After seeing the series finale, I couldn't help but think there were too many story points left hanging. Also, I've been wanting to write a continuation of a series for a while, and I figured, why not one that is as popular as Teen Titans. Though it's not official, I hope you enjoy my attempt to tie up all the loose ends. As well as meeting loose ends, I hope to further develop the romantic ties, as almost every Titan story does ;). So, once more, enjoy the first of a two part premiere. Also, if you like this, Killowat has also written a continuation, which is one of my favorite Titan stories I've read recently.
Episode 66: New Troubles (1)
Jump City- Underground Base
A flash of light was followed by the appearance of a dark figure, a large X imprinted on his skull shaped, silver mask. Red X looked around, finding himself in the ruins of a base, magma surrounding the platform he stood on. His hollow eyes grew as he found that his own teleportation powers were being blocked out. "This is a definite change."
A second flash erupted up on the platform next to him, a bright yellow teen dropping from its grasp. He was wearing samurai style clothing, a darker, golden shade in compare to his skin. His hair, on the other hand, was even brighter and spiked upwards. There was an annoyed look in his eyes. "What is the meaning of this!"
"Calm down, kid," Red X said in his filtered voice. "I doubt screaming is going to get us out of here."
"And who are you to lecture to me! How am I not to know you brought me here!"
"Because I am the one who brought you here." The two looked to the front of their platforms, a screen hanging from above. A smiling face was present, the eyes hidden under the brim of a baseball cap. "Hello, boys. I thank you for being so easy to catch."
"Catch? What're you talking about?" X asked, staying calm.
"Well, you're not the only ones I expect to bring here. I just sent out my Teleporters a mere hour ago. Luckily, you two were here in Jump City. The other two, well, they aren't so close."
"Who are you!" Lightning growled, static forming around his body.
"Consider me… a last chance in a world infested by Titans." the face that spawned the refined voice straightened out, ready for business.
"Are you insane!" Lightning exclaimed. "I'M a Titan! You're going to the wrong guy!"
"Am I? Lightning, you've interested me a lot these past few months. What's really intrigued me is your anti-Titan behaviors. The hesitation is stopping destruction, not just helping it along. You miss the fun you had, don't you?"
"You have no idea about me." the teen replied weakly, his frame shaking, skin crawling to the unseen stare he knew was directed at him.
"That might be true, but I at the least know, you are no hero."
"Leave the kid alone, bud." X interjected, before Lightning's bravado could be hit again. "Why don't you tell us why you want a confused hero and a loner who doesn't consider himself a villain to help you?"
"Red X, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. The only rival of the Titans short of Slade to keep your cool during an encounter. I hope you can keep that demeanor up."
"What're you planning?"
"I'm sure you both know about the incident involving the Brotherhood of Evil. How the Teen Titans systematically took out every villain around the globe. You were there, Lightning. So I began to think, who's left to fight?"
"You began to think of those who weren't with the Brotherhood, or-"
"Those not on this planet." the smile returned to the face. "Mr. Red X, I believe I've piqued your interest."
(Theme Song Plays)
Titans' Tower
"You're going down , Cyborg!" Robin shouted, his fingers a blur on the game controller he held. The two Titans were playing the racing game that had been around as long as the Tower itself. Playing games had to be one of the few habits that the Brotherhood hadn't been able to destroy.
"I don't think so, small fry! This is my game, pal!" the half human Titan exclaimed in defense.
Starfire was in the nearby kitchen, smiling as she made a strange, Tamaranian dish for her friends. Raven sat in a corner, reading a book. For the most part, the Titans had returned to normal, even if their surroundings were different. Jump City as they knew it had definitely become a memory. The only Titan that had truly changed in the past few months was Beast Boy.
The green skinned teen was in his room, stretched out on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Two months since he had left Terra behind at Murakami High to fight the Creature, aptly named Blendix. He had helped sniffed it out and detain it, but it was able to slip out of their grasp soon after defeat.
He couldn't help but think, was he right to give up on Terra? That Slade robot had told him that it had been her choice, but could he believe that? Terra was his first love. The thought that she would give up all her memories of friends… why?
Suddenly, the Tower began to flash red, alarms going off like crazy. Drawn from his thoughts, Beast Boy jumped from his bed and ran to the Main Room. When he arrived, the others were watching footage from the Jump City Bank. A dark figure could be seen in the shadows of the vault.
Robin exclaimed, "Titans, let's move!"
Jump City Bank
"So it's come to this." the filtered voice said with a sigh. Red X leaned against the shelves of cash, crossing his arms after taking out the alarm with an X Blast. "I'm beginning to think agreeing to work with him is a big mistake." A hand slipped to his belt. "Then again, a free supply of Synovium is more than worth a little mucking around with the Titans."
"You'll be doing a lot more than mucking around with us, Red." X's eyes flitted to the entrance of the safe, where the five Titans stood.
"Aw, Robin, don't feel like a fair one on one?"
"You've never exactly been fair, X."
"Are you going to call me 'Red' or 'X', Robin? I'd like to know for future reference."
"You won't have a future when we finish with you!"
"So you'd think!" Red X launched himself up, his belt and gloves glowing. "X Erupt!" Two large energy X's burst forth, growing bigger than most of Cyborg's own attacks. The Titans scattered as the crossing X's hit, pillars of rubble and smoke rising from the explosion. Red landed and kicked forward, passed the recovering heroes. He only made it to the lobby before green blasts trailed behind him, jumping over twin couches engulfed in Raven's dark energy. He skidded to a stop at the twin, glass doors, a hand placed to push them open. "You know, I thought that after taking out the Brotherhood, you'd be a bit more… challenging. But you're the same, weak Titans."
"Shut up!" BB shouted, charging at the villain while changing into a raptor. Red X jumped, easily dodging the snapping teeth.
"I especially expected more grace from the hero who was at the head of their defeat," As he fell, he slammed a kick into the transforming teen, sending him through the doors. "but I guess he was wrong."
"'He', who?" Robin questioned.
Before answering, X dodge under a gorilla fist, spun on his hands and kicked the green Titan into his teammates' direction. Beast Boy turned into a lemur, who was easily caught by Cyborg, before changing back to normal.
"Why don't you guess, Titans? You have so many enemies. Or do you?"
"You know they're all in prison, X." Cyborg grudgingly stated, hands in fists.
"Which is where you should be." added Raven.
"Titans, I've never been an easy catch, have I? I apologize if I don't see myself imprisoned. And what have I don't to deserve it?"
"You have tried to rob this bank." Starfire said angrily, her eyes glowing.
"Rethink that." Red X said, waving a finger. "I came here with the explicit purpose of letting you know that crime in this city is preparing to make a big comeback, even if all the villains of the past are no longer around to share in it."
"Who, X? Who has this great plan?"
The villain smiled under his mask. "You Titans have as many enemies as a deck has cards. My advice on the matter: Go Fish."
Before anymore objection could be made, he jumped into the air, disappearing in a flash. A back echo, however, was heard. "Time for more trouble, Titans."
Titans' Tower
"That was a most strange encounter with the Red X." Starfire sighed, head hanging low.
"Well, don't worry about it, Star. From what he said, we'll be seeing a lot more of him as of late."
"More of who?" came a strange voice, taking the Titans by surprise. They were in defensive stances by the time a head appeared from over the side of their couch. "Um, hi."
"Alright, pal, who are you?" Robin demanded.
The boy stood up. He was wearing a drab olive jacket, a black shirt underneath it. A pair of tattered jeans and tennis shoes covered his lower half, a baseball cap reversed on his head. A tuft of black hair was pulled through the gap. Most noticeable was a pair of dingy brown , rather puffy gloves, each with zippers running from tip of the middle finger to wrist. "Uh, Blackhole, dude. And I'm here to join the team."
(Commercial)
Titans' Tower- Cyborg's Room
"Anything yet?" Robin questioned his friend at the desk, breaking from his pacing.
"Sorry, Robin, but I've got nothing on this guy." Cyborg replied, looking from his computer. "And if he's not in here, he hasn't existed."
Robin let out a low growl, returning to his pacing. "Who is he, he can't have appeared from nowhere."
"Perhaps he is not of this world, friend Robin?" Starfire suggested.
"I don't think so, Star. I did a scan of him before he even got of the couch, and he's almost completely human. If anything's not human, it would be those gloves."
"Those snow shovel mittens?" BB asked with a raised brow. "What's the deal about them?"
"There's a high concentration of collected force within them, so it could be the gloves, or his hands."
"Which means we need to find out exactly what he's hiding and-" Robin's eyes widened. "Cyborg, I think I have something you can compare those energy fields to."
"What?"
"His name."
Titans' Tower- Holding Area
The young intruder let out a yawn, looking to his right, at the Titan guarding his cell. He was propped up on his chair's hind legs, his own foot against the wall. Raven was sitting flat in her own chair outside the cell, reading her book from earlier. A wave of energy separated the two. It was Blackhole who spoke first. "Is this one hundred percent necessary? You know, I'm here to join the Titans."
"…"
"Well, I can understand the silent treatment if I'd committed a crime or tried to kill one of you, but come on, can't you keep me company? I willingly came to this place."
"…"
"Geez, fine." He went back to staring at the wall. Quickly, though, he glanced at Raven's book. "Can I at least have that to read. You've been staring at the same page for about an hour. Mind if someone who can understand it gives a look?"
This finally got Raven to look up, only out of annoyance. "It may surprise your small mind, but I'm only using this book to help meditate. I can read the same page fifty times, and it helps."
"You meditate using a book of Shakespeare's sonnets?"
"Yes." she said shortly, still staring blankly at him.
"Okay, see, now we have a dialogue." he smiled widely, the female Titan staring darkly still. "Fine, you know, I can understand, I guess. After Terra's betrayal, I'd- Whoa!" As a dark aura engulfed Blackhole's chair, he jumped quickly as it was thrown against the wall. "What!"
"Terra felt betrayed by us, but in the end, she was willing to give her life to save ours." Raven growled. "You, on the other hand, broke into our tower and have done nothing to deserve trust. Don't compare yourself to Terra."
"OK! OK!" he exclaimed, waving his hands. "It was wrong of me to bring up bad memories. Still… don't you think it's slightly unfair to lock me up?"
"I don't sense a dark aura around you, but still, it's better that you stay in there."
"But, why?"
"Because you're not the most stable hero." Robin stated, approaching the cell, followed by Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy. "Your hands are black holes."
The imprisoned teen smiled. "Actually, only one of them is." His hands shot together at opposite directions, the zippers lining up, tip of each middle finger to end of the glove. He slid them apart, both zippers flying open. His left hand grasped into a fist, while the other began to whirl faster than a vacuum. The shards of wood that had once been his chair were sucked into the dark hole that was implanted in his palm. As the last block was engulfed, he closed his palm, with a grunt, before opening the second, aiming it at the ceiling. The wood fired out, colliding into the roof with shattering force. As splinters rained down, his middle fingers met, sliding down each other and closing his gloves. "It's like a circuit. Comes out one end, goes out the other, causes a lot more pain on its way out, though." Blackhole rubbed his left wrist.
"Who are you?" Robin asked, slightly impressed by his display.
"I've told you, the name's Blackhole, and I'm here to be a Titan."
"What else-" Robin was cut off as the alarms went off the second time that day. Cyborg was able to read the report quickly in his head.
"It's Blendix! He's at the Genetics Lab, and he's got Overload's card!"
"Titans, move!" Robin shouted, turning to leave. As the Titans ran to exit, Blackhole sighed. Before he could sit, however, the energy wall fell away. He looked out, Robin standing outside. "You want a chance, you got it."
The intruder smiled. "You got it, boss."
(Commercial)
Underground Base Lightning's Room
"So, what've you decided?" Red X asked, looking to the Titan captive. Lightning's eyes were closed, sitting in the fetal position. Suddenly, he looked to Red X, fire in his eyes.
"Do I have a choice? And even if I did," he smiled darkly. "I'd do it anyway."
Red X showed no real change in his unseen expression, but he wanted to smile. "Well, then, the big guy says your first mission is to make sure Blendix makes it out of the Genetics Lab without much interference from the Teen Titans. After all, the chameleon man has a little power boost for you."
To be continued…