Hello boys and girls and welcome to chapter four of The New Teen Titans. Well I must thank you reviewers because you wrote such great reviews. So because they were so great I'll respond to them. Anon, it's my dream to become a real writer and write books or comics. Just to be able to put words on paper and have other people read it, not to mention getting paid for it too, but I'm not ready yet. I must send out a thank you to the site though because I was reading my old stories in order and I think I've really improved. Cade-chan, yes, cant tell, no, yes, yes and surprisingly no. Mr. D 91 as I said above I cant tell who the new Titan will be, but thank you to everyone else who reviewed and once again sorry for my spelling but trust me I'm improving. Well I'm done responding for now so here's chapter four of The New Teen Titans.
Chapter 4: Only The Beginning
High in the sky on a clear summers day you wouldn't expect to see a half alien, an android, a witch and a boy with wings fly by, well unless you live in Metropolis. But if you lived in the vast fields about three thousand miles away from Jump City and happened to look up today, you just may. You may see them zoom by with the witch and the changeling in front leading the alien and the android. They're all on their way to one place, none of them know that they are about to set in motion the fight that will be the biggest battle of theirs or anyone else's lives.
"No wonder we always get you guys to drive up to us for the reunions," Annie said as she swooped under the crowd of flying teens, "this is taking forever."
"Try it in a car with a broken air conditioner and bad jokes left and right," Em said as she glanced over at her brother.
"Hey my jokes are classic," Mark said as he flew upside down with his hands behind his head and a large smile on his face. That is until he ran head first into a cloud of exhaust from a truck below, sending him into a coughing fit and Annie into a laughing one. She stopped when she messed up her jets and did a flip that ended in midair splits.
"First time flying?" Mark laughed as he shook the soot from his hair, but he too quickly stopped as he lost focus and his wings disappeared. He quickly turned into a duck and flapped his wings as hard as he could to catch up with the others.
"About to ask you the same question," Annie laughed as she looked at the angriest duck she had ever seen.
"Wait, I still don't get it," Bruce said confused as he flew up beside Em making her blush at the closeness, "So Trigon is locked in the gem?"
"No Trigon was imprisoned with the gem as a portal through his mind to this dimension," Em said as she tried not to look at Bruce so she could hide her blush.
"So Trigon is in his own mind then?" Bruce asked as he raised an eyebrow and tried to catch Em's eyes.
"No he's where he's always been but now the gem is a portal through his own mind and he cant escape," Em said as Bruce finally caught her eyes making her blush so hard a tree below her exploded and she flew to the back of the group.
"I still don't get it," Bruce said as he raised an eyebrow at the whole situation and also the blush he had spotted on Em's face.
"Gem equal Trigon, Trigon bad," Mark said in broken English like a caveman as he turned from a duck back into a boy with wings.
"And Slade worse," Bruce said as he began to swoop down. It took a minute for everyone else to see what he meant but when they did they too began their descent. The robots were just leaving through a large whole in the side of the Logan's house and one of them had the gem in its hand.
"Hey! Robo-crook!" Mark yelled getting the robots attention as he landed next to the other three teens.
"Alright," Bruce said as he smiled and yelled, "Titans G-" he was cut off by Annie as she ran past him yelling at the top of her lungs. "Fine like I was saying," Bruce said as he began to get frustrated, "Titans-" but he was cut off again this time by Mark as he swept past him, "oh fine see if I care," Bruce said as he just picked up into the air and charged forward.
He hit one of the robots in the chest and began to push it along the ground before the robot stuck its feet out and began to cut into the ground. He kept digging into the ground till he had finally formed a cut about four meters deep. Bruce got tired of pushing him along the ground and he flew back from the robot a little bit. The robot took the opportunity to lash out its arm and grab onto Bruce and flung him hundreds of feet up into the air. Bruce recovered in midair as the robot picked itself up out of the hole it had dug and Bruce began to come shooting down towards it. Like a shooting star Bruce was plummeting towards the ground and the robot only got a split second to look up before he was slammed into the ground. A large carter formed around Bruce and the robot from the impact.
Bruce stood up and looked around the carter he had made, there was no trace of the robot left in the fourteen meter wide depression. "Well that takes care of that," Bruce said with a smile but as he said it a robotic arm shot up from the ground and pulled him under.
Meanwhile Mark was grappling with one of the robots in the form of a bear. He roared loudly as he showed his rows of shape teeth to the emotionless robot. The robot shot the wire out from its wrist and it latched onto Mark's arm causing him to let out a loud yell as he transformed into a rhino. No longer effected by the current of electricity through his thick hide he rammed the robot up into the air.
"Perfect," Annie said as she pointed her cannon up into the air at the robot's chest and she charged it to full. A large ball of sonic energy began to form at the end of her cannon and she fired hitting the robot dead on and sending it straight to the ground. A large cloud of dust appeared when the robot and Annie smiled, that is until the dust cleared and the robot was still standing there with its arm pointed toward her and the orb in its palm glowing blue. "So you can absorb that from any part of your body then?" Annie said as she smiled nervously and the robot sent a blast of energy at her that sent her flying backwards. She kept flying into the field until she hit The Tree making most of the leafs fall off. "Ouch," she said as she blew a leaf off her nose and a large branch broke off and hit her on the head, knocking her out cold.
Bruce burst out of the ground covered in dirt as the robot latched out its arms and pulled itself out of the ground. Bruce landed in front of the robot, out of breath, and began to walk backwards away from it. At the same time Mark began to move away from the robot that had just blasted Annie and was now approaching him. "Where's Em?" Mark asked when he and Bruce stood back to back and had a robot facing ether of them.
"I don't think that's our premier concern right now," Bruce said as the robots began to advance on him and Mark.
Em meanwhile was standing off to the side in a panic as she tried to think of good magical words, "um, Azarath Emily Arella!" she chanted but nothing happened. Bruce and Mark on the other hand began to confront both robots. Mark took into the air as a crow and began to peck at the robot's head as it mindlessly swatted its arms trying to hit him. Bruce too took up into the air but kept his distance as he fired off rave-bolts.
"Little help Em," Bruce said as the robot began to drop down its armour.
"Oh um how about, Africa Azarath Arella!" nothing again but Mark went down as the robot grabbed him, crushing him in its palm and throwing him to the ground. He turned back to himself as he laid there unconscious and bruised. Em cringed at the sight of her bother and watched in shock as the other robot came up behind Bruce and grabbed onto him. Both of the robots sent out the wires from their wrist and electrocuted him at once as he let out a loud yell before going limp in the robot's hands and being dropped to the ground. Em looked down at him and then up at the robot that began to approach her. She growled as her eyes began to glow white and she put out her hands and yelled, "Azarath Arella Azar!"
The robot began to glow black and it looked down at itself as with a burst of black magic it pulled apart into its separate components. All the part stopped glowing along with Em and they fell to the ground as Em shouted with a smile, "I did it!" she stopped smiling though as she heard the sound of something powering up behind her. She turned around slowly to see the other robot with the orb on its palm an inch away from her face. And with a burst of red energy Em was out and the robot was gone.
"Em," she heard her brother say her name as she felt herself being shook. She slowly opened her eyes to see a relieved smile spread across his face.
"Why aren't I in pain?" Em asked as she sat up holding her head, she had a headache but after being blasted at point blank range she thought she be in a bit more pain.
"I healed you," Mark said proudly as he helped his sister stand. He saw the questioning look on her face and smiled as he explained, "yeah I was confused too, but I just wanted you to be healed and you were." Mark smiled but it faded as he said, "wish I could have done the same to the house.
"What do you mean?" Em said with fear filling her as Mark began to turn her around in the direction that her house should have been in. The house was levelled and nothing remained of the once beautiful two story home except for a large pile of wreckage that Bruce and Annie stood upon. Em's eyes grew as she ran over and looked at the fallen house where she had been raised.
"I'm sorry Em," Annie said as she hugged her friend to try and comfort her.
"Look on the bright side Em," Mark said as he moved a large piece of ceiling, "at least the TV still works."
"What was that?" Bruce said as he came over to the television that Mark found and that was miraculously still on and working.
"Yeah I just found it," Mark said as he began to dig around his feet, "now if only I could find the remote."
"Mark, your house doesn't have any power lines going to it," Bruce said looking around the field as he moved to the back of the TV.
"Yeah, we have a generator," Mark said scratching the back of his head, "you know that. Annie's dad designed it and your dad helped install it."
"And you think that the weight of a house falling down on top of it wouldn't effect it," Bruce said as he grabbed the power cord in the back and began to follow it. He moved some stuff out of the way and found under an old table a small generator with a familiar S logo on it. "Just as I thought," Bruce said as he moved back to watch the TV, "he wants us to watch this. He wants us to see something."
"See what?" Annie asked timidly as she too came over to watch the TV.
Bruce thought for a moment and said, "lets wait and see."
"Raven I am so sorry," Gar said for the hundredth time since he had told the robots where the gem was, "I was just trying to help."
"I know you were Garfield," Raven said as she hung still panting from the electrocutions she had gotten earlier.
"You did what you had to do Gar," Vic said as he looked over at his long time friend, "Slade would have killed her."
"Quiet guys," Dick said as he strained his ears to try and hear something in the distance.
"The robots have returned," Kory said as she lowered her head slightly in sorrow.
"No, look," Raven said with hope as the remaining robot entered the room and went over to a panel on the wall, "there's only one, maybe the kids beat the other one and it retreated."
This hope was squashed though as the wall beside the panel began to flip revealing what was clearly Slade's old costume, with Slade still in it. A rancid smell filled the air as the Titans looked at the body. The head hung limply and the body was held up on the wall by straps around its arms and legs and one around it's chest. The costume hung loosely over what was left of the body of Slade, sagging in around the ribs and looking overly baggy on the whole rotten body.
The robot pushed its master's head up revealing the mask to the Titans and all they could see was the rotten eye of their enemy through his mask. The robot then took out the gem making Raven gasp as the robot put it onto the middle of Slade's forehead. There was a blast of energy that temporarily blinded the Titans and blew the robot into dust as the costume of Slade began to inflate as the flesh grew back. But it didn't stop there as the tips of the fingers on the gloves ripped and large red fingers with sharp long nails burst from them. The same happened to the end of the steel toed boots as the costume became too small for the amount of muscle it was being filled with and began to rip in places. Finally two antlers shot from the forehead of the mask as Slade's one eye shot open and tuned blood red.
"I am free!" he shouted as he broke the straps around him easily, his voice sounded as if Slade and Trigon were speaking in unison. "I must really thank you all," he laughed as he approached the Titans. "I suppose I'll need a bigger uniform," he laughed.
"Who are you?" Raven spat as she looked at the strange combination of her evil father Tirgon and the Titan's worst enemy Slade.
"An interesting question," He said rubbing his chin, "I am no longer the mere mortal Slade but I am not the powerfully demon Trigon ether. I think I shall stick with the infidels name," Slade decided as he snapped his fingers and a new robot came out of the darkness. "Prepare the troops, we attack today," He said sinisterly, "and put these animals in there cages."
The wall behind the Titans moved up and the robot began to push them back into the blackness as Dick shouted, "you know you cant win Slade!"
"Face it Titans," Slade said as he picked up into the air being carried by dark energy and he clenched his fists triumphantly, "I've already won! And now the entire world is mine!"
"This is boring," Mark said slowly and clearly as he laid down from his sitting positing. He, Annie and Bruce all sat in front of the TV as Em dug through wreckage behind them.
"Then go help your sister dig through all this," Bruce said as his eyes never left the screen.
"We've been here for two hours," Mark said without getting a reaction from Bruce, "ever think he's making us watch this so that we can be distracted long enough for him to, oh I don't know, torture our parents! Well meanwhile were here watching 'Sesame Street' ," Mark said as Bruce just sat with his eyes on the screen. "Fine," Mark said as he grumbled and began to search where his room used to be.
"Wait this is it," Bruce said as a breaking news report interrupted the show that was currently on.
"This just in," The news women said as a video of downtown Jump City began to play, "Slade is not dead." the teens all gathered around to watch in horror as robots and demonic looking dogs that were on fire began to destroy things at random. "Thought dead over sixteen years ago Slade has now retuned with an army of what appears to be some strange form of mutant and a new kind of robot." A video of Slade began to play of him floating on dark magic as the dogs and robots began to come from the darkness he was standing on. "We now ask, where are the heroes of Jump City?"
"That's it," Bruce said as he stood and turned off the TV, "he's calling us out. He wants to see what the newest saviours of Jump City can do."
"So what are we waiting for?" Annie said as she flew a couple of feet into the air.
"Wait!" Bruce shouted as Annie turned around and landed back on the ground, "this is going to be a huge public fight," Bruce said with his hand on his chin, "Slade may know who we are but the public shouldn't."
"So what," Mark said as he raised an eyebrow, "we need codenames and costumes now. I mean me and Em live in the middle of nowhere and you're not really a social butterfly."
"Better safe then sorry," Bruce said as he faced the others, "I already got my costume," he said looking down at himself, "just call me Rave."
"I'm no Raven," Em said as she pulled out a black cloak that had rips at the bottom that went up to thigh height. "And I'm defiantly not a Crow," she said, putting the cloak on and closing it around herself as she put the hood up. There was a burst of black magic from under it and then she let the cloak flutter apart revealing that she was wearing a black version of her mother's old leotard, "how about Black Bird."
"Ta Da," Mark said as he popped up from the wreckage wearing different clothes. He was wearing a green long-sleeved shirt with a dark purple vest over it that had on his breast pocket in green printing BL. He wore the same dark green coloured pants with a purple stripe going up ether leg. "Just call me Beast Lad."
Everyone looked at Annie and she smiled as she said, "Dad always used to say Annie was short for Android."
"Then its settled," Bruce said as he took up into the air followed by the others, "from this moment on we are no longer Mark, Emily, Annie and Bruce. We are Beast Lad, Black Bird, Android and Rave. And we are The New Teen Titans." Rave said as he looked towards Jump City and with a smile on his face he yelled, "Titans Go!"