A/N: I'm taking a sabbatical from my other ongoing work to write this, b/c it was just screaming at me to get out of my head (it's a scary place, you'd want out too).

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans…be kind, rewind.

Heroes

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

The sun rose over the Jump City suburb, slicing through the crisp, cold air, cracking the thin iced that covered ground. The small playground next to the rundown apartment building was equally dilapidated, and held no signs of any child's use for quite some time.

The man in apartment 1A was just finishing getting dressed, he pulled on a large overcoat and then pulled a hat far down on his head to shield him from the unusually cold weather. He grabbed his bag and left his apartment only about 20 minuets after sunrise.

He walked down the first floor hallway, avoiding major holes in the floor, scattering rats, and crushing more than a few cockroaches. Stepping over a drunk, passed out into the entranceway, he went to open the front door, without having to turn the handle, and with no lock to speak of, it was pushed open easily.

He pulled a set of keys out of a pocket concealed within his bulky frame and moved quickly towards a nondescript, white-paneled van. He opened the door and climbed in, setting his backpack in the passenger seat. He tuned the key in the ignition and the engine rolled over, he turned it again with the starter going, trying to kick the van into starting, finally on the third try it revved to life. He turned the van's heat on the highest setting and started to drive north. He drove on side streets for a few miles before finding an entrance ramp onto the highway into the city.

He got on the freeway going north and passed under a sign telling him that the Jump City downtown exit was only 23 miles away. The man kept looking at his watch, then at the digital clock on the van's dashboard, then at the road signs as the passed; then back at his watch again. A billboard proclaimed "Fletcher for America".

As he passed over a large highway bridge, a crisscross of half a dozen overpasses and underpasses underneath, all headed in one direction or another he checked his watch again. He switched on his turn signal and got over into the right most lane of the highway. His hands were in a near death grip of the steering wheel. His knuckles were turning white.

He lowered the passenger-side window, the wind breaking the silence of the van with a deafening rush at 75 miles per hour. With his right hand reaching out, he fiddled momentarily with the contents of the green canvass backpack before resealing it and summarily tossing it out of the passenger-side window. He watched in the rearview mirrors as the bag tumbled against the barrier to the near 100 foot drop from the highest overpass, and came to a rest on the shoulder of the road amidst tire debris, broken glass and cigarette butts.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief and went back to concentrating intently on his watch and on his driving.

When the downtown exit came up he took it and after a few minuets was in the near gridlock of rush-hour traffic. Franticly he checked his watch, and then the clock on the dash. He seemed only slightly relieved and continued only a few more blocks before he spotted where he need to be in a few short minuets.

He wasn't curious why he was lucky enough to find a parking space in downtown, in the midst of rush-hour. He knew that God was smiling on him today, of all days. He did not put any coins in the parking meter after he got out. The hat was becoming to hot for him and he pulled it off. He dropped it on the lap of a sleeping homeless man, waking him up. The homeless man looked around quickly, spotted the man and called out

"Thanks friend!"

The man ignored him as he walked towards his goal. He opened the door to the large coffee shop franchise. It was teaming with people, dozens upon dozens of workers getting their early morning coffee fix before they started the daily grind at the office.

The man took a few more steps inside. No one noticed him.

Sweat was pouring down his face, despite the freezing temperatures outside. He brought a small, pocket-sized book, out and held it in his right hand. He lowered his head for a moment, as if in prayer. He raised his right hand with the book above his head. His left was at his side, into his hand slipped a small black box with a button on the top.

He brought his left hand up and looked at his watch. A few people had taken notice of him. But still the vast majority of the patrons where unaware of his presence. He looked up, he tired to speak but his voice faltered. Again he tried to speak, and this time was successful. He announced to the coffee shop

"Behold the wrath of Almighty God!"

A man in a business suit put his coins in the machine and took out a newspaper—the Jump City Times—when his cell phone rang. He took it from his coat pocket, shifting his paper to the hand holding his briefcase.

"Hello?" He started walking; he looked at the headline 'Sheppard 20 points ahead less than 2 weeks out', "Oh, high sweetie. Are you ready to go back to school, Emily? After your nice little break from all the ice yesterday, I envy you honey" he dropped his paper and bent down to pick it up "Ok, I gotta go, daddy's gotta work… I love you too. Bye."

A massive explosion ripped through the wall he was walking next to. The windows were vaporized by jets of fire and a shockwave that shattered glass a block away. A cloud of fire engulfed the surrounding area.

Milliseconds after the man, detonated, himself the explosive-packed bag he had thrown onto the bridge went off. Dozens of cars were incinerated destroying a large northbound section.

Moments later the fatally wounded support columns buckled and collapsed, causing a chain reaction which took nearly 400 feet of the 1000-foot span with it.

A number of other explosions rocked the city; all in quick succession. Alarms went off in every police and fire station, on the county and state level, and within minuets of the first explosion, every level of the federal government had been notified all the way up to the President himself.

---

"Mr. President, teams on the ground in Jump City have just now confirmed two more blasts. That brings the total count up to—"

"Nine."

"Yes sir. The Governor of California has already called up her state's national guard."

The President turned to his group of advisors.

"Secretary Donaldson, is there any link between these madmen and a foreign government?"

"President Sheppard, as of right now, we don't know if we are under attack from a foreign power or not."

"Jeff, divert the 6th fleet to the Persian Gulf, I want air-strike targets in 30 minuets, if some country was involved we're going to bomb them back to the stone age, and if there were training camps in their nation, we'll hold them responsible. Gentlemen, we are at war."

---

"Starfire, take the Southside. Cyborg, Beast Boy, take the Westside. I'm taking the Northwest; Raven you're with me." All the team solemnly nodded their heads in comprehension. "Titans go!"

They all sped from the tower as fast as their powers would allow them. Starfire flying, Cyborg driving, Cheetah-Beast Boy sprinting, Raven and Robin teleporting.

The scene that Robin and Raven arrived at was beyond the worst thing they had imagined, worse than anything Robin had ever seen.

Robin only let the shock and horror of the scene grip them for a moment. Smoke and dust was still hanging low to the ground, with the fires everywhere only feeding it. Robin stepped over a leg, its owner nowhere to be seen, cringing as he did.

Walking through some of the debris, and sidestepping still more. Raven followed close behind, using her black energy to smother the smaller fires along their path as they went.

The reached ground zero of the explosion, the entire front entrance and side wall of what used to be a coffee shop we gone, pieces of them scattered all around the two of them and into the streets. They went inside the charred hulk of a building.

There was only one spattering of color throughout what was left of the place, only a few small, soft, colored things hung around the remains of the building, dangling off of tattered bricks and bits of steel and glass.

"Robin, is that what I think it is?" Raven was looking intently at a small lump of what used to be a person.

Robin didn't turn to face her. He was absorbed in the carnage before him, but he did answer.

"Yeah..."

Raven seemed tobecome a little bit more pale a this, she shook her head to bring herself back to normal.

"Oh my god." Raven stood back up to her full height, grimacing at scene before her. She turned away.

"We have to look for survivors." Robin said, pushing his emotions back down"I'll search in here. You check the streets and adjacent buildings, ok?"Raven shook her head yes.

Raven glided off into the debris-laden air, it was only a few minuets after the blast and it had not yet had time to clear. She heard a moan a landed quickly and pinpointed the person. She was at his side in a moment.

"Sir, sir are you alright?"

The man was lying on his back, she could see blood running through his business suit from his right side, and a large gash on his forehead was dumping blood into his eyes.

"I—I have to, to get my, my coffee" he mumbled out while trying to life his head.

"Sir, you can't get your coffee, it's not there anymore. I have to apply pressure to this wound to stop the bleeding." Raven pressed her hands against the man's wound and began to heal it. Within seconds it was gone, with the blood already lost its only remaining evidence of existence.

"I need to, need…coffee. I…I can't see." His arms were grasping for something in the air that wasn't there, but they fell to the ground and his head lolled over to the side. A pool of blood had formed around his head, from a wound Raven never even saw.

Raven knew he was dead, she knew there was nothing else she could do for him. She quickly got to her feet and continued her search.

She heard the cry of a woman, screams for help. Raven quickly found the woman, not too much older than herself. The woman's legs were pinned beneath a large piece of concrete that had to weigh at least several tons.

"Help...me, hel—" The woman laid back, he voice dying down.

"Your going into shock, don't worry, I can take care of this." Raven encased the massive bolder with her telekinetic power, lifted it up off the woman, and set in gently down next to her.

She dropped to her knees and placed her one hand on each of the woman's legs, Raven noticed that they looked somewhat like raw hamburger; she began to heal the woman's legs and in only a few seconds they weren't fully healed, but enough to keep the woman out of shock and out of danger until the first responders arrived.

She got back up and continued searching for victims.

'Victims,' she thought 'innocent victims, all these people, they had nothing to do with this. They didn't deserve this…I'll get whoever did this, I'll make sure they pay."

Robin bent down, examining the crater in the middle of the floor. 'Obviously where the guy was standing.' He thought.

His communicator beeped, he took it out and flipped it open. Cyborg was on the other end.

"Robin, it's crazy down here! How could no one have noticed such big bombs sitting in the middle of these crowded areas?"

"Because they were carried in Cyborg, with the prefect camouflage."

"What do ya mean?"

"Suicide Bombers Cyborg. These men blew themselves up."

"Jesus man. Shit! I gotta go." Cyborg ended the transmission and Robin put his communicator away. He was just looking at the destruction, he knew there wouldn't be any survivors inside; he had just wanted Raven to get out of here.

He could hear sirens and after a minuet the fist responders appeared.

"I thought I might find you guys here. Where are the others?" The police captain asked.

"All over the city," Robin responded "there isn't anyone in here, but there are plenty of people who need help in the streets."

"You heard him boys! Get out there and find any survivors!" He yelled to all the paramedics and firemen who had come with him. He and Robin were now inside the burnt out husk of the building's first and second floor.

"Dear god" said the captain, covering his mouth "I'm hearing that it's like this all over the city. What a huge attack."

"No captain," Robin turned to him "this was just an opening salvo." Looking at the ruin around him, Robin sighed, this was just the beginning, it was already bad and it was only going to get worse. He knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep from now on.

The captain was talking on his radio; Robin walked past him and stepped over the blown-out window frame, the smoke was finally starting to clear up.

Raven flew out of the haze, landing next to him, her face solemn "Robin, this is… I- I don't know how to describe it."

"I know, Raven." He opened his mouth to say something else but he stopped when his communicator began to beep. He took it from his belt and flipped it open, revealing Starfire on the tiny screen.

"Friends, I require your assistance as quickly as possible. The building targeted by the bomber has become structurally unsound and there are still many people to be evacuated, I am going as fast as I can but there are simply too many for me alone. Please come, now." Starfire signed off as soon as she was done, to go back and save more victims.

"You heard her, Raven." Robin said, stowing his communicator away.

"She too far away for us to get there in time, I have to teleport us."

Robin tensed himself as Raven's energy enveloped him; he always disliked being transported, it always felt weird, but most of the time it was thankfully shrouded by the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

A moment late the black wall if around him disappeared and he was struck by the scene before him. He stood at the foot of Jump City's tallest building; the top three floors engulfed in flame, the roof obscured by the lapping fires and smoke, its shadow cast over him, his stare was fixed for a few seconds, before Raven shook him.

"Robin, come on!" She yelled back to him as she raced into the building.

Robin ran after her, bobbing and weaving through the steams of people in all sorts of states came out of the building.

'Only our job tells us to run into the places everyone else is running out of.' Robin thought as he bolted through one of the many open doors.

He stopped behind Raven in the middle of the lobby.

"Why does Starfire need our help? It's only the top few floors that are in danger."

"There's smoke coming down the stairwells," Robin pointed to one of the few with no people coming down it "the fire is too high for the smoke to be coming out that thick down here."

"There are other floors on fire." Robin was already running towards the stairs, Raven caught up with him in flight and picked him up.

"We don't have time for this" Raven outstretched her hand and a disk of black energy formed under Robin, lifting him off the floor to follow Raven as she, literally, flew up the stairs.

The stopped in front of the 8th floor sign on the wall; the smoke was seeping through the miniscule crack between the door and the frame. Robin touched the back of his gloved hand to the door but felt no radiant heat. He grasped the handle and pulled it open

A blast of hot air thick with choking, black smoke billowed through the opening. He knew there were intense fires burning on the floor but the smoke all but obscured them. Robin was about to slam the door shut, and turn for the stairs when a rumble shook the building. The stairs above them came crashing down in a heaping pile of concrete chunks and steal.

They both dived into the open door to avoid being crushed. Robin coughed and wheezed in the thick smoke, he looked back at the door to find it completely sealed by debris. Raven too, was suffering from the overpowering smoke.

Robin pulled a small respirator from his belt while Raven created a mask over her nose and mouth with her powers. They got up and both headed down the hallway. As they moved further into the floor the fire became glaringly apparent as it consumed the offices to their right and left.

After only a minuet Raven created a shield around them to protect them from the ever-increasing heat. They reached the stairwell on the opposite side of the floor and it was thankfully clear of collapse, however, the power was out, and only the emergency lights we working.

"Raven, we have to put out these fires before they bring down the entire building."

"I'll do what I can here, go up and guide more people out."

Raven reopened the door and shot out a wave of her powers to extinguish nearby flames, she walked back into the raging inferno to do what she could.

Robin ran up the stairs two steps at a time, but after only a minuet of running he came to a stop, the stairs here were blocked off in the same way as the others, he opened the door to that level only to find it crushed almost halfway.

Robin whirled on his heels and stated to race back down the stairs. He opened his communicator and pressed a button, a few seconds later Raven answered.

"Raven, these stairs are blocked off too, there have got to be some people trapped up their still but this place is coming apart, it could go at any minuet, I'm headed for the lobby. Get out of here."

"Ok, I'm leaving." Raven signed off. She put her communicator away but in the short time it distracted her, the fire had reclaimed much of its lost territory and she was now encircled.

Maintaining a shield around herself, she concentrated very hard, and summoned up as much power as she could muster and teleported outside the front doors of the building with over 300 people, most of them in huddled positions, some with rags held over their mouths, all fairly surprised.

Raven turned to them "Run! Get away from here now!" to emphasize her point she took off running in the opposite direction of the building, the crowd of people was not slow to follow.

She could see Starfire darting in and out of the top floors of the building, still searching for people. Cyborg and Beast Boy were with the police, helping to direct people away from the area and holding back transfixed onlookers.

"Where's Robin?" Raven called out to Cyborg.

"Haven't seen him" he yelled back "must still be inside!"

Robin sprinted down the stairs as quickly as he could, he watched the floor numbers go by: 17, 16, 15, 14, 12, 11, 10. Robin tripped over a chair that had been used to prop open a door that he'd missed because of the power failure. He tumbled head long down the stairs. He heard his bones crack with each successive impact, he finally came to a rest at the landing very disoriented, he moaned from the all the pain.

He was facing left, but he rolled his head over to see the cause of the particularly intense pain in his right hand; he saw a piece of wood lying face up, half a dozen nails sticking out of it, the palm of his hand impaled on the endmost one.

Robin got to his knees, he tightened his mussels, tensing up, he put his put his foot on one end of the board. He braced himself for the pain, he grabbed his wrist with his left hand and quickly pulled upward; Robin muffled a cry and got to his feat.

'Could this day get any worse?' As if on cue, the building shuddered violently and began to rumble loudly. 'Oh shit, it's collapsing'.

Forgetting the pain his is hands, his knees and everywhere else Robin began going down the steps like a bat out of hell, going landing to landing, gripping the hand railing as his guide to swing around the corners.

Robin rounded the last corner and leapt for the closed door, he extended his leg and kicked the door off its hinges. He slid onto the smooth marble floor and made a dash for the exit. Robin could see pieces of the building crashing to the ground ahead of him outside; he made for the clearest path and ran headlong through the pane of glass between it and him.

The Titans on the ground watched in horror as the building began to collapse in on itself. People were standing a few hundred yards away, watching in horror as the structure gave way and tumbled down.

"Robin and Star! They're still inside!" Beast Boy exclaimed. Only a moment after he said it a jet of green could be seen bursting from the collapsing building and heading towards them. For what seemed like an eternity, they watched, as the entire building fell to the ground and was obscured by a gargantuan cloud of dust and debris that flowed in all directions and over all of them, extending for blocks throughout the city.

Starfire landed a few seconds later, covered in soot, her closed ripped, her hair a little singed, a somber expression on her face.

"Where is Robin?" Starfire asked.

"Robin…" Cyborg said, staring into the haze.

"Did he not make it here in time?" Starfire continued, puzzled by the strange looks on her friends' faces.

"Starfire," Raven began "Robin was still inside, I think…I think he's—"

"I'm not dead yet." Robin emerged from the cloud into sight of the other Titans. "Though, I feel like it."

Starfire and Raven both ran up and embraced him, but quickly let go when he winced in pain.

"We thought you were toast, man." Cyborg said, visibly relieved that his friendwas alive and trying to lighten the mood a little.

Robin chuckled a little but it turned into a cough from all the smoke and particulates in the air, that they all were breathing into their lungs. "Raven, let's go back to the tower."

Raven nodded and a wall of black energy surrounded them all and they found themselves instantly back in their living room. Raven did a once-over with her powers on Robin, healing the minor fractures, and the scrapes and bruises and even his punctured hand, which had been spilling blood all over their carpet.

Robin quickly described what happened the last few minuets he was inside, and how he got out. Then he turned on the television and turned it to CNN out of habit more than anything, every network was covering it, probably even the cooking channel.

"For those of you just tuning in, a terrible tragedy has occurred today, multiple terror attacks in Jump City, and most recently, Fisher Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the city and victim of at least two of the terrorist bombers, collapsed, it has completely collapsed. It's just not there any more. God…" The anchorman took off his glasses and wiped his eyes quickly and regained his composure.

"We've just received word, the Mayor is giving a press conference, and we're cutting to that now."

The feed cut to a pressroom with a man standing at a podium a blue curtain with the city seal behind him

"Between roughly 8:04 and 8:14 this morning, there were approximately nine explosions across Jump City. So far, we believe that each one of the explosions was the result of a self-detonated bomb, leading us to the conclusion that there were at least nine separate bombers, all coordinated in an attack. Rescue efforts at all sites are underway and even as we speak, survivors are being pulled from the rubble. At this time, we have no reason to suspect any secondary attacks, so don't panic, but please, stay away from the locations as rescue personnel and first responders need to be able to work to save people and the buildings," his voice choked up, a lump caught in his throat "as we…as we now know, can be unstable. Please, for the time being, remain in your homes, and do not make any unnecessary trips. Thank you, that's all I have at this time." The mayor walked away from the podium and off camera. The feed cut back to CNN.

"Robin," Beast Boy asked him "what do we do now?" The other Titans turned to him, he was sitting at the far end of the couch, contemplating; CNN was muted but still playing soundlessly in the background, showing horrendous videos of this morning's events.

"We regroup, we wait." He said, then her turned towards them, the not even noonday sun behind him "This changes everything."

Ok, first chapter done, I truly hope you liked it, this one's shaping up to be my masterpiece (in my twisted little mind anyway) So please tell me what you think, honest opinions and criticisms, and any bits of ideas or advice you think might make it better, b/c you never know, someone's little idea might really help me when I'm writing this thing.