Authors note: Alright, something you should know before reading this fic: this is a one shot based on a fan fic I have already written. It is not necessary it read that fic before this one but it might explain a few things and you could find similarities - plus it's pretty good (wink, wink). I hope to post more one shots like this one but those will be separate stories and will not appear as chapters here. This story will not be continued, it was purely for fun and practice. As I mentioned I already have the main story - Calling All Titans. With all that said please enjoy!
"Do you know what you are doing, jack?" Asked an increasingly frustrated North.
"Yes! This is great!" Said Jack Frost ecstaticly. He had been extremely excited by the Titan's announcement.
"Are you sure? How can you uphold your duties as Guardian while being a Teen Titan?" Pressed North.
"Yes!" Jack said, finally frustrated. "Being a Titan is protecting the children!...It's just that I'll be protecting other people too."
"OK." North sighed. "But I have one more question for you. How will these teens see you? You have gained many believers but all kids grow up as these 'Teen' Titans most certainly have."
Jack looked stunned. He hadn't thought of that. North immediately felt sorry for making Jack feel bad.
"Listen, Jack, I don't wish to upset you but we must address this. I don't want you to be hurt."
Jack quickly recovered his composure. "They'll see me. They're going to be expecting teen heroes."
"But do they believe in you?" North pushed, pleading with Jack. Jack sighed.
"I don't know…" He finally said. "But there's only one way to find out, right?"
"Well… we could take look at globe, find where Titans Tower is. Then you won't have to make special trip."
"OK!" Jack said, excited once more.
Then as if North could read his mind, Santa said, "But don't get hopes up, no?" It took some searching but eventually they found the Tower's island on the globe. And there, infinitesimally small was a single dot of light. Jack whooped and flew around the room.
"What is this?" North asked.
"Someone must believe in me! Ha, I told you so, North!" Jack answered North's rhetorical question.
"Hmm. Perhaps. But which one?"
"Who cares! This means I can go, right?" Jack looked up at North with that childish wonder that could melt any guardian's heart. North sighed; he knew that he had already lost this argument. Sometimes it just wasn't fair how young Jack still looked.
"Fine." North begrudgingly answered. "But if something happens do not say I did not warn you." Jack whooped again
"Thanks North! Later!" And with that he was off, literally flying down the hallways.
"Oh, boy…" North sighed again resigned to returning to his office. He wasn't sure if anyone there would actually see Jack and didn't want the boy to be hurt and upset by more disbelief. North decided that he couldn't make toys with these thoughts in his mind and needed to take a nap. Jack had really worn him out with his constant pestering.
…
Jack worriedly hovered over Titans Tower on the appointed day. Even though he disliked what North had said he had to admit that he had a point and only wanted to protect him. But he had to do this for himself; he had to know.
A little way off he noticed another boy floating in the air. He appeared to be bored from waiting and was playing with something in his hand. Jack floated closer to get a better look at him and nearly fell out of the sky. This boy looked frighteningly similar to jack with white hair and glowing blue eyes; the object he was playing with was an ice crystal, which he kept changing and reforming.
Who is this kid? Jack wondered. A boy who looks as young as myself with white hair, blue eyes, and ice powers?!
Before Jack could try to grab the boy's attention to figure out if the boy saw him, the clock bonged nine and the boy zoomed downwards on the wind.
There's another thing, thought jack, he can fly too. Jack followed him down but didn't try to draw his attention again, suddenly afraid of the answer to the question he'd been asking himself all day.
But Jack wasn't one to do anything half way.
Jack knew that at least one of the Titans believed in him. That's what he had seen, right? But no one else seemed to notice Jack. He wasn't sure if it was because he blended in with all the other crazy characters or if it was because they… No. he couldn't think like that.
Jack slunk around searching for the titans. They had to be here somewhere… Suddenly he heard their voices coming through a doorway. He peered in and saw a long hallway. The voices were coming from a room at the end of the hall. He knew he probably shouldn't have come down here but his mischievous nature had gotten the better of him so he couldn't just stop now.
It was an interrogation room and had a large one-sided window on the far wall. Great, Jack thought. I still won't be able to tell if they can see me or not. The anticipation was almost killing him but he settled in to hear their conversation.
"OK," said Robin, "Does everyone have their lists?"
"Yeah." Beast Boy replied. "Dude, what kind of superhero names are these?" He giggled. "I mean, Ben 10, Maximum Ride? There's even one kid just called Dib!"
"Is there something wrong with these names?" Starfire asked curiously.
"No." Raven answered stoically. "Beast Boy just doesn't have any manners."
"Oh… Well maybe I can find some funny names!" Starfire giggled, to which Beast Boy gave her a high five. Raven just sighed, annoyed.
"Shark Boy! Blue Beetle! Jack Frost!" Starfire read off of her list. If Jack had been drinking something he would have done a spit take right there. As it was he just gasped.
"Jack Frost?" Cyborg questioned, speaking up for the first time. "He's not real-" jack nearly fell out of his chair at this- "he's just some myth about winter time."
"Hmm." Robin thought. "Maybe it's just an ice powered hero using the name. It's more original than 'Beast Boy'." Everyone laughed while Beast boy gaped at Robin.
"Hey! I'm original!" The others only laughed harder.
After their laughter died down Starfire spoke up again.
"How are you sure this Jack Frost is not real? He is on our list and you said there are stories of him."
Yeah, Jack Frost wanted to yell, how? He was beginning to realize who believed in him- and it didn't happen to be Robin or Cyborg.
"It's possible I guess. There are many types of spirits in this world." Raven said.
"What! Don't tell me you believe that, Raven! Cyborg's right dude, Jack Frost is just one of those old legends to explain the seasons and stuff." Beast Boy urged.
"You'd be surprised in what the power of belief can do." Raven said knowingly.
"What do the 'legends' say he looks like?" Asked Starfire. "Is he tall? Does he enjoy mustard and waffles? What are his powers?"
"Woah, slow down there Star, this guy's not even real." Said Cyborg who was starting to get annoyed.
"OK, guys calm down. We'll figure this all out when this guy comes in for examination like everyone else. There's no need to get so frustrated by this." Robin cut in. "Right now we need to go out there and start already." Everyone murmured agreement and filed out towards the main room. Jack snuck behind them so as not to be seen, and quickly rejoined the thronging crowd of heroes.
Jack tried not to gt close to anyone- it was a force of habit after so many years -but it was inevitable. After no more than a minute someone had stepped right through Jack.
Jack gasped. This whole time he had been holding on to the hope that maybe the people here would be able to suspend their belief enough to see him. Seriously, these were teens who had seen tons of crazy things being in the superhero business. But all that was dashed as another teen hero stepped through him to get a better look at the original titans.
He sighed and called the wind to carry him into the air. There were several other flying heroes in the air already but not enough that Jack would have to worry about being flown through.
As he was turning back to the titans he noticed the boy he had seen earlier, the one who reminded him of himself. Only, now, the boy's eyes were green and not blue... Weird, thought Jack. He pulled his thoughts back to the present where Robin was talking to the crowd.
"... After everyone has been interviewed we will hand out communicators, assign teams, leaders, and the areas you'll work in." When Robin finished talking the other titans started calling out names for who was being interviewed.
Jack couldn't believe how many heroes had come. More and more of them were called out as Jack waited. And waited. And waited. Jack had thought that he was a pretty patient person. I mean he had waited 300 years for someone to believe in him, right? However he had very rarely anticipated anything as much as this which only made it that much harder to wait so long.
As he was waiting he saw the strange boy called up by the name Danny Phantom. Fitting, Jack thought, an invisible, intangible ghost like me.
It just so happened that Jack was one of the last five called up. The five original titans gathered outside of the interrogation rooms one final time. Beast Boy called up El Tigre first. Then, finally, Starfire called for Jack.
"Jack Frost!" The name echoed around the room as she said it. Jack flew over to Starfire and looked back to see the crowd's reaction. Everyone was blinking with confused looks on their faces; they hadn't seen anyone go up. Then it was as if were just now noticing him. Suddenly he was there and everyone could see him. It was similar to the reaction people had when Jack threw his magic snowballs at them, trying to get them to have a little fun.
Jack smiled and turned back to Starfire who was leading him back to the interrogation room he had spied them in earlier.
They sat opposite each other and Starfire began immediately.
"Hello, friend Jack, my name is Starfire! These first few questions have nothing to do with the titans interview, I'm just curious; is this alright?"
"Uh, sure." Jack said, a little confused.
"First... where are you from, how did you get here, what is your favorite color, and would you like to be my friend?" She said this all in one quick breath.
Jack was surprised at first by her speed and how close she leaned into him but he finally managed to choke out, "Uh, North Pole, flew, blue, and... sure."
"Yay! Okay now we can begin." She smiled. "What are your powers, friend Jack?
"Well, I can control the wind and fly. Um, I have ice powers and create storms. And uh... yeah." Jack wanted to face palm for that lame ending but he still wasn't used to being around people, being noticed and talked to. He had also thought about mentioning his role as the guardian of fun but had thought better of it. First off, that would probably sound really lame to someone who didn't know the guardians and second it was probably better to retain some secrecy about them.
"Great! And what are some of your weaknesses?" While she said this she still had her cheery grin; it was starting to freak Jack out.
"Why would you need to know that?" Jack asked.
"Well," Starfire began, losing a touch of her cheerfulness, "it is something that we, the original titans need to know. It won't be spread around, don't worry. But it is just for reference, and will help us when deciding your team and location among other things."
"Okay," Jack agreed. "Well, heat mostly... losing or breaking my staff which is the conduit to my powers...," Jack raised said staff, "and..." Jack thought of his need for believers. Should he mention that? He remembered last Easter when the guardians lack of believers had weakened them. Then again, if he brought that up she would ask questions about the guardians and he had already decided it would be best to keep them a secret. "... Yeah." He ended awkwardly again.
"Do not worry! There is no reason to be nervous." Starfire said picking up on his emotions. "The questions get easier! I promise" Jack smiled. She couldn't see why he was feeling the way he was but she was sincere in what she said.
"Now. Do you have any leadership experience? Please be honest, this helps us decide team leaders!" Jack thought about that. The only thing he'd ever led was a snowball fight. While that was okay for his role as a guardian he doubted it would help much here. North was the 'leader' of the guardians. Besides, the lone wolf attitude that he'd developed from 300 years alone wouldn't make for very good leadership skills.
"Eh... no, not really." He replied.
"Do you work well with a team?" She queried.
"Yeah, I've been getting better at that recently." Jack answered, thinking about his time with the guardians.
"Do you have a costume?" Starfire asked brightly.
"Oh..." Jack looked at himself. He looked like almost any other teen except for his pale skin and white hair.
"I'm sorry! Is that your costume that you are wearing? I did not mean to offend!" She said quickly.
"No, it's fine really. But, no I don't... yet." Guess I need to find something, he thought.
"Alright. Thank you for your forgiveness, fiend! We are almost finished. How did you receive your powers?" Jack almost choked at this. If he told her what had happened to him she would realize was a spirit or worse think that he was some kind of undead monster. But if he lied she would almost certainly be able to tell. Starfire tried to encourage him with a blinding smile. Jack returned it weakly.
"Well it's kind of a long story..." Jack trailed off.
"Don't be silly, Jack! When will you realize that you do not have to be afraid? No one outside of the original team will have to know this. I promise." She said with a voice that was both sad, happy, and encouraging at once. Jack sighed.
"Okay, well... One day I went to the pond with my sister. And uh, it was winter so we were going to go skating." He had decided to tell part of the truth. Starfire nodded and beamed, always encouraging. "We went out on the ice but we forgot to check the thickness. It started cracking under our feet. So I grabbed my sister with my staff and pushed her to safety. That movement however jarred the ice and I fell in." Here Starfire gasped in surprise. Jack nodded and continued. "I'm not completely sure what happened after that or how long I was under the ice but eventually I gained consciousness again, still underwater. I felt myself being pulled up and I came up out of the water. Suddenly I had white hair, blue eyes and ice powers. I'm not sure what it was that kept me alive, gave me my powers, and brought me out of the water. All I knew was what had happened."
Starfire was quiet for a minute before she smiled and then clapped. "That was an amazing story and I am glad that you were okay, but... is there something else?"
Jack swallowed. He had tried to hide the parts that would expose himself, like the fact that all of this happened 300 years ago, his death, and Man in the Moon's involvement as well as his guardian role.
"No. That's all." He said trying to keep his voice steady. Starfire looked at him for a while and then said, "Alright then; there is only one more question. What do you think a teen titan is?" Jack smiled again' this one would be easy.
"A teen titan is a guardian. A guardian of all people who uses their powers to fight fear and villains around the world."
"That is a very interesting answer. Congratulations, friend Jack, you have made the team. You are a teen titan!"
Authors note: Okay, I felt the need to explain a few things here at the end. I know you may have some questions like 'How will villians and heroes see Jack?' My headcanon for this story is that Jack separates his Guardian identity from his Titan identity. He gets his own costume when he becomes a Titan and when the Titans eventually tell the rest of the world who all the new heroes are this publication will allow people to see and 'believe' that Jack exists. So that won't be a problem. Now for some extra information: Jack is put on team number 3 with Blue Beatle, Batgirl, Jake the American Dragon, and Thaila (Percy Jackson). Batgirl is the leader of their team.
So what do you think? If you have any other questions please review, and review even if you don't have questions. I need to know how the story was and what you liked. Hope you enjoyed it!