Title: Project Runway Titans Challenge (This is a crossover fic)

Author: Simon

Characters: The Titans and the Project Runway crew, god help us

Rating: PG

Summary: Just like the title says...

Warnings: severe silliness and fashion faux pas.

Disclaimers: These guys aren't mine, they don't belong to me, worst luck, so don't bother me.

Archive: Fine, but if you want it, please ask first.

Feedback: Hell, yes.

Note: Well dang, I don't think I've ever written a cross-over before so consider this a foray into unknown territory. This story is what happens when you have a costumer (yeah, that's me) who used to read comics. For those of you who may not know, Project Runway is a reality competition show in which about 15 or so fledgling fashion designers compete for fame and fortune over the course of maybe a dozen or so design challenges. Feathers and emotions fly over the cut of an armhole, the tailoring of a bodice, barrel pleats vs box, the ruching of a seam, bruised egos and bitchy remarks. It's too much fun and virtually the only TV show I watch.

Project Runway Titans Challenge

"But why do we have to do his? C'mon, it's not like we need the publicity."

"You need the good publicity."

'Excuse me?"

"How many times has your Tower be destroyed in the last three years? Right—and anyone recall that little incident a few months ago regarding a dab of heroin addiction? 'You want me to go on?"

"But—this?"

"This is perfect; makes you look like good sports, willing to take challenges, laugh at you self. This is perfect, trust me."

"Trust you? You're a PR hack."

"And proud of it, pal."

"PR—public relations, Project Runway. I get it."

"...Cripes. Fine, I guess. But I hate this."

"Suck it up, junior, at least you get to Meet Heidi Klum."

"...She's married...and she's old..."

"Designers, gather round, please. This morning we've asked you to meet here at the docks so that we can all board the Ferry which will take us to where you'll receive your next challenge. Designers, follow me!"

Tim Gunn led the ten remaining designers to settle in for the brief fifteen minute ride across and down the river to Titan's Island, landing amid ooh and ahhs and speculation as to what they'd be doing which could possible bring them here, though a couple of the brighter fashionistas had figured it out.

Standing on the dock and looking at and up to the multi-storied Titan Tower rising about the trees a hundred or so yards down a path (cameras catching every move), the designers waited while Tim stood patiently for them to settle down.

"As you've probably guessed by now this week's challenge involves the Titans. The five original Titans have graciously agreed to consider new costumes which you will design for them."

There was an excited murmur and a few squeals from the designers as the young heroes walked down the path from their headquarters and quietly stood by Tim, smiling 'hellos'.

"You'll be working in teams of two and this is to be a collaboration. You will have ten minutes to meet with your chosen hero or heroine then thirty minutes to sketch, afterward you'll have half an hour to shop at Mood. Are there any questions? Good, since Yves won the last challenge he will have first choice for his hero and also for his partner. Yves also has immunity and cannot be eliminated. Yves?"

The young man stepped forward and picked a tag from the black velvet bag. "Speedy and I'd like to work with Coco."

"Tommie?"

"I pulled out Aqualad and I'll pick Marc."

"Donna?"

"Robin and I'd like to work with Vera."

"Charles?"

"Kid Flask and I'd love to collaborate with Diane."

"Which leaves Wonder Girl whose new look will be designed by Ralph and Elsa."

"Now I have to tell you that there's a very special extra for the winning team. The Titans have agreed that the winning look will be worn during an actual case which has huge implications in terms of visibility and tremendous PR."

There was another round and buzz of excited murmuring

"Now, the Titans will meet with you to discuss their individual needs regarding a working costume and their personal preferences which I advise you to pay close attention to. Those ten minutes start—now, so get designing!"

The designers paired off, their individual Titans joining them to talk turkey and ignoring the fawning looks they were getting.

"I need a pair of seriously good boots, good ankle support and they have to be durable because when I'm topping seven-eight hundred MPH they take a real beating..."

"You know how hard it is to swim in jeans? Yeah, well I need something that isn't going to cling and hold me back..."

"Anything you want, darlin' so long as I have a place to store my arrows I'm good—did you want to measure my inseam?"

"How important is the cape to you?"

Talk over, sketches started, scratched out and redrawn, it was time to hit the Ferry back to Manhattan and Mood fabrics.

"Where do you have spandex?"

"Is this the only color Kevlar comes in?"

"Five minutes, please finish selecting your fabrics and move to the cutting tables so we can pay and leave."

Back in the workroom at Parsons Tim reminded the designers' "Remember, you have until midnight today and then a just scootch of time in the morning. In a few hours the Titans will be available for one fitting and one fitting only before they avail themselves tomorrow in time to get changed for the runway show. Use your time wisely!"

The designers paired up, pulled their materials out of their shopping bags, started draping their mannequins and drafting patterns. Time, as always, was short and they concentrated on their own projects while casting secret looks at what everyone else was up to. Ten designers, five finished garments, one person had immunity and one would go home. Tension was rising by the day, they were sleep deprived and on edge. Everything was set for an explosion, cat fight and bitchfest.

It would make great television.

"I'm seriously concerned about Charles and Diane's concept—don't they realize that they're dealing with Kid Flash? I mean sandals? Seriously?"

"With frigging wings on the heels? Ohmigod. Are you going to say anything?"

Eyes rolled. "They dug the hole, their problem, I'm just saying"

Across the room; "Call me cray-cray but I'm just not seeing Robin in sequined manties."

"Darling, I'd rather see him out of sequined manties."

"Back off bitch, I saw him first."

And in the sewing room; "Marc-Marc, I'm just completely in love with whatever it is that you're doing there."

"Aqualad—sweetest person in the world, by the way—water, swimming, slimy fish everywhere, oil spills; rubber is like totally the only practical way to go."

"...You're making Aqualad a rubber suit? Excuse me and does he know?"

"He will in a few hours."

But over in the lounge, taking a lunch break; "I was walking by Elsa and Ralph's station and did you see the finishing on the hem of whatever it is that they're making in there?"

"The lameass ballgown? Puts the heinie in heinous. I think they're going home."

"Either one of them or maybe Vera. This is supposed to be practical; silk charmeuse isn't practical. Ever. And for Robin's cape? Ohmigod."

"Serious ugly."

"Major serious ugly."

A few hours go by, it's now four in the afternoon. Tim enters. "Hello designers, I'm just going to come around and see how everyone's doing. Yves and Coco, do you mind if I start with you? Well, this is interesting, could you tell me about it?"

"We're designing for Speedy and so we were thinking Robin Hood, so we chose this green and..."

"If I may interject, this forest green concerns me. It seems a bit, I don't know, a little too 'welcome to Sherwood Forest'."

"But when it's paired with the pewter detailing we thought that it made him look like more of a heavy weight than he looks now."

"More serious." Tim doesn't seem happy. "I have to tell you that I'm worried that you may have gone too far towards a somber palette and his reputation is more of a bon vivant—don't bore the judges! And let's remember that Yves here has immunity from last week. If one of you were to go home, it would be our Coco." The two designers look worried as Tim moves off.

"How are Charles and Diane today? You're redesigning Kid Flash, correct?"

"We wanted to go classic with it, a Greek God sort of feeling."

"A play on 'Titans'?" They nod as Tim looks nervous for them. "I have to say, I'm not sure that a toga and winged sandals are, well, I don't think they work, to be honest."

Charles and Diane exchange a look that says Tim is an idiot and he can fuck off. "We have confidence in our design, Tim."

Tim knows this is a lost cause. "As long as you do, just be prepared to defend this to Michael and Nina.*" They nod, they know and they're ready to fight this fight to the bitter end.

*Note—fashion designer Michael Kors and fashion editor Nina Garcia are two regular judges.

"May I interrupt Ralph and Elsa for a minute?" They smile and nod as he comes over to them. "I must say, this is stunning but have you given enough thought to the practical? Wonder Girl is a, shall we say, very active young woman and I fear that she may not be able to move as she needs to in a floor length gown."

They'd created a floor length sheath, asymmetrically cut across the bust with a single diagonal strap holding the thing up. There was a probably too high slit running up the right leg and virtually no back. The fabric was ruched to within an inch of it's life, the color was a jewel toned sapphire and the thing was constructed out of an unfortunate combination of velvet and satin.

Ralph defended their idea. "We thought of that and so we used stretch velvet and satin, she should be able to do anything she wants in this."

"This is reading red-carpet to me, not jewel thief in a dark alley—it's a fabulous look, I just have doubts about it's practicality."

"We were thinking about shortening it."

"Well, I think if you maybe hacked off a yard or so of length you might have a real stand-out here. I have to say, I love this." Pause. "I love what it's going to become."

"Thank you, Tim." Elsa reached for the scissors and had at the hem.

"Donna and Vera, talk to me."

The two women stood by their mannequin, "This is Robin."

"Oh my." Tim looked stricken. "Sequined granny panties on Robin?"

"We thought that since he's sort of a showman, we'd give him something to bring that out." They looked hopeful. Maybe.

"Ahh...This is simply not working for me. This is a costume and I don't mean that in a good way. Do you have any more fabric?" Vera gestured to their work table, they had plenty of other stuff there. "I suggest that you think seriously about what you're doing with this and edit, edit, edit."

They nodded. They might have been able to pull off the sequins but not when coupled with the rhinestone frogs closing his vest. It was, it was true, too over the top and they only had a few hours to regroup.

"Go, go, go!" Time moved on to the next table as Vera began to cry, thinking that this could mean that one of them would be going home in the morning.

Donna drew her up short. "Listen, bitch; you cry if you want but rip that fucking seam while you're doing it, you hear me?"

"And what have we here? Talk to me, Tommie and Marc. This is for Aqualad, is that correct?"

"It's rubber because of the water, we thought that would be practical—last week Michael said he though I was going too safe so this week I wanted to really try to think outside of the box with this."

Tim looked worried. "Well, you certainly aren't playing it safe, Marc. Tommie, do you agree with this approach?"

"No, not really but Marc kind of, he really wanted to go this way and I guess it could work—it's not finished yet."

"I have to be honest; this is looking frighteningly dominatrix to me. It looks like it needs whips and straps to accessorize it, not a trident."

"But—are you serious? We thought this would be, you know, we wanted to get away from the usual 'hero wearing their tighty-whities over their tights' cliché."

"You certainly succeeded in that!" Tim shook his head. "I'm really concerned about this. For one thing, I believe that it's quite cold deep underwater and you've left the poor fellow practically naked."

"He said it didn't matter for some reason."

Tim looked dubious. "You have until midnight, make it work."

He moved back to the doorway. "Designers, I'm sending in the Titans, you'll have fifteen minutes for fitting and remember, you'll have very little time in the morning for finishing touches." He turned back. "One more thing. I have to ask that no one have the poor taste to take any potentially compromising pictures of our guests during this challenge. I'm sure that you all can appreciate that this would be an unforgivable breech of decorum and would result in potential problems."

That said the five Titans entered, found their designers and began the fittings. There were subdued reactions when the young men stripped down to their undergarments, their physiques as toned as any top male models and Wonder Girl's figure, while not the rail thin type usually preferred in fashion, was remarkable.

"Ohmigod, her muscles are bigger than mine are!"

"So are her boobs."

"Shut up."

"Seriously, did you see that Robin was rocking a thong under his shorts?"

"His ass is to die for."

The comments from the Titans about the designs were, well, tactful, restrained and not too insightful, though Robin did mention that he needed something form fitting so that he could move easily. The balloon sleeves wouldn't work and needed to be changed. The heroes seemed to be along for the ride and were just putting in an appearance, but it would probably be a seriously highly rated show.

"All right, designers, you have until midnight so go, go, go and I'll see you in the morning!"

Eight AM the next morning they were back in the workroom, frantically finishing hems, sewing buttons and zippers, rethinking a bit of trim here and there until nine AM rolled around. Tim was relieved to see that several designs had been tweaked and refined, hopefully enough.

"All right designers, if I may have your attention; I'm sending in the Titans." The five Titans walked in, somewhat sluggishly; this was the crack of dawn for most of them. "There's a small addition to today's runway; the Titans will be wearing your designs, of course, but instead of merely walking before the judges, they will be exhibiting their individual abilities while wearing your designs to make sure that they've fulfilled the needed practical requirements."

There were stunned and frightened looks from most of the contestants and a few smirks from various Titans.

"So, make your final adjustments and then they're off for hair and make-up. You have one hour before runway and be sure to accessorize and style your looks carefully!"

There were the usual panicked groans and last minute scramble while the designers led their Titan to hair and makeup to be fussed over and prettified. At ten exactly Tim returned with "Designers, it's time to go. Now, now, now, please."

A few moments later they were seated across the runway, seated in plastic chairs with the judges facing them, divided by the raised platform. Heidi strode out, wearing her usual almost illegal mini and eight months pregnant. She recapped the challenge, introduced Michael Kors and Nina Garcia along with that week's guest judge; Black Canary.

"So, let's begin."

The first model posed against the silhouette screen for a moment then stepped around to the front. It was the new costume design for Robin worn by Robin himself. He casually did back flips the length of the runway.

It was capeless and the short pants had been replaced by full leg tights of a dark orange color, the red breast/vest was scarlet and had been transformed into a long sleeved shirt with sequined frogs as the closing. The green pixie boots were now knee high pirate boots, cuffs turned down and black patent leather. When the model turned around the back of the entire ensemble was a reserved medium gray (except for the legs, they remained orange front and back), the black velvet face mask was a bit bigger, covering up to the hairline and now sported a small yellow beak covering the nose.

He looked like a very large gay bird.

The judges scribbled notes, the designers watched intently.

Next Kid Flash jogged his entrance, clearly doing his best to slow himself down, likely trying to get through this as fast as was reasonable without actually being rude.

His legs were bare from mid-thigh down, he was wearing a one shouldered red toga thing cinched at the waist with a gold lightning zig-zag belt and wore a gold laurel garland in his hair which somehow held the gold mask in place. On his feet, yes, winged gladiator sandals.

Michael Kors' mouth hung open.

Heidi giggled.

Next Speedy strode out, bow in hand. His new look was a dark forest green onesie, a unitard with dark pewter satin piping on and in every seam. There were sequins on the short and loose sleeves, edging the hem. His hat held two feathers which curled round and down under his chin in opposite directions, forming a sort of cupid's heart around his face. Instead of a mask he wore heavy eye makeup.

Wonder Girl was up next.

It was red, white and blue in two inch vertical stripes which barely covered her tootie. Metallic fabric. One shouldered. Draped. Above the knee silver boots. Matching silver above the elbow length fingerless gloves with her bracelets worn on top.

Nina's under her breath comment was a single "Oh. My. God."

Last but not least Aqualad made his awkward entrance. This was new to him, he'd never seen a fashion show before and he was close to the end of his hour allotment on land. And his new outfit chafed.

It was shiny black leather scales. It had numerous straps, metal rings and a bit of leather fringe hanging off the back of his calves. It was topless (aside from the strapping here and there), the waistband was a good four inches below his navel. He was barefoot. He looked like he wasn't sure if he should laugh or be embarrassed. Finally he made a grateful exit.

That was the last design, everyone left the judges to their deliberations, waiting in the workroom for decisions. It took almost forty-five minutes but finally they were all called back.

The judges were looking at their scorecards, shaking their heads.

"Will all the designers please come up on the runway and will the Titans please stand next to their designers."

Everyone shuffled into place.

Heidi Klum started, "We have a first for Project Runway. Michael, would you please...""

Michael Kors "This has never happened before. First of all, I'd like to thank the Titans for being such good sports today and—Nina, thoughts?" Dear God, Kors was without a single snark.

"I'm speechless. Well, as close as I get to speechless. We have a five-way tie and though we've tried, we've been unable to come to any other decision."

There was a pause, the designers were decidedly frightened, several starting to sniffle.

"In my twenty-seven years in fashion I've never seen anything like this. I find it astounding that you could take five exceptionally attractive young people like the Titans and turn them into the tragic walking models of dreck, tragically lame design, ill-considered garbage...Heidi?"

The sniffling spread, the Titans barely contained laughter.

"Schrecklich, albtraum, hasslich; und I'm being nice. You're supposed to be talented. You were all brought onto Project Runway to show us your skills and today's results—ohmiengott. We spoke to the producers and they've agreed that there's one solution."

The designers exchanged looks, held hands and waited.

"Everyone is aufed. The season is over and won't be broadcast. We're starting over with new designers so..." Heidi stood up and walked down the line, kissing each former contestant on both cheeks, wishing them 'Auf Wiedersehen'.

"Und Titans? The one hundred thousand dollar prize we were going to award will be donated to a charity of your choice.

"Danke und auf wiedersehen."

The designers left the room to pack up, sob, snipe, throw accusations and lick their wounds. Robin and the rest of the Titans hung back then approached the judges. Robin, as leader, spoke for the group. "Um, just to be sure, these tapes will never see daylight, right?"

"Well, that's really up to the producers but if you want we can speak to them and..."

"No, you don't understand. That wasn't a question, okay? These tapes will never see daylight and these costumes? They're coming with us."

Speedy was notching an arrow and Wonder Girl was loosening her lasso.

Michael Kors nodded. "This never happened."

9/28/10