And now for chapter 2. Some quick info about this fic: I'm a big fan of the original War of the Worlds book. In this story, though, I'm attempting to remain relatively faithful to the book while making it more "modern".

worthlessdeath: Halo it was. I guess the game's so popular they love it even in the Teen Titans universe. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or War of the Worlds.


Chapter 2: The Arrival

The Titans hurried as fast as they could toward Jump City. Along the way, they noticed a thick pillar of smoke rising off in the distance.

"That appears like it is coming from the forest!" Starfire gasped. The other Titans took quick note of it. They arrived at the streets of Jump City, where they decided to get information before proceeding toward the smoke.

Crowds of people were running along the sidewalks. Cars occupied nearly every foot of the streets, and the Titans had a struggle to reach the other side. Robin noticed a woman clutching a bag of groceries hurrying along the sidewalk. She appeared pale and quite shaken.

"Excuse us, ma'am!" Robin called out. She spun in shock toward the Titans.

"What do you want?" she asked them nervously.

"Do you know what just happened here? Why is everyone running?"

The woman stared at him for a second as if he shouldn't even be asking that question, but spoke up and answered his question. "Something…well, I don't know what it was, but it just fell! Something fell from the sky! I think it was a meteor. It was glowing so bright when it came down! It crashed some distance away from here."

"Is that where all these people are going?" Cyborg asked. Once again, the woman stared at him with a look that wondered why he even asked that.

"Yes," she answered. "But I'm not going. I just want to get home. I have children, you know. I can't leave them."

Robin nodded. "It's okay, you can go. Thanks for the info." The woman nodded and hastily sped off. Robin turned to the rest of the Titans.

"We'd better get there before anyone else does," Cyborg said. Without hesitating, Beast Boy transformed into a pterodactyl and carried Cyborg off. Starfire scooped up Robin in her arms, and she, Raven, and Beast Boy flew off toward the column of smoke that was still rising. Along the way, they noticed a line of overturned trees leading to the crash site, most definitely caused by the meteor as it descended.


The Titans landed in the thick of the trees, a short distance away from the smoke. Once dropping the boys off, Starfire and Raven flew toward the smoke to see what had created the disturbance. Beast Boy paced nervously while Robin and Cyborg sat on a rotting trunk.

"Oh man," Beast Boy groaned. "This must be the first time a meteor has ever fallen here! Why the heck didn't scientists know about it before it landed?" He turned to the other two as if they knew the answer. They merely shrugged.

"Who knows," Robin said while poking a stick in the ground. "I'm just glad it wasn't bigger. If it was, it definitely would have caused a lot more damage."

"Hey!" Cyborg perked up. "I just realized – it didn't even leave all that big of a crater from the air. It had to have been pretty small." Robin nodded. Just then, Starfire and Raven emerged over the tops of the trees.

"What is it?" Robin called out. After adjusting his eyes, he noticed both of them looked rather odd. Starfire seemed worried, and Raven had a stony glare in her eyes.

"Guys, I think you should come and see this," she said ominously. The three boys looked at each other then apprehensively followed them through the forest.

They trudged through the forest, navigating through brush and obstacles along the way. Finally they stepped into a clearing, and what it revealed to them made all of them gasp.

Before them lay a huge, black object, nearly two stories high. The object most resembled a gigantic, metallic egg. The ground and plants around it lay black and charred. Some small fires had erupted around the object, most likely sparked from the heat it gave off upon landing. This, and the dirt it kicked up, was what accounted for the rising smoke. Thankfully, they were only small. The air around it swirled in a watery haze from the heat rising.

"Geez," Cyborg murmured in awe. "What is it?" He sprayed extinguisher from his metallic hands at the small blazes before they could grow any bigger.

"Definitely not a meteor, that's for sure," Raven answered. The Titans stood around it immobilized, wanting to approach it but afraid to.

"Geez," Cyborg repeated. "How could something that big not make a huge crater?"

"Obviously, it wasn't traveling at a high enough speed," Robin answered.

Beast Boy, his curiosity overwhelming him, was the first to approach it. He moved until he was within mere feet of it. The hot air surrounding the cylinder was enough to water his eyes and cause sweat to gather on his forehead.

"Beast Boy, come away from there! You might become badly burnt!" Starfire called to him, but he didn't listen. Beast Boy grabbed a nearby stick and rapped on the metallic egg. The sound of the thump seemed to echo within the object.

"Guys, it's hollow!" Beast Boy shouted. He sprinted away from the object before the scalding air seared him.

"I had a feeling it'd be," Robin said.

"And it's hollow for a reason," Raven responded. "I sense…a presence inside."

"You mean there are beings inside of it?" Starfire asked worriedly. The seer nodded.

"Just as I thought. It must be some kind of…pod. And I don't think it came from this planet," Cyborg remarked.

"Well, I think that's a given," Robin nodded. "I think the bigger question is what's inside it."

"Men from outer space! Duh!" Beast Boy shouted, half-joking.

"From outer space? But what planet would these be from?" Starfire queried. "I know of no beings who travel in giant black eggs. They cannot be from my home world."

Beast Boy shrugged. "Who knows. I wonder what they're doing inside there."

"Looks like you'll have company, here, Starfire," Robin joked. She blushed and smiled at the jest.

"Oh no! Blackfire's returned!" Beast Boy yelled, feigning fright. A small chuckle erupted from the group.

"Well, we'd better stay here and keep people away from it," Robin ordered. "There's no telling what'll happen."

After moments of watching the giant cylinder, the Titans heard voices coming from the forest behind them. The rustling of leaves and snapping of twigs interrupted the silence. The eager onlookers had finally caught up to them.

"There! It landed over there!" a man's voice shouted. After a short while, a crowd of people emerged from the forest. All of them stopped and looked with awe at the gigantic black egg that lay before them. The Titans quickly moved to stop the crowd from coming to close.

"Be careful around the meteor! It's very hot," Robin shouted. He noticed several people stare at him sarcastically.

A middle-aged man spoke to him. "Listen, kid, we're not children here. And we're just as entitled to catch a glimpse of it as you are."

"The stupidity of some people," Robin thought. "Well, if you don't care about being charred, go on and touch it." The man gave him a dirty look.

"Daddy! What is that?" a little boy asked. His black-haired father barely seemed to notice, he was so enthralled by it. "It's…it's a," he began, but that's pretty much all that got out.

"Keep back! Keep back! Keep back!" Starfire shouted to a crowd of little kids who were crawling too close to the cylinder. The crowd giggled and pointed at both the cylinder and Starfire, who seemed taken aback by this.

"Hey, look! It's the alien from the pod!" one of them shouted as he pointed at Starfire.

The green-eyed alien blushed. "No, I am not!" she protested. Robin couldn't help but find this rather funny. Raven merely glared and shook her head.


Pretty soon, the crowd multiplied into what seemed like hundreds of spectators trying to catch a glimpse of the fallen cylinder. The Titans were degraded into trying to keep people from burning themselves on the giant egg.

"It's a spaceship! It's a spaceship!" One of the children kept shouting. Cyborg was the first to notice something peculiar about the black cylinder. He crept up to it and raised his hand up to it. The air seemed…cooler. Much cooler. He very slowly pressed his hand against the egg. It was still pretty hot, no doubt, but it wasn't nearly as hot as it had been.

"Hey, guys!" he shouted. "It's cooling down." Intrigued, the rest of the Titans approached and all put their hands on it.

"Ouch! It's still hot!" Beast Boy yelped.

"Yeah, but are you burned? It's not nearly as hot as it was."

"Hmm… The substance must be some kind of rapid-cooling material," Robin hypothesized.

"That is peculiar…" Starfire mused. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted into the cylinder, "Come on out! We will not hurt you! It is safe! Please feel welcome, traveler from another planet!" No answer. The egg sat as still as it ever was. "Earthlings are not that bad!" she continued. "I know some-"

Some of the people in the crowd shot mean glares at Starfire, not amused with her speech. Noticing this, Robin grabbed her arm. "Starfire, maybe you should leave it for now," he said, trying not to laugh. She looked at them then at Robin with innocent puppy-dog eyes.

"Very well," she sighed. More shouting from the forest caught their attention.

"Move out, people! Clear the area! Jump City Police Department!" Soon, a crowd of police officers busted through the crowd of civilians into the clearing. They too, almost gasped when they saw the gigantic egg. Noticing the Teen Titans, they approached them for a word.

"Any idea what just happened here?" a portly officer asked them.

"This thing just landed here some time ago. And it's not from this planet," Robin said pointing at the pod.

"Crap!" said a young, mustached officer. "Is that a meteor? It sure don't look like a meteor."

"It isn't," Raven answered.

"Well, listen – we gotta get these civilians away from here," a tall officer said. "We're setting up a barricade around this thing, and we can't have these people so close. You can go; the police can handle things from here. Okay, people, move back! Let's go! We are securing this site!"

The Titans looked at each other, then shrugged. They decided in the end to stay put, just in case something did happen with the pod. A short while later, a squad of police filled the site. Eager reporters with cameras and microphones swarmed around the site, all eager for a picture of story or interview. Several news helicopters flew overhead, all filming to show the public the amazing egg from outer space. By this time, the cylinder had cooled considerably, but nothing else happened.

A crowd of eager reporters swarmed the Titans, repeatedly pelting them with questions concerning the pod. After what seemed like ages, Raven, who hadn't spoken a word to the reporters, nudged Robin and whispered in his ear.

"Can we leave?" she growled. "All these people are starting to get on my nerves."

Robin shook his head. "Just a little while longer, just in case." Raven simply turned and glared at the buzzing reporters. The officers were having their own problems with reporters. The spectacle had become something of national attention, and the crash site practically turned into a convention. Through the sights and sounds created by human activity and helicopters, no one noticed the small, grinding sound emanating from the black egg.

Beast Boy soon grew bored with everything. Nothing had moved since the pod landed. He casually took another glance at the pod and his eyes widened to dinner plates.

"Guys! GUYS! It's moving!" He pointed frantically at the black egg and ducked behind Raven, who was tempted throw him off. The crowd grew quiet and focused intently on the object. It indeed was moving. The end of the cylinder was twisting, no, unscrewing!

As it unscrewed, a loud hissing of air either entering or escaping the cylinder pierced the silence. The end grinded and twisted as it slowly unscrewed itself from the rest of the pod.

"About time," Cyborg huffed. The Titans were more accustomed to aliens, and so were not as enthralled or excited as the rest of the crowd. The end of the cylinder stuck out more and more as it gradually broke free. The only sounds filling the air were the hum of the helicopters and the grinding of the pod/cylinder/egg.

"Greetings from Jump City!" Beast Boy finally shouted with a huge grin.

"Beast Boy, shut up," Cyborg responded. Beast Boy stuck his tongue out at him. For what seemed like ages, the crowd stared intently at the object as it unscrewed ever-so-slowly. Finally, a loud clang pierced the silence as the end of the cylinder fell off. A gasp echoed from the crowd. Now, only the helicopters overhead broke the silence.

Nothing seemed to move from inside. People moved about to try and get a peak at whatever might be inside. The angle of the open spot prevented anyone from getting a good glimpse, however.

"Starfire, Raven," Robin whispered. "See if you can see what's inside." But there was no need, however. As if on cue, movement sounded from within. People pushed and shoved each other as they tried to catch a glimpse at what was moving inside. Without warning, a scream erupted from the crowd. People covered their mouths. Children hid their faces.

Perhaps they were expecting something that resembled a human, like Starfire. They might have even expected creatures that remotely fit their concept of an intelligent being. But what they saw blew that conception away when the occupants finally revealed themselves.

The alien pushed it's way out of the opening and regarded the crowd of observers with its huge eyes. People stared back with a mixture of awe, fear, and curiosity. The Titans, having seen more ugly beings, were not as surprised. Even still, the alien was not like any they had ever seen before.

A gray exoskeleton covered the alien, much like an insect. There were some parts, particularly around the joints, where a soft, reddish flesh was exposed. The alien walked on four, spider-like legs which held it a couple feet off the ground. The most noticeable feature, the head, rested on top of the legs. It's head was fan shaped and large, with two huge, solid black eyes protruding from it. Near the bottom of the head was a small mouth, which when opened exposed a set of small, sharp teeth. From the front of it's body protruded four arms, two large and two small, each with three claw-like fingers and a thumb, making a total of four fingers on each hand. The two large arms were extended out, feeling and waving around the surroundings. The two smaller arms it kept folded next to its body much like a praying mantis.

Some of the children had run away in fright from the alien. Some of the braver children hung around or kept close to their parents. News anchors whispered into their microphones, photographers snapped pictures, and journalists jotted in their notepads. Everyone jockeyed around the giant pod to catch a glimpse of the strange creature. The alien continued to observe the crowd, and it made a series of clicks, hisses, and squeaks which must have been its language.

"Oh man," Cyborg murmured. "What is that?"

"You got me," Beast Boy responded, his eyes still fixed on the alien.

"Me too," Robin said distantly.

Raven and Starfire finally flew up to try to get a look inside the pod. Once at a good angle, the two noticed that two more aliens resided in the pod. These two crawled their way out of the pod and stood next to the third that was already out. They did nothing, but merely stared at the crowd, letting out their clicks, hisses, and squeaks.

"What ugly brutes," Starfire murmured, her green eyes wider than usual. "Great Xorbath, what ugly brutes."

Raven smirked at her. "What – you mean you haven't seen uglier things before?"

Starfire blushed. "Yes, I suppose, but their features took me by surprise. I have never heard or seen creatures such as this before."

Suddenly, Raven felt a strange sensation. She winced slightly and placed her hands on her head. Starfire, noticing this, asked if Raven was alright.

"I'm fine," Raven responded. "I just got a…a vibe. And it's coming from…them." She looked straight at the aliens. Two of them crawled back inside the pod. The third one, the one who had come out first, took one last look at the crowd. Before it returned to the pod, it glanced up at Starfire and Raven, and at this Raven winced again. There was something wrong in the creatures gaze…very wrong. Indeed, she had received a vibe – a bad one.

"Oh no…" she whispered. The last alien crawled back inside the black pod and a metallic hatch closed over the inside of the entrance, cutting them off from the outside. "Oh no," she said again. Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg noticed Raven's pain.

"Raven!" Beast Boy called. "What's wrong?" She snapped her face in his direction, and it showed fear.

"Guys, we have to get out of here now," she said.

"What? What is wrong?" Starfire asked, frightened.

"We need to get out of here now! NOW!" Raven shouted. The rest needed no more convincing. When Raven yelled, it was never a good thing.

"Everyone, get out of here!" Robin shouted. Some of the people, already frightened, turned and fled. Some stayed behind, either too confused or curious to move.

"Get out of here! Get out of here!" The Titans shouted at the crowd. Suddenly, the ground around the pod trembled and quaked. SMASH! Something long and metallic erupted from the pod, smashing right through the black shell and planting itself on the ground. To Beast Boy, it resembled a giant tentacle. The metallic tentacle was split into three separate appendages at the end, each ending in a sucker-like hemisphere.

Robin desperately clamored to get people away from the pod. Something was happening, and it wasn't good. SMASH! Another metallic tentacle shot out from the pod and planted itself on the ground. SMASH! A third metallic tentacle shot out and did the same. Just then, Beast Boy realized what the tentacles were.

"They're legs…" he thought to himself as he watched in fear. He supposed they had been coiled up inside the pod the whole time. The snake-like legs lifted the pod off the ground, rising higher and higher until it was a couple hundred feet in the air.

A deafening sound, almost like a foghorn blasted from the pod. At this the black metal making up the pod split and cracked and fell away in chunks. When the last of the chunks fell away, there stood a gigantic, metallic tripod.

The Titans and the remaining bystanders all looked with fear at the huge machine. The silvery metal making it up glinted in the sunlight; it's tentacle-like legs rooted firmly in the ground. The head of the tripod resembled a scorpion without the legs. Near the front were what seemed to be dark windows, behind which the aliens no doubt piloted the machine.

As it stood looking down at the dispersing crowd, six metal tentacles extended from the back of the head, waving menacingly in the air like an octopus's. On the front and underside of the head shone a huge, bright spotlight. From the rear of the head, rising up like a scorpion's tail, was a strange metallic appendage that swiveled on a base. Two short metallic appendages jutted from the front. The Titans didn't need to guess what they were.

"Those look like laser cannon's to me guys," Cyborg shouted nervously.

"Everyone, duck for cover!" Robin yelled. The Titans all fled to the trees and hid behind whatever they could. It was just in time, too.

Without warning, bright blue beams shot from the two front cannons. With blinding speed the beams struck the ground, incinerating the place they touched. With horror the Titans realized the machine wasn't aiming for the ground – it was aiming for the people. The two front lasers shot again, and this time they hit home. The cannons struck two fleeing people, and in what seemed like an instant, they were incinerated.

"Get under the trees! Get out of sight!" Robin shouted at the confused masses.

Frightened bystanders fled, pushing through each other, trampling those who were too slow, and fleeing with disregard to anything else around them. The gigantic tripod fired repeatedly at the fleeing masses, incinerating them as they ran. The tail-like cannon from the rear of the head aimed up at the helicopters overhead and fired a fiery red beam at them. The helicopters one by one were struck and fell to the earth in flaming scraps.

A woman carrying her crying child struggled madly to get away from tripod. As she tried to make cover under the trees, her foot snagged an exposed root and she fell to the ground, dropping her frightened child. She turned in horror as the tripod turned in her direction. The cannons fired at her and would surely have struck her and her child had Starfire and Raven not whisked them away in time.

"Oh god!" the woman screamed in Raven's arms. "Oh god! My baby! Where is my--"

"It is alright!" Starfire shouted, trying to calm her. "I have her!" The small child wailed in the Titan's arms.

"Oh, bless you, girl! Bless both of you! Thank you so much!" the woman cried. The two female Titans carried the woman and her child away until they were a good distance away from the rampaging tripod. Raven slowly dropped woman, and Starfire placed the crying child in its mother's arms.

"Please, get out of here. Go somewhere safe," Starfire told her.

The woman rapidly nodded. "I will. I'm getting far away from that thing! Thank you both!" With that she turned and hastily sped off toward the city.

"Quick. Let's get back to the rest," Raven said to Starfire. The alien girl nodded firmly and the two flew back in the direction of the tripod.

Back at the scene of the chaos, the other three Titans had had enough. "Let's get them!" Cyborg screamed. As if by a stroke of bad luck, the tripod finally noticed the Titans. It aimed its cannons at the three young heroes and fired. Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy tried like mad to dodge the beams. The cannons fired and fired, each time missing the heroes by a hair. As the Titans had hoped, the tripod now focused on them and allowed for the rest of the people to escape.

Cyborg jumped in the air and rolled behind a tree as a beam narrowly missed his head. "Eat this!" he shouted and fired at the head of the tripod. Each shot struck the head and exploded. The head wavered for a moment from the impact. The shots had caused some damage the hull, but not much, and definitely not enough to cripple it. The tripod turned toward Cyborg and fired at his hiding spot. He dashed away just in time to avoid being incinerated. He heard a crumbling sound behind him. He turned and yelled in surprise and fear as a tree fell on him.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy transformed into a cheetah and dashed madly at the tripod, zigzagging as he ran. The tripod fired again and again, but he dodged each shot with relative ease. He ran until he was underneath the towering behemoth, and once there he switched to tyrannosaurus form. He arched up and made an attempt to bit off one of the tripod's legs. Before he could, two of its tentacles whipped down and struck him on the head with surprising force.

Staggering from the pain and surprise, Beast Boy was caught off guard as the tentacles whipped down again, this time succeeding in knocking him over. Now the rear laser arched down and took aim at Beast Boy's prostrate form. Noticing this, he immediately transformed into a fly and flew away. Just when he thought he was safe, he reverted to his normal form, but without warning a tentacle struck him from behind.

Robin was torn between what to do. He dodged shot after shot, trying to think of some way to fight the machine. He dashed and ran close to the tripod's legs. Seething with fury, he took out a razor boomerang and aimed at one of the legs. Before he could throw it, a tentacle came down and hit him with enough force to send him flying through the air and into a tree. His limp body collapsed on the ground. Miraculously, the machine ignored him and focused on the other two instead of finishing him off.

Starfire and Raven flew at the tripod as fast as they could. Once close enough, Starfire fired a green bolt at the machine. The shot struck one of the tentacles and managed to blow it off. Starfire gave a small "Yes!" of satisfaction, but it was short-lived. The tripod's rear laser fired a red bolt at the two hovering titans. Without thinking, Raven threw up a black force-field around the two.

The shield deflected the laser, but the impact caught Raven off guard and she fell spiraling toward the ground.

"Raven!" Starfire screamed and flew down, catching her friend before she hit the ground. She descended and placed Raven gently on the ground. "Raven! Raven are you okay?" she asked earnestly.

The mage winced and sat up while sucking in a sharp breath. "I just got the wind knocked out of me, but I'm okay. Just don't carry me ever again while I'm conscious." Starfire couldn't help but laugh slightly, even with the chaotic situation.

"Quick! Let us go help the others," the alien said. They flew up to the treetops, but this time they remained low enough to avoid being seen. The tripod was still there, but it had stopped firing. The machine lifted a gigantic leg and sent it crashing back down. Another leg lifted off, and with that the tripod slowly started moving away from the crash site.

"What has happened to the other three?" Starfire asked with concern.

"I don't know, but we'd better get over there and see. We should move below the treetops so we're not seen," the half-demon mage suggested.

The red-haired alien agreed, and the two sped toward the crash site as the tripod lumbered away. "Robin?" Starfire called once they had reached the site. "Robin?" she called out again desperately.

"Beast Boy?" Raven called out. "Cyborg?"

Starfire scanned the area and caught a glimpse of Robin lying limp at the base of a tree. "Robin!" she shouted and flew toward his body. She carefully scooped him up in her arms. She noticed his chest rising up and down. He was alive. "Robin, are you okay? Please answer me!"

Robin's eyes opened slowly and winced. "Hey, Starfire," he said, smiling sadly. "I'm okay."

The alien's eyes watered. "Robin! You are unharmed!" She hugged him tightly, but was careful not to break any bones.

Meanwhile, Raven spotted Beast Boy crawling along the ground. "Beast Boy!" She flew down and landed next to him. "Beast Boy, what happened?" she asked the green boy.

"Did anybody get the number of that tripod?" he asked dully.

"Very funny. What happened? Are you hurt?" she asked again.

"Nah, I'm okay. Nothing broken." He stood up slowly and put a hand on his head. "Those tentacles sure pack a punch, though." He looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed Robin. "Where's Cyborg?" he asked.

"Guys!" Cyborg's voice shouted from the trees. "Guys, a little help here!" he yelled. The other four hastily made their way in the direction the voice came from.

"Where are you?" Robin yelled.

"Here!" he responded. "I'm under this tree! A little help, PLEASE?"

"Oh no!" Starfire gasped. Cyborg's form came into view, and he was trapped under a fallen tree. The alien flew over and tried lifting the tree off his body. With a little help from a tyrannosaurus-Beast Boy, she cleared the tree from over his body.

Cyborg leapt up and arched his back. "Oh, man! Those things hurt!"

"Are you okay?" Robin asked. The half-machine teenager nodded. "Yeah, just a new backache. I don't know what these things are, but they've just signed their death own death warrant." His eyes blazed with an inner fire.

"They certainly didn't come in peace, that's for sure," Beast Boy said angrily.

The sound of the lumbering tripod echoed in the distance. Once again, it sounded that loud "foghorn" noise it had made earlier. "It's heading for the city," Raven told the others.

"We had better stop it before it hurts more innocent people!" Starfire said.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Robin said with a hint of anger and resolution in his voice. "Titans, GO!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. The five heroes dashed toward the rampaging machine. As she flew, a realization came to Raven's head.

"Disgust," she thought to herself. "That's what it felt when it was looking at us. Disgust. And hatred."


Whew! Well, how is it so far? As for the Martians in this fic, they are different from how the book portrays them. In the book, they're a bunch of octopus-like creatures with brown skin, sixteen tentacles, huge eyes, and beak-like mouths. Basically, they were heads with hands (as H.G. Wells put it). In this fic, I changed their appearance around to something I imagined myself, so apologies to any hardcore fans of the book that might be out there. :)

I depicted the tripod mostly as it was in the book with just a couple differences and adjustments (the two front laser cannons and the spotlight being a couple). In the book, the Martians did come down in meteor-like cylinders. Also in the book, the Martians constructed the tripods on the spot, but I changed it for the sake of pacing and just cause I thought it would be cool having the tripod "explode" out of the cylinder. I was also a little inspired the recent movie as well. Anyway, hope you like it so far. Adios.