#1

"Popular"

One Year Later...

"Welcome Victor Stone, please hold your course and maintain your altitude. Prepare for Tower to initiate auto-landing. Thank you."

Vic guided the T-Wing towards Titans Tower , looking forward to some relaxation. He hated the name T-Wing, but Kid Devil had coined the name and it stuck with the other Titans. Vic was sorry to lose Eddie from the active roster so quickly. He was a good kid.

The controls of the T-Wing shuddered and Vic released his hold on them. He rubbed his biological eye, looking forward to getting a couple hours of rest. He had spent a week getting Titans Tower New York back up in working order. An east coast branch of the Titans would still be a ways away, but when it happens, Vic knew they'd be in good hands.

The T-Wing settled to the deck of the Tower's hangar bay. He unbuckled his seatbelt, took a deep breath, and then stood. He walked towards the hatch as it slid open, extending a set of steps. He walked down, noticing Eddie working on what must have been an air conditioner motor. When he saw Cyborg he set the motor on his lap, and pushed backwards in his wheelchair, then turned and pushed himself towards him.

"Vic, how was the trip?"

"Long, lots of meetings and the like," Cyborg replied. "Nothing happen while I was gone?"

"Gar made pancakes," he said. "Otherwise, Joe, Kole and myself kept the place pretty well together." Eddie looked down at the motor, adjusted a screw and smiled. "Mostly."

"I'll ignore that you said that," Vic said. He noticed that Eddie had kept his hair long to cover the large scar across his forehead and the sleeves of his shirt were just long enough to mostly cover the burn scarring on his biceps. "See you at the staff meeting in a few hours?" he asked after a moment.

"You bet!"

Janet Cruz smiled wide, showing off the thousands of dollars in dental work she'd acquired. Her producer counted down one his hand and pointed at her as the camera went live.

"Welcome to Hollywood Exposed!" she exclaimed. "What a dish we have for you today." She turned to the camera to her right as an image of Titans Tower appeared in the corner of the screen.

"The Teen Titans have become the world's premiere superheroes since the disbanding of the Justice League and have proven themselves on multiple occasions," she declared. The image of the Tower dissolved into one of Beast Boy and Blue Beetle. "With that, the members of the team have become celebrities. Take a look at this video captured at a party just last night in Los Angeles ." The image of Janet dissolved into the video. Garfield Logan and Jaime Reyes waved to the room, their other arms each wrapped around a starlet of the moment.

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Jaime Reyes lay still, hoping the sunlight peeking between the curtains would just leave him alone. He'd been up late the night before with Beast Boy picking up on starlets at a movie premiere. The duo were the only members of the Titans who were legally adults, and even though they couldn't drink, they took advantage of the other privileges. The nights on the town were definitely in that category.

"Hey Beetle," said a too-cheery voice from his doorway. "Wakey wakey." Jaime rolled over to see Lorena Marquez- Aquagirl- grinning at him. The seventeen year-old girl was already in her costume- a blue and green swimsuit with armored shoulder pads, a high neck and boots. Jaime couldn't deny that he thought she was incredibly attractive, but this early in the morning...

"I'm not going for a swim today," he muttered. "It's too early."

"It's ten o'clock ," she replied, "and Donna's starting our training session. Just thought you should know." Jaime sat up abruptly, and looked at the clock. Aquagirl was right.

"Uh, wow, thanks," he muttered.

"No problem," she laughed. She turned and started to walk away, then stopped and glanced back over her shoulder. "Oh, there pictures of you and Gar on the news this morning. Everyone seems to think you have a thing for that Bynes chick. That true?"

Jaime thought back to the kiss she planted on him the previous night. She was probably just a superhero groupie deep down. The dangers of a public identity.

"No, nothing there."

"Good," Lorena replied, heading down the corridor. Jaime put his head in his hands and took a deep breath. It was going to be a long day.

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"And welcome back to Today, I'm Al Roker," said the slightly chubby anchorman. He turned to a masked blonde girl in a red and yellow costume with a quiver full of arrows slung over her shoulder. "I'm here in San Francisco with Speedy, the leader of the Teen Titans and AIDS activist. Welcome to the show."

"Thanks Al," Speedy said, smiling at the camera. "I'm glad to be here."

"We're glad to have you," he declared. "So after only being a member of the Titans a little over a year, you've found yourself in the role of team leader, how do you feel about that?"

"It's a lot of responsibility," Speedy said. "I'm lucky to be working closely with Beast Boy, who's had a lot more experience with the team."

"You're still one of the team's senior members though, correct?"

Speedy laughed. "Oddly enough, yes. Kind of weird how that happened."

"Any regrets so far?"

"I'd rather not say..."

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Mia Dearden licked her fingers, then hit the large red button to her left. Instantly a series of targets sprung up, moving quickly towards her. She grabbed and arrow from her quiver, notched it on the bow string and fired, the whole process taking less than a second. She dodged to the side and repeated the motion, firing arrow after arrow in rapid succession. Within ten seconds, the exercise was over and she walked towards the tower to see if she could retrieve any of the arrows.

"So is that why we call you Speedy?" a voice asked from the doorway. Mia glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Donna Troy.

"There's got to be some reason," she replied, pulling the first arrow from the Styrofoam target. "Always wondered where Roy got the name." Mia winced as she mentioned Roy and glanced up at Donna. To her knowledge, Roy and Donna hadn't spoken since they'd lost the baby.

"We always gave him crap in the old days," she said. "That was probably a bigger influence on his name change than anything else." Donna gave no outward sign of hurt, which only slightly reassured Mia. She stepped over to another target and extracted her arrow from it. She held it up to eye level and frowned. The shaft was split. No good.

"So what's up boss lady?" she asked, glancing back at Donna.

"Well, I'm starting the morning training session in a few minutes, wanted to make sure you'd be there," she replied, leaning on the door frame.

"And...?"

"And you've done a good job the last few months," she continued. "I've been impressed by how readily you stepped into the leadership role."

Mia's eyes narrowed as she bent over the next target. "So you're impressed that Kid Devil's in a wheelchair?" she said. "Or that we had to add a statue of Zatara just a few weeks after he joined the team?" Mia drew herself back up to her full height. "Do you think Zatanna would be telling me that I've done a good job after I was responsible for losing her brother?" Donna set her jaw and looked at the floor for a moment, then back up at Mia.

"I meant what I said," she declared. "And don't think you're the only person that hurts because of something that's happened in the last year." She then turned and walked out of the room, leaving Mia alone.

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"...This is Wake Up LA and I'm Jeri Collins!" exclaimed the perky voice on the screen. "We're joined now by Aquagirl, one of the Teen Titans' newest members and a California local!" The red head turned to Aquagirl who smiled and waved at the camera.

"Thanks!" she exclaimed. "I'm really excited to be here!"

"We're excited to have you," Jeri said. "Now tell us, what's it like not only being a superhero, but also a role model to thousands of Latino teenagers across America ?"

"Honestly it's pretty scary," Lorena laughed, shifting her costume slightly. Her eyes betrayed that suddenly she was very aware that she was on television in little more than a swimsuit. "I mean, I would have never thought that people would be looking up to m-"

A blast of energy struck the TV and it exploded in a stream of sparks. A dark figure stood from his chair, turned and walked towards a control panel. His technology was growing older, but compared to the tech of this century, he was still the most advanced person on Earth. He smiled, twirled his finger in his goatee and began inputting a command into the console.

"Abra kadabra," he said with a smile.

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In the Tower's gymnasium, Donna Troy sat down, watching the Titans file in, one by one. She sipped from a cup of orange juice taking stock of each member of the team. Beast Boy was still bleary eyed from his party the previous night and kept glancing at Raven. The couple was on-again, off-again, and Donna wasn't sure which it was at the moment. Raven had experienced a difficult year anyways, adjusting to changes in the world of magic and her own powers.

Aquagirl bounced up and down on her toes anxiously. Lorena was by far the most eager of the Titans, quickly trying to prove herself to the others. It was understandable. Donna would have done the same in her position. Jaime walked in, still wiping sleep from his eyes. Blue Beetle had the least experience of all the members of the team, but he'd been forced to grow up faster than any of the others, especially when his secret identity had been outed at his own high school graduation months previous. Difficult task for the young man.

Speedy leaned against the far wall, watching her teammates also. As Donna looked at her, she realized that Mia was doing the exact same thing she was. She was better than she thought, but obviously things outside her control weighed heavily on her.

Donna glanced at her watch. Vic would be coming along shortly, and then the duo would begin the morning's training session. She took another swallow of orange juice, then stood. Vic walked into the room at the same time. Troia smiled at Cyborg and her fellow trainer nodded in her direction.

"This everyone?" Vic asked, looking around the room. He counted heads. "Missing one."

"Nope," said a voice from behind him. "I'm just getting here." Vic turned and smiled at the latest arrival in the room.

Conner Kent adjusted the top of his costume and smoothed a wrinkle in the S-shield on his chest. He'd traded his jeans for blue Kevlar pants and boots at Arsenal's prompting shortly after he'd rejoined the Titans, keeping his top the same. His hair was still cut short, and his sideburns extended just below his ear.

"Superboy," Cyborg said, extending his hand. "Good of you to show up."

"You know I wouldn't miss th-" As Superboy took Vic's hand, each of the Titans were suddenly enveloped in a blue light, leaving Cyborg and Troia alone in the gym. The two heroes looked at each other for a moment.

"You didn't plan that, did you?" Vic asked. Donna shook her head.

"I assume you didn't either," she said. Cyborg nodded and both of them broke into run and left the gym, headed for the Tower's war room.

Donna only hoped they'd be able to track whatever took their team.

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Beast Boy cautiously examined the room they stood in. Mia had already drawn an arrow from her quiver, and he could also hear Beetle's armor humming with electricity. The room was a dark red and otherwise featureless. Gar frowned.

"So..." Superboy said. "Where the hell are we?"

"I don't think we're going to like the answer," Beast Boy replied.

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In Teen Titans #2 : The Titans face a maze full of deathtraps as Cyborg and Troia attempt to rescue them! Who's responsible? Well, you'll see...