Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Only the original characters and plot are the property of this author. This author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media or franchise that is depicted within this story. No copyright infringement is intended, as there will be no profit made from this story by its author. The only places that this author has personally posted this story are on Archive of Our Own, and on Fanfiction*net; anywhere else that this story appears, is a duplicate created by parties unknown and without the express permission of the author of this story.

— X Marks the Spot —
— Ch. 01: C'mon Kids. X Marks the Spot —

A girl who appeared to be no older than eleven years of age, with bright blonde hair and pale green eyes exited the fourth house on Privet Drive in Little Whinging. She was followed by a much older blonde woman with nearly identical green eyes. If anyone were to observe the two of them, they'd assume they were looking at a mother and daughter going out for a day together, a belief which lasted until the mother returned to Privet Drive without the daughter, but by then it was much too late.

"I appreciate the assistance you've provided me with, Account Manager Grabclaw," the newly renamed Iris Evans admitted with a gentle smile. She was a girl of about 16 years of age, with long messy black hair and vibrant green eyes. These being the only things she allowed herself to keep in common with the face she had worn for the past half decade.

Iris was what one would call a Metamorphmagus, someone who could change their appearance and even their gender, whenever they felt like it. For the past five years she had modeled her appearance on a single photograph of her father she had access to prior to attending Hogwarts. That was because she was letting the Wizarding population of Great Britain believe the lie that they had crafted around the so-called Boy Who Lived.

What is unusual about Metamorphmagi is that their 'default form' is more a matter of the form they feel most comfortable with, rather than the one they were born wearing. And Iris spent every day of every year between the day she was left with her Aunt and Uncle and the day she first met Hagrid, as a girl, even if her aunt and uncle had to explain her tendency to change hair and eye colors on a daily basis as wigs and colored contact lenses.

In other words, five years living as a boy who switched between being popular and infamous about as quickly as Iris could change her appearance, was utterly miserable for her. And that was all before the disaster that was the previous year at Hogwarts. It was oddly the meetings with Severus Snape and his discovery of her secret that proved to be the one good thing about that year.

Once Severus discovered that the boy he thought he knew was actually a very carefully constructed mask, he immediately began teaching her proper Occlumency. While rarely ever used her Occlumency due to just how mentally taxing the skill was, she did form a bond of trust, if not friendship, with Severus and it was he, who suggested she take an extended vacation in the aftermath of her godfather's death.

"On the contrary, Your Grace, it is Gringotts as a whole who owes you it's gratitude. To think you managed to slay a millennial Basilisk with nought but a Goblin forged sword. Stories will be told of this for generations," the Goblin admitted, "It is a pity that you were unable to retain control over that sword. In any event, this is the Headship Ring for the Minor House of Evans that your maternal grandparents and mother created. It will take you to your mother's private estate in the colonies."

"And where is this estate located?"

"Jump City, California," Grabclaw acknowledged.

"Again, I appreciate your assistance." She took the ring, placed it on her finger, and tapped her wand against the signet while saying "Activate."

Rather than arriving inside the home, the portkey brought her to the front gate, which was largely because she had to key herself into the wards. This was actually far easier to do than one might expect, since all she had to do was place her hand upon the gate's latch. If it recognized her as a member of the family, it would let her in, and she would never be hassled in such a manner again so long as she wasn't barred from entry by the Head of House Evans, which for Iris would be a magical equivalent of her locking her keys inside the car after exiting the vehicle.

Upon entering the front yard, Iris just stopped and stared at the absolutely gorgeous home her mother had been hoping to raise her in if she could have ever convinced her father to leave Great Britain. The structure had a pristine white stucco exterior with an assortment of intricate designs carved into the structure. It would take decades to try and identify each and every one of these designs as they were so tiny, and only reason Iris knew that to be the case, was because of just how good her eyesight was.

The house's shape and structure made it almost appear to be Hogwarts in miniature, or at least it gave off a similar vibe, even if the floorplan was likely to be significantly different. If Iris knew anything about architecture beyond 'oh that looks nice' she'd have identified this house as belonging to the French Provincial style of architecture, which had gained huge traction in this country in the years following the first World War.

"I feel so cheated," Iris muttered as she finally got over her shock enough to actually see what the inside of the home looked like.

The interior of the home was just as jaw droppingly gorgeous. She would have to thank whatever foresight it was that caused her mother to tell the people who constructed and furnished this home to place it into stasis so that the house would be kept in pristine condition until she woke it up today.

Iris didn't even notice when she had begun crying, but this was the closest she had ever come to experiencing her mother's embrace that she could remember, so it was natural she would be crying right about now. However, there was some important business she had to attend to, "DOBBY! WINKY!"

Two pops later and the elves she hoped to hire had appeared before her. Dobby was now giving her a very confused expression, "Is that being you, Great Harry Potter Sir?"

Iris blushed, "I suppose I should introduce myself properly, huh?" After a moment's pause, she explained "I'm a metamorphmagus, Dobby. I can be pretty much whoever I want to be, and I never wanted to be 'Harry Potter', that was what other people wanted me to be. As of earlier this morning, I am legally and magically named Iris Doreen Evans."

"You is still being you?" Dobby wondered.

"I'd like to think I'm more me now, than when we first met." She then tilted her head to look at Winky, before asking, "How would you like a Miss?"

"Winky be liking that very much."

"Then you can be my personal Elf. Dobby, I want you to act as my eyes and ears in Great Britain. Mostly I need to know what Dumbledore's doing, so you can continue at Hogwarts when you aren't helping me stay in contact with my business partners. Now, could one of you two go and collect my belongings from Privet Drive, provided they are still there to begin with. If not, they'll likely be at the Burrow."

The two house elves shared a look, before Dobby popped off to do just that. He at least knew how to deal with meddlesome screech owls and troublesome old men if they got in the way of doing his Mistress's bidding. Winky now had more important matters to deal with. "What is you be wearing?"

Iris glared at the massive eyesore that she had been told was called 'Titan Tower.' The thing was a large steel and glass letter 'T' constructed in the harbor of Jump City on a rather small rocky island. She had by now witnessed the rather flamboyant cast of characters who presumably live in that architectural anomaly.

The only reason Iris didn't have questions on how that structure was actually possible, was because the resident of that tower identifying herself as "Raven" clearly had no idea there was any such thing as a Statute of Wizarding Secrecy for her to violate.

Iris watched as the Titans used some sort of underwater bridge to allow their futuristic car to head off to deal with some disaster that Iris couldn't care one iota about. Once they turned the corner, Iris quickly donned her most precious family heirloom, and with a spin of her heels, found herself on the roof of the tower.

Iris had to fight very hard not to cackle when she found the entry/escape hatch and noticed it had an electric lock with nothing magical preventing entry. She leveled her wand at the hatch and fired a wide area burst of raw magic at it. One thing she had done within days of entering this country, was to file for emancipation with the MaCUSA, which they had granted on the grounds that she had been forced to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. They did ask for verification that she was who she said she was, which Gringotts was happy to supply for them, but once that was done, she could cast magic outside of Ilvermorny, despite being under the age of 17.

The MaCUSA didn't even care what she used her magic for so long as she observed the Statute of Secrecy when in the mundane world, and since the Teen Titans had a magical member who was constantly violating said statute, she could easily argue that nothing she did with her magic could make the situation any worse in this community.

As she entered the tower proper, the first thing to become readily apparent was that she would have to thank her Aunt Petunia for organizing gymnastics and ballet classes for her up until she entered Hogwarts, as she'd have had a hard time dealing with the laser optics security grid lining the halls that the Fumos charm she just unleashed had revealed to her eyes.

It didn't even take her five minutes to get to the end of the hall and open the door that was, surprisingly unlocked, at the other end. Unfortunately as soon as she opened the door she felt a wave of nausea inducing stank enter her lungs. 'What the ruddy hell?'

There were piles, upon piles of disgustingly filthy socks and other assorted unwashed laundry filling up almost every square inch of this moron's room. Iris waved her wand while mumbling the words "Incendio Tria."

A massive gout of flames that she had to concentrate on in order to keep in existence, roared to life and quickly purged this room of it's filth. She didn't care whose room this had been, they were hurting themselves by leaving it in that state. It was like they had gone out of there way in order to make the stuff she had just destroyed dirtier than it could logically become just by being worn a few days in a row. Seriously, when the clothes have visible mold stains growing off of them, you need to get rid of them!

"Winky?"

That was swiftly followed by a quiet pop and whispered "Yes?"

"Please find every piece of filth in this tower and vanish it. You are however forbidden from entering any rooms that have a touch of magic already upon them, as I'm not sure whether it would be safe for you."

Winky nodded and began going about that task. Meanwhile, Iris continued on her acrobatic circumnavigation of the tower's residential sections. Eventually however, she found herself in front of a door with a very large red X on it. This door had possibly the heaviest security measures in the entire tower. Not even the door to the computer mainframe 'I suppose it could also have been Cyborg's bedroom, as there was a bed of sorts in that room' had this much protection.

It was amusing that she had managed to avoid triggering any alarms for two simple reasons, first was the fact that the Cloak of Invisibility could alter it's form to match the needs of its owner, and right now she was wearing it almost like a plugsuit from Evangelion, just with a portion protecting even her face from observation. Second was the fact that they clearly didn't plan on someone getting into the tower from the roof, so the laser optics weren't very difficult to avoid with a mere four years of gymnastics and ballet training.

This door would be far more difficult to bypass than the entry hatch from the roof for the simple reason that this door looked like the sorts of doors that would shield something from a nuclear explosion. Even if Iris managed to disrupt the locking mechanism with her magic, she was never going to be able to pull the door open, even with a levitation charm, it was too heavy.

Tilting her head to the side, she considered the matter, before sighing and doing something which might very well get her killed if she screwed up. She executed a blind apparition jump.

"God dammit!" Iris roared as she re-appeared on the other side of the door, with her foot still on the opposite side. "Winky!"

Winky materialized holding Iris' disembodied foot, "How?"

Winky just sniffed at her Mistress and said, "Winky will clean, after Miss is back home where it be safe."

Rolling her eyes, Iris went about reattaching her foot, with Winky's help. Then finally had a look around. What she saw and what it felt like to her innate ability to detect magic, caused Iris to exclaim "What in the name of Morgana's saggy tits is this?"

She was looking at an open briefcase that had three tubes, each filled with a red liquid that seemed to be releasing absurd amounts of magic, or something similar to magic at any rate. The tubes were clearly designed to be slotted one at a time into the buckle of the accompanying belt.

This belt seemed to be part of a armored crime fighting costume that had a face mask that bore superficial similarities to the masks worn by the freaking Death Eaters. That fact alone, was what decided Iris on the course of action she was now engaged in executing.

Grabbing the costume off the coat hanger it was attached to first, since that would be the least likely thing to trigger the alarm system, she then walked over to the briefcase, closed the lid, latched it and picked the thing up. Sure enough, as soon as it left the pedestal it had been on alarms began blaring all over the place. Winky didn't even need to be told to get her back to her home, she did it on instinct.

It was about a week later that Iris received word back from her business partners regarding the analysis of the chemical substance found in one of the three tubes. She had sent it to the twins on the basis that they were to try and identify the substance and figure out if they could replicate it without her having to break any laws.

The good news was that they would be able to replicate it, the bad news was that the cost of the ingredients needed in order to do such replication were probably about the same as the cost of the substance itself, in other words back breakingly expensive.

During that week, Iris had also been laying low so as to avoid drawing attention from the Titans, since sooner or later they'd give up trying to locate whoever it was that stole the costume, belt and chemical compound. Now that she knew she'd need to locate an alternative supply of this substance if she wanted to actually use it for more than one or two adventures, she decided to actually don the costume and go in search of such bounty.

That led to her current frustration, "Why couldn't it have been Raven, or possibly Starfire who this costume was designed for? Why did it have to be a boy?"

After placing the chemical compound, which Fred (or George) had identified as Xenothium, into the utility belt that she had already been wearing, a Heads Up Display activated inside the mask, or the skull portion thereof. The skull was actually composed of a semi-pliable resin-like substance, and apparently housed a whole host of technological goodies, one of which was that it apparently had root level access to the central computer of Titan's Tower.

Smiling behind the mask, Iris used their own database to locate the most likely places she would be able to find a new supply of Xenothium. She didn't find a new source, as that would require that the Titans knew of a source and have it input into their database. What she did find however, was a warehouse that contained a form of handheld scanner that allegedly could track the compound by the energy it was giving off. That was concerning for an entirely different set of reasons from the one she had started with.

She did take not that Robin, the designer of her new wardrobe and original wearer, had gotten the initial supply of Xenothium from a guy calling himself "Professor Chang." The fact that Iris knew a Cho Chang raised questions on just what Xenothium actually was. She also decided right then and there to draft a formal apology to that girl for the disaster that was their first and last kiss.

Chang was someone who was only interested in boys, and since Iris considered herself to be a girl, not a boy, they would have never worked out the way Chang had hoped, especially not with the girl using Iris' male persona as a replacement for the boy Iris had been too staggered by the abrupt and unexpected portkey activation in order to save.

Iris groaned in annoyance when she heard the security klaxons of this particular warehouse begin blaring. It would appear that it is far harder to avoid tripping a security system when you actually show up on the CCTV that the guards are watching.

The fact that the Teen Titans could travel around the city in the blink of an eye due to Raven's ability to teleport the entire lot of them, meant… "Halt, evil doer!"

Red X, Iris' new persona, snickered in an amused manner, "So stealing is somehow evil?"

Robin, the very person this new Red X had stolen his entire persona from, opened his mouth to respond before Red X immediately remarked "Catwoman."

Robin immediately snapped his mouth shut after hearing that word. He had no argument to present against logic like that, not when Catwoman has almost entirely altruistic motives for stealing the stuff that she does. After all, Catwoman was a more direct parallel to Robin's namesake than Robin himself happened to be.

Unfortunately, the only other Titans who seemed to understand what was being said to them, were Raven and Cyborg. Raven tended to give people the benefit of the doubt if they could provide a reasonable explanation. Cyborg probably just scanned the Titan Tower database for who Catwoman was, which now that Robin thought about it, was probably where Red X had come by the name, assuming they hadn't heard about the woman prior to donning costume.

"Of course stealing is evil!" Starfire exclaimed.

"You've never heard of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, have you then?" Red X then shot off a large adhesive X that tacked Starfire to a wall. And to add insult to injury, also likely proving Red X had done at least some homework, the thief fired off a second adhesive X that covered her eyes like a blindfold. "I'm on a tight schedule kids, so either go away or… well I do still need to stress test this outfit, it is second hand after all."

Cyborg was the next to go down, and it happened by means of an X shaped throwing star that discharged a massive plasma pulse which scrambled Cyborg's systems at least temporarily. That would buy Red X at least a few minutes while Cyborg's systems reboot themselves.

Raven's attempt to take Red X down was disrupted when she was hit by one of the X's in the stomach and promptly vanished the instant it touched her. Robin had seen that happening and knew damn well that the suit couldn't do that, not without the settings being altered. Robin had been holding back on his own attack as he was trying to analyze this person's combat style, unfortunately the suit was responding to them in ways it never did for him.

"Oh ick… what… Robin did you really give that suit the ability to create quicksand traps?" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"That wasn't from the suit boys, that was a gimmick a couple of friends of mine created. Now as fun as this has been, I'm actually trying to save the lives of thousands upon thousands innocent children by stealing what it is I'm trying to steal."

Robin felt like he had been hit by a mack truck when he heard that, and the expression that had appeared on Starfire's face when she heard it, or what could be seen of her face, proved she felt much the same way. In any event, neither one of them planned on stopping Red X from collecting the scanner.

"That scanner can also locate more Xenothium," Robin felt the need to point out.

"If the fact that your supplier shares his surname with someone I had met before I ever found this costume turns out to b mere coincidence, then I might use it for such a purpose, if not then I'll likely have an easier time getting the stuff than you. Then again, this may also end up being the one and only time I use the costume, so I may not even need more Xenothium."

With that, Red X activated the suit's teleporter and vanished from sight.

— Chapter Concluded —

Author's Note: So this is an idea I hadn't really encountered before, though whether it has or hasn't been done, I don't know. The fact is they never definitively tell us who the second Red X actually was in any of the assorted media surrounding the Teen Titans Animated TV Series. Oh sure, they allude to it being Jason Todd a whole heck of a lot, but they never outright say that is who it is.

Now, keep in mind that as of this moment, the Teen Titans have no idea who Red X is, thus they were being far more cautious in how they dealt with the situation than they otherwise might have been. This is why Iris was able to hand them their arses so easily. If she has to fight them again, she'll have a harder time of it.

I probably won't be continuing this fic. The story blurb was inspired by the thread entitled "X Challenge - Harry Potter/Teen Titans" posted by Whitetigerwolf on his challenges forum, in case anyone is interested in continuing it. If someone does continue it, I only ask that both I and Whitetigerwolf be informed of the fact when the story is posted.