Beast Boy staggered into the Titans main room to see that the rest of the crew was in there already. After a quick "good morning" from everyone, except Raven of course, she barely acknowledged that he existed…as usual; he looked around.
"Dude," he said, "Anyone seen Chris? I didn't think he'd be one to sleep in."
No one had, so Robin responded, "Why don't you go and check on him, see if he's up yet."
Starfire looked away from the window she stood at and said, "That will not be necessary." Everyone looked at her strangely, so she pointed out the window.
The five heroes looked out the window to see me already outside, in a handstand, and cranking out a strange form of pushups from that position, showing no signs of slowing down.
As everyone picked their jaws up off the floor, Robin finally broke the silence. "Well, let's go down there and see how he is this morning. Remember, we have a question to ask him today."
Down on the beach, I finished with my inverted pushups, kicked out of the handstand in a half flip to my feet, and looked up to see the Titans approaching. "Good Morning," I called.
"Morning," said Robin, "You're out early, how long have you been up?"
"Uh, I'm not exactly sure, but I've been up for a while, since before the sun," I replied.
"Would you like to come join us for breakfast?" offered Robin.
I thought for a moment "What are you having?"
"Tofu!" exclaimed Beast Boy
"No," corrected Cyborg, "You, are having Tofu, we, are having waffles."
"Thanks for the offer," I replied, "but I think I'm gonna pass today, I nailed a deer this morning, and I'm in the mood for venison." I motioned over to a fire pit where a deer was roasting.
"Hold on," said Raven, "Where did that deer come from? There aren't any on this island."
"Oh," I replied, "I got it from the mainland."
"And how did you get there?" asked Beast Boy.
"Uuummm………uuhh……I……………ran?"
The Titans looked at me in absolute confusion, not like I could blame them, "How exactly did you run across water?" asked Robin.
"Same way I moved so fast back at the obstacle course, I cast a magic spell called haste on myself, it makes me move so fast that I can literally sprint across water without sinking."
"Ooooookkkaaayyy" said Cyborg, "That's interesting."
I just grinned, then said, "Ya know, this deer is too big for me to eat by myself, ya'll want some?"
"Dude," cried Beast Boy, "That's disgusting, how can you eat meat like that, it's just wrong!" He stormed off heading for the tower, "I'm gonna go eat my Tofu waffles."
I looked on, quite confused by the little elf's outburst. Robin stepped up beside me, "Don't mind that, B.B.'s power is changing into animals, he's been most the things that we normally eat. Kinda made him a vegetarian."
"O, ok," I replied, "I…guess that makes sense."
"As for the rest of us," said Cyborg, "We'd love some of that deer."
"Agreed," exclaimed Starfire, "I would love to try some of this…veneesoon?
They gathered around the deer as I picked up my sword and used it as a meat cleaver, shearing pieces of the deer off for myself and the Titans.
The rest of the day was spent casually, the Titans attempting to get to know me a little better, and vice-versa.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evening was late on, and the sun was already half set; the Titans were back in the central room.
"Ok," Robin said, interrupting an argument over the gamestation, "Chris, we have a question to ask you."
"I'm listening."
"We were wondering if you'd like to…" The Boy Wonder was abruptly cut off as sirens began to sound, and the room flashed red, causing me to jump to my feet and reach across my back for my sword, only to discover…it wasn't there. "Titans, trouble, let's go!" he looked at me, "Sorry about this, but could you wait here, there's a robbery in progress that we need to go take care of."
He sprinted out the door followed closely by the rest of the team.
"Uh, sure."
I sat down for a moment, and then decided that to go and "explore" the city some more, so I stood up, wrote down a quick note in case I didn't catch the Titans, grabbed my sword out of the corner, and walked out the door.
I reached the bottom of the tower and walked out, looking out across the bay, but saw no sign of the Titans. I shrugged, knowing they were going to get to the city somehow, cast haste on myself, and sprinted out across the bay.
I reached the main city quickly, and still moving at haste enhanced speed sprinted right up the side of a building, and stopped on top of the building, dispelled haste, and looked around.
I still saw no sign of a fight, so began to hop rooftop to rooftop, trying to find the scene of the crime.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The T-car burst out of its underground tunnel into the streets of the city, followed closely by Robin on the R-cycle. They sped through the city at breakneck speeds, and reached the scene of the crime as the last light of the sun was fading into darkness.
Finding the criminals to still be inside, the five superheroes took up position around the only exit from the building, waiting to trap the criminals as they rushed out. Expecting this to be another routine hit on some unsuspecting criminals, they expected to hit them hard and fast, and be home within the hour. They expected far too much.
As the five titans stood around the building, a single small, cylindrical object came sailing out the door, Robin instantly recognized it. "Grena…" With a brilliant flash, and a thunderclap explosion, the flash-bang grenade exploded, blinding and deafening the team.
Cyborg was the only exception, being half machine, the robotic half of him instantly recovered from the stun, allowing him to see through his cybernetic eye. He watched in horror as nine heavily armed men charged out of the entrance and turned their guns toward the stunned Titans.
The android kicked into action and tackled Beast Boy to the ground as a spray of bullets flew over his head.
Starfire shot into the air, well out of range to try and clear her vision and ringing ears.
Robin's intense training from Gotham city kicked in and he moved behind a car for cover, as Raven threw up a defensive shield that completely covered her.
As the Titan's senses slowly came back online, they regrouped behind the car that Robin had initially used for cover.
"It's almost like they knew we were here," said Cyborg.
"Don't worry about that now," said Robin, "Here's the plan; Raven, we'll need a shield, I know you won't be able to hold it too long against that hail of bullets, but it only needs to hold for a moment. When she gives us the shield, Cy, Star and I are gonna hit 'em with everything we have, when they get knocked back by that, Beast Boy, go bowling. Everyone, go for the guns first, then the criminals. Ready?"
A voice came to them from the other side of the car, "Hey super freaks, catch."
Cyborg peeked over the car to see what they were talking about, gasped, and shouted, "Rocket launcher!"
"Titans' MOVE!" yelled Robin.
The five heroes scattered in all directions away from the car as the rocket flew from its tube, and struck the car square in the gas tank. The vehicle erupted into a pillar of fire. As they attempted to find a more secure place to take cover, they were forced to dodge the hail of bullets from eight machine guns, as the ninth loaded another rocket.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
High on the rooftops above the city, a dark figure leapt swiftly from rooftop to rooftop moving towards the source of the bright flash he had seen. As I closed in on its location, I saw a powerful explosion that pinpointed the location of the problem. I stopped on top of the nearest roof and looked down to see the Titans very well pinned down, hiding behind whatever cover they could find. My eyes flickered green for a moment, and then I jumped down towards the street.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Robin," yelled Cyborg across the fray, "Anymore ideas?"
"Give me a second!" he replied, thinking furiously for a way to get past this endless stream of weapons fire. "Well, they have to run out of ammo sometime."
A new voice, but somehow familiar drifted across the battlefield, "Hey, did someone decide to throw a party and not invite me?"
Three of the nine gunmen looked over at the source of the voice to see a well built young man standing in strange looking black padded armor, a massive sword slung across his back. Their leader, the one with the RL, smirked, "What are you gonna do?"
He drew a pistol from his belt and fired, only for the bullet to harmlessly ping off an invisible energy field. "What the…"
His words were cut short as I sprinted forward and drove a fist into the leaders stomach with such force that it threw him into one of his comrades and knocked them both tumbling.
Two more men, on an un-given signal, opened fire, only to have their bullets deflected by the shield as well.
The first received a devastating roundhouse kick to the ribs that drove him across the street and into a wall, and the other found himself grabbed by the shoulders and thrown right through the windshield of a nearby car.
As the leader managed to get to his feet, along with the man he had collided into, he stared at his two fallen comrades and yelled, "Get him!"
The six remaining gunman turned to attack me, foolishly leaving the Titans alone, and giving Robin more than the chance he needed.
"Titans, GO!" he yelled.
The five teens rushed from their hiding places to engage the criminals.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On another rooftop, the far side of the street from where the swordsman had come from, was another stealthy figure. He sat and watched as his team was being decimated by the now regrouped Teen Titans.
Everything had gone perfectly, his team had entered the bank, hit the vaults, and then waited inside for his signal, when the Titans had arrived, he radioed in, informing the rest of his team as to their presence and positions, allowing them to strike with higher efficiency.
From there, he had coordinated the attack on the Titans, and it looked like they might win, but then that new person showed up, the one he'd never seen him before, he had caused enough damage to allow the Titans to fight back effectively.
They still didn't know that he was up on the roof, so he would use it to his advantage. He reached to his right where a powerful sniper rifle was resting. Looking through his scope he began to search for a clean target.
The leader, the short marshal artist, would be a good choice, but he was moving too much and presented a very difficult target.
The Half robot was too well armored, and he wasn't sure if the bullet could pierce into him.
The shape shifter was changing form too rapidly to get an effective shot off.
The swordsman, now that was one he wanted to shoot, but he had seen every bullet fired at him bounce harmlessly off an energy field of some sort, so that would be pointless.
The girl flinging explosive green orbs flew far too erratically to even try to get a leading shot off.
That left the one in the blue cloak, he watched her through the scope of his rifle, she was occupied at the moment lifting a bus to throw at a pair of his men, and was sitting perfectly still. She pivoted towards him as she telepathically threw the bus, and he sighted the rifle at the center of her chest.
It was a perfect shot; he squeezed the trigger.
BOOM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I stood up from a heavy tackle that had knocked out yet another gunman, and looked around. Ever since my timely arrival, everything had been going well, I had distracted the gunman enough to allow the Titans to make an effective counter-attack.
It had still been a rough fight, but they were almost done. Only two of the men were still standing, and Raven was in the process of throwing a bus at them.
I stood and watched approvingly as she hurled the tour bus straight at them, using it as a clothesline to put them both on their backs, out cold. Her eyes faded from the glowing gray, back to normal.
My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a loud crack, and the world seemed to enter slow motion. I instantly traced the sound, saw where the man was, and yelled out, "Raven, look out!"
But it was already too late, Raven spun to see the danger, her blue eyes widened as the bullet impacted in the center of her chest, blowing completely through her. The sheer impact of the round threw her across the road, bouncing her off the wall, where she slumped to the ground, bleeding heavily.
"Raven!" yelled Robin.