Chapter 2
[An hour later]
Edward had gathered the other Titans to tell them the "big secret". He had decided not to torture Cyborg with keeping the news to himself.
"Friends," he started to say, "There is something that you need to know. Nothing bad, I assure you, though.
"As you know, I had a wife a couple of centuries ago. More like 260 years ago to be more precise. During that time, as married couples will do, we mated.
"That said, Paula eventually became pregnant and with the help of several of my dearest friends, she gave birth to a healthy son."
"What a minute," Robin said, "I'm no doctor, but, you're a dragon and wasn't Paula human?"
"Mostly, yes," Edward said, "Paula shared several of my traits, including shapeshifting. She was limited to reptilian forms, though. As a dragon, by definition, is a reptile, there was enough compatible DNA to allow her to become pregnant. And, before anyone asks: It was a normal vaginal birth, she didn't lay an egg."
At that point, the Titans, each one with the picture of a woman sitting on an egg wiped that out…well, Rae and Cyborg were the ones that already knew.
"A baby Dragon?" Beast Boy said grinning, "Awesome!"
"Is he still alive?" Terra asked.
"He's living in Chicago, as we speak," Edward continued, "He's made a good life for himself. I know that he's a self-made billionaire many times over as Paula and I taught him well. Our exiled friends from this time helped as long as they could, but, by the time David was born, they were already quite old. As far as we could figure, they were in their early 80s when they died. My son's namesake died first and we laid him to rest. His wife, Angie, died less than a year later. That hurt laying her to rest next to her husband."
"Exiled from this time?" Cyborg asked.
"Yeah, someone got the bright idea to alter history in a huge way. From what I recall, there was a purple flash that washed over the landscape. I recall I was in the air when that happened and I woke up buried neck deep in a forest. That's when they were exiled to the middle of the 18th Century. I stumbled on them right after they arrived.
"But, I want to focus on my son here as well. Like I said, he's living in Chicago and while he's known as my son, he plays down his abilities, leaving that to dear ole dad. Don't get me wrong, he does use them as required. He's helped in several major traffic accidents and even, on occasion has teamed up with local firefighters to help put out bad fires."
"What are his abilities?" Raven asked.
"He's got most of mine, actually," Edward said, "He can teleport, for example. But, he doesn't time teleport. He's got my breath weapons and shapeshifting. However, his shapeshifting is like his mom's, reptilian only.
"He had rapid healing, but, it's not a true immortality. He is aging, albeit extremely slow. He may live to see 1000, if he's careful, but, we think that's the oldest he would get."
"How strong is he?" Jericho signed.
"He's in his prime years, so, I'd say his strength is very close to mine," Edward answered, "Probably when he gets over 500, certainly by 750, his strength and abilities will start to fade, as yours will as you age."
"Something I've been wanting to ask," Cyborg said, "Are you warm blooded?"
Edward chuckled, "Certainly. Put it this way, when I picked Mallah up at the South Pole, it wasn't just his teeth that were chattering. Mine were as well. He was lucky…he has a built in fur coat. When in Dragon form…"
Starfire said, "You were in your suit of the birthday?"
Raven blushed hearing that, but, not as bad as Edward. Starfire giggled hearing that one. Beast Boy also turned an odd shade as Terra jabbed, "HA! That means you're nakkie as well!"
"Me and my big fat mouth," Edward groaned.
[This is rich,] Happy squealed via the link, [Lust will never let you live that down, Eddie-Boy!]
Edward sighed…
[Somewhere in space]
While Edward was busy humiliating himself and Beast Boy by extension, Blackfire was considering several options to avenge herself. One was to try to overthrow Galfore and seize power by a challenge.
Another was to force Galfore to abdicate by going after Starfire and her friends. If she was able to defeat the Titans and take Starfire hostage with the threat to either kill her or sell her back into slavery, unless she were named Empress of Tamaran, she'd still win.
Last two times she tried to take on the Titans, she lost. And, that was mainly to Starfire in the physical aspect, but, then they worked together to solve a problem, they were hard to beat. The key was the masked teenager as he proved himself a serious thorn in Blackfire's side. He was the one that sent his other teammates to find out that the "invasion" of Tamaran was a ruse.
Blackfire also had tried to send Starfire into slavery and was dismayed when it was reported to her that Starfire had not only escaped, but, with her new friends, destroyed the vessel chasing them. So, that gave her an additional reason to go after Starfire once more.
And, it gave her an opening with the Gordanians to go to Earth and retake Starfire.
As she thought about it, the more she liked it. She'd sic the Gordanians on the puny Earthlings, kidnap her naïve little sister and force Galfore to abdicate in exchange for Starfire being released. But, would she honor her word?
She went over to the communications console and sent out a message to the lead Gordanian.
"How would you like a chance to take over a small planet?" she asked sweetly.
"And what planet would that be? Tamaran?" the guy replied, "Bah! They'd never accept our rule."
"Yeah, right," Blackfire said, "I got a better one: Earth. They got lucky before because it was just one ship. Take a whole fleet and they will surrender!"
"I highly doubt that," he said, "Have you forgotten that planet is protected by Kal-El, the last Martian, and the Green Lanterns as well as those Titans?"
"Like I care about their Justice League or those Titans!" Blackfire snarled.
"You should, Princess Blackfire!" the Gordanian said, "The Titans have gotten more powerful. Our spies tell us that they have added three new members, each with different abilities.
"The first is called Terra. She was recently rescued from a stone prison and her powers are formidable in their own right as she can make the earth quake with her mind." He displayed a picture of Terra on the viewscreen.
"Then," he continued, "They have a shapeshifter among their ranks…"
"That green Beast Boy?" Blackfire interrupted.
"No, Princess," he said, "A far more powerful one. He is named Edward Barnes and he's a mythical creature called a Dragon. He's capable of tearing through my ships if he's enraged. Our spies tell us that there's been several attempts on the one called Raven's life and sanity and Barnes had met the threat with deadly force at times. Watch, my princess."
He displayed the news footage of Edward and Terra teaming up to destroy Malchior. Then, he displayed footage of when Raven was injured by Plasmus and Edward quickly freezing Plasmus and shattering the hardened outer shell before snarling that Raven best be unharmed or he'd take it out of the kid's hide.
"So," Blackfire said, "Raven's his weak spot. We can exploit that if needed."
"Blackfire," the Gordanian said, "Push Barnes too far and his anger consumes him. He's extremely protective of this girl. But, look here and you'd see how he protects the rest of the team."
He displayed some footage of when Jump City was being held hostage so Slade could get hold of Terra again. The footage showed Edward disguising himself as Terra.
"He morphed to Terra?" Blackfire asked.
"That's part of his abilities," the hulking leader replied, "Unlike the green shapeshifter, Barnes can disguise himself as any of the Titans or another humanoid."
"Surely, he doesn't keep his strength in other forms?" Blackfire asked.
"On the contrary," the Gordanian replied, "He's been seen lifting objects that only his half-machine friend or Princess Starfire can lift in his human form."
"Hmmm," Blackfire said, "Then, we take this guy out first."
"Confident, aren't we?" the Gordanian muttered, "There's another one, but, we don't have any information on him, yet. The Titans haven't had much reason to leave their tower."
"We'll have to give them a reason to leave their tower, then," Blackfire said, "First, we will lure their precious Justice League away from the planet to make sure that the main fleet can get in there without a problem. If Barnes goes with them, all the better. If not, if won't matter.
"Once the League is out of the way, I want that city LEVELED!"
"I will have battle plans ready within a week," he replied.
"You have 72 hours," Blackfire said coldly, "Or you'll end up like others who stood against me."
The meaning was clear. She was willing to put others in the ground or vaporize them or otherwise get rid of them if they didn't do as they were told.
Blackfire ended the transmission and in the privacy of her room, screamed in rage.
She had not expected the Titans to have picked up new members and she had to get rid of the Justice League as well. The other issue was the blasted Green Lantern Corp. They might be able to lure John Stewart away, but, there was a backup Lantern: Hal Jordan. He was the exception to the general rule of one Lantern per sector.
Assuming that they could lure the League away and leave the area unguarded by the Lanterns, they would be halfway home.
Blackfire wondered if she could fool the Grand Centauri Empire into asking the League for help in capturing some criminal and she had an idea who would be the patsy: Lobo.
She pulled the file she had on the guy and smiled. Perfect! That idiot is right on the edges of their space. Find a nice tasty morsel for him and once he bites, the jackasses from the Empire will chase poor Lobo.
Poor Lobo indeed…
I'm going to be splitting time between this story and one other I am planning on...A sequel to Trouble in Tokyo. However, that other one will be worked on in the background as I don't want to get things confused. The stories have been in a chronological order and want to keep it that way.
I know this is looking like a crossover, but, I want to keep the JL characters to a minimum and focus on the Titans.
Will Edward's son make an appearance here? Time will tell.
Oh, for more background on Edward's backstory, check out my profile! With the external links restored, I have a link to my writing partner's website :)
Don't forget...Reviews are encouragement. Please leave a review...good, bad or indifferent works for me. Constructive criticism encouraged...Flame get the heave-ho from Edward and the plot bunny.