Time for Volume Five! I'm still not entirely certain how this part of the story is going to play out, so I'll just try coming up with stuff as I go. But I am sure that this Volume only introduces a new character, but she'll be narrating this volume too! This character is an original character that I originally made in Soul Calibur V's creation mode. I liked her design so much, I decided to incorporate her into my fanfic. Her name is Scarlette: a 15-year old girl who can create weapons... oh, and she can turn invisible. She also ends up having a thing for Robin (which will be a bit awkward for me to write. But hey, it just goes to show, I don't hate the guy that much!), but she also picks on him a lot and drives him crazy. This volume also features the appearance of another DC comic villain, who you'll see at the end of this chapter. So let's get started; with a little introduction first.

Introduction:

Link: Hello everyone. It's me, Link. The next part of my story with the Titans is about our chance encounter with a new friend, and this time she will be narrating the story.

Scarlette: Wait. What?! Nobody told me that!

Link: Actually Scarlette, I did.

Scarlette: Oh… right. My bad.

Link: As I was saying, our new friend will be narrating this part of the story, since it is mainly centered around her. Her name is Scarlette. Well, we think so anyway. She has amnesia so we don't know for sure.

Scarlette: Shouldn't I be telling them that?

Link: Yeah. But I was just letting the readers know what will be going on this time.

Scarlette: Okay. That's cool.

Link: Anyway, let's get this started. Scarlette?

Scarlette: Uhh… right! Okay. Hmm… where do I begin…?

Chapter One: Scarlette

(Scarlette's narration)

It was a cold night on the day that I arrived in Jump City. Who exactly decided to call a city 'Jump' is beyond me, but whatever. I was on top of the roof of a building, having just finished off a sandwich and a bottle of soda that I… umm… stole. As was said in the introduction earlier, my name is Scarlette. Or at least that's the name I was given by the leader of the gang I was in, emphasis on was. Once I found out what was really going on within the gang, I wasn't about to stick around. The gang leader gave me the name Scarlette cause that's what I was wearing at the time; a red bandana and a red tank top. In fact, I'm still wearing them to this day. The other reason for the name Scarlette, as hinted by the 'lette' part, was because I'm a girl. I was only ten years old when the gang leader found me wandering the streets of Bludhaven, and he took me in and gave me a home. At first I thought he was the nicest guy in the world, but I later found out that he was only interested in what I could do: I had the power to create weapons out of nothing. Well, sort of… they're actually more like constructs of energy that take the form and functions of weapons. I don't know how I got this power, I've had it since as long as I can remember, which isn't very much.

I forgot to mention; I have amnesia. I have no memory of the first ten years of my life. The only things I remember these days are waking up in a destroyed house, being found by the gang leader, and more recently, abandoning the gang and traveling on my own. I have traveled for nearly two years, and I was now fifteen years old. I kept myself alive by stealing food and anything else that I needed to survive from wherever I could. I wasn't proud of it, but what else could I do? I knew no one in society would accept me without either being afraid of my powers, or wanting to use me for them. I would soon find out that I was wrong about that, and that I would soon meet six people who I would forever call my friends. But for now, I laid down among some old newspapers I had gathered, placed my head upon an old pillow I found in a dumpster, and slowly fell asleep. Yeah, I know… my life sucked.

On the night of the next day, I had snuck into a grocery store after it had closed. I carefully made sure to avoid any cameras and any other possible security measures. My goal was to swipe something to eat, preferably some kind of meat; I was craving it for some reason. It was dark in the store, but I managed to make it to the meat section. I grabbed a big hunk of meat, without checking for what kind, and made my way back to the entrance. This had been too easy! Or at least that is what I thought, for when I approached the entrance I was confronted by six oddly dressed people. Most of them looked my age, but I'm sure their intentions weren't the same. There was a blonde boy with a sword in a green dress-like outfit; a red-haired orange girl with green eyes, wearing a purple tank-top and skirt; a dark-skinned man who looked like much of his body was made of metal; a weird-looking green-skinned boy; a girl in a black leotard and hooded blue robe, who looked like she didn't go out in the sun all too often; and in the front, the one that stood out the most in my opinion, a spiky-haired boy wearing a mask over his eyes, a cape and red and green outfit with a big yellow 'R' on the left side of his chest. It was almost like I was in front of a living traffic light and it was telling me to stop. It was going to take more than that to intimidate me though.

"Put down the ham. Unless you wanna be ham-boned!" The spiky-haired boy said while clenching his fists.

"Okay… what are you all supposed to be? And how did'ya all know I was here?" I questioned.

The guy with the sword pointed to the front door of the store and told me that I had left the door wide open. I slapped my forehead, feeling kinda stupid; I knew I had forgotten something! Still, I wasn't going to let them catch me that easily. As quickly as I could, I leapt onto the top of the shelf nearest to me and made a break for one of the windows. The red-haired girl and the robed girl chased after me, being able to fly apparently, and each fired attacks at me. The red-haired girl fired green energy bolts at me, but I was able to evade each one. The robed girl used some strange kind of power to manipulate objects and began to topple the shelves in an attempt to stop me, but I was fast enough that I was able to stay on course. When I was about ten feet from the window, a jolt of freezing energy in the shape of an arrow shot past me, spreading ice on the wall right next to the window. The guy with the sword had fired it from a high-tech looking bow. While I was distracted, the green-skinned guy, to my surprise, transformed into a hawk and flew towards me! That was my cue to get the heck out of there! I got to the window just in time and busted through into an alleyway. I scurried up a nearby building, ran across the top, and dropped down on the other side. I huddled against the wall in an attempt to hide, just barely being able to see most of those odd people zip past trying to find me. I sighed in relief, and now that I was out of danger I unwrapped the meat I had stolen, which happened to be turkey.

"Turkey?! Aww, I wanted roast beef!" I complained to myself.

I was a little upset, but beggars can't be choosers. I was about to take a bite, but I was interrupted by the spiky-haired boy from before.

"You're gonna have to try a lot harder to lose me." He said somewhat smugly.

My mouth was still prepared to bite into the turkey I stole when he had caught me. All of that running had made me really hungry; my stomach almost felt like it was going to eat itself. I honestly wished that I could just warp away from here and eat in peace, but I knew very well that we can't always have what we want. I was willing to give it a shot though.

"Uhh… can't this wait?" I asked him.

I didn't even have to think twice about that. I could see in the look on his face that he was going to deal with me now. So I put my turkey down and prepped myself. It had been awhile since I had fought anyone, and to be honest, I actually liked to fight; I would always get a rush from a tough fight, which always made me feel stronger for some reason. The spiky-haired boy raised up his hand and gestured for me to come at him, but I wasn't gonna fall for it.

"Oh, no. You make the first move." I told him.

"What?" He asked me looking slightly confused.

"I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to get me to charge towards you and attack, so you can evade my attack, and counterattack, which will put you at an advantage. Sorry Spikey, but I'm not falling for it!" I informed him.

"Who are you calling Spikey?!" He shouted at me.

I guess that made him mad. Well, it was true; his hair was almost spiky enough that it defied gravity. Anyway, it got him angry enough that he charged at me ready to throw a punch. I anticipated such a move though, and quickly leaned to the side to dodge it. He tried a few more punches and then a kick. I dodged the punches, and when he threw out the kick, I sidestepped, grabbed his leg, and tossed him at least ten feet behind me. He immediately got back up though. Good; Even though I was hungry, I didn't want this to be too easy. He charged at me again, but this time instead of attacking, he feinted and managed to score a few hits on me. He had hit my face and my stomach (which hurt a bit more than usual on the account that I was starving) so I decided to return the favor. He blocked most of my hits, but I managed to land several punches in his face and one hard kick to his gut. Both of us reeled back from the rush of the fight. I wasn't really worried though; the more intense the fight, the more energetic I become!

"You know, you fight pretty well… for a thief." He told me while still trying to catch his breath.

"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself." I responded. "Your hair's still silly-looking though."

He didn't respond to that comment; the compliment or the insult. It looked as if he was focused solely on the fight. Whoever this guy was, he had focus. I liked that, but it also seemed like he seriously needed to take a chill pill. Just then, he pulled something out of one of the pouches on his yellow belt.

"It doesn't change the fact that you're a thief, and you're not going to get away!" He warned me.

What he had pulled out was a collapsable bo staff. He whirled it around in his hands for a moment before he held it braced in his hands, ready to fight with it. He was going to use a bo staff again an unarmed opponent?! Did this guy have any honor at all?!

"Hey! That's not fair! I don't have any weapons!" I shouted at him.

Well, actually… I did. I just hadn't 'brought them out' yet. I had forgotten about my power to create weapons. The truth is, I forget things sometimes; rather often actually. Usually not anything important, and it doesn't really take me that long for it to come to me, but it still bugged me a lot.

"Oh… wait. Duh! Yeah I do!" I said while I hit my head in embarrassment. "One second…"

I held both of my arms up in front of me and concentrated. A strange energy flowed out from somewhere within me and into my arms, causing glowing red markings to appear. The energy flow coalesced into my hands, and formed into a pair of kunai; which are daggers used by ninjas for those who don't know. I had never gone up against someone with a bo staff before, and I wasn't sure which kind of weapon would be effective against it, so I just went with something simple. With my weapons now in hand, I braced myself in the same manner as my opponent.

"Okay, I'm ready! Bring it on, Spikey!" I said.

The spiky-haired guy now looked kinda dumbfounded. What? Had he never seen a pair of kunai before?

"What the-! Where did you get those?!" He questioned as he pointed to my hands.

"What? The gloves?" I answered. "I really don't remember. They're pretty cool though, right?"

Once again, my ignorance had struck. I should've known that he wasn't talking my fingerless gloves, but about my kunai that had suddenly appeared from nowhere. I guess the combination of my forgetfulness and the fact that I was having fun made me overlook the fact.

"Not your gloves, you airhead! I meant your weapons!" He shouted at me, a bit rudely I might add.

"Sheesh! Chill out, grouchy! I have the ability to make weapons out of nothing… or something like that." I told him.

I didn't really see the harm in telling him about that. The fact that he already seemed to have a belt filled with various tools and weapons didn't really make me think he'd be all that interested in my powers. No, what he seemed more interested in right now was getting this fight going again. Since he seemed to be so impatient, I decided that we should get this over with; and once this fight was done, I could get out of here and eat my food in peace.

Once again, he made the first move. He tried to whack me with his bo staff, but I managed to block each attempt by using both of my kunai as a shield. I attempted to counterattack by slashing at his staff. The idea was that if I could knock that staff out of his hands, then maybe I could knock him out with a kick or something and then escape. I most certainly did not want to slash him in any vital areas; I may be a thief, but I'm not a killer. That fact made me wonder if I should've used something less sharp to fight this guy. I was right to worry, for one of my attacks slashed him straight across the chest! He stumbled backwards in pain, and I could see that I ripped the front part of his shirt.

"Oh no! I didn't mean to…!" I began to say.

I immediately disposed of my kunai, which simply dissolved into nothing, and turned around to think of what I should do. Should I try to help? But what if I just made things worse? Should I just run away? But what if no one else would find him and help him in time? Besides, that would leave me with a guilty conscience. What was I going to do?! I didn't have to worry for too long though, for while I was distracted by my thoughts, the spiky-haired boy had snuck up behind me and grasped in a body-lock.

"Got'cha! Rule number one during a fight: never let your guard down!" He scolded. "Now that this is over, it'd be best if you'd just come quietly."

He had caught me?! Wow. After being on the lamb for two years, someone had finally caught me. Or had they? I didn't have a whole lot of options in this position, so I decided to try something and see if he'd fall for it.

"You've got me, huh? You sure about that?" I asked him smugly.

After I said that, much to the boy's surprise, I disappeared! He had no idea what was going on, and let go of me in a hasty attempt to find where I went. While he was looking all around, wondering where I had gone, I giggled softly as I climbed up a nearby fire escape. I guess I forget to mention that I also have the ability to turn invisible. I don't know if it is linked to my weapon creating powers, but it was useful nonetheless. Once up on the fire escape, I turned visible again and got his attention.

"Ha! I can't believe you fell for that!" I taunted. "I wasn't intangible, just invisible! You let go too soon!"

Even though I was now about thirty feet away from him, I could tell that he was pissed off. It was kinda embarrassing if you think about it; I was still caught in his arms when I went invisible, and you'd think that he'd still be able to feel me there. I guess he was just so surprised by it that he wasn't thinking too much. Heh, I know what that's like. Anyway, I told him that this had been fun, but that I had to get going now and eat my dinner.

"Better luck next time, Spikey!" I gloated.

I turned around to dart off into the city, but I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, and slammed my head straight into the side of a ladder! The collision caused me to go all dizzy, and I blurted out things that didn't really make sense (something involving the turkey I had stolen, I think). I went unconscious and fell down onto the floor of the fire escape. In my last few seconds of consciousness, I was worried about what was going to happen to me, but I would soon find out that I had nothing to worry about. Well… sort of.

When I woke up, I was still a little dizzy. I tried to prop myself up with my hands, but I quickly found out that I couldn't move them! Someone had put me in a straight-jacket! I was in a small room with only a single chair that I was sitting on. In front of me was a window, and on the other side of the window were the six people that I had encountered earlier. The idea of me in a straight-jacket made me nervous, and I started to panic.

"Where am I?! Where am I?!" I asked in panic. "Oh no! I'm not in the big house am I! I'm too young to go to jail!"

The same spiky-haired guy that I was fighting before stepped closer to the window and told me to calm down. It wasn't exactly easy for me to calm down right now. After all, I was being held captive, bound by a straight-jacket, and worst of all… I was still hungry! But after a moment, I settled back down in the chair, though I was still breathing pretty heavily.

"Relax. You're not in jail. At least not yet." The spiky-haired guy informed me. "You're in Titans Tower. We brought you here after you, umm… knocked yourself out."

Titans Tower? It didn't take me that long to figure out that he was talking about that giant 'T' that I had seen in the distance before. So that thing was a tower! Before I had thought that it was some kind of construction project that would spell out something, but apparently it belonged to these guys, who called themselves the Teen Titans (ok…weird). I asked him what he meant when he said that I 'knocked myself out'. When he told me that I had hit my head on a metal latter while trying to escape, my face turned red in embarrassment. To think, I had been kicking this guy's butt before, and what ultimately ends up defeating me is a metal pole?! Man, sometimes I can be such an idiot!

"What we want to know is what you were doing before when you stole from that grocery store. What were you planning?" He asked me.

"Uhh… I was planning on eating something. Duh." I answered.

Spikey looked pissed off at the way I had answered him. I admit, sometimes I can be a little rude, but c'mon; I had been living as a thief on my own for two years! Cut me some slack! The big mechanical guy in the back mentioned that none of them had ever seen me in this city before today, which wasn't surprising for me, as I had only arrived here yesterday.

"I believe that we should do the 'hearing out' of her story." The red-haired girl said. "She may not be all that she seems to our eyes."

The blonde guy with the sword agreed with her, with the others nodding in agreement shortly after, with Spikey agreeing last. With the proposal settled, the blonde guy asked me what my name was.

"Uhh… my name is Scarlette." I told them.

Some of them had confused looks when I said that.

"Scarlet? What kind of name is that?" The green-skinned guy asked me.

"Scarlette, not Scarlet. It has an l-e-t-t-e instead of an l-e-t. And I didn't come up with the name, the leader of the street gang I was in did." I explained.

"You're in a street gang?!" Spikey asked.

"WAS! Was, okay! I quit the gang two years ago, and have been living on my own ever since." I replied.

"Living as a thief, right?" Spikey asked.

I was a little reluctant to answer right away, but after a moment I admitted that I was a thief. But I had only ever stolen things that I needed to survive; in other words, food.

"Why must you steal for a living? Why can you not just attempt the finding of employment?" The red-haired girl asked me.

"I… I've tried, but people get freaked out by… what I can do." I told them.

The others didn't know what I was talking about, but Spikey remembered from before; that I could create weapons out of nothing. The green-skinned guy complimented that that sounded cool, and the mechanical guy wondered why anyone wouldn't find that useful. I replied by telling them that the weapons I create can only be used by me; they disappear if I'm not using them. Also, on rare occasions, I end up making weapons randomly, and often they are something that does not suit the current situation and often just makes things worse. Still, people have tried to use me for my powers, including the gang leader.

"People have wanted to use you as a weapon?! That's terrible!" The blonde guy exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's messed up! And I should know; half of me practically is a weapon!" The mechanical guy said.

"What of your parents? Surely they would not have allowed this." The red-haired girl asked me.

Upon hearing that, I looked down in depression. The people who were questioning me about all of this were confused at first, but they quickly figured it out… sort of. The robed girl implied that my parents might be dead. I informed them that I really didn't know if they were dead or not, or who they were, as I had no memory of the first ten years of my life.

"You lost your memory?" The blonde guy asked me.

I nodded. Afterwards, they huddled together to discuss something. My stomach was still growling, and while in this straight-jacket I couldn't even grasp it from hunger pain! Their discussion went on for about five minutes, with my stomach growling the entire time.

"Hey guys? I'm cool with this interrogation thing, but could I have something to eat first? I'm starving! I'll even eat leftovers if I have to!" I pleaded.

A moment after I said that, they all turned around to face me again. They all looked at me with slightly distrustful looks, Spikey most of all. Then afterwards, they asked me just a few more questions.

"So… you've never stolen anything other than food?" Spikey asked me.

"Nope." I answered.

"And you have amnesia?" He asked me.

"Yep." I answered.

"And you aren't a part of a street gang anymore?" He asked me.

"Heck no!" I answered.

Spikey then walked over to the door separating me from them and opened it. He stepped up to me and released me from the straight-jacket. I got up and stretched my arms, which caused Spikey to jump back cautiously.

"What? Oh, c'mon, you really thought I'd jump you the moment you let me go?" I asked him.

He still had a cautious look on his face, but regardless, he gave me permission to exit the room; like I needed it. Once I was in the same room as the other guys, they introduced themselves one after the other. The blonde guy's name was Link (…weird); the red-haired girl was called Starfire (… also weird); the mechanical guy was called Cyborg (… weird); the green-skinned guy was named Beast Boy (… seriously?); the robed girl was named Raven (okay, that one's less weird); and the spiky-haired guy, who didn't introduce himself to me directly but rather one of his friends did, was called Robin (Really?! Really?! That sounded like a girl's name! That was hilarious!).

"Well… it was nice meeting all of you…. well, most of you." I said while looking towards Robin in particular. "I guess I'll be off then."

Before I could exit the room though, Robin grabbed me by the arm and stopped me.

"Hold on. You really think we're just going to let you go? Just so you can continue stealing stuff? Yeah, that's not happening." He told me. "We're not going to send you to jail. But until we find out if your 'story' checks out, you'll be staying here."

So, I was being forced to stay here? In this tower? With a team of superheroes? That seemed like a drag at first, but then I realized: this could be my chance to redeem myself! If I could prove to them that I could do good things, then maybe I wouldn't have to go back to being a thief! Maybe I could actually become a hero, and prove to all of my former gang 'pals' that I could be something other than a delinquent! Everyone was able to see my smile as I was thinking this, though Robin probably thought that I was thinking something devious. The others however, particularly Link and Starfire, proposed that I should be given a chance to redeem myself; exactly what I had been thinking.

"I think we should let her stay here. You know, give her another chance. After all, she didn't really hurt anyone when she broke into that grocery store." Link suggested.

"Agreed. From what we have heard, it does not seem like she is a villain, but has merely been caught up in villainous activity. I think we should give her the 'second chance'" Starfire claimed.

Robin didn't seem into the idea at first, but after a moment of thinking, he reluctantly accepted their suggestion.

"Oh, alright." He groaned.

He turned to face me, still with a way-too-serious look on his face. It was actually kind of funny; most of these guys were actually taller than him and he was acting like he was…hmm, I don't know… Batman or something (I had amnesia! I didn't know about his past back then, okay!).

"Scarlette, was it? I guess we can let you stay here for a little while." He told me. "But I'll be keeping an eye on you."

"Oooh! I'm sooo scared! I'm gonna be monitored by a walking traffic light!" I responded jokingly.

He looked pretty steamed as he heard me say that.

"Oh! Lighten up, Spikey! I'm just fooling around." I said.

"You just watch your step! Got it?!" He ordered me. "And don't call me Spikey."

"Whatever… Spikey" I replied, giggling softly afterwards.

He still looked ticked, but the others interrupted by mentioning that I still hadn't had anything to eat. Finally! After all of this I couldn't wait to chow down on whatever this place had to offer. As we headed to the Tower's kitchen in their ops room (which looked awesome, by the way), I took a slight glance towards Robin, still with the serious look on his face. He seemed like a grouch, but I still appreciated the fact that he was giving me a second chance. I didn't say it to his face, but what I was thinking was… Thank you.

Elsewhere, in an encounter that none of us were there to see, a guy in a black outfit ducked into an alleyway, apparently there to meet someone. From out of the shadows, two figures appeared. One was a pale man in a red cape who was dressed rather flamboyantly. But the other was clearly not human; it was a large heart-shaped mask with spikes on it's sides, top, and bottom, making it look like it had a mouth, and eight red tentacles coming out of it's back. The guy in the black outfit was wearing a white mask with a red X across it, and handed something over to the pale man, an object that looked like an hourglass. The man observed it for a moment, and then showed it to the mask monster.

"What do you say? Is it the real thing?" He asked it.

"Yes. This is indeed the vessel that we need." The monster replied.

"So I got you what you wanted. Now hand over my reward." The Red X guy demanded.

Both the pale man and the mask monster began to laugh maniacally, and after a second or two a third evil laugh joined in. A man in pitch black armor and a cape stepped out from the shadows. He was wearing a black greek-style helmet on his head, which was dark enough that it obscured his face, save for two glowing red eyes.

"Your reward is that we let you live. I suggest you take it, before I change my mind." The man told Red X.

Red X didn't seem to like that reward, as he tossed several sharp X-shaped projectiles at the man. Right when they would've hit him though, they stopped in midair just a few inches from his chest. Then each projectile was fired back the way they came and exploded, which almost hit Red X. He was able to dodge them, although the explosion had damaged him enough that he was knocked to the ground.

"You dare to attack me?! I am a god, you mortal scum!" The man shouted.

As fast as he could, Red X got up and disappeared. The mask monster snickered at the sight of him fleeing.

"Impressive, Ares. Perhaps you do live up to the legends spoken of you." The monster told him.

"I could care less for your opinion, demon. I strike fear into the hearts of all men." Ares responded.

"If we are done with the monologuing, let us get back to business." The pale man interrupted.

He held up the object that Red X had given to them, which was indeed an hourglass; a dark blue hourglass with what looked like black sand within it. The mask monster looked at it closer, and some kind of dark aura began to exude from the sand.

"So the Phantom God is imprisoned within that tiny object?" Ares asked the monster.

"Yes. And to break the seal, the life force of many strong souls must be offered. I believe that the warriors of Themyscira will provide exactly that." The monster informed. "All we need now is for your daughter to do her part."

Neither I nor any of my new friends had any idea what these three guys were planning, but whatever it was, we were going to put a stop to it and kick their butts! Well, that is… if I can manage to earn their trust.