Blanket Disclaimer: Poison Tonic LX does not own the Teen Titans or any characters therein. Don't sue her, please, because if you do I won't have a home anymore…-Ralph, the muse

BEEPBEEPBEEP

He fell hard onto the floor and leapt up, crouching into a defensive stance.

KNOCKKNOCK

"Red, that's the alarm! Time to go!" Cyborg yelled.

"I'm up." He said, shaking off the last of his sleep, and ran out of the door, following Cyborg to the garage and leaping onto his motorcycle, shoving his helmet on over his head, and trailing the T-Car when it pulled out of the garage.

"There's some sort of fight going on downtown." The Kid's voice startled him as it suddenly echoed throughout his helmet.

"What the—"

"I forgot to tell you—while you were sleeping I installed a communication device into your helmet." Cyborg's voice said, accompanied by an almost (but not quite) sheepish chuckle.

"That would've been nice to know before I nearly ran myself off the road." He grumbled.

"Heh."

"So, what's going on?"

"Fight downtown. It's between an unknown…something, and four civilians. At least, the police think they're civilians…" The Kid spoke again.

"How can they not be sure?"

"It doesn't matter. We have to go break up the fight before someone gets hurt."

"Alright, sure. Should I just watch and help as needed?"

"Sounds good to me."

Mentally, he sighed. It would seem he was destined to go without a rush for the time being.

Finally, they came to 'the scene of the crime'.

Naturally, there was much devastation, with citizens scrambling to get out of the way of the fight and the continuously falling debris like ants from a magnifying glass on a sunny day.

"Well, well, why didn't anyone invite me to this little bash?" He asked dryly as he and The Kid dismounted their bikes and the others exited the T-Car.

"That was almost as bad as one of Beast Boy's attempts at a joke and Robin's stupid attack lines." The Sorceress informed him with a roll of her eyes.

"The key word there would be 'almost'…"

All other attempts at conversation were halted as they jumped out of the way of some debris that resulted from an explosion presumably caused by one of the five fighters.

Then, all five leapt high into the air, four of them attacking the other.

"…Hey guys? I don't think they're citizens…" The Comic Relief remarked.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Both he and the Sorceress said in unison.

"Alright, Titans, for now let's just try to keep them from destroying Jump City. We'll sort out who's who and what's what later." The Kid said.

He rolled his eyes, but didn't comment.

"Titans, GO!" The Kid yelled, and he leaned back against his bike as he watched them rush into battle and leave him behind.

"BOOYAH!" Cyborg yelled, shooting his plasma-cannon at the quarreling quintet.

They scattered.

"Stay out of this!" One of them yelled angrily, but almost desperately at the same time. He was tall, lithe and lanky, with long, spiky blue-tinted black hair. He wore a black skintight suit made of leather that reached up to his jaw line, and tucked into a pair of metal gloves on his hands and metal boots on his feet, both looking almost as technologically advanced as Cyborg's machinery. He had a metal tactical belt around his waist, but never took anything from it as he fought against the other four newcomers, and wore a domino mask much like Robin's to cover up his eyes.

"Afraid they'll get hurt, Prime?" Snickered one of the others. He and the three remaining fighters were completely identical, with the same tall, lean build as the first boy. They had short chestnut brown hair, and bright crimson eyes that seemed to glow maniacally in the sunlight. They wore black leather suits like the first boy, as well, but their gloves and boots were made of the same material as the rest of their suit, though they also glowed menacingly with yellow circuitry.

"Shut up, Clone." The first boy snapped, and looked back at the Titans. "Stay back or else!"

"Hehe. Yeah…wouldn't want those insignificant beings to die, would you, Prime?" Taunted another of the four.

"That's the difference between us and you—your feelings make you imperfect!" Said a third, snickering. "That mercy of yours is going to get you killed."

"By us!" Added the last, cackling.

"Why doncha come with us quietly, and we'll let 'em live—for now!" Sneered the first.

He decided he didn't much like the four with brown hair.

"If you whack jobs are so perfect, why d'you need to blackmail him to catch him?" He asked, interrupting their taunts. "Seems to me such perfect beings as yourselves ought to be able to get him to go with you no problem…so maybe you aren't so perfect after all."

All four of them scowled in unison while some of the color drained out of the other one's cheeks.

"Lower class beings such as yourself wouldn't understand perfection such as ours." One hissed.

"Aww, did I hit a nerve?" He asked with a roll of his eyes. "For such 'upper class beings' your tempers sure aren't much to brag about. Touchy…"

One of them snarled and launched itself at him, surprising him with its speed and catching him with a punch in his stomach. "Silence, peasant!"

He just laughed. "So I did touch a nerve." He smirked.

"I said silence!" The boy made to punch him again, but this time he was able to dodge it—just barely, which bothered him—and counterattack with a kick to the boy's stomach.

"Perfection just isn't what it used to be." He said disappointedly.

"Don't bother yourself with that lowlife, Three." One of the others said. "He isn't worth our time, and our job is to take out Prime, here."

"It'll only take me a moment." Three growled, attacking him again.

He managed to dodge or block most of the volley of punches that followed this statement, but he was thrown back by a sudden explosion when Three threw out his hands at him. He was rammed into a building, which crumbled atop him.

"New Friend Rush!" He heard the Dolt screech.

"Your little pal won't be getting up." Three said.

He couldn't help but snort—he had been in much worse situations than this. Many of his heists had involved tunnels, some of which had collapsed on him. This was no different, and in fact it wasn't nearly as bad as being buried alive several hundred feet under the ground.

He rolled his shoulders and managed to get a small bomb of his own out of his utility belt, throwing it up and covering his head as it exploded and the debris was blasted away.

He stood, tossing another bomb up and down in the air. "Was that supposed to hurt, Threesie?" He asked, arching an eyebrow at the slightly surprised boy. "You'll have to do better than that to get rid of me, I'm afraid."

"Three! I said don't bother!"

"Leave off, Two!" Three snapped. "This guy's mine!"

He laughed and threw the bomb down.

"That's not going to stop me, peasant!" Three said, throwing out a hand and blowing up the bomb. But then he stopped short, as did everyone else.

Rush had disappeared.

(THE RUSH)