Hey boys and girls and welcome to chapter ten of The New Teen Titans. I've noticed that reviews really slowed down after I went the episode route but oh well I enjoy the way I'm handling this story. Besides the reviews I get are awesome. Well a new season of Teen Titans is on the horizon and it looks like there's going to be a lot more heroes showing up. From Bushido to Red Star even Argent is showing up. With Kid Flash and Jericho showing up too it looks like no matter if you support Rob/Rea or BB/Rea you're going to have some competition. Speaking of Best Boy, The Doom Patrol is showing up too so it looks like we're even going to get some background on him. Well really I'm just excited and I shouldn't be focusing on facts that will just make things in my story wrong and instead actually get to the story. As you can probably tell from the title this will focus on the new Red X. Now this isn't based on any past Red X episodes but I do take a little inspiration from them just so you know. Well that's all I have to say about that right now because this is the beginning of that storyline. So without further ado here is chapter ten of The New Teen Titans.
Chapter 10: X's and O's: Part 1
Black Bird sat in her room reading a book as she let the sun fall onto the floor in front of her through the open window above her bed. The room that was once her mother's was not changed much though the curtains were wide open letting sun light the dark room and her door was almost always open. The room and the room beside it were once made into one room but were now split up again, back to how it was before she was born. Most dark artifact of her mother's were gone, replaced by other ones or simple not there. A large bookcase covered one side of the room and the other side held a closet with sliding doors next to a door that lead to the bathroom that she shares with Alakazam. In the middle of the room sat different things most notable a globe of a different world where the sea was red and the land was black and two masks, one smiling and one frowning. Pushed up against the wall opposite the door was the bed on which Black Bird sat reading her book. A nightstand rested to one side of the bed and although no light bulbs where in the room, besides the one in a lamp on the nightstand, candles littered the room. They weren't lit now though they all appeared as if the had once been.
"Ha ha! Ticktacktoe, three in a row," she heard her brother Beast Lad shout triumphantly from down the hall, "I win!"
"What! Come on rematch!" she heard Rave challenge in return as something tipped over in the living room.
Black Bird sighed, as she knew her peace was over and closed her book placing it on her nightstand before walking to the living room. As she entered she saw her leader throwing 'Extreme Virtual Ticktacktoe' from the GameStation 12 and putting in another game as Beast Lad laid back on the couch, basking in his victory. Android and Alakazam sat in the kitchen discussing something as both stool glances at Beast Lad every once in awhile unbeknownst to the other. Something told Black Bird that they had something to do with Beast Lad's win. As usually Mystic was nowhere to be seen.
"So, what's going on?" Black Bird asked as she moved to the kitchen to get herself a cup of herbal tea.
"Same as usually," Android said as she and Alakazam turned to watch the boys play some kind of racing game.
"Beast Lad and Rave are trying to beat each other at video games and Mystic's still in his room," Alakazam finished as Black Bird sat down at the table.
"How many has Rave won?" Black Bird asked as she sipped her tea and watched the blue and green vehicles try to pass each other.
"Two out of five," Android said as Beast Lad and Rave entered the finally lap of their virtual race.
The cars were neck and neck as they neared the end of the race. The checkered finish line was in sight as both cars both tried to gain a lead over the other only to remain extremely close. Just as they were about to cross the finish line the alarm went off ending the game and ejecting the disk from the GameStation. A series of moans were heard from the two boys on the couch as Mystic came running into the room.
Android ran over to the control panel to see what had sat it off as the rest of the team gathered around. "Diamond theft downtown," Android said bluntly as she turned towards Rave for the orders on what to do.
Rave, still a bit discouraged from his game being cut short, growled before shouting, "Titans Go!"
Across town a slender figure slipped around a corner, whoever it was making their way to a hall full of many moving red lasers. Moving through the lasers elegantly the masked figure slide between lasers as if it was all one solid motion. As the lasers passed you could tell it was a women and the light sometimes illuminated off the white of her mask but she remained in the dark. As she made her way past the lasers she entered a room that had many pipes running along the ceiling but more importantly where in the center of the room a perfect and quite large diamond sat. Just as she got close enough to reach out and grab it the bright fluorescent lights flipped on filling the room with light.
The Titans surround the room as a large metal door slammed down on the way the masked figure had come and Rave stood in front of the only other way out, a set of stairs leading to the roof.
The female figure was now revealed fully as her eyes squinted slightly from the sudden burst of light and she said, "uh oh, it's the law."
The tight black mask that covered her entire head had the top half of a white skull covering her face and on the forehead of the skull was an X a red X. One of the lines that crisscrossed to form the X was longer then the other and went through her right eye. The whole suit she wore was black and looked like it was all one piece covering her whole body. On her chest was a similarly X to the one on her mask and on the back of her hand and palm were also red Xs. Unlike the old Red X costume the gloves were black and a part of the suit, the tips of the fingers being pointed. Also no cape was present and nor was a belt. Her feet that also were encased in the black that covered her body had small Xs on the heels and on her waist was what appeared to be a gun, held on by some invisible force. This gun had a very pointed design with the top of the barrel coming out into a point and the handle also turning into a point at the base. From what could be told from the tight custom she was beautiful as she had perfect curves that fit very nicely in the tightness of the costume.
"Titans Go!" Rave repeated as the Titans moved to attack this new feminine Red X only to hit nothing as she back flipped over them. Android raised her cannon and fired at Red X as she spun around in the air. All her shots missed by inches and she landed gracefully on her feet and fired an X from her palm that covered the mouth of Android's cannon. She then began to do flips towards Android and flipped right over her planting an X on her back before landing behind her.
"Hey what did you do to my-," Android began but was cut off as electricity went through her making the tubes in her body turn gray as she was knocked out. Red X then made a break towards the stairs only to be stopped by a rave-bolt right in front of her making her turn around and get back to the fight as she faced Alakazam.
"Abra Kadab-" Alakazam began to say but was cut off as an X covered her mouth. She crossed her eyes to look at it and raised her hands to try to take it off. Just as she attempted this a larger red X hit her whole body holding her arms in a strange position as she was pinned to the wall.
"No hocus pocus is going to get you out of that," Red X said as you could almost see the smile behind her mask. She stopped when she heard growling and looked to ether side of her to see both Mystic and Beast Lad in the form of a gorilla standing there.
Both ran at her and she jumped into the air at the last moment, landing on Mystic's shoulders and pushing off them to grab onto a pipe, swinging from it she did a flip before landing on the ground. The push she gave Mystic made him and Beast Lad run head first into each other. They wobbled backwards as Beast Lad turned back to normal and Red X walked between them.
"Goodnight boys," she said as she put an X on both their chests and suddenly their arms snapped to their sides and they fell to the ground like bowling pins.
"Stop right there!" Black Bird shouted as Red X turned around and sunk into a low fighting stance to look at both Rave and Black Bird floating next to each other, ready to attack.
"Aw, the perfect couple," Red X mocked causing Black Bird to lose her temper at the snide remark.
"Azarath Arella Azar!" she shouted and Red X was encased in black magic but instead of giving up she chuckled slightly.
"I was hoping you'd do that," she said and four red Xs appeared around her in the shape of a box and began to push out at the magic. Black Bird tried to hold it but it was too much and Red X broke through the magic sending globs of red goo flying everywhere. Black Bird put up a shield of black magic just in time but Rave only had time to put up his hands and so the stuff covered him.
"Rave!" Black Bird shouted as she ran over to him and ripped off some of the stuff on top of him to reveal he was fine, though passed out. She looked up to see the bottoms of Red X's feet running up the stairs. Black Bird didn't hesitate as she flew up the stairs and emerged on the sunny rooftop to see Red X standing on the edge. She watched as Red X allowed herself to fall off the side and quickly ran over. She looked over the side only to be blown back as something whisked past her head. She looked up to see that Red X was floating in the air with her legs together as she faced Black Bird. "You can fly?" Black Bird said in disbelief.
"Got to keep up with the Joneses don't I," Red X said as she mocked saluted before there was a bight flash of red light and when Black Bird could see again Red X was gone.
Hours had passed since the team had gotten back to the Tower and they were still getting the red gunk off of them as the girls picked it out of their hair and Mystic was trying to get it out of his cloak. Rave was encased in the most of it and his arms were still stuck to his side as Black Bird helped him get it off with her hood up to hide her blush. She had yet to get it off of his mouth and the team could tell he was trying to say something that came out muffled.
"I say we leave it on his mouth," Beast Lad said earning him strange looks from the team who stopped what they were doing to look at him, "what? You know we're just going to get the team speech again."
"He has a point," Android said as she tried to brush the goop from Alakazam's hair only to break her brush.
Black Bird just shook her head and ripped the goo from Rave's mouth like it was duct tape. He took a sharp couple of breaths and then calmed as he looked around at his team. "Do you know why we lost?"
The question alone brought moans from the team as Alakazam answered, "no, but you're going to tell us."
"It wasn't because of a lack of teamwork," Rave said as he got an arm free and ripped off the rest of the substance himself. The fact that he said it didn't have anything to do with teamwork shocked the team, as since the HIVE had been defeated that was all he talked about after missions. "It was because we didn't have a plan for this situation," Rave said which was no shock to the team as if it wasn't teamwork it was strategy, the only release he had from work was playing video games with Beast Lad, which he was getting better at.
"Well shouldn't you know how to beat this guy?" Beast Lad asked as he got the rest of the stuff off him and began to help the girls, "wasn't your dad the one who made the suit?"
"My dad was the one who wore the suit at first but that wasn't my dad," Rave said as he pointed to the door as if Red X was in that direction. "Her fighting style is completely different and it looks like the suit has been upgraded."
"Yeah, I saw her fly," Black Bird said telling the team of her confrontation on the roof as an example of these upgrades.
"What we need is to get the drop on her," Rave said as he rubbed his chin, "but how are we suppose to know where she'll hit next?"
"We could always go to the docks tonight," Android said as she typed on a keypad and large pictures of a boat appeared on the TV screen, "a large shipment of unstable zinothium is coming tonight."
"How do we know the suit still runs on that stuff," Beast Lad asked as everyone gathered around to watch as different pictures of the harbor and the boat popped up on screen, "by now don't you think she would have at least gotten some of the new stable stuff?"
"This is definitely zinothium based," Android said as she held up a piece of the goo and her eyes extended out like a telescope. "It looks to still be unstable too," Android said as she held up a finger and a small light came out of it which made the zinothium exploded with a burst of red smoke.
"So I see," Rave said as he coughed and waved his hand in front of his face as the smoke started to fill the room.
"Oh sorry about that," Android said as she turned towards Alakazam, "do you mind taking care of this?" she asked as more smoke then expected had filled the room.
"Not at all," Alakazam said as she waved her hand and a large fan appeared, blowing away all the smoke before disappeared.
"Ok then," Rave said in a tone that made the team look at him as they knew he was about to give them orders, "lets set up some kind of stakeout."
"I'll go first," Black Bird said a little too quickly, making everyone look at her questioningly.
"Alright, but I want groups of two," Rave said as he there was a slight pause this time.
"I'll do it," Beast Boy said as he raised his hand as if he was answering a question in school. Black Bird was a bit disappointed at this because she was hoping Rave would join her but that wasn't her true meaning for wanting to go anyway, but still.
"I'm fine with that," Black Bird said to answer the question of courtesy that Rave would have asked anyway.
"Alright," Rave said as he turned to face the team to explain the plan, "when the ship arrives tonight Black Bird and Beast Lad will wait for the first hour and if she still hasn't shown another group of two will come in for the next hour. Alakazam will be with Android and I'll go with Mystic," there was a pause when Rave waited to see if everyone was ok with this. Android and Alakazam nodded their heads in agreement so that he would continue and Mystic seemed to accept it as well. "Ok then," Rave continued, "if you see her or anything suspicious you call us on your com link and then pursue her on your own until we get there."
Rave, quite proud of his plan, looked around to see if everyone accepted, he took their silence as an ok and left the room to prepare. Shortly after Mystic left without a word and Android went as well because she had to recharge her battery and make some minor repairs after the fight. Alakazam left next still getting the zinothium based substance out of her hair, she was now using magic but that was causing it to explode and burn her head that she then had to repair with more magic. Only Beast Lad and Black Bird remained now, with Black Bird still standing and Beast Lad sitting down with his arms crossed as he looked up at his sister.
"So why did you want to go first so badly?" Beast Lad asked in a tone that sounded like he already knew the answer.
"I just wanted to help with Rave's plan," Black Bird said as she tried to play off her crush on Rave to which Beast Lad usually jumped at the opportunity to make fun of. This was not one of those times, he saw right through her though he still wasn't sure what he was seeing.
"Listen Sis, we may not be the best twins," Beast Lad paused as he decided to leave that statement at that and move on to what he was trying to say, "but I know when you're crushing and when you have an alternative motive."
"I just really want to bring this girl in ok," Black Bird said threateningly as she sounded as though she was on the verge of yelling.
"Alright, alright," Beast Lad said as he raised his hands in defense. He stopped not because of his sister's tone but because of the glowing coffee table his sister hadn't spotted. "I was just wondering why?"
"So am I," Black Bird said even below a whisper before walking out of the room without another word. Beast Lad watched her go, knowing that his sister had a new rival, but still not knowing why.