All, right. So here's chapter 2! And I still don't own Teen Titans. But I do own ZYX.

ZYX's room was plain. Wait, that's not strong enough. It was totally, and utterly, bare. No bed, no dresser, no nothing. It didn't have even proper walls, just support frames and the backs of the whiteboard on the adjacent rooms. Also, half the floor was missing.

ZYX: "This is MY room?"

Raven: "It's part of initiation. You earn your furniture piece by piece. You get a cot and basic hygiene if you can survive the first day."

ZYX: "When exactly did you guys think this up?"

Raven: "After Cyborg came back from his undercover mission to-wait, should I be telling you this?"

ZYX: "The old H.I.V.E. Academy, I already know."

Raven: "Wow, even I find that creepy."

ZYX: "Thanks; I am crazy, after all."

They started walking to the elevator.

Raven: "What exactly do you mean,' you're crazy?'"

ZYX: "Saying it out loud defeats the purpose. Once I get adjusted to this world, I'll tell you."

Raven: "No, you're going to tell me now."

ZYX: "I'd love to tell you, but my sanity kind of depends on it at the moment."

Raven: "Fine, we're discussing this later, though."

ZYX: "Of course."

Raven: ". . . So, what is your world like?"

ZYX: "It's pretty different from here. We don't have any super villains or superheroes, as far as the general public knows. There may be some, somewhere, but if so, they do a good job of hiding."

Raven: "Wow, it must be boring."

ZYX: "We manage. I know you'd like to ask more, so how about you try to set up a way for us to spend time together, like, say, magic classes. I'm pretty sure you could sell Robin on it."

Raven: "Perhaps. Are you planning on telling them you're from another dimesion?"

ZYX: "I'm good either way. They don't particularly need to know, as it doesn't matter except that they won't find any useful information about me, no matter how hard they search. Also, they might not understand it properly if I tell them. On the other hand, they could consider me untrustworthy if I don't tell them and they find out on their own."

They stepped into the elevator and rode down to the gym in silence. Raven wanted to ask him more about his world, but decided to wait. It wasn't like he was going anywhere. When they stepped out, Robin was waiting for them, with Best Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg.

Robin: "Okay, first is a physical, then a series of placement exercises. I need to know where to start."

ZYX: "Sure."

Robin: "Follow me. Everyone else, do your regular stuff."

He led ZYX over to an adjacent door, which opened into the med room. (I won't describe it, since you've already seen it.) He walked over a terminal and brought up a medical information sheet.

Robin: "Codename?"

ZYX: "Haven't decided yet. Depends on what powers I can find. Just put ZYX for now." (You can guess what they're doing in the next part from Robin's dialogue.)

Robin: "Let's see: height, 5'9: weight, 150lbs.: age, 17: Only nearsightedness, dog allergies. Now, take your shirt off. Hmm… Now, breath in, and out, and again. Don't blink, stare at the light. Your ears are clean. Shots are up to date, and you seen healthy. You can your shirt back on now."

ZYX: "When did you become a doctor?"

Robin: "It was part of my training. Now get back out on the gym floor."

ZYX: "K."

He filed out after Robin. As they entered the gym, he saw Cyborg and Starfire lifting weights, Raven juggling a dozen gym mats, and Beast Boy, in monkey form, climbing a rope.

Robin: "Okay ZYX, first you're racing me. The distance is one lap around the quarter-mile track. On your mark, get set, go!"

They took off. The other Titans watched, hoping to see Robin leave him in the dust: To their surprise, while he wasn't as fast as Robin, ZYX didn't lag too far behind.

Robin: "Huh, you're better than I thought."

ZYX: "Running is my strong suit. I stink at everything else."

And he did stink pretty badly; his arms gave out after 10 pushups, he couldn't make it to the top of the rope even once, he barely managed 4 chin ups, he struggled to lift a 50lb. weight with both hands, and got pinned a half-dozen ways per Titan during wrestling.

Robin: "Wow. This is too pathetic for words."

ZYX: "Don't tell me you were this good on the first day. I'll get better, you'll see."

They broke for lunch. While the Titans got their usual grub, and Beast Boy and Cyborg got into another of their meat vs. tofu fights over Cyborg oversized meatball sub, ZYX got some of Stafire's cooking. It was in a pink bowl, and had the color and consistency of swamp slime.

ZYX: "What is this?"

Starfire: "It is my Zorka-berry medley. And it is your lunch."

ZYX: "Uhh, okay."

He cast a, how bad is this? look at everyone else, and saw only evil grins. Great. So he chose the only option available to him. He steeled himself, and took a bite. It tasted like a PB&J+ham+roast beef+cheese+pizza sandwhich, and was, in fact, quite tasty.

ZYX: "Mmmm, this is good."

This got raised eyebrows all around.

Starfire: "You like my cooking?"

ZYX finished his bowl.

ZYX: "Yes I do. I like it a lot. More, please!"

At that, Robin's eyes bugged out, while Beast Boy's and Cyborg jaws dropped. Even Raven looked slightly surprised. Starfire, however, was delighted.

Starfire: "Most certainly!"

While she went to her room to get more, Beast Boy sidled up to him.

Beast Boy: "Dude, why do you want more?"

ZYX: "Because it tastes good. I thought you'd pick something fouler than that, actually."

Beast Boy: "Dude, that was the nastiest food she had. It tastes like moldy socks."

Robin: "No, it tastes like burned worms."

Cyborg: "No way, man, it tastes like dirty motor oil."

Raven: "And how would you know what that tastes like?"

Cyborg: "Tune-ups."

Raven: "Ah."

ZYX: "I'm guessing it tastes different to everyone."

Everyone shut up when Starfire floated in with another bowl of Zorka-berry medley, which ZYX quickly devoured.

ZYX: "Now what?"

Robin: "Now you do the dishes."

ZYX: "Any particular reason?"

Robin: "Initiation."

ZYX: "Oh."

So he ended up doing the dishes (surprisingly quickly, too). Then Robin took back to the gym for combat training. He pushed a button on his communicator, and one of the walls slid aside, revealing a rack of weapons of all kinds.

Robin: "Take your pick. Left handed items are on the lower right."

ZYX: "You saw I'm left handed?"

Robin: "Yes. I see everything."

ZYX wandered down the wall until he reached the sword section. After studying them for a moment, he picked one off its stand, tested its weight, then chose a classic medieval shield to match. Robin raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

ZYX: "Do you have anything I can use to blunt the edge?"

Robin: "Weapon covers are on the left."

ZYX: "Thanks."

After covering his sword, ZYX dropped into a fighter's stance, with the sword cocked over his left shoulder, and his shield brought up level with his right shoulder, and Robin realized that he had had some training. I wonder where he learned that, he thought as he drew his bo-staff and took a stance.

Robin: "Ready?"

ZYX nodded. They circled each other for a few seconds, then sprang. ZYX opened with a simple downward swing, which robin parried, then threw his own attack. ZYX blocked with his shield, but shied away from the blow. Robin noted this. Around this point the fight deteriorated too much to track properly. It was just act and react: block, strike, dodge, feint, shuffle left, strike, shuffle right, block, swing, duck, strike, jump. Robin threw another face blow, and ZYX flinched again. Robin took advantage of this by turning his blow into a feint, and, by swinging the other end of his staff around in a tight circle, connected with the back of ZYX's head. He went down. Hard.

Robin: "You fear pain too much. You must learn to ignore the possibility of being struck. Until you do, you will be vulnerable to the kind of trick I just pulled. Now get up, and get ready: we're going again."

ZYX struggled to his feet, rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head. He winced before getting back in his stance. They fought for the rest of the afternoon. Robin beat him every single time, except when Starfire accidently burned off some of her costume on the obstacle course, and he let his guard down because he was staring. ZYX got in a good blow to his side.

Robin: "Good shot. Starfire, please go change."

ZXY: "You really should ask her out."

Robin: "What are you talking about?"

ZYX: "It's painfully obvious you two like each other. Please stop beating around the bush."

Robin: "I'll think about it."

ZYX: "Right."

Robin: "By the way, why weren't you staring at her?"

ZYX: "Stare at your girl? That's a good way to get my butt kicked."

Robin: "That's true."

ZYX (teasing): "Ah-ha! He admits it!"

Robin's attacks became a little more reckless after that. For dinner, they ordered pizza, and ZYX got more Zorka-berry medley (Starfire was insistent.) Then he cleaned up, while everyone else drifted off to do their own stuff.

Afterwards, with nothing better to do, and aching from his various bruises, he decided to go back to his room. He found a bed, topped with a white pillow, white sheets, and a black blanket. Sitting on the pillow was a black toothbrush, and a tube of toothpaste. Huh, he thought, Looks like I'm in. Now how can I get my hands on some superpowers? The way I am now isn't gonna cut it, and no amount of training can fix that. Sigh, the only thing to is brush off some old daydreams, and swift through them for anything useful. He collapsed on his bed, and started thinking. By the time he was drifting off, he had finished. Perfect, he thought as he slipped into the whirlpool of sleep.

Back in the Ops center, the Titans were having a meeting to decide exactly how they were going to train and haze their new guest.

Robin: "So, by now you've all viewed the contents of the Crystal, and seen this 'vision,' of Zeratul's. Did your search on his name turn up anything , Cyborg?"

Cyborg: "Nothing. It's like he appeared out thin air."

Beast Boy: "Dude, that's weird. He doesn't look like much."

Raven: "He has no powers, no gadgets, and no training. Why would he be so special?"

Raven: "I sensed he has some potential for magic. Not much, though."

Beast Boy: "What about me? Do I have any, uh, potenny?"

Raven: "Potential, and no, you don't."

Beast Boy: "Awww."

Robin: "I felt that he's pretty competent with a sword(rubs his bruise from ZYX's blow), but that still doesn't tell us why Zeratul would be interested in him."

Cyborg: "How about instead of standing around, making guesses, we just ask him?"

Robin: "He's asleep at the moment. We can ask him tomorrow. In the meantime, we need to decide who's going to teach him what."

Everyone groaned.

Robin: "Cyborg, you're in charge of teaching him how to use all the gadgets in the tower. Starfire, you're in charge of languages and aliens. Beast Boy, you teach him how to get around the city; when he knows every rooftop, fire escape, and back alley in the city, you're done. I'll teach him the rules and regulations for turning in criminals, and about our opponents."

Raven: "What about me?"

Robin: "You don't have to teach him if you don't want to; but since you asked, you can teach him magic."

Raven: "Fine."

With that, everyone turned in for the night, with 3 questions still running around inside their heads. Who is he? Where did he come from? And what makes him so important?

And, that's chapter 2! Remember, reviews and critiques are welcome! Say what you don't like about it, and I'll try to avoid it in the future. But don't mess with my OC's. Also, any ideas for ZYX's hazing are welcome!