Ghost Town (Open)

Rusty River, North Dakota was a dry, dusty place. The weather vane had not turned in fifty years. Aside from the last remaining gold mine within hundreds of miles, the town survived on a museum dedicated to the Fiendish Five, a gang of bank robbers from the 1800's. The population sign said 29. It was 15 years out of date. Gem had never been counted.

Gem, the 15 year old girl with vivid blue hair sat on top of the museum, chewing bubble gum. She blew a bubble.

Pop!

It was like she didn't exist. Her parents would probably never take her anywhere. There was a whole world out there that she couldn't see from this tired little town. She used to be so excited to get out and explore. But the waiting had turned into boredom, and that boredom had turned into hopelessness.

She blew another bubble.

BANG!

The girl jumped. No bubble gum was that powerful. The shocking sound had come from a gun. It sounded just like the guns in the cheesy re-enactment movies the museum showed, but much louder.

She couldn't believe her eyes. Five men were riding horses into town, dressed in full 1800's garb. They were the spitting image of the legendary Fiendish Five, except for one small detail.

They were missing their skin! The riders were animated skeletons. In fact their horses were skeletons, too. What could have caused this abomination?

A skeletal hand gripped the still-smoking revolver. The gun was spun skillfully around a boney finger before being slid into a holster. The other hand held a cigar to the non-existent lips of the rider. He drew a long breath, though he had no lungs, before releasing a billowing cloud of smoke. The undead robbers now held the attention of nearly the entire town. Nobody could believe their eyes.

"Now I know what you're thinking," said first undead rider. "The Fiendish Five? Why are they here? Will they spare our lives? Well, I believe it's time we publicly announce our new name." He took another breath of his cigar. "The Grave Robbers. So don't worry, we don't intend to steal from the living, only the dead." He laughed and pulled out his revolver again. "So let's make some corpses, boys!"

The five skeletons hollered and rode into the center of town, firing their guns wildly.

Gem was too terrified to move. One of the undead horses jumped all the way to the rooftop of the museum. The rider, towering over her, aimed his revolver right at her.

It had been a calm week in Jump City, and Taz had been feeling the need for a walkabout. He was happy in Jump, really, he was!(Or, at least, aside from missing his family and village.) But, there was still so much he hadn't seen of this world. Before getting to Jump and making new friends, and becoming one of the new Teen Titans, he'd been so focused on being safe that he'd not really took the time to explore.

Now, though, things had calmed down enough that he felt safe to take a chance and run around a little. And considering how one of his learning assignments was on American History, which currently included outlaw bands of the Wild West, and their effect on the society of that time, he even had a location and half decent excuse! Couldn't get better sources than one of the very towns they terrorized, right?

...Though, to be honest, he was regretting that a little, now. Oh, to be sure, the surrounding area had a certain kind of beauty to it, but it was also very dusty, and not quite as exciting as he'd hope. Though, as he heard loud bangs coming from the very town he was racing towards, he'd realized that things had gotten a little more exciting than he'd like, for that was gunfire! His eyes narrowed, and Taz picked up the pace....

It was certainly reasonable for Gem to be terrified. it was definitely a menacing sight for any bystanders, with the skeletal bandit aiming a revolver at the young girl, even as old fashioned as the weapon was. But before the situation  could turn tragic there was a rush of wind as a blue and cloudy grey blur skidded to a stop in front of her, and the loud crackle and hum of electricity as a bolt of lightning rushed towards the  creep.

As the figure stilled long enough to be visible, Gem would see a teen, just a pinch younger than her, with hair just as blue as hers, though his seemed to come in a wild, spiky mane that had sparks of brilliant, icy cyan crackling through it. Said sparks matched the electricity spiraling and flowing around his outstretched arm, and if she was savvy and sharp eyed enough, she'd spot the Communicator hanging on the boy's belt. For his part, Taz glared up at the skeleton, shifting his arm in warning as the electricity picked up pitch.

Unknowlingly to the young Titan, the lightning wolf was being hunted by the Order of the Throne. A cultist order bent on destroying all things supernatural throughout the world using only tools that may or may not also be supernatural. Five templar looking henchmen and one member of the hierarchy had been dispatched after the Titan. The order did not want the Teen Titans influence spreading beyond Jump and Steel City. However upon arriving at the small town they found there were skeletal outlaws wreaking a bit of mayhem at the museum.

The order of holy looking men in knights armor walked in a v-formation towards the museum. To a young girl like gem this would seem like a scene out of a wacky time movie. Knights? Skeleton outlaws? But to Taz it would probably just seem like really horrible timing. “Don’t let the Titan or the other creatures escape, we kill them all this day.”

The leader of the Grave Robbers, the infamous William "Bones," Sykes put out his cigar. He didn't expect to see knights in shining armor today, but death was full of surprises. If the sun were higher and brighter, it might have killed these metal-wearing old-timers with heat stroke. But history had provided a much more efficient manner of killing armored opponents.

BANG!

Bones was quite the marksman. He had once shot three birds with one bullet. He had won twenty duels in life, and he wasn't ready to lose a second duel in death. Needless to say, he was quite capable of hitting a man sized target from a very long distance. And his revolver was quite capable of piercing through anything as archaic as what these odd fellows were wearing. He watched and waited for the knight he had selected to die.

"Armor died when the gun was born, boys. You're in the wrong time, and you're in the wrong place." Bones laughed.

The other Grave Robbers still on the ground laughed, too. They turned their attention to these knights and started blasting away, fully expecting the knights to fall to the ground full of holes.

As for the Robber on top of the museum, Bernie, he was certainly surprised that this boy was willing to use himself as a shield to protect the girl. But they did both have blue hair, so maybe it all made sense somehow.

"Aren't you a fast one," Bernie said. "But not a smart one. Bullets kill people. And you're a people...person. Whatever." The gun fired. Bernie had killed men in cold blood before. This would be no different.

As Taz noticed the Order nights, he gulped. Oh no....Not these guys, and especially not right now. He couldn't deal with both these boneheads and walking sardines! The young Titan's hand drifted to his communicator. Maybe he should pop the distress signal...However the skeletal gunner caught his attention as he spoke up, and just in time. As The bandit aimed his revolver once again, Taz's eyes widened. Reaching behind him, he pulled Gem out of the way, and twisted his torso to the side. Thankfully, this meant he didn't receive the bullet's full force, but he sill couldn't move out the way fast enough to avoid it completely.

As the archaic round skidded off of his Titan suit's shoulder armor, Taz let out a yelp and instinctively clutched at his arm. He glared at Bernie again, showing off lengthened canines with a growl. He raised his hand again, firing a lightning bolt off towards the bandit, and followed up with a dashing axe kick towards Bernie's gun hand.

The bullet struck one of the knights, dropping him out of formation, and as he fell the others kept walking. They thumped their chest as they marched and began to chant. “No ash, no bone, for the glory and the throne!” As they chanted this over and over, the knight who had dropped rose up revealing the armor which had just been struck by a bullet had some high-tech plating underneath. Unluckily for the undead cowboys the squad sent after Taz had been equipped with appropriate gear to help take down the teen titan. Had it been anyone else they were after the secret order of knights probably would have been sent with standard gear.

The unit would continue this chant as the boney robbers laughed at them then dispersed and took cover as the cowboys unloaded on them. Two more of the Order of the Throne’s knights were struck by bullets before they had taken cover but they were tagged on the shoulder and the thigh, nothing that their armor and willpower couldn’t get them through for now. That being said the lead knight charged through the bullets with his high-grade shield in front of him unlike his brethren who had taken cover. His faith in their oncoming victory unshaken in the least by being shot at, he charged forward towards the supernatural targets. Meanwhile the other knights who had taken cover returned fire with crossbows.

The lightning bolt sizzled Bernie's bones, creating a puff of smoke that rose into the air. His clothes caught fire. He was motionless for a moment, before letting a laugh escape. "No pain! You can't kill what's not alive!"

Taz kicked the gun out of his hand. It went flying off the rooftop. "Well that's just great."

Bernie dismounted from his horse and pointed at Gem. "Crush." The skeletal horse reared up on it's back legs, terrifying Gem with it's massive size. It's hooves came back down and it charged at her, ready to trample the girl.

Meanwhile, armor had clearly come back into style. The knights had survived direct hits. This didn't make any sense to Bones. Armor was outdated, far inferior to the destructive power of the modern gun. Or were his guns not modern anymore? He looked at the fine craftsmanship on his 1870 pistol. It was hard to imagine technology ever surpassing such a fine instrument of death. But how long had he been dead? After a century or two, perhaps armor could have been made to defend against bullets.

Something needed to change.

"Kid, grab a hostage."

The youngest member of the Grave Robbers, Timothy "Kid" Kline turned his horse around and started chasing down the closest civilian he could find. Bones and the other two Grave Robbers on the ground kept firing away at the knights, trying to keep them at bay. The knights, in turn, were returning fire with crossbows. Their bolts passed harmlessly through the skeletal gunmen. Without any flesh for the bolts to pierce, they were harmless to the Grave Robbers.

One bolt caught Lefty square on the forehead, piercing his skull and staying there like an ornament. Lefty shook his head a bit, then went back to firing at the knights.

Hilarious, Bones thought. The two forces were incapable of hurting each other. Well, there was one weapon he hadn't tried yet.

One brave knight was running up to him behind a strong shield. The fellow was brave. That bravery could not go unpunished. Bones jumped off his horse before grabbing it by the neck. With unholy strength, he swung his horse's body directly at the charging knight. Perhaps the bones of his steed would provide enough impact to drop the knight to his knees.

Taz gave a satisfied huff as he managed to kick the gun out of the Bernie's grip, and gave the bandit a smug, mischievous smirk. However, that was quickly erased when Bernie went on to target Gem. Taz's eyes widened as the horse was commanded to charge her, and the young hero gritted his teeth as he first tried to trip Bernie with a sweep kick, then charged after it. As he drew along it's side, the Titan would hop up and lash out with a speed enhanced drop kick to it's knee, hoping to cause it to slide to a stop before it got too close to Gem. If that would succeed, he'd give a sigh of relief and glance at Gem. "Are you alright?!" He had to figure out a way to get her to safety, quickly!