1Chapter One: The Best Thief in History!
At least, that's what the headline had said. And you know, the longer the investigation went, the more true the statement seemed. After all, it was supposed be impossible to rip off the entire Starlight Diamond's Inc. vault without even getting in...
"It, it just... There isn't any openings anywhere, the lock is in perfect condition, there is no damage to the hinges or any of the mechanisms... Not even the sub-alarm went off, it's recorded whenever anyone opens the vault, code or not."
A teenage boy of average height with black spiky hair looked around the massive, now empty vault. His red, green, yellow and black costume would've been enough to set him apart, not to mention his black mask that showed only white where his eyes should've been. The large 'R' on his chest identified him as Robin, the Boy Wonder former pupil of Batman.
Having been taught by the greatest detective in the world (Except for PERHAPS The Question, there was still debate over that), he was normally quite adept at figuring things like this out. But not only had the police been over the entire vault twice, he had searched with every device and skill he had five times.
Not even his part-robot teammate Cyborg's scanners detected anything. The dark/blue metallic skinned teen shrugged, his human eye bearing sorrow, "There's nothing man."
In a corner, a green blood hound was sniffing at the ground, doing it's best to help. It's ears perked up, and in the flash of an eye it changed into a short green haired/skinned/everything boy wearing a black and purple jump suit. He was crouched down, and examining something, "Hey guys, over here!"
"What? Did you find something?" Robin asked, running over with Cyborg close behind.
"The scent changes right here. It's really really really really really-"
"We get it."
"...Faint, but it does change."
"Hold on, let me try to..."
Robin took out a birdarang and scraped it along the ground, eventually finding a crack. He quickly slipped the weapon into it, lifting a small section of the floor off. They crowded around, looking to see what was in the small cubby.
A note?
He who faced the forty,
He who sailed the seas,
We are your newest foes,
The world's greatest theives.
"Aw man, I hate riddles!" Beast Boy yelled, his head already hurting just from hearing it. It would've exploded if he had read it.
"He who faced the forty? What does that mean?" Cyborg asked, scratching his head, searching his memory banks for any sort of reference. There were some that were vaguely interesting, but nothing that fit this.
"Good work Beast Boy. This my be a great asset."
"Oh ya! Go Beast Boy, go Beast Boy..."
"So you have any idea what it means Rob?"
"Well... No, but I'm not going to rest until..." Then he noticed the looks his teammates were giving him. You know, the 'Oh no you're not' look. They remembered quite well the boy wonder's obsessive nature, "...Fine."
"Look man, we all know that you could handle it. But the problem is the rest of us can't. We aren't, well, you..."
"We don't have to go through this again, really. I learned my lesson... The hard way."
"Sometimes I wish I could do that."
Robin and Cyborg stared at their green friend, who was beaming without a care in the world, "Uh, do what Bb?"
"Learn."
And Beast Boy continued to beam. Right up until Cyborg pointed at him, mouth gaping, "You wish you could learn!"
"Dude! That's not what I said. I said 'sometimes'."
"Leave him Cyborg, his having a stupider-than-usual moment. He'll be fine in a minute."
"Ya ok... Hey Bb, are you sure you weren't blond in a past life or something?"
"I was blond before I was green!"
"...That explains a lot."
It took several seconds for Beast Boy's poor brain to decipher what his best buddy meant in that statement, "...Dude! I am so not a dumb blond!"
"You're only half right." A cold, monotonous voice said from the shadows.
An ashen skinned, purple haired teenage girl appeared from the shadows. Her amethyst eyes held neutrality, almost no emotion at all, and her blue cloak hid most of her body from view.
"Thanks Raven."
"...I meant you aren't blond."
Hmmm... Dumb blond, subtract blond, equals...
"HEY! THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"
"The fact that it took you that long just confirms my point."
"Raven, did you find out anything?"
The sorceress sighed, rubbing her temples, "The owner really knows nothing, the security guards are all clean, to sum it up the actual company is innocent."
"Well, we found a note. Riddles seem to be right up your alley, can you make anything of this?" Robin asked, handing her the note.
"...Obvious reference to some past figures, who I'm not sure. There are two of them, so... I'm not really sure. There were stories on Azarath of great theives and such, but I highly doubt anyone from Earth knows them."
"Alright. Where's Starfire?"
"Looking around outside. Did you find anything else besides this?"
"No, I'm afraid not."
They heard a muffled cry. Exiting the vault, the followed the source of the noise.
A girl was floating outside the window, with stunning red hair and large emerald eyes. Her skin was orange, and she also had two spots above her eyes. And though she was trying, she couldn't lift up the pane of glass to enter.
Now, all things considered, she could've merely ripped it off and flew in. But Robin had advised her that such destructive behavior was bad for everyone. So she was trying to be gentle, but the window was frustrating her.
"Friends!"
"Starfire? What's wrong?"
"The window appears to be stuck, and I do not wish to cause destruction..."
"Hold on." Robin told her, noticing that the window was locked. He sighed, turned the little nob, and tried to lift.
What the?
He tried harder, pulling with all the might in his body, grimacing with the effort. For a moment he thought that it was working, because he felt movement...
...Sadly, that was just his hands slipping.
Due to the sudden loss of tension, the boy wonder was thrown backwards and to the floor with impressive strength. Landing flat on his back, the three titans in the room crowded around him, while Starfire peered closer into the window. He sat up, rubbing his head in pain and confusion.
"Wow, I give that a six on the 'boy blunder' meter." Raven told them sarcastically.
"Six? I give that an eight."
"Pfft, you guys have got to be kidding me. That was a ten all the way." Beast Boy finished, giggling.
"If your done, help me figure out what is keeping this window shut." Robin ordered testily. He had grown to hate Raven's sarcastic nature. Well, when it was directed at him anyway. When it was targeted on Beast Boy (Which was often) it was quite funny.
Cyborg went over and tried to pry the window open himself, but he was met with a similar level of success. Which was... well, none. Whatever it was holding the window down, it was incredibly tight.
"Man, it's like someone just glued the window shut..." Beast Boy commented, watching his friend strain against the invisible force.
Robin considered this information a moment, before taking out another birdarang and trying to slide it under the crack of the window. After a few moments, he pulled it out. Low and behold, there was an incredibly sticky substance covering it.
"They came in the window, got into the vault somehow, and glued the window shut on the way out so that when the police came it would appear as if all the windows were still locked... These guys weren't kidding, I've haven't heard of anyone this meticulous and precise."
"I'll run a full diagnostic on a sample of that glue back at the tower. It may give us a hint as to who they are."
"Is there anything else? I have a rather good book to get back to." Raven asked in a bored tone.
"No, I think we've found all there is to find. Back to the tower guys, it looks like we have a long week ahead of us."
"Well look at the bright side."
Everyone turned to the emerald changeling, waiting for him to say something stupid.
Which he strangely didn't. In fact, what he said was quite true, "At least no one shooting/attacking us and attempting to take over/blow up/hypnotize the city."
"...I think Beast Boy's brain just gave off it's last death throes."
"Uh..."
TEEN TITANS!
"Aw ya! You wanna pass me, but you can't pass me!"
"Come on tin man, it's all me now!"
"Hey! Oh you're gonna get it now you little grass stain!"
"Keep it down, some people are trying to concentrate here!" Raven yelled at them over the roar, looking up from trying to read her book.
"Hey Rae, stop it you're braking my concentration!"
Needless to say, you could see the vein in Raven's forehead bulge in anger. But she kept it in check, then saw the smirk on Beast Boy's face. Hmmm... Maybe he did have a brain. Getting back at her for the insults she dealt out to him on a regular basis. Interesting development...
"Friend Raven, I do believe you have been 'fired'?"
The dark titan looked over to her rather emotional teammate, eyebrow raised, "Uh, Starfire... I think you mean 'burned'."
"Oh... Hehe?"
"Hmmm... Why don't you go check on Robin? He hasn't been out of his room in a while."
Starfire struck a dramatic pose and said with a voice full of pride, "It shall be done friend Raven!"
"Grrr...Aliens..." Raven mumbled to herself, snuggling down in her seat a little further, recommencing her book. Rather interesting history actually, a collection of tales and legends from a world called Aderva. However, what interested her most was that there was a name mentioned every so often. Einderan.
The same name as her brother. And when you think about it, there was really no way that it could've been coincidence. Names are usually specific to each world, with a few exceptions. Like Raven for example. Granted, you didn't see a whole lot of 'Raven's walking around, but there were more than one.
As far as they had gathered, there was only one person named Einderan. It was a rather cultural sounding name wasn't it? She was growing more and more convinced as she read that her beloved half-brother was from this world, which supposedly just dissapeared several centuries ago.
And that was about how old Einderan figured he was.
Speaking of which... She was getting worried. Her spirit, her soul knew that he was alive. It was a half demon brother/sister thing. However, she was beginning to doubt this bond, as it had failed her once before. Raven had thought for so very long that she was the last of her race, the last of the Azarathians. Yet it turned out there were many.
That was a joyous discovery. And what's more, for a few weeks she was able to express her emotions. With other mages around to dissipate her own magic, her powers were somewhat dulled. Not to say accidents didn't happen, but they were fewer and far between.
She had been cursing Einderan's name with every oath from Azarath to Mystell when he left though. Did he know how hard it was to get back under control when they just suddenly up and left? IT WAS FRICKIN' IMPOSSIBLE!
Anyway... She hoped he was alright. Raven had stopped Trigon's plan. Earth was one of the mortal realm's greatest strongholds, and after Azarath fell one of the last. If it had fallen, the universe and the rest of this plane of existence would've been...
Bad. Let's just say it would've been bad.
But that's not how it happened. With the help of her friends, and even the surprise ally of Slade, she had banished him back through the portal she herself had created. Yet the key word there was 'banished'. She had managed to send him back, which in and off itself was possibly the greatest feat ever to be done by a mortal. The problem was, 'banished' did not equal 'destroyed'.
Trigon was still out there, somewhere. And Raven knew, that Einderan was going to do everything he could to keep his promise of ending the existence of Trigon the Terrible, once and for all. She had weakened her father, but even that... She didn't know if it would be enough. Einderan was strong, incredibly strong. He had been studying, improving, he had been creating his own style of magic for well on two and a half centuries. Under the guide of none other than Trigon himself, who despite being one of the most evil demons on any plane, was indeed probably the best teacher of the magical arts anyone could ask for.
That was really the problem though. It had been Trigon who taught him. It remained to be seen if indeed the student could indeed surpass the master. But if anyone could do it, Einderan could do it. Or at least, she hoped so...
Well, there was nothing she could do about it but hope and pray really. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't leave her friends. Plus she didn't know exactly how, portals to other worlds were never really her forte'. Actually, now that she thought about it, she really didn't have something she particularly excelled at...
Raven had been looking for a new hobby. Perhaps she should take up another brand of magic? Azarathian she was fairly adept in... The portal thing would be useful. Especially for situations like when Cyborg had been dragged into the past... That had been close, she almost hadn't been able to pull it off.
Ya... That sounded like a grand idea. She was going to... wait, was someone talking to her?
"...ven, Raven? Rae, you there? Hellooo!"
Beast Boy backed off a few inches from the face she was making at him when she looked up, "Beast Boy, what do you want?"
"Um... It's 3 am, and I came out to get some water, when I noticed you were still reading, and I thought that uh, maybe, you would like to, you know, get some sleep before Robin's training session?"
It took several moments to decipher language from the changeling's garble, but eventually Raven nodded. Was it really that late? Normally she could just tell the exact time down to the minute. And she had spent all this time and hadn't actually gotten any further in her book...
"Thanks... I didn't realize what time it was. A lot on my mind..."
"It's about your brother isn't it."
Now Raven was surprised. Beast Boy was never that empathetic to anything, "How did you?"
"I uh, kinda saw his name in your book."
"And just when I thought you were growing a brain..."
"So, what does it say about him?"
"Who?"
"You're brother, duh."
"Oh... It isn't talking about him. This is someone else with the same name, I'm sure of it."
"How do you know?"
"Well, for one my brother is a half demon, and that's something that tends to get included into these kinds of books. Besides, this Einderan is supposed to have had blond hair and 'blue eyes that were orbs of lightning'."
"Uh... Ok..."
"...It means that his eyes had a sort of glow to them. Sometimes when people do magic for a long time or they have a whole lot of power that starts to happen. I think, I've never actually met anyone like that. Quite an interesting story to him, he ran away from home after losing control of his powers and nearly killing his family with a bolt of lightning."
"Dang it."
"He was eight at the time."
Beast Boy's jaw dropped, and he scratched his head in thought, "Double dang it."
"Ya. He would've died if he hadn't met an unlikely ally, a swordsman by the name of Curond. Not really much about him yet, but they both sound like quite interesting people. I'm definitely showing this to Einderan when he returns. I think that the world this book is talking about is the one he's from."
"Oh ya? Where is it?"
"It's gone."
"Ouch... Like, gone gone?"
"I'm really not sure. No one has ever reported going there in... a very long time. It may exist still, or it might not, but... Well, you can figure."
"I guess so... Well, I'm going to bed now. G'night Rae."
"Good night Beast Boy."
Later, as the changeling was just about to fall asleep, it occurred to him, something he had missed a few seconds before.
'Hey, I just called Raven "Rae" and she didn't care. Wow... Ah, it's just late, er, early, um...whatever...donuts!'
TEEN TITANS!
Oh you've got to be kidding...
Alright, the good news was that Robin's torture, er, 'training' session had been canceled. The bad news was, they had a problem. A big problem, if you wanted to think literally. Now, they didn't know how, they didn't know why, they didn't care. Sometimes things just go wrong.
But how in the heck, did Adonis, Mammoth, and Johnny Rancid team up? I mean, come on, how did that happen? Adonis was a wimp in a suit, Mammoth was apart of the hive, and Johnny was a would-be punk who looked like he was on a permanent acid trip. How did these three get together?
Sigh...
And it was going to be such a good day...
"Hahaha! Check my manly plex!"
"...I swear, on my bike, if you say that one more time I'm going to shoot you in the head and chuck you into the bay!"
"After I tear you into tiny pieces!"
"You're just jealous cause my muscles get all the ladies!"
"SHUT UP! THEY AREN'T EVEN MUSCLES! THAT'S A SUIT! A ROBOTIC SUIT!"
"Ah ya, I'm feeling the burn..." Adonis said with a grin, curling a car for no apparent reason.
"...How did he join this? I mean, ya I agreed to this plan, but I didn't tell this idiot about it." Johnny said angrily, pointing at Adonis.
"I didn't either."
"Stop lifting the car and tell us how you found out about this!"
"Well dudes, I was like..."
"Alright, shut up now. I don't want to hear a story that starts with the words 'well dudes, I was like'..."
"...Check out my manly plex!"
"THAT'S IT! YOU'RE GONNA DIE!"
The titans had arrived on seen a while ago. In fact, they were now seated in/on the T-car, watching the unfolding scene. Cyborg had gone into the movie theatre across the street and bought popcorn, so the super-teens snacked while the super villains took themselves out.
"And I thought television was the only good form of entertainment."
"And I thought reading was the only good form of entertainment."
These two sentences were said at almost exactly the same time by Beast Boy and Raven, respectively. They didn't pay attention though, as Mammoth got Adonis in a sleeper hold while Adonis was using his free arm to have Johnny into a headlock.
"I got five bucks says Mammoth is the last one standing." Cyborg told his teammates, holding up a waded bill.
"Pfft, ten on Adonis. He may be stupid, but that suit is good." Beast Boy countered, holding up his own wad of money.
"No, Johnny is tougher than both of them." Robin said with a smirk, putting his money on the hood of the car.
"Friends, what is it you are doing?"
"They're making bets."
"Raven, what is this 'bet'."
"It's a wager, they put up money on what they think will happen. Whoever is right get's to keep the money the ones who were wrong bet."
"Interesting..."
Meanwhile, Johnny had drawn his pistol and was trying to bend his arm backwards and shoot Adonis, but ended up hitting Mammoth, releasing the robotic muscle man to begin a slow pounding of Johnny. Mammoth wasn't out though, as after a few seconds Adonis was on his back with Mammoth on top, soon Johnny getting into it as well. It looked a bit like an insane twister match. Almost like in a cartoon. In fact, many things seemed like a cartoon around here...
"Ouch! Ouch! Alright, I give, I give, get off of me!"
"All hail the manliness of Adonis!"
"Hail this surfer boy."
BANG!
"Hehehe... Nothing beats a good pistol at your side..." Then Johnny noticed the Titans, and his shoulder's slumped, "Aw crap..."
Robin counted his money, a smug look on his face, while Beast Boy and Cyborg growled in annoyance.
"How long have you been sitting there bird boy?"
"About five, ten minutes maybe."
"Why didn't you attack us?"
"Well, you were doing fine on your own, so... Are you going to come quietly?"
"Pfft, you always ask that question. Tell me, has there ever been a person who agreed to that?"
"No..."
"My point exactly!"
BANG BANG BANG!
"Titans, go!"
And at that point, the battle really began. Cause Mammoth wasn't staying down and Adonis had nothing important in his head for Johnny's shot to damage. The three villains got back in their group, and faced the approaching team of heroes
Johnny managed to hit Beast Boy in the stomach with a pistol shot, but it didn't do much more than knock the breath out of him because he was a pterodactyl at that point. Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin weren't exactly as lucky. It simply wasn't possible to stop a double football charge from both Mammoth and Adonis at the same time. First the robotic titan, then the Tameranian princess, and finally the boy wonder were tossed aside like rag dolls, providing about as much resistance.
In fact, Raven's sheild nearly shattered under the force of the impact. Luckily, the two villain's heads did shatter. Note to self, never run headfirst into a magical sheild projected by Raven. Just not a good idea for a villain to do. Unless you're like, a rock... Cinderblock comes to mind... Course he'd have to bend down really far to run headfirst into the sheild she projects around herself unless she was flying, and if she was flying she would normally just get out of the way...
Back to the slaughter, er, fight. Robin shook the stars out of his head, and managed to take out Johnny's gun with a well placed birdarang, forcing him to flee outmatched from the battle. Beast Boy charged after him, turning into a bull in the process.
Mammoth didn't give off the impression of intelligence, but was actually pretty clever, slamming his fists into the ground to create a cloud of dust thick enough for him to slip by the titans unnoticed. This left Adonis, who neither the member of the HIVE or the street punk held any comradery to anyway, alone and outnumbered.
Sadly, this fact never seemed to dawn on the mechanically muscle bound idiot, and he just smirked at the two that were left, as Beast Boy was going after Johnny, and Cyborg as well as Starfire were trying to find Mammoth (Starfire went just in case other members from the HIVE showed up).
"Give it up Adonis. Beast Boy took you down alone in less than six seconds last time."
And this was not the incident with the chemicals when the Beast first manifested itself physically. This was later, a few days after the defeat of Trigon. The changeling didn't even attack. He just turned into a monkey and jumped on Adonis's head. At which point Adonis punched himself in the face to try and get him off, never even coming close to hitting the titan.
"I've been working out since then. There's no way you scrawny wimps can take me down!"
Raven rolled her eyes, "It's almost as if he doesn't know he's a five foot, four inch nerd who weighs a grand total of eighty pounds..."
"Huh, but seeing that I'm feeling merciful, I'll let you two go. See ya later!"
With those, 'intelligent' last words, Adonis took off faster than they thought was faster for the suit to move. Huh, learn something new every day. Maybe he re-wired it or something. But even that was not enough to escape Raven and Robin, who were considerably faster without using powers or gadgets.
So, Adonis stopped beside a car, and smirked, "Let's see how much iron you can pump wimps!"
It was an INCREDIBLY nice car. A Saleen S-7 type body, but even slicker. The windows were all tinted almost completely black, and the paint was a strange silver-blue color. The height of the car never changed from the top of the windshield back, and the entire thing looked too streamlined for words.
And the idiot started to reach to pick it up. Man, he needs to get his priorities straight...
"Hey! That's my car!"
"Hmmm, I wonder if it can fly!" Adonis roared at whoever said that, and grabbed the vehicle. But as his hands touched the metal, there was a beeping sound. Suddenly, electricity surged from the car to the villain, knocking him almost across the street.
"Heh, I tried to warn you."
With that, the driver of the car turned off the alarm, and hopped in. And as he drove off, he tossed something out the window that struck Adonis neatly in the head.
"...If you are hearing this message, you have somehow managed to tick me off. Congratulations. For your trouble, I give you this plastic explosive. It's highly powerful, enough to blow apart a block of concrete three feet thick. And the best part? It's now stuck to your body! Don't bother trying to get it off, the coating of this device is probably the stickiest substance known to man as long as a low level electrical current is running through it. Perhaps if a more powerful current is induced, or if you manage to find a way to turn this current off, it will detach itself. But if you've managed to make me mad enough to use this, you probably aren't smart enough to do either. You have ten more seconds to live, hope you life's a blast pal. 10..."
Adonis began to struggle violently, pulling at the device attached to his head, rolling on the ground and screaming for help. Raven and Robin looked at each other, mouths gaping from the message, and ran to assist him. But he was thrashing around so much, they couldn't get close enough to even look at the device, much less get it off.
The number ticked down to one, and the titans closed the eyes, while Adonis began to cry.
"...1."
They waited. They waited. They waited some more. They waited again. Man this is the longest frickin' second ever. Hold on a sec...
"Sucker."
Then it just fell off. No explosion, nothing. Just that single taunting word, then it falls and rolls a ways. When it stopped, the top opened, and a small projector made a hologram, while a monotone voice said.
"This product is courtesy of the Curly Corporation, all rights reserved. Have a nice day."
The hologram was of a symbol. An eight point star, with blue on the horizontal and vertical points, and silver on the diagonal ones, all coming out of a large yellow 'C'. This message done, it did explode, with little force, but left almost no trace of the device at all.
"Ok... That was strange." Robin said, scratching his head in thought. Then a foul scent assaulted his senses, and both heroes looked around. Then they looked at Adonis, who had fainted.
"No, he didn't."
"The cops are definitely cleaning this mess up." Robin said, shaking his head.
"Literally."
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