Disclaimer

Teen Titans is a registered trademark of DC Comics and Cartoon Network Inc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit and purely for entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, not to be reproduced without prior consent. Additional information used in creating Teen Titans: Adaptation courtesy of Titans Tower Online.

The night prior to Tek's rambling distress call…

The lights were back on in Jump City. After one long blackout, power had been restored, lines had been restrung, all for the purpose of bringing light back to the night. Debris no longer choked the streets. The legacy of Slade's attack, his broken robotic soldiers, were gone. Renewal and reconstruction sutured the city's scars. Hope had returned.

She stopped beneath one of the new street lights, looking up at its incandescent bulb. The comforting glow had drawn people back to the night. No longer did they huddle in their tenements, ruled by fear. They walked past her on the sidewalk, unafraid.

A smirk ghosted across her ashen features. She hid it in the hood of her light jacket, pretending to feel the late fall Californian chill. All it took to make these people feel better was a sickly yellow light. All it took to terrify them was a little darkness.

With a chuckle, she continued on her way. She traipsed through shuffling throngs, past construction sites, through dark alleys and illuminated thoroughfares, indifferent to it all. Her destination lay on a secluded street in a section of town that had known dilapidation long before any super-criminal attack.

She stopped at an old building whose original purpose had been lost to time. Perhaps it had been an office building, or a hostel. She neither knew nor cared, and circled the building to find a cement stairwell leading down to a heavy steel door. She skipped down the steps and rapped lightly on the door.

A slot in the door slid aside, revealing a piggish scowl that pierced her hood. "This is a private facility," a gruff voice said through the slot.

Her grin widened. "And I'm a private entrepreneur," she responded.

The slot closed. The door clanked and swung inward. She pushed her hood back, revealing long locks of electric pink and eyes to match, and entered. Warm air tinged with alcohol and smoke chased the chill away.

Any "private entrepreneur" worth anything in Jump City knew about The Hideout. It was an old bomb shelter given new life, where anyone with cash and discretion could come for a drink. Its pool tables stood unused at the moment—it was still too early for the regular crowd. But she recognized a few faces that littered the booths on her way to the bar.

Her squeaking stool drew an old man behind the counter. No one knew the bartender's true name, if he worked for or owned The Hideout, or anything real about him. His bushy beard and rumpled clothes had earned him the nickname "Scruffy," and his way with a cocktail had earned him a healthy amount of respect from Jump City's villains.

A vodka tonic slid from his hand even before she finished settling onto the stool. Scruffy nodded at her, and asked, "Why so early, Jinx? Have enough good fortune to pay your tab?"

Jinx smiled. "You aren't that lucky," she told him. "Neither am I, actually. There's no money in this burg anymore. Why else would I be here this early to meet some kid who says he has a job?"

"You too?"

The young man's voice made Jinx turn. She hadn't noticed him before, and for good reason. He possessed average features beneath a crop of average brown hair, and wore an old canvas trench coat buttoned up to the collar. He smiled blandly at Jinx, who sneered back. "This isn't happy hour at your neighborhood Applebee's. You gotta be bad to be in here, Baby Face."

Scruffy melted away as the boy slid several stools down to sit next to Jinx. He had no drink, which didn't stop Jinx from sipping hers. "I can be pretty bad," he said. "Sometimes I go three whole days without flossing. And besides, I'm betting we're here for the same reason."

"That's not a great selling point for you sitting this close to me." She harrumphed. "Some no-name clown puts out word of a job. Doesn't say what or where, just when, and that it pays."

"Pay isn't what it used to be in this town," the young man agreed.

The thought drove her to the bottom of her glass. She came back with a stronger sneer. "Only reason I'm here," she said. Her head dipped as she added, "It's pathetic."

"Why's that?"

Cocktail courage bubbled in her stomach. She tsk'ed at the rookie next to her and said, "I was a pretty big name around here. Before ol' One Eye sent his robots in to wreck everything, I was like a rising star. I stood eye to eye with the Titans, and they blinked first."

He smirked. "That is impressive."

"That is exactly why this," she said, waving her hand to encompass them both, "is pathetic. Someone like me teaming up with a doofus in a coat like that? It's a real sign of the times. This city's gone to hell. I do one job, just enough for some traveling cash, and then I'm out."

The young man watched her stare into her empty glass. As low as her expression hung, his remained a pleasant smile. He lifted two fingers. Immediately, two drinks appeared in front of them without question or pause. Scruffy nodded at the young man's thanks before gracefully disappearing. "That's not the smartest thing to admit to a potential employer," he told Jinx.

Jinx stared at him. Then she shook her head and sipped her tonic. "See, this is exactly what I mean. Sneakily scoping me out? That's just the kind of juvenile, novice crap that gets rookies' faces melted."

"I certainly wouldn't want to incur the hex of the famous Jinx," the young man teased.

The water in his glass swirled. He placed the glass on the bar, and then glanced at Jinx, whose eyes flashed. A small vortex spun in the glass, splashing over the side and onto the counter. Then the water crackled and froze, cementing the vortex into conical ice.

She brushed her long hair back, hiding the sweat that had beaded at her brow. "I've been practicing," she said casually. "Hexes will be the least of your worries. Thanks for the drink."

Jinx lifted her hood and rose from her stool under the smug scrutiny of the young man. Just as she knew he would, he waited until she started for the door before saying, "You aren't interested in the job?"

"You need a little more oomph under your belt before you rate a sit-down with me. Come back when you've actually got something," she called, waving him off as though he were a fly.

"I've got Mikron. Baran. Selinda." Each name made her slow until she stopped halfway across the bar and turned. Arms folded, the young man beamed at her and rose from his stool. "See, you aren't the first one here, Jinx. You're the last one on my list," he said.

The fact that he had convinced Gizmo, Mammoth, and Shimmer did impress her, even if she wouldn't show it. She lowered her hood and said, "So, what? Are you putting together a new Fearsome Five? You should go visit Psimon in the prison hospital they've got him in. I hear his new face is almost as ugly as his old one."

He shook his head. "Psimon's out. I've got another candidate who can 'see' the big picture a little better. Only the young and strong for my team."

"And what does your 'team' do?"

"You look at this city like a corpse. But it isn't, Jinx. It's a newborn, waiting to be taken and molded. Ruled, even. And all it will take is the right mind, and a little effort. Isn't having your own city worth a little effort?" he asked.

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Do you know how many yahoos have said what you're saying? And every last one of them wound up caught or crunched by the Teen Titans. You might as well wander down to the nearest precinct and cuff yourself, and save that baby face of yours a beating."

And then he said something that pierced her cynicism. "Pinky, what do you think we're taking care of first?"

She paused at the door, her head bowed in thought. An old debt weighed on her heart. She had longed to collect on that debt for a good, long while. Her hand rested on the doorknob. It was cold, just like outside. It was cold, and she had nowhere else to go. Her eyes dropped to her feet as she turned, and asked, "You got a name?"

The trench coat lay pooled around his boots. He wore black armor crossed with two streaks of red. A tattered cape hung from his shoulders. He just finished pulling on his cowl, which bore a white skull mask over his face.

In a reverberating growl, he said, "Call me Red X."

Teen Titans
Adaptation

By Cyberwraith9

New Order: Titans' End

A heavy sigh rattled Raven's chest. She rested a clipboard in her lap and smoothed her hospital gown. Her wheelchair squeaked as she moved it closer to the observation window of the lab and said, "You're being difficult about this."

On the other side of the window, the mechanical components of Cyborg's body occupied every table and rack in the clean room. S.T.A.R. Labs' finest technicians labored in their white clean suits to salvage those components of him that still worked.

In the center of the lab, a cylindrical tank held Cyborg's organic parts in a bath of green nutrient gel. A smaller, similar tank sat on a table near the remains of his chest. His halved face lay dormant in the second tank, stripped of its cybernetics. Thick cables held his disembodied head in place by the base of his neck.

Raven had seen her share of strange things. Conversing with her friend in his base components could easily compete as the strangest among those things. He remained conscious and aware, though sensory-deprived, while the scientists dismantled his damaged body. "I'm not being difficult," Cyborg's head remained dormant while his voice said through the wall speaker next to the window. "I'm just not liking our choices so far. So who's next?"

With another sigh, Raven picked up the clipboard, flipped its pages, and continued, "There are a couple of adventurers operating out of Colorado. They run a website, helping anybody who asks. Mostly natural disaster work, but I think they've handled a few small fish in the villain pool. The redhead doesn't have any powers, but the blond sidekick supposedly has mystical monkey—"

"Pass," Cyborg's voice buzzed.

"Okay," she drawled. "Rumors of a 'ghost boy' in some place called Amity—"

"Pass."

"There's a skinny ex-wrestler kid in New York. He can stick to walls, and his wrists shoot—"

"Pass."

Raven massaged the bridge of her nose. Several choice words bubbled in her lips, which she choked back with extreme effort. With irreverent calm, she said, "If you keep rejecting every possibility based on a few words, we'll never find anyone."

She could practically feel his annoyance wafting out the speaker. "Raven, none of these guys have what it takes. They aren't…"

"Aren't what?" she asked. She stared past the speaker at his dormant head in the gel. "Victor, in case you didn't notice, we are rapidly running out of the few options we have left."

There was a pause. Then the speaker crackled, "They aren't Titans, Raven."

"You don't know them."

"I know Titans. We are. They're not." He paused again, and added, "And I wish you wouldn't sit right outside the lab. I hate it when you watch them. You could at least use the holo-projector so it looks like you're talking to a face."

Raven rolled her eyes. But she moved away from the window, turning her wheelchair so its back rested beneath the speaker. She stared down the empty hallway of S.T.A.R. Labs and wondered if maze rats felt as she did now. "The projector is still in Starfire's room."

That was all she needed to say on the subject. Cyborg let her stew in silence as he thought of what he could say. Thinking was all he could do anymore. He was tired of thinking. He was tired, period.

"Is there anyone else?" he asked at last.

Clipboard pages rustled under her thumb. "That's the list for now. I'll keep looking," said Raven.

Raw emotion screeched against Raven's empathic senses. Even before he rounded the corner down the hall, Raven guessed the snaggletooth grin on Beast Boy's face. She closed her third ear against the tempest behind his bright eyes, and eyed his approach. His hospital gown swished with a bounce in his step.

"There you are," he cooed, completely missing Raven's sour pucker. "Always the last place I look, huh? Hey, Vic!"

"Hey yourself, Salad Head."

"C'mon, Raven," Beast Boy sang, getting behind her wheelchair with a little work. "Doc Brown'll see us now. I think today's the day. Sweet, huh? We'll catch you later, Vic. Don't go anywhere."

"Ha, ha," Cyborg called back. The speaker in the wall clicked off.

Raven shrank from Beast Boy's hands as he took her wheelchair down the hall. Then, as an afterthought, she grabbed the wheels and jerked them to a halt. Before Beast Boy could question her, she turned in her seat and looked around him, back at the clean room window. "Victor?" she called.

The speaker clicked on again. "Yeah, Raven?"

"I don't remember any Titans in the beginning. I remember a loner, an outcast, a refugee, a monster, and a half-wit. Keep that in mind. We'll see you later," she told him. Then she pushed the chair's wheels, urging Beast Boy to continue on.

His breath tickled the back of her neck as he bent down and asked, "What was that about?"

Raven irritably bent forward, away from him. "Nothing," she said.

"Well, I'm not sure Robin would like it if he knew you were calling him 'half-wit,'" he joked.

She scowled and hunched. "Maybe if he was here, that would mean something," she snapped, and regretted it immediately.

"Yeah," he muttered, dipping against the wheelchair until it squeaked. But then he smiled again and quickened their pace. "But hey, he'll be back. I bet Robin's just brooding, or roosting, or whatever it is he does when he locks himself in his room."

Raven rubbed her temples while Beast Boy pushed her chair down the hall. She toyed with the notion of teleporting herself to Doctor Brown's office, but then thought better of it. Shenanigans like that would only keep her in that damnable chair longer.

They ended, to Raven's surprise, at a medical examination room instead of the office. Raven's extremities shivered at the thought of yet another physical when she saw Doctor Katherine Brown waiting outside. The tall, elegant woman tapped an impatient rhythm against the floor with this season's latest in executive footwear. Her brow arched at Raven's unpleasant expression. "Are you feeling all right?" she asked.

The suspicious tone weighted heavily in Raven's scowl. She knew the doctor didn't trust half as much in magical healing trances as she did in medical science. Nevertheless, the former had healed Raven into the picture of health, while the latter still struggled to explain what she could do. As such, Brown had poked and prodded Raven until the two women had come to a compromise. "I just trust you'll hold up your end of the bargain," she said.

"That depends," Brown said. "Have you been resting? Drinking fluids? Avoiding undue stress?" At Raven's nod to each question, Brown's frown increased. She glanced at Beast Boy, unconvinced. "Has she?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Just like she promised. When she wasn't in bed, she was in the chair. I'd know, too. I've been with her practically the whole week."

"He has," Raven said darkly.

Brown deflated with an imperious sigh. "Very well. Since there's nothing medically wrong with you—so far as I can tell—and you both seem fine, I suppose we can discharge you."

Raven stood as soon as "discharge" left Brown's mouth. Her eyes flared. The wheelchair behind her became impossibly black and cold with the touch of her soul-self. Beast Boy jumped back as the chair crumpled, splintering and rending until it became a misshapen ball on the floor. The arcane light faded from Raven's eyes as she returned Brown's challenging stare.

"That was unnecessary," Brown told Raven.

"And petty," the sorceress added. "Can I go now?"

This time, Brown's sigh resonated with the death of her patience. "Come in. I have some clothes for you, as well as a surprise."

She led them inside the examination room. The paper-covered table, anatomy charts, and jars of medical bric-a-brac were nothing new to either teenager. Neither was the pale, sickly girl sitting on the table, but they were surprised to find her there. She hunched over herself in a blue bodysuit that was black with filth. Her dark hair drooped greasily. Her bloodshot eyes wavered at Beast Boy and Raven.

"Tek!" cried Beast Boy. He pulled her from the table with a hug, nearly dislodging the IV needle sunk into her arm. Spindly though his limbs were, Beast Boy lifted Tek as though she weighed nothing. Judging by the ribs he could count through her suit, "nothing" wasn't far off. "Ohmygosh, are you okay? We've been calling you forever, and we've been stuck here, worried about you, and they finally found you, how are you!"

The IV tube saved Raven from having to meet Tek's gaze. "Is she okay?" she asked Brown.

"'m fine," Tek mumbled, slinking out of Beast Boy's hug.

Brown checked the mobile rig that fed clear saline into Tek's arm. "She's more or less all right. She just looked dehydrated. A hot shower and a hotter meal certainly wouldn't hurt. We'll be happy to provide both," she told Tek, resting a hand on the frail girl's shoulder. Tek smiled wearily, until Brown added, "It's the least we can do after everything you Titans have done for us."

The other teens shared a look. Beast Boy sobered, and asked Tek, "Have you, um, seen Cyborg yet? He wants to talk to you."

Clucking her tongue, Brown handed Beast Boy and Raven each a stack of clothes. Blue jeans and sweatshirts would serve in place of their uniforms. To Raven's chagrin, she noticed that the outfits matched one another. "She can see him when she's ready. I think a little rest is in order first."

Raven's unpleasant look didn't escape Tek. It was hard to miss. "No," she said, forcibly invigorating her voice. "No, if Cyborg needs to see me, I can go now."

"I don't…" Brown trailed off as she looked to each teen. Her exasperation grew with each firm expression it came across, and finally burst in a tossing of her hands. "Fine. I'm done arguing with you lot. What do I know, anyway? I've only got three doctorates. But no…" Her muttering followed her out the door, which she shut with a pointed slam, leaving Tek to squirm beneath her teammates' attention.

Fortunately for Tek, Raven seemed more interested in shucking her hospital gown. She poured her ethereal self into the stack of clothes in her hands. They became a featureless black mass, which then melted over her arms and engulfed her body. When the blackness faded away, Raven wore unflattering jeans and a dull, gray sweatshirt with a S.T.A.R. Labs logo. Her gown lay neatly folded underfoot.

Beast Boy dumped his clothes on the floor. He then shrank out of his gown as a mouse, whose twitching whiskers nosed into the empty leg of the jeans. The pile of clothes expanded when Beast Boy morphed back into an elfin human. He pulled the backward hood from his face and proceeded to turn his sweatshirt right-side-'round. "So, are you really okay?" Beast Boy asked Tek in a conspiratorial tone.

A monster roared in Tek's thoughts. It was the same monster she had felt crawling in her skin since the moment she had awoke in a dumpster with no memory. It was the monster that made her attack friend and foe alike, like some feral beast. It had driven her to needles to numb herself and banish her monster. Only now, needles no longer kept her monster away.

"I'm fine," she told him again, and added an unconvincing, "really."

"Well, good," said Beast Boy, rubbing the back of his neck with a too-wide smile. "So, uh, give Vic our love, and just relax when you…I mean, I hope you…uh, we'll see you later," he finished lamely.

Raven eyed Tek's arms, where her sleeves had been torn away. The small, purpling bruises in the crook of Tek's elbow disappeared beneath her embarrassed hand as Raven uttered, "Goodbye," and followed Beast Boy's hasty retreat from the room.

Out in the hall, the mismatched, matching pair bid Doctor Brown farewell, and then walked toward the exit in ill-fitting sneakers. It was all Raven could do not to tear down the sterile halls as fast as her legs would carry her. Beast Boy's friendly voice nearly drove her to sprint as he said, "Man, it'll be good to finally get out of this place. Where should we go?"

Raven gritted her teeth. "Back to the Tower," she said in a tight voice.

Completely oblivious to her scowl, he said, "What's the rush? We can't do much without Vic, and he's still in pieces. Why don't we get something to eat, or go to the mall, or something?"

She could hardly look at him. "I think a little privacy is in order," she said.

Beast Boy laughed. "I hear that. After all that rubber-gloving and turn-your-head-and-coughing, we could use some time off. How about a movie? Or we could go to that creepy…uh, 'indie' coffee place you like. Sky's the limit!"

"No," she uttered, shutting her eyes and rubbing her temples. "I need to meditate."

His grin broadened and his voice sweetened. "C'mon, Raven. Let's live a little!"

They reached the secured doors of the Labs and pushed through into the first daylight either of them had seen in a week. Raven steadied herself with a breath. As she prepared to explain to Beast Boy exactly why she could not stand to be anywhere near him one second longer, a blinding flash of light tore them both out of existence.

Tek stood at Starfire's bedside in absolute silence. The pip and gasp of machinery surrounding her bed said everything Tek could think to say anyway. She watched the proud alien warrior struggle to breathe with the help of a tube down her throat. Skin that had once shone with golden vitality was now sickly and orange, and pierced with tubes that fed in and out of her.

The lab technicians had left as much of Starfire exposed as they could to soak up the warm, incandescent sun lamp mounted in the ceiling. Faux sunlight bathed her from toe to top as if to recharge her. Her bruises and cuts had begun to fade, melding into the rest of her comatose body.

"What happened? Did Robin do this?" Tek asked.

A table at the bedside held a compact hologram projector, which broadcasted Cyborg's face into the air. The hologram was crude, but it gave the illusion that Cyborg was watching over Starfire, and not disassembled in another room. If… When Starfire awoke, Cyborg wanted a friendly face to be the first she saw.

"Yeah. Robin did most of this," the Cyborg face said, wirelessly connected to the important parts of his brain. "When we couldn't stop his alien-powered rampage, Kory hit him with everything she had. The doctors say she used up all her…everything."

"And Robin?" whispered Tek.

"Long gone. Raven healed him after Kory blasted the alien out of his chest. He ran away after that. Nobody's seen him since."

Tek's chin fell to her chest. She rubbed her arm and bit her lip. Her eyes swam. She shut them hard, refusing to shame herself or Starfire further. "Will she wake up?" she asked.

"We hope so."

One tear bested her eyelids, tickling through the caked grime on her cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Vic. If only I'd been there…"

"I'm glad you weren't," he said. Then, after a short pause, he began, "Tek, we need to talk about your future."

His tone said everything Tek had been afraid of since Slade's attack on the city, when her monster had finally gotten the better of her. "Vic…Cyborg, I know I haven't been there lately, but I don't—"

"You have some serious issues, Tek," Cyborg said. His hologram remained expressionless, but his voice grew firm. "I don't know what's going on in your head, but I do know what's been going into your arm. It was a problem I had to ignore until we took care of Robin, and I'm sorry about that. But now, something needs to change."

Her tears won, and spilled over her face. "I know I've messed up a lot, but you can't just throw me out! Please, Vic!"

Cyborg said, "You had to see this coming, Tek. Half the time, you're stoned outta your head on tranqs. The other half, you're going crazy and blasting apart the scenery. I was hoping we could figure out something to help you, but…" He trailed off, sounding ashamed. "Tek, I don't know what else to do. I don't think there's anything I can do right now, except make sure you get the help you need."

"No!"

"Doctor?" Cyborg called.

The door opened for Doctor Brown, who led in a handsome woman dressed in a bright business suit. Brown quickly bowed out, leaving the cheery businesswoman to greet Tek as though she were meeting an enthusiastic child. "Hello, there!" the businesswoman said, her almond eyes crinkling with a smile.

Tek backed away, feeling her monster surge and snarl at the newcomer. "W-who are you?" she asked, swiping her tears with the back of her hand. Her legs bumped against Starfire's bed, cutting off all avenues of retreat.

"This is Gloria Xang," Cyborg said. "She's a social worker who's worked with the Streetbeat. She knows some people that can help you."

The girl in her swelled, overpowering even her monster with sheer panic. She fell to her knees, clutching the bed for support, and cried, "I don't wanna leave! You guys are my…Vic, you can't just…! I'm a Titan!"

"Tek," Cyborg said sharply. When her sniveling quelled, his voice softened. "Kid, look around. Look at us. There are no more Titans. For God's sake, look at yourself. You need to stop this. Please."

"I don't need help!" Tek wailed. "I mean, I do, but not like this! Vic, please don't—" Tek sniffed and looked at the track marks dotting her arm. Then she looked up, unable to avoid Gloria's patient smile. "I don't…I don't want it to end like this," she whined.

"I agree," Gloria interjected, shocking Tek into silence.

Cyborg's voice scowled, since his holographic face could not. "Excuse me?"

The social worker approached Tek with a tissue in hand, pulled from where, Tek hadn't seen. She offered it to Tek, not forcing, not expectant, only hopeful. As Tek took the tissue, Gloria said to Cyborg's floating face, "Mister…er, Cyborg, it's obvious that being a Titan is important to her. As you told me, it's all she's ever been. Isn't there something she can do? A last…let's call it a 'mission' that she can perform? I think we'd all like to see her leave on a good note."

The word "leave" twisted Tek's innards all through Cyborg's contemplative silence. Wheels turned behind his hologrammatic face. Then he said, "All right. There's something in Ops that we could maybe use. I think it might have survived the blast that took out the Tower. If it's still there, we definitely need to get it."

Gloria clapped her hands. "Marvelous," she exclaimed. Resting a gentle hand at Tek's bare back, she asked, "Where is it? How will we find it?"

Tek slumped in misery, half-listening to Cyborg's instructions. What did it matter, if this was her last, pathetic "mission?" She didn't want to leave on a high note. She didn't want to leave at all.

"—and so the arrangement has been working rather well. The children at Sanctuary have been making the transition to foster care as smoothly as we could expect. It isn't perfect, but what is?" Gloria said. She glanced to the side, and then back at the road as she guided her car through the heavy construction of Jump City toward the harbor.

Tek's slump had continued from Starfire's bedside to the inside of Gloria's car without change. She leaned against the passenger window, leaving smudges wherever her head turned to watch anything that wasn't her insufferable social worker.

Frowning, Gloria glanced again. "They still talk about you, you know. The Streetbeat. I think they're a little hurt that you never visit them. Maybe once you're settled in…?"

Memories of the ragtag team that had first found her passed out on the street flitted across Tek's mind. Then her thoughts returned to the miserable present. "Nobody'll want me," Tek muttered. "Nobody wants me."

Gloria waited a moment before speaking. She collected her thoughts, and then said, "I know you're hurt. You have every right to be. You've got no home, and you're dealing with more things than any kid ever should have to. Like that magic armor of yours."

"My armor's not magic," Tek muttered.

"Right, sorry. What I'm trying to say is, things are going to get better. Things always get better, I promise. Why, a month from now, you might not even recognize yourself."

Tek thought of her needles, her violent past, and her burnt-out shell of a house to which this obnoxiously upbeat woman was taking her. The beast inside her yowled, making her clench her fists until her nails ran red with blood. "I like myself," she lied.

The woman sighed. "Tech," she began.

"Tek," her lump of a passenger growled.

Gloria smiled graciously. "Tek," she corrected herself. "It's certainly a unique name."

Tek rolled further, putting as much of her back to Gloria as her seatbelt would allow. "Beast Boy gave it to me. I don't remember my real name."

"Why not pick a new name?" Gloria suggested. "Something you like. Something fresh to go along with your new start?"

I like Tek, she grumped in her head. Her monster growled in agreement. Tek clamped her eyes and tried to shut them both out.

Their car climbed an overpass on the highway. A man with flags and an orange vest waved them into a coned-off section separated by a concrete barrier. Once she'd corrected their course, Gloria remarked, "I've always thought 'Jennifer' was a pretty name."

An explosion punched the bottom of the car, reaching up around its sides with fingers of flame. The car lurched into the air. Drivers around them screeched, honked, and swerved as Gloria's car flipped end over end. The world around Tek blurred into a swirl and a deafening scream. With a jolt, the car landed on its roof, crumpling inward. Metal shrieked and glass shattered around her.

Then everything stopped.

The seatbelt cut into Tek's lap and chest as she dangled upside down. One eye cracked, peering past her arms wrapped around her head. Her ears were worthless with ringing. Crooked asphalt lurked beyond the remains of the windshield, which littered the ground and the crushed car above her. Aside from a few cuts and a bruise in the shape of her seatbelt, she felt relatively whole. Gasping, she looked over to Gloria. She stopped breathing.

Gloria's body poked from the pinched innards of the car. They had landed atop the concrete barrier separating finished road from that under construction. The barrier had collapsed the driver's side completely. Red pulp dribbled from the twisted grip of the metal. Gloria's eye bulged blankly through a gap in the wreck.

Tek's chest contracted, desperate for breath she could not draw. She choked and scrambled, trying to escape the mess that had been a human being only seconds ago. Everything about her felt like a singular bruise. Her head swam and her ears buzzed. Her hands fumbled with the seatbelt until it released with a snap, dropping her on her head. Heedless of the jagged glass, Tek crawled out of the crooked car through its windshield. Only once she'd left could she breathe again.

"Help!" she screamed between hyperventilating heaves. She crawled on her hands and knees over rough pavement. Blood blinded her from a cut in her forehead. "Someone please help me!"

The ground in front of her trembled. She wiped her eyes and looked up, and up, and up, to see a face pulled from her nightmares. An impossibly tall man loomed over her in black and gold armor. His coppery hair hung wild from his shoulders and neatly from his chin. Murder glinted in his eye as he grinned, and said, "Damn. You got the wrong one, Gizmo."

A smaller boy arose from behind the first on thick, spidery stalks connected to his back. The little boy wore a cruel smile and a green jumpsuit, and wielded an oversized weapon at Tek. "Just means we get to have some fun, Mammoth," Gizmo spat at the wounded girl.

Bestial rage shook Tek from the inside out. She lost herself in a roar, and leapt for Mammoth's throat, ready to tear him open with her bare teeth. A flash of force punched her side, knocking her from Mammoth, who hadn't lifted a finger to stop her. Tek tumbled onto all fours and crouched, ready to kill, ready to hurt, ready to rip, and saw another in her growing list of attackers.

He was small, but not as small as Gizmo, and certainly less imposing. A mechanical rig wrapped around his head, prominently enhancing a single eye over his face. He touched a gloved finger to the ocular rig, changing the eye's lens from white to green. "Boss said not to screw around," he reminded the other two in a high-pitched voice.

Beastly Tek crouched and circled for higher ground, making Mammoth scoff. "Get bent, See-More," he told the boy with the mechanical eye. "Exxy isn't even here. Go kiss ass somewhere else."

Tek saw a shadow dart over her head to land before Gizmo and Mammoth. The new figure swept his short cape back and faced Tek with featureless eyes set in a skull mask. "He's here now," the masked, armored, fearsome figure said in a reverberating voice.

Wide fear spread in Gizmo's lenses. He staggered back on his mechanical stalks, and said, "Hey, Red X. Good to see ya! We got this crud-muncher, no problem!"

Red X eyed the growling girl coiled on the ground. "Let's make sure," he said.

A scarlet cross flew from his fingertips. Tek yowled and leapt as the cross struck where she had been and turned the pavement into a crater with a thunderous blast. Heat scorched the air in her wake. She bounced to rest a dozen feet away.

The blast had momentarily confused the monster in her, allowing her terror-stricken thoughts to surface. Her features scrunched with concentration that opened a portal of blue-white light in her back. Technology crawled from the portal, swallowing it and Tek in one smooth motion. When she stood, she towered over Red X in white armor trimmed with blue. A glowering visor hid her fearful face.

Red X tilted his head in examination of the mechanical giant that had supplanted his prey. He humphed. "So that's her power. Interesting." He stood his ground. So did Tek. Their hidden eyes met unknowingly, his curious, hers petrified. Then, in a bored tone, X asked, "Gentlemen? Why is she still standing?"

Bellowing, Mammoth charged first, his fists swinging from above his head to hammer Tek into the ground. Tek caught his blow with a cry and bent, trembling under the pressure of his fists. "I've been looking forward to this, Robo-Chickie. Let's finish what we started last time," Mammoth said, fogging her visor with foul breath.

A clang of horrific implications echoed from Tek's armored shin as she brought it between Mammoth's legs. His eyes bugged and his strength vanished as he stumbled back, clutching his groin. Curses flew from his mouth like bees swarming from a hive while he tilted and fell.

Tek stood quickly, and then leapt to avoid a sizzling green bolt from See-More's eye. Panicked, she leapt too high, and hung in the air, unable to change her course. Gizmo drew a bead on her. His gun belched fire that struck her crossed arms and knocked her a city block away. As she flew, she heard Gizmo's fading shout. Then she pinwheeled her arms and landed hard, digging furrows into the new highway. She stumbled and fell, planting handprints into the street.

Bad, she thought, gasping. Bad, bad, bad. Okay, alley girl, get a grip. You've got the Fearsome Four after you, and they're out for blood. They already killed Gloria. They killed Gloria. They killed her. They killed her! They're gonna kill me!

Something knocked on her helmet, interrupting her silent episode. She looked up and froze. Two slender girls with lean, baleful smiles loomed above her. One was pale, with thick, coppery hair, and leather straps in lieu of clothes. The other was paler, ashen, her pink braid falling behind her gothic corset.

"Looky here, Jinx," the leather-bound girl lilted. "Sometimes what you want really does just fall right outta the sky."

"It's like magic, Shimmer," Jinx said. Pink chaos crackled betwixt her fingertips.

Tek rolled. The space behind her shook and drew tight as Shimmer transmuted the air into lead, which Jinx promptly smashed with a hex. Hot shrapnel peppered Tek on her way to her feet. She swung blind, and her fist collided with a rock wall Jinx pulled from the very ground. Then the ashen witch thrust out her palm. The rock wall smashed into Tek, knocking her off the highway overpass and into the streets.

Masonry crumbled from the office building off which Tek bounced. She landed two inches below the sidewalk, kicking up a spray of concrete and sending pedestrians running for cover. Her body rattled inside the supportive armor interior. Distant screams reached her ears through the snarl inside her head.

Metal scraped the ground noisily as she rose from the crater. She groaned through the grille over her mouth and watched six shapes fly from the overpass. "So, what is this?" she asked with fully falsified confidence. "The Fearsome Six? That's original."

"Bravado in the face of certain doom? How boring," Red X yawned as he landed in front of his team.

"Sorry," Tek said.

Her hulking forearms blossomed with twin barrels each, which she leveled at the line of villains. The barrels released a staccato howl as plasma rivulets poured forth, scattering Red X and his team. Tek ran back and sprayed white-hot fire behind her, hissing in sympathy at the screams of frightened, straggling pedestrians still fleeing the scene. She had to move the fight before someone got hurt.

Gizmo ducked her plasma fire and tossed a disc at her feet. The disc sprouted long, slender steel tentacles that snared her legs. "Eat my La Blue Bomb, mecha-face!" he cried, and drew another disc.

Pavement rang against Tek's chest. She skidded into a row of cars, struggling with the tangle around her legs. Gotta get out, she told herself. Gotta get help. Gotta get back to S.T.A.R. Labs… Her thoughts trailed off as she belly-crawled beneath a parked SUV, scraping its undercarriage as she flipped onto her back. …where they'll find Cyborg and rip him apart…even more!

Spidery feet crunched next to the SUV. Tek heard Gizmo's cackle before his gun's buildup drowned it out. "Game over, loser!" he squealed.

Tek shoved hard. The SUV rocketed from her hands, catching Gizmo unawares. His scream ended when the SUV caved around him, trapping him in twisted metal with a four-star safety rating. They tumbled high over a parking garage and disappeared, crashing with a distant crunch.

The tentacles around her legs broke with a sharp kick. "Right," Tek gasped to herself. "New plan. Find Raven and Gar—"

Fire engulfed her chest. Tek staggered against the stream and looked for its source. Jinx's smirk peered over the torrent, which flamed from her palm. The witch brought her other hand in and doubled the torrent. The flames turned blue and blew Tek off her feet.

The building wall behind her cracked with impact. She sweated, and felt the suit suck her skin dry to keep her eyes clear. Then the ground trembled with pounding footsteps, and she looked up in time to see Mammoth charging again. His fists bent her in two and broke her through the wall. She tumbled back into an under-construction lobby, whose work crew scattered at the brick spray.

Mammoth refused her a chance to even get up. His boot gonged her helmet in a kick that knocked her into the high ceiling. She thudded, fell, and then bounced through a stack of two-by-fours that splintered against her alloy skin. Dizzily, she felt her armor creak at the arms, and looked back to see Mammoth holding her at bay. When she looked around again, Shimmer approached the pair with a lazy swagger, with See-More behind her.

"Go on, Shimmy," See-More squeaked. "Turn that tin can into goo!"

Tek saw Shimmer's hands wrap around the sides of her helmet. She squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for her armor to be turned into acid, or molten slag, or whatever deadly substance the pale exhibitionist could conjure. She held her breath, waiting. A moment later, she emptied her burning lungs and opened her eyes. Far from triumphant, the villain outside her visor looked confused.

Shimmer flexed her fingers against Tek's helmet. "Something's wrong," she said. "I can't change it. It's like it can—"

Tek's foot shot to Shimmer's chest and shoved her hard into See-More. The pair crashed together and struck the far wall. With a grunt, Tek burst free from Mammoth's grip and swung around with a haymaker that unseated him from the ground. His head plowed through the glass entryway still being installed. He landed in a cement mixer parked by the curb outside.

With the damage already done, Tek felt better about picking a new wall and crashing through. Drywall broke like paper, studs snapped like reeds, as she plowed through three more rooms. She burst through the final wall in a shower of red brick. "Okay," she breathed, "Now I just gotta—"

Red crosses sunk into the sidewalk between her feet. She felt an explosion hammer the armor between her legs, and was airborne once more. Her spiraling trip ended in the roof of a sporty coup, which shuddered as her weight bent it in half. A car alarm wailed beneath her while she sat up.

"You're far wilier than I'd have thought," Red X told her. He advanced on her car seat with Jinx at his side. She wore the smirk that his mask hid as he said, "I don't suppose you'd consider a job with us?"

Tek couldn't tell if her groan came from her armor, her chest, or the mutilated car atop which she sat. But she pushed to her feet, and said, "I'm not a murderer."

With a tilt of his head, Red X purred, "Are you sure?"

The question spun Tek's mind like a top.

Jinx lunged forward, gesturing to a fire hydrant down the block. The hydrant burst. With a wave of her arms, Jinx bent the spray of water into a river in the air that swept Tek off the coup. Tek splashed and skidded down the street until the water lost its pressure. A fine mist drizzled her visor when she pulled it from the pavement.

"Sorry, Baby Face," Jinx said sidelong to Red X as she sauntered alongside her hovering river. "These Titan types stick hard. Besides, I know the real deal beneath the metal. She's the biggest loser of the bunch."

Tek scooted back from the approaching pair. Behind them, Mammoth limped ahead of the other lagging three, rejoining to make the team complete. All six villains spread out across the street. They marched slowly on Tek, glowering as one.

With a flick, Red X's gauntlets sprouted jagged blades, which he crossed before him into his namesake. He peered between the blades, and said, "Too bad. The Titans don't rule in this town anymore."

"We do," Shimmer shot.

Crab-crawling, Tek panicked at the advancing line. The monster in her thoughts howled to be let loose. She knew the moment it charged the villains, they would cut her to ribbons, and so she reined her monster with a desperate thought. Gotta get away. I need something. A distraction. Anything!

Without warning, the blue trim of her armor flared white, flooding the sunny street with a blinding presence. X and his crew staggered, shielding their eye, while Tek watched with astonishment through her polarized visor. That's new, she thought, tapping the luminous trim.

Tek seized the opportunity by gathering her legs beneath her. Whispering a prayer, she jumped as hard as she could, and sailed into the air. Uncontrollable flight carried her in an arc over ten city blocks. She tumbled and screamed while the wind whistled around her. Then gyroscopes in her armor pulled her legs back beneath her. She landed hard, crunching the pavement and terrifying more pedestrians who had seen nothing of the fight until now.

Cars swerved around her. People stared and pointed, jabbering in excited tones as the meteoric hero who crouched and panted in the middle of the street. Half a mile behind her, Tek knew the villainous pack would already be in hot pursuit. She needed to get away, and more importantly, she needed to lead them out of populated areas.

A digital compass appeared in her visor, pointing her west, where she saw a derelict 'T' tower sitting in the bay. It felt like hours ago that Cyborg had given her one last assignment, to go to the Tower and retrieve something of importance from Ops. Now, it seemed, she would go there for a number of different reasons. Six different, murderous, unrelenting reasons, all of which thirsted for Titan blood. She wondered if the irony of her dismissal would make Red X and his gang laugh, or simply make her end more painful.

I don't think I can make that jump, she thought glumly of the bay separating Titans Tower from the shore. She began to run, clanking noisily as she wove through traffic at well above the posted speed limit. Hope I figure something out before I get there. This hunk of metal can't swim, and it'd suck to run underwater. Would I even survive that?

Red X shook his eyes clear of dancing spots in time to see Tek sailing over a row of buildings. He heard Mammoth swear and start to run. With an upturned hand, he stopped his sinister six from pursuing her. "Wait," he commanded.

"Wait? Are you crazy? She's getting away!" See-More cried. He shrank beneath X's withering glare, and added, "Unless that's what you want…?"

A giant palm swept sniveling See-More aside. Mammoth rumbled toe to toe with Red X, leaning down to plant his face in the white skull mask. "No way. No way are we letting a Titan get away. Screw waiting!" he bellowed.

With a stoic glare, X said, "Would you like to be in charge?"

"Why not?" Mammoth snorted.

"Hit me."

Mammoth leaned back, confused. "What?" he huffed. "Are you kidding me?"

"Hit me," Red X insisted. "Beat me up, and you're in ch—"

Mammoth needed no further convincing. He swung for X's head, but struck empty air. X leapt and danced up the giant's arm. He slapped his hand over Mammoth's nose. Scarlet bands snaked around Mammoth's head, forming an "x" across his face. As X landed nimbly, the scarlet bands began to contract, crushing Mammoth's skull. The great brute screamed and clawed at the bands to no avail.

Turning to the rest, X asked calmly, "Can we still track her communicator?"

Gizmo lost his thoughts in Mammoth's screaming panic. Then See-More elbowed him, and he stammered, "Yeah, sure. Robo-girl's signal is still the only Titan crud-munching communicator in the city." His ocular lenses flashed while he scanned the airwaves, making sure he was correct.

"Good," Red X said with a nod. "Let the girl go to ground. She'll think she's lost us, and be off her guard. Better yet, she might lead us to the real Titans. So spread out and follow her at a distance. Keep in contact, and don't attack until I say so."

He tapped the "x" on the back of his gauntlet. The bands across Mammoth's face broke. Red markings remained in Mammoth's skin, already bruising into a brand. Shimmer tried to help him up, but he waved her off. His glare tried to cut Red X in half without effect.

"Remember," Red X told them with cheery reverberation, "we're one do-gooder away from owning this city. Stick with me, do as I say, and this place will be ours in a matter of weeks."

To Be Continued