Twilight's Last Gleaming
Opening Note: While accessible to new readers, this takes place in a fanon (so alternate) universe derived from multiple writings, so there WILL be original characters. This will also let me do a few minor tweaks on the DC Comics universe. Nothing ultra-huge, but it's there. Just so you know.
Prologue: Infamy
Or
Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You...
As silent as the creature whose species defined everything about it and the world, it drifted through the clouds. It seemed terrifying that something could move so quietly and leave so little a trace of its presence behind, but the people within knew much of fear.
The figure sitting on the throne, carved from purest gold and obsidian, decorated with priceless emeralds, certainly knew it well. And of its consequences. And how much it played in the future of the world.
"We will be in range within the hour, master." Spoke a nameless minion, clad in the same colors of auric and verdigris.
"Good." Replied the figure, the faintest trace of an accent underpinning his words. "Is everything prepared?"
"Yes sir. They will stand no chance."
"I would prefer you think of them as standing quite a chance, lest arrogance be your undoing." The figure, clearly master of all he surveyed, replied tersely.
"F-f-forgive me master! I will make sure…!"
"Be gone. I am in no mood for sniveling." The master said, and the minion made well his escape. His message would be received as wished.
The sun was just starting to begin its ascent. Not that the figure could have known that. Discounting the sealed room that served as his throne room, his eyes were as white as breast milk, the sight torn from them long ago. But he didn't need it.
"The irony." He commented to himself. "That the end should fall on this date. Then again, in a way it is quite deserving. The country has had retribution for its betrayal a long time coming. Not to mention the many sins other voices would surely heap on it. As little as that matters: in the end all will share their fate. But the beginning of the end shall erupt here. By the dawn's early light, as it were."
A low chuckle sounded across the room, and then the figure spoke no more, preparing for the glorious blood and fire, an infinity greater then the kind that birthed the country he was heading towards…
As we drift away from this grim omen…
And go rapidly across the waters as the sun rises higher in the sky…
Until we come to the shining building, the T-shaped structure of glass and steel, shining brightly in the sunlight on this lovely morning of July 4th.
And as we look through the window, into a kitchen, where a colorfully dressed figure sat…
Albeit not as colorful as he would usually be, as Robin was not wearing his cape or mask and was wearing a more casual shirt over his costume, though his green leggings and armored boots were clearly visible. After much experimentation on just how much he needed to wear the costume around the Tower, Robin had settled on this: he looked normal enough and could be battle ready within five seconds.
The universe known to many as DC has seen many incarnations with many changes between them. In this universe we view now though, this is the third Robin, Tim Drake: by a quirk of time he leads the Titans rather then his older brother in arms, Dick Grayson. Though at the moment, he looked like any teenager, as he sipped his coffee and read the morning newspaper, enjoying the quiet.
A touch TOO quiet, now that he thought of it. Even with Beast Boy and the generally noisier Titans preferring later rising hours, surely there would have been more background noise then Robin was hearing.
Then again, maybe he was just letting his mind play tricks on him, as he turned the newspaper page and continue reading, sipping once more from his coffee…
And then he heard the thud.
Robin arched an eyebrow, and glanced over at the darker main room where the thud had come from. He suddenly had the resigned feeling that his peaceful time was over.
Well, if he didn't bite they'd just keep escalating, so no sense delaying the evitable, as Robin got up and headed over, slight caution in his movements, just in case they did something unexpec-
"SURPRISE!"
In the end, even Robin was caught off guard, as the lights flared on…revealing his fellow Titans, all of them, smiling and holding their arms out, as streamers and confetti launched over and around a banner that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN.
"…wha?" Robin said.
"Ah come on Fearless, you didn't think we'd do nothing, did you?" Victor "Cyborg" Stone laughed as he clapped an arm around Robin. "I know you tend to prefer low-key, but hey, Cyborg doesn't DO LOW-KEY!"
Robin knew that, if only by the proof of the piles of presents and enormous person-sized birthday cake that the Titans were around. And they looked delighted to be celebrating, even the more stoic and reserved members.
He hated to burst their bubble, but he believed honesty was the best policy.
"Uh guys…it's not my birthday."
"Oh do not be silly Tim! You need not act your modesty in such a dishonest matter!" Chirped Starfire, his ever ebullient alien girlfriend.
"I'm not being modest. It's really not. My birthday's on the 19th, not the 4th."
"Oh come on Robin, don't be a spoilsport!" Gar "Beast Boy" Logan said as he eagerly bounded around as a golden retriever. Somehow, he kept the casual clothes he was wearing on his green hide.
"We checked the computer, it had this listed as your birthday. And seeing how we never got around to celebrating any of them so far, you deserve it." Raven said.
"Hell, I checked myself." Came another voice, and Robin glanced over to the speaker. Dressed in white jeans and leather jacket with a blue shirt, white boots, and blue headband tied under a towering mass of impossibly vertical and sculpted hair, Noel "Savior" Collins certainly didn't sound like he was lying. And since Noel tended to be somewhat of a stick in the mud, that confirmed to Robin that something was a touch off.
"Yeah, come on! Party! Party! And cake! I call firsties!" Came another male voice, as New member No 2, Robert "Gauntlet" Candide, a casually dressed teenager with blonde hair who could sometimes express enough exuberance to leave Starfire and Beast Boy in the dust (a notable task), jumped over to the giant cake as his namesake artifact, an ancient device from a long forgotten society roughly translated as the Old Ones, expanded over his arm and projected a yellow-tinged energy as he tried to slice himself a giant piece.
Only to find Savior's own energy talent, the white nervous system based 'Shimmer' (as he called it), blocking his way.
"Hold it grabbie. I'm not having you mess up Tara and Sophie's hard work before we get this straight." Noel said. Gauntlet blinked, and then looked at the two, first at the blonde, waifish Tara "Terra" Markov, in many worlds a heartless traitor or a manipulated puppet, but here a Titan, ironically by Gauntlet's own intervention (and great luck all things considered) and then at her almost exact opposite, the brown haired and pleasantly plump and quite proud of it Sophie Matthews, who was the last of the current Titan roster to join under the name of Morgue (having been before then the girlfriend of the previous new member, the alien Scalpel, a renegade member of the war-happy alien race called the Blacktrinians in Earth English). Terra shrugged her shoulders, while Sophie made a mock mad face and did a throat slashing motion, suggesting a gruesome fate for Gauntlet if he touched her cake. Scalpel, aka Nigel Hastings (the approximation of his gibberish Blacktrinian name, Nigicalnack Hastionfarlock), the last male member to join the Titans since their forming several years ago, waved his three fingered (two fingers and a thumb) metal-clawed hand (one of his many stand out traits: his feet were similarly designed. Along with the fact his skin was light gray, his short hair was an ultramarine blue, his ears were elongated like an elf, his top front primary teeth were fused into a double-sized fang, and his eyes' cornea's were pitch black, with the pupils the same ultramarine as his hair. As well as his battle costume/casual wear being an outfit that looked like a zoot suit with a dark cape attached to his shoulders, a darkness that contrasted with his outfit being colored a striking red. Nigel Hastings always stood out in a crowd) at Rob, as if he was delighted that Rob would be denied cake before him. Rob gulped, and the Gauntlet retracted back to its small ring form.
"Now, Tim…it's not your birthday?" Savior asked.
"No."
"…But it says on the computer."
"What?" Robin said, as he headed over to the Titans' main computer and turned it on, as the nine other Titans waited to see who was telling the truth.
Robin called up the calendar feature, and there it was on the 4th: Robin's Birthday.
"Dude, how do you forget your own birthday?" Beast Boy joked. "What, has Red-X pulled a…reverse…Robin…X…thing on us?" The changeling said, losing track of the joke in mid-sentence.
"But it's NOT my birthday guys. But don't worry, I see why you made that error." Robin said as he turned around. "Remember the last time Gizmo tried to hack us? He messed up a few things. I thought Victor and I had fixed them all, but apparently, we missed one." Robin said, as he reached around himself and pressed a key, calling up July 19th on the program…which was clearly labeled Independence Day.
"The damage caused the dates to get switched." Noel said, as he smacked his forehead with his palm.
"And none of you bothered to confirm. Shame, shame. I taught you people better." Robin mock-chastised.
"Oops." Terra said, shrugging her shoulders.
"All the same, thank you guys. It's not needed…or correct, but appreciated. And hey, we can still do some celebrating."
"That's RIGHT! IT'S STILL INDEPENDENCE DAY! YAHOO! GO AMERICA!" Beast Boy as he ran around as a donkey.
"Nice subtle hint there." Noel commented as he sat down in a nearby chair as Beast Boy pranced by.
"Would you really prefer me dancing around as an elephant Noel?"
"Point well taken." Noel said, as he opened a coke and began drinking. "Politics aside, Happy Independence Day guys."
"YEAH! WE RULE!" Cyborg declared…revealing that his whole body, front and back, was suddenly covered in a colorfully (and not exactly pristine) painted replica of the Star and Stripes.
"That was not there a moment ago." Robin commented wryly.
"Heh, well…I actually spent hours on it last night, covered it with a holopin. When we were done celebrating I was gonna head out and get some more partying in around the town…one advantage of being mostly machine: you don't sweat." Cyborg said.
"How on earth did you paint your own back?" Noel commented, looking at Cyborg's artwork.
Cyborg promptly removed his own right forearm, which crawled across the table, picked up one of Robin's presents, and spun it on its finger.
"Impressive…though that really is a waste of your abilities, Vic."
"Yeah yeah!" Cyborg replied, blowing Noel off as he re-attached his arm. "I think you and Robin do plenty of wasting of your own mental efforts. Like your little game to see who can hide hidden tools on yourselves in increasingly more ridiculous places, but hey, I keep that to myself! Say Tim, managed to work out a convenient way to conceal something behind your eyeball yet?" Cyborg asked, trying to tease Robin for his ultra-grim assessments of capture and the precautions he took.
"Working on it." Robin replied calmly. Cyborg saw his joke was wrecked and moved on.
"But hell, I don't need to go out! We can celebrate here! Barbecue! Giant racks of ribs! Chickens for everyone! Giant, juicy hamburgers! And of course, tofu." Cyborg said, cutting Beast Boy off just as he opened his mouth to protest, leaving the animal master's jaw hanging comically open. "America, freedom of choice!"
"So long as you're a white male age 18 to 49." Raven commented to herself. Noel glanced at her. She returned the look. "Oh come on, normally that'd be coming out of your mouth."
"Perhaps, but not today. Come on Raven, just relax a bit. I know you can. I've seen you." Noel said, his comment tinged with a touch too much innuendo for Raven's taste, as she smacked him with a black energy encased cushion.
"Well, if it is not yet your day of birth, I suppose we can just put the presents away for later." Starfire said. Robin looked at the many boxes and shook his head.
"This is a lot of stuff guys. I hope you got at least some practical items."
"Oh come on, what fun is that?" Cyborg said. "Besides, you pretty much own everything that's practical already."
"Where did you get the money for this?"
"We hid it in the Birdarang budget." Cyborg said, and winked. Robin stared, and then couldn't help but chuckle: he knew well himself how one could hide such things in such unique inventories.
"Anyway, we can put it away later. Except maybe this. It's really a microwave to replace the one Victor broke. I figured if we got it for you we could sneak around punishment for that." Beast Boy said.
"Hey man, I didn't break the microwave! I was just trying to make sure it popped my corn correctly!" Cyborg protested.
"Which you, since you could not for some reason properly set the timer for, resorted to attempt by jamming said timer through some cyber-robotic trick, which is fine except you failed to unjam it, which lead to an explosion and very unpleasant smells pervading the kitchen for several days." Raven commented.
"Hey Rae, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If Ben Franklin hadn't flown a kite in a storm, who would have discovered electricity?"
"Someone else, who did not kill himself trying to make his discoveries." Savior commented. "Risk is all fine and good, but unnecessary risk, well, Franklin's lucky he's an American myth and not a cautionary tale."
"Hey Noel, would you have mocked the people who went out to see Franklin's oyster eating horse?" Cyborg commented.
"No, I probably would have fallen for that myself. Franklin, he was one of a kind."
"My Earth history is a touch rusty." Scalpel said, as he held his own can of soda in his claws: you'd expect the nasty looking appendages to crush the can, but Nigel, despite his immense strength (his species was, like Starfire, naturally superstrong, though Nigel traded off the fact that he was actually stronger in Starfire with being immensely dense, which made him sink like a stone in water), handled the can with ease. After all, he had been a doctor. "Just who was declaring the independence here?"
"The United States. Going on about 230 or so years now." Terra said. "Back then, we were a British colony, but the Brits were a bunch of morons who thought being nice to CANADIA was better, so the 13 original colonies united and declared themselves independent, and when the British came to take us back we kicked their rear ends, and now we're the most powerful country in the world, yay!" Terra said, as she raised her own soda can.
"With all the problems and history that comes with it." Sophie commented.
"Eh, omelet, eggs." Terra replied.
"Yes, it was a rather acrimonious situation, Friend Nigel." Starfire said. "And quite strange! I must tell you of the Boston Party of Tea. If I could remember it better…"
"Allow me Star." Rob said. "You see, a bunch of colonists were angry about taxes on tea. Mind you, it was a small tax. But they were angry because they didn't get to vote on it. Because of the tax, they boycotted the tea. Being cranky due to caffeine withdrawal, a bunch of guys decided to dress up like Indians and dump the tea in the harbor. They figured that if they couldn't have the tea, nobody could."
"…so the people figured…the best way to express their anger with their government…was not immediate armed rebellion…but to dress up as an indigenous people…and throw a drink mix away?" Scalpel queried, the look on his face clearly indicating he found the whole thing absurd..
"Hey, can't always get it right the first time. They tried making a point by dressing up as Indians and throwing tea into the harbor, didn't work. Then as Dave Barry said they tried dressing up as tea and throwing Indians into the harbor and then dressing up as a harbor and throwing tea into Indians…" Rob joked.
"Oh? The level of success of such efforts must have been truly low. I never saw such the slightest mention of them in my studies, even on the Pedia of Wiki." Starfire commented.
"Yeah, well, history's weird." Gar said as he sat down with the group. "But that's what happened, and despite losing a lot of battles, we held in there and kicked their limey asses off the continent for good! Unless you count Canadia, which nobody does!" Gar said, clearly joking.
"You know, remembering this country's independence should be more then just trumpeting how great we are. People died to get it, and died to protect it. Some day we might get called upon to do it again." Sophie said.
"And we'll win! Because we always do!" Beast Boy declared, fully in the grip of his parodic nationalism. "Because we won before! Because that's how awesome they were! The British Empire was the most powerful country on Earth, and we still kicked 'em out, with sheer American grit and determination!"
"And French aid." Robin added.
"Psht! Like we needed it. THE BRITISH SUCK!" Beast Boy crowed.
And then the roar blasted through the room as the entire building shook, and the Titans found themselves tossed down and around like they were inside a can of peas. Furniture overturned, presents went everywhere, and more then a few soda cans exploded and sprayed their carbonated contents everywhere. However, the giant cake remained upright. Now that's good baking.
And then, silent, the room abruptly turned into a disaster zone.
A pause.
And then Beast Boy peeked up over a table.
"Eep, they heard me."
Legend Maker Presents:
With contributions from Jedi-And, Chaltab, Prisionero, and Bobcat
Independence…at the End of Days.
TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING
"Ordo…Ab Chao."
