Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, Kamen Rider, Batman: Under the Red Hood, or Doctor Who! They all belong to their respective owners! I only own my OCs, the Gate Riders!
AN: Before I decided to give up on Tales of the Gate Riders, I had this idea for future chapters, inspired by the DC animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood, which is AWESOME! Thought I should just show you what I had before I gave it up, so here it is!
'Why couldn't I just have stayed with Raven?' Maru asked himself as he watched Jump City from the rooftop of a tall building.
It had been several weeks since Maru was put into the care of the Titans by the High Council. He got along with the team very well, especially Raven, since she was his granddaughter, but found some of their tendencies, like leaving a mess all over the place. At the moment, Maru and Beast Boy were on patrol for any recent criminal activities, which would not be that bad if Beast Boy did have his love for babbling his mouth.
Maru sighed as he tried to drown out the sound of Beast Boy's voice, but it didn't seem to work. Beast Boy, however, wasn't his concern when he saw a figure in black running out of the rooftop of a laboratory and began to leap from rooftop to rooftop. "Beast Boy!" Maru motioned his arm towards his green friend. "We've got a robbery."
It was then that Beast Boy shut his mouth as he looked over the edge of the roof and squinted his eyes to see a familiar figure leap from rooftop to rooftop. His eyes widen as he realized who it was. "It's Red-X!" Beast Boy shouted.
Maru gave Beast Boy a quizzical look underneath his helmet. "Who?"
"I'll explain later!" was Beast Boy's reply before he shot towards Red-X in the form of a green peregrine falcon.
Maru took Beast Boy's response as he also chased after the criminal Beast Boy called Red-X. The two continued to run after Red-X, who noticed the green Titan and the golden Gate Rider as he looked over his shoulder. The green Titan did not catch his eyes, but the sight of Maru did. 'So, it's him,' he thought to himself as he leap onto another rooftop.
Immediately, Red-X took out a couple of his x-shaped shuriken and threw them towards his two pursuers, who dodged them. Seeing that they weren't going to give up, Red-X immediately leaped from the rooftop he was on, but to the surprise of Maru and Beast Boy, he dived down, instead of landing on rooftop across from him. Maru ran to the edge, while Beast Boy flew on top of it, transforming back into his humanoid form. The two looked over the edge to see Red-X land on top of a garbage dumpster without any injuries.
Maru peered his eyes underneath his helmet at Red-X. For some reason, he was getting a familiar feeling from the thief, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Beast Boy, on the other hand, was looking at Red-X with shock, seeing how he survived a drop like that. "Dude," Beast Boy gaped.
"No time for that now," Maru said as he jumped from the rooftop and landed on the same dumpster that Red-X landed.
Beast Boy mentally shrugged as he turned into a falcon and flew from the rooftop and onto the ground. The chase continued as Red-X ran into a subway with Maru and Beast Boy after him. As they ran, the two noticed the subway was abandoned, but they lights were still on. It was then they also noticed that Red-X stood on the other side of the subway with his motorcycle, and the only thing between were the train tracks. "Well, if it isn't Beast Boy," Red-X grinned underneath his mask as he leaned against his bike. "Robin too busy that he sent one of his lackeys to take me out?"
Beast Boy snarled at Red-X as he pointed his finger at the thief. "You're going to jail!"
"I don't really care," Red-X said as he mounted his cycle. He looked over his shoulder towards Maru. "Nice seeing you again."
Maru was taken aback by this. Red-X knew him and if so, who was he? Maru encountered many people in his life and he never remembered a Red-X.
"Oh no you don't!" Beast boy grinned as he was about to run towards Red-X.
Maru would have joined Beast Boy as well, but he froze noticing explosives in the corners of the wall. "Beast Boy wait!" Maru shouted, but it was too late as the green Titan already ran forward.
Once Beast Boy started running towards him, the explosives went off, sending both the changeling and golden Gate Rider across the station. They both let out loud grunts of pain as their bodies hit the hard pavement.
Red-X looked at Maru. "You haven't lost your touch..." he said, but the last word was drowned out by the train that ran in between them.
Once the train passed, Maru's eyes widen seeing Red-X was gone! 'Who are you, Red-X?' he thought.
However, he realized his questions would have to wait as he saw Beast Boy lying on the ground and gripping his knee in pain. Maru would have to forget about Red-X for now and concentrate on the injured Beast Boy.
'There has to be something,' Maru thought as he rewound the video he was looking at.
After bringing Beast Boy to be healed by Raven, Maru debriefed the others about what happened. Robin would have gone crazy if it weren't for the fact that Starfire and Cyborg were there, since he didn't want to frighten them with his anger towards Red-X. After debriefing them, Maru asked for any videos in the subway that recorded his encounter with Red-X. Robin was more than happy to give him whatever he could find related to tonight's 'incident.'
While, Robin had security cameras all over for Red-X, Maru took the responsibility of looking at the videos, but for his own reasons. Red-X seemed familiar to him, in many ways. His fighting style, his behavior, and his cunning something about it seemed familiar to Maru.
The golden Gate Rider stopped rewinding and allowed the video on the screen to play. It showed the few moments of Red-X before he vanished. "You haven't lost your touch..." Red-X said, but was drowned out by the train.
He paused it before rewinding it. This time, the screen showed the volume frequency of the scene. Maru allowed the video to play and once again Red-X's last word was drowned by the train. Maru's eyes narrowed as he pressed a couple more buttons to remove the background noise and he pressed play.
This time he heard it all.
(Meanwhlie...)
It was dark in the junkyard of Jump City. No one was around except for two thugs. "This better be the place," one of thugs said. He wore a blue jacket over his white shirt and blue jeans.
"RED-X! COME OUT! WE HAVE A MESSAGE FOR YOU!" the other thug who wore a red shirt and black pants shouted.
There was no response though. "Think he might show up?" the thug with the blue jacket said.
"It might take a while. I'm going to have a drink," the thug with the red shirt said as he took out a bottle of beer.
Suddenly, a flaming dart hit the beer bottle, destroying it as the alcohol splashed on the thug's body. His comrade watched in shock as flames erupted from the alcohol and engulfed the thug. The thug screamed in pain as his body was burnt to a crisp. The other thug was shocked at what happened, but his shock left him as he jumped at the sound of metal crunching. He turned and his eyes opened in fear seeing Red-X standing on an old broken car. "Okay, I'm here," Red-X said, looking at the thug. "What's the message?"
The thug didn't answer as he ran away for his life. Red-X did get his answer though. "A simple one actually," a female voice spoke.
Red-X turned to see four figures standing at the end of junkyard. They all were decked in armor from head to toe. They all had round helmets covering their heads with black, T-shaped visors. The large man's armor was green, the short man wore gray armor, the man with the spear had blue armor, and the female leader of the group with the two katanas wore white. Red-X knew who they were... 'Mercenaries, he thought.
"Care to guess what it might be?" the female mercenary asked.
Though he didn't like the situation, Red-X smirked underneath his mask. "I have a few ideas," he said as the x-shaped blades came out of his gloves.
Robin walked down the corridor. He already helped Cyborg and Raven tending to the others, so planned to check on Maru. He stood in front of Maru's room, only to find it opened. Robin looked inside to see the computer was still on, but Maru wasn't in at all. "Is Maru there?" Lunar called out to Robin.
Robin looked to see Lunar and Solar walking towards him. "No," the Boy Wonder shook his head. "He's not in."
"I thought I saw him a few moments ago," Solar mentioned. "Seemed like he was in a hurry."
Robin pondered for a bit. He looked at the computer. Robin entered the room with Lunar and Solar following him, and looked at the computer screen. "Maybe he found something in this video," Robin said as he pressed the play button.
They all watched as the screen showed Red-X on his bike, looking at Maru. "You haven't lost your touch, Kin!" came from the video.
Lunar and Solar whipped their heads around to look at the screen in shock. There was only one person who would call Maru that. 'It can't be!' they both mentally shouted.
'This is really not my day,' Red-X thought as he used his blades to block attacks from the mercenaries.
Red-X dodged a punch from the large mercenary and quickly ducked a swing from the blue mercenary's speak, but couldn't avoid getting kicked from the female mercenary. Red-X staggered back but quickly recovered in time to back away from the mercenaries. "Don't you hired guns know who I am!" he shouted.
"You're our target!" the gray one replied as his black visor glowed.
Red-X's eyes widen as a black bolt of energy was shot at him. He immediately moved away, but the force of the explosion from behind sent Red-X rolling on the ground. As he rolled, the large mercenary grabbed Red-X by his leg and tossed him to a nearby stack of cars. Red-X's back hit the cars before he fell on the ground, only supporting himself with his hands and knees. "Ow," he groaned his pain.
"I thought you'd put up more of a fight," the large mercenary said as they all surrounded him.
"The real fight hasn't started yet," Red X laughed as he looked up at the blue mercenary in front of him. "I'm just stalling."
The blue mercenary raised his spear to strike the final blow. However, he yelped in pain as he dropped his spear on the ground. The blue mercenary looked at his left arm to see two needles of golden energy stuck in it. Everyone turned their head to see who did that. Red-X knew who it was and boy, was he glad to see him. 'Maru,' Red-X identified.
It was indeed Maru. He glided through the air and onto the ground. Everyone backed away from Red-X as he landed right next to Red-X's side. He glared at the large mercenary who stood in front of him.
The large mercenary charged at Maru and swung a fist at him. The golden Gate Rider merely redirected the punch before striking him in the neck. Then, Maru kneed him in the stomach and forced the large mercenary with a push. Red X stood up and found himself back to back with Maru. Red X looked over his shoulder. "What the heck took you so long, old man?"
Maru looked over his own shoulder at Red X. "Shut up and fight."
Red X smirked under his helmet as he turned his head towards the mercenaries. Things were definitely getting interesting.
AN: That's all I wrote. Now I know the format isn't that good like my other stories, but this is more of a draft I had. And yes, I was planning for Maru to be Raven's grandfather, which was inspired by the relationship between the Doctor and his granddaughter, Susan, from the classic Doctor Who serials. Still, please leave a review, stating your comments and if you have criticism, then please let it be constructive.
Like I said, I based this bit heavily from Batman: Under the Red Hood, because of its dark tone, action, violence, and characters was something that I felt could be incorporated into my Ocs, and I thought that Red-X would be the perfect Jason/Red Hood for this idea.
But then I gave up on Tales of the Gate Riders. However, this is idea can be adopted by other writers on this site. Just please leave a review, or PM me, and we can discuss it from there.
Raika out!