AN: Greetings from the Dark Continent!

Fox and Beast Boy cringed as another red blast winged over their cover. Beast Boy sighed. "It's days like this I wish we could have one normal movie night," he muttered. Fox laughed as he peeked over the edge of the counter, and fired both Desert Eagles, ducking down again as red laser beams returned fire.

"Normal? Where's the fun on that?" he chuckled, pulling a grenade from his duster and yanking the pin with his teeth. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he shouted, tossing it over the counter almost carelessly. A blast of red beams punctured the canister before it had sailed more than a few feet, releasing the smokescreen within. Beast Boy and Fox made their moves at that second, scrambling in opposite directions.

The two had volunteered to go get the movies for tonight's movie night. Beast Boy because he always volunteered, while Fox had been volun-told, so Robin and Cyborg could be sure that the changeling didn't just pick up a bunch of slapstick comedies or an armful of cheesy horror flicks. Again. None of the other Titans had bothered to go for various reasons.

Raven had been immersed in a new book, one on animal psychology. She had finally had enough of Inari's strange behavior and was determined to find out why he was acting the way he was. Fox had just smiled a smug smile at the attempt to understand his partner.

He had long ago concluded that the fox was as crazy as he was, which was how they understood each other so well.

Robin had been hard at work compiling the rather slipshod files of Fox's former bounties that the meta-hunter had provided him with upon requesting them, so that they would at least have some clue as to what kind of baggage the two new Titans were bringing with them.

Starfire had been gleefully trying out a recipe she had found in the cookbook Jim had given her a few days earlier, and the other Titans were actually kind of looking forward to it. Starfire was following the instructions exactly in each recipe she found, because this particular book contained examples of what could happen if a dish was prepared wrong. Some of the descriptions were pretty graphic for a cookbook, but the fact that they were in handwritten ink in the margins said more for Fox's creativity than for the dangers of not following the recipe. Starfire however, had fallen for the ruse, and was even now concentrating on how much soy sauce she added to the mix.

Cyborg had been last seen working on his car, installing a new nitrous system that cut down on NOX consumption while maintaining the same speeds as the previous system. Inari had been in the garage with him, lying down to the side and watching the big man work with something close to fascination.

"You know for some psychotic biker who doesn't look like he could fix his own bike, much less build a giant robot dragon with laser eyebeams… you've got some pretty nice toys Rancid," Fox complemented, looking upwards. From atop his newest "pet's" head, a giant black European-style robo-dragon, Johnny Rancid cackled.

"Flattery will get you flattened," the biker sneered. "Drake… squish 'em." The beast lifted its leg to obey, but a huge set of green jaws clamped around the appendage. Beast Boy had used the distraction provided by the bounty hunter to slip close to the robot, before assuming the form of a gigantic, prehistoric crocodile. Seven inch teeth crunched down into the armor plating on the leg, compacting the metal into useless scrap. Beast Boy tossed his head, twisting it as he did so, and the leg snapped off, leaving a sparking stump that was leaking hydraulic fluid and oil. "HEY!" Johnny snapped, bringing out his laser pistol. "Chew on this you oversized pair of boots," he growled, taking aim.

Then his gun crumpled into a useless mass around his hand, courtesy of a familiar black aura. He swore under his breath as a familiar battle cry sounded.

"TITANS, GO!"

Starfire let loose a war cry as she blasted downwards, only to be met by red beams from the dragon's eyes. "STARFIRE!" Robin shouted as one of the beams clipped the princess. Star's flight path wavered for a moment, before she regained control. Robin let out a sigh of relief, right before Fox tackled him out of the way of a laser blast aimed at the teen. Apparently Johnny had more than one pistol this time.

"Keep your head in the game lover-boy," Fox snapped. 'Time for a little persuasive negotiation,' he thought, bringing his Eagles to bear, and letting them make three very eloquent arguments for Rancid's immediate surrender.

Blam Blam Blam

Rancid threw himself forward, barely managing to stay on the top of his creation's head as the bullets whizzed past. He would later swear that one of them had even parted his greasy hair.

Back on the ground, Fox took careful aim this time, squinting as he brought Rancid back into the center of his sights, before a green arm knocked into his own, breaking his concentration and ruining his shot. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" Fox demanded of Beast Boy.

The changeling was stone-faced as he pointed to the side. Fox followed the green teen's finger with his eyes, and then swore under his breath. A group of little kids were huddled behind a piece of wreckage, peering wide-eyed at the battle. Fox swung around and gave the battlefield a quick survey. Robin, Raven and Starfire were all running interference, though Raven seemed to be distracted by the mech for some reason. Cyborg was hanging back, looking for a clear shot, while Inari played distraction, his relatively weak laser blasts only serving to keep Johnny's head down, while seeming to enrage the dragon-mech. Fox whipped out his comm.

"Robin, we got civvies over here, six kids. Get em the hell outta the line of fire, me and the kid'll cover you." Beast Boy scowled at the nickname, but was quickly silenced as one of the kids gave a scared cry. A huge chunk of debris had been dislodged by the dragon's tail as it flailed about, and it was falling towards the kids.

"NO!" Fox screamed, running towards the children. As he got nearer he saw a black aura forming around the boulder, but it wasn't slowing it down fast enough, it would still come down on top of the kids. "God, if you let those kids die, I swear I'm gonna storm the fucking Pearly Gates and personally kick your ass!" Fox swore under his breath. He didn't notice what looked like a heat shimmer form in the center of the group, before a teen in a black bodysuit, decorated with red slash-like X's and a skull mask dropped to the ground. Fox blinked, but kept running.

Apparently, God was in the mood to humor his threats today.

"Grab my arms, NOW" the teen instructed in an electronically masked voice. The kids didn't even think to wonder, grabbing onto this stranger's arms. He reached down and punched the buckle of his belt. The entire group seemed to shimmer in and out of reality for a moment before vanishing completely in front of Fox's disbelieving eyes, right before the boulder slipped from Raven's telekinetic grasp, her concentration broken when the dragon tried to swat her out of the air. Only a timely grab by Starfire kept the young witch from being flattened.

The group appeared a few yards away, near Robin, clustered around the black-clad teen, who quickly shook them off and pressed his belt buckle again, vanishing. "X!" Robin bellowed, but Cyborg hollered at him from where he was trying to get to Rancid.

"Forget him for now Robin, get those kids out of here!" Robing nodded and began to herd the frightened youngsters to safety. Fox made a mental note to check up on the files on Red-X, apparently he had missed the part where the thief had stolen the belt again.

Fox reached into his duster, fishing for a micro-second before pulling out what looked like a metal spike with a small antenna on one end. He tossed the thing in the air, flipping it once, catching it and holding it like a dart. Depressing a small button caused the thing to extend slightly, circuitry showing up through the crevices as it began to give off a low, almost sub-sonic hum. "Chew on this gear-head," he muttered, throwing it dart-style. The spike thudded into the metal beast's chest, punching into the metal easily thanks to the sub-sonic vibrations it was giving off. The circuitry began to pulse with yellow light, as Fox removed a small stick-detonator from his duster.

"And another one bites the dust," he grinned, punching the button.

The results were strangely anti-climactic.

The dart lit up for a moment, before a pulse of yellow energy blasted through the heart of the machine. The dragon froze in mid-thrash, a spark or two jumping from behind its eye lenses, before a whisp of smoke drifted from its open maw.

"I hope your money-back guarantee includes Electromagnetic pulses Rancid!" Fox yelled. Rancid's reply was something not heard in polite company, or even impolite company for that matter. At that moment X dropped out of thin air, perching on the shoulder of the defeated mecha for a moment, before glaring in Fox's direction. "Take a picture, it'll last longer," Fox snorted, crossing his arms, while at the same time moving his duster subtly to the side to expose the butts of his Magnums.

Red X said nothing for a moment, before flickering out of sight once more. Fox spun as the hair on the back of his neck prickled, his eyes seeming to glow behind his sunglasses. "Whadda ya want skullface?" he snarled.

He managed to dodge the X shaped restrictive band the first time, but the other teen was slightly faster than he was, and managed to wrap him up tighter than a present under a Christmas tree with a second salvo. "Do you have any idea what you just did?" the electronically masked voice snarled, grabbing Fox by the collar and hauling him up so the two were face to face. Fox smirked.

"Stopped the bad guy, destroyed said bad guy's weapon, and managed to look good doing it?" X threw him back to the ground.

"I was hired to acquire a chip that was part of the mech's makeup! Thanks to you it's a worthless scrap of silicon now!" Fox smirked even as he spit blood from when he had bit his tongue as X had thrown him.

"Well; ain't that a cryin' shame."

Heads snapped around so fast that Fox was sure there would be some severe whiplash effects later at the new voice.

Sitting on top of the dragon mechs head was a rather strange individual, who looked as if he had been pulled from a rather successful trio of video games.

"DUDE, IT'S SLY COOPER!" Beast Boy shouted, pointing dramatically.

Indeed, the newcomer looked quite a bit like the slick thief, being covered with short, dark gray fur that seemed to shift a little under the light. He lacked the large ring-tail that the character had, but his face was adorned by the bandit's mask of black fur that all raccoons had. His ears were elfin, like Beast Boy's and his hair was a grayish color. He was clad in simple gray garments, which appeared to be some sort of modified sweat and hoodie combo, and there looked to be something heavy, and somewhat large stashed away in the pocket on the front of the hoodie. The sweat bottoms were a bit odd, as the cuffs were lined with elastic as usual, but the waist was held up by a belt.

Said belt had various small pouches hanging from it, giving it the look of a utility belt. In the back, tucked nearly out of sight, were two metal handles to some sort of weapons, but what ever was attached to the handles was hidden by the cloth of the pants, as they had been stuck down the waistband of said clothing. The teen chuckled as nimble, clawed fingers deftly worked without him looking down at all.

"Sorry pal, but I'm not exactly Sly Cooper. Just call me…Coon." The Titans, frozen by shock (or by X's restraining device), could only watch as Red X stood ramrod straight, indignation pouring from every pore.

"You back-stabbing son of a BITCH!" Coon shook a scolding finger at the thief in mock surprise.

"Now now, just 'cause I got your little belt back for you doesn't mean a thing X, it's my job to retrieve things, and the labs that created this chip are giving me quite a bundle to have it returned, no matter the condition." As he spoke there was a slight 'sproing' sound, and Coon lifted a slightly blackened microchip from the interior of the dragon mech's head. He tucked the chip away in a pouch on his belt, before sliding the small instrument that he had used to retrieve it into another. He stood, dusted his knees off, and gave the Titans and two villains a cheery wave and a cheeky wink.

"Well, asta luego mi amigos," he grinned, before jumping off the head of the dragon into its shadow, where he seemed to merely melt away. Red X, with a very colorful curse, punched his belt buckle and vanished as well.

Beast Boy looked over at Robin, the tips of his ears twitching from curiosity. "Dude, what was that all about?" Robin merely looked grave as he held his chin in his hand.

"I don't know Beast Boy, but I intend to find out."

There was a moment of silence, and then…

"I hate to interrupt your cool pondering pose and all, but do you think you could maybe, possibly…GET ME THE FUCK OUTTA THIS THING!"

---

Later at the Tower

---

Fox was leaning back in a busted old armchair he'd salvaged from only God knew where, arms crossed and a decidedly put-out look on his face. Inari sat beside him, and both were watching their leader pace the floor with something very close to sadistic amusement. Robin had been trying to figure out where this "Coon" character had come from for the past three hours. He'd checked all his contacts and databases, and so far nothing had turned up anything on a thief calling himself by the name of Coon, or matching the description of the teen they'd encountered earlier. It was Slade all over again, and Robin was on the verge of tearing his hair out! So he'd called a team meeting to try and figure something out.

So far it wasn't going so well.

Starfire watched Robin pace with sad eyes, twitching as if she wanted to go over and calm him somehow every time he ran his hands through his now thoroughly mussed hair. Beside her Beast Boy was absently thumbing through a comic book he had pulled out of the couch cushions, chuckling quietly every so often at Archie or Jughead's antics. On the other side of Starfire, Cyborg was now playing a game of solitaire on the monitor in his arm, while Raven hovered in a corner, meditating silently.

Fox, more out of boredom than anything else, finally decided to get the ball rolling. "So…I take it you found squat huh?" Robin glared at the older teen, then sighed and nodded his head yes. "Who exactly did you ask anyway?" Fox continued, sounding slightly curious.

Robin began to tick names of organizations off on his fingers. "I contacted Gotham PD, Jump City PD, Steel City PD, Metropolis PD, and even the League. None of them had heard of this "Coon" character. Then I turned to some…other…sources, but no one could give me information on that front either! It's like this guy didn't even exist until today!" A smirk flashed across Jim's face, there and gone before anyone noticed it. He got up, and sauntered over to one of the computers they had in the main room.

"Tell me something Rob, you ever seen "The Saint"?" he asked, logging on. Robin shook his head as he and the rest of the Titans gathered behind him. Raven cracked an eye open and glanced at them, before sighing and dropping gracefully from her position in mid-air, silently padding over to the group.

Cyborg scratched his chin as a sudden thought struck him. "Waitta minute, wasn't "The Saint" about some super thief or something like that?" Fox chuckled.

"Bingo, Cy. You remember how his clients contacted him?" Cyborg thought for a minute, before snapping his fingers.

"Yeah! They used a chat room about orchids, and the job requests and replies were hidden in average looking posts. You had to know the code to use, so all his clients were by reference only." Jim smirked again as he brought up a comic and cartoon discussion forum/on-line RPG site called "SuperBuddies" and clicked on a forum titled "Capin's Bar and Grill". Once there he clicked on a thread called "SkeletonKey's booth". Digging through his duster with one hand, he pulled out a jump drive and plugged it into the computer, immediately opening up a small program on it. Without a word he copied the text from the latest message, a post by SkeletonKey himself, which looked to merely be an inane ramble by some little kid, and pasted it in the other program. He clicked a button on the window. The screen blinked, before words in the text began to disappear.

After a few moments the remaining jumble of words and letters were compiled together to form a short message: "Item retrieved, will deliver upon reception of other half of payment". Robin and the rest of the Titans stared at the message for a moment, before the masked teen's eyes narrowed. He glared at the smug looking teen in front of the keyboard.

"You knew." Fox shrugged modestly.

"Of course; I traveled in different circles than you and the Bat. You may have bullied and bribed your informants, but I knew the names of their kids; I could ask how their sick pets were; I was able to remind them about anniversaries they might have missed otherwise. You know the old saying bird boy, "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar,"." Robin clenched a fist, before growling under his breath and stalking away.

"You shouldn't bait him like that."

Jim turned towards Raven, an eyebrow raised. "Oh?"

"I don't see what he's done to you to earn this type of treatment."

Cyborg nodded. "Raven's right y'know, you really need to chill things between Rob and you." Jim snorted.

"I don't like his attitude."

"Dude, I know that Robin has a major stick up his butt, but he's pretty cool. Most of the time."

Any further conversation on the subject was dropped as Robin came back, looking calmer, if only slightly.

"Okay Fox, think you could bother with sharing some of this information on your own, or do I have to get a crowbar to pry it out of you like usual?" Jim grinned.

"Fine Robbie, you caught me in a good mood, so I'll humor you." He thought for a moment, idly tugging the scraggly hairs on the end of his chin. "Coon's the best there is, or as close to it as you'll find. Nothing stops him when he takes a job. He's very big on being subtle and stealthy and all that, but when all else fails he's not afraid to fall back on brute force. I've heard something about a partner, but none of his scenes indicate more than one man on the job. I've never heard of a lock he can't pick." He took out a butterfly knife as he spoke, and began to idly twirl the deadly blade around, the snicker of the steel giving his words an odd menace.

"He's not one to cross, and cornering him is only something done by the suicidal or stupid. He's got no official criminal record whatsoever, and his win/loss ratio is almost perfect. Compared to him Red X and Cat Woman are novice bunglers who couldn't tell a diamond from a piece of rock candy." With those words he snapped his knife shut and got up, making as if to leave.

Robin snorted. "It sounds like you admire this crook." Fox stopped on a dime, before turning around to look the former sidekick in the eye. "Of course I do, I have a great deal of respect for such a master of his trade. He does his jobs fast, clean, and without involving civilians whatsoever. I find all of those admirable traits in an opponent."

Raven's eyebrow raised at the description. "Opponent?" she repeated.

Jim shrugged, the harness for his guns creaking slightly as he did so. "Best way to describe him. We're not enemies, we just fight sometimes."

"Kinda like brothers," Beast Boy murmured. Jim froze for a second, before smiling, albeit slightly shakily.

"Yeah, I guess so kid." He ignored the changeling's indignant squawk as he left the room, the other Titan's questioning gazes following him.

---

Later

---

Fox strode into the main room dressed in civilian attire, a pair of battered jeans, a scruffy Iron Maiden tee, and a leather jacket. His eyes were both a uniform brown, and in no way did he resemble his usual self. Robin looked up from where he was going over the paper, Starfire having managed to keep him out of the evidence room with the help of some logic on Raven's part, and raised an eyebrow.

"What prompted the sudden change?" Jim gave a predatory smile.

"Gotta go talk to a few people champ, and I don't need a lot of attention while I'm at it." Robin set down the paper.

"You'll need backup, Beast Boy or I can go with you." The smile fell from Jim's face.

"I appreciate the whole "looking out for ya" thing, but I've got all the backup I'm gonna need." He moved his coat to the side, showing that he was still wearing his harness and holsters under his jacket, before reaching back into his sleeve with one hand and producing his knife. Robin sighed; Fox was going to take a lot more getting used to.

"Fine. You've got your communictor and tracking beacon though, right?" Fox nodded, fishing the comm out of his pocket, along with what looked like a folded pocket knife. Robin nodded in satisfaction.

"Alright, just don't do anything stupid." Fox glared at the boy.

"Yes mother." With that the bounty hunter stomped out, muttering something about stupid uptight eyesores under his breath. Robin shook his head again.

"I'm gonna have to deal with him, one way or another," he decided to himself. Unknown to either boy, Inari slipped out of the tower too, padding over to a rock outcropping that over shadowed a small cave.

The fox gave a low bark, which was answered by a short series of chittering noises from within the cave. The fox nodded for a few moments, before heading back to the tower. Behind him, a huge spider crawled out of the alcove, and down into a crack. There was a flash of light from the small crack, and then nothing remained to disturb the night air.

---

A seedy looking bar

---

Fox strolled into the bar casually, a solid strut and subtle set of his shoulders showing that he expected no trouble that he couldn't handle from the patrons. He moseyed through as if he owned the place, until a rough hand brought him up short.

"Jus' who you think you are comin' in ere like that?" A large man slurred slightly. Fox calmly looked at the huge ham-hand on his shoulder, then up at the owner, whose build made Cyborg look like a twig. He calmly lifted one arm, and batted the hand away.

"Someone you don't want to mess with," He said coolly. As Fox continued on his way, the man grabbed a half-empty bottle from his table, and swung for the teen's head. He froze halfway though, as the short, rat-faced bartender suddenly pulled out a fistful of daggers from his apron, and pressed them to either side of the brute's neck.

"Bruno, what have I told you about making trouble in my place?" the man asked in a lightly scolding tone, as if he were talking to a disobedient child. Bruno started to shake, as tears leaked from his eyes. He seemed stone cold sober now.

"I-I'm sorry Silk, just please, don't kill me-e-e!" The man broke down bawling. The barkeep, Silk, rolled his eyes at the dramatics.

"Bruno, you're one of my best normal customers, do you think for one second I'd kill someone that lucrative? Just try and find a better outlet for all that anger, alright? Go beat up some of those druggie punks hanging out in the alley, take up painting; something constructive."

With that the short man whisked his daggers out of sight, and took the cloth he had been using to polish a glass back up, blue eyes going back to scanning the room with quick glances that took in everything. Bruno turned and tottered out the door on quaking legs.

During the entire event not a single patron had looked up from their drinks in surprise or shock, though one had glanced up, sighed loudly, and then looked back down at the racing form in his hands.

Silk turned back to the bar to find Fox seated in Bruno's former spot. One blond brow raised. "Aint'chu a little young to be hittin the sauce?" Fox gave him a look, and the older man broke down laughing.

"Alright, alright, I'll knock off the bad barkeep routine. Now," he added, settling his elbows on the bar in a businessman-like manner, "What can I do for my favorite nephew?"

---

To Be Continued…

Yes I know, I've been gone a long time and yet I still leave you guys hanging, but I'm going someplace with this. Not sure where yet, but I'll let you know when I get there.