Chapter One: Informal Introductions

It was dark. It was an inky black dark that seemed to consume every inch of the figure who was now wide awake, leaning on the sill of the large open window which overlooked a still bay and sleeping city. She sighed. The events of the past two days had her exhausted, and yet she could not catch the elusive phenomena of sleep . As she gazed out the window, her thoughts kept returning to one person, and when they did she would try to fight them off, believe she had won, and would then return to starring out at the tranquil dim light of the city spread in front of her. That was when her thoughts would drift back to…him.

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It had all began two days ago. The Titans had been enjoying a time of peace in the city, however as they all knew, peace never seemed to like to call their city home. Early in the afternoon the familiar high-pitched whine of the tower alarm had reared its ugly head, and the Titans were off.

When they had arrived at the scene a horrific, yet unfortunately familiar face greeted them. Well actually three familiar faces. The creature which stood terrorizing the downtown area was a creation of Slade's twisted mind, a combination of Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock, which was as fearsome as it was ugly.

"Titans, GO!" came the signature battle cry of the team leader Robin.

Immediately, all five Titans flew into action. As all five of them clashed with the monster, it became increasing evident that the abomination wasn't going down without a fight.

"I don't get it!" Cyborg exclaimed over the roar of the battle, "no matter what we throw at him he doesn't even seem to noti….ahhhhhh!" The other Titans watched as Cyborg was thrown over a football field away into a concrete wall. Soon Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire joined him, scattered across the pavement writhing in pain. This left only Raven. She fought on, but wasn't having that much of an effect on the creature all by herself. Suddenly the creature let out a huge burst of electricity that caught Raven by surprise. Just as the possibly fatal bolt was about to impact her, a wave of glowing purple energy surrounded her, neutralizing the beam.

"Look man, thing, or whatever the heck you are, if you're going to have to pick on someone, pick on me!" Raven turned around and looked in the direction of the voice. There stood a teenager of around her age with some interesting qualities. First off, he had shimmering deep purple hair, which intensified to almost white when he let loose a barrage of searing hot purple shots of energy toward Plasmus/Overload/Cinderblock. He had a white purple scarf wrapped around his neck which covered his mouth and nose leaving only his lavender eyes, similar to Raven's, in view. He wore a loose white spandex-top which accentuated his toned body rather well. His other striking feature was his arms. They were fairly well built, but the noticeable thing was that they seemed to contain cracks and lines, almost vein-like, which glowed the same way his hair did. His pants were white like his top, and went down his legs until they disappeared beneath a pair of thin black boots. Raven now noticed that he also had a cape, which billowed in recoil whenever he took a shot at the creature.

All of a sudden Raven's glance was diverted back to the creature as it took a quick unsuspected punch at her presumed savior. She quickly blanketed him in a shield of dark matter, and transported him over to her.

"Thanks," he said as he let out a sigh of relief, "it almost had me there."

"Yeah, but it looks like even you can't stop it."

"True." He then appeared to take a quick moment to think, and then inquired "can your powers transport me anywhere?"

"Yes, why?"

"I need you to put me directly in the center of that thing," he replied coolly, as if he were asking a simple favor like 'could you get me a glass of water'.

"What? You could be killed!" Raven said with a slight sense of protectiveness in her voice, which surprised her.

"Don't worry," he said calmly, "just do it."

"Alright, if you're sure."

"I am."

Raven enveloped him in a wave of dark matter and teleported him to the center of the abomination. A few seconds passed and Raven began to think that she had just sent her newly found acquaintance to his death. Suddenly the creature stopped its rage and clutched its chest. A purple glow could be seen from inside the creature, and it was intensifying. The creature was now fully engulfed in the light, and let out one final screech before being annihilated in an intense white explosion.

Raven opened her eyes and scanned the area where the creature had stood not a second before. There was no trace of it anywhere, except for a single black mark on the pavement which was letting off smoke. That's when she saw him, lying in the center of the blast area. Raven rushed over and knelt down beside him.

"Are you alright?" She managed to say.

"Ugggh," he moaned, "never be in the center of an explosion, it's not fun." He managed to show a slight smile before he passed out.

Chapter Two: Power Surge

"Who do you suppose he is?"

"I don't know, there's no record of him on the database."

"Well, did you notice how those vessels on his arms disappeared when he passed out? There must be something on record about that?"

"Nope, nothing"

"Ugggggh," moaned the figure lying on the bed in the medical unit, "man have I got a headache. Where am I anyway?"

All five Titans seemed to be startled for a moment. He looked around. He knew them all well from the news reports. Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg had been talking about him in one corner of the room, while Raven and Starfire had been monitoring his condition on the sets of monitors which measured his vitals.

"You're in Titans Tower," Robin said with a hint of authority in his voice, "you passed out after the fight and we brought you here for medical treatment."

"Thanks," he said as he winced a little from sitting up on the bed, "I'm assuming we won?"

"Not we, you" Raven suddenly said. He looked at her. She was gorgeous, he had always been a bit of a fan of her, but now that he saw her in real life, he was intoxicated. Out of the Titans he knew she was the only one not involved in a relationship. Beast Boy and Terra had gotten back together after BB had managed to cure Terra of her amnesia, Cyborg and Bumblebee had a thing for each other, and of course everyone knew about the Robin and Starfire thing.

"Really? Well I had to do something, I couldn't just stand there."

"Well thanks for the help," Robin replied, "but we have no past data of you on record, so who exactly are you?" The figure on the bed looked at him and sighed.

"I guess to start off, my name is Dan, but you would probably know me better by the name Power Surge. My powers are actually fairly similar to Starfire's," he cast a glance at her, "however my body produces charged plasma which is focused through my arms, hence the glowing purple veins appear whenever I use my powers."

"Well Power Surge, we are all extremely thankful that you saved us," Robin replied.

"Where you from?" Cyborg insisted.

"Jump City, I've lived here for a long time."

"Why have we never met before then?" Raven asked with a sweet tone to her voice.

"I mainly deal with lower forms of crime, you know, the old lady purse snatchers est. I live in an ally in the downtown area and…"

"That is unacceptable!" Starfire shouted suddenly.

'Here we go again' all the Titans seemed to think at once.

"Our new friend cannot be left sleeping in a cold ally."

"No really, it's alright, I'm fi…"

"You must stay here with us!" She insisted.

"Well, I don't want to intrude, I mean…"

"It's no problem," Robin replied, "We can bunk you up in the guest room."

As the others gathered around Dan, Raven pulled Robin aside. "Are you sure about this? Do you remember what happened last time we let someone stay with us?"

"It'll be fine, when he was knocked out Cyborg did a mental check, and he's alright, just a normal teen with, well, superpowers."

"Alright, but I'm keeping an eye on him."

Chapter Three: Kindle

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….

"Wha…huh?" Robin groaned, "Who the heck is up, and what are they doing?"

Robin groggily wandered to his door. When he opened it, the other Titan's doors opened almost simultaneously.

"What's going on?" Beast Boy replied as he took a tremendous yawn.

"I don't know, but I smell WAFFLES!" Cyborg replied as he took in a big whiff with a huge grin on his face. He raced off to the kitchen area followed closely by the others.

As they entered the main room they all stopped and gazed in awe. The place was cleaner than it was when it was first built (in fact, no one had ever seen the place clean). Someone had organized Beast Boy's CD collection as well as Cyborg's video games. Over at the stove was Dan (Power Surge). With one hand he was frying bacon and eggs while the other hand was tapping restlessly on the counter, waiting for the waffles to be done in the toaster. The Titans were speechless.

"Oh, good morning," Dan said with a cheerfulness that was almost inhuman for the time of day, "you all sleep well?"

"Yeah fine," Robin replied, still trying to grasp what was going on, "what is all this?"

"Just my way of saying thanks to you guys, I mean, it's the least I could do," he motioned to the table, "take a seat, I'm almost done."

As the Titans took their proper places at the table, Robin leaned over to Raven.

"Well, how evil do you think a guy is who makes us breakfast and cleans the tower?"

Raven had to agree, he did seem like he was a nice guy.

"Alright, bacon, eggs, and waffles for Cyborg; Tofu in the shape of bacon, eggs and waffles for BB; Steak and eggs for Robin; same for Starfire, except with a load of mustard; and herbal tea and toast for Raven." As he gave Raven her meal he whispered to her. "I couldn't think of anything else you might enjoy, I hope this is alright."

"No, it's wonderful," Raven whispered back after she took a sip of the tea. 'He doesn't just seem like a nice guy, he is one' she thought to herself as she took another sip.

The other Titans were tearing into their meals.

"Mmmmmm"

"Wonderful"

"Hot dog!"

"You didn't cook the tofu exactly right, but still, this rocks!"

"I'm glad you all enjoy it. If you'll excuse me, I need a shower. Cleaning in the morning isn't exactly the best way to start the day." He said as he walked out of the room and headed to the bathroom.

After the Titans had finished their complementary breakfasts, they went off in their separate directions. As Raven was returning to her room, she got a quick glimpse of Dan walking from the bathroom to his room in only a towel, on tiptoe so he wouldn't be heard. She blushed as she glanced away. For his age he was well toned, and with his wet purple hair he looked really, well hot. Raven shook her head. 'Keeping my emotions at bay while he's here is going to be a challenge' she told herself as she walked away.

Later that afternoon, Power Surge went around getting to know the Titans a little better. He played video games with Beast Boy (dominating every game), learned some Tameranian from Starfire, helped Robin with his combat practice, and made some helpful suggestions to Cyborg on the T-Car.

'That just leaves Raven,' he thought to himself. Secretly this was the moment he'd been waiting for all day. He searched the tower and eventually found her on the roof meditating. When he saw how concentrated and relaxed she looked he sighed a little bit and was turning around to head back downstairs when Raven spoke.

"Yes?" she inquired with a voice that absolutely entranced him.

"Well…I was just going to see if you needed any help with anything."

"No I'm fine."

"Oh, well I guess I'll be going then," Dan said with a bit of sadness in his voice as he turned around to head back into the tower.

"No, wait," Raven said with astonishing speed that surprised Dan, "would you like to meditate with me?"

"Sure," he sounded like he had just become the luckiest guy in the world, "where do you want me?"

"Right here next to me, where else?" Raven said with a tone of sarcasm.

"Oh yeah, right."

He sat down next to her and activated his powers and began chanting in unison with Raven, "Azarath, metrion, zinthos…azarath, metrion, zinthos…" Raven peaked over at him. The glowing purple veins had reappeared on his arms, and pulsed lightly whenever he would finish the phrase. She smiled to herself. 'My gosh, I think I'm falling for this guy.' She blushed, and almost as if he could sense it, she noticed he did the same.