You guys are the best 3 I never thought you all would read this again so fast! And I already have reviews! I'm not worthy! I'm going to update as much as possible because theres no way I'll be able to from the end of August until November! But I'll do my best! Thank you!
Also, looking back, I think there were reviews I missed and never replied to. I apologize and would just like to take the time to thank you here specially! So thanks! And I promise I'll answer them more diligently from now on!
Vivi sat in her apartment, sulking on her couch. Red X annoyed her. He asked her for help! If he wasn't happy with how she worked, then he shouldn't have bothered her. She got to the top because she was careful, not because she caught a lot of attention. She stifled a sigh under her arm, which draped over her face. An alarm buzzed in her ear; her watch was right up against her face. She had an appointment to keep.
His partnership with Vendetta had paid off- maybe not in the way he had planned, but he got what he wanted, and that's all that really mattered to him at the moment. Of course, he had to prove himself to Slade, but once he got that out of the way, the mastermind would be his. It was all working out. Even better than he had planned, though he wished he could have hooked Vendetta in the process, but he would just have to cut his losses for the moment; he could handle the thief for hire after this was all over.
In the safety of his room, Robin removed the skull mask covering his face with a sigh. He couldn't fight Slade face to face, but this thief gig could place him in a prime position to get close to the criminal and take him down. Robin had morals, but sometimes rules had to be broken, sacrificed for the greater good. Lying, stealing, associating with established criminals- maybe Robin could never be seen doing such a thing, but that's what Red X was for: to do the things Robin couldn't. Naturally, the suit would be locked away once this mission was completed; it was too dangerous a lure for a hero, and he couldn't turn from justice unless he was desperate. Well, he was now.
His last task for Slade would be tonight, he had to think up a good excuse for Robin to be missing when the Titans sprang into action. He grinned to himself. Vendetta would have a fit if he knew X actually planned to draw the attention of the Titans. He frowned, thinking of their former partnership. Robin could never ally himself with one of the top ranking thieves in Jump City, even though Vendetta had tried to push that. He wanted nothing to do with Slade; that much was clear and Robin wanted desperately to know what it was that Vendetta knew about Slade that made him so scared of the other criminal. It didn't matter now; Robin was going to take him down any day now and that information would be useless.
He was taught to take down a villain no matter the consequences; it was a lesson his teacher had drilled into him endlessly. A villain not behind bars was a threat to the entire city as long as he ran loose. Robin would stoop to any level in order to stop Slade, even become a criminal himself. But there had to boundaries, something that separated him from the scum he battled every day. That was Justice.
He strode out from his room, securely locking the suit into a secret compartment in his walls. A secret his teammates could never know. He knew keeping them out was a betrayal to their trust, but he had to keep them safe. He headed to the main room, where they all waited for their leader.
He had an appointment to keep.
Vendetta sat atop a skyscraper, fiddling with her newest… acquirement. It was so shiny, she couldn't help herself. She had started stealing from her love all things shiny, after all. And it had been so easy, when she isn't looking, slip of the hand, and that mean girl's spangled butterfly barrette is all yours. A smile melted on Vendetta's masked face as she reminisced. It had been simple back then; if she liked it, she took it, end of story. Her room had been filled with little trinkets that she had lifted from girls who had picked on her. She wasn't Robin Hood, giving these little pretty things to girls who were bullied, far from it. No, it was revenge, pure and simple. Plus, now she had a new accessory.
The H.I.V.E. was creating a new training facility and this baby, this shiny, confounding little piece of technology, would revolutionize the way the students could learn, or some nonsense that Vendetta hadn't cared to listen to. She had a bit of extra time before her meeting with the head master. She wanted to mess with it. What harm could she do to it anyway?
An enormous crash only a few blocks away jolted Vendetta out of her day dreaming, nearly causing her to lose the precious tech that she had been sent to retrieve. Smoke plumed from a warehouse. Vendetta leapt over a few buildings to get a better look. Yep, it was definitely a warehouse. She was beginning to notice that a lot of problems started in warehouses. She made a mental note to steer clear of them, tucked away her device and kicked her hover board into gear and flew over to check out the situation.
Vendetta had seen Slade's robot minions; they patrolled his hideout and "escorted" her when she was dragged- I mean summoned- by the mastermind. She had never imagined he could have so many. They lined the walls inside, littered the ground, even staked out on the streets outside,only visible when the soft blue glow of the hover board passed over them. They were silent and deadly. And there were hundreds of them.
The girl thief's eyes widened in horror as she counted more and more. And they all seemed to have one focus; the Titans. Vendetta quickly assessed the situation: Four Titans, all surrounded and severely outnumbered, but they didn't seem to even notice the robots. They were all focused on one thing: Red X. He looked like he was in as much trouble as the Titans themselves; the robots lunged at him from every angle- it was all he could do to keep them at bay. And the Titans seemed to believe that they were in league. They formed together, opting for a group attack against the enemy. X was trying to warn them off, but couldn't even find the time or breath to yell. They would collide at any moment, he'd never win.
"ROBIIIIN!" Vendetta shrieked at the top of her lungs, voice alter scratching to tune up to her voice. Her body was leaning precariously over a rusted railing, having nearly flung herself into the fray.
All movement stopped dead, stunned by her sudden, earsplitting arrival. Her bound chest heaved as she tried to control herself. Her voice alter leveled out, no longer screeching tinnily in her ear. Robin seized the moment to tear off his mask.
"It's me! Slade's getting away! Come on!" he darted away in hot pursuit of the older villain, leaving his bewildered team in the dust, staring at each other, not even sure what to believe any more. As one, they looked up at Vendetta, who finally had brought herself under control. She shook herself to clear her head, adjusted her goggles and finally looked down to see the young heroes staring openmouthed up at her.
She shifted uncomfortably. "Your um… your… Robin is waiting on you…" she mumbled lamely. They continued to gape at the thief, until it finally registered with Starfire. She floated up into the air, turing in the Direction Robin had sped off in.
"Robin needs our help! We must go to him!" She exclaimed. It was too much for her at the moment to fathom how Robin could have done this to her… to her team, that he had turned criminal. And worse, that another criminal had been able to see through what she could not.
Her voice jerked the other Titans into action. "We'll deal with what the nut is going on later, right now Robin needs us! Let's move it!" Cyborg boomed. He charged off, Star and Beast Boy following. Raven spun to shadow her team, but hesitated.
She glanced at Vendetta, who had not moved. "You're not coming?" She questioned in her almost toneless voice. "I thought you two partnered up."
Vendetta shrugged, turning her back on the heroine, shaking imperceptively from the adrenaline rushing through her veins. "I'm no hero," she muttered, more to herself than to Raven "I'm not into the whole "rescue" thing. Go after the champ. He needs you against Slade, more than he knows."
Raven didn't question her cryptic words, merely flew away to catch up to the others, leaving Vendetta alone in the dusky warehouse.
Well, maybe not entirely alone. The robots still surrounded the entire building. A dark, almost sadistic smile crept over the female thief's features; she had just the game for this party. She kicked up her hover board, which had collapsed the moment she landed at the ware house, and leapt onto it. She rocketed up into the night sky. She spiraled ever upward, finally spinning to a stop. Her board hovered high up in the sky as she drew something from her belt, pushed into a small pad. It flashed to life, blinking in her palm. She grinned at it, eyes lidded in anticipation. She tilted her hand, letting the orb fall back to earth.
It crashed into the warehouse, blasting it and all the robots in and surrounding it to bits. She rode the shockwave even higher, yelling in reckless joy. What a rush. It was the first time she had free in a long time. She tore off her lower mask to let out a "Whoop" of mirth before swinging her body to a halt and angling herself back towards earth. She gained speed with the help of gravity as she angled the board even further to a full on nose dive. She crouched low, keeping her body as close to the board as possible. At the last possible moment just before she hit the skyscrapers that reached like fingers up into the air she pulled out of the dive, leveling off her board and speeding over rooftops.
Finally she slowed enough to where she could stop and she hopped off her board, quite a distance away from the explosion she caused, trotting a few steps to keep from stumbling from the last of the momentum of her wild ride. She panted heavily, a huge, self-satisfied smile engulfed the entire lower half of her mouth. She gulped in air greedily, reveling in the rush in her blood, her heart pumping wildly. Finally, her breaths evened out and she secured her mask around her face once more, just under her goggles, tapping the mike woven into the fabric to test her voice alter.
She had to turn in her assignment to the H.I.V.E. headmaster now, it was past time to meet up and she hated to be late.
She spun straight into a kick to the jaw.
Boom. I did it. A thing. This right here. I made this. And I am DAMN proud! It is very late. I am running on willpower alone. This is not edited. I don't plan on editing it. I'll do that when I can see straight. I'm kidding, it's like 1:00 in the morning, college has trained me for this! I just don't want to edit, I wanna post! Yes! So here you go. Update soon to follow cause I don't want to keep this cliffhanger, even though I know what happens next. My author's notes are going to be longer than the story. I always forget this.- - this story is mine. Vendetta is not mine. Teen Titans are not mine, but I can assure that if they were I would never condone this new torture called a series that they have devolved into. I'm gonna stop now since I doubt anyone actually reads these. Thanks for reading! Please review!