Alright everyone! I hope you're all ready for some more Teen Titanic awesomeness, because now that I've finally received 5 reviews for the chapter that came before this one, here is the next chapter at the ready for you to read. In this chapter, the titans officially get back in business at Jump City by battling its resident biker criminal, Johnny Rancid! Here's to hoping you guys all enjoy it and leave a nice healthy bunch of reviews! ;) And for that matter, I shall now give a warm thank you to my awesome Beta-reader Montydragon for his work on making sure this chapter was presentable for you guys.
A/N: Just to clear the air, I do not own Teen Titans or any other elements of the DC Universe.
And now, on with the story!
Chapter 2:
A Homecoming Brawl
Johnny Rancid laughed maniacally as he zoomed down the long Jump City road on his red and black motorcycle, firing his energy pistol again and again in random directions, almost completely disregarding who or what he happened to be firing at. He chuckled as he witnessed the damage he caused and heard the screaming of the civilians. "That's right people!" He yelled. "This street belongs to Johnny Rancid!"
The instant he finished shouting this, Johnny fired yet another burst of red energy from his pistol. The blast struck the base of an electricity pylon, and it proceeded to topple over, causing the wires extending from either side of it to disconnect from the two pylons it had stood between. The downed pylon and the wires fell straight towards a 19-year old blonde girl walking nearby with three kids with metallic prosthetic limbs. She screamed and just barely managed to leap out of the way, pushing the kids to safety, before the pylon crash-landed hard on the ground where they'd been standing, and the wires also landed to the sides, sparks of electricity flying from the ends of the disconnected cables.
Johnny laughed, and let off another salvo of energy blasts. The bursts of energy blew out numerous windows on the buildings to either side of the young woman and the three physically handicapped children as well as several bricks from the walls. Screaming, the young woman proceeded to position herself over the three kids as if trying to shield them with her own body. Through sheer luck, she and the children she was shielding just barely managed to avoid getting struck by any of the shards of glass or bricks that rained down on the area surrounding them.
Johnny laughed again at the sight of this, and was just about to start letting off another round of energy blasts when a massive beam of brilliant blue sonic energy blasted the ground almost exactly one centimeter in front of the front tire of his motor cycle. "Whoa!" Johnny yelled as he found himself promptly gripping tightly onto both handlebars of his motorcycle as the vehicle started swerving awkwardly as a result of the close proximity of the blue laser beam. The criminal just barely managed to get his motorcycle under control and avoid falling over. The instant he got his bike back under control, he positioned it so that it was now sideways, and put it to a stop. He was smart enough to realize that now would probably not be the best time to attempt to continue allowing the motorcycle to be actively moving in this situation.
As he moved his energy pistol trying to find whatever had unleashed the unexpected blue laser, Johnny was taken by surprise again when his pistol was sent flying out of his hands as a result of what appeared to be a mysterious spinning red blur slamming into it. The pistol landed on the ground a couple meters away, and the red blur went flying right back towards wherever it had come from.
Johnny turned his head to follow the path of the red blur just in time to see it come to a stop in a familiar green-gloved hand, revealing itself to be a small red mechanical object reminiscent of a boomerang, but shaped slightly like a mixture between an X and a bird. He'd only just managed to recognize the object for what it truly was and made the connection between it, the blue laser, and the identity of who had now interrupted his fun when he heard the teenage boy who'd just caught the device yell, "Show's over Johnny! You're going to jail!" The four other teens behind the familiar spiky-haired boy directed similar glares as the one on their leader's face towards the biker as well.
Johnny let a small smirk cross his face, and he said, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Teen Titans! Back from China I see?"
Beast Boy growled, a surprisingly animalistic noise considering the fact that he was currently in human form, and he yelled, "Oh we're back alright buddy!"
"And for the record," Raven droned, "we were in Japan you idiot."
Robin pointed at the muscular grayish-skinned biker and yelled, "Your dangerous road games end now Johnny!"
"You will not harm any more people!" Starfire yelled.
"That's right Johnny," said Cyborg. "Because we're now home again, and back in business."
"And no matter how you do the math," said Raven.
"It all adds up to you going down!" Beast Boy snarled.
However, much to the titans' brief surprise, Johnny only laughed. After his laughter ended for the moment, Johnny pointed back down the road in the direction from which he'd been riding his motorcycle down the street, and then said, "Oh really? Well, why don't you see what results you get when you add this in to the equation?"
The titans barely had any time to process what Johnny could have possibly been referring to when they heard the same bestial mechanized roar they'd heard from outside the city once again. They turned their heads to look where Johnny was pointing just in time to see what appeared to be a giant robotic dinosaur lumbering out from an alleyway next to a tall building, not too far away from the one that the Titans were positioned on the roof of.
At the sight of Johnny's newest robotic 'pet,' the titans stared intently at it. Beast Boy even gulped. The mechanical creature appeared to have the same bodily shape as that of a tyrannosaurus rex, but was big enough to be much closer to the size of a giganotosaurus. Its large jaws looked like they'd been designed from the jaw-like blades of a steam shovel, it had three hook-like claws on both of its hands, two huge clawed feet that looked like a mixture between steam shovel blades and bulldozer shovels, and it had an immensely long tail that looked strong enough to uproot the building that the titans were standing on the roof of. As if to further add to the terrifying appearance, the robotic dinosaur had what looked half of an oversized buzz-saw blade on the back of its head positioned in a way that made it resemble spines arranged in a mohawked style, and its mechanical eyes were an ominous dark red. As the titans watched, these same intimidating eyes narrowed threateningly, the robotic beast positioned itself so that it was directly facing them, and it let out a furious roar of challenge.
Johnny smirked at the sight of all this, and proudly yelled, "Say hello to T-Wrex!"
Almost immediately after its master shouted its name, the robotic dinosaur lifted its head up to face the sky and let out a monumentally loud roar that would have sent some the most battle-hardened ordinary law-enforcement officials running for their mommies.
Fortunately, the Teen Titans were no mere ordinary law-enforcement officials, and they soon took back on their original combat ready stances and looks. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall," Robin growled. He then directed his gaze towards Johnny, spread his arms out and yelled, "Titans, go!"
The instant Robin shouted out the trademark call to battle for the titans, they all leaped off the roof of the building they were on. As Robin swooped downwards towards Johnny Rancid, he drew out his grappling hook and fired it at a small overhanging gargoyle on a wall of the building in front of the one he'd been standing on. The cable wrapped tightly around the stone statue's neck, and when Robin came close enough to the wall of the building the gargoyle was hanging from, he used his feet to propel himself away, only detaching the cable when his feet were just close enough to the top of a nearby street lamp for him to safely land there. Mere seconds after Robin's feet touched the top of the street lamp, he jumped downwards towards Johnny Rancid with his right foot positioned so that it was aimed right at the burly biker's face.
Rancid was caught by surprise, for he'd been expecting for Robin to jump off the lamp post in a way that would have allowed his feet to touch the ground first before attacking, and planned to catch the boy wonder by surprise by abruptly charging towards him on his motorcycle. The criminal only processed this for a few seconds before Robin's foot came crashing into his face and sent him flying off of his motorcycle.
Johnny landed right next to his energy pistol, which he hastily grabbed onto before getting up and opening fire at Robin. The teenage crime fighter drew out his bo staff and spun it around rapidly in circles like a professional martial artist, artfully deflecting the energy blasts away from him.
As Johnny was busy focusing on Robin, Starfire soared down towards the criminal, her eyes focused intently on the scene. Right when she was about a yard or two away from landing right next to Johnny, she sent a large star bolt flying from her right fist towards him. The biker just had time to see a bright green light from out of the corner of his eyes before he was hit by the burst of green energy and sent flying backward.
After landing, Johnny barely had any time at all to recover before he found himself under fire from a massive flurry of star bolts that the Tamaranean girl sent hurtling his way. And for good measure, she finished off her slew of attacks with a well-aimed laser shot from her eyes. At the sight of Starfire's laser beam blast heading towards him, he quickly raised up his hands, which were coated in armored wrist bands, in a defensive position. The beams were harmlessly absorbed into the wrist bands. The instant the beams had faded away, Johnny quickly pointed his energy pistol at Starfire, and struck her point blank in the chest with a blast of the red energy. Starfire shrieked in pain before falling out of the sky.
At the sound of Robin's angry yell that followed, Johnny Rancid turned his head to face Robin just in time to see the boy wonder lunging at him with his staff raised to strike at him. Johnny just barely managed to lift up his left wrist to parry the blow. And for the next few minutes, Robin continued to swing his bo staff furiously at Rancid while the biker just as quickly parried each blow with his armored wrist bands.
Eventually, Johnny swung his right foot at Robin, swiping the boy wonder's legs out from under him. Robin landed on his back and his staff was sent bouncing down the street away from him. Robin managed to lift his head up from the road in time to see Rancid standing not too far in front of him with his energy pistol aimed right at his face.
Fortunately, before Johnny could fire, Starfire slammed into him with a yell. The impact she slammed into Rancid with was enough for him to be pushed swiftly through the air by her before slamming into the wall of a nearby building.
Starfire swooped backward away from the building, preparing herself for if Johnny Rancid got up to attack again. And attack again he indeed did. He got up from his crumpled position, growled angrily at Starfire, and then jumped up high into the air. And as he plummeted down towards Starfire, he had his right fist raised up in the air as if about to slam it down hard on her.
"Eek!" Starfire yelled before she darted to her right just to avoid the crushing impact of Johnny's fist to her face. Instead, the criminal's fist struck the road hard enough to leave a large circle of cracks on it.
As Johnny turned his head in the direction Starfire had darted to escape, Robin threw a small disk-like object at Johnny. The disk came at Johnny too fast for the criminal to raise his wrists up to block it, and it crashed into him. Upon contact, the disk exploded, and revealed itself to be one of Robin's voltage disks when, instead of flames, tendrils of electricity spouted out and covered Johnny in a web of voltage.
At that moment, while Johnny was incapacitated by the electricity, Starfire flew high up into the air, her right fist raised, and then zoomed straight back down. Robin was able to jump into the air seconds before Starfire landed, slamming her fist so hard onto the ground that it caused a powerful shockwave. The area of effect produced by Starfire's ultra-powered fist slam sent Johnny flying backward.
Meanwhile, at the same time that Robin and Starfire were busy with Johnny, the other three titans were busy with fighting off Johnny's robotic dinosaur. This phase of the battle began with Cyborg activating his sonic cannon in his right arm once more while in mid-air before pointing it downwards towards the robotic beast and shooting its laser blast at it. The beam struck T-Wrex right on the top of its head with a bang, resulting in its buzz-saw shaped crest being blown to smithereens, and it roared in an almost angry tone.
Cyborg landed on the ground a couple inches away from the robot's right foot, which he proceeded to blast with his sonic cannon. The robotic monster roared, looked downward at the partially robotic nuisance that had now attacked it twice before snapping its jaws downwards towards him. Cyborg managed to leap away just in time to avoid getting gobbled up.
Beast Boy, who had been flying towards T-Wrex as a peregrine falcon, turned into a lion in mid-air right as he was two feet away from slamming right into the side of the robot's head. With a roar, Beast Boy proceeded to latch onto the left side of the creature's head, where he then started biting and scratching at it. The robotic monster growled, and started rapidly swinging its head around in random directions. The green lion latched onto its head managed to stalwartly hold on for the majority of the time. However, when T-Wrex abruptly lowered its head straight down, it was enough to catch Beast Boy off guard. And as a result, when T-Wrex then proceeded to rapidly lift its head right back upwards, the green lion was catapulted straight upwards into the air; and when Beast Boy started falling right back down towards the robotic monster, it positioned its head so that it was looking directly at the falling green lion and opened its jaws so that Beast Boy would land right inside.
Fortunately, Beast Boy was a resourcefully quick thinker in battle, and he transformed into an ankylosaurus seconds before he landed within the robotic dinosaur's jaws. And as a result, T-Wrex found its metallic 'fangs' crunching painfully into the rock-hard armor plated sides of an ankylosaurus instead of the soft furry lion flesh it had originally been expecting. Upon scrunching its 'fangs' up on the unexpected jawbreaker, it let out a metallic screech before spitting Beast Boy right out.
Beast Boy reverted back to human form as he hurtled down towards the ground, and upon landing managed to turn the impact into a small three step series of somersaults. After his third somersault, he landed with his hands and feet flat on the ground, and he slid backwards facing the robotic dinosaur. The creature glowered at him, its dark red mechanical eyes seeming to narrow in fury, and it let out another roar.
The roaring of the robotic dinosaur abruptly ended when it felt something heavy slam into the back of its head. It turned its head to look behind it in time to see Raven hovering a few feet behind its head, using her telekinetic shadow energy to lift up a large group of cars and other vehicles that the robot had smashed earlier.
The robotic monster glowered at Raven as she continued to hurl more and more smashed up cars, trucks, and other vehicles at it. It then roared, lifted up its long tail, and then swung it downwards straight towards her. Raven just barely had time to deploy a small shield of shadow energy in front of her, before the robotic dinosaur's tail slammed into the shield with such a colossal impact that not only did Raven lose concentration enough for the shield to vanish afterward, but she also fell right down onto the ground.
As Raven lay on the ground catching her breath, she heard T-Wrex roar, and she looked up in time to see it lift up its left foot in preparation to stomp on her. Raven was just preparing herself to summon a full-on shadow force field when the robotic dinosaur was abruptly sent staggering and off balance when the head of a large green brachiosaurus that abruptly appeared not too far away from it swung its neck in a way that allowed its head to smack into the robotic creature's side.
Soon afterward, T-Wrex managed to regain its footing and balance, and it turned around to face Beast Boy just in time to see the green sauropod rear up, its front legs lifted up and at the ready to be sent smashing into the robotic dinosaur. However, right as Beast Boy unleashed a groaning bellow as if announcing his oncoming attack, his robotic opponent charged straight towards him, ramming its head straight into his chest.
Beast Boy's furious bellow turned into a saurian squeal of surprise as the force of the robotic dinosaur's blow sent him falling down straight backwards. Beast Boy landed right on his back with his legs sticking upwards into the air and his belly now exposed. Upon eventually realizing that he felt a large object underneath him and hearing a familiar male voice yelling in pain and shock before the same voice then let out a series of unflattering grunts and growls, he also realized that he'd just pinned Cyborg underneath 60 tons of living, breathing dinosaur.
The roaring of T-Wrex brought Beast Boy back to attention, and he let out a surprised bellow when he saw that the robotic dinosaur had now lifted up its left paw in preparation to stomp down on the center of his exposed belly. Thinking quickly, Beast Boy turned into a hummingbird and zipped away just before T-Wrex's foot came crashing down on the area where he'd been. Fortunately, this area had not been the area where Cyborg was now lying down. In fact, Beast Boy took on the form of a cheetah soon after escaping from getting stomped on and landed right in front of Cyborg's feet. The robotic dinosaur leaned down so that its mechanical red eyes were looking straight at Beast Boy and Cyborg, glowered, and then roared.
In a flash, right as T-Wrex was roaring, Beast Boy the cheetah bolted right underneath the robotic dinosaur's chin and ran right between its legs. T-Wrex was taken by surprise, and it slowly turned around to face Beast Boy once again, only for the green cheetah to run right back between its legs all over again. T-Wrex growled in annoyance and turned to face Beast Boy and Cyborg all over again, only for Beast Boy to again run between its legs towards Raven. And for the next few minutes, Beast Boy continued to run back and forth between the robotic dinosaur's legs, all the while causing it to get dizzier and dizzier as it kept turning itself around to try to face Beast Boy. As Cyborg watched this, he whistled to himself and said, "Dang, you're smarter than you let on man." Even Raven found a small impressed smirk crossing her face. Beast Boy certainly knew how to use size differences to his advantage.
Eventually, after the umpteenth time Beast Boy ran between T-Wrex's legs to come up to Raven and the robotic dinosaur turned around to face Beast Boy, the robotic dinosaur finally lost its footing. The robotic beast had just enough time to let out a surprised roar before it fell straight backwards. Unfortunately, Cyborg was still standing now in the area where T-Wrex was now about to land, and he let out a surprised and worried groan as he belatedly started running further down the street to try to escape. But the robotic dinosaur was falling down too fast.
Cyborg just had time to scream as T-Wrex came inches away from landing right on him before he found himself shrieking again as he abruptly fell seemingly right through the road. In fact, Cyborg had stepped into a vortex of shadows that suddenly appeared on the street right in front of him, and he vanished through it from the area right as T-Wrex finally came crashing down onto the road.
Seconds later, a black vortex appeared right above the area to Raven and Beast Boy's right, and Cyborg fell right out onto the road, on his face. Beast Boy resumed his human form, looked at Cyborg, and asked, "You ok dude?"
Cyborg snorted, looked up at Beast Boy out of the corner of his human eye, and replied, "Meh, could be a lot worse. I could be stuck under the weight of another dinosaur."
Beast Boy grinned sheepishly, rubbed his fingers through his hair, and said, "Eh, my bad."
The sound of metal clanging on the ground brought the three titans back to reality, and they turned to face where T-Wrex was in time to see that the robotic dinosaur had managed to position its tail so that it could get its feet firmly back on the ground and use that positioning as leverage to get itself fully upright once again. The three titans had time to gulp before T-Wrex roared and smacked them with its tail, sending them flying backward.
Meanwhile, Robin and Starfire were still busy battling Johnny Rancid himself. Robin was now sending his fists and feet flying at Johnny in a rapid flurry of martial arts moves. Johnny was just barely able to parry them all. But even Johnny couldn't parry Robin's attacks indefinitely, and Robin eventually managed to land a solid karate chop to Johnny's face, sending the biker stumbling backward.
Johnny attempted to use another leg sweep on Robin, but Robin was expecting it this time, and he back flipped out of reach. And as a result, Johnny was left open to getting hit by the laser shot that Starfire fired at him from her eyes. Johnny went sprawling, only to get up and barrel straight towards her and Robin with an angry yell, his helmeted head lowered as if he were a pachycephalosaurus. Starfire calmly flew out of the way while Robin calmly leaned so far to his right that only his left leg was still in Johnny's path. And so Robin tripped Johnny and sent him sprawling on his belly.
Johnny got up, looked at Robin, and growled before abruptly thrusting his left fist at Robin in a swift left jab. This move caught Robin off guard, and the boy wonder was sent flying when the blow got him right in the face. At the sight of this, a small smile came up on Johnny's face. Unfortunately for the criminal, he only had reason to smile for a few seconds before he felt someone kick him in the back.
Johnny stumbled forward a few inches before regaining his balance and then turning around to look behind him. Sure enough, Starfire was now right behind him, her fists raised as if she were now ready to try to punch him. Johnny snorted, and abruptly gave her a pounding head butt to the face with his helmeted head. However, the instant Johnny lifted his head back up to face Starfire again with a condescending smirk on his face, Starfire head butted him right back in his own face. Starfire's head butt attack was surprisingly stronger, and it sent Johnny rocketing backward. Robin cartwheeled out of the way of the flying criminal, and Johnny crash landed in a dumpster.
Meanwhile, Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg were still battling T-Wrex. After recovering from the blow they received from the robotic dinosaur's tail, they had now taken on a strategy that involved them flying in circles around it while firing long range attacks at it. In other words, Raven levitated around T-Wrex in a counter-clockwise direction while hurling orbs of shadow energy at it while Beast Boy flew around T-Wrex in a clockwise direction as a pteranodon while carrying Cyborg in his talons, and Cyborg fired his sonic cannon repeatedly at the robotic dinosaur.
"In your face, windup toy!" Cyborg yelled as he successfully blasted T-Wrex on the side of its face once more.
Unfortunately, Cyborg's joy at his successfully landing attacks on T-Wrex would prove short-lived, for the robotic dinosaur growled, and got itself into a battle-ready position. And when all three of the teenage heroes battling it were directly in front of its face, it unleashed a roar so loud and strong, that it sent the three teenagers careening away from it out of control.
One by one, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven fell down on the ground once again. When they got up, they saw T-Wrex lift up its left foot and then stomp it back down, lift up its right foot and then stomp it back down, and then look directly at them before unleashing yet another roar of challenge at them.
Raven growled, and said, "We are so not making much progress against this thing."
"At this rate, it will take hours to defeat this thing the way we're currently doing it," Cyborg agreed.
Beast Boy growled, crouched down, and said, "Well I guess we'll just have to have it pick on something its own size!"
"Man," said Cyborg. "That monster is way bigger than your t-rex form."
Beast Boy directed a glare at Cyborg. "I didn't say I'd be battling it as a t-rex," he growled.
Before Cyborg could say anything else, Beast Boy turned his head to face T-Wrex once more, growled, and then proceeded to morph into a dinosaur that definitely wasn't a tyrannosaurus-rex. Cyborg and Raven gaped at Beast Boy, for the dinosaur he'd just now turned into was not something they'd ever seen him transform into before. While the massive carnivorous dinosaur that now stood before them with its back and tail facing them had the right bodily shape for a t-rex, it was much bigger, had slightly longer arms with three claws on each hand, and had a row of spike-like ridges lining the top of its head, the back of its neck, and its back. Only Beast Boy currently knew that he had transformed into a giganotosaurus. But right now, the important thing that the other titans needed to know now was that the dinosaur he'd turned into was the exact same height as T-Wrex. As T-Wrex gaped at Beast Boy with a facial expression that bordered on shock, the green giganotosaurus that stood before it growled, lowered its head, and then jerked it right back so that it was staring at T-Wrex face-to-face, letting out an even more menacing roar of challenge of its own.
Raven shook her head at the sight of the two dinosaurs that now stood facing each other. "Well, this should be interesting," she said.
Seconds later, T-Wrex's characteristic stern glare came back on its face, and it let out an angry mechanized roar at the same time that Beast Boy let out his own more life-like roar. After Beast Boy and T-Wrex had finished unleashing their roars of challenge, they proceeded to charge towards each other, the earth shaking underneath their feet as they stomped rapidly towards each other.
The epic battle began with the two gigantic beasts crashing their heads together. They came apart and roared at each other. T-Wrex growled, and reared upward, its jaws open and ready to bite at Beast Boy. However, Beast Boy, not being made of metal, was faster in his movements then the bulkier robotic dinosaur, and as his robotic opponent was letting out its angry roar as if to announce its oncoming attack, he lowered his head downwards to the right, and then swiftly lifted it upwards to the left, smashing the top of his head into T-Wrex's chin.
This attack sent T-Wrex stumbling backwards briefly, and it managed to regain its footing and shake itself out of dizziness a few minutes later. However, T-Wrex had only just managed to get its head positioned to look directly at Beast Boy when the giant green giganotosaurus crashed headfirst into the robotic dinosaur's chest with a powerful charging attack. The impact of this attack was enough for Beast Boy to push T-Wrex backward for at least a yard before the robotic dinosaur managed to regain firm footing on the ground and then push Beast Boy away by forcefully leaning forward.
Beast Boy stumbled backwards for a few seconds; and when he managed to regain his footing and recover from his momentary dizziness, he saw T-Wrex roar at him before swinging its massive tail straight at his head. Beast Boy ducked, and the heavy metal tail swung harmlessly over his head. T-Wrex, having expected its tail to meet resistance from crashing into the side of Beast Boy's head, found itself staggering off balance with its back facing Beast Boy.
Beast Boy promptly took advantage of his opponent now being off balance by swinging his own tail at it. Beast Boy's tail gave T-Wrex a firm smacking right on its backside, sending the robotic dinosaur flying forward before crashing down hard on the ground on its belly. The robotic dinosaur growled, positioned its legs and arms so that it was able to get itself back on its feet, and turned around to face Beast Boy before roaring again.
Unfortunately for the robotic dinosaur, Beast Boy had already started running towards it with his head positioned so as to be unleashing a second charging head slam attack before T-Wrex had even started turning itself back around to face him, and the green giganotosaurus slammed his head into T-Wrex's chest yet again and sent it stumbling backwards once more.
T-Wrex shook its head side to side to regain its bearings, and it let out another roar. But again, Beast Boy struck while T-Wrex was busy roaring, and he bit the robotic dinosaur on the neck and pulled it slightly to its right before abruptly letting go, causing T-Wrex to go stumbling to the side.
T-Wrex barely had time to even start lifting its head up again before Beast Boy began to unleash a mass flurry of physical attacks from his jaws, tail, and top of his head. T-Wrex, being made out of metal, was too bulky to move fast enough to dodge or effectively counter-attack its flesh and blood opponent, and it tried to give ground. But the green giganotosaurus kept moving forward and keeping as short of a distance between it and the robotic dinosaur as possible. Eventually, Beast Boy finished his grand show of attacks by lowering his head and then raising it up so fast that the top of his head collided with T-Wrex's chin, sending the robotic dinosaur flying backwards.
T-Wrex landed on its side; and within a few seconds, it wheezed, and then slowly managed to get its feet firmly positioned on the ground once more. However, before T-Wrex even had a chance to straighten its legs up and get itself to full height, Beast Boy plowed into the robotic dinosaur's right side, knocking it off balance once again. And this time, Beast Boy didn't give T-Wrex a chance to regain its balance, proceeding to latch his jaws tightly around the robotic dinosaur's neck, and then tightly move his head upward, twisting the robotic dinosaur's neck until its head came popping right off of its body. T-Wrex's head went flying through the air before coming to a crash land right in front of Cyborg and Raven. The two titans gulped upon sight of the severed robotic head with its previously malice-filled and ferocious mechanical red eyes now stuck in what looked like an expression of shock.
And as the Cyborg and Raven proceeded to look back at Beast Boy once more, they watched in stunned silence as the green giganotosaurus proceeded to lay into the headless body of T-Wrex with all it had using its fangs, tail, and claws, slowly ripping it into countless pieces. Before long, all that was left of T-Wrex was numerous assorted mechanical pieces and what looked like a small generator engine that allowed for it to function. Robin and Starfire also managed to watch the last of the carnage while holding down the lid of the dumpster that Johnny had landed inside earlier, and Robin found himself silently impressed with Beast Boy's work. Seconds later, Robin abruptly thought of an idea, and he whistled and beckoned for Beast Boy to come over.
Beast Boy growled, and came barreling over to where Robin and Starfire were. Robin grinned at the dinosaur, quickly pointed at the dumpster, and then after signaling to Starfire, he removed his hand from the dumpster lid. Starfire did the same, and Johnny lifted up the lid just in time to find himself staring right at the furious face of Beast Boy the giganotosaurus.
Upon finding himself abruptly face-to-face with a gigantic flesh and blood dinosaur, Johnny gulped, turned his head to his left, and saw the wreckage that remained of T-Wrex. Gulping again, he then turned his head to face Beast Boy, chuckling and grinning nervously when he heard Beast Boy growl. Seconds later, Beast Boy snapped his jaws open and let out a furious roar. Johnny screamed, ducked back inside the dumpster, and slammed the lid shut. "I surrender!" yelled his voice from within the dumpster. "Just don't let that thing eat me!"
Robin chuckled, and gave Beast Boy a thumbs up right as Cyborg and Raven made it all the way over to where Beast Boy had now gathered up with Robin and Starfire. Beast Boy growled at the dumpster, placed his right foot lightly upon the lid of the dumpster, and then lifted his head upwards to face the sky before unleashing a triumphant roar. The titans had now defeated Johnny Rancid and won their first battle to occur upon their return to Jump City. If there'd been any doubt about it before, there was now no more doubts. The teen titans truly were now back in business.
. . . . .
"This isn't over!" Johnny yelled as he was escorted into a police transport by the officers who'd come to take him away. "I will get out again eventually, and I will fight you again when I do! You haven't seen the last of Johnny Rancid!" After he finished shouting the last bit, the back doors to the police transport were slammed shut on Johnny, and the police proceeded to head off to take him to the Jump City Prison.
Robin smiled as he watched the police carting Johnny Rancid away. "All in all, yet another job well done," he thought to himself. Smiling still, he turned around to face the other titans and said, "Nice work team."
Beast Boy chuckled, clasped his hands together lazily behind his back, and said, "Are we awesome or what?"
"We certainly taught good old Johnny Rancid who's the boss, that's for sure," said Cyborg with a grin.
"Whatever," said Raven, her arms folded across her chest and her face as blank, emotionless, and seemingly full of disinterest as ever.
Robin smiled, slammed his right fist into his open left palm, and said, "Well now that this bit of business is over, I say we head back to the tower."
"Took the words right out of my mouth man," said Cyborg.
Right as the titans were preparing themselves to head off back to Titans Tower, they heard a female voice behind them say, "Excuse me, do you guys have a minute?"
The five teenage heroes turned their heads to look behind them, and saw the same 19 year old blonde girl Johnny Rancid had been menacing directly before they'd intervened standing a couple inches behind them. The three little kids she'd been with were standing right behind her. As the titans looked at the young woman they'd saved who now appeared to have come to talk to them, Cyborg happened to notice that the three little kids, one of them a dark haired Caucasian boy with a metallic right hand, a ginger-haired girl with a prosthetic right leg, and a blonde boy with a prosthetic left arm, appeared to be looking directly at him with looks of awe on their faces.
The blonde girl clasped her hands together as if wringing them, looked down towards her hands as if feeling self-conscious, and then said, "I didn't get the chance earlier, but I wanted to thank you for saving me and these kids earlier."
The titans found themselves awkwardly looking at each other, uncertain as to what to do in response. Admittedly, this hadn't been the first time they'd been directly thanked by civilians they'd saved. However, very few of these instances had truly been moments of genuine gratitude as opposed to characteristic schmoozing from crazed fan-girls and fan-boys, heat of the moment comments to occur directly after having been immediately saved, or obligatory statements of thanks made purely for the sake of politeness more than for genuine gratitude. In other words, the titans had rarely ever been thanked and left feeling in the future as if the thanks they'd been given was truly real. In fact, one of the few incidents in which they'd felt genuine gratitude from people they'd saved had occurred when they'd been thanked personally by the mayor and citizens of Tokyo, who'd treated them with surprisingly more gratitude than even the government of their own home town had treated them with at times.
The civilian girl standing before them seemed to sense this, and she grasped onto Cyborg's hand with both of her own. The other titans gaped at her with shocked expressions on their faces. The girl smiled warmly, and the titans only then noticed the very sincerely grateful look in her sky-blue eyes and the eyes of the three physically handicapped children. "I mean it," the blonde girl said. "I truly am grateful for what you've now done for me and these children today. I'm especially grateful for you." She said the last bit while looking Cyborg directly in the eyes.
Cyborg directed his gaze to his left, a slight blush coming on the human part of his face, and he said shyly, "You're welcome. Heh, heh, all in a day's work you know?"
"Nonetheless," said the blonde as she continued to gaze thankfully at Cyborg. "Thank you still. If it hadn't been for your team, and especially for you as a result of your well-timed sonic laser blast, I could very likely have died today, and so could have these three children. You and your friends saved my life today, and I truly couldn't be more grateful, and I also believe that no one else in this city truly understands how grateful they should be towards you. For continuing to do your job even in spite of this, and for what you have done for me today, I truly am thankful."
The titans gulped, and hung their heads with self-conscious looks on their faces. At this point, not even Raven with her empathic emotion sensing abilities or Beast Boy with his animal instincts could deny how truly grateful and sincere this young woman was being in her thanking them, and especially Cyborg. In fact, even the three 10-year old children showed crystal clear signs of genuine gratitude, for they had artless and genuinely thankful smiles on their faces that made them seem to glow with happiness.
The blonde boy stepped forward, his non cybernetic thumb raised towards Cyborg, and said, "She's right. You guys are awesome, especially you Cyborg."
Cyborg chuckled nervously, and said, "You really think so?"
"Sure we do," the red-haired girl happily squealed.
"Yeah," said the dark haired boy. "We're among your biggest fans; and so is my elder brother. Believe me, ever since he met you five years ago, he's never stopped idolizing you Cyborg."
After Cyborg heard this, he abruptly realized that this dark haired boy actually looked slightly familiar. In fact, he looked very similar to a young boy with a prosthetic left hand he'd once met five years ago on a day he'd ended up dealing with a dying power cell at an inopportune moment. "That kid must've been this boy's brother," Cyborg thought to himself.
Smiling, Cyborg said, "Well, I'm glad you guys view me so highly."
The three kids giggled, looked each other in the eyes, and then turned their heads to face Cyborg again before asking in unison, "Can I have your autograph?"
Cyborg blushed, and looked over at his four teammates. All of them had smiles on their faces. Even Raven had a wistful smile on her face. Cyborg looked back at the kids, a grin on his face, and said, "You sure can little fellas. Anyone have a pen handy?"
The blonde girl drew a pen out from her pants pocket and handed it to Cyborg. A few minutes later, Cyborg had proceeded to sign his hero identity on a page in a notebook the red head girl had handed to him, the back of the blonde boy's t-shirt, and a baseball that the dark haired boy had presented to him. The three children smiled giddily, and then proceeded to walk back behind their elder chaperone. The young blonde woman smiled once more at the titans, gave them a small wave, and said, "I hope to see you around again sometime."
"Thanks," said Cyborg. "Hope to see you around again to."
The other titans nodded in agreement with Cyborg, genuinely hoping to see this young woman again.
A few minutes later, long after the woman and three children had left the sight of the titans, Cyborg abruptly face palmed himself and let out a groan. The other titans looked at him, and he then said, "Darn it! I forgot to get her name!"
Starfire placed her hand on Cyborg's shoulder in a sympathetic gesture. "There, there, Cyborg," said the Tamaranean. "Don't despair. I'm sure we will see her again and you'll be able to get her name then."
"Yeah," said Raven. "I mean, it's not like she's going to just vanish off the face of the Earth. I'm sure you'll get another chance to talk to her some more, not to mention we'll get another chance to get to know her some more as well."
"I certainly hope we get to meet her some more again," Beast Boy agreed as he directed a toothy grin in the direction the young woman and three children had departed. "She sounds pretty cool, not to mention she actually thanked us and meant it when she did so."
"I definitely have to agree with you there Beast Boy," said Robin with a respectful smile on his face. "It's not every day we meet people like her who truly feel grateful for what we do. I definitely say we ought to make an effort to get to know her some more. She could very well prove a valuable ally."
Cyborg smiled at his supportive friends. He looked back in the direction that the young woman and the three children had left, his smile still on his face, and then said, "Thanks guys. You really are great friends."
Beast Boy chuckled, placed his hand on his partially robotic best friend's shoulder in a companionable gesture, and said, "Couldn't have it any other way dude."
The five teenage heroes spent a few more minutes standing where they were, looking proudly in the direction that their potential new friend had gone, feeling very proud of themselves. Eventually, Robin turned his head to face the direction of Titans Tower, turned his entire body around, and then said, "Come on team. Let's go home."
And just like that, that's the end of this chapter! I especially hope you enjoyed the battle scenes in this chapter! And on that note, please tell me what you thought about my writing for those scenes. I really enjoyed writing the battle, and I hope that you guys think I did a good job at it (and if I didn't, by all means please give me some constructive criticism on how I could improve my writing of battles to occur in the future). On another note, though I'm pretty sure the answer will be obvious to anyone who's read any of the comics (whether it be the Teen Titans Go comics that were based on the original cartoon Teen Titans series or the original DC comics that the show was based on), any one willing to guess who that 'mystery' young blonde woman with the three handicapped kids was? And for that matter, I'd better warn all ardent fans of Cybee that they might not be very happy about this little element. And on another note, in case any of you are wondering what I'm referring to by my description of when Cyborg met that one particular kid's brother, I am referring to when Cyborg met that kid in the episode 'Sum of his Parts'. Well, on another note, I again hope you guys enjoyed reading this and leave a nice healthy bunch of reviews. Remember, 5 reviews is the minimum number required for you guys to post before I post the next chapter (and even after that, when I post it will depend both on when I finish writing it and when my awesome Beta reader Montydragon finishes going over it). Again, hope you had fun!
Coming up next: After all the excitement of returning home from Tokyo and the battle with Johnny Rancid, the titans have a relatively peaceful, relaxing, and easy-going night in the tower. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the night will stay peaceful all the way till morning.