(A/n) No beta, but 10k worth of story. I'm not sure if i will continue this, but it was fun to play in this world again.
Xander stood on the rooftop and stared out at the gathering night and the well lit T shaped building in the bay, it was truly an awesome sight and one that he was secretly geeking out over.
"What do you want"
Turning Xander smiled underneath the mask as the red and black clad superhero stood ten feet away in a defensive position, ready to fight at a moment's notice should Xander make that mistake. "Robin," Xander said as he leaned up against the safety ledge on the side of the building and crossed his arms, "as I don't see the others around I am guessing you decided to play this a little closer to the chest than you usually would" Xander mused before shrugging his shoulders, "Aah well, I would have liked to meet them all things considered but I guess it's not to be,"
"I said 'What do you want' not an analysis of what I have or have not done" Robin growled as he held the collapsible staff by his side.
Nodding at that Xander had to concede the younger mans point, he was the unknown here and dragging anything out further than it needed to would only result in antagonizing the bats protégé, "Fine then, I am putting together a team" Xander explained carefully as Robin just scowled at him.
"Thanks for the offer, but I already have a team," he growled, he knew this wasn't Red X, Both Zatarra and Doctor Fate had both vouched for the authenticity of the Being known as Janus and had assured him that if he said it wasn't Red X than it simply Was NOT Red X, still there was something about him.
"I'm not offering you a place, you wouldn't fit in with the character profile and would likely aggravate my team more than you would help anyway." Xander explained.
Blinking at that Robin almost managed to convince himself that he was NOT jealous for not receiving the offer before glaring again "If you didn't come to offer me a position than I repeat my question, What Do You Want" Robin enunciated each word carefully, at the moment he was more confused than anything and he really wanted to get a straight answer at the moment.
Huffing a sigh of irritation Xander finally decided to go with his normal routine and simply blurted everything out in a rush. "I want to make sure you won't attack us the first time we show up and to set up some sort of communication between us." Xander said exasperated before taking a deep breath and continuing "Many of the bad's you and your team face are not all bad, the Hive trio in particular have the potential to be saved, I intend to make them an offer for a different life, one that will keep them from crossing that line," Xander explained as he watched the young hero from behind his mask and hoped the mind that many considered to be the equal of Batmans would see the value of such a situation.
After a minute of silence Robin finally shook his head and stood up a bit straighter "We have tried before to get them help, we even offered them a chance at the titans, they are not interested." Robin explained before Xander waved the argument off.
"They are not interested in being Heroes, I am not offering them that, right now none of the potential candidates are ready to be heroes or even want to be, I am not offering them that." Xander said before pressing on "the team I am setting up will be based off of espionage and counter strike situations, primarily focusing on the real 'Big' Bad's out there, none of them want to be ground under by someone like Darkseid or Trigon, and while they are hesitant to face off against beings like them I intend to let them work in the shadows and give YOU heroes the information you need to come down like the Holy hammer of God himself on some of these assholes."
Blinking at that Robin considered the situation for a moment, it was true that many times it was WHAT the team knew or did not know that spelled victory or defeat, to date he or beast boy had been doing the general reconnaissance with Cyborg working the information side, to have a team dedicated to getting them that information would be invaluable. "And what do they get out of it, most of them won't be willing to work for peanuts" Robin challenged and was again a bit offended when the masked teen simply laughed at that comment.
"Robin, most of them are already making peanuts. On average the Hive trio make less than a hundred dollars a week in all of their different heists; they can literally make more than that working part time jobs flipping burgers." Xander explained before nodding towards the city "I have already talked to several business owners and insurance agencies that are willing help us finance the team, I would like some help with the police commissioner to make sure they aren't thrown in jail at the first whiff of trouble but other than that… well we were actually considering charging the different Superhero teams for the info we gather." Xander said before holding his hands up to forestall the inevitable explosion such a comment would produce. "Not that we won't help, but we would expect some compensation should the information prove reliable, Just the same consideration Confidential informants get from the police every day."
After a moment Robin nodded at that, Batman actually had a rather extensive network of informants in Gotham, some of them actually made more passing on valuable information than they did in their day jobs, in all it was an idea that Robin was willing to at least consider, taking a deep breath robing finally made a decision "The Titans can't afford to finance you on our own, but we will make a trial run, should you prove valuable I will bring you to the attention of the other teams and even the League, no promises but… I am willing to give this a chance." He said before offering the masked teen a hand.
For a moment Xander inner fanboy squealed at the thought of actually shaking the hand of Robin before he squashed that part of himself and buried it deeply in the darkest recesses of his mind, the last thing he needed was for Robin to think he was crazy.
"Get a list of potential candidate's together, they will have to be vetted by me and… and the bat before we agree to allow them on the team." Robin said as they shook before breaking off the other man's retort "At least until we get through the probation period, if you can show 'Him' that your trustworthy than we will go hands off, if not than we will consider you just another Villain Team," Robin said with finality before accepting the nod, "Next is the team base, we are going to need to know where that is, and then communication, I can get you a communicator rather easily, some limitations on its abilities will be needed but once you have a base a full communications system can be put in,"
Over the next three hours Robin would walk the older teen through what a startup team would need, some of the things were obvious, many were not but all of them were things Robin had run into when he started his own team and he had seen Batman run into many of the same during the founding of the League.
In all Xander left the rooftop with a solid plan on what he needed to do and how to go about it, he also had three days to come up with a team roster before a formal meeting of the Titans at the Tower.
Landing in the dark alleyway Xander smiled when Red X stepped out of the shadows before he nodded at the thief, "Looks like it worked, we have a team." Xander said before the two disappeared into the night, they had a lot of work to do before the meeting.
Several blocks away Robin glared at the Shadows before the dark form of his boss and surrogate father stepped out of the shadows, he still didn't know how Bruce kept finding out about his meeting but it was really annoying. "It looks like we are going to have another team." He said before disappearing into the shadows to go over the details with the Dark Knight, they had a lot of work to do before the meeting.
The meeting with the titans had started off pretty poorly with Raven almost blasting Xander back to the mainland, to be fair to the magic user Xander should have known than to teleport to the island with a group of heavily armed and twitchy teens but he had other things on his mind than that and nobody had ever built a bridge to the small island.
After dodging the sudden burst of soul energy Xander and the titans exchanged apologies before moving into the tower proper to go over the candidates, of course first up was someone that he knew would get some friction from at least one of the members.
"Red X" Xander said dropping the folder onto the table and watching the hackles of the Titans rise at the thought of that particular headache getting a free pass. "He is trained, experienced and knows more about getting into and out of places than I could learn in a hundred lifetimes," Xander argued his point before tapping the folder again "He already knows about what I am planning and is willing to curtail his more aggravating impulses," Xander said before letting the Titans go over the folder of the young man he had dressed as and was currently as close to a relation as he had in this universe.
After a time going over the file the Titans finally decided to drop the folder in the 'Maybe' category before moving on to the next. "Cheshire" looking at the file Xander knew this one would be a harder sell and he was honestly less than excited about the possibility of this particular teen joining his Team, while she would be an asset he was less than convinced at his ability to keep her on the straight and narrow, even with the threat of world destruction he was willing to bet on her looking after her own skin rather than that of the world at large or the team.
Again the Titans went over the file, asking some questions about why she was a potential candidate before again dropping her name in the potential category, but not without some disagreement from a few of the members.
Next came the Hive Trio, "Mammoth, Jinx and Gizmo," Xander said dropping the files to the table together "They may as well be a team in their own right and could be with a strong leader, while not as subtle as many of the others they have proven themselves remarkably effective at infiltration and espionage and I honestly believe Mammoth to be a savant at sneaking because there should be no WAY someone that big can hide in this town without someone seeing him and reporting him," Xander said before leaning forward "I am most interested in them as members of the team, they already know how to work together and can bring a wide range of resources to the table, also I believe them to be the most open to the offer." Xander pressed before leaning back as the Titans went back and forth on the issue, in the end Xander smiled behind his mask as they dropped the trio into the candidate pile.
"Adonis" Xander said dropping the next file on the table "This kid needs help in a major way, his initial value to the team is limited thanks to Gizmo but the fact that he can make strength enhancing systems such as he did indicates a mind capable of some rather ingenious abilities, I want to see what he can do with hearing and sight, at the very least he will have an in with some of the nerdier villains you seem to face off against, After some thought he was also added to the list of candidates.
Kyd Wykkyd, Billy Numerous and See-More were added to the candidate list while Johnny Rancid and Punk Rocket as well as half a dozen others were rejected due to anti-social attitudes, finally dropping the last one on the table Xander was less than surprised at the sudden adamant refusal of one titan in particular.
"I know you have issues with your sister Starfire, but Blackfire would be an asset to the team," Xander said before raising his hand in supplication at her glare "Alright, I didn't expect you to agree, but I had to try, we don't have enough resources on extra-terrestrial opponents and the pool of candidates is limited, while earth seems to have plenty of 'Alien' hero's, none of them seem particularly willing to play spy or secret agent to the galaxy at large." Xander explained as the redhead Alien settled down slightly.
"She is not to be trusted, she is Klor'bath, I will not accept her position on your team friend X," the usually chipper Tameranian said darkly before moving the folder to the reject section.
Nodding at that Xander went through the remainder of the files without anywhere near as much drama, some were accepted, many were placed under consideration and a few were rejected, in the end Xander had seven acceptable names to go after and twenty that he could consider at a later date or if the acceptable names were unwilling to take the offer.
Robin had explained that he and representatives from the League had met with the District Attorney and the Commissioner and smoothed things out for the new team, but it was a one shot deal, should the candidates accept the position and renege on it, the courts had made it very clear they would throw the book at them.
Xander for his part had brought up a small curio shop near the downtown area that had been sitting on the market for three years, the local business had been willing to donate it to the team and simply took it off on their taxes as a donation to a non-profit entity, should the team members accept the position they would have access to the loft area for their team meetings while Holographic disguises kept nosey people from wondering why a bunch of teens would hang out in such a place.
In all things were beginning to look like they were going to happen.
Now it was just a matter of getting a bunch of hormone driven angst and emo teens currently dealing with their own problems and powers to sign on.
What could go wrong.
"YOU WANT ME TO WORK WITH THOSE CRUDE MUNCHERS!" Gizmo yelled in outrage as the bald kid waved his arms around futile rage in the voluminous prison garb he was currently dressed in, of them all Xander had chosen to attempt to bring Gizmo on board first due to his young age and mindset.
"Not a chance, I want you to work with me, gathering information and data on other villains to keep the more brutal ones from taking over." Xander explained before leaning forward and staring at the boy from behind the mask "Do you really want to know what will happen if someone like Darkseid or Lex Luthor actually succeed?" Xander pointed out before leaning back "Besides you will get to go up against some of the best security systems the world has to offer, none of that pansy 'Alarm' crap, you will have to find a way to get around Death Rays, flame throwers, super robots and lasers, and that's just to get in the door." Xander pointed out and smiled at the gleam the young man got in his eyes at the challenge.
"What about my gear?" The genius asked before leaning forward "I Doubt you are going to let me raid the local electronic section of the military, and you can't get most of my stuff off the shelf." He argued before Xander shrugged.
"we will start off the same way you probably did, scrounge up what we need, and then steal the rest from the bad guys, heck I'm already half tempted to 'Commandeer' Metallo, can you honestly say that the military has even a fraction of the toys these bad guys get a hold of on a daily basis?" Xander said and knew the hook was set at the near manic grin on the boys face.
After a minute of daydreaming Gizmo's grin finally slipped somewhat "You're going to make me be nice to the Booger Brains aren't you." He stated more than questioned and slumped at Xander nod, he knew he was going to take the offer but he was sorely tempted not to, he really didn't like the goody-goodies very much, and working with so many 'Girls' was just gross.
The only girl he could stand was Jinx, and she really wasn't a girl, not really anyways.
Finally after thinking it over the techno-wizard could only come up with one word to fit.
"Crud"
Sitting in front of the teen Xander was more than a little bit awed at the massive boy, while Mammoth was three years younger than Xander himself the Teen already sported more facial hair than Xander could grow in a year AND had nearly two feet on him causing the bruiser to be literally head and shoulders above the black and red clad demon slayer.
Blinking and shaking his head Xander finally got into the sales pitch, through it all the massive teen simply sat across from him and listened giving Xander very little to go on in either facial cues or body language, finally after a time Mammoth leaned forward over the table "you explained what you want me to do, and what the city is willing to do, but what do I get out of all this?' he asked before sitting back in the chair, "In here I get a warm bed, nobody messing with my head, three nice meals a day and a lot of silly walls and bars to try and keep me in"
Blinking at that Xander came to a conclusion "all this stuff isn't really keeping you in is it?" he asked as the massive teen simply flexed and bent the shackles that were supposed to control him. "Yeah, well I can offer you a better view, a way to earn your keep legally, people that won't scream whenever you walk in the room and a chance to hang out with Jinx and Gizmo without someone like Blood in the way." Xander explained before shrugging "And of course I need a ringer for the Jump city Hotdog eating contest or Cyborg will wipe the floor with us."
That actually pulled a chuckle from the large Meta and a smile at the chance to face off with the strongman of the titans once more, even if it was in a more polite manner than they usually battled. "Fine, I'm in" he said before standing up "But I have to warn you, Jinx isn't going to be as easy to convince, she honestly believes she can't be good." The boy said before following the guard out to begin the process of getting released.
Sitting in the room Xander had to agree with Mammoths statement, everything he had read or seen about the Witch pointed to a deeply rooted belief that her powers could only be used for bad.
"No"
Setting the paperwork on the table Xander took a seat before looking at the Pink haired hellion "Excuse me?"
"You want me to join you, or work for you or with you to try and 'Save' me, it's been tried before, it hasn't worked then it won't work now so the answer is just no, I won't sign on so find someone that you can actually help." Jinx said darkly as she desperately tried to keep the tears away.
"well that's the problem" Xander said before opening up the folder and showing the photos of his two newest recruits "I already have found people to help, Gizmo and Mammoth are both near perfect candidates for the program but everything we have says that without your assistance their odds of successfully passing and become constructive members of the team are reduced drastically" Xander said before looking back up at her "to the tune of eighty percent probability of failure." Xander explained handing the witch the printout of the different possibilities and let her read over them carefully. "We have a good chance of saving Mammoth, but Gizmo needs you to balance out the equation, if not his natural tendency towards Chaos will see him right back here again, and this time he won't get out for a very long time."
It would take another hour of back and forth before Jinx finally agreed to sign on with the team.
Stepping out of the prison gates the trio stood frozen for a moment before glancing at each other odd, at Xander look Jinx just shrugged her shoulders before responding for the others "This is the first time we left and there were no alarms," She explained before shaking the sensation off and moving on to the issue at hand "So you have us, the Star graduates of the Hive Academy," she said modestly before looking at the Red costumed idiot that had managed to get them their freedom "So what's the plan now, or are we it?"
Taking a left Xander began walking down the road towards the Shop, "no, there are others, Red X has already signed on temporarily and we hope to get several others as well, some you probably already know." Xander said before looking back with a smile "The 'First' graduating team of the Hive Academy" Xander said with a smirk as the trio lost all humor, it was a bit of a sore point that they had failed their first attempt at graduation thanks to failing in their mission to destroy the Titans leaving Team Two to graduate first, Billy Numerous, Kydd Wykkyd and See-More had never let them live it down either.
Well, Billy had never let them live it down, Kydd didn't say much and See-More was pretty cool.
After a moment of stewing Jinx finally let out a huff of annoyance "Fine, we make the offer to team two," She said as she resisted the urge to throw a temper tantrum and start destroying things "How are we getting in touch with them? They aren't in Jail and after the Titans got rid of Blood we haven't really been in touch." She said before Gizmo decided to chime in.
"Yeah, the Jerks didn't even bust us outta jail," he whined before getting a thoughtful look on his face, or gas, it was always hard to tell with kids that young before he snapped his fingers "I got it, we hijack the TV station and broadcast a signal out to team two." He suggested before reconsidering at the looks his teammates were giving him.
Finally sighing Xander decided to take the reins on this one before responding "a good idea Giz, but we are NOT criminals, so hijacking the broadcast is out." Xander said before getting an idea "But we can insert a message into the signal, maybe something that only See-more would pick up on," Xander said before looking at the pint sized techno-mage "Think you can pull it off, WITHOUT being caught or causing damage" Xander said and grinned as the boys good mood vanished.
"Geez why don't you just Blindfold me and tie my hands behind my back while you're at it." He groused before heading to the one place he knew he could get a computer.
"Jump City Public Library?" Xander said in shock as the trio led him inside; within minutes the elderly lady behind the counter had greeted each of the trio warmly before dragging Xanders personal information out of him and quickly printing him up a card.
By the time he stumbled away from the return of the Spanish Inquisition Gizmo was already on the computer getting the message out to See-More for the Ocular boy to meet them there, next issue was the childish and immature 'Billy' but Mammoth suggested simply taking out an ad in the funny papers, a suggestion that got him accolades from the others for the simple answer.
And finally came the more complicated of them all, Kydd Wykkyd, the boy could teleport, turn invisible and move through solid objects, tracking him down would be a nightmare, but hopefully See-more would know where to find him.
As the last information was entered into the computer Gizmo finally signed off and went to talk to the librarian before they quartet left the book depository.
Stepping into the Curio shop Xander showed the assembled teens the new headquarters; he was halfway through the second story loft area where the rooms where when Jinx brought up the one issue Xander had not managed to resolve yet.
"So what are we calling ourselves?" she asked before cocking her hips to one side "Or have you not figured that out yet,"
Silently cursing the intuitiveness of the female mind Xander let his shoulder slump slightly as a dark cloud of defeat seemed to loom overhead. "No, I haven't figured out a name yet, I was hoping to get everyone together before we crossed that particular bridge." He explained before leading everyone up to the upper floor, while a bit Spartan Xander pointed out the prominent points and what the base would offer once it got up and running before dropping into one of the seats around the large table that took up the most room Just as Red X joined them from an empty corner in the back. "All right then, you signed on, I don't know what the others will say to the offer but you are the first to join so you are the first to get the speech" Xander said before reaching up and unhooking the mask and pulling it off "My name is Xander Harris, and I am from a different dimension."
After a time the general response to his comment finally died down and Xander could get into his sales pitch. "I understand the outburst but I need you all to trust me, that isn't going to happen if I keep secrets so I will be telling you all my secrets and answering any question you have." Xander explained as he set the mask on the table, in a short time he had covered his life up to the Halloween incident and his transportation to the DC universe leaving out small details concerning identities of local heroes and the like, finally covering the deal he had made with Robin Xander sat back in the chair and crossed his arms.
"Now, one of the big things I have seen is the collapse of team thanks to a dirty secret getting aired at precisely the wrong time, so here is the rule, I expect honesty at the very least, you don't have to tell everyone everything but anything that you feel could cause trouble NEEDS to come out, sooner rather than later, to me or to the designated second who we haven't come up with yet." Xander explained calmly before tapping his helmet "I know it's hard and most likely will only get harder, but its better it comes out now rather than in the middle of a mission where someone will get killed." Sitting back Xander decided to explain a bit more "The information I just gave you is important, people like Doctor Fate and even hacks like mumbo jumbo can use me to get a bead on my home dimension and pull things through, I am trusting you all with this because it's important." Xander said before pressing on.
"That is the second thing, we are NOT a superhero team, I don't expect you to be saint but we are also not villains, we are here to keep the world spinning and to get paid for it, we gather information that is important and pass it on to the people that can use it to play the big damn heroes, so we will be risking our lives and letting someone else get all the glory, if you don't like that then once you have proven yourself you can transfer to one of the teams that get all that attention, although Gizmo may need to tone down his vocabulary a bit." Xander said with a smirk at the younger boys scowl before he continued "as for any problems you may have with the rest of the team, if you can resolve it without violence than do so, if not than bring it to me or the team second, and for the record the second will NOT be Red X, while he could do the job he is smarter than me and doesn't want it,"
Glaring at the teen that he just KNEW was smirking behind the mask Xander finally turned back "Now as to our opposition, at the moment the Titans want any information we can dig up on Slade, low priority but long term, the more info we can get the more they are willing to pay, so if we want to keep the lights on and the water running we need to come up with something, Beast Boy also wants us to keep an eye out one the so called 'Doom Patrol' they aren't villains but he would like to know what they are up to. This is the trail run so we need to make sure we are accurate on what we pass on, and if you think you can throw a monkey wrench in the plans of the man that screwed you over… well I won't be to hard on you for that."
The near demonic grins of the teens were enough to remind Xander why they were considered 'Badguys' in the first place.
"Crude munching piece of Crap" Gizmo yelled as he stabbed at several keys before resorting to the age old tactic of smacking the side of the monitor in frustration, it didn't do anything to actually help the situation but it always made him feel better.
Looking up as the defacto leader of the team walked over Gizmo tried to reign in his admittedly short temper before exploded "Why they heck are we stuck working with this off the shelf crap anyway, it's taking forever to find anything on here." He complained as he pointed at the computer accusingly as if it was intentionally sabotaging him.
"Yeah, but we haven't gotten anything to give to the Titans so we are stuck with it until we do." Xander explained as the others walked over to see what was going on "unless…" Xander trailed off before looking over at Red X "Any of you know any villains we can raid for their junk? Someone we don't like."
"Ugg, Control Freak" Jinx said with a shudder, she had been forced to work with the pimply faced fatso several times and the obnoxious mouth breathing had almost gotten him hexed more than once.
Smiling Xander picked up the Helmet off the table "Let's go get him then, Gizmo, can you set up an anonymous tip to the Police telling them where to find him, schedule it for say an hour from now." Xander said before cocking his head to the side "Sign it 'Specter' and let's roll with that for the moment"
Blinking at that the Trio looked at each other before turning back to him "Wait, you mean we are really going to raid Controls Freaks 'Secret Lair' and then call the cops on him" Mammoth asked before smiling at Xanders nod, the big teen had never liked the teen perving on his teammate and was looking forward to putting a beating down on him.
Locking the helmet into place Xander let the suits system boot up before he laid out the mission. "Alright, our first mission is Misdirection and Subterfuge, nobody can know it was us…"
Thirty minutes later Xander and Red X teleported into the 'Secret Lair' and watched the portly pseudo villain monologue to himself, of course the hardest part of getting into the 'Secret Lair' had been bypassing the boy's mother upstairs before sneaking into the basement.
Looking at each other Xander nodded and Red X flickered away, it was time to set the scene for the 'Specters'
With a soft puff a half dozen smoke canisters popped around the basement filling the enclosed space with white fumes, in moments the overweight boys was ranting about Ninja's and movies before Xander and Red X both flickered in beside him and each landed a chop to the side of the boys neck, knocking him out cold, in minutes the remainder of the team had snuck in and were busy packing up the different pieces of electronics, Mammoth sneaking the pieces out while Jinx ran interference and 'Accidently' kicked the pudgy boy several times while Gizmo downloaded the movie mad villains hard drives and wiped them, in all it was a pretty successful haul and the new team was gone before the police arrived, for his part Control Freak would have a hard time explaining to his mom where the baggy full of weed came from when the police found him in the basement, the bong sitting in his hand was evidence enough where his unconscious state came from, it would be many months before he escaped from prison and even more before he escaped from his grounding.
Watching the boy set up the computers Xander asked the one question that was really bothering him "Are you sure these can't be tracked back to here?"
Spinning around Gizmo pointed at the bigger teen with a scowl before he responded "What the Crud do you think I am? Some Sorta Noob? I checked every piece that I plug in personally, no WAY is it going to be tracked." He ranted before turning back to his work
Smiling at the young boys fire Xander shook his head. "Nope, I'm just paranoid, and I know we are going to be ticking off some very dangerous people soon enough, the last thing I want is to get caught straight out of the gate," Xander explained before standing up "Besides, next time we need something I expect to just have it donated by the police after they arrest the people, saves us all sorts of trouble."
Looking up from the first edition comic he had purloined from the geek Mammoth blinked "You mean THAT'S where all the stuff goes?" he rumbled as he wiped jelly from his doughnut off on the 'Priceless' comic absently.
Smiling Xander took a seat and kicked his feet up "Yep, that's where the Titans get half their stuff, mostly just TV's and Computers now that they are set up, but the local police are gathering quiet a stockpile of stuff that we should get to pick through once we prove ourselves." The next several minutes were spent making a wish list for gear and equipment that they would 'Need' in the near future, why a foosball Table made the list would be obvious to any male teen.
The conversation ground to a halt When Jinx finally sighed and tossed her fashion magazine to the side before storming off towards the roof, watching her go for a minute Xander stood and followed.
Reaching the roof Xander found the pink haired witch sitting on the edge of the roof staring at the setting sun, walking over Xander sat a few feet away and just waited, long experience with Willow had taught him that most of the times he needed to let them start the conversation or he would get his head snapped off.
After a few minutes Jinx finally sighed and turned to glare at him before letting the anger drop, "I don't" she paused to catch her bearing before forcing herself to continue "Why do you want to help us?" she asked as Xander sat next to her several moments in thought.
Finally Xander shrugged "I guess it's a lot of reasons, I know where you are likely to end up and I don't want that to happen, I truly think you and the others can help but mostly… because I didn't get to save very many people back home." Xander explained before looking out at the setting sun "oh I pulled a vampire off a couple of people and saved Buffy, Willow and Giles a few times but… usually by the time someone has 'Gone Bad' back home, they are already dead and Turned, just a walking corpse with their memories and face." Xander said sadly as he remembered all the faces he had seen crumble to dust in front of him. "I guess this is me trying to make a difference here, one that I could never make back home."
Blinking at that Jinx looked back out over the city and sighed "I don't know my parents, my family died in a fire the same day I was born," She explained sadly as she watched the sun disappear into the bay and outline the giant T building that stood there. "the orphanage they sent me to was destroyed by a freak tornado a week later, I never really had a home after that, just bouncing from place to place as each one was destroyed in some freak 'Accident' soon after I arrived, most times the people that were trying to help escaped but sometimes…" she trailed off looking at her hands "When the Hive found me I was already a Jinx, I don't even remember my own name, but they gave me a home, a purpose, a team." She said before laughing "And then they were destroyed by a freak accident involving a cyborg man, a green shape shifting person, a half demon and a boy with an unnatural fixation on birds." She said before shrugging "I honestly can't see how that one is my fault but."
"You still feel that it might be." Xander finished as he watched her nod her head sadly "Well, then I guess we need to get this checked out than," he said and smiled as she turned to look at him in shock "what? I may not know a lot of things, but I do know that when someone or something is cursed, talk to the professionals, and I just so happen to know a boy with an unnatural fixation on birds that happens to know how to get in touch with the living embodiment of Magic and the most powerful mage of this age." Xander said before standing up to stretch "I figure that Robin could get in touch with Doctor Fate or Zatara to help us sort this out, before you get the base eaten by a giant space amoeba or something." He joked before leading the young girl back inside.
She had shared one of her burdens with him, and he would be damn sure he did everything in his power to make sure it never came back to haunt her.
Stepping back into the building Xander nudged the pink haired Witch before nodding towards the others "Do you want them to know?" he asked quietly before taking her shake of the head and simply moving on, moving through the building to his own room Xander pulled out the communicator he had gotten from the titans and pressed the small button on the top, in moments a short ditty was played Robins Face appeared on the other Side.
"Robin, I know we haven't really gotten off the ground yet, but I need to get in touch with a Mage of some sort, Doctor Fate or Zatara, one of my team might be living under an active curse and I want to make sure this is neutralized before we really get into all of this." Xander explained before waiting as the defacto team leader moved to a computer and typed the information in, after a minute the Red Clad hero finally turned back to the communicator.
"It's done, Either Fate or Zatara will be contacting you on this channel in the next day or so," Robin said before leaning forward "I have to ask though, Do you really think there is a curse?" the teen asked in concern,
Xander thought about that for a minute before shrugging "Not sure, it sounds like something funny is going on, but that could just be bad luck, better to find out now rather than after everything blows up." Xander said before looking around "Come to think of it, I should probably have them look over the building and the rest of the team as well, better to be safe than sorry, and maybe they can put in some wards or spells or something to help keep the riff-raff out, the security we are putting in should be enough, but you never know." Xander said as the other boy nodded at that.
Xander would be surprised if the Titans didn't get a surprise visit from one of the magic users themselves in a little bit, while the Bat Clan had little Love for the Mystical side of the world, they were not foolish enough to ignore it entirely.
Nodding in thanks Xander updated Robin on the situation with Control Freak before working out a deal to mine through the gathered data before transmitting the 'important' bits as well as an unmodified copy of the original to the Titans for review, Xander realized that Robin was looking to find out how accurate the collection and analysis abilities of his new team was before trusting them with more important work.
Snapping the communicator closed Xander slipped the device into one of the compartments in his utility belt before heading back to the main room, looking Xander frowned before walking over to the 'List' and quickly added communicators and an All Call system to the required items, it would be needed if the team grew beyond their current size.
Calling everyone over Xander quickly covered what he had come up with, everyone would be scanned by the mage when they arrived, Xander made sure to point out that his time on the hellmouth had made him a bit nervous about mind control and magic and he wanted to be sure everything was alright before they really started to put the team to work, he also assured them that absolutely nothing would be done without their personal consent, Xander and Red X would both be on hand to assure that the magic user did not abuse their position, listening to the comments and concerns Xander made notes of what he needed in agreement from the caster before the team reached a consensus on the scan.
Next came the mission he had picked up from Robin, in short Order Xander worked out a way for Gizmo to bring up the general information the villain had on his system and then allow each team member to look at it and arrive at a conclusion, while it would be slower and more painful than just allowing Gizmo to look through it himself Xander wanted to make sure nothing was missed because one person had all the responsibilities, he was also happy to announce that this would be their first paying job as Robin had agreed to a flat rate of a thousand dollars plus extra should the team discover any actionable or critical knowledge.
While he expected some friction at the rather paltry amount each would get Xander was shocked that the Hive graduates had rarely gotten as much, after some conversation Xander and Red X were amazed at how much the fence's had scammed these kids out of, they had been selling jewelry and equipment that would net millions for pennies on the dollar or trading it for the equipment that the local villains considered 'Standard' in this universe.
Keeping that particular bit of information to himself Xander assured the team that this was likely the start, should they ever reach a point where their information was passed on to the league, Xander trailed off the conversation at that point and let their imagination fill in the rest. "But this is why we need to do this right, we miss something, we screw up or we fabricate something to make our contribution sound better, and we will never be trusted again, Information Brokers that Lie are usually either out of business or dead in very short order, I don't want either option for us."
Looking up Xander acknowledged the salute from Red X before the teen disappeared, letting himself sigh at that Xander shook his head, he knew Red X would be an invaluable asset to the team, but he also knew that the boy had an independent streak a mile wide, he doubted the theif would ever really be part of the team, though he might moonlight for them from time to time.
Shaking that particular issue off for another time Xander turned back to the team and began pouring over the data that Gizmo was already pulling from the computers, he expected it would be a very long night.
"Hey, this crud bucket has whole gigs of data on girls" Gizmo gagged before opening up the file and frowning "Wait a minute, these are all pictures?" he said before the trio still in the house leapt to cut the much younger boy off before he opened anything else up, checking the time Xander shook his head and dismissed the team to catch some sleep, they would finish up later and Xander would go through the file and make sure Gizmo wasn't exposed to anything… too weird.
Three minutes later and Xander was half tempted to go and kill the fat couch potato out of hand, his porn collection consisted of nearly every female hero and villain imaginable, for a moment Xander saw red as the file containing images of Jinx scrolled by before he trashed the whole folder on the work copy and cleared the cache and making a notation in the files for Robin that certain files needed to be secured for the perverts own safety, he knew that Wonder Woman would be more than willing to smash the fat boy into a paste for what he had on his system.
Cutting the data to a disk Xander pulled it out of the system and stared at it dumbly before sighing and walking back over to the list and adding a 'Security Vault' near the top.
In the end Xander resorted to hiding it beneath his mattress before he turned in for the night.
The next Day Xander had explained that the file simply had 'Dirty Pictures' before Gizmo gagged at the thought and left it alone, he was thankfully still young enough to be grossed out by the thought and would most likely not pursue it further.
Fortunately they managed to clear the remainder of the data easily enough and Xander smiled as he held four reports on what they found as well as the unmodified original a few short hours later as he forwarded the data to the Titans, while several important or interesting things had been discovered Xander was surprised at the lack of actual danger in the villain, it was almost like he was an obsessed fanboy for the most part, an analysis supported by the rather large volume of Teen Titan fanfiction the boy had on his harddrive, most of which sported himself as either the protagonist or victorious antagonist.
Xander also made sure Gizmo copied down a few of the schematics the fanboy had on his system for further study before sending everything off, Xander was more than a little bit surprised when his communicator rang an hour later and the gold helmed form of Doctor Fate appeared, in short order Xander had gotten the needed information and the oaths he needed before he allowed any mage to cast spells on his people before he told the Order mage how to reach them and left to gather the team.
Walking into the main room Xander caught the tail end of the news report the team was watching on the computer screen.
"-and with the help of an anonymous source the Jump City PD would like to announce the arrest and re-incarceration of the criminal threat known as 'Control Freak'" the Chief of Police said with a saccharine smile for the camera's as questions where thrown at him for a moment before one in particular cut through.
"What is the departments stance on the rumors of the so called 'Specters' having a hand in the arrest yesterday?" the dark haired reported called out from near the front as a slight frown crossed the chiefs face for a moment before he rallied.
"The source of our information was anonymous, and will remain so for the sources safety, any 'call signs' that might be linked to them are purely speculation on the part of conspiracy theorists and media sensationalists." The older man said before moving on to other issues and leaving the reporter to glare from the crowd as Red X and Xander shared a whistle that brought them to the attention of the trio.
Looking from them to the screen it was Gizmo that broke the silence "WHAT!" he shouted as he waved his arms in frustration.
Taking a seat Xander nodded to the silenced video feed "Ms. Al-Jilani there either just made or broke her career," Xander said before he continued at their confused looks, "Gizmo sent that notice with the Signature of 'Specter' to the Chief and his direct Subordinate, when they use information like that people in power almost never report WHERE they get it from, or who, that information is played very close to the vest, so only two people and two computers should have that information, for her to call him on it the NEXT DAY." Xander drifted off as Red X picked up the train of thought.
"He is saying that she either has an in with the Chief or the Deputy, not likely due to their reaction, or she has access to their computers somehow." He said before pointing at the gathered reporters "She just declared that she had a source they don't know about and all but dared the Chief to find out who and what it is." Red X said as he ran over the variables of such a situation in his mind "She will either be ripped apart by the cops trying to close a leak that could get people killed, or she will get away with it and her career will be made when the fact that the Signature was used is broken."
Nodding at that Xander took up the conversation "Either way it's a dangerous gamble, so she is either very confident, or very desperate, best we stay away from the like of her if at all possible." Xander said before moving on to the issue at hand. "As for staying away, or in this case NOT, we will be having a guest in an hour or so, Doctor Fate is going to look the building over as well as each of us, " Xander said before waving off the protests "He will only be looking, nothing will be done without our approval, that has already been made clear, but this will happen, where I come from Curses are very real and very dangerous, once cursed the mage could make you go blind, or catch fire or even take possession of your body and use it as they want, I won't let that happen to anyone here." Xander said before he continued, "Fate will check the building itself, than myself with Red X overseeing, after that it's his turn while I make sure nothing funny happens, than Gizmo, Jinx and Mammoth," Xander explained the plan before he finished up and dismissed the gathered teens to prepare.
Sitting behind the counter in his street clothes Xander blinked as a Massive Golden Ankh appeared in the middle of the floor and the helmeted Mage stepped out of the glow before it disappeared, blinking the spots from his eyes Xander glared at the man that had arrived "You know, we do have a door right? Random lightshows will most likely run off potential customers or worse yet attract the type we don't want." Xander said as the mage watched him for a moment before reaching for the helm and removing it.
"My apologies son, but past experience has shown me it is better to enter such unknown situations with a bit of surprise to offset any ambush that might be planned" he apologized before tucking the helm under his arm, "Robin said you believed there might be a curse of some sort involved here?"
"I Think it is better to be safe than sorry, and I will probably make it a mandatory thing to be vetted by a good or neutral mage user before they can join the team." Xander hedged slightly as the golden helmed hero nodded before returning his helm to his head "Than lets be about this, I assume you are first?" he asked as he lifted his hand only to stop at Xander waving him off.
"Actually I would prefer to go over the building first, not much use checking us for curses if the land itself is poisoned." Xander said as he thought of the Hellmouth absently,
Nodding at that Kent Nelson turned and after casting a quick glamour on himself to hid from prying eyes he walked around the building with the young man that had called him as he checked the building and lands for possibly problems, he was surprised to find a natural aversion field on the building, nothing too bad but it kept potential customers from entering and was probably the reason the building had sat on the market for as long as it had.
After a brief scan he informed Xander who quickly decided to keep the field in place, the less traffic flow the less they would have to hide from in the long run although he did stabilize the field slightly so it would not grow into something more sinister, on the plus side it also kept the more pervasive vermin out.
Finishing up the check Fate finally returned to the main building and quickly sketched several arcane marks on the floor, while he could easily check for curses with his own spell it was complicated to show and explain the different types to those untrained in the occult, as such the markings would simply light up in a pattern that he could than decipher for the laymen , as an added bonus it also kept certain spirits from transmitting through the curse and attacking him.
Finishing up Fate noticed the Black and red clad boy standing nearby watching his every move, had he been less experienced in dealing with the likes of the bat clan the boy would have actually unnerved him slightly, thankfully though he was experience and he simply accepted that the teens did not fully trust him, of course given how he arrived it seemed that was a mindset shared on both sides.
Watching him carefully for any sign of treachery Xander finally stepped into the circle and at the doctors request sat down with his legs crossed and closed his eyes, he was half tempted to ask if he needed to turn his head and cough but thankfully managed to resist that particular suicidal impulse.
Taking a deep breath as the magic began to flow around him Xander tried to clear his mind as Slade had once taught Red X, only without the use of a cattle prod.
The curse project had taken the teams time until well into the afternoon, leaving them tired, grouchy and generally unpleasant but the Order Mage had discovered and neutralized three mental control abilities on the Hive trio and one on Red X as well as cleansing Xander of the remnants of his possession and a rather nasty well of chaotic energy that the Doctor has declared as 'Troublesome' but the big issue had actually been the Curse Jinx had been worried about, the mage had found the source of her bad luck and after some rather long winded explanation finally simplified it for the teens.
"If I remove it your powers go with it, there is also a chance it could kill you but that possibility is remote at best," the Sorcerer declared as the teens looked between each other in shock, after a few moments of the kicked puppy looks Fate finally shrugged "It's not like you have to decide right away, I can make up some amulets that will keep you all safe from the curse and ward the building so that it will not affect the building as a whole, that should give you months or even years to decide on a course of action, and provide me some time to delve further into the reasoning's behind such a curse."
Blinking at that the team looked at each other before Xander just nodded in acceptance, he would put the issue up on the monthly task list but beyond that he didn't want anyone pressuring Jinx over her decision.
After warding the building and promising to have the amulets sent to the shop within a fortnight Fate took his leave, summoning yet another golden Ankh he teleported himself away leaving the somewhat shell-shocked teens to ponder the rather disturbing amount of spells and curses they seemed to have.
Finally Mammoth summed it up for everyone as he slumped into a chair with a grunt before he growled sullenly "Magic sucks."
