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The recruits still watched as the group of villains spoke with the Titans held captive in the background of their hideout.

“What we want it quite simple,” Dr. Light continued in his grandiloquent speech. “to show that WE are in charge. That WE own this city. And to prove it the first we shall do is this: I offer all criminals and villains of every size free rage of the cities pickings. It’s all yours for the taking. After enough hours of that fun, we plan to give you the final act. The one that shows just how powerful we truly are. Until then...” he gave a final chuckle before saying “...enjoy the show.”

The screen went black before all the recruits looked amongst each other, awestruck by what they’d just scene.

“You gotta be kidding...” Zan said, almost in disbelief.

“Now what do we do?” Jayna asked, dropping Silkie and walking over to the others.

“Well you heard what they said.” Stargirl began. “Open season for any and all crooks and nut-balls. So we can’t just sit here.”

“She’s right.” Static said, standing next to her. “We need to act.”

“Alright then.” Offspring began “Then what’s the plan?”

Static went silent for a moment before saying “Good question....and the answer is...uh...well....”

Stargirl, feeling a bit sorry for him, said “We need to protect the city. So we go out there, as a team, and keep everyone safe.”

“Uh, right.” Static said, hearing this. “What she said.”

“But what about the Titans?” Zan asked. “Shouldn’t we go looking for them?”

“Zan has a point.” Jayna added. “I mean what if we can cut it like the tests?”

“A this point the tests are over.” Static answered. “Think about it: Would they want us to waste out time trying to find them, or should we be out there trying to keep everyone safe?”

Offspring and the Wonder Twins looked amongst each other before nodding, meaning they agreed with Static. Stargirl looked to him also and nodded, showing she was with the others in following his lead.

“Alright then,” Static began. “let’s go!”

They all started running out the room and out to the city before Jayna asked “Go where?”

“Uh...you’ll know when we get there.” Static answered as they all made their way out of the Tower and to the city.

********************

Throughout a few of the streets, every criminal and punk was out committing some type of crime. There were some who were trying to break into cars, others spray painting large words of signs over walls and buildings and windows. Others were breaking into stores or trying to rob pedestrians.

There was one point where a young couple, an African American boy and a blonde haired girl, were corned in an alleyway by a group of five punk-rocker looking boys. All with bizarre hairdos and wearing leather jackets and large colored glasses. They were all carrying weapons like bats or pipes, one even carrying a heavy metal chain.

As the boy stood to the girls defense, the punks began to slowly creep towards them. All were brandishing their weapons, showing how serious they were. The one at the front, the closest to the couple, was about to swing his heavy pipe against the boy’s skull before a bolt of light shot and knocked it out of his hand. All looked up to see five figures standing on the roof above.

The recruits were all looking down at them, Static in the middle with his hands to his side, Offspring to his right with his arms crossed, Zan on the left crouching down, Jayna to her brother’s right with her hands on her hips, and Stargirl , the one who fired the shot, floating above them with her staff pointed at the punks.

“You know it’s true what they say.” Offspring said, seeing the punks ready themselves for a fight. “Two’s company, but eight’s an assault.”

Static fired a bolt of electricity at the two boys holding the pipe and chain, using his magnetic ability to bend them to his will. He made the pipe bend into a loop around the boys arm, entrapping it, and the chain warp around the other’s whole body, making him fall to the ground immobilized.

The others tried to run but were stopped in their own way. The Wonder Twins used their powers and Jayna became an orangutan, who landed on top of one of the boys in an instant. Another was stopped when Offspring coiled his whole arm around him and then spun him around like a top. He went spinning and spinning before crashing into a pile of garbage. There was one boy who was stopped when Stargirl used a beam of light to entrap him before picking him up and dumping him into a large nearby garbage bin and slamming the cover down. The final one, the boy who had the pipe wrapped around his arm, managed to get out of the alleyway and thought he was safe, only to slip on a large slick of ice that came from nowhere, making him slide all the way into a car on the other side of the street. Seeing he was knocked-out, Zan changed back to his normal form and went to rejoin the other who were now standing inside the alleyway as opposed to above it.

All looked at what they’d done, Jayna turning back to normal in the process, before Offspring said “We came, we saw, we kicked some serious tail!”

“Score one for us!” Jayna declared, bouncing a bit at this.

They suddenly heard a “Whoa.” From behind and looked to see the couple staring at them in surprise. “Are...are you guys with the Titans?” the boy asked

“Uh...yeah.” Static said, taking a bit of pride from saying so. “Were the uh....the uh...”

“The New Titans.” Stargirl said, making the name for the team.

Static looked and nodded before saying “Yeah, that’s it. The New Titans, at your service.”

They seemed to smile in comfort at this before Zan said “Uh, guys, we should keep moving.”

“Uh, right.” Static said. He looked to the Couple and said “You both get somewhere safe until this blows over.” He looked back to the others and said “Alright Titans. GO!”

With that they all ran off to stop the next major crime, leaving the couple a bit overwhelmed with the events that happened.

********************

From the hidden location the villains had situated themselves in, all of them watched on a number of monitors as all the different crimes were committed around the city.

They watched with joy as they saw lootings, beatings, damage to public property and all the like being committed. Dr. Light took up a seat in the center of the room with a small staircase leading up to it, while the others, except for Atlas, stood around different parts of the room watching the monitors. Behind them were the Titans, still locked in their cages, who had to watch helplessly as they watched their city tearing itself apart without them able to stop it. Atlas stood nearby them to act as a sort of guard.

Cyborg banged against the electric barrier of is cell and shouted “When I get out of here, I’m gonna bust your heads wide open!”

“Don’t waste your breath, maggot.” Atlas said, walking in front of his cage. “You’ll not be breaking out anytime soon and Atlas wants you good and ready for what’s to come.”

Atlas turned to the others while Cyborg and the rest of the Titans looked with either anger or a mix of anger and sadness at what they were seeing.

“Quite the show, Doc.” Mumbo said, sitting nearby him and eating a bag of popcorn. “Wish I had the whole Mumbo family to see this momentous occasion.”

“No worries.” Light said, holding up a remote. “I’m having the whole thing recorded.”
“Even better.” Mumbo ginned.

Starfire, seeing things from her cage, became angry and tried to smash it herself with her fists glowing green and smashing against her cell. Beast Boy tried to do the same by changing into a bear, a lion and a tiger, one after another, trying to claw at it. Only Robin and Raven stood by and watched without trying anything. Robin’s looked to see Kitten wearing his belt around her waist, and Raven had already tried using her magic to no avail.

Robin looked over to Dr. Light and said “Don’t think you’ve won so soon, Light. We may be down, but were not out.”

“Ah, but that’s the best part.” He said, not bothering to look over to him. “When all is done, you WILL be taken out.”

“What?” BB said, stopping what he doing and changing back to his normal form at the statement.

“It’s quite simple really.” Mumbo said, walking over to them. “We plan perform a bit of a disappearing act. You’ll be the guests stars, and the best part of the trick: it’s permanent.”

It suddenly dawned on them what they had planned before Raven said “Even if you kill us, they’ll be other out there to stop you. All of you.”

“Maybe.” Fang said, walking over with Kitten. “But at least we can take in the glory of taken you pinheads out of the picture.”

Seeing Robin give a tooth filled frown, Kitten said “sorry, Roby-poo. But hey, at least I’ll know you left me this cute belt.” She indicate it and even posed in it for a moment. “It goes so well with my eyes color.”

“I will make sure your eyes are blackened, Kitten!” Star said from her cell. “Now leave Robin alone.”

Kitten stuck her tongue out at her before Killer Moth suddenly said “Uh, Light, you might want to see this.”

He was standing over by one of the monitors in the room which everyone, except for Atlas because he could see from where he was standing, looked to see a trio of burglars wrapped up in front of a broken-in Jewel store.

“What the....?” Fang said before looking over with the others to see another image.

This one was of one man hanging upside-down with a chain around his leg from a streetlight outside a bank. Another showing a few thugs knocked out and outside of a video store with a bag of money sitting to the side with police arrive in time to take them away.

“What’s going on?” Light said in disbelief at this. “How can this be happening?”

He turned one of the monitors to a new channel where a blonde haired man with a suit was giving his report, saying “In a stunning turn of events, crime being committed all over town are being stopped by, who witnesses claim, are the Teen Titans themselves. We take you to an interview from earlier this evening.”

The picture changed to an elderly woman saying “They came in and stopped these three large men who were trying to rob me off the street. Such kind children they were.”

The next was a younger looking man inside one of the stores that was almost robbed, saying “At first I thought they were gonna shoot me, but then some flash of light came out of nowhere and the next thing I know the guys lying on the floor, unconscious.”

The next was a group of teenagers, with the leader, a redheaded boy with glasses, saying “They whooshed in then BAM. Took out like ten biker guys. One of them even bent up the bike with some kinda electro powers.”

Another boy, a dark-haired one with acne over his face, pushed ahead and said “And one of them turned into this big dragon-like animal. I guess she’s related to Beast Boy or something.”

A third boy, a blonde haired one, said “It was the Titans. I knew they weren’t really captured.”

The next image the couple from before, with the girl saying “They saved our lives and then ran off to go help other people. I mean they said they were Titans but I never seen them before.”

The boy with her said “But it’s good to know they’re out there keeping us safe.”

The villains all looked amongst one another before looking back to the Titans, who were just as confused as they were.

“Wait a minute.” Cy said. “You don’t think it’s...?”

Suddenly everyone’s attention was drawn to the new reporter saying “We now take you live to a scene downtown, where these supposed ‘New’ Titans are handling a fire that has broken out in one of the apartment complexes.”

The screen showed as some fire fighters who were on the scene, who weren’t trying to put out the fire like others, stood back and watched in awe, along with some of the crowd of people who’d also gathered, as the New Titans were helping to save the day.

Static was close by and using his powers to bend and break a nearby hydrant with his electricity to shoot the water towards the building. Zan and Jayna took the forms of a pool of water and a woolly mammoth before she sucked the water into her trunk and shot it at the building, putting out some fire along with Static. Offspring stretched out and expanded his whole body to act as a human-slide that was big enough for people to use from one of the windows to land safety on the ground. And Stargirl was carrying a group of at least fifteen people, all bound together with a stream of light from her staff she used to keep them from falling before landing them on the ground.

In a moment the fire was out and all were safe, with that everyone cheered for the help from the New Titans.

“It is.” Raven said as she and the others saw this.

“Who the heck are these guys?” Fang asked.

“They aren’t any Titans I’ve ever seen.” Mumbo said, pointing at the screen.

“I don’t recognize any either.” Killer Moth added. “And I thought all Titans were miles away from here.”

Light, looking frustrated by this, turned to the Titans and walked over to their cells, saying “Explain this!”

“How should we know.” Robin said, giving a coy smile.

“Yeah...yeah.” BB added. “Maybe they’re just some admiring fans.”

“Or perhaps you are not as in control of this city as you believe.” Starfire added as well.

Dr. Light only looked more annoyed at this before saying “We’ll see about that.” He looked and said “Atlas, take Mumbo and Fang. Deal with them.”

Atlas nodded before he and the others assigned to left the room and went out of the hideout. As they did, Light went back to his chair and sat, watching the monitors for when they’d arrive and deal with the New Titans. The Titans themselves only gave worried looks at this, hoping the recruits could handle themselves.

********************

The New Titans found themselves sitting up on a roof after having stopped yet another robbery and leaving the thief tied up for the police.

They were all sitting down and looking exhausted. Offspring had his limbs stretched out like before, Jayna and Zan were leaning against each other, Stargirl was leaning against one of the air ducts on top of the roof, and Static was sitting on the edge of it looking down to the street.

“You know who they say ‘Crime never sleeps?’” Offspring said. “Well I wish it would so it’d give the heroes a chance to take a nap.”

“Tell me about it.” Zan said. “This is way worse than the exercises.”

“Yeah, well at least it means people are safe.” Stargirl noted. “and we’re doing what we can.”

“Ditto.” Jayna said. “I say we celebrate with a victory pizza.”

“Not just yet.” Static said, standing from where he was. “We still need to find out where the Titans are.”

“Oh right.” Jayna said, knocking herself on the head. “Duh.”

“Well maybe we shouldn’t be in such a rush.” Offspring suggested. “I mean we did just save a whole bunch of people in less than two hours. Maybe we should take a little break.”

“Or maybe you should think twice before you realize what you just said.” Static said. “Did you forget that they’re in a lot of danger? It’s up to us to save them.”

Offspring stood at this point and said “I’m not saying we give if, if that’s what your implying.” He said in annoyed tone. “Besides I don’t see you coming up with any ideas, oh fearless leader.”

Stargirl stood in between them and said “Alright, will you both clam down?”

“Maybe if you’d stop and try to act like you’re part of the team and not some show-boater,” Static said, not listening to her, “then maybe I would.”

“Who died and made you king, light-bright?” Offspring said.

Static’s eyes seemed to glow as he got angry before Stargirl said “Enough!” and slammed her staff hard. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. We need to stop arguing and try to think of how to track down the Titans.”

Zan suddenly said “Huh...how about asking those guys?” he pointed down to the street where him and Jayna were looking.

The other three walked over, Offspring stretching his head all the way over, before looking down and seeing Atlas, Mumbo and Fang standing in the street looking up at them.
“Those are the guys that took the Titans.” Stargirl pointed out.

“Which means they know where they are.” Zan added.

“Then we beat it out of ‘em!” Offspring declared before stretching down towards them.

The Wonder Twins followed before Static said “Wait we need a....” he saw as they were already moving down towards them, not hearing him. “....plan.”

Stargirl looked at him as he seemed annoyed by this, but soon he jumped down after them with her following.

Offspring stretched towards Atlas, saying “I’ll knock the lug-nuts out of you, Charlie!”

Just as he reached him, Atlas reached up and managed to grab hold of Offspring’s body. He swung him around, the rest of him following, before tossing him into the side of a building, where he went flat as he splat against it. As he turned, Static fired a few bolts of electricity at him, making him cover his face.

While this happened, Fang looked as the Wonder Twins changed.

“Form of...a lion!”

“Shape of...a giant ice ball!”

Both changed as they came down towards him. Fang managed to jump out of the way before either could land on him. Once he did, Zan’s ice ball body shattered into a few smaller pieces. One of them had a smooth reflection of his face on it.

“Nice shot.” Jayna sarcastically said.

“Hey, I had him in my sights.” he retorted before trying to reform all his pieces.

Jayna charged at him and tried to swipe with her claws, only for Fang to dodge or block them with his legs. He managed to leap up to the side of a building before jumping down towards her and knocking her away with a good strong sweep.

Stargirl hovered in front of Mumbo before firing a beam from her staff. H jumped away before firing a few blasts of magic at her. There came a point where both of them shot beams that locked together. They struggled before Stargirl’s proved superior and she knocked him back. Mumbo recovered in time to see her coming closer, before looking up and pointing his wand at a nearby streetlight.

“Hiss. Boom. Bah!”

The magic changed the streetlight into a metal snake-like monster, the lamp part of it breaking and forming more into a snake’s mouth. Stargirl looked in time as it bared it’ metal fangs and tried to bite her. She flew away and fired some shot before it followed, giving a metal hiss as it did.

Offspring recovered to see Static rolling away from Atlas and he tried to pound him with his fists. He looked around before seeing a trash can nearby and had a plan. He took off the lid and stretched his arm around a nerdy electric pole, ready to slingshot the lid at Atlas. He let it go, but Atlas had already seen it coming in time to duck. The lid went past him and wound up hitting Static in the process, sending him flying back against the pavement.

“Oops...” Offspring said, seeing this, before seeing Atlas charge at him.

He managed to stretch his body around him before wrapping his arms all over his body, followed by the rest of him coiling around his arms. They both struggled while Atlas started swinging violently to get him off.

Fang managed to kick Jayna back hard, forcing her to revert to her normal form. By this time Zan had fully reformed his body and had to change back as well. Seeing Jayna down and Fang closing in he tried to change again.

“Shape of...”

He was stopped when Fang managed to spit out webbing that went over his mouth.

“You guys should really think of shorter things to say.” He said before knocking Zan back with a hard swipe from his legs.

Before Jayna could even recover, she was webbed up, her mouth included, by Fang as he went over to deal with her brother next.

Stargirl turned in time to dodge another bite from the steel-snake before shooting a blast of energy right into its mouth, blowing it to pieces in the process. Just as she gave a sigh of relief, Mumbo fired another beam of magi that hit a few wires hanging from a street poles. They seemed to come alive as they reached out and coiled around Stargirl’s arms and legs, entrapping her. She tried to use her staff but she was forced to drop it when both of her arms were stretched out.

Mumbo looked at his captured hero with a smirk and said “You know I always love to play for a captive audience.”

Atlas finally managed to snag his hand around Offspring’s head before fully pulling him off and whiplashing him around. Offspring went further and further with each lash before finally having his face run smack into a wall. He went limp and droopy in Atlas hands before e dropped him.

“Don’t hear that smart mouth of your now, boy.” He said before tossing him aside.

Mumbo and Fang managed to bring over their own captives, the Wonder Twins both coiled in cocoons of webbing and Stargirl bound with the wiring. They tossed them over with Offspring, Mumbo tossing Stargirl’s staff along too, before looking around.

“Where’d the other one go?” Fang asked.

“Right here!” someone said above.

Two bolts of electricity hit Mumbo and Fang from behind before Atlas turned to see Static. He was hovering in the air while standing on top of the trashcan lid that’d been hurled at him before. His eyes were glowing as were his hand that sent streams to the lid, showing how he was able to fly.

“Impressive trick, little one.” Atlas said. “But that won’t save you here.”

“Wanna bet?” Static said before firing another bolt at him.

Atlas only took the shot before smacking his hands together to caused sound wave that knocked Static back. He managed to recover before using his electricity to move a car nearby towards Atlas. He saw this and managed to stop it before picking it up and tossing it at Static. He managed to dodge, spinning around while holding onto the lid in the process, before Atlas jumped up and grabbed him and the lid in both hands.

Once they landed on the ground, Atlas held him up and said “You’re a skilled warrior. But skill cannot compare to Atlas' strength.”

He showed Static and he crushed the lid he’d been using and then tossed both he and the destroyed lid with the others. Mumbo and Fang managed to recover by this point as they all looked at the beaten team of New Titans.

“So much for being Titans.” Fang said coyly.

With that Atlas gave a massive slam of his fists to the ground, making a large quake that formed a crack from where he smashed. It went bigger as it came closer to the New Titans before finally reaching them and forcing them to fall. All that was heard last was their screaming as they fell into the dark below.

The villains only gave a victorious nod to each other before walking away.

********************

From the hideout, The other villains grinned or smirked at this victory. The Titans on the other hand looked in defeat and loss at the fact that they were gone.

“I was wrong...” Robin said, casting his head down. “...we weren’t ready for training.”

The others looked at him before giving their own defeated looks.

Dr. Light, seeing this looked over and said “Don’t look so glum, Titans. The best is yet to come.” He looked to Moth and said “Killer Moth, get everything ready for the final event.” As Moth nodded and walked off, Kitten and Light looked back to the Titans with him saying “It’s time for the Teen Titans’ final curtain call.”

********************

Below from where they’d fallen, The New Titans were sitting inside of a sewer.

They were trying to recover after nearly dying from their fight with the villains, all the while feeling the sting of their first defeat. The part of the sewer they were in had a stream of sewage after running through it, with two solid paths on each side where they were sitting. There were small lights hanging from above for a light source for them to see better.

After removing the webbing from his mouth, Zan said “So that’s what loosing feels like, huh?”

“I can’t believe that just happened.” Jayna said, leaning next to him. “I mean we were winning and then....I mean we can take on robbers and punks with funny clothes, but come some REAL super bad guys and WHAM, we’re in the dust.”

“And then we got our butts kicked big time.” Offspring said, coiling his body to drain out the water in his costume. “I mean how did we do that? It was three against five and we still lost.”

Stargirl, after managing to dry her staff, looked over and saw Static sitting by himself. He was looking at the crushed trash lid he’s been using to fly and just looked down in defeat.

“So much for being the leader.” Offspring called over to him. “I doubt he could lead a marching band.”

Stargirl stood at Static’s defense, even though he didn’t say anything himself, and said “Leave him alone. This isn’t the time, Offspring.”

“Well maybe what we need is a little more initiative.” He retorted. “The bad guys still have the Titans and were just sitting here in...in POO WATER!”

“Says the guy who thought we should take a break first.” Jayna added.

“Hey you’re the one who suggested pizza!” He pointed at her. “Besides, I don’t see you coming up with a better plan, jungle girl.”

“Hey, leave her alone.” Zan said, standing at her defense.

“Or what, water boy?” He said. “Gonna get me all wet? I’m already soaking my feet as it is.” He indicated he was standing in the sewage water.

“Maybe if you stopped being smart-mouth and thought for once.” Zan argued.

“And maybe if you had a more useful power. I don’t see why we bother with you anyway.”

Suddenly he and Zan started shouting more insults at each other while Stargirl and Jayna tried to break it up, holding them back from hitting each other of worse.

Suddenly Static stood from where he was and shouted “ENOUGH!” Making them stop and look at him. He turned to show he was carrying the lid in his left hand now, before saying “When I first got my powers, I realized my life was never gonna be like it used to. Then I found myself in all of this, a world full of people like me; people who I’d looked up to for so long. I thought they were so much different from everyone else, but now, looking at it from the other side, I think superheroes are no different from anyone else. Take away where we came from, what we can do, or if we’re stronger than the other, and in the end we aren’t all that different. The only difference is that neither of us is strong without the other at their side. It’s time to put those differences aside and work together.”

“And why should we?” Offspring said, crossing his arms.

He looked at him and said “Before, back at the Tower, Robin said I was the one who should be leading this team. At first I thought he had me wrong, but then he told me being a leader isn’t a matter of command or power, it’s a matter of trust.”

After saying this he held up the lid and made it hover in front of him by using his powers. He used them to fix the lid, bending the metal so it was circular again, only now it was much more flat and wide for him to stand on and use easily.

The others watched as he took it under his arm, looked back to them and said “We can’t hope to be a team if we can’t hope to trust in each other. So I’m asking you all...will you trust me? Will you trust you teammates? Your partners?”

The other looked moved by his speech, Stargirl even smiling at him for it, before Static put his hand out for them to join. The first was Stargirl who laid her hand over his and stood to his right, nodding to him and he nodding back. Next was Zan, who went to his left, and then Jayna, who stood next to her brother. All looked over to Offspring who seemed to hesitate at first. He then looked at the reassuring faces of the others before smiling himself.

He walked over and placed his hand over them all and said “We’re with you, Static. All the way.”

As he looked to the others, who all agreed with Offspring, Static smiled and said “Alright. So the bad guys think us beat in the first round. But here’s how we ruin their game plan...”