confrontation!"

Beast Boy swooped down as a Pterodactyl at the two, but Flare leapt up and threw a huge ball of fire. "DENZETZU NO GAIZEN!" he yelled.

The ball of fire consumed Beast Boy, and the green superhero crashed into one of the cop-cars.

"Oh crap!" Cyborg yelled. He activated his Sonic canon and fired once at Flare, and then once at Hotstreak. Both shots missed, and the duo of pyrokenetics launched a barrage of fireballs and Cyborg dodged a couple and broke into a dead run to get away.

"Azarath, metrion…" Several empty police cars hovered off the ground, coated in black energy.

"Um.. Flare…" Hotstreak nudged his ally. Or boss. Or whatever their relationship was.

"ZINTHOS!" Raven yelled, hurling the quartet of cars at the duo of criminals. They shot fire at the vehicles in defense, and Robin gasped out loud as the two directed at Flare melted away in the heat. This guy was powerful…

Hotstreak, on the other hand, tried to burn the cars, failed, and decided to run all in the space of about 2.324 seconds. And run he did, right into Static's fist. "Hey, Francis. Where's the fire?"

Hotstreak responded by forcing streams of said fire into Virgil's chest, and Static went flying across the bank's courtyard. "If that's the way you want it." Static used his electrokenesis to tear the doors off several cop-cars and then threw them at Hotstreak.

Using magnetic fields, he wrapped a nearby light pole around the fire-based criminal and then piled the car doors on top of him. "See. If you burn your way out of this one, you get third degree burns from the metal. How's that?"

Satisfied by the terror and hate in F-Stop's eyes, Static returned his attention to the other pyromaniac, Flare. Apparently Raven's car throwing had distracted him long enough for Robin to get in close, because Robin was beating the crap out of him with his metal staff by the time Static turned around.

Robin smashed his staff downward toward Flare's feet, and then reversed upward smashing him in the face. Flare backed off and hurled a fireball that Robin deflected and then thrust the staff forward into Flare's gut, knocking him back.

Fire exploded around Flare, and Robin used his cape to shield himself. When it came off Flare flashed in front of him and planted a double-footed kick into his chest, and sent Robin flying into a nearby hot dog stand, a spork from which flew threw the air and hit a young woman named Mary Sue, who screamed, dropped her Aquafina bottle, and then accidentally stepped on it. This caused water to spray all over Static, shorting him out.

"Foolish mortals," Flare taunted. "You are NO match for me!"

"I beg to differ," Robin said, jumping to his feet. He grabbed a smoke bomb from his belt and threw it above Flare, and then signaled for Starfire. The Tamaranian girl blasted forward through the smoke, plowing into Flare and knocking him backwards into the wall of the bank, where Raven quickly appeared and hurled him away with her telekinesis right into a shot from Cyborg's sonic cannon. Flare crashed into one of the few remaining police cars, which exploded around him, catching fire to nearby trees and bushes.

Indeed, Robin now noticed, much of the bank courtyard was alight. And much to the Titans' dismay, Flare exploded from the ruins of the car and hovered in the air above the battle zone.

"Great. So he can fly, now too?" This came from the previously inactive Ragnarök. "This is getting old!" He summoned his power. He would rip rocks from the ground and hurl them at Flare…. As the ground began to shake, Rag could feel the power flowing through him. It would be all too easy to rip a huge rock out and smack him out of the sky, the bugger.

So focused he was, that he didn't notice Robin closing in. And his threat-assessment goggles barely blipped before he felt an incredibly sharp pain smash into the side of his head.

"OUCH! What the snorkel was that for!"

Robin was a tad bit livid. "You can't treat this like a game, Collin. The ground was shaking from whatever you were doing! This has to be done without Civilians getting hurt."

"Right, well..." Rag replied, furious. Robin had no right to hit him! He rubbed his jaw from the pain. He formed a sword of stone. "How about this?"

"Make it a club and we'll talk," Robin said, hurling a Birdarang full of knockout gas towards Flare, who was preoccupied by Starfire again. But it was vaporized before it got halfway to its target.

"Crud!" Robin bellowed as a fireball hit him.

"As I said," Flare said, his voice audible throughout the block, "mortals are powerless against me."

"Last time I checked," Rag quipped, "I was mortal!" An enormous club made of rock came from off-screen and smashed Flare on the head. Then he gasped in horror as Flare looked at him angrily.

"And you're powerless."

Rag fell towards the ground, as he had only launched himself and was still unable to fly. "This is just my luck." And then a ball of fire blasted him in the chest and sent him hurtling towards the asphalt, where he was caught and quickly dropped by Cyborg.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, thanks for the save." Rag wiped smoldering ashes from his costume. "How do we beat this guy?"

"Already in the bag, Cyborg said."

"Wha?" Rag asked looking back at Cyborg… And suddenly noticed a fire truck with a fire hose hooked to a fire hydrant… and that the said hose was hooked into Cyborg's right arm, which was transformed into its Sonic Canon mode.

"It's HOSING TIME!" Cyborg yelled.

"Man, that was lame, Chaltab," Ragnarök sighed, looking at the ground and shaking his head in embarrassment. One of the bank's four walls crumbled.

"What the…?" Flare yelled as he was doused with the high-pressure liquid. He fell to the ground, and began hacking and coughing.

"Where in the Negaverse did you get a fire truck, Cyborg?"

"Um… The firemen drove it here to put out the fires. What planet are you from?"

"P3X-229," replied Ragnarök.

oooo

Meanwhile, Robin and Starfire were busy cuffing Flare and putting him in the back of an armored police vehicle, and making sure it was rather damp an devoid of anything flammable.

"Robin. I have something to say to you," Starfire said, and the two went off to the far end of the courtyard.

"What are they saying?" Beast Boy asked as Cyborg adjusted his audio receiver. He had the look on his face of one who his learning something exciting he shouldn't know about.

"Sometimes, secrets are best kept secrets," Raven said. Black energy suddenly surrounded the receiver and broke it. "No eavesdropping."

oooo

"Robin, I was hesitant to say this before, but I am sure of it now: The armored suit used by Ragnarok is of Tamaranian origin."

"And you're certain of this?" Robin asked.

"Very," Star replied. "There is something important I must say when we get back to the Tower. It might be a hunt for untamed fowl, but I must leave this planet in search of something. You know of what my sister said. That my planet was destroyed. I believe her. And I must go to the Tamaran system and see for myself. I will explain the rest later, at the Tower…"

"Star…" Robin said. And then she leaned forward and hugged him, and he returned the embrace.

"My planet is dead, Tim," she sobbed. He just held her.

oooo

"So, see ya later, Static?" Robin said as Virgil finally got his powers to reactivate.

"Sure thing, bro." Returned Static. "Catch you if you're ever up north. By the way, your mentor is helping establish a Titans North up in Dakota. You have support in the Yankee states now, so don't hesitate to ask for anything."

"This is news," Robin said, surprised. "Who is on the team?"

"Oh, some locals. Mostly. Me, Gear, SheBang, Rubber Band Man, and that future kid Impulse."

"From the future, huh?" Robin asked.

"Yeah. He's the grandson of the second Flash, but he's even faster. He's cool and all, but it's kind of annoying. He disses modern video games because they're too primitive for him. He won't play anything that's not for X-box. Anyway, I'm gone."

And with that, Static's mag-board crackled to life and Virgil was gone, levitating the captured Hotstreak beside him.

Later that evening, the Titans five and a half gathered in the large room known as ops, which had a make shift speech-giving platform in an event such as the one tonight. (It had been installed after Cyborg and destroyed Brother Blood's mechanical body and Robin felt the need to give "Teamwork" speeches.

"Friends and fellow Titans. There is something I must do, and I feel the need to explain why. It is told that when the Tamaranian race has been whittled down to it's last, that a temple will reveal itself—one on each planet in the star-system. And the temples house the ancient artifacts of Tamaranian power. The Catalysts. My sister gave me the key to these temples, and it will only open for a Tamaranian. You see, friends, I must go and acquire this power to restore my planet to its former glory. That is the sole purpose of the ultimate catalyst. The others are for reestablishing Tamaranian society.

"Unfortunately, the ancients of my people never expected there to be a sole survivor, but anticipated a group, a group that could rebuild the planet. This can never be accomplished now, as I am alone, but I must go. I don't expect you to understand why, but I must."

"Kori," Robin walked up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We will help you bear this. We're your friends. And if you want us too, we will go with you to Tamaran."

Starfire just smiled….

Collin sat up. He knew what he had to do. This is one spaceflight I can't afford to miss…