II

Vince's sleep was blatantly, and rather rudely, disturbed by the sudden blaring of a klaxon within the lobby of the Tower. Jenny, sleeping curled up right next to Vince, slowly sat up. "Hnnng," she moaned as she stretched. Vince was still curled up on the couch, sleeping contentedly throughout. "Whud's goin' on?" she muttered. "Vince, get up, we need to go somewheah."

He replied with a yawn, stretching himself out. His platinum dyed hair covered his eyes slightly as he tried to brush away the strange noise urging him up. "Just ten more minutes, Mom." He almost incoherently muttered. It was almost like a force of habit now, just muttering those five simple words are almost always the first words to come out of his mouth every single day.

"Vince," she said, shaking her head. "Hydron Ice." A ball of ice water materialized in her upheld right hand. This should wake him up, she thought and, without a second thought on what Vince might do after being rudely awakened, chucked it at his head softly.

The icewater hit his head with a splash. Vince, rather almost impulsesively, jumped off the sofa and into the air, activated the Light Armor, and shot a light bolt dead next to Jenny's head, so close that she was able to smell the ozone. The bolt ended its travel in the wall behind her, in a large pile of both smoking rubble and a bright flash. Jenny only blinked after the bolt zipped past her head, looking behind her at the wall with a large hole now occupying it, and back at Vince. "Now was that really necessary?!" She screamed.

"Necessary?!" Vince landed in front of the young Elementalist, his armored, featureless faceplate in her face. "Was it necessary to throw a ball of ice water at my head?!"

"Was it necessary for you to try shooting my head clean off my shoulders?!"

"You were the one who chucked it at me in the first place!" Vince began to generate a new salvo of laser bolts in his fists. "How would you like it if I fired a laser bolt past your head to make you wake up?"

"Bring it on, Mister Sunshine!" Fireballs were generating in her hands as her Elementalist robes came into view. "I can take you any day of the week!" Tensions reached their height in that lobby, the lone, blaring klaxon adding to the urgency of the mood, though the klaxon wasn't blaring due to the argument taking place here. Both stood poised, ready to act on the other's fault.

And it was at this moment when those two heroes were about to blow what was left of the Tower to itty bitty bits that a third entity entered the lobby. "Shut up!" She yelled at both of them, coming through the main entrance. "Both of you just shut up! Gods, if I was still a full-fledged Soul Reaper," She trailed off, covering her head with her right hand, her left resting on the hilt of her katana, sheathed and buckled to her hip. Other than the sword, one would probably take her as a normal teen. A plain white tee was worn under a black overcoat, the sleeve cuffs red with gold trim. Faded blue skinny jeans led to white sneakers. Her face was painted pale white, with her bright red hair tied back into two long pigtails with red ribbon.

She was a Soul Reaper, before she joined the Paragon Titans. But, due to a little incident that involved Vince, Jenny, fellow Soul Reapers Rukia Kuchiki and Renji Abarai, and a demonic entity known as the Nightbringing Deceiver, she was stripped of her title. And, since the author just wants to get past this little explanatory paragraph to get along with the main plot, he will cut the story short and just say that it was a long, long time before she met Vince again. (Feel free to blither away about this now.)

By this time, the fight had pretty much cooled off. Vince just stayed in his armor, too busy to deactivate it. "And where've you been?" Jenny asked.

"If you must know," Issui stated, "while you and Vince were about to try killing each other and harming the immediate environment around you for the Gods-knows-what time, I was practicing my combat technique on the obstacle course."

"This place has an obstacle course?" Vince asked.

"It's out back, near the garden." Jenny answered.

"There's a garden?"

"Yes," Jenny said, getting annoyed, "there is a garden. It's out back."

"But how come I didn't see—"

"Shut up! You ask too many questions!" Issui retorted. "And you don't notice things!"

"Well, excuse me if I'm slow!" Vince returned. "Besides, at least I remember to stay within bounds of my jurisdiction."

"You got a problem with me, Bright Boy?"

And so, their conversation of yelling to the point of incoherence continued, with Jenny standing on the sidelines wondering, Why oh why do I hang out with an idiot superhero and a ex-Soul Reaper? The klaxon continued to blare in the background with the wail of an annoying child on an airplane.

A fourth form entered the lobby in the midst of all this. He was dressed casually, wearing a grey hoodie and baggy jeans with white sneakers. His hair was done messily, somewhat covering his eyes. He was also a bit of an idiot. But, at least, he was an idiot that was able to hurl entire trains with just his mind. He has perfected the arts of psychokinesis and telekinesis. He also is able to manipulate gravity fields around objects and people, increasing it to crush or simply hinder, or remove it entirely to let them float around aimlessly. And, right now, he's carrying two slurpees in both of his hands. He walked right next to Jenny. "They're fighing again," he said, watching the pointless argument.

"Yeah they are." She looked longingly at one of the slurpees. "May I?"

"Sure." She made a quick grab for it. "It's cherry flavored."

"Thanks." She took a long sip and they both looked at the heated argument.

He motioned to the alarm still blaring. "How long's that thing been going?"

"Who cares? Pyron bolt!" A fireball shot out of her hand, blowing another large hole in another wall. Although the hole was unsightly, it at least stopped the idiotic noise that had been blatantly and obliviously blaring for about twenty minutes.

"Thanks for that, Jen."

"No biggie, Sean." Both took sips from their slurpees as Vince and Issui's argument dragged on.

The author would now like to state that this dragged on for an entire thirty minutes, until both Jenny's and Sean's slurpees ran out, and Jenny released Silky from his water bubble prison, at which point Silky scurried back off to the safety of Starefire's room.

The author would also like to state the situation that Dex was in. He was still, if fruitlessly, trying to jack into the Teen Titan computer mainframe. Apparently, Cyborg had guarded it too well, and didn't tell them that they wouldn't be able to jack into the system with any ease. Apparently, as this was all happening, the entire team was oblivious to the full-scale assault launched by the HIVE Academy on the mainland. This can be due to the fact that: (a) Dex was trying to jack into the mainframe; (b) Jenny had blown out the emergency alert system; and (c) Both Jenny and Sean were preoccupied with watching another drastic and otherwise unneeded argument between Vince and Issui.

They were also too preoccupied to see that the Hive Five were streaking toward the Tower that very moment.