Author's note: This is my first fanfiction. I read it once and thought it was awful so I remade it so it should look better. I have seen at least two stories like this but I just don't like them so I decided to make one myself in an attempt to do better than the ones that were unsatisfying. To make the story as non-offensive as possible I have made a strict set of rules for myself and those helping me type this. One major one is that there should be no original characters that have permanent affiliation with the characters that don't belong to me. There will be OCs but when the story ends it will be as if they had never existed, so don't worry. The adventure will go through the same.
Disclaimer: Okay. Listen up lawyers. This is gonna be good. ( lawyers pull out notebooks with strict faces) I do not own any of the copywrite (spelling? seriosly take this out when you post it) characters in this story... NOR DO I WANT TO! (collective gasp from the audience) I believe these characters were perfect the first time around the way their creators invisioned them! For this reason in the end they will be as they were in the begining of my story. (lawyers start clapping and shed a few tears.)
Rescuing
the Titans: Chapter One
The Crusader
It all started about a week ago. Villains seemed to be on vacation or something. Jump city was very calm and the Teen Titans were itching for some action. Even raven seemed to be on edge. They were grateful that the city was safe but without some kind of distress they had been feeling unneeded. Boy were they wrong.
Everyone gradually began to adapt by trying out hobbies. The T-car was in supreme condition thanks to Cyborg's spare time, and beastboy had finally cleaned his room... At least until he discovered a black smoke bomb under a pile of dirty laundry. At first he thought it was one of those crystal balls you could find in a creepy gift shop or Raven's bedroom. He tried looking into it hoping for vision but when he didn't see anything he threw it back into the laundry. It exploded on contact leaving his room covered in dirty laundry and black soot. It turns out that Cyborg planted it there for a prank but it got lost in the mess and he just forgot about it.
Raven had become a little more grouchy because her meditations kept being interrupted by two mysterious entities that seemed to be trying to enter her mind. It was very strange, whatever form of man or monster they were one was afraid of her, she could feel that for certain, yet they kept trying to speak to her. The both of them had a very alien aura about them, nothing like any form of demon she had heard of before. In her mind it had no form and whenever she tried to probe it, it vanished.
She could sense they were not a part of her own mind but a separate entity entirely. Either someone was trying to send her a warning, someone was trying to lead her into a trap, or simply trying to break her concentration making it difficult to fight crime.
Whatever it was it was too small to do any of those things so she tried to ignore it and when it would try to probe her mind further she could simply send whatever the heck it is into a mental stasis to study it further later on.
Starfire took the opportunity to look into her collection of Teen Titans action figures and doll sets that have been made in their image. She made a life like model of jump city with toy citizens and buildings. It was f funny sight. There were Beastboy street performers and hotdog salesmen, Cyborg firemen with sonic canons for hoses, Raven Statues and mannequins, starfire sunbathers, (because of her tan) and Robin as miscellaneous such as pizza boys making deliveries on the T-cycle and ironically the masked bank robbers. There was even a wedding at a church with Robin and starfire as the bride and groom. By the end of the week it was 'glorious'.
As they say "There is no rest for the wicked". The same could be said about Robin who was keeping tabs on the wicked people. All of their enemies seemed to be in jail or in hiding, just waiting for the right time to attack, when everyone is going to be blinded by a false sense of security. Robin would make sure that time never came for him. But something else was bothering him.
He was expecting the Titans East to get in contact with him today and give him a report. The Report never came. He pulled out his communicator and tried to reach them but he got no replies. Getting worried he started sending more broadcasts to the other Teen Titans scattered across the globe. Again he had no replies. This was suspicious but he had no more time to look into this mystery. The Calm has ended.
It was close to midnight when they finally heard "Titans, trouble!" Robin beckoned to his team mates as the alarms blared and flashed throughout the tower. It was hero time and they were all ready for a fight, and a sweet road trip in the T-car in it's prime. All of them flew to the rescue not realizing that they were headed for a false alarm.
It was a good thing that it went off when it did. The alarm itself was meant to instead lure them away from the impending danger which was about to take residence inside their home.
It was very dark by the time they got there and they were at the edge of Jump City. It was a long way from home. They were led to a dried up park. Brown leaves blowing about with the wind. When they reached the location not only was there no crime being committed but there was nothing to steal or destroy. It was frustrating and cold, but they knew they needed to go through the motions of an investigation.
After all, the part of the city they were going to save was safe to begin with. Something was amiss... and they new it.
"Could something have gone wrong with the security systems at the tower?" asked Robin. Of course that didn't make any sense. He knew for a fact that they should have been in working condition, he repaired them himself yesterday..
"Maybe the bad guys stole everything already?" asked Beastboy who morphed into a dog and started sniffing clues. "My scanners aren't picking up anything unusual or missing. Are you picking up any bad omens or something?" Cyborg directed his question at Raven. "Plenty." She answered. "Than perhaps you have found something?" Asked Starfire as she noticed Raven tilting her head skyward.
"It'll have to wait, we have another alarm..." Robin stated. He opened his communicator.
Robin let out a gasp. "We don't have time to find out what went down her!. Whatever set off that last alarm is at the tower!" At this even Raven started for home, breaking her concentration on whatever she was staring at in the sky.
What caught her attention though, was what looked like a shooting star, but it was too slow and it wasn't breaking up. Raven had noticed it and worried for a moment that it may destroy something on impact. Another thing she noticed but also haven't had the time to contemplate, was the fact that she had sensed no threat or any kind coming from it, which is why she decided to ignore it when they had to retreat. The truth though was that in fact, that the object wasn't really a shooting star at all. The 'shooting star' was a person.
The person who set off the first alarm.
A few minutes or so passed before the 'person' landed. It was right where the Titans were before they responded to the second alarm. He looked around desperately for a moment. "Where are they? They should have been here by now!"
A strange sound was heard and the shooting star man then reached in his pocket and pulled out a communicator not too different than the ones the Titans use. The communicator then lights up and an image appears in it's center. A young face appeared with large goggles attached to some kind of helmet where the eyes should be. He looked terrified and a voice could be heard that sounded as young as he looked started shouting quickly. "He is already here! We had to set the alarm off early! Find them before he does and keep them away from the tower! They couldn't have gotten far! Hurry, their fate is in you hands!" It's light dies quickly and the lone figure just stood there for a second before looking for some kind of clue as to the location of the Titans.
A light appears through his pocket. "Hurry!" the voice says again and the newcomer starts running down one of the first roads he could see, not knowing where any of them lead. If you want to place a name on him, later he will reveal his title as "The Crusader". No, not the caped crusader. Don't confuse him with Batman.
The name fits almost perfectly, but I can't tell you much else right now otherwise I would ruin the story. I will tell you this though, right now he is on a mission to rescue the Teen Titans. So he leans forward a little more and accelerates knowing that he is running out of time.
If you want to know what he looks like than the only prominent features you need to know is this; he wears a cross on a necklace and his face is wrapped in bandages. On a side note he wears moccasins because they are mentioned later in this chapter. The rest can be left to the imagination.
"Where did they go?" He then sees the T-car speeding away down another road of the huge city, it is even faster than he expected. He tries to give chase but an unfortunate if not predictable green light signals the cars around him to swarm the street, blocking him. He makes an attempt to literally "dodge traffic" but there are too many and too fast.
'Ignorant motorists, don't they know that I could get hit? Have they no concept of right and wrong and left!' he thought to himself partly in panic near the end of his train of thought as he veered to the left to avoid another speeding car. The light changed and he only had a moment to breath before he realize he was going to be hit by another wave of vehicles from new directions.
He then made an inhumanly great leap off the road and landed on the sidewalk, finally on the other side of the trail he was following. He finally realizes that he had missed the Titans again.
"Goddamnit!" he shouted to himself, then he clasped his hands together in prayer and pegged for forgiveness in an instant, then he proceeded to run in the direction where he thought he saw the T-car. He didn't get far. Something shot out and coiled around his wrist and flung the Crusader into a brick wall and he nearly landed in the crossroads again.
When he picked himself up and cleared his head he could see his attacker and nearly gasped when he realized who it was. "Darkmatter!" he exclaimed, "Actually I'm just one of his agents, as was the last one you destroyed." said a voice which sounded like it was coming from a megaphone choking on water. "You wouldn't stand a chance against my master. but thanks for the compliment!" the android said. Darkmatter needs an introduction, he is one of the crusader's enemies. The 'agents' are Darkmatter's spawn, smaller imitations. Because he and his ilk are unfeeling androids that taunt it had just made was just a calculated tactical maneuver to frustrate our protagonist. The only part of him that is mechanical though is his mainframe computerized control center, which looks like a huge eyeball. The 'eye' can send out electrical signals to the rest of it's body which is actually made of a black goo substance which doesn't exist in the Teen Titans world called dark matter. It can change shape and that is how it extended and coiled around his arm. The rest of it's properties will be explained later on.
Also another thing to think about; if dark matter doesn't exist in the Teen Titans universe than how did it get there?
"You will not stop me! Instant Karma!" Crusader shouted and a blast of white light shot from out of his outstretched hand which hit the Darkmatter agent, sending it flying into the air and impossibly into the direction of the same wild crossroads. For those of you who know what Karma is I don't have to explain any more than that he had just cast a spell.
"I can't make it! I've lost too much time and they must have gotten halfway back to the tower by now!" He then stops to take a quick breather and collect his thoughts. "Why didn't I see this coming?... How could I let this happen?... (sigh) I should have paid more attention th the Visionary." He walks slower and leans his shoulder on a brick wall, and then he continue to talk to himself, seemingly in a different voice. "But I can't stop now, if I do than all existence will cease. I must stop them. I must save them... All I need is a little thought, confidence, and faith."
Don't we all.
He closed his eyes in concentration and thought of nothing but ways to catch up. Then he started for the Titans again, still in concentration. His breathing steady, his thoughts centered, his feet... glowing?
Yes his feet were indeed glowing and so was his back. The ankles on his moccasins then sprouted wings that looked as if they were made of light and he leaned forward, his feet slowed but he was gliding as if they were on roller skates, accelerating so fast that soon he was passing speeding cars.
"It had to be." grumbled to himself later as he realized that the Titans had made it past a bridge which was rising to let a boat cross. He had to make a jump like they do in the action movies, without a car, otherwise he would never catch up with them
He held his breath and accelerated even more concentrating on getting across that bridge. He jumps but his momentum wasn't enough apparently, but before his fall his glowing backside suddenly sprouted another set of glowing wings which were as big as a hand glider. The glorious pair of wings on his back made one big flap and he sort of 'bounced' in mid air, and he glided safely to the other side of the bridge. People on the passing boat pointed and awed at his stunt. Kids looked on like fireworks and people were asking "Is he one of the Teen Titans?" He landed at the other end of the bridge.
"No! Not again?" He said to himself when all of his wings vanished. He tried to summon them again but they did not reappear. He started to run again...
Knowing it was pointless to summon his wings again he tried tapping into his other powers but his energy supply was too low due to the absence of his 'suppliers'.
As much as I hate original characters, this one is crucial to the main story line even though he wont make frequent appearances later on fortunately. Another thing you should know about the Crusader is that his powers are random even to himself. He has nearly an unlimited array of super powers which he can't use unless he guesses which ones are active. The volume of his abilities depends on how much energy he has which is dictated by acts of courage. Some of his spells are constants but they also need power. The reason why he is so weak right now is because the other Teen Titans which could have supplied his power are missing. But what happened to the other Teen Titans of this universe and where are they now?
He jumped to a low roof building, thankful that his jumping power was still active and had a little energy left. He looked about himself still not seeing the T-car. But something else caught his eye, "Duh!" he said to himself. He could see Titans Tower in the distance and knew that it was the destination he was looking for. He made another leap and realized that he was being followed.
"Malice will have them!" shouted the agent as its legs took on the form of flexing stilts and the arms combined into a wrecking ball, giving it the hight it needed to fight Crusader on the windy rooftops. Apparently Karma couldn't do much to something that had just come into existence.
The dark matter agent had escaped the cars by lifting a manhole cover and going underground through the sewers. He fallowed the Crusader by calculating the closest route to Titans Tower and turning his body into a bridge to get across the boat crossing. Because of Crusader's speed boost earlier the agent had only just caught up with him.
The wrecking ball swung only once, faster than gravity could have made it. The corner of the building Crusader was heading for crumbled and when he leaped the ball came after him again, turning into something similar to a crabs claw. He couldn't dodge in mid air without his power to fly. The claw of dark matter encased the Crusader and the mouth of it disappeared. Then the Crusader suddenly sprang through the street beneath them like a ghost.
He had teleported out of the claw when it closed.
The agent ball turned into a pair of hands again with talons and its feet fused together to get better footing (even if that can't make sense).
The Crusader pulled back a glowing fist and delivered the final blow.
"Something's wrong." Raven stated outside of their tower. The first alarm was obviously to lure them away from the tower and there was no commotion coming from inside the tower when they returned so it was easily a trap. Even though all of them figured this out quickly enough there wasn't anything any of them could do about it to save their tower from the outside. But Raven could sense that inside the tower there was very dark magic, it wasn't particularly strong compared to what other enemies she and her friends had faced but the waves of cruel intentions emanating from inside it was scary.
"Titans, get ready, we don't know what we're up against." Robin stated. He remembered the other Titans and how they never made contact with him again. "Could whatever is in there have our friends?" He thought.
They all took battle stances and armed their weapons. Beastboy turned into a White tiger. Of course nobody would know because of the coloring. Raven had guessed he had done this anyway because before they left he was talking about the animal channel creature.
"Wait!" they heard from behind "Don't go in there!"
The Darkmatter agent stood there frozen as the Crusader's fist was jammed in the shattered 'eye', tangled in circuitry. The dark matter that formed its body was solidified into a weird, twisted, scary looking statue with clawed hands and one foot. The battle was over but he still was too far away to save them, he had to use even more of his power. In the distance he could see the island where Titans Tower stood and at the bottom there was his rendevous. His power was nearly depleted but his goal was in sight.
It was time to pull out all the stops. He started running again but he didn't take the road, it looked as though it was on a small island so it wouldn't make sense to. Instead he went straight for the water and thought about solid ground and ran skipping on the water. He was finally closing the distance and could see them but they were facing the tower. He shouted "Wait! Don't go in there!"
He was too late. The door burst open and a huge gust of wind started blowing from behind and he lost balance and landed in the water. When the group turned around to look at him the entrance to the tower caved in on itself and BeastBoy changed back to normal as the entrance worked like a vacuum to suck in the last of the Teen Titans.
Morning had finally come. Things looked grim for the Crusader as his crusade seemed to be over. A bright light appeared on the shore of the Titans Tower island next to where the Crusader was sulking. A figure stepped out of the light and the light vanished leaving that small boy with the weird helmet seen earlier on his communicator. He sat down next to him.
"Your crusade isn't over." the boy said. There was a pause. At this the crusader's head rose and he looked at the boy. "They are still going to be alive. He doesn't have the power to destroy them yet... Besides, the prophecy may have been made here but that doesn't mean they had to be the same "Teen Titans"... I have a plan... I know of some people who would fit the bill. It just means that they have to be brought here."
The Crusader sat there listening. "I have a feeling you're going to like this. The rules for something like this is a little complex though. It was hard to figure it out but I think I have found a loop hole. Here's plan 'B'. We have to collect another five teenage heros from other dimensions, three male, two female, excluding members from our own group. I have heard of a being who exists outside of the time line, we will make our first stop in his world. With his help we may be able to protect the worlds of our own set of Teen Titans. I have a few people in mind already, some of them are already members of super hero groups but I'm sure they will join when they hear our cause. Hopefully. I'll explain more when we make our first recruit.
The Crusader sat there for a minute staring at his friend. Then finally said "Thank you Visionary. It may be confusing but I'm ready for whatever we need to do." his voice changes again "When we complete our mission we will save the others and finally end the crusade! I feel righteously strong again and it will be magnificent finally to beet Malice! Who did you have in mind?" The Visionary smiled and summoned another light which they both stepped into and disappeared.
Author's Note: Hope you liked the first chapter. Leave a review to give me ideas about how I can improve my story-telling. I already have chosen my new set if teen titans so don't give me ideas about that. It was hard enough to stick with the rule about the characters being teens in the tv show so don't give me any older versions of juniper lee or one of the Powerpuff girls. I would find that offensive if I discovered that in a fanfiction like this one. Anyways, I am not sure who the team leader should be, it is gonna be either Danny Phantom or Kim Possible. I would like you, the reader, to vote. Please review and include the vote between Danny Phantom or Kim Possible. Thanks a lot.
