Teen Titans #63: "Team Powerstar, part one"

-1-

The TV flickered from the science fiction program it had been watching to a strange logo, and all the Titans gathered. Cyborg had programmed the tower computers to monitor the major news channels, and they had recorded a specific event and alerted him. He gathered the others.

Beast Boy, Starfire and Scarlet Wing had been lounging in front of the TV already; Beast Boy and Starfire actually watching tv, Scarlet Wing with history book in her lap, reading. She was always studying the differences in history between this world and her own.

But at Cyborg's call, everyone came and sat down. Even a sleepy Dagon came out of his technological coffin a little early, blinking sleepily. After Circe had damaged the tower, the new glass was, amongst other things, UV-proof. Making it safe for him.

So they gathered, settling down in the various lounge seats. “What have you go for us, Vic?” Nightwing asked Cyborg.

“This was broadcast simultaneously on both the major liberal and conservative cable news networks within the last hour,” Cyborg said. “Edited highlights are being shown on the older broadcasting channels as we speak.”

He pressed play on the remote control. The logo remained steady, an orange star against a white background, with a blue border.

Then a voice spoke, the voice of a professional Hollywood trailer announcer. “For many years,” it said, “The heroes of our country—and the world—have been short handed, or received minimal assistance from a government that also monitored and distrusted them. For many years, these heroes have had no recompensation for their actions, and had to rely on their own capital, or charitable donations. But that ends today.”

The image changed to a group of metahumans clad in a variety of costumes. The costumes were all different, but all contained the color blue, accompanied by yellow or red, or both.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the voice on the TV boomed, “I give you TEAM POWERSTAR!”

The apparent heroes flew past the camera, some under their own power, some by the way of jet packs on their backs.

“Professional heroes, paid for their services to the community! Several of them villains redeemed, paying off their debt to society. Some of them volunteers, pleased to discover they would be paid. Some of them hired for their skill. But all dedicated to the greater good, and assisting the heroic community that already exists!”

The camera focused on the largest member of the group, in red bulky armor, an obvious powersuit.

“The Armor of Justice, dedicated to the fight against evil!”

He ripped a chunk out of the ground, and threw it into a group of what looked to be Intergang.

“Hunter X. A bounty hunter without peer, now he finds the criminals for the team!”

A man in a costume painfully similar to one that Dick had briefly worn, looking down a gun sight. The camera switched to show his target, a criminal fleeing down an alleyway. The gun went off, and the bullet struck home through the man's shoulder, bringing him down.

“Jinx, once a villain, now using her powers of disruption to fight evil!”

A girl with ridiculous pink hair twitched her hands, and all around her men's weapons failed and broke down. She smirked and beat them down.

“Chemical, master of poisons and medicines!”

A skull-masked man with syringes coming out of the fingers of his gloves. He pressed one syringe into the arm of a thug, who babbled about a bank job. Another syringe pressed down, and the thug passed out.

“Goldstar, heroine from space!”

All the Titans recognized Blackfire, despite the gaudy costume. They could see the hatred in her eyes as she blasted enemies down, but knew that ordinary folks would see it as heroic intensity.

“The Brute, transformed against his will from mild mannered youth into monstrosity, now he uses his strength to punish the wicked!”

The creature came smashing through a wall, thugs laying in helpless piles behind. It wore a full cowl, goggles, and suspicious implants.

“Gunnery Girl, master of high tech weapons! Armed with cutting edge anti-terrorist technology!”

A ridiculous blonde, thin and scrawny. But she wielded her energy pistol with great effect, adding a few low-grade explosives to the mix. How that was any kind of anti-terrorist, none of the Titans could have said.

“Latest in that long lineage of superspeedsters, Carom!”

He blurred around the screen and stopped long enough to grin into the camera; Terra recognized him immediately.

“Mysterion, computer specialist!”

The man, wearing a black and white striped mask, had his hands on several computer terminals. Eerily familiar to Troia.

“Thermodynamic, man of science and energy!”

He teleported around, throwing energy blasts; his red hair flowing free instantly identified him as Chaos.

“Melchior, Master of Magic!”

A man none of them recognized, his long flowing cape almost a cloak as it wrapped around him. But the monsters he summoned to attack the criminals made Raven uneasy.

“Together they are: TEAM POWERSTAR!”

More shots of the team, working together, (quite effectively, it must be said). Nightwing's practiced eye saw that some of their foes were actors and stuntmen. Some, but not all.

Nightwing was not amused. But he was worried.

-3-

Jinx looked at herself in the mirror.

Even before joining Team Powerstar, she had changed her look. Changed her outfit, let her hair grow out, dyed it pink, styled it into to pointed arcs. Joining Team Powerstar had merely enabled her to further that transformation.

There was nothing to connect her to the woman who had tried to kill the Metropolis performer/hero “Ceasar” once. Nothing except the name, and the publicity had already covered that angle.

She had asked their patron, once, why her. He said it was 'a matter of personal satisfaction.' That it was 'a way to remind myself of Metropolis.'

She didn't know what to make of that. But she knew who she was now. And what she would do, for this team, for herself.

Jinx smiled brightly, applied her lipstick, and left the bathroom to rejoin the team. They had their own little headquarters, down here; not anything the public would ever know about, but a nice little complex of rooms down here. All the benefits of science and money were on hand. The décor was a little sterile for her tastes, but the money was good.

She followed the steel and cinder block corridors back to the main meeting room; their patron had promised to speak with them, via telescreen.

Their patron hadn't spent much time with them; some of them had never even met him directly. Jinx was one of the few who had.

The Titans would have been very interested to know that Jinx's estimation, the team was actually fairly cohesive. With the exception of “Goldstar”, they were all prepared to stay. It was true that Blackfire wanted her sister's head, and would afterwards leave. That was fine with their patron. He did not trust or like aliens at all, and knew she could not go back to the Citadel that had previously employed her. She would be a wanderer, alone in her vengeance. He had contingency plans to eliminate her though. Just in case.

All the others were prepared to stay. Some of them had grudges against the Titans, it was true. But once that was done, they were prepared to stay on and work for their patron, whether they knew his identity or not. And of course, some, like her, had nothing against the Titans personally; it was strictly business.

They assembled in the steel and brass main meeting room. There were chairs, padded but not overly comfortable, giving the place a businesslike air. Blackfire lounged insolently over three of them. She considered herself the team leader, and the others tolerated this notion; but in truth it was Forrester, Melchior and Hunter X who truly decided strategy, and their patron who gave them missions. Such as now.

Their patron's visage was obscured, as usual, to hide his identity from those who he chose not to reveal it to.

“Well done, my team, all of you. Our initial publicity blitz was a great success. You will be on disaster relief for the next few days, intervening as needed. If you come across a criminal activity or two and break it up, that's fine also. But do not confront the Titans, not yet. Nor any other superhero. For now, you are their allies. The more they distrust you, the harder you must work to assuage them.”

“Surely Starfire recognized me,” Blackfire said, studying her fingernails in pretended disinterest. Jinx knew better. He alien's rage was obvious to see.

“That was always part of the plan, as you know. I must give the Titans credit for taking the initiative,” their patron said. “They have invited us to the Tower next week.”

“What?” several of them chorused.

“Indeed. I had our public relations people make a counteroffer; namely, that we could bring the media with us. They agreed to that stipulation.”

“Which means we can't attack them yet,” Chaos groused.

“You would not have done that yet regardless. Now is not the time. This will help us cement our reputation with the public, and the Titans themselves will help us to look good. They, too, will not want to start a fight. There is, of course, always the chance that Blackfire's sister will strike first--”

“Ohhh, I hope so,” Blackfire interjected.

“Ahem, yes. We have contingencies for that. But we will not strike the first blow. Do I make myself clear, Blackfire?”

“I understand the tactical advantage,” Blackfire sighed. “I have waited to kill her before, I can wait a bit longer.”

“Chaos? Forrester? Carom? Hellbore?”

“I'm in this for power and glory,” Hellbore said. “Hitting at Terra is just a nice bonus.”

“Money for experiments in my case,” Chaos shrugged. “Which you have already promised. If we can secure Dagon for further experiments, so much the better. But it is not required.”

“Likewise money for me,” Carom said. “If I get to take Terra out, that's nice. But not essential.”

“I'd love to get my hands on Troia again,” Eric purred. “But that's a bonus. Any girl will do.”

“Any human would do,” Chaos corrected him. “It need not be women.”

“Women are more fun. Cut me a break. I'm not one of your pets anymore.”

“Personal taste is your own concern,” their patron interjected. “Each of your needs will be tended to, or financially provided for. So long as you do your jobs.”

“We will,” several of them chorused, and even Blackfire nodded agreement.

“Good. Go out on patrol, then.”

-5-

Over the new few days, Team Powerstar distinguished themselves, saving two planes from crashing out of New York, fighting a gang of super strength thugs that had been robbing banks near Cincinnati, helping prevent a reactor meltdown in Japan, and cleaning up after tornadoes in the southern states.

Only once did they come into close contact with the Titans; Raven and Kid Flash saw Jinx and Armor of Justice. They both had come, separate of their teams, to deal with some thugs on patrol. Ordinary thugs, but they had gotten military-grade hardware from somewhere, and were cutting loose with grenade launchers, desert eagles, et cetera.

Jinx and Armor of Justice had been warned about this; they kept their minds blank and their emotions calm, focused on the job. Raven was an empath, not a telepath. Nor was it an accident that she was here now.

They did not help each other directly, but focused on opposite sides of the gang. Jinx twitched a finger and a minigun fell apart. Armor of Justice let a missile hit him, took the impact, then stomped hard, knocking four of the thugs down. Raven cast her soul self over the foe, and they quailed; Kid Flash moved in to mop up.

Jinx eyed Kid Flash, finding him vaguely attractive, but mostly wishing their own speedster, Carom, was here. She quelched that thought, however, as Raven refocused her attention on them.

Jinx simply nodded. Kid Flash smirked in reply. Raven did nothing, staring at them with those eyes of hers.

They left uneasily.