And here's the first chapter! If it ends up too short, I apologize in advance. There'll be longer chapters, trust me.

This takes place after the "Apprentice" episodes and before "Terra". Don't forget to review, please!

Prologue 1: Chasing Fire

Five teenagers were gathered around a large screen, gazing at it intently.

Newscast: A criminal has escaped Jump City prison. (*A picture of a girl is shown on the screen*) The prison break, which happened last night only a few hours after dark, has left the authorities baffled. The inmate, a young girl, was found not to be in her locked cell, with no indication of how she may have gotten out. She was last seen heading into the main city.

The girl, whose name and origins are not known, was incarcerated earlier this week by Jump City police. Reasons for the arrest are as of now unclear, however the police department tells us that the girl appears to have metahuman abilities and is considered a threat to the city that must be contained as soon as possible. The city's inhabitants are asked to remain calm and alert, and if the girl is seen, to notify the authorities immediately.

This is Jump City, channel 10 news. Back to you, Frank.

Thank you, Lindy. The video game industry's sales are at a record high, with the release of Ultra –

Robin switched off the TV.

"Dude! I wanted to hear about the new video game!" Beast Boy protested, waving his arms in the air.

"Sorry, Beast Boy. We have more important things to worry about," Robin replied, his voice serious.

"Yeah, like how that girl got out of prison so fast," said Cyborg, scratching is head. "Seriously, she was only locked up, like, two days ago."

"It might have something to do with her powers." Raven suggested.

"Or with Slade." Intoned Robin.

"That is the girl believed to be affiliated with Slade, yes?" Starfire questioned.

"We think so, Star." Robin answered. "It would explain the prison break. And the fact that we've never seen her before now."

"You think Slade's found himself a new apprentice…." Raven said, her face thoughtful as she understood what Robin was getting at. "But that doesn't explain how she got here in the first place."

Robin nodded. "We need to figure out who she is and what her powers are. And there's only one way to find out."

"The police are already spread out all over looking for her," informed Cyborg. "If we're going to interrogate her, we'll have to go search for her ourselves."

"Before she does something serious." Raven agreed.

Beast Boy scrunched up his face and crossed his arms. "Yeah, if only we knew where to look."

BEEP! – BEEP! – BEEP! – BEEP!

The alarm suddenly blared to life, red lights in the room flashing. The TV screen switched on, zooming in on the point of interest. A young girl, the same one whose face was shown on the news just moments before, was seen ducking out of a building and hurrying into an alleyway. Apparently someone in the building had spotted her and notified the police.

"There's our answer." Robin said. "Let's go!"

They were at the location in minutes. The girl was crouched against the wall in the middle of the alleyway, obviously trying to use the shadows in a futile attempt to keep hidden. The five teens blocked the entrance of the alleyway, cutting off her escape.

Or so they thought.

Cyborg turned on his shoulder light and advanced a little ways into the alleyway, accidently kicking an empty can with his toes. The can skittered forward into the alleyway and passed in front of the girl in her "hiding place". She jumped up, startled, then slowly turned to face the direction it came from. Cyborg's light shined on the girl, and her eyes widened at the sight of the five superheroes. She took a faltering step backwards, her fear obvious.

Robin was the first to act, bringing out his staff. Starfire and Raven followed suit, their hands glowing with their respective energies. "You're coming with us." Cyborg informed the girl in front of him. "Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

The girl eyed the Cyborg and the others for a moment, before making her answer clear. In a flash, she bent her knees and catapulted into the air, landing on the roof of a building at a run.

"Titan's, go!" Robin cried. The team burst in to action.

Raven came up through the roof of the building from a black portal, stopping the girl in her tracks. "Going somewhere?" she asked, her eyes glowing under her hood, and her hands surrounded with dark energy. The girl gasped and spun around, only to see Starfire behind her, a starbolt at the ready. The girl then flew upwards from between the two titans, then levelled out, flying away at an incredible speed. Raven and Starfire took off after her, Starfire shooting her starbolts, which the girl easily dodged.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy came after the girl in the form of a falcon, flapping his wings feverishly, trying to catch up with her. The chase certainly wasn't easy. Besides going extremely fast, the girl did not fly in a straight path, but zigzagged all over the place trying to lose the other girls, changing direction every few seconds, up and down and side to side, with a few loop-de-loops thrown in – a way that much reminded Beast Boy of a fly.

Which gave him an idea. The girl was starting to slow down a fraction, so this made his job easier. As soon as he deemed himself close enough, he turned into a fly. Now able to follow her random movements, while at the same time go unnoticed, Beast Boy buzzed after her much more easily. He followed her as she flew upwards, then to the right, then down and to the left, then up again, dodging a flurry of starbolts and random objects encased in black energy. Soon enough he was flying directly on top of her; he morphed into a monkey and landed on her back.

The girl cried out in surprised as the green chimpanzee wrapped its arms around her. She flew lower, struggling to free herself from his grasp. Judging her low enough to the ground to not be seriously hurt in a fall, Beast Boy shifted into a small bear. Rapidly losing altitude with the added weight, the girl spun herself like a sideways top, in a last-ditch effort to get the green boy off of her.

It worked. Not only did the girl's spinning make it really hard to hold on, but her skin was getting really, really, really hot. Beast Boy yelped and let go, turning into a hummingbird in midair before he hit the ground. "Dude…." He muttered to himself.

Although Beast Boy's attempt hadn't gotten the intended result, it wasn't a complete failure. The distraction gave Starfire and Raven a chance to close in in the girl, giving them a great opening to land a strike. The Tamaranian fired a starbolt at the girl, and this time it hit. She yelped as she was knocked out of the air, turning her body in a somersault to slow her descent. The girl landed knees-to-sidewalk, emitting a soft groan.

But she didn't stay there.

In a split second she was on her feet again, racing along the sidewalk until she could duck into another dark alleyway. This particular alleyway was connected to several other alleyways, with many twists and turns and dead ends. Landing at the narrow pathway's entrance, Starfire and Raven paused for a moment and looked at each other.

"We have lost her?"

"It seems like it." Raven replied, as they continued into the alleyway.

Not quite.

While Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire were following the girl in the air, Cyborg and Robin were trailing after them on the ground, keeping up with the location of their three comrades via communicator. So when the girl ran into the alleyway-maze with Starfire and Raven on her tail, Robin and Cyborg were already there.

Robin and Cyborg crouched against a wall at the opening of an alleyway, and spotted the girl as she ran past them. The two boys looked at each other and nodded in an unspoken agreement. As soundlessly as they could, they turned down the direction the girl had fled and trailed after her. They followed her around another corner, to an alleyway that exited back out into the open. The girl, unaware of Cyborg and Robin behind her, let out a breath and stopped beside a trash bin, resting her hands on her knees for a moment.

Robin nodded to Cyborg, and he powered up is sonic canon and aimed. The girl straightened barely a second later, but only took two steps before she was blasted with blue energy from Cyborg's canon. The blast knocked her sidelong against the trash bin, and she slid to the ground, grunting both at the impact and in surprise.

Robin slid past her to block the other exit, and the other three teens appeared. Beast Boy in flew and morphed back in human form beside Robin, blocking the entrance alongside the older teen. Raven and Starfire hovered above the alleyway, ready in case the girl tried to escape by flight.

"You're not getting away from us that easily," Robin declared. "We have you surrounded."

The girl got up and glanced around nervously, taking in the girls above her and the two boys in front of her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Cyborg blocking her only other escape route. "I'd give it up, if I were you." He said, aiming his cannon at her.

For a moment, she just stood there, surveying the situation. Then, in a flurry of movement, the girl bolted toward Robin and Beast Boy, attempting to slip around them in the small space their lean bodies left unguarded. But she didn't get that far.

With lightning reflexes, Robin blocked her and grabbed her arm, using the girl's moment against her to flip her onto her back. He then dropped over her on his hands and knees; he pinned her shoulder down with one hand, and whipped out his staff and pressed it against her collarbone, effectively restraining her.

That all happened in two seconds.

"So you insist on doing it the hard way." The boy growled. The girl looked up at him with wide, fearful eyes, both teens breathing heavily.

Cyborg deactivated his cannon, and Starfire and Raven came back down into the alleyway. Robin lifted his head to address his team members. As his gaze was now elsewhere, the boy leader didn't notice the eyes of the girl underneath him flash fire-orange.

"Raven," he began, "could you ta – ow!"

What happened next was nothing but a blur of motion.

Robin jerked back from his hold on the girl, as searing heat radiated from her skin. Taking advantage of this, the girl used her arms to fling herself forward, ramming Robin in the stomach with her knees; the boy ended up being knocked backward and slammed onto his back, the girl on top of him, with her knees pressed into his stomach. Before any of the others realized what was happening, the girl rolled off Robin and disappeared.

Robin picked himself up, breathing hard. The other four teens hurried out of the alleyway, looking around for any sign of where the mysterious girl had gone.

There was none. She had completely vanished, leaving a crew of bewildered heroes behind.

I WAS going to make this chapter longer, but I thought maybe I'd leave this chapter like it is, and add the last part of it to the second chapter.

Tell me if you guys would like me to make this chapter longer. I might do it anyway, but I really want to hear your opinion!

'Til next time! Signed, Skyfire