Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Unwanted Secrets ❯ Preparation ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans

Mappadouji: Thanks for your review, and I agree it doesn’t make sense to name Red-X Jason Todd. Jason is years younger than Dick, and X is about the same age as Robin. Also, Dick Grayson became Nightwing when he first met Jason, all in all, read the original comics.

Chapter 2 Summary: Being nearly pummeled to death by the mysterious White Beast, Abel wakes up in the Titan Tower. After answering some of their questions, he goes back home, and prepares for some payback.

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All Abel could see was darkness; then a vision of the White Creature as it pummeled its fist unto his body again and again, causing excruciating pain, then it slowly choked him until his neck was about to break. Suddenly, voices were heard speaking around him, familiar voices.

“How is he?” Robin asks.

“His vital signs are normal, everything’s stabilizing,” says Cyborg.

“And what of the White Creature?” asks Starfire.

“Beast Boy and Raven are still searching for it,” replies Robin.

“Uhh…” the three Titans hear their patient groan. Abel awakes from his nightmare and painfully tries to remove the wires attached to his temple, but the half-metal man stops him.

“Whoa there buddy, you just got your butt handed to you by a huge monster,” he states, “You’re in our medic center, everything’s alright now.”

“Really, then if I’m fine I can go, right?” Abel says.

“Rest first,” Robin insisted, “Your ribs are broken, along with your arms,” he adds as he stares at the patient with a stern look.

‘Tch. The kid’s as crazy even when not on the job,’ thought Abel. Right then he noticed something missing. “Hey, where’s my bag?” he asks, looking at them, panicking that they’ve uncovered his identity.

“Your bag’s to your right,” replied Cyborg, “Don’t worry, we didn’t look inside or anything, we’re not thieves.”

Abel looked to his right and saw the bag with $20 million dollars in cash, along with the Red-X suit. ‘Haven’t looked huh?’ he smiled to himself in his mind, ‘maybe my luck hasn’t run out yet.’

“Whew, thanks for bringing my bag, I’ve got an important school project due tomorrow,” Abel lied.

“No prob,” replied Cyborg, “Rest up; we’ll talk tomorrow, aight?”

“Sure.”

As soon as they left the room, Abel laid back and rested. He felt his ribs bruised and fragile, wrapped in bandages. His arms aching like no other, the left is in bandages, while the right is in a cast. ‘Ow… I guess I have no choice, but whatever that thing that attacked me was, it better be ready for some payback, I always pay back my debts,’ he thought to himself and went to sleep.

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The next day, Abel woke up from noise that’s coming somewhere from the tower. He got up and limped his way to the source. Apparently, Beast Boy and Cyborg are doing they’re daily rounds of arguing about breakfast.

“MEAT!!” says Cyborg.

“TOFU!!” Beast Boy retaliates.

“MEEEEEEEAAAAAAT!!!”

“DUUUD DEE!!! TOFUUU!!!”

They started to fight in the kitchen, cooking things from eggs, tofu, chicken, tofu, beef, tofu, pork, and more tofu.

Abel just stared at how noisy they are and messy, ‘I’ve been fighting these guys for a year?’

Raven noticed their companion from the corner of her eye, “It seems your commotion has awakened our guest,” she talks to Beast Boy and Cyborg as she closes the book she’s reading.

“Oh how wonderful of you to be doing well!” Starfire flies up to Abel and smiles at him with her biggest puppy alien eyes.

Abel smiled back, ‘Ah, she’s so hot,’ he looks over her shoulder and stares at Raven’s legs, ‘Raven’s hot herself with those legs showing.’

From behind him, Robin enters the room, “You’re already up, come on, let’s eat,” he leads Abel to a place to eat.

As they ate whatever Cy made, while BB ate his tofu, Robin straight up asks their guest. “So, what’s your name?”

Abel thought for a split second before replying, “Bale, Bale Winslow,” he lied.

“So Bale, do you know why that creature attacked you last night?” Robin asks again.

‘So that’s it, huh?’ Abel thinks as he plays with his omelet and bacon. “I don’t know really, I was walking home from school and suddenly I bumped into something invisible, I wondered what it was, when it that thing showed itself,” he lies again.

Robin, underneath his mask, looked at Raven, asking her mentally, ‘Is he lying?’ Raven responds, ‘It’s hard to tell, but his heart’s not beating heavily.’ Robin nods, he’d ask her to read Bale’s mind, but that would be against their code of conduct. Still, something about Bale didn’t seem right to him.

“So, when can I leave?” Abel asks, munching on a biscuit, “I have a school project due today, ya know?”

“How’re you feeling, your ribs and arms?” Cyborg asks.

“Arm’s still aching a bit, ribs feeling better, do you have any aspirin?”

“Not really, but Raven could do some of their magic and ease the pain for you,” Cyborg gave instruction, “After your project, have yourself excused and head to the hospital, ‘kay?”

“Yes, sir!” Abel jokingly agrees with him.

Starfire then asks out of the blue, “What school do you go to? Do you have a home? Why is your hair like the color of the moon? Why is your eye color red? And will you be my friend?”

Abel just stared; he couldn’t catch all of that, “Huh?”

Before Starfire repeated her questions, Beast Boy and Cyborg covered her mouth.

“Heh, sorry ‘bout her, she tends to get like this when she meets new people,” BB states.

“Yeah, we thought she’d get rid of her habit, it tends to creep people out.” Cyborg adds.

A few minutes after they ate, Abel proceeded with his appointment with Raven, and as she uses her magic to ease his pain, he saw Robin and Starfire sitting together watching TV.

“So Robin and Starfire are finally together?” he tries to start a conversation with his ‘nurse’.

Raven replies, “You didn’t hear? It was all over the news months ago.”

“Really? I don’t really watch new.” ‘I tend to make them,’ he thought about his Red-X missions.

“Though they have gone out together, it wasn’t until a few months ago they have officially been boyfriend and girlfriend,” Raven adds.

“Hmm, what about you?” he asks Raven, “Are you going out with someone?”

“Romance is not really my thing,” she replies, “And if your trying to hit on me, fat chance.”

“Ouch, I was only wondering…” Abel smiles in a playful, flirty manner.

Raven couldn’t help but smile a little; at least she gets some attention just like Starfire. It’s true, though she doesn’t really care; a part of her is a bit envious of Starfire.

While she worked on his injuries, Abel looked around and remembered the first time he paid a visit here, the time he stole the suit.

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Flashback Sequence

It was more than a year ago; Abel decided to steal from the Titans Tower on a bet, “steal something from each of the Teen Titans, and you get a good $10,000” of course he took it, all for the money.

As he approached the tower during the middle of the night, he noticed some alarms set on the entrance. He quickly cut off the wires and deactivated the system, searching all across the living room; he found nothing, so he went higher.

Upon reaching the rooms, he deactivated more security systems and entered their rooms, with them still sleeping.

Looking at Beast Boy’s room, Abel found nothing of importance, ‘Damn, this kid has nothing, oh well, next room.’ Suddenly he stopped and spotted a picture on top of the counter, he took a good look and saw a picture of a cute blonde and Beast Boy. ‘Hmm, looks like the little green dude isn’t so pathetic after all, he nabbed himself such a cute girlfriend.’

Unbeknownst to him, that girl was Terra, long left the Titans and living a normal life.

Entering Raven’s room, he quickly took note of the eerie surrounding, ‘Whoa, talk about creepy.’
As he neared the sleeping goth, he noticed how innocent and beautiful she was without the hood on all the time. ‘Wow,’ was all he said as he quietly took a couple of magic books from her shelves, ‘goodnight, my dark princess,’ he whispers in his usual smirk.

Once in Cyborg’s room, it was the complete opposite of Raven’s room of magic, full of advanced technology, he quickly took a disc and downloaded important data from the database, including the schematics for the tower and everything the metal man has and will be designing.

Abel’s act has caused Brother Blood to infiltrate and nearly destroy the Titans.

Now in Starfire’s room, which was the complete opposite of Raven’s dark room, Abel was starting to feel all girly, ‘what a fruity room, if Star wasn’t so hot, I’d get the hell out of here right now,’ he thought while looking at Starfire sleep innocently. Unfortunately, there was nothing of importance here either. So, on to the last one, the de-facto leader.

As he enters Robin’s room, he noticed all these articles on the wall about Slade, nothing but. ‘Of all of them, you’re the one who creeps me out most kid, learn to relax once in a while,’ Abel thought while looking at them. He stole one of Robin’s masks and a one of the infamous utility belts of the Boy Wonder.

‘Now that that’s done, what could I steal for myself?’ Abel wondered.

He explored further down the basement, and noticed boxes piled together, upon looking through some of them, he noticed a broken Slade mask, ‘What the hell?’ he wondered, not knowing its meaning, he put it back and looked further down, not knowing he activated something in the mask.

A few days later, that Slade mask caused Robin to hallucinate Slade everywhere, but it made him let go of Slade at the end.

At the very bottom, Abel nearly gave up, when he finally saw something that took his interest, a huge bolt door with a skull and red-x printed on it.

‘Hmm, now what could this be?’ he used one of Robin’s laser in the utility belt to get it open, and inside is where Abel and the X suit first met, from then on, the REAL Red-X was born.

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After a few minutes, Raven finishes her work on Abel, “There you go, you should be good for a few hours.”

“Thanks.”

From the entrance, Cyborg carried Abel’s bag and gave it to him, “Here ya go, take good care now, ya hear?”

“Thanks, man,” Abel put the strap around his right shoulder.

Robin held out his hand for a hand shake, and Abel returned it. “Thank you for your time,” Robin states. “You too,” Abel replies, “Well, see ya around,” he says as a goodbye and walks home.

As he exited the Titans Tower, Robin tells his team, “Alright Titans, let’s follow him.”

“….Huh?” The others ask in unison.

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The Titans followed their target; apparently, Robin slid a homing beacon in Abel’s pockets.

“Oookay, so why are we following a civilian?” Beast Boy asked his leader as they went from rooftop to rooftop, getting closer and closer to the target.

“He’s not telling the truth,” Robin replied.

“But didn’t Rae say he wasn’t lying?”

“No, Raven said she couldn’t tell, we just have to be sure, okay?”

“But come on, he seemed like a nice guy...” BB kept arguing, even Starfire was about to back him up, but Cyborg interrupted.

“We’re just going to check if he’s a good guy or not, aight?” Cy said in Robin’s defense.

At that moment Robin signaled them to stop, the homing device has stopped moving. The Titans followed the signal to a public restroom in the subway.

‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ Robin thought to himself.

The three male Titans searched the restroom, and the signaled pointed to the toilet.

“So, the dude decided to take a dump and the beacon fell?” Beast Boy concluded.

“Maybe, but daaaaaamn does it smell nasty in here!” Cyborg covered his nose, trying to breath from his mouth.

Robin couldn’t say anything, ‘Is what BB said true? Did Bale drop the beacon? It couldn’t be, I made sure it was stuck in his back pocket,’ he felt a surge of anger swelling up, but decided to keep it down.

The trio walked out of the restroom to meet their comrades.

“Looks like you lost him,” Raven mentioned.

“Let’s go guys,” Robin said with a little anger in his voice.

The rest of the team could only obey, but they also had questions in their head, ‘Why would a nice guy like Bale be a bad guy? It’s just like with Terra all over again.’

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In one of the more depressed areas of Jump City, Abel arrived at what looks like a warehouse. He rubbed his hands together, smiling in triumph.

“Did those guys actually think I wouldn’t notice the beacon they slipped in my pants?” He recalled the moment he left the Titans Tower, heading for a public restroom as fast as he can; from there he entered the stall and quickly removed his pants and the beacon. From there he flushed the thing and left just before the Titans arrived, making his grand escape.

Once he entered the gates toward the warehouse, two pit-bulls came out and started barking.

“Hey Chester, Misty,” Abel greeted them, and they just wagged their tail in return, obviously happy to see their owner.

As Abel entered the warehouse, two men greeted him this time.

“Abel! Where have you been?” A chubby teen, wearing thick glasses, about Abel’s age asked, while the other…

“Did you get caught?” An older, scruffy looking guy with a cigarette in his mouth chuckled.

The person in question just walked past them, and tossed the bag full of money on the table. “Got the money, that’s what matters, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but your arms, what the hell happened to you?!” The chubby person asked.

“Relax Ben, just got in a brawl with something I don’t know.”

“And the suit?”

“Out of xenothium, have any more?” Abel gave Ben the suit.

Ben went away to reload the suit, the older man stood next to Abel. “So, what really happened, Abel?”

“That’s none of your business, Scott!”

“Now, now, that’s no way to talk to your father,” The man replied calmly.

“Yeah, well you never once called me son, so I never called you by any of that,” Abel talked back. In all his years; his father never once called him son. He always called Abel by first name, so he did the same thing.

“You’re still a young boy of seventeen, you better show respect.”

“Try me,” Abel threatened.

Scott knew that the boy won’t be able to defend himself in his condition, so he decided to play along, “Fine, you win, for now, so what really happened?”

Abel knew Scott’s game; he was after all, the man who taught him everything he knew about the art of theft. Everything from breaking and entering, to escaping, including free running, which is an art of going from one place to the other with the least amount of effort. Robin knew the same art, which was always why it was fun to race with him.

“Alright, I just finished getting those Titans off my tail, made the deal and got the money, but as I was coming back, the suit ran out of juice.”

“And then?” Scott took a puff from his cigarette.

“I changed to my street clothes, and walked home, when this HUGE white beast came out and started attacking me!”

“White Beast?” Scott repeated his son’s words.

“Yeah, it let out some ear splitting scream, and then tried to kill me, did I piss off some guy?”

“Abel, you piss off a lot of guys, including me.”

They both laughed at that comment when Ben came back with the X suit powered back up. “Here you go,” Ben handed it back.

Abel just looked at the suit in his hands, and made his mind.

“You’re not going to get back at that beast in your condition, are you?” Scott looked at him.

“W-what?!” Ben yelled, “No way man, give me the suit!”
“Too late.”

“I thought I taught you to be smarter than that,” Scott watched as his son went to the other room to change.

“Well I tend to just let up on planning ahead; I like it best when I make things up as they come.”

“Then you must have hit your head harder than you think.”

“Nah, but really, it’ll take too long to recover from these injuries, by then the creature would be long gone.”

“You don’t feel any pain?” Ben asked.

“I had a little help from the Titans.”

Just then Scott stood up, “Whoa, whoa, just a minute, did you say the Titans helped you?”

Abel nodded.

“And they saw your face?!”

“Yup,” Abel replies as he put the mask on.

“You idiot! You know to stay under the grid!”

“Yeah, but it was either risk it, or die,” the raspy mechanical voice of Red-X kicks in.

“Fine, you wanna die then go.”

“Who said anything about dying? You really underestimate me.”

Ben interrupted the two and tossed some aspirins to X before he set off, “Don’t you think you’re depending on the suit a bit too much?”

“Hey, stealing from a bank or secured building is easy,” X says as he swallows the aspirins, “But if you’re going up against super-powered freaks, then take whatever advantage you need to keep all the cards in your hand, isn’t that what you told me, Scott?”

His father took one last puff from his cigarette and told his son, “Go, and make it back you fool.”

As Red-X left to take his revenge, Scott turned to Ben, “Let’s go Ben.”

“What’s your plan?”

“We start designing some improvements on the suit; everything else is up to that fool.”

!@#$%^&*()

Along the midnight prowl, X searched for hours, no white creature to be found. “Damn, where is it?” he cursed through binoculars. Another hour passed before he gave up, until…

“AAAHHHH!!” the screaming of civilians lightened up the dull noiseless night. “That must be it,” X said with a little eagerness in his voice.

Scoping the area with his binoculars, Red-X found his target running around the streets, he took one deep breath, “Here we go.”

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Chapter 2 finished, next is the battle between the Red X and the White Beast