Chapter 1: Drowning
It seemed like a typical summer morning for the Teen Titans. The sun was shining bright, and a light breeze cooled their skin as they lounged about in the park.
Their peace and quiet was quickly shattered by an ear-piercing shriek. "Help! Help! I'm going under!"
Ears perked up at the sound. The team of heroes had a feeling it was coming from the lake, and so they ran.
"So, who's going in swimming?" Beast Boy asked as they approached the drowning boy.
There wasn't enough time for debate, as Robin had already dived in. His friends watched as he disappeared beneath the water, and they were starting to wonder if he had drowned, too.
A head burst up from underneath, helping the other boy towards the shore and a group of boys that had gathered around.
"Are you okay?" Robin asked.
"Oh, yeah. I'm good. I was just playing."
"Sure didn't sound like it."
The teen laughed. "Trust me, I'm good. I'm Blaze Foster, by the way. These are my friends, Hector Ross, Flint Myers, Alphius Castillo, and Chad Price."
"Nice to meet you all," Robin replied, waving his friends over to the other side of the lake.
"And of course, you need no introduction, Teen Titans," Flint spoke up. "Actually, we have a concert Sunday afternoon, and we were hoping we could invite you to join us."
"Yeah. Having such big names at our show would mean the world to us, especially since the Alley Men are just kicking off," Chad continued.
"I guess that's the name of your band?" Cyborg asked.
They all nodded in response. "We'll see you there, right?" Hector asked.
"I'll have to talk to the team in private first, but we'll see," Robin responded.
The boy banders nodded in response. "Let us know by Saturday," Blaze told them. "That gives you three days to decide."
"I don't know, Robin…" Raven trailed off. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to express her concerns publicly.
"We'll talk about this later," Robin snapped.
The rest of the Titans looked taken aback. Robin never treated them like that. "Let us give him the doubt's benefit," Starfire suggested. "He has just saved a boy from fake drowning. Perhaps he is angry because of that."
"I don't think so, Star," Beast Boy whispered.
"Oh." Her face fell, thinking that her boyfriend was going off the edge of insanity or something.
"Come on, let's head back to the Tower and talk things out," Cyborg suggested. The group agreed and went off on their merry way.
This left the band alone. "Well, we've got at least one of them hooked," Alphius confirmed.
"The Boy Wonder has no idea what he's getting himself into," Chad agreed. "One song, and he'll be under our control before he even knows it."
And with sinister laughs ringing through the park, they retreated towards their alley home.