Titans West

Mal Duncan grinned as he opened the case from STAR Labs in Metropolis. He carefully ran his hands along the contents. "This is gonna be great," he observed.

Bette Kane, Flamebird, sat in the conference room of Titans West headquarters. She'd finally managed to seat herself at the head of the table, but just sat there swiveling back and forth in the chair. She finally glanced up when someone spoke.

"Problems?" Paco Ramone asked as he walked in. He wore a new I Love NY shirt.

"Yes. No. I don't know," Bette said. Taking a cue, Vibe sat down in Red Star's chair, to her right. "I'm not a leader. I've proved that time and time again. How many times has this group formed and reformed and then fallen apart again?" Bette swiveled and looked at the full-length paintings of each team member on the wall. "We never had the leadership. In the old days, Charley and Hank Hall took charge. Hank was no leader. Hank was lucky he never got shot with his temper."

"I heard about what happened to him," Paco said, thinking back. "I met him once. During the big Crisis. He seemed pretty in control then."

"Dove was still alive. Once Don died, Hank went off the deep end. A few years back he was even working with a new Dove in Washington, then that went bad, too. Next thing you know, Hank's calling himself Extant and killing the Justice Society."

"What about Charley?"

"Charley..." A tear slowly rolled down Bette's cheek. She self-consciously wiped it away. "Charley was a lot of things, but motivated was not one of them. Unless it involved somehow getting out of work. Then he had incredible motivation."

"So what?" Paco asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Easy," Paco said, leaning back. "You've talked about how the team's fallen apart before. Fine. But I haven't heard anything yet about how Flamebird did as a leader. Add to that the fact that nobody's moved out of HQ or quit. Not even Gar quit, remember? He's gonna help Tara get her head straightened out, and then they'll be back."

"I hope so," Bette said. "I just don't have what it takes." She looked at Paco, her eyes filling with tears. "You know what other people say about me? I found out when I went to Project Cadmus right before Superboy came back. Green Lantern even called me a superhero groupie who used to bother Nightwing. Superboy didn't even know who I was." Bette leaned her head forward and started sobbing. "I'm not a joke," she said softly.

"Nobody said you were," Paco said, scooting in front of her and resting his hands on her shoulders. "Who said you were a groupie? That new GL? He ain't nothing. I met the old GL - Jordan. Now he was a hero! And he never badmouthed anybody, not even our little JLA."

Bette fell against Paco's shoulder and sobbed a moment. Finally she looked up with a distinctive look. Slowly their lips met.

Jason Parker, Golden Eagle, soared above the Los Angeles skyline. Even though she couldn't see him, he couldn't resist waving at Sarah Simms as he saw the Questcorp building in the distance. Still, as he flew, the knowledge of what was coming gnawed at him. He knew what he'd done. That there was no way out. And no possible hope for redemption.

Lilith Clay walked to her door as the bell rang again. She opened the door. "Hello, Gar."

Gar Logan stood there beside Tara Markov. "Hey, Lilith. I guess you know why we're here."

Lilith nodded in that strange, slow way she had. "Yes. Please come in." Gar walked in, helping Tara walk. They entered Lilith's living room and sat down on a couch. Lilith, noticing that Tara was sweating, lit some incense. "That should help you," she said. A moment later, Tara's breathing slowed and she visibly relaxed.

"Thank you," Tara whispered.

Lilith, sitting on a footstool in front of them, leaned forward with her eyes closed. Her lips pursed in a delicate scowl. "I can sense the barricades Raven put up," she said. "They are greatly strained. They are-"

Just then Tara's eyes snapped open. "Get away from me, witch!" she screamed. A blast of earth tore through the floor and slammed into Lilith, knocking her backward.

Thinking quickly, Gar grabbed the stick of incense and held it in front of Tara. She let out an inhuman scream and then returned to her normal self.

"Are you all right, Lilith?" Gar asked, not taking his eyes off Tara.

Lilith picked herself up off the floor. "Yes. I was going to say that her barricades are weaker than I expected, but I believe that you've seen that for yourselves." Lilith thought a moment. "Come."

"Where are we going?" Gar asked.

"We are going to Azarath!" A swirl of power enveloped the three and they were gone.

Leonid Kovar smiled as he walked through the museum. Fine art was always something he could appreciate. Of course, the fact that the fine art in question was on loan from Russia didn't hurt any. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blond woman looking questioningly at him. Finally Leonid walked over to her. "May I help you?" he asked.

She laughed uneasily. "I'm sorry. You just looked like someone I knew back home. But you cannot be him."

"Why is that?" Leo asked.

"Because I am from Russia."

"Oh? So am I."

The blond woman's jaw dropped. "Are you him? Are you Leonid Kovar?"

Leonid smiled. "Yes. And now you have the advantage, Miss..."

"Sonya. Sonya Romanov."

A genuine smile crossed Leonid's face as he remembered his high school. "Sonya, it has been too long!" he said. A moment later, the two were conversing in fluent Russian.

Oblivious to Leonid and Sonya's discussion, five figures in hats and trench coats walked into the room, stopping before a display case containing a large diamond. "This is it," the leader whispered.

"Let's do it, then," another said. The five whipped off their (poor) disguises and stood revealed in costumes that resembled playing cards.

"Excuse me!" the leader, King, bellowed. "This exhibit, and all your valuables, are now the property of the Royal Flush Gang. Please present your goodies to my good Queen as she makes her way around, and none of you will be hurt."

To back up King's threat, Ace scowled and cracked his knuckles.

"Leonid!" Sonya whispered, frightened.

"Don't worry," Leonid said. "Let's just do as he says." Leonid quickly slipped his hand into his pocket and pressed a small switch on a device there.

"Bette!" Bette and Paco came up for air as Mal's voice echoed through the conference room.

"Yes?" she asked as she grabbed a handkerchief and started scrubbing lipstick off Paco's face.

"Got trouble! I'm sounding the alarm now!" The alarm started blaring through the base. "We've got an alarm from Red Star!"

"Guess we'd better get into costume," Bette said, standing.

"Yeah," Paco said. He smiled at her. "You know, we might have to do this again sometime."

"Maybe," Bette said. The two ran out toward their rooms.

Five minutes later, the jet was streaking toward the museum. Mal, at the controls, was giving a briefing. "Apparently it's the Royal Flush Gang," he finished.

"Man," Vibe said. "Are they still around? They were losing fights even before my League formed."

"Yes," Bumblebee said. "Fortunately they've hit the rank of irritant lately. The JLI shut them down two or three times without even breaking a sweat."

Flamebird sat uncharacteristically silent. Please don't let me screw this up, she thought. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Vibe smiling at her and giving her a subtle thumbs-up. Flamebird smiled back and touched her lips.

"And the good news is, we've got help this time!" Everyone looked up as Mal walked in. He was wearing gold armor with a crossed-out fist on the chest.

"Mal?" Bumblebee asked, half-rising. "What are you doing?"

"Easy," Mal said. "I'm tired of being left on the sidelines. You can call me Gangbuster!"

Across the street, a figure stopped on the roof. Deadshot quickly concealed himself behind a large sign and waited.

Leonid Kovar was fuming. He knew he couldn't change into Red Star in front of Sonya, because his identity was still a secret in Russia. All he could do was watch as Ace and Jack erected a mechanical device in the center of the room. King and Ten covered the crowd while Queen (with a bit of whiskey on her breath) passed around a bag for valuables.

"Excellent," King said as the device lit up. "I just got word that the Titans are on their way here." He smiled a sinister smile. "Everything is in place. Once they try to get in here, we'll never be taken as jokes again." King broke into sinister laughter as the device pulsed away.

Leonid Kovar just gritted his teeth as Queen shoved a pistol in Sonya's face and demanded her jewelry and money.

Next Issue: It's the Titans versus the Royal Flush Gang! And the hard times just keep on coming!

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