Note: The Teen Titans are property of someone other than me. Please do not sue. Thanx.

Team Player

Chapter 1: Rumbling with Titans

Chapter 2: Repercussions

Chapter 3: Block Bashing

Chapter 4: Unexpected Changes

Chapter 4/5 Interruption

Chapter 5: Room with a View

Chapter 6: Burned

Chapter 7: Complications

Chapter 8: A Win and a Loss

Chapter 9: The Wait – Part 1

Chapter 10: The Wait – Part 2

Chapter 11: Lost and Found

Chapter 12: Silver Platter

Chapter 13: Pass or Fail

Chapter 14: Shut Down

Chapter 15: Loose Ends

Chapter 16: Parting

Rumbling with Titans

The Teen Titans receive a call from an unknown source. Inside are pictures of an old, empty parking lot in the middle of the city, along with a detailed map of the area, including directions from Titan's Tower. Written across a last photo is 6:00 PM. A male voice at the end of the clip says, "See you then."

A few hours later, the Titans show up in the run down lot behind what once was a supermarket. Some warehouses and other decrepit old buildings back up to the lot, with dumpsters and much general garbage strewn around. Walking in slowly, Starfire and Beast Boy look apprehensive, while Raven and Cyborg scan the area. Robin's eyes are darting everywhere, his hands at the ready. Beast Boy is the first to speak.

"Hey Robin, are you sure we should be here? I mean, we don't even know who this guy is and why he wants us here."

"Yes," Starfire chimes in, "Could this not be a trap?"

"Quiet, you guys," Robin half-whispers, his eyes narrowing. "What we got was a challenge." He glances down a nearby alleyway, birdarang in his hand. "And I never back down from a challenge."

Suddenly the quiet is broken by a manhole cover some 30 feet away blasting into the air and falling at the Titans' feet, heavily dented.

"Dude," surveys Beast Boy as they look at the warped metal.

Just then Robin yells, "Titans, look out!" as about a dozen crates fly at them from across the lot. Robin's birdarang hits one and explodes; Starfire blasts several out of the air. Raven dodges two as Beast Boy, now a gorilla, flails around smashing crates with his fists. Cyborg just braces himself as a crate smashes itself on his forearm. When the Titans look up, someone with untidy brown hair and a smile on his face is standing beside the open manhole. He looks to be a young man, if older than the Titans then only by a few years. Dressed in a T-shirt and slacks, he has a goatee on his chin and two metal bracers around his wrists. A glow emanates from the cryptic designs engraved upon them. This is me.

"Right on time," I state simply.

"Told you it was a trap," says Beast Boy.

"Let's go," Robin replies to me.

Robin dashes towards me, but I'm ready. With a thrust of my arm, force bursts from my outstretched palm in a torrent like an open fire hydrant. Dodging out of the way, he whips another one of his birdarangs my way. Another blast from my hand destroys it in mid-flight. I throw several more blasts toward Robin, but he dodges spectacularly and runs up to me, pulling out a retractable staff. He jumps and swings down at me with both hands, giving me little time to react. With a purposeful wave of my hands, a translucent shield of force forms before me. I can feel the staff strike, but the force shield withstands the blow with little effort. Robin is momentarily caught off guard, and I seize this opportunity to bind his ankles together with a band of force. Giving him a little farewell wave, I pick up Robin with this band and fling him over my head, sending him strait into a crumbling brick wall. It collapses upon his impact, trapping him in a pile of rubble.

Looking around I can see Cyborg aiming his sonic cannon at me. Quickly I cancel the shield, which vanishes, and thrust out both hands. A focused blast of force erupts from my palms and collides with the cannon shot. For a few moments the blasts struggle for supremacy, but an extra push of effort gives me the upper hand and forces Cyborg back a little, sliding on the asphalt. He starts to run at me. I stretch out my hands, palms down, and focus hard. The ground shakes slightly before many flat spikes erupt from the pavement in a circle around him. Coming to a halt, he looks up at the nearest spike in surprise. The spikes then retract back into the ground. Cyborg once again aims his cannon at me, but I do nothing to block. Before he can fire, the ground, weakened by the spikes, caves in from beneath his feet.

Just then Beast Boy is diving at me from behind as an eagle. I hear his cry, and without much of a glance over my shoulder I call forth a force wall in front of him. He smacks into it like a bird on a windowpane and slides off.

My attention is then directed to a green bolt which just whizzed by my head. I look to see Starfire hovering with her hands aglow in green energy. With sweeping waves of my hands I form a hemispherical shield around myself. She shoots several more bolts, which impact on the barrier, leaving smoke rising but doing little damage. I have my hands out still, actively maintaining the shield around me. She flies in and begins pummeling the barrier at melee range. It requires most of my effort and focus to keep it up, but when she pauses momentarily, she can see her damage slowly fading as I maintain focus on keeping the shield whole. And then I bind her from behind with more force bands and drop the barrier to walk up to her, tightly bound by force and unable to speak. Her eyes glow green as I approach, and I throw up a small shield just in time with another wave of a hand. The energy rays exploding from her eyes are deflected moments before they hit my face.

"Too slow," I say.

Then her eyes and hands glow green, and in a burst of strength she busts from the binding force around her. A shudder like a split-second migraine fills my head as she rises up in the air. In the same motion, she fires beams down at me from her glowing fists. Using what little time I have, I dodge out of the way as the pavement explodes in front of me. A second assault is blocked by a momentary two-handed horizontal band of force. When she starts firing more bolts, I answer with my own bursts of force to meet and destroy many of them, leaving others to pepper the ground around me. She dodges around as some of my bursts come close to hitting her as well.

From the sidelines, Raven and a slightly ruffled Beast Boy watch the volleys of energy fly between Starfire and I.

"We should help Star out," Beast Boy says, not really to anyone in particular.

"She seems to be doing fine," answers Raven, staring serenely as one of Starfire's larger bolts lights up the darkening lot momentarily.

"Well I'm getting back in there."

"That might not be such a good idea."

But it's too late to dissuade Beast Boy, as he's already charging into the battle, a hardened look on his face as he shifts into a green tiger.

I see Beast Boy from the corner of my eye and quickly react to catch him in mid-pounce, using his own momentum to vault him over me, then rapidly shield myself from Starfire's renewed assault. 'Surprise looks funny on a tiger,' I think to myself. Using one hand, I form a small shield and push it slowly towards her. It begins to deteriorate quickly as she focuses more and more violent attacks on it. I can feel them as though she were pounding on my skull. With my second hand I thrust upwards towards the shield, using both outstretched hands to push a powerful blast of force through the shield and towards Starfire. She is not quick enough to react, and the blast hits her head on like a battering ram, throwing her backwards and out of the air, crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust.

Now I look around to see Raven, standing, ready, about 50 feet away, her hands ablaze in black energy. Uttering her incantation, she picks up some nearby oil drums and flings them my way. I blast them away with bursts from my hands. I then form a large curved sword of force in front of me and run towards her with it raised over my head. She meets my downstrike with a surge of energy, which overcomes my blow and throws me back onto the ground, the weapon vanishing from my hands. As I get up I see her lift a greyhound bus into the air and over my head. 'Holy Crap,' is all I can think. As she swings it down on me, I fling my arms up to push against the bus, stopping it feet above my head. Now pushing up on the bus, I begin ripping inside with force while struggling against Raven's efforts to bring in down on me. Once the force has penetrated the inside of the bus, I close my eyes in concentration. With a tremendous burst of effort, the bus explodes in a blast of force, ripping apart metal and the black energy surrounding it. Shrapnel falling everywhere, I can see Raven's wide-eyed expression at having her powers destroyed from the inside.

Just as I notice that the black energy has left her hands, I'm grabbed from behind. It's Beast Boy again, now as a gorilla, crushing me in his huge arms. I use much of my remaining energy to burst free, landing on the ground and turning to face him. He charges towards me, and as I throw a first blast of energy he transforms into a rabbit. In this new form he plays on his agility. He dodges well as I shoot further beams from my hands. Upon reaching me Beast Boy leaps into the air and morphs back into his human form, dodging a last blast before kicking me in the chest and knocking me down for a second time.

"Not so tough now, huh?" he says to me before sticking out his tounge.

A throb of anger pulses inside me. As I regain my footing I sling a blast of force at Beast Boy and catch him in the face. He flies back some 10 feet onto the pavement, but as I walk steadily up to him, my eyes glowing with energy, he changes into a Tyrannosaurus, which I notice is now sporting several scratches and bruises. He lunges at me but I stop his jaws in midair. With a surge of raging effort I lift his whole hulking form into the air. Remembering the saying "the bigger they are, the harder they fall", Beast Boy changes back into his own self. Much easier to handle now, I tighten my grip on him and throw the struggling hero into an open dumpster.

At this point I duck, because Raven had sent a mailbox flying towards my head. I heard it just in time. She's now hovering in the air, hands and eyes rekindled with energy, and before I can attack she encapsules me in a sphere of her black energy. I push outwards with my own globe of energy as she lifts me into the air. Both hands outstretched to my sides, forcing out on my containment, I focus my mind on Raven, my eyes glowing brightly. As she focuses to contain me, bands of force silently spiral upwards around her. When she notices them wrapping around her legs, I seize her momentary lapse of focus and burst free. Floating in the air, I put nearly all my effort on binding her, especially her mouth. I slowly lower both of us, bringing her to float just above the ground. With a final forward push of my hands, I throw her straight backwards into the rear wall of the old supermarket, and she collapses in the dirt, nearly exhausted. All force effects vanish, and the glow of energy leaves my eyes. I shake my head as if to get something out of it. Walking over to her where she lay, and limping slightly, I extend my hand to her.

"Nice fight," I say.

Repercussions

Raven, out of breath and sprawled on the ground, looks up at me and my hand with the utmost suspicion possible.

“Do you want a hand up?”

The hood of Raven's cloak is down now, I can actually see her face as she glares at every inch of my expressionless face. She shifts a little and winces. “Why should I trust you?” she asks simply.

“True,” I say, standing upright. “You have every reason not to. By the way, that was some excellent skill you showed back there.”

“Well,” she says through clenched teeth, struggling to sit upright, “It obviously wasn't enough, was it?” She leers up at me, leaning against the wall behind her and throwing her hood back over her head. Her face melts back into shadow.

“Oh, nonsense,” I retort, waving my hands as if to dismiss the idea. “I won by luck, that's all. You almost had me,” I say, pointing at her. She tenses slightly at my outstretched hand gesture. “It's okay, I can control my power, just like you can control yours: through focus-” I breath in deeply “-and peace of mind.” I exhale, then reach out my hand again. “Sure you don't want some help?”

“I still have no reason to trust you.”

“ And yet you haven't taken the opportunity to blow my face off. Truth is, I could just as easily have finished you off or left you here, but instead I'm standing over you offering my hand in assistance, and you know that. Deep down you can tell I'm not an enemy,” I say to her, staring unblinking into her guarded eyes. “That feeling is beyond anything I can tell you.”

I can sense her searching me with her eyes, probing for my intentions. Then, slowly, she raises her hand. Smiling, I take hold of it and carefully pull Raven to her feet.

“What was that?” she asks me, looking down at her hand.

“Uh, well, it's just... you seemed like you could use a little energy... so I gave you a little of mine through my hand. I'm not very good at it, but it just seemed like the least I could do.” I look at a large bruise on her left arm. “ I really shouldn't have been so rough on you. Course, I probably would have lost.... We should probably help your friends. Robin's been trapped in those bricks for a while now.”

“Right... ,” she says to me with just a sideways glance before sweeping off towards Robin, half-buried in the crumbled wall. I follow her.

“Raven,” I hear Robin say as we approach, “I can't reach my belt; you'll have to lift some of this off me before I can pull myself out.” When I walk up, his eyes narrow and his voice becomes steely. “What's he doing here?” he asks Raven while looking straight at me.

“Helping,” Raven says without emotion. Black energy surrounds her hands again as she lifts a group of bricks from the pile and drops them to the side. I wave my hand; pieces of rubble fly individually off the pile.

“Where are the others?” Robin asks suddenly. “Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire... where are they?”

I stop concentrating on the rubble and several pieces drop out of the air. Starfire. She hit the ground and I never saw her get up. Without a word I turn around and run off, leaving Raven and Robin to watch me go.

Coming up to Starfire, I find her lying still on the ground, a thin coat of dust over her. Grabbing her wrist, I quickly find a strong pulse. “Just unconscious,” I say to myself, relieved. “Idiot. I should have given her more warning. But I got carried away again. Well, I better wake her up.” I place a palm upon her forehead and close my eyes. Channeling energy, I focus on stirring her dormant mind. Feeling her come around, I open my eyes just as she does. At the sight of me with my hand still on her forehead her eyes grow wide. With a small shriek she swings her arm at me before I have time to react. The next moment I find myself on my back eight feet away, clutching the back of my throbbing head. I open one eye to see Starfire standing over me, one glowing hand pointing at my chest.

“ What were... why are you... what do you think you are doing?” she threatens to me. In her face is a mixture of shock and puzzlement.

“Star! Hold it!” It was Robin, wide-eyed, rushing up with Raven. It must have been surprising to see me on the ground after her shriek. They were probably coming to see if I had attacked her. “It's okay, Starfire. Let him get to his feet,” Robin tells her.

“But he has attacked us all, “ she argues, her hand still pointed at me. “And when I wake up, he is right there with his hand on my forehead.”

“You were knocked out,” I say, wincing. “I was waking you up.”

Even more confusion in her face, she drops her hand to her sides. Getting to my feet, I take a second to put a hand on the back of my head and take a deep breath. I can feel warmth from my palm, and the pain lessens.

“Beast Boy and Cyborg still aren't here,” Robin points out.

“Beast Boy's in that dumpster over there,” I point, “And Cyborg's still in that hole. He should be fine; he just can't get out. That's why I did it.”

The girls rush off to get Cyborg and Beast Boy. This leaves Robin standing with me as I dust off my clothes. “You obviously wanted us here for a reason,” he says to me, as if the battle had never happened.

“Training,” I answer. “I had heard the Teen Titans would put up an excellent fight if I challenged them. And you certainly delivered.” He doesn't say anything. We both stand in silence, watching Raven lift Cyborg out of the hole in the parking lot.

In the middle of the lot, Raven sets Cyborg down outside the hole.

“Thanks.”

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“I'm fine. I just needed some help out. So, did you guys take him down after I fell in?

“Not exactly.”

“So he got away?”

I'm starting to feel awkward next to Robin, who is completely silent until Starfire returns with Beast Boy. He's still pretty out of it, and she needs to hold him up to keep him standing. Before anyone can speak, a reverberating “WHAT?!” issues from Raven and Cyborg's direction. I can see them, Cyborg pointing in our direction and Raven trying to calm him down. I try to avoid Starfire's eyes as she begins staring at me again, but this time her look is almost curious. When Cyborg walks up, he asks, “So, is everyone alright?”, then looks at Beast Boy. “What happened to him?”

“He'll be fine,” Robin says automatically. Neither him nor Cyborg are acknowledging that I'm there at all. “Titans,” he adds a few seconds later, “Let's go.”

“But-,” Starfire blurts out, looking from Robin to me. But Robin has already started walking off, Cyborg right behind him.

“I'll take Beast Boy,” Raven offers, and Starfire hands him off to her, then flies up behind Robin.

“Robin-,” she begins, but he raises a hand to her.

“Not now, Starfire.”

Raven glides slowly after them, supporting Beast Boy. Halfway out she turns back to look at me. I raise my hand slightly in farewell, standing in an empty parking lot as they walk away.

Block Bashing

Walking downtown a few days later, I notice an unusually large figure striding on the opposite sidewalk, dressed in a huge tan overcoat and a gray, brimmed hat pulled low over his face.

'Oh, no,' I think to myself. 'Not suspicious at all.'

As I watch him continue down the block, he shoves a group of people out of his way before stopping in front of the elaborate glass doors of an ornate building. Crouching, he manages to squeeze sideways through one of them and enter. I look up at the name engraved over the doors and smile to myself. It says CITY BANK.

"How original."

Inside the bank, a teller looks away from his computer screen at hearing a metallic crash from the counter. His eyes rest on a large, stone-like hand lifting from the remains of the service bell, then travel up to a crude face shadowed by a large brimmed hat.

"I want to make a withdrawal," says a low, rumbling voice. The hulking man reaches over to a lamp on the counter and crushes it with his other hand and adds, "A big one."

I walk inside just as several people leave in a hurry. I find the enormous man instantly, standing in front of a terrified bank teller partway along the service counter. "Now!" he yells, slamming a hand down on the counter, crushing it. The teller runs in panic, and most of the bank's customers follow his example, rushing towards the doors. I make my way through them as the robber shouts out, "I guess I'll just get it myself, then!" and steps over the ruined counter. Halfway through a thunderous laugh, he smacks his face into a floating bar of force, knocking his hat off and almost causing him to fall backwards. The bar disappears and he looks wildly around the room.

"Who did that !?!" He isn't happy. I announce my presence by slinging a blast of force right at him. It collides with his shoulder, knocking it back but hardly injuring him. He sees me in the crowd and throws his overcoat off to the side.

"So who are you?" he bellows at me.

"What do you care?" I reply, looking over his blockish head and sunken eyes. He appears to be made of concrete.

He laughs at this. "It doesn't matter, " he thunders, "You all look the same mashed to a pulp!"

He charges at me from across the room, the floor shaking at each footfall. I stand focusing my energy until the right moment, then thrust out both palms. A great blast of force projects from my outstretched hands, impacting the concrete man right in his ugly face. The force blows his head back, and he staggers backward several feet. Straightening up, he growls at me, grabbing his head in his hands and twisting it back into place with a loud crack.

"No one bashes Cinderblock!" he roars at me, swinging his concrete fists in fury. Dodging is not easy, and the marble floor is erupting around me as he smashes up the bank lobby. Knocking him back again with another burst from my hand, I concentrate to form two shackles around his wrists and work to restrain him as he thrashes about, surprised at his sudden inability to move his arms. For a moment I think I've got him under control, but with a monstrous bellow he pulls down his fists, smashing them into the floor. No longer controlling them, I don't get the opportunity to dismiss the force manacles before he slams his wrists together, shattering them. I close my eyes in pain as a ringing fills my head. I drop to my knees, clutching my head as Cinderblock advances on me.

Suddenly a birdarang explodes on the side of his head and he staggers to the side. Looking up, I can see Robin crouching in a shattered window some 20 feet above. "Titans! Go!" he cries before shooting a grappling hook and swinging down from the chandelier. The doors are enveloped in black energy before flying off their hinges; Raven walks through the doorway as Starfire flies in, followed by Cyborg and Beast Boy.

Cinderblock rights himself again, grumbling and shaking his head.

"Stop right there, Cinderblock!" Robin yells. Cinderblock looks around. Titans surround him from every direction. He lets out an almighty roar.

"Time to kick some butt, people!" Cyborg yells as the Titans fly into action. Robin lassos one of Cinderblock's arms while Beast Boy wraps around his legs as a giant boa and Cyborg hits him full in the chest with his sonic cannon. Cinderblock throws out a hand to block the flurry of green blasts from Starfire's fists, but fails to notice an office desk floating up behind him. Raven breaks it right over the back of his head, and with a final groan he falls forward onto the floor.

As Cyborg and Raven wrap him up in lamp poles from the street, Robin walks up to me. "Thanks for keeping him busy until we got here," he says.

"Glad to be of assistance," I reply, holding out my hand. He shakes it reluctantly. "You guys make good time."

"Connections," he says, tapping a watch-like device on his wrist.

'That's right,' I think to myself, 'They probably know when any alarm goes off in this city.'

Beast Boy, of all people, comes over to talk to me once Robin left to check the bindings on Cinderblock. "We got a call saying Cinderblock was trying to rob a bank, but that some superhuman off the street had stopped him and was knocking him around. I think Robin's changed his mind about you. But you sure threw me around back in that parking lot." He grins sheepishly at me.

" About that," I say. "I got a little carried away there. Lost my temper and lost control of what I was doing. Sorry about chucking you in that dumpster. You did some awesome work, though. I couldn't believe how you kept coming back for more. And awesome jump kick, though it hurt quite a bit."

"Right. Well I can't believe those powers of yours. Dude, you were taking all of us at once."

"I was trying not to. I had been thinking about that fight for a long time, and I decided I needed to go at you each individually if I was going to stand a chance. That battle nearly drained me. You see, I need time to recharge or I use up all of my energy and I've got nothing. I haven't run that close to empty in a long time."

"Well anyway that fight was something else. Hey, thanks for helping us here today. He mighta gotten away if you hadn't shown up."

"Nah, you guys would have caught him. But thanks."

"Sure," he replies, giving thumbs up before turning back to his friends. I could see Starfire floating, looking over at me again. Raven strides determinedly to me just as the police arrive and the rest of the Titans turn to leave. She puts a device in my hand and says, "Use this to contact us in the future. you know where the tower is, " she adds before turning to go. Cyborg waves an arm in the air as they leave and I return a farewell.

Feeling much better than a few days ago, I watch the authorities load up Cinderblock (still unconscious) before walking away.

Unexpected Changes

I wasn't too long before I ran into trouble again. I'm in the middle of a soft drink outside this cafe downtown, when screaming pedestrians and a plume of smoke tell me somethings up again.

'This town really does have problems,' I think to myself as I slap down a five on the table and run off in the opposite direction of everyone else, which I'm getting used to by now, down the street to find the source of the commotion. It's coming from a huge electronics store at the end of the street, and in the middle of the chaos I can see what looks like a bald little kid, only he has four big mechanical spider legs coming out of a pack on his back. He's laughing maniacally (of course) and mashing on a control pad in his hands as several nightmarish toys rip apart the storefront. A remote-control truck with a machine gun mounted on top is blowing out the windows, while a small helicopter hovers above, terrifying nearby shoppers by pelting silly putty at them. A 15-foot tall model of a Tyrannosaurus is in the process of ripping down the front doors as I walk up. Just as it is about to walk in I form a wall in the battered doorway and it falls over sideways. Stunned, the kid looks around at me.

"Hey, snotface! Let's see how you like this!"

The truck turns away from the windows and aims its artillery at me instead. Waving my hand, I form a wall just as the hail of bullets begins. The barrier stops them easily, though they are left embedded in it menacingly. Then the shooting stops abruptly as a green bolt hits the gun and causes it to explode. Canceling my barrier, I look around to see the Titans coming in from all directions.

"We've gotta stop meeting like this!" I call to Robin before forming a huge hammer in my hands and advancing on the truck. It tries frantically to get away before I come smashing down on it, leaving the toy little different from a flattened pop can.

Looking to my side I can see Raven fighting the helicopter, shooting spirals of energy at it. It manages to avoid a few of them, then launches an assault of putty. Quick to react, Raven picks up a newspaper in the nearby trash bin and uses it as a sheild, silly putty splattering all over it.

The mechanical T-Rex has gotten upright and is stomping towards Beast Boy. With a smile on his face, he transforms himself into a Tyrannosaurus, towering over the 15-foot robot. It turns to try and get away, but Beast Boy grabs one of its legs and pulls it to the ground. Holding it down with a great green foot, he begins ripping apart the machine, metal and wires flying in all directions.

Turning back to the kid responsible for all this, I can see him struggling against Cyborg, who has a hold of two of his robotic legs. "Let go of me, you slimy pile of crud!" he shouts at Cyborg.

" I'm still not forgiving you for what you did to my first Baby," he growls back.

Behind me I hear the helicopter spiral out of control after Raven hit it with the fender of a wrecked car. It zooms into the pavement and explodes.

Meanwhile, Robin has tied the kid's back two legs together as well with a lasso. The kid looks at Cyborg and Robin in dismay, then pushes a button on his pack. He detaches from the legs, and he yells, "See ya, crudheads!" before rocketing away on his jet pack. Starfire aims a few bolts at him, but they miss and he soon disappears.

Robin punches the wall of the store. Beast Boy groans. "Not again. I hate that guy."

"We'll get him... eventually," says Cyborg, looking off in the direction the kid escaped.

"Yes," adds Raven. "There's no use beating ourselves up about it. He got away today. Tomorrow, things may be different."

"Hey, at least you stopped him from getting whatever it is he came here for," I offer. "Who was he, anyway?"

"His name's Gizmo," Robin answers. "And we've met him before."

"Yeah, I can tell."

Starfire floats over towards me. "You have helped us a second time. We are most grateful."

"Not a problem, really. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time." Then I turn to Beast Boy. "Hey, Beast Boy, that was sweet back there."

"Yeah, thanks, but ripping apart than robot was like chewing on tin foil. my teeth still hurt," he says, massaging his jaw.

"So, any idea what he was after?" I ask the group at large. I'm greeted by some shrugs and several shaking heads. Robin looks deep in thought.

" Hey, listen, um... Wait, we never got your name, did we?" exclaims Cyborg.

"No, not really," I reply. "You can call me Force," I tell him, shaking his hand.

"Right, well Force, I'd been meaning to tell you. Beast Boy and some of the others were thinking..." he begins, but Beast Boy interrupts him.

"We were thinking that if we ran into you again we should make you an offer. You see, we keep meeting like this, and you really do help us out with these jerks..."

"Yes, very much so!" pipes in Starfire.

"Well," continues Beast Boy, "We figured you were working with us anyway, so now we officially invite you to Titan's Tower. You can stay for as long as you're in town."

"We'd be glad to have you," Cyborg adds, a smile on his face.

"I would be honored."

"Great!" says Beast Boy, who then turns into a seal and claps his paws together.

"Well, we better get back, then," Robin says with an air of finality in his voice.

"Follow us," Raven says to me, and we walk off, Starfire flying overhead and Beast Boy barking as he waddles down the street.

Soon we reach the water, and out on an island sits the T-shaped Titan's Tower.

"Nice," I say out loud.

In a dark room, a figure sits in a tall-backed chair, staring at a large computer screen. Gizmo's face suddenly looms up in it.

"Did you get the AI chip?" the figure asks.

"Well, I was almost to it when those crummy Teen Titans got in my way."

"The Teen Titans?" he asks, interested.

"Yeah, and some other guy. He was the first to show up."

"Another Titan?"

"No, just some other scumbag who seem to know them."

"Who was he?"

"I don't know; never met the guy before. He controlled this weird energy-stuff," Gizmo says, waving his hands around.

"Very well," the figure replies, cutting off Gizmo's picture.

"Another superhero," he says to himself. "Interesting."

Room with a View

"There you are," Robin says to me, pointing into a room off the living room in Titan's Tower. The Titans had just finished moving piles of boxes out of it to reveal that there actually was a bed and several other pieces of furniture in there. Also, opposite the door was a wall lined with windows; the bay glimmered below in the afternoon sunshine.

"Excellent, thanks guys."

"Do you wish to see the rest of the Tower?" Starfire asks eagerly. "I can show you everything, come with me!" She grabs a hold of my arm. I wouldn't be able to break loose if I tried.

"Uh, sure, Starfire."

She drags me along, periodically saying something like "You must see the garage. Come, look, isn't it wondrous?" in an excited tone. I see all of the Titans' rooms, except Raven's ("Raven does not like anyone in her room," Starfire tells me.), and then she brings me to the roof. From the top of the Tower we can see for miles, over the whole city. I sit down to look over the bay, and Starfire hovers down next to me.

"It must be beautiful up here at night," I say to her. "Do you ever come here and watch the stars?"

She takes a moment to reply. "Yes, sometimes, when I cannot sleep."

We sit watching the sun sink in the sky for a little while, and then she brings me back down to the kitchen and living room.

"Oh, good!" she says, "We are just in time for dinner! It appears Robin has gotten us pizza again." Cyborg, Robin, and Beast Boy are already diviing up the slices; Raven is just sitting down. Starfire and I take two empty spots around the table.

"Hey, Force," Beast Boy says to me as I sit down," Dig in! Our chow is your chow."

"Chow?" asks Starfire. "I though this was pizza." Beast Boy rolls his eyes.

I grab a piece of pepperoni and look around the table. Robin is patiently explaining to Starfire what Beast Boy meant and that this really is pizza. Raven is sitting as far as possible from everyone else and survey her pizza with dissatisfaction.

"Do we have to get pizza every other meal?" she asks the table at large. Between slices, Beast Boy morphs into a dog and begins scratching behind his ear.

"Hey Fido!" Cyborg yells at him. "How many times do I have to tell not to do that at the table?!"

Beast Boy changes back, scowling across the table.

In the morning, I wake up as the sun rises over the bay, sending a soft light shining through my bedroom windows. When I walk out into the dimly lit living room, I can see Raven sitting with crossed legs, facing the big windows and floating in the air.

"Morning," I say quietly as I walk up beside her, looking out the windows at the sunlight flooding over the city.

"Morning," she replies without opening her eyes.

"Mind if I join you?" I ask, trying not to disturb her meditation. At this she opens her eyes and looks sideways at me, sitting myself on the floor and closing my eyes. Meditation had become part of my general morning routine. I had learned various meditations to help focus and replenish my energy, and found that they greatly increased my abilities and my control over them.

"Go ahead," I hear raven answer as she settles herself back into focus.

About half an hour later, I hear Raven set herself down and get up, but she doesn't go far and I have the feeling she's waiting for me to finish as well. I wrap up my meditation, feeling more awake and energized, as usual, and get to my feet with a small stretch.

Raven, who was sitting in a nearby chair, gets up and asks, "Do you want breakfast? I could find us some cereal before the others get up and order another pizza."

"That would be nice," I reply, smiling.

As we sit eating cereal at the table, a pot of herbal tea warming up on the stove, Starfire hovers into the room. "Mornings greetings," she says to us with a smile. "Are you eating breakfast?"

"Just some cereal," I say. "There's a pot of tea heating up if you want some later."

"Oh, no. I do not need any," she says to me, then moves over to the fridge. Opening it, she asks," Raven, do we have any mustard?"

"I didn't look."

"What do you want mustard for?" I ask.

"She drinks it," Raven answers.

"Really?"

"Yes," says Starfire, pulling her head out of the refrigerator. "It is very delicious! You must try some!"

I look skeptically at Raven, but just then I hear "There it is!" from Starfire and she pulls a mustard container from the door, finds a straw, and sits down to drink it.

"Want some?" she asks me.

"I think I'll pass."

The tea comes to a boil, so Raven gets up and pours two mugs. "Thank you," I say as she sets one by me and sits down on the other side of the table.

"So, Force," Starfire inquires, "Did you meditate with Raven this morning?"

"Yes, sort of."

"Raven meditates every day."

"So do I."

"Good!" she exclaims. "Now Raven will not be so lonely when she is thinking!"

"Well, I don't know about that," I say hesitantly, "But she won't be alone in the mornings... if she doesn't mind me being there."

Raven slowly shakes her head, taking a sip of tea from her cup.

Its a little while before Beast Boy staggers into the room, yawning widely. He stretches, walks into the kitchen, and sits down next to Starfire.

"Ugh," he says, looking at the mustard. "Not again. I can't look," he adds, turning away from Starfire as she takes another draw from the container.

"You do not understand the joy of mustard," she says to him.

"I think I'll stick to orange juice thank you," Beast Boy replies with a stubborn look on his face.

Robin and Cyborg came in individually over the next quarter-hour. Robin was wiping himself down with a towel when he came in to start some coffee. "He trains in the mornings," Starfire says to me. By the time Cyborg had walked in from his daily run along the bay, Raven had begun slinking off from the steadily noisier table.

While the guys made breakfast, Beast Boy and Cyborg got into a heated argument over tofu as a food item. I was informed by Robin that this was normal breakfast conversation. After Beast Boy had had his fill of scrambled egg-substitute, he turned to me.

"Hey, Force, come with me."

He leads me out of the kitchen and turns around to say "Let me introduce you to a dear friend."

He's pointing at the five-foot tall big screen TV taking up a large part of the living room. Beast Boy throws himself on the couch opposite it. Grabbing a remote and wielding it as if it were made of solid gold, he turns the TV on with a click.

"Come, sit, stay a while," he says to me.

Burned

Later that afternoon, I'm losing spectacularly to Robin on the GameMaster 3000 after a narrow victory over Beast Boy. He and Cyborg are shouting us on while Starfire watches half-interested and Raven reads a book. The noise is almost so loud that we can't hear the alarm when it goes off. Everyone stops suddenly at the sound, the video game music playing on in the background. "Something's up," Robin says to me as they all get up quickly and make for the computer on the other side of the room. I follow them over to the screens to see what's happened.

Robin touches the keyboard and a map of the city pops up. It's focused over an area downtown, and a red dot is flashing along one of the streets. "Titans," he says, "Let's go."

We arrive minutes later outside Wave Industries, a large corporation specializing in sonic technology. The gates look like they were blasted apart with a missile, and a security car sits upside-down in the service drive, engulfed in flames. We rush past it, through a pair of ruined doors, and down a hallway. It has burn marks down it like someone took two huge blowtorches to the walls. Near the end of the hallway is a severely ruffled man in a labcoat. When Robin gets up to him, he says "He's in there," pointing through another blown-out doorway. Robin waves us on with one hand over his head.

Inside the room beyond, alarm sirens blare and red emergency lights flash. Several items around the room are smoking. And in the middle of the room, a slim figure finishes putting something into a pack slung over his back and turns around to us. He raises one hand to his wrist and, speaking into it, says, "They're here; just like you said." His other hand is down by his waist, and as I watch his fingers move as if to take a hold of something, a glowing ball of fiery red energy forms in his open palm. It steadily grows in size.

"I see the cavalry has arrived," he says to us, smiling. "I'm afraid I'm in a bit of a hurry, though, so let's make this quick."

"No problem," answers Robin.

With a burst of psychotic laughter, he lobs the basketball-sized globe of energy across the room at us.

My mind races. Somehow I know in my head that none of us could take that blast, and the Titans don't have time to get out of the way.

Focusing all my effort, I wave both hands across the air in front of me. A thick, transparent barrier forms around our end of the room. Milliseconds later, the sphere impacts. A blast like a cannon fills the room as the fiery sphere blossoms instantly into a huge explosion, and I brace myself as the barrier nearly shatters.

After the explosion, I cancel the wall and drop my hands to my sides. Everyone looks a little shaken from the blast. I can see the guy looking through the smoke at me, eyes narrowed. Robin and Beast Boy run at him. 'What are they doing?' I think, 'That's way too dangerous.' Robin is ahead, and Beast Boy, in ram shape, is taking advantage of the enemy's attention on Robin to try and sneak up on him.

A baseball-sized fireball flies towards Robin; he jumps sideways onto a piece of equipment to avoid it, but quickly jumps off again before another sphere hits it and blows it into shrapnel. Robin dashes towards him as he puts both hands together. A pulsating red sphere forms between them as he raises his hands above his head. With a sneer, the hothead launches the sphere right into the floor between him and Robin. Another echoing bang shakes the room, throwing Robin backwards and blasting a hole in the floor. An evil grin lights the guy's face as he turns, spotting Beast Boy. Another fireball forms in his hand. I can see Beast boy put his brakes on, but it's too late for him to get out of the way. Then, just as the psycho looks like he's going to throw the ball of energy in his hand, he looks up instead. A huge venting system, stretching from floor to ceiling, is creaking and groaning as it threatens to topple over on him, surrounded in black energy. I whip my head around at raven, whose split-second thinking may have just saved Beast Boy's life. With little effort, she causes the system to break its supports and start collapsing. As the towering metal structure comes down on him, he tosses the fireball in his hand upwards, blowing apart the venting system in a fiery blast. Dodging as a piece of flaming sheet metal rockets past, I begin walking straight towards the fire man, in plain sight and out in the open. 'He's too dangerous,' keeps ringing through my head. 'I can't let the others get hurt.'

"Force, do not approach him!" Starfire yells from behind me as I walk past Beast Boy. "Hey, wait!" he says to me. But I've become angry now. Reason ricochets off me like bullets off Superman. As I continue to draw closer to him, he spots me and tenses his glowing hands. A fiery sphere rockets towards me; I throw out a hand and block it with a shield, angling the blast to my right side. Another heads my way and I deflect it to the left. Then, before he can form another fireball, I aim a blast of force at him and knock him off his feet. Fuming, I walk up to him sprawled on his back, ready to pound him to the ground. It is at this moment that I hear Starfire's voice behind me again.

"Don't go closer. He is too dangerous."

I'm about to turn around and tell her to get back when I see him stir from the ground. A fireball is already in his hand and as he looks up at me he says, "We'll have to finish this some other time," before throwing the ball up at the ceiling. I think automatically of Starfire right behind me and I turn around just as the ceiling explodes above her. Lifting my hands, I form a wall to hold up the ceiling, but I can tell right away it won't last for long. A blast issues behind me, but all my mind is bent on keeping the above floor from crashing down on us. As another, louder blast shakes the room, I start to lose control and pieces of the ceiling begin raining down around me. I throw my full concentration into pushing up on the ceiling, and a voice somewhere says "Grab him and let's go!" Then darkness fills the room and my world goes black.

Lights swim into view. I can tell immediately that I'm on the floor, leaning up against a wall or something. Blinking, I push myself up higher and see the Titans around me. Robin is talking to another man in a labcoat and the others are standing glumly around the hallway we're in. Beast boy notices me. "He's up already," he says, walking over and giving me a hand up.

"So, what happened?" I ask as I get to my feet.

"Well," says Cyborg,"After you turned to hold up the ceiling, Heat Core tried to blast you from behind. I saw him, though, so I blew a machine apart in his face with my sonic cannon. He turned and ran after blowing a hole in the wall. Don't know if we could have stopped him, but we were more worried about getting everyone out of that room. Soon it was just you in there, holding the whole damn room up. We knew you couldn't get out of there alone, so Raven held up the ceiling while Star flew in, grabbed you, and shot back out before the whole thing came down."

They're all looking at me, so I ask, "Heat Core?"

"That's what one of those guys said he was calling himself," Beast Boy answers. "Told us he made off with a powerful bit of their latest technology. Some sort of high-powered sonic generator. Don't know what he wants with it, though; they said it takes a huge amount of power to run the thing. I mean, its not like he's going to have that much power lying around at home."

Robin walks back to us. "He says we should be watching the power grid. If anyone uses that thing, we'll know. The generator is currently top secret technology, so we can't leak out that its missing." He has a few cuts on his face and the front of his costume is scorched from the explosion. "Let's get back to the Tower," he says. "There's nothing more we can do here."

I can see the disappointment and concern in his face. We let another one get away, and this one took off with a dangerous bit of machinery. As we leave, I take a last look into the room I barely escaped from. Rubble and dust cover everything, and all I can think of as we head back to Titan's tower is the twisted smile on Heat Core's face when he knew I'd let my guard down in my anger and forgot about the safety of the others. It will be burned into my memory for a long time.