Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Coil ❯ Street Justice ( Chapter 3 )

 

“Coil”

Chapter 3: “Street Justice”

Disclaimer: Teen Titans does not belong to me; it belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers. Hellblazer is also owned by DC Comics through its Vertigo line; I'm simply borrowing John Constantine for this one guest appearance.

Author's note: So far, Robin's done a rather good job of setting himself up in Los Angeles. However, his past is always chasing him down . . . and there are people besides the Titans who aren't happy that Robin is no longer with them.

Flash's flirtation with Raven in the last chapter was inspired by his love for her in the comics when they were both Titans and he was Kid Flash. As it turned out, he only loved her because Raven psychically manipulated him into doing so in order to gain his assistance. As for Raven's presumed attraction to Dr. Fate, they're both mystical characters and Fate, being a grown man, has a maturity that Raven doesn't often see in her male teammates.

While I cannot officially respond to reviews, I can say this. If anyone thinks the Titans and Blackfire are acting out of character, what is happening in this story would never happen in the show. Second, Robin (when in his adult identity as Nightwing) left the Titans twice in the comics, disbanding the team entirely the second time, and both times it was due to something that affected him personally. Third, Blackfire is much worse a person than she is depicted in the show and even in the show she's pretty nasty. After all, we're talking about someone who tried to arrange for her own sister to go to jail for her crimes and then tried to force her to marry some disgusting blob just to get back at her. In addition, she conquered the planet of their birth and planetary conquest is never a peaceful thing unless you're dealing with a whole planet of cowards and the Tamaraneans never struck me as cowards in both their comic and animated interpretations. So no one can safely say that Blackfire wouldn't kill people to get her way or get them out of her way.

Finally, this is the promised chapter, the chapter in which Robin and Blackfire meet. Rejoice.

Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire followed Raven as she followed the locator bracelet, which was currently leading her in the direction of Los Angeles.

“Are you sure this is the right way, Raven?” Starfire asked.

“Yeah, it looks like we're headed for L.A.,” Cyborg added.

“Yes, I'm sure,” Raven replied. “And one more thing: The gem is moving.”

“Moving?” Beast Boy repeated.

“Yes,” Raven confirmed. “Which means that Slade's gotten his hands on it and he's on the move.”

“We got something else to worry about,” Cyborg said, looking at his dashboard screen. “Red X is pulling a robbery in the tech sector!”

“We'll have to split up,” Raven decided. “Two of us to try to stop Slade and two of us to try to stop Red X.”

“Right on,” Cyborg agreed. “Beast Boy, you and I are going after X. Star, Raven, you two get down to L.A. and stop Slade.”

Raven wrapped herself and Starfire in her soul-self and transported the two of them to Los Angeles while Cyborg and Beast Boy drove or flew to the tech sector.

In Los Angeles, Raven and Starfire found themselves at the scene of a burning strip club.

“Slade's handiwork, no doubt,” Raven stated.

“We must stop that madman, Raven,” Starfire uttered urgently. “He cannot be allowed to cause more destruction to get his hands on those gems.”

“We will, Star,” Raven assured her red-haired friend. She looked at her bracelet, the gems embedded in it pointing left. She flew in that direction with Starfire flying right behind her. The two of them soon saw Slade flying rapidly ahead of them, wreathed in an aura of flames.

“Slade! Cease and desist now!” Starfire shouted.

Slade turned to face the two girls. “Ah, so you also have a locator crystal,” he remarked with a complete and utter lack of surprise in his tone.

“What does it matter?” Raven asked. “You're not going to keep that Apocalyptic Gem very long.”

“That's what your former leader told me when I encountered him right here in this city,” Slade commented.

“Robin?” Starfire asked. “You have seen him! Where is he? Have you harmed him, you sick monster?”

“Relax, Starfire,” Slade admonished in a patronizing tone. “He hasn't suffered any lasting damage. The darkness dragon whose mark he bears protects him . . . for the time being. I wonder why you still show so much concern for his well-being after he abandoned you, though.”

“Robin did not abandon us, you dra'bsat!” Starfire screamed as she shot a starbolt of massive proportions at Slade. However, the starbolt split in half once it touched Slade's aura and both halves flew past him on either side, leaving him completely unharmed.

“Always so emotional,” Slade mused.

“You're going to surrender that gem to us,” Raven declared.

“You'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers first,” Slade retorted, “and you heroes don't kill, do you?”

“We might make an exception in your case,” Raven snarled as she shaped her power into daggers and threw them at Slade, who dodged them all so quickly that she almost didn't see him move at all. What she did register was that the shadow daggers hadn't hit him at all.

“You can destroy the whole world, but you can't kill one man,” Slade sneered. “Pathetic. I expected more from a scion of the Eighth Devil.”

“You shut up about him,” Raven snarled and this time her power lashed out as a serpentine blade that slashed Slade's chest.

“Better,” Slade remarked as the wound Raven had given him healed. “But now it's my turn.” He summoned fire in each hand and shot it at Raven and Starfire, who both protected themselves with shields. Despite this, they felt the unholy flames pushing against them, trying to incinerate them. The shields still held up against Slade's hellfire, enough for the people behind them to attempt an offense.

“Azarath . . . Metrion . . . Zinthos!” Raven shouted, firing a blast of living darkness at the same time Starfire fired her optic blast at Slade. Starfire's optic blast wrapped around Raven's darkness blast and the combined energies slammed into Slade, this time piercing his aura and dealing some real harm to the psychopathic mastermind.

Slade began to plummet to the ground and as he did, Raven and Starfire pursued him, dealing him ferocious punches and kicks. The mastermind managed to stop his descent and began fighting back, planting his fist in Starfire's exposed stomach and his foot in Raven's jaw, sending them both flying back. The two girls managed to stop themselves in midair and redoubled their assault on him, resulting in a flurry of fists, feet, starbolts, darkness blasts, and fireballs.

After about thirty minutes of this, Slade landed near a building and planted his gauntleted hand on the wall, sending a fluid stream of hellfire through the structure and blowing a giant hole in it.

“What's more important to you?” he asked. “Getting the Apocalyptic Gem from me or saving the innocent people inside this building?”

“Now that the infrastructure has been compromised, the building is certain to collapse on itself,” Starfire uttered frantically.

“I'll hold it up with my powers,” Raven answered. “You get the people out.”

“Good girl,” Slade murmured before sinking into another fiery warp and disappearing completely.

Raven wrapped the building in her dark powers and held it up while Starfire went inside.

“Do not worry,” she stated. “You will all be safe if you exit through this door in a calm manner and do not panic.”

Fortunately for her and themselves, the people inside actually listened and walked out of the collapsing building as calmly as they could.

“He got away again,” Raven cursed.

“Yes, but it was more important that we saved those people,” Starfire countered.

“If we don't stop Slade from getting all four Apocalyptic Gems, there won't be anyone to save,” Raven insisted. “Let's go see how the boys are doing.” She pulled out her communicator and turned it on. “Cyborg, are you there?”

“We're - a little busy, Raven!” Cyborg responded in a strained voice as Red X slashed at him with his spinning X-blades.

“Where the hell is Robin?” the skull-masked thief asked.

“He left!” Beast Boy snarled as he turned into a bull and charged at Red X, who simply shot an X at him that turned into a web-like substance as soon as it touched him and bound him. “Aw, crap, not again!”

Cyborg activated his dual Sonic Cannons and fired both at Red X, who jumped over the twin blasts of sonic energy and viciously kicked the half-metal teen hard enough to knock him back a few feet. Oh, well, that was what happened when the person kicking him wore a super-powered combat suit. Red X slammed his hand onto the floor and sent a wave of scarlet electricity through it, shocking both Cyborg and Beast Boy into borderline unconsciousness.

“This is frigging pathetic,” X growled and for the first time since the Titans had known him, he sounded angry.

Just then, Raven and Starfire emerged through a shadow warp.

“Hey there,” X greeted with a flirtatious smirk underneath the mask. “You know where Robin is?”

“We don't and we wouldn't tell you even if we did,” Raven snapped.

“Fine,” Red X snarled and fired a blast of scarlet energy at the two girls. Raven blocked it with a shield and Starfire fired a starbolt at Red X, smashing him into a wall. “Damn, I didn't know you liked it rough.”

Raven growled in irritation as she levitated a pair of boxes and threw them at the black-clad thief, who simply disappeared from existence. When he reemerged into existence, it was behind Raven and Starfire. He grasped them both by the shoulders and sent a current of scarlet electricity through them, eliciting cries of pain from them before they collapsed on the floor.

Red X let out a hissing growl, a sound made more terrifying by the voice synthesizer in his mask. “I'm going to find Robin.”

When the Titans came to, Red X was already gone.

“Ok, what the hell was up with that guy?” Beast Boy asked.

“Yeah, usually he's all cocky and stuff, but this time he was really pissed off,” Cyborg agreed.

“It appears that like us he misses Robin,” Starfire surmised.

“Misses Robin?” Raven repeated. “Why would he miss Robin, except for being able to kick his ass and bring down his ego a few notches on a regular basis?”

“Maybe it's just that,” Cyborg answered. “I don't even wanna think about what other reasons X might have for missing Robin.”

“Maybe the Red X has some form of affection for Robin?” Starfire guessed.

“That was the `other reasons' I didn't wanna think about, Star,” Cyborg stated.

“But X flirts with Starfire so much that it'd be impossible for him not to be straight!” Beast Boy protested.

“Maybe he's bi,” Cyborg responded.

“Ok, when we start debating our enemies' sexuality, it's time we found something more interesting to do with our time,” Raven remarked.

“Yeah, this is getting pretty disturbing anyway,” Beast Boy added.

“We still have two more Apocalyptic Gems to find,” Cyborg said, “so we better not waste our time here.”

With that said, the Titans left the computer complex in which they had just fought Red X.

The next day, just after it had gone completely dark, Robin was riding down the streets of Los Angeles on his R-Cycle. He'd gone to Zatanna's show earlier and waited backstage for her. When she went backstage, she'd been rather surprised to see him, especially in his new costume.

“Robin!” she had exclaimed. “What brings you here?”

“Apocalyptic Gems,” Robin had answered. “Do you have any idea how to find them?”

“They were created to bring forth the destruction of all living things,” Zatanna had responded. “Why would you want to seek those things?”

“Because a madman named Slade is after them,” Robin had replied. “He already has two gems and I know he knows how to locate them. I was just hoping you might know how to do the same.”

“There is a crystal attuned to their energy,” Zatanna had spoken. “If you have that crystal, you can track the gems.”

“Do you have it?” Robin had asked.

“No,” Zatanna had admitted. “But I know someone who does. He's in town tonight.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her suit jacket and handed it to him. “The address of the place he's staying at is on that paper.”

“You sound hesitant,” Robin had observed. “Why?”

“Because the person I am referring you to is not a person of high character,” Zatanna had admitted. “He can be a decent human being at times, but at other times he seems to care more about preserving his own life than helping other people.”

“Reminds me of someone I know,” Robin had remarked. “Thanks, Zatanna. Maybe next time my visit won't just be for business.”

Then he had melted into the shadows.

In the present, Robin found himself in front of a hotel. He parked his R-Cycle in a hidden place and then changed into normal clothes, a black jacket over a red shirt and gray pants with black boots. He walked into the hotel and straight up to the room whose number was on the paper Zatanna had given him.

He knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” a surly British voice asked.

“I'd prefer not to tell you while I'm standing out here where anyone can overhear us,” Robin replied.

It wasn't very long before the door opened, revealing an ash-blond man who looked as though he was nearing fifty. He wore a trench coat over a wrinkled shirt and pants and he had a cigarette in his mouth.

“You are aware that stuff will kill you, right?” Robin asked.

“Sod off, kid,” the man grumbled.

“Zatanna referred me to you,” Robin stated in a low voice so that no one could overhear.

“She did, did she?” the man remarked. “Well, come on in, then.”

Robin entered the hotel room and the man closed the door behind him.

“Now who the hell are you and what do you want?” the man asked.

“I'm Robin and I need your help to find the Apocalyptic Gems,” Robin replied. “Zatanna said you had a crystal that could locate them.”

“You're even crazier than people think I am, wanting to mess with world-ending magic,” the man remarked.

“Not for me,” Robin contradicted. “Just to keep them out of the hands of a madman.”

“All right, then,” the man conceded as he took a drag of his cigarette. “I got one of those.” He went to his dresser drawer and rummaged through it until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out the crystal, which was embedded in the center of a steel bracelet with eight small gems surrounding it. “Here you go, kid.” He tossed the bracelet to him and Robin caught it, placing it around his left wrist.

“Thanks,” Robin said, “but you never told me your name.”

“John Constantine,” the man answered. “I'd help you out a little more, but I'm currently in the middle of what amounts to the magical equivalent of a gang war.”

“A magical gang war?” Robin asked.

“Yeah,” Constantine confirmed. “Don't worry about it, kid; I can handle myself. Besides, these things occur so often it's not a big deal anymore.”

“Uh, good luck with that,” Robin said before he departed.

The Boy Wonder rode away into the night, dressed once again in his costume. The crystal on his bracelet was pulsing and the embedded gems were pointing the way to him. However, his relentless ride was interrupted by a police radio whose frequency Robin had programmed into the R-Cycle.

“All units, report to the diamond district,” the police officer on the radio stated. “There is a burglary in progress in the diamond district. I repeat, there is a burglary in progress in the diamond district.”

Robin did a tight U-turn and drove straight toward the diamond district. He reached it in just a few minutes and the police weren't even there yet. He parked the R-Cycle and fired his grapnel gun at the rooftop of the diamond store. The grapple carried him up to the rooftop and then he saw the skylight, which had been blasted open.

Must be the robber from that news report, he thought as he jumped into the store through the skylight. He landed agilely on the floor and looked around for the thief, stalking through the shadows. Within those shadows, he saw a glint of something purple. He quickly turned and threw himself out of the way of an energy blast.

“Is that you, Blackfire?” Robin asked.

“Clever boy,” Blackfire remarked. “I guess that's why my little sister was so hung up on you, other than your good looks.”

The exiled Tamaranean stepped into the light and Robin saw that she had changed her outfit. She now wore a small black leather tube top with frayed edges, two purple leather straps crossed in an X over her breasts, and two black chokers stacked together with two chains dangling from them. An outrageously short black leather miniskirt covered her hips and barely a third of her thighs with a black leather belt and a purple leather belt crisscrossing on her hips. Knee-high black leather boots covered her feet and calves while she wore a studded black armlet around her right arm and four small armlets around her left arm. Black leather wrist guards covered her forearms and the ensemble was completed by a black mesh body stocking underneath Blackfire's clothing.

“Like my new look?” Blackfire asked. “I certainly like yours. Much sexier than that walking traffic light look you had going on before.”

“What are you doing here?” Robin asked, paying no mind to her compliment. “You were banished from Tamaran and I don't think Starfire would like you being here on this planet.”

“Of course she wouldn't,” Blackfire sneered. “But it's not like I have anywhere else to go . . . and this is the planet of opportunity, isn't it?”

“Not for criminals,” Robin growled as he drew his escrima sticks. “You're going to jail, Blackfire, and that's it.”

“I don't think so,” Blackfire retorted as she fired an optic blast at Robin, who dodged the blast and lunged at her with his sticks, which Blackfire blocked.

Robin pressed a hidden button on each stick and a glowing red blade extended from each stick.

“Lightsabers?” Blackfire uttered in shock. “You know how to make lightsabers?”

“Starfire showed me how once, but I never really thought I'd have a use for them,” Robin replied.

Blackfire blasted Robin again but this time he blocked with the lightsabers. Then he charged at her and slashed at her with the glowing blades. Blackfire blocked the best she could with her wrist guards, but the touch of the sabers hurt her despite the protection the wrist guards afforded.

Finally, she reached out, grabbed both sabers by their blades, and kicked Robin square in the torso, sending him flying back against a glass case display of a diamond choker. She let go of the sabers and breathed on her hands. As durable as Tamaraneans were, they weren't above feeling pain . . . and holding those lightsaber blades caused a good amount of pain.

“Good move,” Robin complimented with a smirk. He shifted into a fighting stance with one arm extended in a beckoning motion.

Blackfire answered his silent challenge and came at him in a flurry of punches and kicks. The speed and force of this attack would have overwhelmed a normal human, but Robin was trained by the best fighters to walk the earth and he had the added advantage of the darkness dragon's power boosting his strength and speed. As a result, he was able to keep his equilibrium in spite of Blackfire's attack and even strike back. Once he saw a gap in her defenses, Robin spun and kicked her. Unfortunately, Blackfire caught his ankle and swung him so hard that he flew through several glass case displays - shattering them in the process - before finally coming to a stop on the hard floor.

“Don't you care that you're smashing up a store you came here to rob?” Robin asked.

“I already have what I came for,” Blackfire replied.

Robin got up and went at Blackfire again, but she blocked his punches and kicks with almost ridiculous ease until Robin managed to grab her wrist and pin her to a nearby wall.

“You're coming with me,” he growled as he held Blackfire's wrists behind her back with one hand and reached into his utility belt for a pair of handcuffs with the other. However, his focus was considerably - and perhaps understandably - jarred when he felt Blackfire's shapely rear shift, as though she was trying to wiggle out of his grip. What jarred his focus, though, was the fact that her butt was rubbing against his crotch. In a rather futile attempt to stop his body's natural reaction to such a movement, he jumped away from her. “What the hell do you think you're doing?”

Blackfire turned to face him with a smirk on her face. “What, did you like that too much?”

“No, I didn't like it at all,” Robin answered.

Actually, my dear boy, we liked that very much, the rasping voice whispered with an evil chuckle. At least I did.

Who the hell are you? Robin asked.

Look at the mark on your arm and you'll find your answer, the voice replied.

Robin looked at his arm and once again saw the mark of the darkness dragon.

You! he shouted silently. You're the darkness dragon, aren't you?

Guilty as charged, the voice confirmed with a chuckle.

“Eyes on me, cutie,” Blackfire remarked before blasting him with a starbolt and sending him flying into a wall. “I'd like to stay and chat, but the police are coming. I think I'll let you explain what's going on here.” On that note, she flew up through the skylight and away from the store.

Robin fired his grapnel gun and it carried him up through the skylight and onto the rooftop. He chanced a brief look and saw several police cars in front of the building. Not feeling like explaining himself to the police, Robin leaped down to his R-Cycle, started it up, and then rode away.

“Damn it,” he mumbled. “I spent too much time in there.” He looked at his bracelet, only to see that the gems in it were no longer blinking. “Looks like I'm out of range.”

When he heard the police sirens, he knew that his riding away from the scene had given the police the idea that he was the one who had broken into and robbed the diamond store. He also knew that law enforcement officials overall weren't that happy with the idea of costumed criminals and vigilantes, so he doubted that they'd listen to any explanation he'd give them. That left only one option.

Evade them.

So he did. Swerving through back roads and other vehicles, Robin maneuvered his motorcycle with all the skill of a motocross champion. Despite this, the police cars stayed on his tail. Robin turned in the direction of a skyscraper and jumped onto its glass-and-reinforced steel façade, using magnetic clamps to keep the R-Cycle attached to the wall.

“Holy crap!” a police officer shouted. “How is he doing that?”

Robin drove up the skyscraper and onto its rooftop. Let's see them catch up with me now, he thought. And just my luck, I'm getting close to the entrance to the tunnels.

He continued jumping over the rooftops of buildings with the R-Cycle and once he'd reached the old dam where the entrance to the tunnels was, he kept on driving until a section of the dam opened and he drove straight into the tunnels, the dam closing behind him.

Robin drove through the tunnels until he reached the underground “garage” where he kept his R-Cycle, as well as a personal flyer and a sleek red sports car that contained numerous crime-fighting devices. The best thing about the latter vehicle was that he could go out in it as Robin or as Alvin Draper, provided that the car was shifted out of its “battle mode” first.

The Boy Wonder walked up to an elevator tube and stepped inside, allowing the antigravity field to carry him up to the crime lab he had hidden in his apartment. Once he was there, the tube opened and he walked into the crime lab. He continued on until he reached his computer and sat down in front of him, soon settling into a position of deep thought.

What was with Blackfire? Robin thought. Was she flirting with me?

She called your new costume sexy, the darkness dragon brought up. She rubbed her hot ass against your crotch. She called you cutie. If that's not flirting, I don't know what is. Of course, all I know of this world is the same as what you know. The dragon chuckled. All those beautiful women you knew and worked with and fought against and you never tried it with any of them. Overly dedicated to your duties much?

I don't date criminals, Robin growled. And dating within the team just leads to trouble if the relationship doesn't work out.

Yeah, well, Batman taught you those things and he's a goddamn hypocrite, the dragon spat. He says “don't date criminals”? He's lusting after frigging Catwoman for the sake of all that is dark and I don't even wanna think about what he and Talia got up to. He says “don't date within the team”? He and Wonder Woman have been flirting and dancing together for the past year or so. Besides, you're eighteen years old, which makes you a man in the eyes of the law, which means you don't have to listen to him anymore.

He's my mentor, Robin maintained. And he's like . . . a father to me. Even if we don't see eye to eye so much.

Touching, but you're old enough to make your own decisions now, the dragon insisted.

Robin sighed and leaned back in his chair.

Just think about it, the dragon suggested.

Fine, now shut up and leave me alone, Robin grumbled. He stood up from his chair and stripped off his costume, replacing it with normal clothes and then walking out of his crime lab and back into his apartment. He walked into his bedroom and changed into a pair of pajama pants, leaving himself bare-chested. After a few minutes of brushing his teeth, he climbed into bed and tried to sleep.

A pair of amethyst eyes haunted his slumber, silently whispering promises of darkness and pleasure.

End Notes: Yes, Robin and Blackfire have met once again and already there is tension of the sexual variety between them. Robin may not want to admit it, but the dragon in him already knows what he wants. They will encounter each other again in the next chapter, but Robin will be wearing different clothes then.

As for Constantine's presence in this chapter, I did some research on his background, but I hope I didn't get his character wrong. This is my first time writing him in any story, so I'm bound to make a few errors. Hopefully, those errors aren't so glaringly obvious.

Robin's lightsabers are actually technology that nonhuman races in the universe have access to, as at least one TT story I read has stated. And considering how eager Starfire is to help Robin, at least before she found out he was carrying a darkness dragon inside him, I figured she might have shown him how to make one. His vehicles are a combination of Batman's and Cyborg's technology, as both of them would have shown him at one point or another how to design his own vehicles. The antigravity elevator is also alien technology that I feel Starfire might have helped him learn how to use should he ever need it.

That's it out of me. You're now free to tell me how much you loved or hated this story.