Zatrion Presents…
Zatrion Presents…
Spectrum
Note: I do not own the Teen Titans. They originated in DC Comics, and was brought to the small screen by Warner Bros. Spectrum is my character, however.
Chapter 2: Questions
Titan's Tower, Med Lab
A week has passed since the Titans faced off against Mumbo and the Sideshow, and the arrival of the mysterious boy. Aside from them taking the boy to the Tower, not much has changed. Robin remained as vigilant as ever, Starfire was still trying out all of Earth's various foods, and Cyborg and Beast Boy continued their video game wars. The only real difference was Raven, who, no matter what she tried, could not meditate and relax. Instead, she has taken to keeping track of their so-called visitor's vital signs. This is where we find her, albeit with her face on a desk, and a small puddle of drool underneath her mouth. A noise wakes her up, and she sees Robin in the seat next to her, and a fresh cup of tea on the desk.
"Still no change?" Robin takes a look at the screen with the boy's vitals. They all seem to be within normal standards, aside from abnormally low brain activity. He puts a hand to his chin, trying to make sense of this.
"Nothing." Raven wipes away a small spot of drool from her cheek, before taking the cup and saucer into her hands. "No spikes or drops, no signs of movement." She takes a sip of the tea. "Nothing has changed over the week." She takes another sip of her tea, letting it fully wake her up. "Cyborg checked to see if the equipment was faulty."
"What was his verdict?" Robin continues to look at the vitals, almost waiting for something to happen.
"Nothing was wrong with any of the equipment, and the drip we have set up shouldn't be doing this to him." Raven places down the saucer and the now half-empty cup of tea. To her right is a glass pane, with the boy on a bed on the other side of that pane. She turns to look through the pane, at the boy's prone body.
"Take a break, Raven. You've been keeping an eye on him for the past week. You need to relax." Robin stands up and walks right in front of the pane, blocking Raven's line of sight. "Ever since he arrived, you haven't read anything, or even meditated once. You even ate some of Beast Boy's tofu dogs last night." He then taps his foot. "I'll take over for you."
"That explains why I ended up feeling sick this morning." Raven jokes lightly, gets up and stretches, allowing her body to regain some sense of feeling. "The thing is, I've tried to put him out of my mind, but it hasn't worked."
"Just try." Robin tries to shoo her out, but looks back when he hears a noise. Looking back at the vitals, he noticed that brain activity has gone up on the boy. "Get the others."
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The boy's eyes open, showing that, despite being out for a week, he is very exhausted. He tries to speak, but his voice seems to be gone for the moment. He can feel a slight chill from his surroundings, and any attempt to move his body seems to be useless. His eyes pan left, and he notices an IV dripper attached to his arm. He shudders. I hate needles. Finally getting feeling back in his right arm, he reaches over, and in one swift motion, rips out the IV drip. Strangely, there is no blood, like he expected.
With the removal of the drip, he feels more focused, more aware. He takes a look at the drip bag, and notices that it had both nutrients and tranquilizers in it. That's why I'm so loopy. Finally noticing the extremely dryness of his mouth, he heads to a nearby sink and opens the faucet. Cupping his hands underneath the stream, he splashes some on his face, with a good bit going into his mouth. He nearly chokes on it, but the liquid has done its job.
Hearing a noise, the boy turns his head. Looking over, he sees another guy his age, perhaps a bit younger, and the outfit? "Isn't it a little early for Halloween?" The boy's voice is raspy, sore, showing that he hasn't used it for some while. "You trying to playact, like a superhero or something?" Seriously, to the boy, this other guy just looked ridiculous. There was the mask, the cape, the spiky hair, the giant 'R' over the heart. The only good thing from the outfit were those boots of his. They looked as if they could do some serious damage… Something triggers in the boy's memories. Something about a cartoon based around five teenage superheroes. Just as soon as that thought comes up, it is squashed. "Or is there some sort of cos-play convention nearby?"
Robin only glares at the boy. Not even awake five minutes, and this guy was already a pain. "So this is our thanks for saving and keeping an eye on you? You end up heaving insults on us?"
The boy pauses, noticing the boy's voice, but it is soon thrown to the recesses of his mind. He turns away from the boy and goes to open the curtain. "I don't know what's going on, but I want…" The boy's voice is stopped when he opens the curtains. Bright sunlight pours into the room, but that isn't what bothers him. His problem was the entire surroundings. First, there was no snow to be found. This was overshadowed by the next two things; he was on an island, and there was a massive city on in the horizon, both of which were completely foreign to him. He looks back at Robin, with a twitching eye. "Where am I?"
"Take it easy. This is Titans' Tower, in Jump City." Robin slowly puts a hand behind hid back, looking to grab some smoke pellets, just in case this unnamed teen goes violent.
"Three things. One, pull your hand away from your back. I don't know if you're itching something or what, but don't try anything. Second, there is no such place as Jump City. Sure, maybe as a rave club, but that's about the most it can be." While looking at Robin, the boy raises up a third finger, to show that he is moving onto his third point. "And third. Titans' Tower is fictional, made up. It's from cartoons and comic books."
"Your point being?" Robin pulls his hand away, hiding three smoke pellets in his fist. The way things are going, he will more than likely use them.
"The point is…" The boy stops. Finally, it all sets in. The costumed guy, the setting, even the other teen's voice, they just seemed to mesh together far too well. He shakes his head in disbelief. "No. This is impossible." His breaths come in short gasps, before finding a chair and sitting down in it. "This can't be real."
It is at this time that the other four Titans arrive. They look over at Robin, then back to their 'guest', whose face goes completely pale in color, and his eyes are on the verge of popping out of their sockets. Robin shakes his head, which basically says that he did nothing.
"You can't be. You just can't be." The boy crawls up into a ball. "You can't be real." There are many thoughts swirling around in the boy's head, but one is the most dominant: I'm in a freakin' cartoon!
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Another day has passed since they boy woke up, and he is still in as much shock as he was yesterday. However, he has also become more distant. Whenever one of the Titans brought food for him, he wouldn't even touch it, or even look at them. Currently, Raven is the one to bring in the food for him to (hopefully) eat. She places it on a table, before sitting across from him. "I really doubt that you're going to eat, so let's talk."
The boy doesn't even look up. Instead, he gazes at his hands, his eyes drooped. It also seems that he refused to go back to sleep.
"You said that we weren't real." Raven puts out a hand towards the boy. "If that's the case, prove it. If you tried to touch my hand, your hand would pass right through." Her purple eyes lock onto the top of the boy's hands. Seeing that he won't move, she ends up placing a hand on top of both of his. "See, I'm real. So, we all are real."
The boy responds by yanking away his hands and placing them underneath the table. "Don't." The boy's voice is obviously tense. "Nothing you say or do will convince me otherwise. You are nothing more than fiction." He finally looks up at Raven, his own blue eyes seemingly blank.
Raven raises an eyebrow. "In what way?" She crosses her arms, waiting for the reply.
"Comic books, cartoons, video games…" The boy keeps his eyes locked on Raven. "You are nothing more than a franchise meant to entertain and appease the masses of humanity. From the looks of it, this one is the cartoon franchise." He leans back in the chair. "So, what was the most major incident recently? The Brotherhood of Evil? Maybe the HIVE academy? Or was it Trigon, perhaps?"
"Tokyo." Raven frowns at the boy.
"Ah. Give my regards to Starfire and Robin, then." The boy gets to his feet, almost seeming a bit calmer, and stretches, allowing some parts of his body to pop. "What exactly is that?" He gazes over to the plate of food. Finally, his hunger has gone into the front of his mind. He sits back down, and pulls the plate closer to him.
"Cyborg's meatloaf." Raven gets up to leave.
"Thanks for having an open mind, Raven." The boy looks up from his meal. "Somehow, I knew you would. And give Cyborg my regards as well."
"We never got a name." Raven gets to the door, before looking back.
"T.J." He then takes the napkin and unrolls it, revealing the silverware inside.
Raven leaves the room, letting T.J. cut into the meatloaf and take a bite. After swallowing the bite, he cocks his head to the side. "Not bad. Could use a little more barbeque sauce, though." He then takes another bite.
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"So, he knew about all we did? Even the things we never revealed to the public?" Robin is sitting down at the table, along with the rest of the team. Raven nods in agreement.
"What do we do, Rob?" Cyborg looks around at the others, his face showing apprehension. "We can't just let him go, considering what he knows."
"Dude, you aren't saying you want to spy on him, right?" Beast Boy shakes his head.
"No. I'm saying that we need him close by, in order to keep an eye on him." Cyborg looks once again at Robin. "Your call, Rob."
"He does not seem to be a threat, Cyborg. He may be suffering from what you call the culture chock." Starfire looks over to Robin as well.
The Teen Wonder sighs. It was moments like these that tended to get troublesome. "What he knows could be trouble; but he has no ID on him, no money, nothing." He rubs his forehead, trying to find a way to allow for a balance. "Vote, then. Either we help him out and let him go, or we keep him here and keep an eye on him. Those for letting him free, raise your hand." Beast Boy and Starfire raise their hands. "Those for him staying here, do the same." Robin and Cyborg raise their hands.
"Raven, why did you not vote?" Starfire looks over at the empath. "Do you not want to participate?"
"I guess… he can stay." With that final statement, the group gets up to talk to T.J., only to find him standing in the hallway.
"So, I'm here to stay. To be honest, it would have been nice for you to ask first." T.J. is leaning against a wall, his arms crossed, and his face remaining neutral. Within one of his hands is the now clean plate of food. "But, the choice has been made." He uncrosses his arms and pushes himself off the wall. "So, what do I need to do?"
"Before we go any farther, it's best…" An alarm blares. Robin runs to the computer. "Great. Doctor Light got free again." He prepares to say their customary call, but seeing T.J. sort of puts that to the side. "What to do with you?"
T.J. sighs. "Either lock me up here, or keep me in the T-Car." Within a few moments, he is sitting by Beast Boy in the back seat of the T-Car, with the girls flying and Robin driving the R-Cycle.
"Alright, since you're here, I'll lay down some ground rules with the T-Car. One, never get sick in it. Two, never touch the radio. And third, don't distract me while I'm driving, got it?" Cyborg is keeping up with the R-Cycle, all the while giving T.J. his lecture. To that end, T.J. nods in response. He looks over at Beast Boy, who is also looking over at him. "What?"
"Dude, how can you get so lucky?" Beast Boy shakes his head.
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Well, there's the second chapter. As usual, give your thoughts, criticisms, suggestions, and I will try to see them through.
I would also like to take the time to thank anyone who has read this story. It is greatly appreciated. As for the timeline, I have placed it after Trouble in Tokyo, so RobxStar is possible. And now, for a preview of the next chapter…
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"Get out of here!" Robin yells back at T.J. This momentary distraction creates a large enough opening for Doctor Light to shove Robin back. The not-so-bright Doctor realized that he had a chance to escape, but instead, fire a concentrated blast of light towards this newcomer. Titan or not, he hated interruptions. If this hit, that kid would be done for, permanently.
T.J. just stands there, in a state of shock. Why was he targeted? That was the last thing he thought before the light blast consumed his entire body, his shape lost into the light.