A/N: I don't own the Teen Titans or Mari. I only own Robert, Kyle, Vanessa, Maxine, Valkin, and Azara. Enjoy!
Teen Titans: The Next Generation
Chapter Two: When There's Trouble, Who Do You Call?
Another Ten Years Later…
It was a Saturday in early May in Jump City and a camera crew set up their equipment behind a large group of news reporters, journalists, and photographers that stood in front of a small stage which was in front of a large building. On the stage, behind a podium stood a balding, overweight man with white hair. He wore a dark grey suit with a blue tie and handkerchief. Next to him stood a man with pepper-grey hair with a black suit and a red tie. The two men were guarded by six men in black suits and sunglasses and several police officers.
Once the camera crew were finished setting up their equipment, they gave the thumbs up to the men on the stage and a blonde woman in a red suit who stood in front of the camera and held up a microphone.
"And now, we take you to the mayor of Jump City as he makes his speech," said the woman in red.
"People of Jump City, today we celebrate twenty years of being the safest city in the country." He smiled proudly as the large crowd applauded. "And we owe that to the Mega-Security Prison and its warden Mr. Edmund Vicars." The people applauded again.
At the Grayson household, fifteen-year-old Mari Grayson and her twelve-year-old brother Robert, fifteen-year-old Kyle and thirteen-year-old Vanessa Logan, thirteen-year-old Maxine, and fifteen-year-olds Valkin and Azara Markov all sat in the living room as they watched the broadcast of the event for school assignments while their parents were all at work.
"The mayor should be thanking our parents," said Maxine with a frown. "They're the ones who fought the bad guys before the jail got built."
"The jail is what kept them from breaking out so our parents could have normal lives," Valkin reminded her.
When the Mega-Security Prison was built, Jump City no longer needed their heroes to protect them. The Justice League even worked with the justice system in Jump City to put many criminals they had fought put behind bars. As time went by, villains around the world wrote Jump City off as a forbidden zone so nobody dared commit a crime, unless they wanted to end up in jail and face harsher sentences. Other former Teen Titans around the world had children who had to learn to fight crime because their cities weren't as safe as Jump City had become.
"Thanks to Warden Vicars and this prison, we've been able to contain super villains that normally broke out," said the mayor. "Fortunately, we were able to rehabilitate lesser villains Nigel St. Hubbins, formerly known as Punk Rocket, and John Rollins, who had legally changed his name from Johnny Rancid. Neither had so much as gotten a parking ticket or littering fine since their release. Criminals such as Mad Mod and "The Amazing Mumbo" have died in the prison due to old age. This is how super criminals must be dealt with: either they change their ways and become responsible and productive members of society, or die in prison. Are there any questions?"
"Mr. Mayor, is it true that you plan to demolish Titans Tower next year, due to
its recent drop in popularity among the tourists?" a reporter asked.
The mayor adjusted his tie as people murmured about the question. "Whatever rumor's you've heard, Jump City has no intention of tearing down ANY of our beloved landmarks, let me set the record straight about that right now! The Tower may not be home to active duty heroes, but as a symbol, it still stands for dedication to justice and peace."
"I completely agree with you, Mr. Mayor," said Warden Vicars. "We must never forget our history. Titans Towers represents a time that this city should feel proud to have survived. Just like the Mega-Security Prison stands as the new symbol of peace and justice in this city."
On a nearby rooftop, a group of five teen watched the broadcast. One of them grinned wickedly. "This is the moment we've been training for. Beginning Phase One!" The others grinned as well.
The five teenagers jumped from the sky and landed several feet from the camera crew and the impact of their landing cracked the cement. The people screamed and chattered as they stared at the teenagers.
There was a large, muscular girl with wild brown hair and green eyes. She had an orange leotard with a large yellow "M" on her chest, orange gloves with yellow armored bands on her forearms, and matching boots. Next to the large girl was a slim boy with a gothic hair cut and plugs. He wore a red, sleeveless hooded shirt with a shredded look, black pants, and gothic black boots. In front of the gothic boy was a short girl with blonde hair in pig tails, squinted eyes, goggles, and a green and black cyber-themed outfit. She had a metal pack on her back with four spider-like legs that came out of the pack and kept her suspended from the ground. Behind them was a blond boy who wore a red and black mask, a red jumpsuit with a multiple sign on his chest, and black gloves and boots. Beside the blond boy was a male teen with large, black wings. He had red eyes under a pointed, grey mask, a dark red top, and dark blue pants, and black gloves and boots.
"Who are you?" the mayor demanded.
"We are the new face of the HIVE! For twenty years you've kept criminals in that prison with no hope of seeing the outside world again!" the gothic boy yelled as he pointed to the mayor. "We're going to turn it to rubble!" The mayor cowered behind the warden and his security as the teens rushed toward the stage.
The police stood their ground as the teenagers charged toward them. "Freeze!" They pulled out their T.A.S.E.R. and pointed them at the attackers.
"Nyte Flyer, to the skies!" the gothic boy ordered. His teammate nodded and used his large wings to lift himself into the air.
When the villains were several feet from the police, the muscular girl smashed her fist into the ground, causing it to shake and the police to lose their balance.
"Good job, Monumenta!" smirked the gothic boy.
The blond boy multiplied and the clones protected the teens from being shocked by the T.A.S.E.R.s, allowing them to move forward.
"Nice meat shielding, Various!" the gothic boy called to his teammate.
"We ain't gettin' paid near enough for this, Benny." one of the clones said to another, a southern twang in his voice.
"We ain't gettin' paid at all, Benny," the other replied, glumly.
A red glow came from the Goth boy's hands as the police put up their shields. He shot the red energy at the shields as they became rubber and he turned to the short girl. "Gadget, get ready to fly and blast these pigs!"
"You've got it, Glint!" she replied as her spider legs retracted and metal wings and a laser gun came out.
The sudden attack shocked Mari and her friends and it made things worse to know their parents wouldn't be able to react quickly enough to stop the villains.
"We need to do something," said Mari with determination in her voice.
"Something tells me we're going to get directly involved in this," said Valkin in a monotone.
"Do we really need to get involved?" Azara asked nervously. "There's other heroes out there that can fight them."
"By the time they get to the scene, it'll be too late," said Mari."
"Not if they teleport!" Azara argued. "You know, like the Justice League does all the time to get from the Watchtower to Earth?"
"Can I help?" asked Robert with excitement.
"No. You need to stay here. Mom and Dad wouldn't want you to get involved," insisted Mari.
"None of our parents would want any of usto get involved," said Valkin. Mari shot him a glare. "I never said I wasn't going, just pointing out the obvious."
"Well I'm saying I'm not going," said Azara. "Somebody has to watch Robert."
Valkin teleported his friends to each of their homes where they found their parents' old uniforms. Mari put on her mother's old uniform and one of her father's old utility belts. Vanessa put on her father's old leotard, gloves, and shoes as well as a maroon skirt. Kyle put on hiking boots, tan cargo shorts, a camouflage shirt, and his mother's old gloves. Valkin wore his mother's old cloak, a long-sleeved black shirt, and black pants. Maxine wore an identical version of what Control Freak wore. Once they were dressed, Valkin teleported them to a rooftop.
"Maxine... what are you wearing?" Mari asked as she raised an eyebrow.
"What? I thought it'd be fitting," said Maxine.
Mari shook her head, deciding not to bother arguing the issue. "We need code names so they can't identify us. I'm choosing Nightstar for myself."
"Pretty!" exclaimed Maxine. "I'm Channeler! Because I can channel electricity. And because I'm half TV and TVs have channels. Aaaand because it's all cool and mystical sounding. And-"
"Falcon," said Valkin in a monotone, putting a hand over Channeler's mouth.
"I'm Beast Girl!" Vanessa announced. She turned to her brother. "You're Burrower."
"I'm- Wait, what?" Kyle started, then turned to stare at the green girl.
"You're Burrower, that's your superhero name," explained the newly named Beast Girl.
"No. Ohhh, no! You don't get to name me like I'm one of your animal forms, Vanessa!" he groused. "What about Geo-Dude, or Stone, or..." Kyle argued.
"Nope. I'm Beast Girl. You're Burrower. End of discussion," said Vanessa.
"Come on," said Mari. "We need to stop the bad guys."
The five friends flew to where the attack was happening and Nightstar shot a starbolt to get their attention.
"Who're these rodeo clowns?" asked Benny Various.
"They're the Teen Titans, you snot-brained hick!" snapped Gadget.
"They won't be for long. HIVE Five, eat them alive!" exclaimed Glint.
"Titans, go!" Nightstar exclaimed in reply.
As the injured police were pulled away from the fight, the HIVE turned to fight the Titans.
"Monumenta will crush you like a bug," the large girl sneered at Beast Girl as she punched her fists for emphasis.
Beast Girl smirked confidently. "You may be big, but I can get bigger!" She turned into a T-Rex and roared before she smacked the girl with her tail. Monumenta went flying and hit a nearby building.
"Vanes-Beast Girl, be careful. We don't want to cause too much damage," warned Nightstar.
"How am I supposed to fight when I control earth?" asked Burrower. He was fighting off several Bennys. "It'd make things a lot easier."
"Burrowrr," Nightstar said, slipping on the complicated name as she fought Nyte Flyer, "we can't cause more damage than the HIVE already has." Gadget hit her in the back with her laser gun.
"Sorry, Star, but I'm using earth." said Burrower. He summoned chunks of earth and threw them at the Benny clones.
Monumenta came charging and punched her in the back and she hit a car. "Now you're in for it!" Nightstar shouted as she shot starbolts and various explosives at Monumenta and Nyte Flyer.
Benny Various kept multiplying, using his clones to fight off Channerler, Burrower, and Gaia.
Beast Girl turned into a raptor and tried to snap at Gadget, but the girl flew out of reach and stuck her tongue out at her. The shape shifter turned into a T-Rex again and tore off one of the metal wings as Gadget shot a laser at her before she had her mechanical spider legs reemerge.
"Don't you touch my sister!" Burrower growled. He was about to summon more asphalt when Glint punched him.
As Nightstar fought off Monumenta and Nyte Flyer, Burrower did his best to block attacks from Glint. The geomancer summoned asphalt to block the attacks, but Glint kept using his transmuting powers to change the asphalt into other elements. Glint was suddenly caught off guard by Beast Girl in her goat form as she rammed into him.
Just then, Channeler touched one of the mechanical legs from Gadget's backpack with her index finger, her hand charged with electricity. "Touch!" The equipment short-circuited and Gadget went flying into the air as she cursed like a sailor. "Boo-yah! Payback, dude!"
Glint growled as he watched Gadget spinning out of control. "Nyte Flyer, get us out of here!" The winged villain nodded and engulfed each teammate in his wings, teleporting them away before he teleported himself.
"They're gone!" exclaimed Beast Girl, her hands balled into fists.
"We'll find them," Nightstar assured her friends. "But at least the mayor is safe and the prison hasn't been touched."
"I think we did pretty good for our first try," said Channeler. A chunk of rubble fell from a nearby building.
The press began to surround the teens as they bombarded them with questions and flashing cameras. All of a sudden, Nightwing and Raven appeared from Raven's energy as they stood in front of the teenagers.
"Daddy, what are you doing here?" Nightstar asked her father.
"Raven, get us out of here," Nightwing ordered. Raven nodded and formed an orb of dark energy over the group that teleported them away.
They reemerged in the main room of Titans Tower where Raven had her magic vanish. Channeler shivered and squirmed. "I'm never gonna be used to that."
The teens turned to see the rest of their parents. They all had concerned and unhappy looks on their faces.
"What did you think you were doing?!" exclaimed Terra as she and Changeling hugged their children. "You could have been hurt!"
"We couldn't just let them hurt the mayor or wreck the prison," protested Vanessa.
"Besides, the HIVE might attack again," Mari insisted. "And who knows how many other members they have?"
The parents looked at each other with concern. They didn't want their children to have to fight, but they also had lives to live and didn't want the peace of their city to be jeopardized.
"Yeah! Let's go kick some more butt!" exclaimed Maxine.
"Absolutely not!" exclaimed Cyborg. "Y'all have no experience. Terra's right. You're lucky they didn't hurt you or worse."
"What's the point of having powers if we don't use them?" Kyle asked.
Raven looked at her nephew. "Azara has more trouble with her powers than Terra and me combined. You know we've taught her to not use her powers so she won't hurt herself or anyone else."
"But Mari's right," said Vanessa. "The HIVE could attack again and we don't know how many members they have now."
Mari smiled at her father. "Once the HIVE is found and the villains are brought to justice, we can all go back to our normal lives."
"We've never trained you for combat," Nightwing reminded her. "And you still have school."
"Summer's coming soon," Mari reminded him. "You can train us on the weekends and during the summer.
The parents looked at each other once again before Nightwing let out a sigh. "All right. As of right now, you're Teen Titans."
"We'd better go tell the mayor," said Cyborg.
"You go talk to him," Raven told him. She turned to the teens. "We need to get them new uniforms. And put all of ours in a vault."
That evening, the mayor made another broadcast. The new Teen Titans stood next to him while the warden of the Mega-Security Prison stood nearby. "Citizens of Jump City, though the criminals have not been apprehended, I assure you that we will find them and we will bring them to justice! Until such time that we find the HIVE organization and shut it down, a new group of teenagers will work as active duty Teen Titans. I give you, Nightstar, Falcon, Burrower, Beast Girl, and Channeler!"
Nightstar wore the same outfit her mother used to wear though she added the same kind of sleeve armor her mother had worn when she first came to Earth, a cape, and a utility belt.
Beast Girl wore a female Doom Patrol member's uniform with shoes and gloves just like her father's.
Burrower wore a tan, long-sleeved top with a light brown "V" pattern on the chest and a "T" inside a circle for "Titan". He had light brown cargo shorts, hiking boots, and light tan gloves with rolled up sleeves.
Channeler had a white, "V" neck leotard, white, calf-length boots, and television wires wrapped around her chest in a X pattern, around her waist, . Television wires were wrapped around the waist, V, wrists, pig tails, and leg openings of her boots.
Falcon wore a blue cloak similar his mother's, blue arm warmers with red gems, a black unitard with short sleeves, and a gold belt with a matching red gem.
Photographers took pictures of the mayor shaking hands with each the heroes as he thanked them for their service. The warden did his best to get into the pictures as well.
"Your parents brought in some of the first few criminal to enter the Mega-Security Prison," the warden told Nightstar with a confident grin. "I'm sure you'll find those criminals and bring them through our doors very soon."
As the city cleaned up the damage done by the HIVE students, the five teenagers continued to go to school. Once the weekend came, their parents took them back to the Tower to choose rooms for themselves whenever they would have sleep-overs.
Cyborg had updated the systems and fixed any damage that had come to the Tower due to old age. The teens stood in awe at the updated Tower. "Each of you will pick the room you want and decorate it the way you want," said Nightwing. They grinned with excitement as they ran down the halls to investigate each room.
Mari chose Starfire's old room to be hers. She kept everything pretty much the same as Starfire had once had it, but added white dresser with a mirror, a few pictures, and put up black curtains. Once she was finished, Mari stood back to admire her work. "Perfect."
Vanessa chose Beast Boy's old room and had the wall with the closet painted black and the wall with the window painted maroon. She put up a few animal posters and put in a black dresser. Vanessa also decided to keep the bunk bed in case a friend wanted to spend the night. She also chose maroon sheets and pillow cases and a black comforter. The young changeling stood back to admire the room once it was finished. "Perfect," she smiled proudly.
Kyle picked Terra's old room and painted coyotes howling and birds flying in the scenery painted on the walls. He added a low-standing bookshelf where he put his books, music, boom box, and cherished trinkets. When he looked over the room, he smiled. "Perfect."
Maxine chose Robin's old room and put up as many movie posters and cardboard cut-outs of movie stars as possible. Then she took her Clash of the Planets sheets from her house and put them on Robin's old bed. She decided to turn Cyborg's old room into a computer room for the Titans to use for homework and social media. "Perfect!" she exclaimed.
Valkin decided to take Raven's old room and painted the walls royal blue and put up black curtains. He put all of his books from home, plus a few his mother had given him, on the shelves. For the bed, he got black sheets and a royal blue comforter. He looked the room over once it was finished and shrugged. "No one in their right mind would ever want to spend any time in this room," he said in a monotone. "Perfect."
Cyborg made a second bathroom out of one of the spare bedrooms for he remembered the trouble of five to six teenagers sharing a bathroom many years ago. The parents later went shopping for food so that they knew their children would eat while they did their homework and trained.
Once again the Titans Tower glowed at night to send a signal to the citizens of Jump City that they were under the protection of the Teen Titans. The children knew they had a long way to go before they would become legends like their parents, but the excitement of continuing their parents' legacy was hard to contain. They stood proudly in the main room as they watched the city beyond the bay. The Teen Titans were back.
In a large room, a single light hung in the center. The five HIVE teens, though bruised and sore, stood like soldiers until they heard footsteps. They bowed as a woman with dark skin, long, black hair, and dark blue-grey eyes came into the light. She wore a black and yellow uniform and a golden diadem on her forehead. The woman was accompanied by a younger woman with a slightly lighter skin tone, green-blue eyes, and the same uniform.
"You've done well, my students. Not only were you able to scare the public, but you were able to escape. You have proven yourself ready for the next phase of your training."
"Thank you, our queen," the group said in unison.
To be continued…
A/N: Special thanks to Brother Bludgeon for all his help and support. I truly appreciate it. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!