A/N: READ THIS FIRST! IT IS IMPORTANT!

If you haven't read "Smoke and Mirrors", please do so. It'll make things so much easier.

Disclaimer: I own neither the Teen Titans, nor "The Incredibles". I only own my OC, John Smith
"It is beautiful beyond words! It is a masterpiece! The highlight of my career! Oh, dear boy, you simply have to see it!"

I grumbled and limped after the impossibly short woman as fast as I could. How can a human being be so short, yet walk so fast?

"I said to myself: Edna, this is a challenge! It must be bold! Daring! Classic! And then, I had a stroke of inspiration, unlike anything in the past! Oh, it rivals-nay, it surpasses!-the suits of the Parrs!"

She reached the door at the end of the corridor lined with superhero suits and with practiced movements she input her security code, lowered her glasses to permit a retina-scan and finally spoke slowly and clearly into a microphone.

"Edna Mode."

A whoosh next to me, a high-pitched whine, that brought back haunting memories. I jumped out of pure reflex as a very dangerous-looking gun descended from a trapdoor in the ceiling and aimed two water-cooled, glowing barrels at my head.

I looked at Mode, my knees feeling a bit weak.

She looked at me, then at the gun.

Silence.

She turned back to the microphone.

"…and guest." she added. The gun retracted back into the ceiling. I could do nothing but stare at her, my eyebrows still twitching. I didn't trust my voice.

She gave me a toothy grin.

"I always forget that part. Anyway, come, come!"

We entered a dark room, lit only by soft neon lights, whose job, apparently, was not to cast any light, just mysterious shadows. Lining the wall across the room was a long viewing window. Mode went straight for a chair in front of it, motioning me to join her.

"The first problem I had to tackle was your…disability." began Mode, nodding towards my left leg. A shot from an energy gun had crippled me for life; I was lucky to be able to walk with the aid of a staff. "Surprisingly, that was the easiest part. I made you a pair of boots and pants, lined with muscle wires. I believe that will help you overcome that limp. It hardly becomes a superhero…"

A crash-test dummy appeared in the other side of the window, suspended by cables. It wore what seemed to be a T-shirt, long pants and boots, all of them white.

"All of which is completely bulletproof, of course…" continued Mode, her voice that of a car salesman, demonstrating the extras of a very expensive car. As if to prove her point, two machine guns shot out of the floor and delivered a couple of hundred rounds into the poor dummy. Within seconds, every part of it not covered by clothes (including its head) was history. The rest of the body survived though. If you could callthat surviving.

"Ehh…Mrs. Mode?" I squeaked, horrified.

"Call me E, honey, call me E." she said carelessly. "This is not all, of course. That's just basic body-armor. SHROUD is so much more…!"

"SHROUD?!?" I yelped, panicking.

"Super Hero Ready OUtfit intended for Defense." explained Mode. "SHROUD, for short. Do you like the name?"

"Well…you bury people in shrouds." I grumbled.

"Your name is Wraith." snapped Mode. "It fits. Now shut up, dear."

Another dummy appeared, this one wearing what appeared to be a long trench coat and a long scarf, which covered its mouth and lower nose, and descended down to its shoulders. Not bad. But it's effing WHITE!

"SHROUD." said Mode, proudly. "Especially tailored for you. A work of art."

"It's a trench coat." I said, unimpressed. "Cool, I admit, but still a trench coat. And it'swhite. I believe I asked for something in black?"

Mode stared, horrified and disdainful.

"Black? BLACK?Why does everybody ask for black? It's so passé! It would look like a hobo-suit, darling! Only some 20th century relics like Batman wear black nowadays. Ghastly sense of fashion. White is the future, dear."

I couldn't help but chuckle. If Batman only heard…

"Still…" I argued. "I'mWraith. I work in shadows. You know? Shadows…black. Black…shadows? No?"

Mode sighed.

"OK. When I say 'Wraith', dear boy, what is the first thing that comes to mind?"

"A ghost…" I answered.

"What color is the sheet over the ghost?"

Silence.

"…Gotcha." I replied. White isn't that bad, after all…

"SHROUD is actually made of two layers. The inner is made of L-var, same as your shirt and Pants. It's a lighter and more pliable form of Kevlar. Quite sufficient for resisting small-arms fire. The second layer…"

She paused for dramatic effect.

Silence.

Silence.

"…Yes? What is it?" I asked, a bit annoyed.

"My favorite." Mode grinned like the devil. "Pure adamantium."

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"ADAMANTIUM?!?" I half-gasped, half-screamed. "Adamantium? That thing is priceless!"

"Yes…" Mode raised an eyebrow. "Your point being…?"

I spluttered indignantly.

"Listed, Mrs. Mode…"

"E, honey. I told you, call me E…"

I paused. There was an edgy tone in Mode's voice. It helped me get a grip.

"Listen…E…I admit I am not exactly poor, but nor am I a millionaire. I knowI cannot afford that much adamantium…"

She laughed, a cackling laugh that summoned the image of an evil witch. A rather short evil witch.

"Oh, but darling, I do not expectyou to pay for this. This is a present, from Lady Shiva." she chuckled. "Isn't she a nice girl? Stylish. Probably the only person I know who still looks fashionable in black leather. You know that she is a cat person? Oh yes, yes, and I also heard…"

I wasn't listening. Lady Shiva had paid for this? I was stunned. I never thought that she would like me that much. I decided there and then to get her something in return, as soon as I earned some cash.

"…which of course is utter nonsense. I never trust tabloids."

I focused.

"Huh? What? I'm sorry…E…I wasn't listening. Come again?"

She snorted, disdainful.

"Young people. Mind always wandering. Anyway, all this is not important. Let's get back to SHROUD."

"Yes…" I agreed. "There's just one question, before we proceed. From what I've heard, adamantium is really tough, right? So, how can you turn it into fabric? It would be like plate armor…"

She grinned her toothy grin.

"Ah…" she sighed. "It is true what they say. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. True, adamantium is 'tough' as you so succinctly put it. Practically indestructible, in fact. But only when electric current flows through it. I am not sure how it works, that concerns my technical department, but from what I gather, it has something to do with the material being polarized. Observe."

She hit a button in the arm of her chair and a couple of giant fans started blowing air on the suit. The trench coat flapped in the wind.

"Normal…" explained Mode.

She pushed another button. I gasped. The trench coat…froze,for lack of a better word. It was instantaneous. One moment its tails were flapping, as if caught in the wake of a jet plane and the next the whole suit was motionless, frozen in time, its texture having…changed. The coat was shiny,as if it had been coated with oil. It conjured the image of a metal…carapace. It was uncanny.

"…and polarized." said Mode and pushed a reallybig red button, with the meanest grin one could imagine.

A colossal explosion rocked the room. Smoke and flames obscured the view and I cried in alarm, certain that a multi-million-dollar suit had just gone up in smoke. Imagine my surprise when the dummy and the suit emerged unscathed. Saying that I was impressed would be an understatement.

"Shit…!" I gasped.

"Yeeeesss…" hissed Mode, her grin that of a madwoman. "Perfect. If my calculations are correct, SHROUD should withstand anything up to an anti-tank shell. Fireproof. Waterproof. Told you that it was a masterpiece…"

"Shit…!" I repeated. It was not the suit, but my eloquence that had gone up in smoke. I was in love.

"And that is not all…" sniggered Mode. "You haven't seen GRAVE yet…"

That jerked me back to reality.

"GRAVE?!?"

"Yeeeesss…" sniggered Mode. "I believe a 'Wraith' should be able to fly, don't you?"

"Yes, but…GRAVE?"

"GRAVitational Equalizer." she explained. "A simple…well, all right, not that simple Anti-Gravity device. It cannot provide total weightlessness, but if you don't get fat, or too bulky, you should be able to make…oh I'd say twenty-foot jumps with ease. Handy in rooftop chases, I am told."

I was speechless. Anti-Gravity devices? Adamantium armor? Talking 'bout going up in the world!

"All this is fine…E… but…how do I control all this? And where's the power? An Anti-gravity device must need a lot of juice. A hellof a lot of juice…" I protested.

"GRAVE's and SHROUD's AI will be in the buckle of your belt. I recommend you wear it inside SHROUD: trust me, you don'twant it damaged. All the circuits are encased in adamantium, so they're reasonably safe, but one never knows. Better safe than sorry, eh?" she cackled. "Especially since your power generator is a miniature matter-antimatter fuser."

I gulped. This was definitely out of my depth.

"'AI'?" I asked, just so I could say something. "Why do I need an AI? I guess only a trigger of some sort would be enough…"

"A trigger?" she asked incredulous. "Too slow, for what I had in mind. If SHROUD is to be of any use in combat, it must become polarized and un-polarized within fractions of a second. No manual trigger is that fast."

Good. No techno-gibberish there. I could follow her-so far.

"So…? What's the solution?" I asked.

"Obviously, I designed the AI to accept commands directly from your mind. Your powers, I believe…?"

Ah. I knew this was too good to be true. There had to be a catch.

"I cannot influence machines with my powers, E." I cut her off. "Only minds. No matter how complex or life-like an AI is, if it is not alive, I cannot…"

"I know that, dear boy." Mode snorted, disdainfully. "Do you think me that stupid?"

Silence. It spoke volumes

"So…what did you do?" I said.

"I used bio-circuitry, of course." Mode shrugged. "The core CPU of the AI contains brain cells. Human brain cells. You can influence those, can't you?"

"Yes…" I admitted, edging away from her. Human brain cells…? Dear God! "Where did you find a donor?" I asked.

She raised a lock of her hair while grinning like a lunatic, revealing a small U-shaped scar, just above her ear. I jerked back with a gasp.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed. "Is your middle name Frankenstein, or something?"

"How droll." she mumbled, reaching under her seat and pulling out a very large briefcase. Tottering under its weight, she slammed it on my lap.

"Oooof!" I gasped. "What the…?"

"Your suit." she snapped. "Custom tailored for you. Now go! Fight evil! Save the world! Oh, and when you're done, I'm having tea everyday, at five 'o clock. Drop by anytime. I rather enjoyed our chat."

I opened the briefcase and looked inside. SHROUD looked back, innocently. One had to know about the molecule-thick adamantium layer to spot the elusive metallic sheen of the fabric.

"Just out of curiosity…" said Mode. "Do you have any plans, for the future? Any assignments?"

"I have some ideas." I replied closing the briefcase. "We'll see."

I mirrored Mode's toothy grin.

"Can I ask a favor, E?"