Teen Titans

“Darkness Rising” Part One

By Tobias Christopher

The UCLA Campus
Six Months Ago

"This is it?" asked Conner Kent as he looked at the empty remains of the Titan's meeting place on the college campus. "I've only been a part of this team for three weeks and we're disbanding?"

"No Damage, no Risk, no Omni," said Cassie Sandsmark as she looked out the window as she watched a red and white blur speed off into the distance. "And now Bart and Tim are both gone. It's just you, me and Offspring, with no potential replacements."

"So, we can make this work with three people," Conner told her as he took Cassie's hand. "Can't we?"

"Truthfully, I think I'd just like to step back and enjoy college life without worrying about saving the world every day," Cassie replied. "Wouldn't it be nice to be normal for once?"

"Normal's overrated," Conner replied with a sigh, "but I guess this would give a chance to get to know each other outside of work. So no more Teen Titans?"

"No more Teen Titans," Cassie told him as they walked out of the room. Cassie turned the switch off as they exited.

Today

A man in a wizard's robe and hat was standing out in the middle of the street as an armored bank van stopped. The man held out a brown stick as the van started to turn into jello.

"The prize belongs to Dr. Sorcery!" the man shouted as the money started to rise out of the jelled van, flying into his hat. Before the last of the cash could fly into the hat, a knife stuck itself in his hand.

"No one robs this town!" shouted Kid Karnevil, standing heroically on the side of the road with another knife in hand.

"I know how to fix you!" shouted Dr. Sorcery as he held the wand out and caused the gravel to rise up in front of Kid Karnevil. It was to come crashing down when the man was kicked from behind. Red X stood behind Dr. Sorcery, a sword drawn.

"Your reign of terror ends here, Dr. Sorcery!" shouted Red X as the Dr. Sorcery got ready to use magic against him. He held his hat out as Red X started being pulled toward the portal, just as another sword sliced through the villain's forearm.

"Enough of this," said Ravager as the bleeding villain stumbled back. "Stop playing around with this guy and get on with it."

"Who are you?" asked Dr. Sorcery as he tried to focus.

"We're the Teen Titans," said Ravager as she held her sword up. "And you broke the law on our turf."

Dr. Sorcery used his remaining hand to raise his wand to defend himself when a sword stuck through his chest, lifting the man into the air. Behind him stood Harm, smirking.

"Another villain down," said Harm as he tossed the villain's body to the side.

"Didn't have to kill him," said Red X as he approached Harm. "We were supposed to turn him in."

"And then he'd be back on the streets in an hour," Harm reminded him as they heard police sirens. "Prisons don't hold these guys, and even if they did they'd get out on some kind of legal loophole. We make sure these guys don't get a second chance to kill."

"Let's get out of here, the cops are coming," said Ravager as the group disappeared, leaving no trace of their existence behind.

Simon Valentine walked out of his bedroom, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He was sharing a dorm room with Conner Kent, who seemed to be really mild mannered. Now only if he learned to pick his stuff up off the floor. As Simon wandered through the living room, his bare foot stepped down onto a half eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Dammit, Conner," said Simon as he picked the plate up and carried it to the kitchen, tossing the stale sandwich into the trash. Simon started the pot of coffee as he turned on the news, just as Conner emerged from his own bedroom.

"Hey, Simon," said Conner as he started pouring himself a bowl of cereal. "Fresh coffee brewing?"

"I thought we talked about you being a little neater," said Simon as he held up the plate he'd brought from the living room. "Sandwiches don't make for good slippers."

"I knew I lost that somewhere," said Conner as he watched the news reporters, who were talking about rumors of the Teen Titans having reformed.

"Witnesses say that the Teen Titans are behind the recent string of criminal murders," said the reporter. "No one has been able to give a description of who exactly are in this group, although authorities believe that it might be the older members who have suddenly gone rogue."

"Always figured the Titans would eventually go bad," said Simon as he poured a pot of coffee. "You can't trust people who hide behind masks."

"Yeah," said Conner as he scarfed down his food as fast as possible. If people were posing as the Titans and murdering people, they had to be stopped. This looked like a job for Superboy.

Titans Tower

The building had been abandoned for quite some time, having been boarded up and de-activated. That made it the perfect cover for the new team of Titans. Hiding in plain sight was the plan and so far it was working.

"That was fun!" shouted Karnevil as he skipped along, playing with his bloody knife. "I don't get to stab people as nearly often as I should."

"Why'd we let this pyscho on the team again?" asked Red X as he walked alongside Ravager. There were times when he could have sworn he'd woken up in the middle of the night and caught glimpses of Karnevil standing over him with a knife in hand.

"To keep him in check," Ravager replied as she put her sword back into the cabinet. "Jeremy's a psychotic little shit, but if we weren't channeling that rage into crime fighting, he'd probably cause a lot more damage on a much bigger scale."

"Besides, the kid's a riot," Harm replied as he leaned back onto the couch and turned on the TV to watch 'Tiny Titans'. "He makes me laugh."

"Still not crazy about this whole manslaughter thing," said Red X as he put his own weapons away.

"You can always go back to your underground government lab," Harm reminded him, "where you lived in a cage for 23 hours a day. We sprung you because we liked how you operate and we can put you right back, don't forget that."

Red X didn't reply as he headed to the training room. Ravager watched him leave and looked at Harm. "So, what's your plan for when the real heroes decide that they've had enough killing?" asked Ravager as Harm looked over at her. "The Justice League and every other hero within a thousand miles will be after us at some point. I know you're leading this little venture and all, but...what's really the point of what we're doing?"

"Don't worry about the details, my dear. That's why we have an ace up our sleeve for when the big dogs come knocking," said Harm with a vicious smile. As he spoke, his voice seemed to soothe her and any questions that she was wanting to ask seemed to be forgotten. "Speaking of which, the pup's probably hungry. Why don't you be a dear and take him his dinner?"

Ravager's eyes shrunk into slits as she walked down toward the basement, where an iron cellar had been built courtesy of Harm. It had special markings all over and a line of salt was lined all around it. It was specially designed to contain what was inside. Ravager had a feeling that none of this was right but somehow she felt compelled to go along with it.

Carrying a tray with a sealed pot on it, she opened a slit on the door and pushed it in.

"Feeding time, kid," said Rose as she looked into the room, where the sole inhabitant was sitting on a cot, his back turned to her. "Eat up, you'll need your strength for your big debut."

Ravager left the tray sitting there as the young man sat there, unmoving. He was starving and had no choice but to eat what was offered to him.

Kid Karnevil had stripped off his costume, only continuing to wear a black domino mask over his eyes as he sat on his bed, using his knife to carve into his thigh. He felt no pain as he did so, only pleasure as he laughed viciously at the mutilation.

"The Teen Titans aren't murderers," Cassie said as she read the paper Conner had brought to her attention. They were sitting on the grass just outside of Cassie's dormhouse. "I thought we were going to get away from this sort of thing."

"We were Teen Titans; if these guys are allowed to continue they're going to start connecting members, new and old, to what these guys are doing," Conner told her. "We have to put a stop to it."

"We can't do it alone," said Cassie as she leaned back against a tree. "We need Bart. We need Tim."

"Good luck getting in contact with either of them," Conner told her. "The same goes for Grant, Cody, Luke and anyone else who with the team the last time. Face it, Cass, it's just you and me against these guys. What do you say? Superboy and Wonder Girl kicking some ass for old times sake?"

Cassie smiled at the thought of that. Going back to her dorm room, Cassie opened her closet, revealing her red and gold hooded costume in the back of her closet, with a golden lariot and silver bracelets on a hook next to it.

Conner went back to his dorm room and pulled off his grey hooded sweatshirt as he dug through his dresser drawer. He pulled out a black t-shirt with the 'S' symbol emblazoned in red upon it.

"Fuckin' A," smiled Conner as he pulled the t-shirt on and looked at himself in the mirror.

Red X was in the training room honing his skills for the next outing. He didn't remember much of his life before becoming Red X and wasn't so sure that he wanted to. He knew his human name, he knew his favorite foods and the basic human skills such as reading and writing, but beyond that his life previous life was a blank slate.

These days, all the young man knew was fighting, fighting and more fighting…a life of violence that he couldn't escape, no matter what. And being around Harm didn't seem to calm the rage inside of him.

"Need a sparring partner?" asked Ravager as she stood at the doorway, having unmasked. Her long white hair was hanging off of her shoulders, and a black eye patch was over her right eye.

"Beats working alone," said Red X as he looked her over. "What, you don't wear Daddy's mask when you spar?"

"The mask is only for working out in public," said Ravager as the two circled each other. "You should let your own hair down once in a while, Red."

"What's under the mask is weak," Red X told her. "All I am, all I know, is this mask."

The two started fighting hand to hand as Ravager smiled. "You're not the first guy to be compensating for something under the mask. You should talk to Robin sometime."

"I kicked his ass once," said Red X as he threw Ravager over his shoulder. She rebounded and kicked him in the side, causing him to grab it in pain. "I look forward to doing it again."

"You got the upper hand on bird boy? I find that hard to believe," said Ravager as the two rushed at each other. "I find that hard to believe."

"I fuckin' trounced him," Red X boasted as Ravager swept kicked him to the ground. "He's not the bad as people make him out to be." Red X jumped back up just in time to avoid Ravager's boot coming down on his chest. "Why, you got a soft spot for the Boy Wonder?"

"I don't have a soft spot for anyone," Ravager replied as the two continued to spar. "Especially him."

"Ravager, Red X," said Harm over the monitor on the wall. "It's time for another patrol."

"So, where do we start?" asked Superboy as he flew alongside Wonder Girl over the city. "We're not exactly detectives. Finding clues is more Robin's thing."

"These guys are killing criminals, right?" asked Wonder Girl as the wind flew through her hair. "So, let's find a criminal and hope that he's the one who brings these killer Titans to us."

As they flew through the air, Superboy started looking down. "I think we hit paydirt. Check it out."

A couple of car thieves were trying to break into a sports car, using a coat hanger and some other cheap tools.

"Come on, hurry up," said the larger of the two car thieves. "I don't like being in this neighborhood."

"Those news reports about the Teen Titans are just bull," said the thinner of the two. "Just made up by the media to scare guys like us. Well, I'm not falling for it."

As he said that, a small bomb rolled past them, underneath the car. It exploded into a fiery ball, knocking the two car thieves back. The insane laughter of Kid Karnevil was heard as the two thieves started to panic.

"I might have considered letting you live if you had better taste in cars," said Karnevil with a vicious grin as he appeared in front of them, with a nasty looking blade in his hands. "Aw, hell, who am I kidding? You were dead either way."

Red X and Ravager stood near, their weapons drawn as they approached.

"Unarmed car thieves?" asked Red X. "We're slaughtering unarmed guys now?"

"This required all four of us?" Ravager added angrily.

"Yes, it did," Harm told them, his voice assuring them of what they were doing. "All criminals have to die. We have to cleanse the city."

Red X and Ravager felt any uneasiness they had vanish as they got ready to attack.

"Less talk, more stabbing!" shouted Karnevil as a lasso wrapped around his wrist, pulling his arm back. He turned just in time for Wonder Girl to punch him across the street. Superboy landed next to her as they looked at the group posing as the Teen Titans.

"These are the clowns impersonating us?" asked Superboy as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation. "They don't look so tough."

A smile crossed Harm's face as he looked at the two heroes. "Not the one I wanted but they'll do for now. Take them down."

To Be Continued...

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