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Disclaimer: The Teen Titans sure as heck ain't mine and they never were, either.


A Dish Best Served Cold-Chapter Three


Sub-Zero awoke early the next morning. He got up, got dressed, went out on deck, and groaned softly as his eyes once again had to get used to the outside light.

He noticed the colors of the morning sunrise and smiled...such beauty alone was worth getting up early. He suspected that most folks in this town-Jump City, as it was called-had probably lost sight of the little things like this that made life such a joy, what with their technology and modern lifestyle and all.

He sometimes envied the outsiders, but this was certainly not one of those times.

Soon, his thoughts shifted towards yesterday and the new people he had met: An acrobatic young martial-arts expert, a sweet-natured alien, a laid-back half man-half machine, a wisecracking green shape shifter, and a gloomy young sorceress.

Yet, for all of her cynicism and grim behavior, he knew that Raven wasn't so bad. After all, were it not for the fact that Raven had taken him back to the tower she and her friends lived in after he fainted, he might've died from that terrible heat!

"Well...at least from now on I'll know not to overexert myself.... and to wear plenty of sunscreen." He sighed.

Adjusting to this new climate down south was going to be tough, but not impossible. What was of more concern to him was that, now that had finally found the place he had been searching for.......he had absolutely no idea whatsoever of what to do.

He knew he had to prove his worth as a warrior, and his original intention had been to come in, beat up on some bad guys, have the city name him a hero, and go back home and achieve knighthood at last.

"(Sigh..) Did the king have to be so vague about all of this? I guess figuring it out is part of the challenge."

After going below deck and getting a small satchel of money, as well as some bread, salted pork, and fresh water from the cargo hold (his 'breakfast', such as it was.) and ate it, he left the ship and set off to go beyond the tower, to the city itself.

"If I'm gonna be stayin' here a while, I may as well check this place out." He reasoned aloud to himself.




Meanwhile, back at Titan's Tower...

Robin was sitting in his room thinking. Yesterday, a stranger with superpowers (very formidable ones, at that.) had suddenly appeared on their very doorstep.

While the story he had told them was completely ludicrous, he did not seem to be lying. And he certainly had some compelling evidence to back it up (not the least of which included a frosty sword with an insanely-hard-to-pronounce name and a sunken ship that resurfaced upon demand.)

But even so, he remained just a little suspicious...

There was a knock at the door. "Come in, it's open." He said, not even looking up from his desk.

Beast Boy and Cyborg walked in slowly.

"Hey guys...what do you need?" he said, still not looking up.

"Well..." Beast Boy began, sounding nervous but grinning sheepishly. "It's like this....I was kind of thinking last night...er...and...Cy agrees with me..." Cyborg nodded "that well.... um...we should invite Sub-Zero over and.... have him...y'know...try our obstacle course."

Robin just sat for a minute. Finally, he turned to face them and gazed at B.Boy suspiciously. "Why?"

Cyborg gulped "Well...we-me and Beast Boy-talked about it this morning and, we haven't asked Star or Raven yet, but, ... we think Sub-Zero would be a good addition to the team! Uh, if the others think so, I mean...." They both looked at Robin nervously, trying to gauge his reaction. Surprisingly, he didn't look shocked, or angry, or confused, or any of the reactions they expected.

He looked...well...excited.

"Guys, you're BRILLIANT! If he stays here with us, we can keep an eye on him and make sure..."

They looked at him funny.

"Uh...I mean.... Make...sure nothing happens to him! Yeah, that's it! After all he is new here."

"Oh okay...yeah that's cool. Look we'll go ask Raven and Star, and, if they agree, we'll head down to his ship and invite him." Cyborg said in a relieved voice while Beast Boy nodded.

"Okay...you two go take care of that, then." They left.

Once they were gone, The Boy Wonder sighed to himself "I can't let slip that I don't fully trust this guy yet...and the others would just think I'm paranoid."


Back at Sub-Zero's Ship




Sub-Zero had barely gotten off the ship when all of the sudden he noticed that there were five familiar shapes coming towards him. 'The Titans? What would they want?' he wondered. He ran up to greet them.

"Why hey there! What brings you all back out here so soon?" he hollered as they came into view.

Cyborg grinned.

"Actually, man,....we just wanted to give you a little invitation, that's all." The big bot said.

Zero blinked "An...invitation? To where?"

"Where do you think?? The tower!" Beast Boy explained to him. "We were wondering if you'd like to have a go at our obstacle course."

"You have an obstacle course?" Zero asked surprised. "Of course! Cy here built it." B.Boy said gesturing towards Cyborg.

"I see.... but why me?" he said pointing at himself.

"Well, it just occurred to us earlier that we've never really seen your abilities up close and personal." Robin explained.

"Unless of course, fogging up a window is the limit of your power." Raven added, trying to get him to come along

He looked utterly indignant "Fogging up....? Now look here! I'll have you fellows know that that was only a small portion of my capabilities! Why, I could freeze over your tower if I wanted."

Starfire recoiled in slight shock. "Please...Raven sounded serious, as she always does, but she only intended that sentence as humor! We do not doubt your powers...we merely wish to see them." She explained.

Sub-Zero puffed out his chest and placed a hand on Eviglasere. "Very well, then. I'm just gonna have to show you.... lead the way!" he said whipping out the sword and pointing it.


-==Several Minutes Later...==-




Sub Zero was out in an open area just outside titan's tower. Robin and Co. were nearby, standing behind a control panel. "Alright...on three.........one.......two........."


Zero didn't hear him.

"Hey, this place is nice....but if this is the obstacle course then where's the ob-"

".... THREE!!" Robin screamed and pressed the 'on' button, causing several large gunner turrets to burst up from the ground.

"-stacles.......OH, CRAP!!" he yelled, just before dodging several laser blasts from the turrets.

Instinctively, he held out his hand and shot a frosty-white freeze ray at one of the turrets, casing it's metal surface to suddenly become covered in thick ice and virtually rendering it a helpless ice-cube.

"Holy Mary! What are you guys playing at? Tryin' to kill me??" he hollered at them.

Cyborg shouted back " Man, some knight! Scared of some little blasters!"

Cy clucked and made a chicken pose with his arms and behind him B.Boy literally transformed into a large green colored chicken and clucked derisively.

"Scared?! Oh, I'll show you who should be scared!" he retorted whilst dodging several more searing hot laser beams.

He started running straight at the turrets with his sword out and jumped over their shots, landing on one of them. The other turrets fired, but he leapt off at just the last moment, causing the gun he was standing on to get lit up by friendly fire. He ran past the rest and threw a ball of ice behind, which, upon hitting the ground, exploded into a bright, blue "Nova" of frost, turning the entire group of turrets and a small area of land around them into one big glacier.

At this point, he figured he was home free as he dodged a few more assorted tricks and traps easily and kept running ahead...until a large metal hatch opened up in the ground in front of him releasing a small swarm of flying mechanical drones, each armed with what looked like twin gatling guns on the sides.

As soon as they started firing, he lifted up both hands and released a mini-blizzard straight at them. All of the bullets the flying 'bots had managed to fire were turned into chunks of hail and the drones were frozen solid, remaining in midair briefly, right before careening to earth and exploding in a burst of fire and sparks.

"Well, well, well... who's laughing now, my friends?" Zero chortled and, tired and sweaty but still grinning, bowed to the distant titans.

He couldn't see them well from there...but he could've sworn they were all pointing behind him.

"What are they pointing---"

he heard a loud rumbling behind him...

"---at...oh no...." he gulped audibly before turning around to look.

From the same big hatch as before, something was coming up. It was a robot like the others...but huge. Certainly bigger than he was! One arm had been replaced by an even bigger gatling gun, while the other arm was a giant energy scythe. A large jet pack was built into It's back, and it's chest swung open on hinges to reveal a missile launcher. Where the mouth on the thing should have been, there was a long barrel that looked similar to the laser turrets

. "SWEET TAP-DANCING SNOWFLAKES!! What the Hell is that thing?!" Zero screamed to nobody in particular.

He never got his answer though, because the "thing" in question immediately released a volley of rockets. "YIKES!" Sub-Zero immediately ran but was still thrown back by the sheer force of the explosion. He coughed and got up.


"Well then, if that's how you wanna play it..." He groaned and raised his hands, firing a few freeze rays at the robot...but it was unfazed

"Grrrr! Cyborg probably made it ice-proof somehow..." he realized, seeing as how they had known his powers ahead of time.

The thing raised its gatling gun and started spewing bullets like there was no tomorrow.

He leapt aside and did several cartwheels before breaking into a run, just barely missing all of the gunfire.

"Aw, that thing's gotta go!" he snarled, referring to the gun.

He unsheathed Eviglasere and ran at the big drone, intending to slice the gun off it's arm...but, unfortunately, the robot must have realized it's plan, because it quickly sliced out at him with the energy scythe.

He yelped and ducked, just in time to avoid an untimely decapacitation.... and then swung up chopping the scythe off with a well-timed slice from his sword. With no melee weapon, the bot retreated backwards with its jet. But Zero lunged toward it and sliced off it's gun as well.

Faced with rapidly dwindling combat options, the thing fired the laser beam on it's face.

Zero ducked and ran towards it again leaping up and slicing, not just the cannon, but it's entire head off.

The machine crashed to the ground in a lifeless heap.

Sub-Zero breathed a sigh of relief at this point.... but it wasn't long before the thing rose back up again, even with no head, and fired another round of explosive rockets. He was once again blasted backwards.

"Oh, now this is just ridiculous!" He hollered in frustration.

Then he realized...'that thing's freeze-resistant on the outside...but what about on the inside?'

The next time it opened up it's chest to fire rockets, Zero fired a freezing blast inside the chest, causing the rocket launcher to be coated with ice. The thing realized this too late, however, because it tried to launch another rocket barrage...only to have the launcher, clogged up with ice, overheating and explode, blowing the entire robotic monstrosity to smithereens.

Sub Zero walked up and thrust his sword into the ground where the thing had been. "You were good, man.... real good. But as long as ol' Zero's around you'll still be second best, see? Its then that he noticed the titans running towards him. Well, robin and Cyborg, anyway. Star was flying, Raven was levitating, and Beast Boy had turned into a Pterodactyl and flapped along behind them.

Star was the 1st to reach him. "Friend Sub-Zero, that was so incredible! I knew you could do it!" She gushed grabbing him into a powerful embrace.

"URP! Er....Starfire, I think you're cutting off what little circulation I got left..."

She let go and apologized just as Cyborg reached him.

"Nice job, man! We'll need to fix everything, but after a show like that, we don't mind."

Beast boy morphed back into his human form and gone up to him. "Dude! You have no idea how incredibly cool that wa---wait...cool....I JUST MADE A JOKE!! Hahahahah!!"

Raven smacked him in the head.

"owww....."

Then turned to Sub-Zero. "I have to admit....that was very impressive."


Robin was the last to come up "She's right you know. That was top-notch stuff."

Zero grinned. "Yeah.... thanks guys.... (Pant, pant)... but I got one question..."

"Sure...shoot."

"C-could I (Wheeze) trouble you for (Gasp) a glass of (hack) ice wateeerrrr?" he groaned slowly before abruptly passing out from heat and exhaustion right in front of them.



--_--Thirty minutes later!--_--



A young white haired swordsman groaned as he regained consciousness. He looked around to see a few familiar faces gather around him looking rather concerned.

"Welcome back. It's nice too see you're okay." Robin said with a smirk.

"Oh, friend Sub-Zero, it is wonderful to see you conscious once again! " Star said relieved.

"Sorry dude, I guess we kinda forgot your whole heat sensitivity thing." Beast Boy apologized while scratching the back of his head.

Sub Zero just shook his head and muttered "Nah, I'm fine." He realized he was once again on the couch with a large glass of ice water placed on a table just nearby. He promptly seized it and chugged the entire thing in one gulp. The Titans just stared.

" (gulp) My God, that felt good! That really hits the spot right about now!"

Robin stepped up. "Look, Zero....we need to level with you. There is another reason we wanted you to run the obstacle course. Sub-Zero.... we'd like to know if you'd be interested in.... being a Titan."

Zero, who had been chewing on a piece of Ice from the empty glass, choked and spat it out.

"Wh-w-what??? Me? A Titan?"

Beast Boy broke in: "Of course! You said you had to prove yourself worthy to be a knight, right? What better way than being a hero?"

"You've got a point.... I'll tell you what. Lemme go back to my ship and get these clothes washed..." he motioned to his dirtied up white threads "...and I'll have a think about it while I'm there. When I've decided, I'll come back and tell you."

Robin nodded "Sounds good. We'll see you then I guess."


Sub-Zero managed to get shakily to his feet and leave.




Later that Night


Three shady looking figures-one big, one small, and one in-between-approach the entrance of a large department store.

The small one is a young kid with a dark green jumpsuit with a pair of goggles over his bald head...he also wears metallic backpack, with a small controller attached and some sort of mechanical unit on his small chest.

The big one is a real monster... a big behemoth of a guy with shaggy brown hair and a matching chin-beard. He wears a jet-black armless bodybuilder outfit adorned with strips of golden metal.

Last, but not least, the in between one is a slender girl with a black and purple dress, matching stockings and high-heeled dark blue boots. She has a shock of bubblegum pink hair that is tied up into two pigtails in the shape of an oblong 'U', almost in the shape of horns, and has pale gray skin, a little bit lighter shade than Raven's. A closer look at her face tells us that her pink eyes are narrow and cat-like.... they almost seem luminous in the darkness...

The shady teens make their way to the closed, locked doors which are kept locked by a number-code security panel.

"Alright...give me a second, and I'll have this little piece of crap hacked in no time." Squeaked the short whiz kid in a nasal voice. His name by the way is Gizmo.

"Hehehe.... no need." Grunts the big guy, the aptly named Mammoth.

Mammoth then proceeds to grabs the doors with one hand, and without bothering with the security lock, rips them off their hinges and tosses them behind him with a loud THUNK.

"Ladies first." He rumbles in a deep coarse voice.

"Mmmm, why thank you Mammoth." Says the gothy-ish looking girl from earlier. Her name's Jinx.

Jinx goes in and Mammoth stomps in after her. "Grrrr... big, stinkin', flea-bitten, show off!" Gizmo whines before switching on the jets on his backpack and hovering in after them.

"Alright boys.... you go that way, I'll go this way." Jinx says once they're in. "Just don't take more than you can carry."

"Right.... gotcha." Gizmo hisses, while Mammoth just says "Sure."


About fifteen minutes after they split up, Gizmo and Mammoth are in a jewelry store.

"Heh cool.... free bling"(A/N: I know, Mammoth wouldn't say that in the show, but that's what's so funny about it!)

"Don't get carried away hair brain!" Gizmo warned.


Suddenly, a new voice rings out.

"The only place you two trouble makers are getting carried away to is jail, where you belong."

Mammoth groans "Awww.... not again...."

Sure enough, the two thugs' fears are confirmed by two well-known words:

"Titans, GO!"


For the first several minutes, things did not go well at all for Gizmo and Mammoth. But after that, Gizmo had had enough.

"Hmph. Alright you crud-buckets! I didn't wanna do this but you forced me."

He presses a few buttons on his controls and his mechanical spider legs come out of his pack...except they now have large cannons attached.

"Let me introduce my new 'G-Cannons'!"

He shoots them at the Titans and they fire out copious amounts of disgusting, sticky, green slime.

"G as in Gooey and Green, of course!."

Cyborg spoke up "Sorry pipsqueak, but your gonna have to do better than-WHOA!" without warning, the stuff suddenly began to grow out of control and ooze around his body, as well as the others.

"Oh yeah! G as in Growing and Gripping, too!" Gizmo added.

In mere moments, the titans were imprisoned in the ooze, all thrashing about in vain, with only their heads above the green gunk.

Mammoth laughs deeply and booming."HAHAHAHA! Well now, whaddya say t'that Titans? HAHAHA!"


Mammoth and Gizmo's victory is, at this point, unavoidable...or is it?