Clicking heels and quiet conversations echoed around the cool marble of the Chicago branch of the First National Bank. The sun outside was bright and warm, a welcome thing indeed in the chilly afternoon. All seemed well and all seemed calm; at first, the people milling through the bank noticed nothing wrong.
The dimming lights began to catch the attention of some more observant employees, but it was the way the bright sunlight stopped streaming through the windows that caused the first murmurs. Whispers turned to complaints, turned to shouts and screams as the light bulbs in the ceiling blew out with a crash, and even the natural light turned to thick blackness inside the bank. People all across the lobby fell still, afraid to move without knowing what lurked in front of them, and angry shouts traced the trail of the robbers as they ran right through the front door and into several people.
“Be careful, you idiots!” The voice rang out, sharp and nasal, and pulling every sightless eye several feet into the air, where the man must have been. The people below heard a clearing throat, then a more impressive announcement. “Remain calm, and no one gets hurt. Panic, or make any move against Doctor Light, and I shan’t be so generous,” he let out a laugh, cut off by the
thump of another robber hitting the wall. “Oh, come on!”
“My glasses fell off!”
“They’re strapped to your—!” Light took a long breath, and muttered, “Nevermind.” Another gasp rose up from the invisible crowd when Doctor Light brought a bright ball of energy to life in his palm, letting the captives see the man floating above them (and showing off his elaborate costume). Thinly-padded black covered the man’s slim form from neck to toe, white accents at his wrists and ankles and a thin white belt, and his head was covered with a shining white helmet that contrasted his dark eyes and beard. The light bulb over his chest was his symbol, in case anyone below failed to remember the name of the man who held them in place in the darkness. Only Light was visible, all else was like ink.
“You’ve all been fantastically helpful,” Light addressed his unseen crowd again, listening for the sounds of running footsteps from his two goons, until they had vanished back outside of the bank. In the few minutes since the darkness fell, they had made their way to the vault, battered more than snuck their way inside (by the sounds of it), and returned with arms full of cash. “Rest assured, citizens, you’ve hardly heard the last of Doctor Light!” With those parting words, he floated backwards, keeping the light in his hand and around his form until he had left right through the front door, bright sunshine streaming only an inch inside behind him before halting in its tracks.
Doctor Light make his way quickly into the getaway car, smiling at his job well done. Within a few more minutes, the thick blackness had faded, the sunlight flooded back into the bank to blind more than a few of the robbery victims, and Light had gotten away.
*****
“Are we there yet?” Steph Brown bounced and tapped her feet on the floor of the van, her hands on the back of Carla’s seat and her head leaning around the other girl’s to look toward the front and out the windshield. For her part, Carla craned her neck away from Stephanie’s flying hair and softly growled, kept quiet by her brother’s hand on her shoulder.
“I already told you, Steph, I’ll
tell you when we get there.” Dinah slumped back in the driver’s seat, tossing a slight roll of her eyes to Kathy Kane, who was next to her. Dinah had the experience and motivation to lead these new Teen Titans, but she hadn’t exactly counted on having to be everyone’s mother.
“I know you did, it’s just so exciting!” Steph beamed, but turned the brightness down when Cassandra tugged on her arm, and pointed to Steph’s tapping feet. ‘Oh…okay, sorry,” she quieted down and stopped fidgeting, sitting back in between Cass and Garfield.
“Man, I never rode in such a dorky car in my life,” Vic muttered to Juan, sitting next to him in the middle row.
“C’mon, it’s not that bad,” Gar leaned his elbows on the back of Victor’s seat. “Heyyy…why don’t we make ourselves a REALLY cool car? I got some great ideas, anyone got a pen?” he asked around, already scribbling in the air.
“I never rode with such a dorky
group,” Carla muttered back across her brother.
“Will you all just quit complaining, or I’m turning the dorky car around and nobody gets to see Titans Tower!” Dinah’s outburst quieted the rest of the mutterings in the van.
“So are we—“
“No, no we’re not!” Carla turned angrily to glare at Steph.
“Actually, we are,” Kathy said calmly, and Dinah turned the van into a parking spot a few feet from the edge of Lake Michigan. In front of them was a long pier, with a small, fast ferry waiting on the water, and small but clearly visible a few miles out sat Titans Tower.
The team let out a collective gasp as they all piled out of the car, all in awe of the finished work. It was unmistakable, and impossible to miss, several stories tall and T-shaped. The fresh steel and glass sparkled, reflecting the sunlight that danced on the water below.
“The island’s mine,” Kathy explained, her stylish sundress fluttering over her legs in the breeze as she walked onto the pier. “So you kids don’t trash it too badly. I’m not getting you another one.”
“It’s awesome!” Stephanie leapt into the air as she followed Kathy to the boat.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Carla shrugged, and leaned against the car.
“I like it,” Juan followed the others more quickly than his sister, tossing a pleading look to Carla as the rest of the newly-formed team made their way to their new headquarters. “So are you gonna stand there all day or are you gonna race me to the boat?”
Carla’s lips twitched back into a smile and she started running, flying past him and toward the others. “Mi hermanos, you watch who you challenge!”
Juan ran after her, the last to get on the boat, smiling to himself as he saw Carla happier.
A mere few minutes later and the ferry had arrived, docking at the shore of an island lush with plants and little flowers, the tower taking up most of the space but leaving plenty of yard and training ground for the team to work with. Before even touching the ground, Gar morphed into an exotic emerald parrot and made a wide sweep over the island. Dinah shrugged as she stepped onto the land, and gestured for the rest of the team to explore.
Carla grabbed her brother’s hand with a grin, and they both were gone in a flash, little more than a blur in the windows as they ran through the tower. Stephanie likewise wasted no time, flashing a smile at Cassandra, who followed her more demurely through the doors.
Vic Stone kicked the ground with his metallic foot, thick and feeling so little inside his shoes, grumbling only loud enough for himself to hear. “Sure, everyone else pair up. Stone can walk alone…long as I’m not stuck hangin’ out with the bird brain.”
Garfield swooped down into a tree near the doors, his new monkey’s tail catching him expertly and hanging him upside down. “This is the best place ever!”
Vic grumbled just a little louder as he walked through the doors, followed quickly by Gar, and soon by Dinah and Kathy.
“Alright everybody, listen up!” Dinah’s voice carried all through the tower. It was designed with a large, open center, each floor making a ring around the main entrance. Carla and Juan’s heads poked over the railing on the topmost floor, and they zipped together down to the entrance. Steph and Cassandra took longer, but returned to the group as well, Steph positively beaming with excitement.
“So here’s how this works,” Dinah started to explain, hands on her hips as she took her leadership role again. “You six are always welcome to come and go as you want. The Tower is going to be our base, and where we’ll be training you. Everybody pick a room, it’ll be yours. Anyone who wants to make this place a weekend retreat, you’re good. And if any of you wanted to stick around more full-time, you’re good too.” She looked around at the group, letting her eyes linger a moment on each member. “Make yourselves at home, for now. There’s a gym on the second floor, pool’s through that door, kitchen and entertainment center on either side of the T at the top.”
“This
is the best place ever!” Gar wasted no time in taking flight again, soaring as an eagle up to the top floor. The other Titans made their ways up again as well, excited cheering and shouting floating down toward the two adults, along with more irritated shouts and a few quiet crashes.
Dinah just chuckled and shook her head. “This is gonna be some adventure.”
*****
The trouble with making yourself noticeable is getting noticed by everyone.There had been no way to miss the Tower as it had started to go up, no way to mistake it for anything other than a symbol of heroes and hope. The buzz had been deafening, and for one who was searching, there had been no way to miss the news of who was leading this new teen team.
The Black Canary. With some help from her friends, but almost all alone.
Slade Wilson smiled a cruel smile, looking out the window toward Titans Tower with his hands folded calmly at the small of his back. “Are you ready, Son?”
“I’m ready.” He was wearing the costume that had finally been finished, slick blue chain and burnt orange cloth over a strong, muscled body. The broadsword he’d spent years with twirled between his hands, itching to finally strike.
“Named yourself yet?” Slade didn’t turn around, but his smile grew.
“Been tossing it around a while,” His son replied, sheathing the sword and walking up to the window. “Ravager.”
“Ravager,” Slade repeated. “Terminator and Ravager. I like it.”
Grant pulled the mask off of his face. He looked so like his father had, at seventeen. His hair was pale and thick, waving over his head, and his bright blue eyes looked into his father’s one. “You want me to take ‘em all out?”
Slade chuckled at his oldest son’s excitement. “Yes. I want you to take them all out. Just don’t be stupid,” his voice took on a little more of an edge. “Be ready.”
“I am, Dad.” Grant’s young chest filled rapidly with air in his excitement. “I’m ready. The Teen Titans are going down.”
*****
By early evening, all six teenagers had started to stake their territory in their new base. Victor and Juan had shut themselves up together in the tower’s gym, leaving Carla to stalk through the halls, while Steph, Gar and Cassandra settled into the entertainment center. Garfield had become a jackrabbit in order to jump enough to express his excitement at finding
The Iron Giant in the small collection of movies, and he and the two girls were now watching intently on the couch as the film neared its end.
Carla walked into the room, her arms folded over her chest as she looked from the screen, to the three so-called heroes huddled next to each other. Cassandra had her knees pressed to her chest, Stephanie biting her nails on one side of her and Garfield with his slightly-pointed ears drooping.
< “Don’t know why I’m supposed to waste my time sitting around with losers,”> Carla muttered in Spanish, drawing Garfield’s attention.
He turned around and looked at her over the back of the rounded sofa. “You wanna watch too?”
“No,” Carla shot back quickly, looking over the other girls’ heads as the Giant knelt by the little boy.
”You stay. I go,” the robot instructed on-screen. Carla folded her arms tighter over her chest and turned her head away, while Steph’s and Cassandra’s eyes stayed glued to the TV.
”No following.“Then how come you keep coming back in here?” Gar asked with an impish grin.
Juan and Vic made their laughing way into the room then, saving Carla from having to answer. “Whatcha watching?” Juan asked.
“Shh! It’s almost over,” Steph turned around for half a moment with a finger to her lips, before grabbing onto Cassandra’s arm.
”You are who you choose to be.” The explosion reverberated around the room through the top-notch sound system, and sniffles started to come thick from the other side of the sofa.
“You big babies,” Vic laughed and clapped Carla on the shoulder. “Who seriously cries about a kid’s cartoon?” He turned his head when Carla didn’t laugh with him. “Girl, you okay?”
“I got somethin’ in my eye!” Carla tore away from Vic’s hand and stormed from the room.
“What’s her problem?” Vic looked out after her.
Stephanie gave Cassandra’s hand a quick, friendly squeeze. “Well, what’d you think?”
The other girl’s eyes were still locked on the credits, and she nodded, silent as ever.
Dinah walked into the room behind her charges, showing her confusion as Carla stalked in a moment later with a fresh-washed face. “Okay team, everybody ready?”
“Ready?” Gar jumped up onto the back of the couch, and the other girls stood as well. “Ready for what?”
“You’ve got a job to do.” Dinah grinned as she looked over the team. “In the future, keep the TV low enough to hear the alarm?” Steph rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, and Gar turned a strange purple with his light blush. “Bank robbery, this is simple enough. Man calling himself Doctor Light. I want everyone suited up and in the boat in three minutes, and latecomers find their own way off the island!”
With that call to action, the team raced to be ready, the twins joining hands to speed through the halls, Garfield taking flight down the open center of the tower, the other three with varying smiles on their faces as they prepared themselves for their first challenge.
*****
The day dawned cloudier this time, but the grey light still bathed the city, keeping the citizens from being too afraid. Police cars made their way through the streets of Chicago like always, spending a touch more time around the city’s largest banks, but it didn’t help the Second National when the last routine round was over, and inky blackness started to descend inside the building.
Doctor Light stood concealed from the people inside, chuckling to himself as he focused, putting up a barrier inside to keep the light from entering, listening to the whispers as they turned to confused shouts, and dreaming of the moment they would turn into screams.
“What’cha up to there, buddy?”
Light jumped several inches into the air as he spun around at the sound of the voice, his dark cloud fizzling in the building now behind him. He was surrounded by six teenagers, all costumed and all glaring at him. While the artificial darkness had kept him unseen by his victims, Light had failed to consider that he was standing perfectly visible from outside the door.
Spoiler was standing with her arms folded just in front of Light, flanked by Beast Boy in the form of a growling dog, and Kasumi standing at the ready with her fists up. Cyborg stood tall and intimidating to Light’s right, with the twins Mas y Menos both blocking his left side. With his back to the door of the bank, Doctor Light was trapped, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him.
“Well, well,” he started, cracking his knuckles as he looked around the teens. “Isn’t this a party? And what do you all think you’re doing here in my way?”
“I’m pretty sure we’re gonna be putting a big dent in your ass unless you come quietly,” Carla told him, and she and Juan were standing on either side of Light within a second.
“So come quietly,
comprende?” Juan smirked as he looked over the man’s costume, snickering to himself.
“You underestimate Doctor Light!” He announced, with a smirk of his own before vanishing before all of their eyes.
The Titans reacted almost as one, all going suddenly tense, except for Kasumi. While Spoiler looked all around her, spinning in place to try to see where the villain went, and the twins looked at each other with matching glares at the empty space, the black-clad heroine closed her eyes, and struck a fierce punch into the air a moment later. The cry of pain betrayed Light’s position, and Beast Boy launched himself into the air as a long boa constrictor, wrapping around the invisible body and giving the others a target.
“Looks like you underestimated us, too,” Spoiler grinned as Light came back into view, dropping the concentration needed to keep up his invisibility as he tried to pry Beast Boy away.
Light had barely gotten back to visibility when his chin met a fast, sharp fist, followed by another, and another, without time in between them even to count. Mas laughed out loud as she used the villain’s head for a punching bag, and Menos threw a kick to Light’s side with enough velocity to crack the white belt, and send him flying to the pavement.
“Hombre peligroso, eh?” Mas smirked with her hands on her hips, kicking gravel onto Light’s costume.
“Yeah, we fought more dangerous than him in grade school,” Menos stood beside her with a matching sneer.
“Well school’s out, kiddies!” Before even the twins could collect their speed to react, Light focused a bright circle of glowing energy around his body, radiating outward in a shock wave that threw the two off their feet.
Cyborg stepped up now, standing in front of Light with an amused, still-threatening look on his face. “I think we all know how this is gonna turn out,” he said, waiting a moment for the snake to get out of the way before landing a rough punch over the bulb on Light’s chest. The man was knocked back, falling to the ground breathless as Beast Boy slithered away and jumped back into his human shape.
“Awesome!” Beast Boy shouted, turning around and holding a hand up for a high-five with Cyborg. What he got instead was a handful of burning hot energy, and he turned back with a painful cry to see Light standing, with a snarl on his face and a bright ball of light in his hand.
“Alright, you little whelps,” Light pointed his fists dramatically toward the pavement and rose into the air, high enough to be out of reach before even the twins could hold him down. “Let’s see how much fun you’re having now!” Light spared half a second to mentally note a need for better banter, and he shot another ball of bright, burning light toward the Titans clustered below him.
“Are you stupid or something?” Cyborg stood his ground steadily, while Beast Boy took off into the air as a hawk, and the others got out of the way. One gleaming arm rose up to meet the blast, shimmering metallic sheen over dark skin. Vic braced himself and ground his teeth at the impact before the light reflected off of his body, and back toward the villain. Light cried out in surprise and tried to steer himself in the air, but the brilliant green bird rammed into him and shoved him toward the rebounding blast. Beast Boy curled himself into an armadillo and dropped fast to the ground, just before Light was hit. The impact lit up the grey day, drawing more attention from the people passing by as the villain dropped like a stone, with a hard crash to the pavement. He groaned and reached a hand to his helmet, opening his eyes again to find a green chipmunk an inch from his face, laughing.
“Alright, that’s enough!” Light smacked Beast Boy clear across the street and stood, his costume ripped and dirty and his eyes shimmering with rage. The anger cleared his aching head enough for him to work, and draw the light away from the scene, draining a large hemisphere of dark space in the middle of the street, around himself and the Teen Titans. The gathered crowd let out a satisfying gasp as the combatants disappeared into the thick black cloud.
Spoiler reached her hand out to clutch Kasumi’s arm as the darkness spread over the two girls, and she started to whisper frantically. “I can’t see! How am I supposed to fight him if I can’t see him? And I can’t see you? And I can’t see them? How am I gonna—“ She was silenced by a leather-clad finger pressing to her lips, and Kasumi stole away into the black bubble.
“Ay! Watch where you’re walking!”
“Sorry, Mas!” Beast Boy hooted, using his owl’s eyes inexpertly to try to see the heat of the people around him.
Doctor Light smirked at the sounds of their whispered fear, until he felt a jab in the back of his neck, and stumbled forward. “Who’s that?” He shouted, rubbing his own eyes. He realized then what a mistake he had made—his artificial darkness sucked away all of the light, leaving none for anyone to use to see, not even himself. “Damn!” The darkness started to dissipate, but not before Kasumi landed another stealth hit to Light’s back.
“You go, girl!” Spoiler called, smirking beneath her mask and running up to Doctor Light as soon as she could see well enough, Kasumi keeping him an easy target with jabs to nerve clusters. With her purple cape fluttering in the wind as she stepped up to the criminal, she cut a heroic figure. “Now I’m only gonna ask you this one more time,” she started, in a carrying voice as she stood in front of him. “Are you ready to give up?”
Kasumi’s hands had his firmly held behind his back. Cyborg stomped toward his left side, Beast Boy to his right, Mas y Menos running taunting circles around him before blocking behind Kasumi. Light struggled out of the woman’s grip, but the effort left him falling to his knees and exhausted. He gave one last snarling glare up at Spoiler, but he couldn’t make it last. The cracked white helmet dropped down to the ground. “I give up.”
The gathered people sent up a cheer, snapping the Teen Titans out of their focused mindsets and back to the larger world. It was the work of a minute for Kasumi to tie Doctor Light’s hands to his ankles, leaving him harmless to await his punishments.
“Pretty slick work, chica,” Carla nodded to Kasumi, as the team gathered together. The other woman nodded back with a small, triumphant smile under her mask.
“You weren’t so bad yourself,” Beast Boy grinned at her, earning himself a glare. “Hey, I mean it! Why do girls always do that when I compliment them?”
Juan stepped up behind Spoiler with an easy grin. “You got a spark, huh? Gonna clean up nice when you get used to this.”
“What do you mean ‘gonna’?” Spoiler grinned back at him and cracked her knuckles.
“He means when you learn to shut up and punch,” Cyborg added, putting a hand on Spoiler’s shoulder to keep her from jumping as he walked up behind her.
The Teen Titans kept talking among themselves, chattering about their victory until the police arrived to clean up the damage. The crowd kept a respectful distance, even as cameras came out all along the front lines and held up from those in the back, and the noise reached all the way up to the roof of the Second National Bank.
With all the focus on the six teenagers below, no one looked up to see the Ravager, crouching over the top of the building with a smirk on his face.
