The Teen Titans raced through and over the thick Friday evening traffic of Jump City. They had received a call about a robbery in progress. Descriptions had pinned it down as the Hive. Robin clenched his fists as he weaved through traffic, remembering past encounters with the Hive, and the humiliating defeat suffered by the Titans when the two teams first met.

Up above the traffic, Beast Boy, in the form of a hawk, Raven and Starfire flew, or levitated, as fast as they could towards the scene of the crime. Beast Boy let out a sudden squawk of worry as his keen eyes picked out a trail of smoke wafting up from street level. The smoke appeared to be coming from the area of the reported robbery in progress. His shrill cry caught Raven and Starfire's attention, and they stopped in mid-air for a moment.

"Friend Beast Boy, what is wrong?" Starfire asked. Beast Boy thought quickly, before morphing into a parrot.

"Awk, fire down below, fire down below, awwwwk!" he cried, landing on Raven's shoulder and pointing to the hazy smoke with one wing. None of the Titan's noticed a camouflage schemed motorcycle with a sidecar cruise beneath them, the strains of Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" blasting from its radio.

Raven quickly retrieved her communicator and opened it up. "Cyborg, Robin, how close are you to the area? Beast Boy just spotted smoke."

Robin's helmeted face showed on the comm. screen. "Get there as fast as possible. Cyborg and I'll be there as soon as we can. Robin out." With that the comm. went dead. Starfire looked worriedly at the plume of smoke, which even now seemed to be thinning and dissipating. "We should go now, yes?"

"Awk, you heard the man, awwwk!" Beast Boy called, before Raven shrugged him off of her shoulder. She glared at the green parrot for a moment.

"If I find anything… goopy… on my cloak, I will pluck you." Beast Boy didn't respond, instead choosing to transform into a peregrine falcon. He circled for a moment to build up his height, then folded his wings against his body and went into the dive this species was famous for, a hunting scream ripping from his throat as he went.

As Beast Boy neared the ground, he flared his wings, braking in midair about a foot off of the ground. He changed to his normal form, and dropped the rest of the way, landing on his feet with practiced ease. As he gazed at the carnage around him, only one word sprang to mind.

"Duuuuude," he breathed. Starfire and Raven lightly touched down a moment later.

"What has happened here?" Starfire asked in astonishment.

"It looks like a bomb went off," Raven observed in her usual monotone.

"More like that store puked its guts out," Beast Boy said, pointing at the wreckage of a jewelry store, which had precious gems scattered around it like so much offal. There were gaping holes in the structure, and the large display window had been blown out completely. Some wisps of smoke sluggishly drifted upwards, but there didn't appear to be any sort of fire. The street outside the shop was a mess of shallow craters and scorch marks. Then Beast Boy caught sight of something that made his blood run cold. He bent down and picked up a large bullet casing, wordlessly showing it to the two girls.

Starfire's expression was confused, as most of the criminals they had encountered had used laser weaponry of some sort, with the police handling all but the most extreme cases, so she hadn't really experienced earth firearms. Raven's eyes widened a fraction, one brow arching delicately in confusion.

At that moment the T-car and R-cycle pulled up, the respective drivers disembarking. Cyborg let out an impressed whistle. "Looks like someone had quite the party here." Robin scowled.

"Have you seen any trace of the Hive?" he asked in his "leader voice". The other three Titans shook their heads.

"Dude, I found a bullet casing. It was still warm," Beast Boy offered, waving at the piece of brass in Raven's hand. Robin held out his hand expectantly, and the goth deposited it in his outstretched palm. He peered at it closely.

"Cyborg, can you give me a scan of this? I don't recognize the make or caliber." Cyborg took the piece of metal, and placed it on his arm-mounted scanner. After a moment he shook his head.

"Sorry Rob, I can't make heads or tails of it. All the usual ID marks have been filed off. All I can really tell you is that the gun this came from was very, very powerful." Robin's expression turned serious.

"All right then. Titans, spread out and look for any sign of the Hive." He paused for a moment. "And if you see anyone strange, don't try to approach them. Something weird is going on here." With that he let loose the famous, and quite annoying, battle cry of "Titans, go!

Beast Boy immediately shifted into a bloodhound, and began to snuffle along the ground, wandering out of sight. Raven levitated in one direction, while Starfire floated in another. Cyborg began to scan the surrounding area, while Robin bent to examine one of the craters. After a moment there came a beeping sound, and Cyborg looked over to Robin.

"Yo Rob, I'm picking up trace amounts of rocket fuel. It matches the stuff that little rug-rat Gizmo uses." Robin's forehead creased in thought.

"So the Hive was here obviously, but what happened to them?" Before Cyborg could answer, a bell-toned howl rang out. It was coming from the interior of the ransacked shop.

"I think that BB found something!" Cyborg exclaimed. The two Titans rushed towards the source of the sound, stopping short when they saw the scene within, eyes wide. Beast Boy looked at them, then looked back to the three members of Hive, all of whom looked like fifty miles of really, really bad road.

The first thing their eyes fell on was Jinx. The pink-haired sorceress was hanging from the back wall of the shop, pinned like a butterfly on display. Four knives pinned her sleeves to the wall, the blades positioned so that her arms were supported by the flat of each blade. Six more knives pinned her lower body to the wall as well. From her neck, just above her collarbone, hung a small silvery dart. Other than some slight damage to her clothing, the pixyish girl seemed to be perfectly unharmed. The same couldn't be said of her two teammates though.

Mammoth was a wreck. His face was a mass of claw marks, and his armored bodysuit was dented, scuffed and torn with what looked like fang marks. One shoulder had what appeared to be a gunshot wound, blood staining the floor around it. He was pale, but his breathing was steady and strong.

Propped up next to him, Gizmo didn't look much better. The diminutive inventors face was one massive bruise, with a set of four consecutive darker blocky spots almost hidden within the core of the swelling. Blood oozed from four small gouges, each set in the center of a single block. His suit was also torn, the omni-present goggles lying cracked and discarded a few feet away. There was an occasional crackle of electricity as the wires that had attached his techno-pack to his back sparked in a desperate attempt to communicate with their missing controller, which was still clutched in Gizmo's hands, four yards away.

"Someone has, "unleashed a container of kicking the butt" on the Hive!" Starfire exclaimed. Beast Boy scratched his head.

"Uh Star, I think you mean, "opened up a can of whoop-ass" on them."

Cyborg strode over to where Jinx was hanging from the wall, and plucked the dart from her neck in an almost angry fashion, his normally cheerful face twisted into a scowl.

Raven's eyebrow wasn't coming down from there anytime soon.

The half-man began to pull the knives from the wall easily, letting them drop at his feet. He began with the six holding the girls torso to the wall, slipping his arm around her waist when it came free. As he pulled the last two knives from under the girls arms, he maneuvered her so that she was nestled close to his chest, making it look almost accidental. No one seemed to notice, intent on gauging the severity of Gizmo and Mammoth's wounds as they were. Cyborg's human eye seemed to soften slightly as the tiny sorceress curled closer to his warmth, slight though it was, a small "Mmmm," escaping from her mouth. Cyborg smiled, though it was a sad smile, and gently set the girl down on the floor, propping her against the wall in a sitting position. He turned back to his team, schooling his face back into grim concern.

"Any clues as to who, or what, did this you guys?" Robin looked up from where he was inspecting Mammoth's injured shoulder.

"Well, I'd say it's a safe bet that whoever left that bullet casing behind did this," he said, pointing to the wound. Beast Boy had resumed the form of a bloodhound, and was cautiously sniffing at one of Mammoth's massive ham-fists. He shifted back to his normal form.

"Hey guys, I found something!" he called to them. He began to tug at the unconscious teen's fist, but it was locked in a deathgrip. Suddenly a black aura formed around the hand, and forced it open. The changeling looked gratefully at Raven. "Thanks Rae." The empath merely looked stonily at the green metamorph. His ears drooped slightly. "Sorry, I mean Rae-ven." Yep, Raven's eyebrow was defiantly hunting for apartment space in her hairline,

'He can be taught,' she thought to herself. Beast Boy picked up a few strands of long black hair, and handed them to Robin. "They're some type of canine, but I can't really tell what species. I think they might be fox, but don't quote me on that." Robin nodded.

"Good work Beast Boy, at least it's something to go on. Raven, is there anything left of the security cameras that we can use?" Raven glanced at the slightly smoking mounts where the cameras had been, and shook her head. Robin sighed.

"Well Titans, it looks like we've got an unknown in town." Starfire looked hopeful.

"Do you think that this "unknown" may be an ally Robin?" Robin's forehead creased.

"I honestly don't know Star. Whoever did this is obviously a skilled fighter, but…" he gestured at the Hive members. "On the flipside whoever did this is also a lot more vicious than any ally we've had." Cyborg spoke up then.

"I don't know Rob, Jinx didn't really have a mark on her, except for the dart." He held out the object in question, before jerking a thumb at Mammoth and Gizmo. "And listening to those two yap is enough to make anyone want to kick their candy asses." Robin sighed.

"Fine Cy, we'll reserve judgment until we know more. Until then, let's see what we can learn from the evidence. We'll analyze them back at the Tower, after the police pick up these three," he finished with a glare at the Hive trio.

Later the next day, Robin and Cyborg were ensconced in the lab, attempting to glean any type of information from the weapons they had recovered. Raven was meditating on the rooftop, while Beast Boy was attempting to clear Halo2 alone on Legendary mode. Robin was holding his head in frustration, while Cyborg was muttering under his breath when Starfire stuck her head into the entryway. "Friends, have you discovered anything?"

"No Starfire, we haven't. The knives are just that, high quality throwing knives. No identifying marks whatsoever. The only outstanding feature is the edges. The edge was beaten on instead being put on with the normal sharpening process." At Starfire's slightly lost look, he elaborated. "That means that the edge lasts longer without needing to be sharpened."

"Oh. What of the dart used to "knock out" Jinx?"

Cyborg growled a little, before regaining his composure.

"Whoever shot Jinx knew what they were doing. The residue in the dart was from a general knockout drug, not very powerful, and it's so widely used that tracing it is next to impossible."

"And the hairs found by Beast Boy?"

Cyborg brought up a screen that displayed a section of genetic code.

"We ran a diagnosis on them, and turns out the grass stain was right. Portions of the DNA from the hair matches that of a common red fox, but it looks like somebody tampered with it. But it's hard to really tell what was done to it. It may be some sort of drastic mutation, or someone's idea of a new kind of super-soldier." Starfire's eyes grew wide at the thought.

"But we can't really draw any real conclusions yet Star," Robin added in a calming tone, "We just don't have enough information yet."

Later that same day, Robin called the team together to present his and Cyborg's findings. As he wound down, Beast Boy raised his hand.

"Uh dudes, isn't this a good thing? I mean, this guy or whatever is obviously trying to take down the bad guys. So why get worried?"

Robin looked at the green changeling with one eyebrow raised. "Beast Boy, whoever this was took out the Hive, apparently without any problems. Remember how easily the Hive took us out the first time we fought?" A slow flush crept up the other boys neck as he nodded. "Well judging from the injuries Gizmo and Mammoth sustained, they got their asses handed to them in about the same manner. And you want to know what the scary part is?" Beast Boy nodded distractedly. "All the evidence points to this being the work of a single person!"

All of the other Titan's jaws dropped, even Raven betraying her shock. Cyborg was the first to scrape his jaw off the floor. "Rob, you sure about that?" Robin nodded.

"Aside from those claw and teeth marks on Mammoth, all the injuries were consistent enough to point to the same sort of fighting style inflicting them."

"Perhaps a team of warriors trained in the same style?" Starfire suggested weakly.

Robin shook his head. "I don't think so Star, even though it would make a lot more sense. But even a small group would leave some kind of trail, and there wasn't anything aside from the knives, bullet casing and those hairs."

"Dude, isn't that a "trail"?" Beast Boy put in. The other four Titans looked at him for a moment.

"I can't believe I'm sayin' this, but the little grass stain has a point," Cyborg said.

Three Days Later-

The Titans were tense. After the Hive graduates unexpected trouncing at the hands of an unknown element, lesser known crooks had begun to turn up on the steps of the Jump City PD, trussed up in zip-cuffs. All of them had outstanding warrants for crimes ranging from burglary to rape.

All of them looked like they had lost a fight with a meat grinder.

Robin had grown increasingly angry at his failure to identify this unknown vigilante, and had taken to locking himself in the training room. Only Starfire was really able to go near him without getting snapped at.

The rest of the Titans were tense as well, though not nearly on the same level as their esteemed leader. As the third day drew to a close though, all tension was forgotten as the city alarm began to blare. Robin skidded into the living room, alert for anything.

"What's the situation?" he barked. Raven looked up from one of the computer monitors.

"Cinderblock's been spotted in the mall. He's ripping up the place. There doesn't seem to be any sort of pattern to his rampage, it all appears to be random." Robin nodded in acknowledgement, before letting loose that fabled battlecry…

"Titans, go!"

Two Hours Later-

The Titans rode homeward in silence. Raven stared out the window, watching the scenery flash by. Beast Boy was unusually pensive, and Starfire had lost some of her normal exuberance. Robin was slumped in the front passenger seat, while Cyborg was actually driving at the speed limit!

The Titans had arrived at the mall to find that Cinderblock had already been neutralized. Someone, or something had blown off his right leg at the knee, and blasted a charred crater in his back. His torso had been covered with tiny pockmarks from gunfire and scorch marks, and had been knocked unconscious as well. After investigating the scene and handing the comatose Cinderblock over to the authorities, they had been mobbed by reporters asking them questions about the "mysterious vigilante" and what their opinions on it were.

As the Titans meandered their way back into the tower, Beast Boy's ears suddenly pricked forward. "Uh guys, did I leave the soymilk out when we left?" He pointed to the carton, which was sitting next to an empty glass. Starfire floated upwards to get a better view, before giving a sharp gasp. "Friends, there is something sleeping on the kitchen floor!" she whispered.

Robin grabbed a trio of disks from his belt, holding them between his knuckles. "Alright, keep quiet, we still have the element of surprise over whatever it is." The Titans rounded the small counter that separated the kitchen area from the common room, to find a large, furry black shape curled up on the floor. "What is it?" Starfire asked floating closer, one hand glowing with a starbolt.

"It looks like a fox," Raven said quietly. Suddenly, the canine opened one amber eye, and looked lazily at Starfire. It raised its head up a few centimeters, but didn't show any sort of alarm. Instead, it rolled over so that it was on its back, before giving the young alien an expectant look. Starfire looked nervously at the huge fox, then to her teammates. "What is it that he wants friends?" Cyborg was rubbing his chin.

"I…think… he wants… a belly rub?" As Starfire cautiously bent forward to rub the large canine's stomach, a choked snore emanated from the couch. Five heads whipped around to lock on the sound, and Beast Boy, who was closest to the couch, began to tip-toe over, holding a finger to his mouth to shush the others. He cautiously poked his head over the couch…

Poink

And found a circular chrome gun-barrel sticking up his nose. "Friend, don't you know better than to try to sneak up on a napping fox?" the owner of the gun drawled. He was lying stretched out on the couch, his wide-brimmed hat, almost a fedora but not quite, pulled down to shadow his face, and his booted feet propped up on a couple of pillows. A brown duster was pulled tight around him, with his other arm still crossed over his chest like the one holding the gun had been. Except for the gun, the hand which held it being covered by a black half-glove, he appeared to be perfectly asleep.

Immediately the gun was surrounded by Raven's signature aura. The man let it go easily, not moving an inch. "If ya wanted me to put them fucking thing down, all you had to do was ask dammit." His tone of voice was pleasant, if a bit gruff, despite the foul language.

"Who are you!" Robin demanded harshly. A low growl accompanied a hard yank on his cape as he fell over backwards, not expecting the attack. He landed in a tangle, and looked up to see the huge fox standing over him, teeth half-bared. The fox shook its head at the young hero, the look in its eyes half amusement and half stern warning. The teen on the couch sat up slowly, turning to face the Titans.

He had on a pair of mirrored sunglasses, which hid his eyes, and the wide brimmed hat was now tilted at a rakish angle on his head. His face was somewhat angular, almost chiseled but not quite, and his lips were quirked in amusement. A scraggly goatee clung to his chin, the brown hairs matching the bangs that hung beneath the hat. All in all he looked like he was in his late teens.

"Easy there birdbrain, Inari doesn't like people threatening his partner." The intruders voice was marked by a slight western accent, though not very thick. "As for who I am…" The teen tipped his hat slightly. "The name's Jim Kheen, aka the Swamp Fox."

The boy suddenly found his lanky form hanging in midair, alongside his canine companion, surrounded by black auras. "I'm…sensing some hostility here," the older teen remarked to his companion. The fox shot him a pained look, as if asking his partner not to make the very powerful teens who had them helpless any more mad.

"How did you get in here?" Raven demanded, her eyes glowing white from use of her powers.

"I came in through the roof, then opened up the ground floor doors to let Inari in."

"How is it that you came through the roof, when there is no hole in it?" Starfire was slightly confused by the terminology the stranger had used, and it showed on her face.

"I climbed up the tower and picked the lock on the roof door. Incidentally," he spoke towards Robin, "you might want to consider upping the security up there. I could have picked that lock with a gum wrapper and my thumbnail."

"Wait a minute, you climbed the tower? Dude, that's impossible!" Beast Boy exclaimed, flapping his arms for emphasis. Jim grinned.

"I've needed to break into a few places in my line of work," he said flippantly. If he could have moved he would have been examining his fingernails.

"What 'line of work' do you mean?" Robin asked suspiciously. Beast Boy cut in at that moment.

"Uh dude, maybe we should tie them up or something, you know, instead of interrogating them like this?"

"Why?"

Beast Boy thought for a moment. "It just doesn't seem right."

"I got just the thing," Cyborg declared. He retrieved a small raygun-type device from a hidden compartment in his arm, and aimed it at the two intruders. "Picked this little gadget offa Gizmo's techpack," he smirked. He fired the gun, and instead of some sort of deathray or explosion, a large yellowish bubble formed on the end of the barrel. It floated lazily towards the two, and enveloped them completely, enlarging as it went so that there was still plenty of room in it.

"HEY!" Jim protested, as his coat was forcibly removed from him by the black aura, exposing the two cross-draw holsters and knife sheath strapped to his thigh beneath. "I have a permit for those," he said quickly. They were also removed by Raven's magic. All of the items floated out of the bubble, and then the aura dropped from the two. Jim immediately began to pat himself down, searching for a missed weapon, then sighed and slumped into a sitting position. "I feel naked without my weapons," he muttered.

Cyborg picked up the duster, looking curiously at Raven. "Yo Rae, why'd you take his…" he trailed off as the coat limply fell open, exposing an arsenal beneath that would have made most ninjas jealous.

"That's why," Raven said in her indifferent tone. Beast Boy began to rummage through the coat, calling out his findings aloud.

"Lots of knives… knife with flashlight in it… stun-gun…brass knuckles… more knives… weird bracelet thingys… ammo clips… even more knives… mp3 player… knife with some sort of doohickey in the handle…zip-cuffs… pocket sized copy of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book"…climbing spikes… more knives!... flare gun… some sort of grenades…"

"Smokescreen," Jim corrected absently. He was sitting cross-legged now, holding his chin in one hand as he watched the changeling go through his coat. "And a few flashbangs, knockouts and emergency flares, just for variety," he added. Robin gave him a hard stare from behind his mask.

"What kind of business are you in anyway?" The reply he got was almost bored.

"Bounty hunter. Well, former bounty hunter anyway. I kind of put someone's muscle away, so they pulled a few strings to get my license pulled."

"And that explains why you're hauling around enough weapons to start your own personal gang war," Raven snorted.

"I specialized in taking down meta-human bounties."

There was silence for a moment.

"Robin, what is a…'meta-human'?"

"Your green friend there for one," Jim said, leaning back against the fox, who had curled up as if being trapped in a giant bubble was the most normal thing in the world.

"You shall not harm friend Beast Boy!" Starfire exclaimed, her eyes lighting up in her fury at this perceived threat to her friend. Jim rolled his eyes.

"I was using slim there as an example! Sheesh! Anyway, a meta-human is any human who comes to posses more than human power, through one source or another. Usually through some sort of mutation."

Starfire calmed down slightly, the emerald glow fading from her eyes. "Then why have you invaded our home?"

"I think that's the question of the day Star," Robin growled.

"I came to get my knives back alright? They're my favorites." Robin smirked grimly.

"Nice try, but if that were true you would have left before we got back." Jim rolled his eyes once more.

"Yeah, if I had actually been able to get to them. But some paranoid asshole put a genetic lock on the evidence vault, so I figured I might as well wait around." Cyborg looked at Robin, his one eyebrow raised.

"Genetic lock?" Robin had the good grace to look a little ashamed.

"I had it installed after the Red X incident," he protested feebly.

"That's all very nice, but can you let me out now?" Jim asked crossly.

"I don't think so, you pulled a gun on Beast Boy after all."

"Yeah, a dart gun! And the damn thing wasn't even loaded! Besides, he sneaked up on me! Wouldn't you have reacted the same way?"

Beast Boy looked up from where he was flipping through the pocket book. "I would've." The other Titans stared at him. "What? Sleeping in a strange, possibly hostile territory, being surprised like that, I would have reacted in the same way. It's only instinctual after all."

"Did... Beast Boy...just use a four syllable word?" Raven asked, raising one eyebrow. Cyborg nodded blankly. Inside the bubble, Inari began to make a low choking growl in the back of his throat. Beast Boy shot the fox a look.

"Yeah yeah, yuk it up. Carnivores," he muttered, before returning to the book. Raven's eyebrow disappeared into her hairline once more.

"Allllright."

At that moment the alarm began to blare once more. "Twice in one day!" Cyborg asked incredulously. Robin strode over to the computer, and with a few deft key strokes, brought a picture onscreen. Starfire choked on a gasp, as the Boy Wonder paled. Beast Boy muttered an oath under his breath, so lightly that only Cyborg's enhanced hearing, and the sharp ears of Inari caught it. Raven remained stoic, but her eyes betrayed her shock.

On the huge screen, Blackfire was hovering over a scene of destruction, laughing.