"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke

………………………………………………………………………………...

Red X clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes into deep glare. "Haze… huh?"

The purple glad man, whose build was not much different then Red X's, stood silently. His full-faced skull-shaped visor reflected Red X's image. His hands were still tight around the bow that kept Arrowette hostage. He was the Space Man, now better known as Haze.

"Yeah… I thought it had a nice ring to it.", Haze said.

"So, you're the guy who's been hunting me down for the last few months? You're the guy who's been trying to tear off my head and put in on a stick!", Red X asked sternly.

"Yes, I am that man. Looks like I finally get to meet you, Red X." Haze spoke with an almost refined elegance in his voice and excellent annunciation. He was obviously a well education person. "I'd say it's nice to make your acquaintance, but it's really not."

"Likewise, Barney.", X said, referring to Haze's purple costume. "Now let the blonde go. It's me ya hate right?"

"Oh, I do. You and the Teen Titans both."

Red X raised his left eyebrow. "The Titans? What do you want with those kids?"

"I hate them!", he spat out suddenly.

Arrowette was still struggling to find a way out that he wouldn't notice, but he'd stripped her of all her arrows.

"I hate them, almost as much as I hate you, Red X. If not more.", he said, calming himself down again.

"If you hate them so much, then why go though all the trouble of turning me into road kill?", Red X asked.

"Because you are not an easy man to find, Red X. I'll give you this much, you hide well. The Titans? They put their headquarters on an island in the bay! It's a giant letter "T"! The buildings a city landmark! How can you not find it? I can attack the Titans any time I want. But you I needed to find first. If I first attacked the Titans, and this miserable Titan-loving city, then I'd never find you afterwards."

Red X paused for a moment as he took a breath and gathered his thoughts. "So… Why exactly do you hate us again?"

"Because both you and Titans stole everything from me. Not materialistically, of course. I have plenty of earthly goods. No, you stole the only thing I ever wanted. The only love or affection I ever wanted."

"What?"

He gave a light tug at Arrowette's bow, reminding Arrowette that she was still at his mercy. "That's right. You took the only love a child ever wanted. You stole my hopes and dreams from me."

"But I've never met you before! I'm pretty sure I'd remember you!", Red X protested. "And… How exactly did I still your hopes and dreams, again?"

"Not just you. You and the Teen Titans.", Haze corrected him.

"Okay, how did me and the Titans steal your hopes and dreams?"

"It's a rather long story, I'm afraid."

"Do I look like I have anywhere else better to be?", Red X said sarcastically.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you, the Teen Titans, and this wicked city will all pay.", Haze said.

"Didn't notice her in that vendetta. Let Arrowette go. You want to fight me? I'm right here."

"Please, how stupid to you think I am? If I sent my henchmen after you, you'd strike them down before they ever had a clue."

"Forget the henchies. Just you and me. Right here. Right now."

"No." Haze paused. "Don't mistake me for a coward, X. But I'd prefer to get rid of everyone I hate at once. And my special surprise for this city isn't quite ready yet. So you'll just have to wait. Until then…", he tugged on Arrowette's arrow. "This trinket will make sure you come when I'm ready."

Red X paused, but only for a moment. "Let me get this strait… You hate the Titans, this city, and me for whatever reason. But you can't fight me yet, so you're taking her as a hostage so I can walk into some trap. Then you'll prepare your 'special surprise' for the city, which can only be some kind of Doomsday plot. Right?"

"Yes. That's exactly correct."

Red X was quiet.

Haze was quiet.

"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT STUPID, CLICHÉ IDEA!", Red X yelled out suddenly.

Haze was very taken back by that outburst, and probably blinked a few times under his visor. "Ex- Excuse me?"

"First ya wuss out of fighting me, then ya take the blonde girl in a skirt hostage! And now you're telling me you have some Doomsday plot to destroy the city or something? And ya even got used henchmen!" He threw his hand out and pointed at the henchmen standing next to him.

"Well- I-"

"Where did you get this plan of yours? A Saturday morning cartoon!", Red X continued to chastise, as if forgetting every concept of a hostage negotiation.

Arrowette tried to laugh, despite the bow's wire chocking her, simply because Red X was blunt enough to heckle the villain at the worst possible time. That thief had guts, she had to give him that. She couldn't help but smirk.

Haze's henchmen even started to silently chuckle, but a single glare from Haze silenced him quickly.

Haze looked back at Red X after glaring at his guard. "It doesn't matter! We're leaving now, and I'm taking her with me!" He gave a short tug at the bow and Arrowette choked before she could pull the wire of the bow away.

Red X stepped forward and balled his fists again. "Wait!"

"When I'm ready to exact my revenge on all of you, I'll contact you. I'll light off fireworks just over the location I want you to come to! And if you don't come, then I'll vaporize her along with the rest of this stupid city!"

"Wait a minute!"

"Guards!"

Suddenly two guards on either side of Red X appeared from their hiding places and ran towards him.

"Get back here you Power Rangers reject!", Red X screamed at Haze.

The henchman next to Haze activated a smoke bomb. Haze, Arrowette, and the henchman were all surrounded in the thick cloud as they retreated.

Red X was about to take a step to run after them, but the henchmen who had appeared to his left grabbed his arm to restrain him.

Instinctively, and quite angrily, Red X twirled his left arm up, behind, and then under the henchman's grabbing arm in the blink of an eye. X continued the move upwards with his arm, pushing the henchman's bent elbow forward and in front of him, a direction it was not meant to go. Red X pushed for half a second then the henchman's arm went SNAP and he screamed.

Repeated practice of that move had led to his fast deployment of it. He let got and the henchman fell to the ground while he screamed and clutched his forcefully dislocated shoulder.

Red X instinctively looked to his right to see the second henchmen was about grab him. Red X threw out his elbow in a wide swing that caught the henchman right on the respirator on his face. Then he back fisted the henchman with that hand, and sent him to the ground.

Red X looked back up, but unfortunately saw that Haze, Arrowette, and the last henchman were all gone. He heard a car engine start in the distance, and jumped up the hill that Haze had just stood on, and saw the car speed away. But it was too dark to make out the car's make and model, much less it's license plate.

He quickly activated his night vision and saw that the car was a black limo, but it was too far away for him to see it's license plate.. Whoever drove it obviously didn't know not to take a car like that on unpaved ground. The limo rocked up and down violently as it sped away towards the main dirt road.

Red X cursed himself for letting it get away. He pressed a button on his belt, and suddenly his bike retracted its armor and it's engine came to life. Red X ran down the hill towards the limo as fast as he could. Then his bike came screaming out of the woods and drove next to him, matching his running speed. Red X reached over and grabbed the bike's handlebars, then jumped on the bike.

"Got ya now!", Red X throttled the bike and sped away after the limo, knowing that there was no way the limo would ever out race Red X's bike.

The limo released some small spikes in attempt to puncture X's bike's tires, but the bike's tires were Kevlar lined and gel filled. The same tires used in bulletproof cars and presidential escorts. Puncturing the tires with spikes was virtually impossible, and X enjoyed harmlessly running over the spikes as he came closer and closer to the limo.

Next some kind of small ball dropped from the bottom of the limo's undercarriage just as it reached the dirt road. The ball bounced down the road towards Red X and exploded.

Red X hit his breaks, and skid on the side of his bike to break before he was caught in the explosion. Red X stood his bike back up and looked deep into the smoke around him. The sound of the limo's engine was dieing away in the distance on the other side of the smoke. Red X knew the main road was just ahead. He throttled his bike and darted down the road, emerging from the smoke.

But the limo was gone. And when X reached the end of the dirt road and stopped at the intersection of it and the road he had been speeding down with Arrowette earlier. No way of knowing which direction the limo went. He could push the bike, and his own skills, to the limit and try to search all the surrounding roads for the limo in time, but he already had another lead.

Red X promptly turned the bike around and headed back towards the cabin.

Meanwhile, outside the cabin.

The henchman who had his shoulder dislocated lay moaning on the ground. The other henchman who had been elbowed and backfist was just starting to clear his head so he sat up and rubbed his head.

"You…", a voice said.

The henchman stopped rubbing his head and looked up.

A skull with a red x on its forehead stood out from the shadows in front of him. It approached closer, and Red X's shape became more apparent to the henchman. "I have questions…. And you better have answers!"

He reached out and grabbed the henchman by his shoulders, and threw him against a tree. The angry thief kept a death grip on the henchman's hazmat suit and glared as if he was the incarnation of doom and misfortune. "Where is he?", Red X slowly asked with venom in his voice.

"Wh- Who?"

"The guy in the purple Power Rangers suit. Haze, or whatever he calls himself."

"I- I can't talk! He-"

Red X moved his face closer, forcing the henchman to stare at the skull on his face and the ghostly whites of his eyes. "Is it any worse then what I'll do to you…?" Red X released his right hand and pulled it far back. He balled his right hand into a fist and activated his rotary blades. Then he stabbed the tree just next to the henchman's face with the spinning red blades.

"Agh!", the henchman squealed.

The rotary blade spun like a buzz saw and sprayed sawdust at the henchman's head. Then Red X slowly began to move the rotary blade closer to the henchman's face. "Talk!"

"Okay! Okay, I'll talk!"

Red X pulled the rotary blade away and retracted it.

"Haze! He's building some kind of bomb with zynothium!"

"He's what! Where is he?"

"He's-" Then a puff of purple gas shot out of the henchman's ventilator mask. He choked away as the purple gas filled the inside of the mask and his lungs. Then the guard gradually stopped choking and went limp in X's grasp. Red X let go and the unconscious guard slumped down the tree.

"Knock out gas?" Red X quickly turned around and saw more purple gas coming out of the other henchman's ventilator mask.

Red X cursed to himself. Purple gas continued to gently come out the unconscious henchmen's masks like the smoke from a candle.

-X-

"Woo who! Yeah! We get to see Cyborg again! Hey, ya think if I pack some of my famous Tofu Surprise we can convince him to come back to our team?", Breast Boy asked Robin.

The leader of the team was too busy typing away at a computer in the T-Ship's launch bay, preparing the ship for launch, a job that used to be Cyborg's. "Beast Boy, just get in the ship…" Robin slapped his face and went back to work.

The inside of the hanger was a frenzy of activity as the remaining 4 Titans rushed to get the ship ready. They had, only moments before, received a distress call from Cyborg. The signal was choppy at best, but they understood it was an emergency.

Beast Boy turned into a green eagle and flew from that platform Robin and the computer console was on and towards the ship. Raven and Starfire were already busy making sure the ship was prepped and ready.

Robin continued typing away at the computer, double checking the T-Ship's navigational computers and plotting a course strait for steel city. "We can make it to Steel City the fastest if we launch and go strait into sub-orbital."

Then Robin cringed to himself at the sound of some heavy piece of equipment falling to the ground. He didn't even need to look up to speculate that it was Beast Boy's fault. "Ugh…"

Suddenly Robin's communicator rang with the Titan's standard ring tone. He instantly removed it from his utility belt and answered it. "Cyborg?", he asked hopefully.

"Nope. I'm handsomer.", Red X said though the communicator.

"Red… X…?", Robin's wide eyes blinked a few times. "What- How are you calling me on this?"

"Nevermind that, you got a problem."

"Yeah, I'm busy. Too busy to deal with you right now."

"Sorry, chuckles, I'm serious. Some new villain in a purple suit and cape has kidnapped Arrowette and is planning to blow up the city with some kind of zynothium bomb. You gotta stop him."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Okay… So I threw eggs at the T-Car one time. That doesn't mean you shouldn't believe me."

"That was you?", Robin exclaimed.

"Oh, come on, it's not like the eggs could have peeled the special paint off of that thing. Look, the point is you gotta go play hero again."

"X…"

"Hey, I already saved the city once. I've had my fill of heroics. Besides, I figured you know all the best spots to put a Doomsday device. I mean, if it were up to me, I'd look for it at Make Out Point."

"Red X, I'm going to hang up now. And when I'm done doing what it is I'm busy doing, I'm going to figure out how you called me on this thing."

"Knock yourself out, Blue Jay. Just save the city. Call out 'Titans Go!' before storming the place like a bunch of jackrabbits on Pixie Stix. Just go!"

"No."

Red X didn't reply for a moment. As if he need a moment to comprehend what Robin just said. "What?"

"I'm not trusting the word of a thief who broke into the tower and took a suit from me."

"What! It's not my style to stab someone in the back, and you know that."

"You're style is taking care of yourself. And you'd do that easier if you didn't have to worry about us."

"I- I can't believe this! You can't just turn your back on this city! That's my job!"

"Good bye, X. For now anyway."

"Robin! Don't you hang up! Listen to me, I'm telling the truth! Some new villain named Haze is going to set off a Zynothium bomb. He has Arrowette."

"I still don't believe you."

"But-"

"Better luck next time…", Robin said with a smirk.

"You… spiky haired, hyper-paranoid, little-"

Robin hung up before Red X could even finish his sentence.

"Robin? Who was that?", Starfire asked as she flew up to him.

"Nothing, Star. Don't worry about it. We need to get out of here."

Moments later, the launch bay doors opened and the T-Ship took off from its launch bay. It flew away from Titans Tower, rising higher and higher into the sky until it reached sub-orbital.

Red X stood watching on the rooftop of a tall building overlooking the coast. The x-themed communicator was still clutched tightly in his hand.

-X-

Red X entered his apartment though the window and stepped on the welcome mat he had placed on the floor there. He walked tiredly across his apartment and towards his kitchen.

He opened his refrigerator and looked for anything that might fill his empty stomach. But there was nothing worth eating at the moment, which was probably for the best because he didn't have an appetite. But he did remove an old soda from the back of the fridge. He lifted the mask off and over his mouth, and drank the rest of the old soda.

"Uck." Less then pleased with the taste, he tossed the empty can in the trash, closed the fridge, and put his mask back on.

He felt terrible and he knew it. It wasn't everyday that he was suckered like that, but it had happened before. It wasn't everyday that someone, anyone, turned his or her back on him, but it had happened before. But for whatever reason, tonight seemed to particularly affect him in a negative way.

Guess there's nothing left to do but sit and wait for the fireworks to begin…

He began walking up the spiral staircase that led to his bedroom and workshop.

then that fruit cake in purple spandex can vaporize me. Oh yeah, the city and the Titans too.

He walked into his room and couldn't stand to look at his pet rock. He just walked right in and into the bathroom. With the bathroom door shut, Red X took off his suit, which was like a second skin to him, and took a shower.

"Ugh… I feel like… Plasmus after… After…" He stared up into the stream of hot water flowing from the showerhead. "Man! I can't even make a good joke!" Completely pitting himself now, he continued on to lather and wash himself while steam filled the air.

Red X immerged from the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and walked over to his dresser. On top of the dresser was the cage that X's pet rock lived in. He tried desperately not to make any sort of eye contact with the stone as he removed some clothes from the dresser.

Silence.

Red X glanced upwards at the rock, then back down to his sock drawer.

He continued to aimlessly look for something to wear.

Silence.

"What was I supposed to do?", Red X asked while looking down into his drawers.

The rock said nothing.

"I'm a thief. I'm not a hero. There are other heroes I could call. SuperBoy. Kid Flash. Is Bushido in town? Nah, he's never in town. What about that band geek, Herald? At the very least I could ask someone to evacuate the city. But I called the real heroes, and they quit. It's not my problem anymore, right? Right."

The rock had nothing to say to him.

"But then again… Arrowette…"

The rock was curiously silent.

"She's just a friend. Although… I'll admit, she's the first friend I've had in… Ever, or at least a long time anyway. Aside from you that is."

The rock proved that silence was golden.

"I mean, it's never been my style to just leave a friend behind. Not that I've had many friends to leave behind. But she can take care of herself, right?"

The rock said nothing.

"You're right. She's doomed." Red X looked up and finally maid eye contact with the rock. "But why me? Why do I have to go play hero?"

The rock said nothing.

"Because there's no one left… I know. And I guess if the whole city blew up, that would be pretty bad. I'd lose a great place like this. Do you know how hard it was to find a place with this kind of view while using an alias?"

The rock's silence pieced through Red X's selfishness.

"Yeah… And I guess everyone being vaporized too would be a bad thing. Why would that nut in a costume want to blow up the city anyway? Do we even know he's actually going to blow it up? Well, his henchman did say he was building a zynothium bomb."

The rock waited until Red X realized something before it responded.

"Wait a min… A zynothium bomb? You can make a bomb out of zynothium?" This time Red X was silent and his eyes widened when he realized something.

Then he ran over to his closet and began searching through it desperately. "Come on… Come on…", he said as he moved boxes and tossed aside dirty clothes. "A ha!" Red X emerged from his closet with the gun-shaped scanner he stole from Soto labs when he first met the Titans.

"Now then… If ya got enough zynothium to build a bomb, chances are ya got enough for this thing to pick up." He held up the scanner like a pistol and activated it. He walked around his room, turning slowly in a circle until the directional scanner found the molecular signature (whatever that meant) of zynothium. Then the scanner detected some zynothium in the direction of Jump City's bay.

"Hmm…"

Red X continued to point the scanner in that direction while he adjusted it. Then he pin-pointed the exact location of the zynothium. Titans Tower.

Red X lowered the pistol-like scanner with a sigh. "It's no use. That's just the zynothium from the original belt he stole from me." Red X looked back at his pet rock. "But, the belt was shielded… The zynothium in the first belt was shielded so that Titans couldn't build another scanner and track me, just like the new belts I use now. So if the original belt is shielded, then that means I'm picking up a different source of zynothium."

The rock was stunned silent.

"The bomb! That's what the scanner's detecting! The zynothium bomb is in Titans Tower!"

Red X raced out of his bedroom and into his workshop where he picked up his spare costume, leaving his other one in the bathroom where he left it.

He proceeded to put on the spare x-suit. "Nothing like a new set of clothes to make a man feel good.", he said as he buckled the spare belt. Then he stormed around the workshop, collecting any extra tools or weapons that weren't already in the belt. He quickly collected some more collapsed shuriken and loaded them into his gloves, ready to flick into his hand at an instants notice.

Finally, Red X immerged from his workshop, fully clad and armed, and stood in the threshold of his bedroom door. "Take care.", he said with a wave to the pet rock. "I gotta go play hero… Since no one else will."

Red X turned around, grabbed up the edges of his cape, and jumped down from the loft and into his kitchen. He landed as silently as ever, suddenly completely revived with energy.

-X-

"Move it!", Red X yelled in vain as he and his bike weaved in between cars on Murakami Street. Then he made a hard left turn onto an exit with a sign above it that read "Titans Tower", and drove down the new downwards-sloping road. The road sloped and dipped below the rest of the sidewalk and city, and the small road stopped at a large armored door with a giant "T" painted on it.

Red X reached into his belt, pulled out his version of the Titan's communicator, and used it to open the large armored doors.

"Identification confirmed. Welcome Teen Titans.", a computerized voice said as the doors slowly slid away. Behind the technically underground doors was an underground tunnel that led strait to Titans Tower.

There was a wealth of benefits to stealing and then duplicating Robin's communicator.

Red X revved his bike and rocketed down the long tunnel that lead under the bay itself. On his ride down the long tunnel, Red X couldn't help but wonder who Haze was, or what kind of fight was waiting for him at the end of the tunnel.

The end of the tunnel was in sight.

Red X exited the tunnel and entered the Titan's vehicle garage beneath the tower, the birthplace of the T-Car. Red X slowed his bike down and parked it next to Robin's R-Cycle.

He looked around, almost half expecting more henchmen to randomly jump at him, but none came.

"Hmm… No one in the garage."

Red X got off his bike, disabled a security camera he noticed with a shuriken, retrieved the shuriken from the sparking camera, and walked out of the garage.

Later, X slowly crawled inside an air duct and looked past a vent that led into the Titan's living room. Then he detached the vent and jumped from the air duct in the ceiling and landed in the middle of the living room. "No one in the living room."

Elsewhere, Red X peeked his head into the Titan's large gym and training room. "No one in the gym."

Elsewhere, Red X opened a pretend treasure chest and withdrew from inside a rubber ducky. "No one in Beast Boy's room." He squeaked the duck twice for thrills then put it away and closed the lid on the pretend treasure chest.

Next, he opened the door to Cyborg's room. "No one in Cyborg's room." Then he spied a car magazine on Cyborg's table and took a quick peek inside.

Later, he opened Raven's closet and beheld her collection of blue cloaks. "No one in Raven's room." Then he shut the closet door and proceeded on his search.

He opened a drawer and beheld its contents. "No one in Starfire's room." He looked to his right, then to his left. Then the thief reached inside the drawer, removed an unseen item clutched tightly in his hand, and tucked the soft item into his belt with a mischievous chuckle. He shut the drawer and went on his way.

He opened a door, walked down a set of stairs in the darkness, and behind the huge basement of Titans Tower. He took out a small monocular from his belt, looked into it with one eye, and used it to scan the large room in night vision, infrared, and ultraviolet vision. "No one in the basement.", he said before putting away the monocular and ascending the stairs.

Finally, he crawled down a maintenance ladder in a room deep beneath the tower, and beheld the Tower's power core. The power core was a large sphere with various pipes and huge cables coming out of it. Red X sighed. "No one in the power core room either." He climbed down and off the latter, setting his feet on the cold metal floor. "I thought for sure they'd at least blow up this thing."

He leaned against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor. "I don't get it. The scanner said the zynothium was in this building. But this place is deserted."

Red X let out another deep sigh and closed his eyes.

"Have I lost my edge? Nah, I couldn't have. But then where are they?"

Red X sat in his quiet mediation for a few moments, then looked back up at the power core. He noticed support struts that had been added to steady the power core. Then he also noticed that the metal floor had a slight bumped curve to it. The support struts and the damage to the floor obviously came after the tower was built.

Red X found that very curious. Had they added the supports after an earthquake that caused damage to the floor? No. Most likely the tower was meant to withstand an earthquake. The tower could probably serve as a shelter too if needed.

So why add support struts to the power core? What stress had the Tower been unprepared for?

Then Red X suddenly realized that Titans Tower was probably never meant to be lifted up into the air like Slade did a while back with the help of those giant worms.

Red X's eyes widened wide, and he was stuck silent.

The worms tunneled under the tower. Everyone in the city saw it. They probably left tunnels below the tower, and if the Titans left the tunnels alone…

Red X suddenly bolted up from the floor and quickly climbed out of the room.

-X-

There was no standing entrance from the Tower into those tunnels, or at least none that Red X could find. But Red X did know another way to those tunnels.

His bike squealed as he shifted gears and accelerated up the ramp that led to a bridge. He moved between the lanes, streaking past cars in a blur a black, and continued to break the speed limit.

He throttled the bike and gave it an extra boost of speed just as he reached the end of the ramp, and temporarily sent his bike fling in midair.

Red X tooted his bike's novelty horn, which sounded just like the one from Dukes of Hazard.

Red X landed back-wheel first, then his front wheel touched the pavement. He laughed for a moment over his horn as he continued to speed off.

Moments later he reached a construction site and coasted his bike till he stopped just in front of the main gate.

Red X read the sign on the fence aloud. "Jupiter Enterprises." Red X mused over the local millionaire, Loren Jupiter, who owned the construction site. It was here, at this site, where one of the tunnels had attempted to be closed up.

Red X was in a hurry, so didn't bother to pick the lock closing the fence's main gait. Instead, an explosive shuriken did the trick. With the main gate defeated and open, Red X road inside on his beloved bike.

"Now if I remember correctly… The hole should be somewhere around… There." Red X stopped his bike and beheld the signs and cautions tape around a giant gapping hole in the ground.

He slowly road his bike over to the hole that led into the subtly sloped tunnel. "They never even tried to cover it. Why?" Red X mused for only a moment more. "Oh well. I'll worry about it later."

He drove past the caution signs, and snapped some yellow caution tape apart in his bike's wake. He revved his bike's engine, and then boldly dived into the hole and sped down the tunnel, with the skull shaped headlight of the bike and night vision as his only guide.

Barreling his way to fights yet unknown.