My very special thanks to all my reviewers so far. It's been great having you along on the joy of writing this story. I still endeavor to keep my writing up to a level that all can enjoy. For those just joining us, you might find reading the quick catch-up at the beginning of Chapter 6 helpful—though you should read the whole story, it'll help with picking up the mysteries. But enough of this introduction, when we last left the Titans, the Severing Strata, the enigmatic teen who claims to be the jailer of the Raging Ragnarok left the Titans in the middle of the night after a drama-filled 48 hours with warnings to Raven to leave the planet as Ragnarok was drawing near.

We rejoin the story just shortly after Strata's sudden departure. Now might be a good time to review Chapters 2 & 3 if you have not…

"The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast"

Chapter 9: Encounters at the City's Edge

Raven stood upon the roof of the Titans Tower gazing out over the city's shore. "Too many mysteries," she thought. "Strata's disappearance only adds more anxiety to an already tense situation." She fixed her eyes out over the sleeping city, staring at the road that Strata had been before he had finally walked out of her vision, deeper into the city's core. The cool evening wind rustled her cloak. She drew it tighter to warm herself. She turned her head and focused her view on the roof about her, where only last night she had spent the evening listening to the stranger's commentaries on herself, the moon, and his strange past. "For a guy who claimed to be coming here seeking me to be his last hope, you sure left in a hurry, Severing Strata," she whispered to herself. Her thoughts were broken by the sound of footsteps upon the rooftop. "You're up late," said Raven, without turning around, having long been able to distinguish the sound of Cyborg's metal feet from the other team members.

Each Titan had long had a distinguishing foot-sound to Raven. Cyborg had his gait accentuated by metal thuds. Starfire's noise was a barely audible "woosh" as she almost floated from footstep to footstep. Robin's normal footsteps were barely audible at all—no doubt a result of his training with the True Master. Raven often found Beast Boy's gait varied and reminding her of frolicking wood creatures—a parallelism in the unorganized life of the Titans' youngest member.

"Sleep is a luxury when you have a battery pack for a chronometer. Besides, you're one to talk."

"I was on guard duty."

"So am I. It's my turn to take over for you tonight regarding the watching of Strata. I set my internal alarm this time so you couldn't ignore it this time, unlike last night."

"Not that it matters. He's gone."

"What? When did he leave?"

"About 45 minutes ago. He just walked out the front door, told me to flee the planet."

"And you let him go?"

"Yes. Probably for the best."

"I hope it is. There's much more to that guy than is on the surface."

"I wouldn't worry about losing him."

"Oh, why not?"

"He'll be back."

"How do you know he's not gone forever?"

Raven paused for a moment, then turned her eyes from Cyborg back towards the slumbering city, "Because," she replied, "We're not that lucky."

"Home," thought the stranger to himself, "is very elusive concept, personally."

The Severing Strata had been trudging through the city steadily since leaving Raven and the Titans' door nearly an hour before hand. His watch gave him a time just past midnight, not that time was of great import to someone with no one place to be at any particular time. Strata had once thought of just throwing his watch away but always hesitated as he had always hoped for a day when he would actually have a place that he needed to be at a particular point in time. "Some people might be glad to never have to be tied down by time," he thought, "I, however, would at least just once like an appointment so that I would know that I was someone worthy of meeting on time." He kept marching on, having long ago developed a talent for transitioning from place to place swiftly with his backpack on.

Strata's thoughts were more devoted to the concept of home then time, though. He too often remembered the fires of the wars of his former homeland. There had been no place to call home since his house was demolished in the final wave of destruction. There had been no hope for his house, just like there had been no hope for either him or Alisha, just like there was no hope for him or this city or…Raven. "I hope she leaves," he thought to himself, "But I highly doubt that that will happen. She has found a new home now, and I of all people know how hard it is to give one of those up."

So Strata continued his solitary trudge through the moonlight that fell on Jump City. He was not sure where to go and did not particularly care as long as it was away from here, away from the Titans, away from her. "If I can save anyone by leaving," thought the newcomer, "I need it to be her. I need to save someone from Ragnarok." He shuddered at the thought of what he believed to be the very imminent threat. His melancholy was beginning to slip into depression. "Is there no hope for people like me in this world?" he said out loud to himself.

"No, there isn't," said an all too troubling female voice in the shadows in the nearby alley."

Strata gazed into the darkness, wondering if he had been followed from Titans Tower, "Raven?" he asked, "Is that you?"

A shrill cackle came from the alleyway. A young figure, pale, and in dark clothing emerged from the shadows. "You wish, sword-boy; you're going to have a very rough night." Strata recognized the girl instantly. It was Jinx, that rough-housing girl he had taught a lesson to two days ago and who had subsequently almost flattened him into the pavement with her hexes before the Titans had bailed him out. Jinx narrowed her eyes, which were glowing a very vibrant pink, and glared at Strata. "And it's going to be a very nice night for me. I don't believe I've been this happy to see such a waste of breath in quite some time."

Strata turned towards Jinx and assumed a defensive stance. He remembered too well (and still had the bruises to remind him) how her curses had cut through his weapons. He glanced her over and noticed what seemed different about her. Jinx was wearing a hat, a baseball cap to be precise. It was yellow and had a black bill with black lettering on it which read: "HIVE 5 Party Gurl." Strata chuckled, "Nice hat. But I think you were prettier with the paint smeared across you."

Jinx growled at him, "I wouldn't have to wear this dumb thing if you had kept your blasted scissors away from my glorious hair! Do you have any idea how long it took me to fix my other horn to get this ponytail straight? You are so dead…Oooo…I shudder at thinking about the un-ladylike things I'm about to flatten your face into."

"Yeah, Jinx has been in a particularly bad mood lately," said Private HIVE who emerged from the alley on the opposite side of the road. "And not just because Mammoth crashed into her wall again last night!" Private HIVE laughed heartily. Strata noticed Mammoth striding into view about thirty feet in front of him.

"So, we've been tailing you for the last ten minutes," said Seemore, striding up behind Strata, until the newcomer was in the middle of a large diamond formed by four of the HIVE members. "We don't like being beaten by the Titans, but as they aren't here and you are, we thought a nice ambush might suit our night."

Gizmo flew in on his jet pack and hovered over the scene. "I got the chains!" he called. Mammoth grimaced. "Oh, and you little snotsniffer," said Gizmo, yelling at Strata, "Prepare for pain."

Strata's hands glowed blue with energy. "Bring it on you fashionably challenged dorks! I got nothing to lose tonight!" He felt another tremor inside of him, "Oh, oh," thought Strata, "Ragnarok's very close, and I doubt these guys will take a rain check."

"Fashionably challenged?" shrieked Jinx, "I get this from a guy carrying around a dingy army backpack like some vagrant just arrived in town! (This was actually a pretty accurate description for Strata.) As if I could be fashionably challenged—Gizmo maybe—but me, never! HIVE 5 attack!"

Strata released his backpack from his shoulders. "Time for a brawl," he thought, "I do seem to be attracting a lot of weirdoes lately." His left arm glowed and his energy formed a shield on that arm. He rained it and deflected Private Hive's projectile shield which had been the first attack. "Is that all you can do?" he yelled at the yellow-clad villain. Strata ducked a hexing wave from Jinx that had been clearly aimed at his head.

Wanting to get out of the center of the trap they had set him in, Strata charged forward towards Mammoth. He saw energy beams from Seemore, who was still behind Strata fly past his head. Mammoth smirked to see the clearly outmuscled Strata charge at him. Strata raised his left arm to block a beam from Seemore and then released his shield while still charging at the behemoth The shield disappeared.

Mammoth called to Strata, "Bring your fight here! I will bury you in the street!"

"As you wish," said Strata, still running at the largest HIVE member. When he was about 10 feet from Mammoth he dropped his arms to the ground in stride as if about to do a handspring. His hands glowed blue and using his powers, Strata formed a large coiled spring from his hands. Slamming the spring into the ground, Strata catapulted himself into the air, feet first, towards Mammoth. His timing was perfect. On trajectory, Strata planted his feet squarely into Mammoth's face. The beast was thrown backwards, dazed by Strata's sudden altitude change. Strata got up and was standing on Mammoth. "Now who's buried?"

"Don't let him escape!" yelled Private Hive who heaved his shield at the newcomer.

"You're not going anywhere!" cried Seemore who fired a new wave of energy beams.

Strata turned and faced the two attacks. He leaped backwards and deflected the projectile shield with another blue energy shield of his own. With his right hand now going blue, he let out a small cord of energy towards the ground. The energy formed a blue mass at the end of the cord below Mammoth's head. Manipulating his energy while blocking with the shield in his left hand, Strata formed a small car jack on the ground which was still attached to his hand by the thin cord. The jack went into motion below Mammoth's head and with only needing to manipulate the shape of his energy, Strata raised the dazed Mammoth with the jack in only 2 seconds, directly in front of him and into the oncoming path of Seemore's energy beams.

Sparks flew as Seemore's interrupted assault hit the behemoth ensuring Strata's safety behind the half-beast and that Seemore would get at least three of his eyes beaten black by Mammoth whenever he awoke. When Seemore paused his assault, Strata released both his shield and the cord that connected to the jack. Both objects disappeared having lost contact with Strata's hands and the unconscious Mammoth tumbled onto his back as the jack supporting him vanished.

"Incompetent bootsniffers!" yelled Gizmo. "He's mine!" Gizmo flew on his jetpack towards Strata and descended into a dive. He launched a flurry of laser blasts at Strata, which the newcomer blocked with another shield. Gizmo pulled out of his dive and flew into the air and began soaring in circles above the stranger. "Let's see how you deal with this." The evil boy genius pushed a button on his chest and five holograms of Gizmo appeared and began flying around Strata in crossing patterns. Lasers rained down from above. Three hit Strata, and one laser hit his shield but simply vanished as it was from a hologram. One of the lasers that hit Strata's back was real and sent Strata tumbling towards the ground.

The six Gizmos in the air laughed, "What's the matter, beatlehugger? Can't tell the real genius from the fake ones?" The holograms launched another crisscrossing laser barrage from above.

Strata kept rolling on the ground so that he dodged the lasers. His hands glowed blue as he tried to keep moving to dodge Gizmo. His energy in both hands formed to large boomerangs. As he rolled to the point where he was facing upwards, he threw the boomerangs into the air. The spinning projectiles, attached to Strata's hands by a small cord emanating from their center cut through the air and each connected with a hologram projection of Gizmo which vanished upon contact. On their return path, the left boomerang connected with a third one, while the right one connected into the back of the real Gizmo. "Oof!" muttered the boy genius as the projectile sliced through one of his wings. "Lucky shot!" Gizmo's holograms disappeared, and the soaring villain plummeted head-first into the unforgiving ground.

Strata got up off the ground. "If you don't think my aim with my boomerangs are good, try my slapshot!" He released the boomerangs, which vanished, and in his hands formed a hockey stick. Aiming, he wacked Gizmo with the hockey stick and sent the evil boy flying into Jinx, who tumbled backwards. "Nice save!" snickered Strata. He released the solid blue hockey stick from his hands, and it instantly disappeared.

"Time to make you see things in a new way!" shouted Seemore. His frame on his head rotated to a new eye, and he launched one of his eye-prison capsules at Strata.

"Not this again," thought Strata. His right hand glowed blue and the energy extended outward from his hand and moved backwards up to his elbow. The energy focused into a large drill bit, which began rotating rapidly. Strata heaved the spinning bore at the coming prison bubble like he was throwing a punch. The drill connected and the bubble tore mid-fight before it could connect with Strata. "Fortunately, I remember how to destroy these things."

"Blast you!" shouted Seemore and he began moving his eye frame to a point where he could shoot lasers again.

"No! Drill you!" retorted Strata. He raised the drill bit towards Seemore, and the spinning bore launched from his hand towards Seemore, revealing Strata's arm from where the bit had been. The bit cut through the air, connected back to Strata's fist by a chain. The spinning bit connected with Seemore's eye-frame and damaged his black X-ray vision lens (something that would please Jinx very much when she discovered it later). Sparks flew from Seemore's helmet.

"Aargh!" yelled the multi-eyed villain. "Now I'm going to have to put replacement lenses in! Do you know how hard it is to find contact lenses this big?" He writhed on the ground trying to stop the sparks in his eyes as Strata released the chain, and the drill disappeared.

"That should handle you guys," said Strata. He turned to get his backpack. He felt an uneasiness in his gut and a growing pain in his head. "Ragnarok is very close; he thought. I may only have minutes left to leave the city." He reached towards his pack when a spinning yellow object collided into the back of his head. Strata felt the world get very dizzy as Private Hive's shield connected with his skull.

"Forget about someone?" said Private Hive. "Even if this is all I could do, it seems to have taken care of you!"

Strata raised his eyes off the pavement. That had not been pleasant but the growing threat of Ragnarok was weakening him even more. He could feel that his prisoner was drawing near—but how near? He suddenly felt very tired as he saw Gizmo being tossed aside as Jinx picked herself off the ground and walked over to him.

"Good work, Private Hive," said the young witch. She raised her arm and sent Strata and his backpack thrashing across the pavement. Her eyes glowed anticipating the revenge she was about to extract. "Now, Strata," said Jinx, cracking her knuckles in her hand, "I believe we've been like this before—only those Titans got in my way. They won't this time."

"Jinx," gasped Strata, "You've got to let me go! Something's coming; something big. It will destroy all it finds. I have to lead it away!"

"That is probably the worst beg for mercy I've ever heard, and I've seen Gizmo cry!" sneered Jinx. She flicked out her hand at Strata was sent rolling again by another hexing wave.

Strata gasped for breath, "If I say I'm sorry about your hair and say that I like your hat, will you let me go?"

Jinx glared at Strata. "Well…" she began, "No." Her eyes glowed with pink evil.

Private Hive laughed as the other HIVE 5 members began to struggle to their feet. "There's nothing like a late night beat down."

Strata assessed his situation. He was sure an appearance by Ragnarok was imminent; there was no holding it back. The HIVE 5 members had no idea the delicate precipice they were all walking, him included.

Strata was a little short of ideas. He was sure Ragnarok would be the end of this city, if not the planet. He also knew that he could not prevent his prisoner's appearance. He felt a growing apocalypse in his soul.

Jinx walked towards him, energy dancing off her hands.

"Of course…" thought Strata as the young witch and her cohorts bared down on him…

"…I might not live long enough to see him coming."

To Be Continued…

The HIVE 5 is back and meaner than ever! Is Jinx's revenge the end of Strata? Is Ragnarok the end of Strata, should he appear? Is Strata so doomed right now that it does not really matter? Why did he decide to flee so suddenly? Is there anyway to stop Ragnarok if he comes? What can we say people: Chapter 10! R&R everybody! Review before the world ends!

Also, special thanks to the manager of the "The Real OC" C2 Teen Titans community for adding my story to their lineup! Check out this C2 community that features original characters in Teen Titans stories! I hope to make Strata and Ragnarok fine additions!