It was a lazy Wednesday in Titan Tower, with bodies sprawled everywhere across the living room couch, each pursuing their own pleasure. Beastboy was flipping through a comic book about a man with a steel stomach who could eat battery acid, and Raven was curled up against the armrest, sipping a mug of tea and watching snowflakes through the window as they lazily spiraled to the ground. Cyborg was working on an upgrade for the television, in an attempt to outstrip the Titan's East expensive new 3-D system ("Wait till those losers see hi-def movies in 4-D!"), and Starfire was humming cheerfully to herself, busily flying around their large Christmas tree ("The glorious plant of knick-knacks!") and hanging all manner of items on its branches, from Beastboy's old socks to tufts of cat hair. Even Robin had managed to unwind a little bit, stretching his arms back behind his head and contenting himself with observing his teammates' activities.

BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!

The relaxing morning came to an abrupt halt as the alarm went off, blaring loudly and red light pulsing throughout the tower. Robin immediately jumped up, burning like a live wire, and ran over to the holo-screen to scan the information on the perpetrator and their location.

His fists instinctually clenched tight and his eyes narrowed when he saw the screen.

"It's Red-X," he told them through gritted teeth. "He's in the Jump City vault."

"Well then let's go pummel his butt!" Cy cried, punching his fist into his hand.

"Titans, GO!" their leader hollered, and the five superheroes moved into action, swiftly heading toward the scene of the crime.

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"Well, well. I'm touched, Bird Brain. You coming all the way out here, just for little old me?" the synthesized voice taunted the titan's leader from behind the mask.

"Can it, X, and hand over what you stole! I just might spare you the injuries," Robin spat back, unsheathing his bo staff and bending his knees, ready to pounce.

The other titans assumed their fighting positions, warily watching Red-X, waiting to strike at Robin's signal.

A metallic chuckle filled the vault, and the thief shook his head pityingly. "Last time I checked the score, Grass Stain, you were still at zero."

Robin let out a roar and charged, furious at being goaded by the arrogant criminal. He brought his staff down swiftly, aiming for X's head, but the masked villain merely back flipped out of harm's way, retaliating with a sticky red x that slammed into Robin and glued him against the back wall. The hero struggled vainly against it, shouting strings of profanity, but the glue held tight. The other titans had begun their assault meanwhile, and Starfire flew toward Red-X, eyes and hands blazing green. X caught her by the ankle and swung her body down, sending her crashing to the floor where she lay still.

"You wanna play rough, huh?" Cyborg called, powering up his cannon for a staggering shot. The blue electricity shot out, illuminating the room in a aqua-tinged glow, but X had disappeared from where he had been standing seconds before. Cyborg's eyes widened as he realized too late his mistake. Red-X materialized behind him.

"I can play gentle too," the thief murmured as he slapped an x over Cy's main hard drive, causing the half-robot to shut down and collapse.

Beastboy had morphed into a thickly muscled rhinoceros, and he tossed his head in anger before lowering his horns at his target's chest and charging forward at a thundering pace. The criminal tossed three razor sharp x's at his opponent, and they sliced through the tough, leathery skin of the beast.

BB reared back in pain, and Red-X took the moment to debilitate the changeling by aiming a sticky x at his eyes, gluing his eyelids down. Beastboy dropped to the ground, howling and rolling as he desperately tried to pull the mess off of his face.

That left just one. The empath.

Raven could feel a smirk radiating from beneath the mask of the thief, and she wrapped her black energy around a massive filing cabinet and hurled it toward Red-X.

"Come on now Sunshine, I thought you'd at least try for me," he taunted as he dodged the attack, sending jagged projectiles her way. She blocked them with a shield of hardened black energy, and then pushed the hardened mass of energy toward X, pressing him against a wall. If she had her way, she'd squeeze him to death right here. X seemed to plan otherwise however, for he reached down and activated his teleportation belt, landing a few feet away, safely breathing again.

Without a backward glance he took off running, heading up the fire escape stairs toward the roof. Raven followed, chasing on his heels. He tossed a razor x behind him and Raven threw herself against the wall, feeling the tips of its points graze her stomach as it narrowly flew past her. Small lines of blood appeared where the projectile had broken her skin, but it was merely a scratch as far as she was concerned. She had wasted a few precious seconds and X was getting further away, so without thinking the sorceress threw herself up the last flight of stairs and burst through the fire exit, onto the roof. Red-X was pounding the pavement farther ahead, about to make the leap to the next building's roof. Raven reached out her hand and sent a whip of energy toward the thief, lashing it around his waist and throwing him back toward her.

X fell to the ground and rolled. Raven used the moment to pin his hands and feet down with her magic. He struggled for a minute against the bonds, trying to find weak spots, but upon finding none he settled for irritating the empath.

"Hey, Princess, if you wanted to dominate me, all you had to do was ask," he chuckled brazenly.

Raven's eyes flamed and she balled her fists, ready to strangle the smug, insufferable jerk. Instead, she whiplashed Red-X across his face with her black energy, leaving his cheeks stinging even through his mask. She walked toward him, looking down at where he lay pinned.

"Don't call me Princess. It makes you sound desperate," she spat at him.

Red-X took advantage of her proximity to him, kicking out with his steel-toed boots, and successfully managed a crunching, painful hit to Raven's shin. She cursed as she fell on the injured leg, and as her concentration was broken, X freed himself from the weakened bonds. Before she could move away, he pulled out an x and slapped it on her forehead, disabling her powers.

It didn't disable Raven's desire to fight however— snarling, she launched herself at X, ready to claw at him with tooth and nail. They rolled across the concrete, struggling to gain the upper hand. Raven landed a powerful punch to X's face, fracturing his mask. A surge of fear went through X, and he forcefully pushed the petite girl off of him, sending her flying backward. Her head connected to the concrete with a sickening crack and she lay motionless.

Raven tried to clear her vision as black crept in from the corners, her chest rapidly rising and falling as she breathed. Without her powers to heal herself, she spiraled farther into darkness. She thought she could hear someone calling her name over and over again, and she knew she had begun hallucinating when she saw the mask of Red-X loom into her vision, his hands reaching out to cradle her bleeding head. In her last moments of consciousness she tried to send a call of help to Robin through their bond, but her mind had already grown heavy and muddled, and all she could do was slip into blackness.

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Wooooo. I hope you guys like it so far. :)