Let me take a brief moment to thank my reviewers. Thanks everyone, it's because of good readers that I enjoy writing this. I will not pain you with a long intro. Just to recap from Chapter 2, our as of now unnamed "stranger" is trapped in Seemore's eye-bubble with the HIVE 5 bearing down on him after he tried to stop them from looting. The stranger has shown a remarkable ability to make physical objects in his hands using energy. Also a mystery: the events of Chapter 1, which still has not been connected to the rest of the story.

"The Bird, the Boy, and the Beast"

Chapter 3: The Severing Strata

by Ace234

Seemore's eye-prison was hurled backwards, with the stranger still inside it, into a fire hydrant courtesy of Mammoth's rather bulky fists. The stranger felt the impact of the bubble hitting the fire hydrant, sending water spraying onto the street. "I'm in some trouble here," he thought, "I need to think fast." His train of thought was interrupted by Mammoth, who lifted the bubble above his head.

"Hey, Private Hive," roared the mighty behemoth, "Catch!" Mammoth lifted the stranger's transparent prison and hurled it soccer-style towards his comrade.

"It got it! I got it! I got it!" called Private Hive who extended his arms to catch the bubble. "I got it! I got it!…" just as the bubble was about to enter his arms he jumped to the side sending the bubble crashing into the brick exterior of the hardware store. The bubble crashed through the wall from the force of Mammoth's mighty heave and the stranger, still inside, was hurled past the cashier (still recovering from his earlier wedgie) and into lumber. "Oops!" said the yellow-clad villain, "I guess I don't got it!" The HIVE 5 laughed.

His head seriously throbbing, the stranger righted himself after being thrown into a pile of 2 by 4s. "Ok, I'm through with this thing." His left hand became blue as he again summoned some energy to his palm. The strange light spread to his wrist until in the span of one second, most of his left forearm was covered in the blue energy. With little effort, the stranger mentally focused the energy until it almost instantaneously formed a rather large rotating drill bit that was essentially where his left arm had been from his elbow. He heaved the drill toward the bubble wall as if throwing a punch. The rapidly spinning drill bit bore through the bubble like a knife through hot butter. It separated instantly, and the stranger raced out of the store towards the HIVE 5.

He stopped on the sidewalk staring down his adversaries, "All right, I tried being nice, and I tried being a little forceful. How much of a federal case you want to make this?"

The HIVE 5 only laughed harder. "Listen, boozwooger," mocked Gizmo, "There's 5 of us and while you've gotten a shot or two in; we own you. We're the HIVE 5, and nobody stops us. Just who do you think you are to mess with us, Guzwucker?"

The stranger smiled. "Well, I'm the guy who's gonna punch you in the face." His right arm now glowed blue with energy until it formed a large boxing glove. He raised the glove towards Gizmo who was still high upon his four-legged frame. Suddenly, the boxing glove rocketed out of the stranger's hand towards Gizmo, attached to the stranger's palm by a small chain that seemed to be coming out of his palm. As the boxing glove raced in the air towards Gizmo at high speed, the chain from his palm kept extending with it as if letting out slack from a longer chain inside his arm. The glove landed squat in the middle of Gizmo's nose which sent the evil boy-genius sprawling backwards.

The stranger shook his hand and the tethered-glove disappeared. "My name is the Severing Strata. And you picked a really bad day to tick me off."

"Get'em!" screamed Private Hive as he, Seemore, and Mammoth charged Strata.

Strata 's right hand glowed blue again. This time he made another solid blue ball out of the energy that was attached to a chain. He began swinging the ball and chain over his head. As the three HIVE brutes ran closer, he began to change from swinging the ball from his wrist to rotating in a 360 circle, with the solid sphere moving in an arc around him. As the three HIVE muscles ran closer, he grew the chain at more. Finally, as they were closing in he spun around a final time and releasing more energy from his hand, the ball swelled in size until it formed a sphere the size of Mammoth, a humongous wrecking ball. The ball crashed into the Mammoth, Seemore, and Private Hive with tremendous force sending all three sprawling along the road. The stranger released the chain and the entire wrecking ball structure vanished.

"Why you scuzwreching ballbearing fuzzshuscker, take that!" screamed Gizmo as he fired laser beams from his wrists.

Strata ran towards Gizmo, his right hand forming a blue shield to block Gizmo's laser assault. As he ran under Gizmo's frame, he released the shield, which instantly disappeared. Then both of his hands glowed, and a sword extended from each hand. In one swift blow with each hand, he cut the two front legs of Gizmo's frame sending the boy genius tumbling head-first onto the pavement.

Racing from under the crashing Gizmo, Strata stopped and turned around to watch Gizmo's descent. This was a crucial mistake. For after "wrecking" the larger boys and cutting down Gizmo, he failed to remember the girl who he had dumped yellow paint on earlier. So when Strata was hurled backwards by a pink energy wave, it was no surprise he dropped his swords (which vanished, just like all the other equipment he had "let go" of) and landed on top of Gizmo who groaned again.

"Boys, just not worth the energy used to deal with them," said Jinx, standing over a fallen Strata. "It's just as well I suppose, they were ruining my day anyway!" She waved her hand again as Strata struggled to his feet. He was hurled backwards again, along with Gizmo who had caught the trailing end of Jinx's hexing wave. "Now you, are an interesting one," continued Jinx, who senses that she had the upper hand, "For example, Severing Strata, you found a way to make this horrible day even worse. My hair," said the young witch, pointing to her two pink (with strong overtones of yellow paint) horns, "is a glorious work of art. Do you have any idea how long it takes to style something like this?"

"I imagine you just go with however it sticks up in the morning," mumbled a very bruised Strata.

Jinx found this less humorous than Strata, "Well, I think it's time to give you an education on what happens to people who mess with other people's hair. Indeed, I think you are going to require a girl's delicate touch." Jinx waved her hand again and her next wave sent Strata slamming into the hardware store door.

"And I think you need to cool off," said Strata. From the ground, his right arm glowed and another boxing glove appeared, this launched from his hand, tethered to his palm by a cord. Just as it had hit Gizmo earlier, the boxing glove hit Jinx at high speed sending her crashing into the fire hydrant across the street and soaking her thoroughly.

"I have a pretty good idea who of the HIVE 5 has an anger-management problem," chuckled Strata, limping over to Jinx's position and retracting the boxing glove via the cord so that it was again on his right hand. "Oh and sorry I'm sorry for ruining your hair. Then again you were trying to kill me. All the same I'd like to fix that yellow horn on your head." Strata's left hand glowed blue now and formed a pair of scissors. He reached down with them and cut off Jinx's left horn. "There," he said with a smirk, "No yellow hair there."

"OH YOU JUST DID NOT!" screamed the young witch. Her eyes glowed pink and she let out a huge energy wave that sent Strata rolling backwards. Strata fired his boxing glove at jinx again hitting her square in the chin. He retracted the glove via the cord.

Jinx reeled backwards from the blow. Pink and purple waves coarsed along her body. "So you want to fight do you Strata?" she snickered as potholes in the road starting appearing around her as gravel flew into the air, "Well, that was your shot. Here's mine!" Pink lightning circled Jinx's hands as she opened her fists. Powerful hexing waves cascaded out of her body turning the street to rubble as the waves cut a wide swath through the road. Strata transformed his glove to a shield again to block the waves, but the hexing forces jinxed his shield away and he was hit squarely in the chest by Jinx's onslaught. He rolled backwards, injured and was covered by the gravel from the demolished pavement. The waves continued past Strata and hit Gizmo who had begun struggling to his feet from the last hit he had taken. The evil boy genius was knocked down again. The hardware store's foundation was wrecked and the front of the store caved in; the cashier barely escaped out the back entrance.

Strata struggled to get up. He was hurt. Jinx's eyes glowed in rage and energy waves ran up and down her body. "You still want more?" she cackled, "It's time to put you out of your misery." She raised her right hand for a final mighty wave. "Your shields can't block my curses."

Strata took stock of his surroundings. The road was a chunk of rubble. Gizmo was out cold. The other three HIVE members were still sprawling along the road from his own mighty wrecking ball attack. He was very low on fighting energy, and he was pretty sure he had a cracked rib (or two). Also, a pale girl who was soaking wet and covered in yellow paint with half her hair-set missing and who could use curses that destroyed his weapons was about to curse him into oblivion.

Strata came to three conclusions:

1. He was really screwed.

2. It was a bad time of year to visit Jump City.

3.. Dying to a soaked witch-girl with yellow painton her blouse was probably a really bad way to die.

Jinx laughed, "Well, at least one good thing came of this rotten day, I am going to squash some do-gooder." She prepared to fire.

It has been said by some that life is merely an existence of strange coincidences. If this is so, then everything that happens to everyone is merely happenstance or luck. Jinx was a master of projecting very bad luck. Strata was definitely suffering from it. However, Jinx's charms don't really explain what happened next. Some logical explanations could be made for the following events: Perhaps the fight had gone on too long. Perhaps Jinx's powers so heightened in her rage affected her as well. Perhaps Strata was just due a break. He didn't care. But if life is a series of chances, Strata should gamble for a fortune.

Because, it was at that moment that a green starbolt, the epitome of righteous fury, crashed into Jinx's head. Jinx was sent rolling into the rubble as Starfire swooped down into the fray. Strata took all that very well as a flying girl shooting energy was just another part of his crazy day; it all made perfect sense to him—why shouldn't an alien girl swoop down from the heavens to save him?

Jinx yelled at Starfire, "This isn't your fight, Titan!"

Strata responded, "Oh yes it is!"

Starfire directed her attention towards Jinx, "You will stop causing a mess!"

Jinx said, "Oh yeah? How you going to stop me?" She shot a powerful energy wave into the air knocking Starfire backwards. Jinx was sent sprawling as a piece of rubble surrounded in dark energy collided into her. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" said Raven as she descended to the ground. Jinx looked about, "Guys, time to wake up!"

Hearing her voice, Seemore, Private Hive, and Mammoth struggled to their feet. Gizmo was still out cold from Jinx's last assault.

'Titans go!" yelled Robin as the three male Titans ran forward. Private Hive launched his shield at Robin who deflected it with a bird-a-rang. A second one hit Private Hive in the head.

"They've been pretty busy here," said Cyborg surveying the road. He dodged a punch from a charging Mammoth. Cyborg tried an uppercut but Mammoth leaped backwards. Mammoth then charged Cyborg and rammed him with his shoulder. Mammoth leaped on top of Cyborg and raised a fist. He was stopped, however, by Strata who hit him over the head with a blue sledgehammer he had quickly formed with the energy from his hands. Mammoth was knocked aside.

"They're pretty feisty," said Strata, "But they're hurting."

"Who's hurting who?" yelled Seemore as he shot a laser beam out of his eye at Strata. Strata quickly converted his hammer into a blue shield to block the attack. Seemore was quickly sent flying by a green ram, courtesy of Beat Boy.

Gizmo finally woke up. "Hoondsticks! It's the Titans!" He re-activated his jet pack and began soaring above our heroes. Gizmo activated his hologram projector and five copies of him appeared in the sky. Lasers began raining down from above.

Raven protected the group with a dark shield. "We have to find the real one." Cyborg ran out from behind the shield firing his sonic cannon—he connected with one but it vanished. Robin leaped around the other side throwing an exploding disk, it made another hologram disappear. Strata fired a blue sphere into the air tethered to a chain that emitted from his palm. His shot connected with another hologram.

It was Starfire who broke through. She fired her eyebeams at the real Gizmo who was sent spiraling to the ground. "Cheese it!" he roared.

The HIVE 5 took off down the road. Jinx paused long enough to fire a hexing wave at the ground. Gravel from the rubble shot into the air in a large dust cloud. When the air cleared, the HIVE 5 was gone.

"Drat, they got away!" yelled Beat Boy, unhappy that he'd only had time to get one animal in.

"Don't worry," said Robin, "We'll get them next time. They never know when to quit. By the way, did Jinx looked like she was covered in yellow paint?"

"She was," said Strata, "I had something to do with that."

The Titans only now noticed the newcomer. He had fought alongside them so seamlessly that they had not noticed. "Hey new guy!" said Cyborg, "Thanks for the assist."

"My pleasure," said Strata. "And thank you," he continued nodding towards Starfire, "For saving my hide."

"You are most welcome, new friend," smiled Starfire, "I have noticed that when Jinx attacks something she is usually attacking something good so I thought it best to help."

"And who are you?" questioned Raven, "I'm surprised we haven't heard of someone with your powers like you around here before."

"Well, I've just arrived in town," replied Strata. "I'm the Severing Strata, though everybody just calls me 'Strata.' "

"How did you do that thing with the hammer," said Beast Boy, "that was cool."

"Well, " said Strata, "That's my talent. I can make almost any object with my internal energy. I make energy into solid matter see…" He held out his right hand and it glowed blue and he changed it into a variety of shapes: a cube, then a flower, then a blue butterfly that was tethered to his hand by a fine blue wire, he guided circles around Starfire's head which made her giggle. "The only catch is whatever I make is light blue like my energy. Also, I can only maintain the object as long as I am touching it. So, when I fire stuff away from me, it's always tethered to a cord, chain, or something else." He released the cord and the butterfly disappeared, "See? Like that. When I let go, it goes away."

Robin queried him next, "So you can make anything?"

Strata answered, "Well, there are some natural size limitations. I've had a lot of trouble making stuff approaching the size of cars—that's pretty draining. Also, there are some complexity issues—I can't make a working motor or a nuclear bomb or anything like that. Simple objects, ya know? Hey, I've always got an umbrella when I need one."

Raven asked next, "So where are you from?"

Strata stuttered a little here, "Nowhere important. Somewhere far away. I'm just a wandering traveler in search of a new start." He walked over to where he laid his backpack. He put it back on. "I keep moving a lot; it's kinda by necessity. I don't really have a place to call home. I stay at shelters and YMCAs in towns where I land—pick up work here and there."

Five on Starfire's nine stomachs gurgled. "Ooo!" she said, "My tums-tums are telling me it's time for mustard and gravy."

"I'm always up for food," said Cyborg.

"Sounds like a plan," said Robin.

"Ooo! Strata! Why don't you join us?" said Starfire. "Can't he Robin?"

Robin smiled, "Well, we do owe you one. Sure, join us for lunch at the tower?"

"The tower?" asked Strata.

"You'll see." said Beast Boy.

"Just behave yourself," said Raven.

"Don't worry," said Strata, "I take my food seriously."

"I take mine with sauerkraut and peanut butter," chimed Starfire.

"You guys really are an odd bunch, you know that?" said Strata.

To be continued…….

Well, how about that? The HIVE 5 escaped, but the stranger, the Severing Strata, has hooked up with the Titans for the time being. What could this become? And what about Ragnarok—what's up with him? Will this story ever reconnect with its first chapter? Wait and see…many more mysteries and surprises to come. Please R&R. Frankly, after reading my 3,000+ word entry here; I think I'm due some response.