Titans West

Jason Parker, Golden Eagle, flew through the city, smiling. The morning sun warmed his armor and it looked to be a beautiful morning. Suddenly he doubled over in pain. Struggling, Eagle managed to land in one piece on a nearby rooftop. He lay on the ground in the fetal position, his arms wrapped tightly around his stomach.

Soon your time is up, a voice said inside his head. Enjoy what you have left. Parker looked around. The voice was gone, and it had taken the pain with it. After scanning the horizon, Eagle could not find the speaker anywhere. He frowned and launched back into the air, heading for Titans West headquarters. This time, the air had a definite chill to it.

In an office above the city, Neil Richards leaned back from his designing table and stretched. He frowned as he heard the cracks his back made. "Blimey," he remarked. "Looks like I'm starting to get old." He glanced over at a newspaper article he had framed over his drawing table and smiled. The headline read "Teen Titans Nab Mad Mod!" He didn't smile at the capture and his time in prison afterward. He smiled as he remembered the time he'd met those four heroes years later and asked them to sign the clipping. The look on Nightwing's face had been particularly priceless. Still, the clipping bore all four "retro" signatures. Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Aqualad's names were signed over their pictures. Richards smiled again and went to get a shower before the big premiere that afternoon. "Gotta be ready for the catwalk," he said as he headed into the bathroom.

Gar Logan knocked on the door before entering. He thought he heard someone calling him and opened the door.

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART, AND YOU'RE TO BLAME
YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME

Gar stumbled to the stereo and turned Bon Jovi down from screaming to whispering.

"Hey, Green Bean," Paco Ramone said as he looked up from his magazine. "What's going on?"

"Not a lot," Gar said as he sat down beside the bed. "How's the leg?"

"Not bad," Paco said. "Ankle's still pretty swollen, but Doc says it's not broken. She said I should be able to start getting around again pretty soon."

"Good," Gar said. He was silent for a moment. "What happened?" he finally asked. "What set Cody off like that?"

Paco shifted uncomfortably. "He insulted my sister," Paco said. "Said she deserved to get shot."

Gar slowly nodded. "And then what did you say?"

"I really don't remember," Paco admitted. "I was really mad at the time."

"I see." Gar thought a moment. "He still hasn't come back yet, and I'm starting to get worried."

Paco shrugged. "I don't know nothing about it," he said.

"Well, I do have some better news for you," Gar said. "We just got the word. Your sister woke up this morning. They think she's going to be fine."

"Really?" Paco asked with tears welling up in his eyes. "Thanks, man. That's the best news I could've gotten."

Gar stood. "I've got to get going. Take care of yourself!"

"No problemo," Paco said as he picked up his magazine again.

Out in the hall, Tara was waiting. "How'd it go?" she asked.

"About as well as I expected," Gar said as they started walking down the hall. "He's still not talking."

"I hate to say it, but I told you," Tara said.

"Yeah, you did," Gar said. "I just wish we knew where he is."

"We'll find him," Tara said. "Between us and the Teen Titans looking for him, he won't be able to stay gone forever."

"I hope you're right," Gar said.

Neil Richards smiled as he opened the doors to his office. "Just a quick checkup," he said to himself as he walked to the desk and started skimming the mail. He glanced up as his office doors slammed shut and locked.

"Hello, Mr. Richards," the man standing before him with a gun said. "I believe that we're about to become great friends."

Moving his knee, Richards managed to hit a silent alarm, then stood. "Listen, mate. I don't keep a lot of cash here."

"I know," the man said. "That doesn't matter."

Richards felt himself beginning to sweat.

In Titans West headquarters, Mal glanced up as he saw a monitor start blinking. He clicked the intercom. "Gar, get down here," he said. "We may have a situation."

"On my way," Gar said.

A few moments later, he ran in. "What's going on?"

"According to this, the silent alarm just went off in Neil Richard's office."

"Interesting," Gar said. "Something's going on with the Mad Mod. Bette's downtown shopping. I'll send her around and see if she can see anything."

"That's probably best," Mal said. "It's probably nothing."

Director Bones extinguished his cigar as he stepped toward the curtain. He had a press conference in a few minutes.

"I don't understand," Breathtaker said. "Why are you doing this?"

"Simple, my dear," Bones replied. "These West Coast Titans are becoming a thorn in my side."

"But that's why you got us together," Breathtaker said. "I thought that was one of the main purposes for the Overseers."

"Ah, but you see, that's the point. I'm going to give these Titans what they've always wanted. I'm going to make them heroes. And then they will owe everything they are to me."

"And then when the Overseers need a rub..." Breathtaker said, beginning to understand.

"We will get it from them." Bones stepped out to face the press.

"Director Bones!" a woman yelled. "Lois Lane, Daily Planet. Can you comment on the situation in New York a few days ago, apparently involving DEO agents in battle against three teams known as Titans West and the Teen Titans?"

Bones's invisible lips stretched back in a smile. This one had come from exactly where he'd expected. "Yes, I can, Ms. Lane." The look on Lois's face made that answer worth it. "And you are in a particularly special place to understand. I believe that you are familiar with creatures known as Bizarros."

"Yes," Lois Lane said carefully.

"Weeks ago, we were notified that the Titans West had been replaced by a set of duplicates, Bizarros, if you will. The real Titans West were placed under surveillance, and eventually moved to a secure location while heroic DEO agents tried to stop the duplicates. These duplicates eventually managed to fool the Teen Titans into assisting them. Finally, the real Titans West were able to reappear and assist in defeating the duplicates."

Lois said, not giving up. "How did they not know about the duplicates?"

Bones smiled again. He was ready for this one, too. "They were on a mission when the duplicates were discovered. We continued to try to reach them, but the duplicates reached them first." Bones raised a gloved hand. "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. In closing, I would only like to say that we owe these West Coast Titans a great deal. Without them, we could not have resolved this situation as quickly as we did." Bones waved briefly and walked behind the curtain.

"Brilliant," Breathtaker said, softly applauding.

"Phase one is complete," Bones said as he lit a cigar. "Now it's time for phase two."

Bette Kane glanced down the deserted hallway. She could hear voices coming from Richards's office. She quickly slipped down the hall and hid behind his receptionist's desk where she could better hear.

"They'd better hurry with the ransom," one of the kidnappers was saying. "I'm not getting paid to hang around here all day."

"Relax," one of his colleagues said. "They're paying us good money to sit on this little twit. I say we just enjoy the good life until they get us out."

"I guess you're right," the guard said. "Still, I don't like being surrounded by that many cops."

Bette grinned. Something was going on. She silently slipped back down the hall and into the waiting elevator.

"Gar!" she whispered into her comlink. "Here's the situation."

Gar's face grew hard as she explained what was going on. "Got it," he said. He released the button on the monitor board and turned to Mal. "Get everybody to the hangar. We're heading out there."

"Right," Mal said as he switched on the intercom. Gar was already on his way to the hangar.

Karen Beecher's secretary ran out of the office. Karen was in rare form. She had been gone just a couple of weeks and everything at STAR had fallen apart. At the moment, Karen was preparing for a staff meeting that promised to be particularly brutal. She dropped the beeping comlink into her desk and slammed the drawer shut, muffling the sound.

Jason Parker licked the tip of his pencil as he continued filling in answers on his anatomy exam. His comlink was beeping away in his empty dorm room, hidden under some socks in his dresser.

Paco Ramone glanced up at the announcement and frowned. He quickly got into his Vibe costume and hobbled toward the door. His eyes widened when he discovered that Gar had locked him in to keep him put. "This ain't fair!" he said as he hopped back and sat down on the bed again.

Gar looked behind him and frowned. Terra and Red Star were the only Titans who had answered the call. Great, he thought. We'll have to be enough. The silver T-jet launched into flight and began flying toward Richards's office.

Flamebird crawled through an air duct and finally found a vent that allowed her to look downward into Richards's office. "I count three gunmen," she whispered into her comlink. "I don't see Richards."

"Got it," Changeling replied. "We're preparing to enter the building now. We've been able to knock out the security cameras, so we'll be meeting you there in just a minute."

"Right," Flamebird said, quickly backing down the duct. A particularly nasty-looking spider had just appeared in front of her.

She dropped quietly into the hall as Gar, Terra, and Red Star emerged from a stairwell. Gar was smiling.

"Don't worry," he said. "I've got it all figured."

The kidnappers' heads jerked up as the office doors exploded inward. Red Star stepped inside. "Gentlemen, I am in a very bad mood. Surrender now."

They responded by opening fire.

"Why do you never do things the easy way?" Red Star asked as he stepped forward and took down two kidnappers with a single punch. The third dropped his gun and ran into another door. Red Star smirked as he heard the lock click.

"Nice try," he said as he ripped the door off its hinges. Inside was only a bound and gagged Richards. "Area clear," Red Star said as he began to free Richards.

"Blimey," Richards said. "This was a bit of excitement, wasn't it?"

"Just a bit," Changeling said as the rest of the team walked in. "Are you all right?"

"I'm right as rain," Richards said. "Did you catch those gunmen?"

"Yeah," Terra said. "No problem."

Just then Golden Eagle ran in. "Is everything okay? Mal just sent me up here as soon as I got back to the base."

Richards smiled. "You know, I may have a way to thank you all. Come with me." They all walked out of the office as the police took the gunmen into custody.

Two Hours Later

A mist formed inside Richards's office and turned into Dagon. He quickly ripped a false air vent off the wall and grabbed the exposed camera. "I've got it," he said into his wrist comlink.

"Excellent," came the response. "Bring it back to headquarters at once."

Dagon nodded once and returned to mist form. The mist quickly flowed into the window and into the sunshine.

Three Days Later

Neil Richards smiled as he hung another framed newspaper clipping on his wall. The headline on this one read "Titans Save Mad Mod!" It was also signed by Changeling, Terra, Red Star, Golden Eagle, and Flamebird. He walked to his desk and played the message he'd saved.

"Mr. Richards, this is Gar Logan. I just wanted to let you know how much we all appreciated the chance to model in your show. Flamebird is still talking about it. Thanks again!" Richards smiled and leaned back.

"Ahh, it's been too long since the old days." Richards closed his eyes and dozed off. In his dreams, he was side-by-side with Loren Jupiter and Omen again, working with their group of Teen Titans.

Next Issue: Years ago, the Teen Titans first met Red Star when they battled the international jewel thief Andre LeBlanc. Today, LeBlanc is back!

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