Enemies Closer
"REOW!"
"YAAAH! Get it off! Get it off me, man! Get this thing off me!"
A tussled copper head emerged from the dissected innards of an ancient Mustang, facial features obscured by the narrow reflective glass of a heavy black welding mask. The young man in question blinked. Flicking off his welding torch and, placing the instrument on his handy rolling toolbox, freed his oil stained hands so he could yank up the battered mask and stare at the strange drama playing out at the opposite side of his garage.
"Dammit, Shi," mumbled the teenager, vanishing back into the mess of engine parts and reemerging from the underside of the vehicle.
Through the disorganized landfill of robotic knick-knacks, tangled jumper cables, battered car engines, automobile parts and all other manner of mechanical devises... a customer had just made the mistake of trying to pet his newest companion, Shi-Shi. In retaliation, his little friend had unsheathed needle-like claws and latched himself to the head of the hapless consumer, tail frizzing out, hissing madly whilst his victim ran in frantic zigzags, trying to escape the rabid feline fiend.
Unfortunately for Shi-Shi, however, the current victim had a metal plate of cybernetic material welded into over half of his skull, thus reducing the cat's options of leverage. Soon, the screaming young man had dislodged the cat who yowled furiously as he went air born. But by the time this occurred, the disheveled young mechanic and owner of the evil cat had crossed the floor and arrived just in time to catch his pet as he plummeted from the ceiling.
The ebony kitty landed in the redhead's filthy arms and immediately meowed in protest to the grime. Eyes the color of apple cider and cinnamon rolled in aggravation and he threw the finicky feline to the floor.
"Well, then don't attack my best customer you stupid thing," he snapped.
Shi-Shi flicked his tail at the red haired teenager, looking terribly offended by his owner and slunk away to wash himself for a couple hours time. Grumbling, the young man turned back to his client, rubbing his neck awkwardly.
"Sorry about that Cyborg. A friend of mine is having me baby sit the fur-ball."
The Titan straightened up, massaging his head and examining the claw marks left by the persnickety cat. The giant half-robot teen stood over seven feet, great barrel chest and armor plating taking up almost the entire front desk area. Not that the front desk had much room to begin with since the owner of the little fix-it shop had remembered to stick one in at the last moment only after he'd piled all his precious workshop supplies into the building. You could just tell he liked cars better than people by looking at the run down stockpile.
Two eyes, one natural dark blue and the other cybernetic red, turned on the sweating mechanic before narrowing very slightly. "Yea? Mind telling me what kind of psycho keeps a cat like that?" he demanded frostily.
"The kind I know?" he provided with a crooked grin.
Cyborg grinned back and propped his giant arm against the battered countertop. "So how'z business these days, Ban?"
The young mechanic, Ban, shrugged his wiry shoulders, his too-large work tank threatening to slide off his arms. The summer heat had driven him to knot his over-sized mechanic's overalls about his waist and work with a large, choking fan in his only window, the whirling blades broken and slowly giving up life as it struggled to vent moving air into the mechanic's garage. Ban eyed the dying machine as it sputtered again.
"Oh you know," he replied, distracted. "Same old, just a bit hotter these days. What brings you away from the crime fighting scene and halfway across town to talk to me?"
"Parts. The new paneling the ordered for the T-car? Remember?"
Ban stared blankly up at the dark-skinned Titan, as if they spoke two difference languages before remembering the order in question. Ban immediately snapped his fingers and grinned. "Oh yeah! That one! They came in a couple weeks back and I totally forgot. Here."
The redhead ducked behind the counter and started rooting around beneath the decrepit table in search of the paneling. Cyborg leaned over to watch the slightly eccentric young mechanic. Cyborg had discovered his little shop about half a year earlier during a patrol one night and stopped in to see. At first he figured 'Ban's Place' was just another two-bit grease-monkey joint trying to be macho because the owner could take a car apart. But the moment he first saw Ban Mallory, half submerged in the engine of almost two different cars, he realized he might have found something genuinely extraordinary in the spiky-haired teenager.
He quickly came to realize Ban had some serious skill with any and all things mechanical, would have probably been happier as a half robotic android than a human. Cyborg liked the boy immediately, one because they both shared the age seventeen, two, because Ban had the rare talent of actually understanding half the mechanic jargon he tended to launch into.
Only problem with Ban seemed to be that the teen's love of all this metal and inanimate stole his life away from other sentient human beings. Visiting Ban's Place every other week or so, Cyborg had slowly found out that the young man rarely even left his two story studio apartment and probably slept in his workroom instead of his bedroom. Happier with machines than man, it seemed, but Cy planned to change that one day.
Ban finally stood up, a large cardboard box in his arms, grinning like Christmas had come early.
"You're gonna love this. I talked to a guy in Mech Town and he knew a guy in Metro City and he knew another guy who knew another guy who designs stuff for the Justice League and this is the latest of his designs."
Cyborg's eyes lit up like a Vegas road-sign and Ban raked his spiky copper bangs out of his face, unwittingly smearing oil into his hair. He seemed as pleased as Cyborg.
"You won't have to buff out dents because anything that can scratch this baby probably has world destroying potential and you should be stopping it anyway."
"Ban, you are the absolute!" the Titan sang, delicately picking up the pearly, polished, state-of-the-art side paneling from the box and looking like he might burst into tears at the sight of such beauty. "I don't know how I used to live with out you. This'll look great on my baby. I have to take a road trip to Steel City this week so it'll be perfect!"
"I'd better see you tailgating some runaway cars," the mechanic said wickedly.
Cy grinned, putting his new toy away with all the care a father might bed a child.
"Then you should'a been there last week! Man it was awesome! So we're all cruisin' Main with th' music blastin' and lookin' fer a good place to get some grub," Cyborg began, launching into an excitable heroics story, gesturing wildly with his arms and getting psyched. "And suddenly – outta nowhere – this dude this tricked out hover car bursts outta Soto labs and, wouldn't yu' know it, it's some fire-throwing meta-human from Dakota. Anyway, we get onto the highway and this guy is swervin' traffick like a madman so I open up my baby and start runnin' him down."
Ban grinned, leaning against the counter and listening to the Titan go on about the boosters, the custom point job, and how he totally annihilated this guy and sent him packing all on his own.
Shi-Shi returned to purr and beg for attention, pawing the redhead's leg and mewing plaintively. Ban ignored the cat however, mentally recording this conversation as Cy began talking about the repair jobs inside Titan Tower and all the new hidden features in the T-car and how Robin's designing something wicked for the R-cycle.
He almost felt guilty…but not that guilty.
Never in a hundred million years would Cyborg, hero and Teen Titan extraordinaire, suspect the true identity of his red-haired mechanical acquaintance Ban Mallory. How could he? After all, a humble mechanic living in the slums of Jump didn't really fit the profile for one of the most wanted thieves in the country.
How could Ban Mallory possibly be Red X?
Forty-five minutes later, Cyborg said his good-byes and left, hopping his precious T-car and zooming away. Ban leaned against the counter thoughtfully Shi-Shi leaping up to coil about his shoulders and bat a stray wisp of unruly copper hair. He wondered if any of the Titans would ever get wise to him. Would Cy would ever sneak a look upstairs to find the penthouse apartment above his precious workshop, bought off stolen money, purloined art and other stolen goods?
He smiled and rubbed Shi-Shi behind the ears.
"Not even Cat Woman got this close to her enemy," he said.
But Shi-Shi mewed and hopped off his shoulders, silently telling Ban that perhaps he shouldn't undermine his tutor. After all, while he may currently have the best of Boy Wonder, Selina Kyle had evaded the Batman for a far longer. Ban sighed and returned to his work, soon forgetting everything but how great it felt to fix things.
-heist-
"Stake out tonight."
Beast Boy moaned and flipped over the back of the couch in despair, flopping like a sack of mashed potatoes on the carpet. "Du-ude! Not another stake out! This is like the billionth one this week! Can't we just hangout and sleep like normal people?" he wailed, yanking himself up so he could give the Titan leader his most piteous look possible.
The thin line of Robin's mouth didn't even twitch as his teammate complained; he just arched one brow very slightly and shook his head. Over the last couple weeks he'd gotten pretty good at that. The expressionless, merciless and generally undeniable 'no's' he kept slapping in BB's face week after week, I mean. Nothing personal against Beast Boy, but he happened to complain enough for all the other Titans combined. Therefore, the fact he continuously got the patented Robin no-because-I-say-so glare meant nothing.
"Sorry Beast Boy. But since Christmas X has been on the move throughout Jump," said the ebon-haired teenager apologetically. He turned back to the main computer display; tapping in a key command and hitting enter. A large collage of very badly formatted blurs popped up on big screen, filling the monitor with the hodge-podge of smudged gothic colored figures. The distorted skull mask and tattered black outfit making the felon look more like a Halloween figment than a burglar.
Beast Boy snorted. "Why is it every time we see pictures of this guy, they get more and more sucky?"
"Because he's getting better at what he does," said the somber, but oddly elegant voice of Raven. Her wide, mauve colored eyes opened as she reached up to throw her cloak over her slender shoulders. Her delicate artisan hands tossed the heavy garment aside as the teammate standing to her left sighed openly in annoyance, obviously a fan of his sleep.
"Look man, I know how important it is that we get this guy, but you can't seriously expect to catch him like this," said the tall, imposing figure beside her. Cyborg's cybernetic eye glowed momentarily as he ran some kind of internal program and glanced at the read-outs across his arm. "I mean, he's just a thief right? You said it yourself, a common criminal. I'm gonna be shippin' out for Steel City tomorrow t' look for Blood. We should be gettin' sleep t' take care of our bigger problems, right?"
Robin looked grim. "He is a big problem. Personal vendetta aside, he's getting out of hand."
"Dude," Beast Boy interjected. "When did we ever have a handle on this guy?"
"Well, we could always tie Starfire to a pole, wrapped in a bow," Raven said, tossing a thumb over her shoulder at the girl in question. "He seemed to like her an awful lot."
The pretty redhead girl from Tameran made a disgusted noise, verbally making known her opinion of the cat-burglar whereas the rest of the team silently fumed, brooded or leered individually. Starfire's brilliant green eyes traveled from picture to picture then finally landed on the back of Robin's neck, as if she would find the last and most fascinating photo printed at the base of his skull. No such luck, however, the girl didn't exactly yank her gaze off the nape of the boy's neck before carefully examining the gentle slope where his hair met skin.
Then she realized how long she'd been ogling at the back of their leader's head and slapped her gaze back on the Red X photos, trying to focus upon the human boy's words instead of odd parts of his anatomy.
"I tapped some of these from some museum security cameras," Robin explained. "X has been very active. So far he's piled on quite a stack of police files, aliases and even a private slot in the Most Wanted records. So far he's stolen over two-million dollars in art alone and several thousand in gem and artifact theft."
Cyborg had the grace to look stunned. "Whoa…"
Raven, seated in a casual lotus position upon the couch, leaned forward to squint at the mess of photos. She herself had seen most of these pictures already, being the only other Titan harboring a real interest in Red X's criminal movements, but some of them looked newer and more thoroughly cleaned up than most of the one's Robin had shown her previously. The lavender haired psychic leaned back in her seat and watched Robin with a new found suspicion.
When had he come across these new pics?
Starfire however, had no such qualms. She floated up to examine the largest photo with genuine interest, brow furrowing with intense focus as she studied the blurry image of the master thief.
"The X is clever, yes?" she asked, thinking aloud. "So why did he not flee from Jump City after these thefts? Is it not wise for a villain of his type to 'leave town' as you humans say?"
Cyborg looked pensive, frowning at the screen as he thought. "That's true. You'd think he'd go to South Site, or Metro City. Why does he spend all his time here, in Jump? Buy now, every security system in a hundred mile radius is beefed up because of his crime spree. He's too hot to keep pulling jobs in this town or any surrounding cities."
Raven's finger began to tap against her bicep; a sure sign that the distant look in her lavender eyes meant thoughts stringing themselves into a hypothesize. "So…he's obviously attracted to Jump for a reason. A private benefactor?"
Robin shook his head slowly. "No…can't be. I've tracked half the items he sells off. Once they leave his hands, I can find them. He's too careful for me to track past the thug he sells this stuff to." Here Boy Wonder scowled as if this little admittance irritated him. "He sells to anyone and everyone who can top his highest bidder. According to the underground, he's the single most illustrious thief in the business and Jump is one giant heist to him."
The caped teenager pounded his fist into his palm. "If we don't stop him…no one will!"
Starfire, all inspired and raring to go, pumped a fist excitedly. "Yes! We will track down the villainous X and bring him to -,"
Suddenly a piercing wail split the girl's encouraging words, alarm dyeing the room briefly crimson as the Titan Alert went off. Raven glided over, tapping one of the many controls across the main console. The Red X photos vanished as the computer tapped into the city's central security mainframe and the live feed from a local jeweler's store popped up. Three flustered looking burglars burst out the doors looking inept and stupid as they dashed for their getaway vehicle and Robin made a choked laughing noise.
"Did the police force go on strike or do they just dump every two-bit crime on us?" Robin pondered aloud.
Raven shot the boy a warning look. "When you and I first met, you told me Jump could depend on us to take care of any and all criminal behavior." She pointed at the burglars who had his gun stuck in his pants as he tried to pull it on a civilian who scooted away undetected. "As stupid and petty as they are, they're threatening innocent people. If we don't show this time, they might doubt us when something real happens. You know that."
Robin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You're right, Rae. I'm sorry. Titans, let's go!"
The team made a mad dash for the door, heroes filing out to save the day like they did every other day. However, today, Robin paused behind his teammates, to glance back at the screen where the array of Red X photos had reclaimed the entire screen for itself. He narrowed his eyes grimly, as if to say: next time. Then he spun on his heel and was gone.
-heist-
"What else can you tell me?"
Dr. Chang drummed his fingertips in thought, eyeing the giant man before him with both fear and…possibility.
Standing there in his dark trenched coat and wide-rimmed hat, looking like a scarecrow with muscles, the mad doctor knew without a doubt that as much 'good boy' blood ran in that brat's veins, more 'bad boy' blood ran in this eight-foot monster. Pearly white teeth, too long and serrated for a human mouth, bared themselves beneath that hat, long ratty hair the color of old newspaper hanging past his broad shoulders. He didn't know how this obviously bad man had slipped passed security to speak with him, but he didn't mind. It meant someone out there thought he had use.
Marvelous.
"Red X…oh. I know that little bo-oy," chuckled the Oriental man, his reedy accent dragging out the last word. "He's a thief, but he's a bad thief because he broke the rules."
The bad man frowned. "The rules?"
"He helped…the Titans!" Chang hissed suddenly, clenching his gnarled fingers. "He helped the good little boy and his pretty friend get away and destroyed my laser! My precious laser…" He sniffled like a father over his deceased child, the red lens over his left eye glinting. He stopped abruptly and eyed the new comer with a strange, unbalanced light in his gaze, looking gaunt and emaciated in his giant white body suit. "He says he did it for the xinothium, but I know better. I know better. Hee hee! I know!"
"Know what, Dr. Chang?"
"I know he's a bad little boy. I know, but he's a good little boy too. He's bad, but he's good. He doesn't want to feel," he paused and leaned close to the bars of his cell door to whisper, "guilty."
"He's got a conscience. How quaint," the bad man said with a chuckle. "So then he worked against then with the Titans once before."
Chang smiled and leaned back in his cell, twiddling his thumbs idly. "Yes. He's a smart boy. A clever boy. Everyone says so, because he's so quick, so quiet and so bold, but I don't think so. Hee hee…he's afraid. Afraid. That's why he wouldn't let me disintegrate the Titans. Level their precious city. Because he felt bad. Bad little boy with a secret. Oh, ho, ho!"
"What secret?"
"Ah, ah, ah. No secrets until I'm out and about."
The man in the trench coat studied the scientist with a cool eye. He could see the madness born of genius and the power-complex gone hay-wire. His run-in with the Red X and the Titans had left the man obsessed, stewing constantly over the scenario and drawing these erratic conclusions. He couldn't be sure if this man's word could be trusted as far as his evaluation of the cat-burglar's motives.
"Hey!" a gruff, male voice butted in rudely.
Trench Coat jerked his head up, glaring at the speaker a couple cells down. A younger man, greasy black hair slicked back in a badass hairdo, dirty black sleeveless shirt that hugged a muscle bound biker-boy body. His unhealthy gray skin looked like it hadn't seen sun in a couple months, his red-rimmed gray eyes beady as he leaned his face through a gap in the bars. He looped his wiry arms through the iron poles, waving to make sure he had the giant man's attention.
"You want to know about Red X?" he growled. "Go see old man Peterson."
"Peterson? The bookie at the docks?" said the man, intrigued.
The young man narrowed his eyes. "Are you bustin' Chang out? I heard someone in Steel City wants his help with some shit."
"What's your name, boy?" asked the bad man in the trench coat.
"Johnny. Johnny Rancid," he glowered. "Why?"
"I'd like you to make some trouble for the Titans tonight while I escort the good doctor out of here," the giant man said pleasantly. "Steel City is such a long ways out and I'm afraid time is of the essence."
Rancid bared his crooked yellow teeth, cracking his knuckles in anticipation. "Oh…I can do that for yu'."
-heist-
Author's Note: Ahh! The plot begins to unfold...kinda. I managed to plan this one out a bit more than my last fic, but hey, there's still time to crash and burn in every fic! Tootles!
