Chapter Two: Freaked Out

I woke up on the couch the next day, having spent my first night in Titans Tower. It wasn't the comfiest place to sleep, but it was certainly better than sleeping on the rooftops. I stretched my arms and legs out and got up. I got all of the kinks out of my neck and then made my way to the kitchen. I saw that Starfire was already there, preparing some kind of food, though it wasn't like any food I had ever seen. When she saw me she bid me good morning, which was something that I did not hear very often.

"Yeah. Morning… uhh… what was it again? Fire Star?" I questioned.

"Starfire." She corrected me. "How did you sleep?"

"Well, to be honest, your couch is a little lumpy." I told her.

I took another look at what she was making. It looked like some kind of purple globules, and it appeared that they were alive. I asked her what it was that she was making, and her response was, well… it was some kind of food with a name that I couldn't understand.

"Uhh… okay." I said.

I would later find out that she was actually an alien from a distant world called Tamaran. Other than her weird green on green eyes, and eyebrow shape and orange skin, she didn't really look like an alien. But I guess looks can be deceiving. The sight of her weird jiggling food made me lose my appetite for now, and instead asked her if I could use their shower. She did not see a problem with this, so she pointed me in the direction of their bathroom. I thanked her and headed off in that direction.

On the way there, I just so happened to bump into Robin. He was heading for the tower's training room to train for the next time there was an emergency. He asked me what I was doing in the hallway.

"If you must know, I'm headed for the shower. Starfire said I could use it, and it just so happens that I haven't showered in… well… I forget how long it's been. So in other words, I stink and I need a shower!" I told him.

"Yeah. You do stink. In more ways than one." He said mockingly.

"Oh, give it a rest!" I told him.

I walked past him and continued on towards the bathroom. As I was leaving, Robin told me to meet him in the training room with the others when I was done. I waved my hand in response and told him I'd be there. He was still looking at me with that serious look on his face.

"Remember: I'm keeping my eye on you." He warned me.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just not while I'm in the shower, okay?" I told him.

I didn't really think that he'd do that. He didn't seem like a perv, just a jerk. Once I reached the bathroom, I made sure the door was shut tightly behind me, just in case. I hadn't showered in who knows how long, and I was beginning to smell kinda like a dumpster full of sweaty socks or something. I obviously smelled this bad the other day too, they just didn't want to say anything. I'm pretty sure that the others wouldn't appreciate me smelling bad during training, so I got myself ready and hopped in the shower, taking one last check to make sure no one was peeking.


After my shower, I headed over to the tower's training room. Everyone else was there training in their own various ways, some of which I found kinda bizarre. But hey, I create weapons out of nothing, so I'm one to talk. After observing for a while, Robin noticed I had arrived and stopped his training to inform the others. They all stopped what they were doing and gathered in front of me.

"Scarlet! Glad you could join us!" Starfire said.

"It's Scarlette. But whatever." I replied. "So what do you guys want me to do."

Robin informed me that he and the others wanted to see what I could do. I reminded Robin that he already knew what I could do, from when I kicked his butt the other day. He growled at the fact and claimed that I did not 'kick his butt' but rather that he hadn't been the one to bring me down, reminding me of how I clonked my head on a ladder. I decided to drop the subject before it got any more embarrassing for me and asked what he wanted me to do. Robin pointed over to a series of human-shaped targets that appeared to be made of wood or something on one side of the room.

"Use those to show us what you can do. Try to knock all of them out as fast as you can using whatever methods you have." He told me.

"This is gonna be cool!" Beast Boy remarked.

"Indeed! After hearing of your weapon-shaping abilities, we are most eager to see them for ourselves!" Starfire mentioned.

"Just get in there and do your best." Link told me. "That's all anyone's asking."

"Just try not to make too much of a mess." Raven said.

I wasn't sure if that last one was sarcasm or not, but whatever. I made my way over to the targets and prepped myself.

"Just remember: I'm…" Robin began to say.

"I know, I know! You're keeping your eye on me! I get it!" I said before he could finish.

Once again he looked pissed off. I don't know why, but I seemed to love making that guy ticked. It was just fun for me! Anyway, I waited for a signal for me to start. Cyborg pulled up a timer from his right arm, and counted down. When he said 'go', I leapt into action. Since these were just practice dummies, I decided that my first choice of weapon would be a sword; so I concentrated and formed a long, glowing red sword in my hand, which I grasped and went into action. In only a few seconds, I had already hacked apart at least ten targets. I was able to hear the others awe from the sight of my attacks. I was pretty awesome, but Robin didn't look impressed. So I ditched the sword and formed a pair of nun-chucks to smack around a few targets. Everyone was impressed with how fast I could form different weapons, but Spikey still didn't look impressed. Why did I care so much about impressing him? Who cares what he thinks? But anyway, there were only about fifteen targets left, and for my last move I decided I would try something new. So I ditched the nun-chucks and formed a glowing red bo staff in my hands, obviously inspired by my fight with Spikey the other night. Now this time I definitely saw a change in his expression, even though he was just raising an eyebrow under his mask. I had never used a bo staff before, but even so, I whirled it around in my hands like it was nothing and began smacking around the last fifteen targets with it. When I broke the last target, I twirled around the staff again, propped it up upon the ground, and leaned on it looking all 'cool-like'.

"Woah! Dude! Uhh… I mean, dude-ette. That was awesome!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

I heard Starfire remark that it was 'glorious'. That wasn't something I heard a lot, most of the time people would just scream at the sight of my glowing weapons. But it was nice to see people that thought my powers were cool.

"You know, that was the first time I had ever tried using a bo staff." I told them.

"Really? But the way you used it, it looked like you were a pro." Link remarked.

"Well… maybe I'm just a natural." I replied, looking towards Robin a little afterwards.

He turned his head away slightly and crossed his arms. Heh. I guess I ticked him off again. Oh well. Cyborg walked over and checked his timer, mentioning that I had cleared all of the targets in only two minutes and thirty-five seconds.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's a new record!" Cyborg told me.

"Really?! Cool! What was the previous record?" I asked him.

"Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. By Robin." He answered.

I looked towards Robin with a smug look on my face. The fact that I had beaten his record was probably making him feel really embarrassed right now. Robin claimed that it hardly mattered; that it was only by two seconds that I had beaten him.

"Just admit it, Spikey. I did something better than you. Maybe I'm not a waste of space after all." I told him.

"Just cause you beat my record doesn't mean you have a place on this team. After all, we still hardly know anything about you, so I'd watch it if I were you." He responded. "And don't call me Spikey!"

Despite what he just said I still had a smug look plastered on my face, and the sight of it no doubt boiled him up inside. I really seemed to get a kick out of lighting this guy's fuse! Before anything else though, an alarm sounded throughout the tower and a red light began flashing. I asked everyone what was going on, and they all told me the same thing: There was an emergency in the city, and the Titans were being called into action! By emergency, I knew they meant that a crime was in progress. Yes! This was my chance!

"Titan's, go!" Robin declared.

That was the signal to get into action. But while the others were exiting the tower, Robin stopped me and told me to stay here.

"What?! There's no way I'm staying put! After all that training, I'm eager for some real action!" I claimed.

"No. Stay here. You'll only slow us down or cause us trouble." He told me.

"No I won't! I'm a good fighter! Let me help!" I responded. "Besides, I thought you were 'keeping an eye on me.'"

Ha! I got him there! I contradicted his own claim! Looks like he didn't have a choice right now, so he said I could come along, but only if I did what he said. Whatever. In all honesty, I was going to come along whether he wanted me to or not, so I just nodded and ran out the door.


The emergency in question was happening at a local video game store. The place was open, but all of the customers had fled. The only person inside was the cashier, and this short, orange-haired

guy in a brown overcoat who clearly looked like he needed to lay off the cheese puffs or something; in other words, he was fat. He was also holding this weird-looking remote that had a monster-head shaped tip. He pointed it to one of the nearby TV monitors and clicked a button. To my surprise, the monitor came to life! This wasn't anything new to the others though, as they've encountered this guy before. He called himself Control Freak, a geek with a remote that could defy the laws of physics. Even so, Beast Boy informed me that he wasn't even on their 'list of notorious villains'. Umm… okay.

Before the TV monitor monster could attack the cashier, Control Freak clicked his remote again and the monster, umm… paused, I guess.

"Okay… Either you admit that Deity of Conflict III, which re-invented the entire series as a whole, deserves to be on your top ten best games list, or…" Control Freak demanded.

He then clicked his remote again and the monitor came to life again. The cashier was terrified and claimed that he didn't know what he was talking about. It didn't seem to matter to him though; the monitor was going to attack regardless. Or rather, it would've, if Cyborg hadn't blasted it apart with a sonic cannon that he shot out of his arm. Wow… didn't know he could do that!

"Game over, Control Freak." Robin declared.

"I don't think so Titans! This is only level one!" Control Freak gloated.

He waved his remote all over the place, and various objects in the room, such as TVs, game consoles, controllers, and even the smaller stuff like the little game discs, began to come to life! They began to surround us. The others apparently knew the game plan, but I was left in the dark. Robin never bothered to tell me how we were gonna fight this guy.

"So what's the deal? Going from Control Freak to Game Freak?" Cyborg quipped.

"Hey! TV and video games go hand-in-hand! I do both. So get off my back!" CF responded.

"We're not on your back! But we're… sending you back… to… jail?" Link quipped, rather poorly I might add.

Everyone else thought so too. Link could tell from the looks on their faces, and he looked pretty embarrassed right now. I guess he wasn't very good at small-talk. Whatever. Now wasn't the time to wonder. After Robin blurted out 'Titans go' everyone leapt into action; except for me, as I hardly knew what was going on. I did dodge the first attack though, and stayed off to the sidelines until I could figure out how to help. I saw the others fighting back the video monsters. Link was using his sword (which was glowing blue oddly enough) to slice apart controllers and console monsters, although he was also occasionally whacking things with his shield or kicking them back. Starfire was airborne, avoiding game discs that were tailing her and shooting back any with her energy bolts, which I learned she called 'starbolts'. Beast Boy kept changing into different animals to fight; such as a lion, an ox, a kangaroo, a T-rex, a… eh, he changed into too many, I didn't keep track that well. Cyborg was demolishing any rogue monitors that came his way, and Raven was just tossing everything aside and towards other threats using her weird shadow magic powers. I was mainly focused on Robin though, who was fighting everything off with just physical combat. He had no powers, and yet he was taking on an entire army of these things! Why was I so interested in this guy? I wasn't really sure, but from watching all of this action, I was itching to join in!

I decided that I would go after Control Freak himself. If I could get that remote away from him, he'd be defenseless. And fortunately for me, sneaking up on him would be a piece of cake! Y'know, cause I can turn invisible. So I did just that, and carefully but agilely made my way to were CF was. He was still bringing stuff to life with his remote, dancing around like an idiot while doing it. Man, what a dork!

"You gonna fight, or dance?" I asked to get his attention.

"Huh? Who are you?!" He asked after he turned around.

"Oh, no one really. 'Cept the girl who's gonna kick your butt!" I proclaimed.

CF looked a bit intimidated at first, but then clicked a button on his remote and three larger remote-like structures came out of a pack on his back. He gripped the two on his sides with his hands and the third one came over his head like a cannon, which kind of made him look like a tank. He claimed that it was device that he had made to render the Titans powers useless. But would it work against me? I don't know, but since he was now covered with all of that machinery, I didn't have to hold back as much.

"Ha ha! This is great! With you hidden behind all of that junk, I can finally use this!" I exclaimed.

I held one of my hands out to one side, and the flaming patterns appeared on my arms again. This time though, I decided to form a much more interesting weapon; a japanese-style sword. I swished it around in a show of strength before gesturing to CF to 'bring it on!' CF however, looked dumbfounded, but in the impressed kind of way.

"Whoa! Cool! How'd you do that!" CF shrieked like a fanboy.

"Do what? How I made my sword, or how I twirled it around?" I asked, once again with my ignorance getting the better of me.

CF claimed that he was talking about how I made the sword. I was about to tell him, but soon stopped and told him not to try distracting me. The other Titans had dealt with the stuff that CF had brought to life, and noticed that I was about to take CF head on. Robin yelled at me to think about what I was doing. I answered by telling him that I new exactly what I was doing; I was gonna kick this guy's smug behind! He was about to try to intervene, but Link stopped him, suggesting that they let me handle this one.

"Yeah, Control Freak is an underrated villain. There's no way he's going to beat someone like her!" Beast Boy added.

Although reluctantly, Robin backed down. I couldn't tell if he did so because he wanted to see me actually fight a villain, or if he simply wanted to see me get thrashed. There's no way a dork like this was going to beat me though, so I braced myself, ready for the first move. What CF did first was shoot a weird laser that encased me in a sphere of weird red energy.

"Don't waste your time trying to break free! I designed that molecular forcefield specifically to defeat Starfire!" He gloated.

I don't know if his claim was actually true, but I quickly thrust my sword into the sphere. It broke through, rather easily I might add, and I stood ready for more. CF looked surprised and annoyed.

"That would've worked on Starfire!" He claimed.

From the sidelines I could hear Link claim that it wouldn't have. CF was distracted by the comment, long enough that I was able get in and slice one of his enlarged remotes in half. I was going to slice another one, but CF leapt back, surprisingly agile for a fat guy, and fired out some kind of weird black gunk that covered me and held me in place. CF claimed that he had only recently developed this particular attack for the Titans 'new guy', Link. I wasn't able to use my sword in this position, so I decided to ditch it and try something else. I turned invisible, much to CF's surprise, and just like Robin had been before, he was completely dumbfounded, so much that he swiped his remote across the gunk, which knocked me out of it. It still hurt, but it got me out of it. CF was still looking around for me when I turned visible again, right behind him. Honestly, how many people around here are going to fall for this?!

"Peekaboo!" I said.

That had got his attention, and he quickly turned around, just in time for me to deliver a punch right in his fat face! When he was down on the ground, I quickly made two more swords and cut off his other two remotes, and then pinned him to the ground with my foot.

"Looks like you've run out of extra lives, freak!" I quipped.

Despite the fact that he was about to be hauled off to jail, he claimed that the fight had been awesome and that he'd be back, with new ways to beat the Titans, including me. Honestly, I couldn't really tell if this guy was an actual villain, or some kind of rabid fanboy. Regardless, the other Titans were impressed with my efforts, though I couldn't really tell from Robin.

"Count yourself lucky. If you had been up against a real villain, it wouldn't have been so easy." He told me.

"Well, we'll see if it's luck the next time I fight a villain." I replied.

"You have to admit, she handles herself quite well in battle." Starfire told Robin.

"I don't have to admit anything. That invisible trick wouldn't have worked on a real villain." Robin claimed.

"If I remember correctly, it worked on you, Spikey." I reminded him smugly.

"That's only because I didn't know you could do it! And don't call me Spikey!" He responded angrily.

I still had a smug look on my face, and Link and Starfire giggled very softly. Robin turned his head to them, and they quickly stopped, trying to look like they didn't do it. Robin gave Link a slightly angry glare for a moment before turning to face me again. Did Robin have something against Link or something? After the discussion, we all headed back to the Tower, with Robin keeping a particularly close eye on me. Was this guy ever going to get off my back?!


Back at the tower, I went straight to the bathroom to wash off that black gunk from before. After my shower, I looked around a little and found a hairdryer. I wasn't sure who it belonged to, but I didn't think they'd mind if I used it. Afterwards, I was about to find a comb, but then I thought it wouldn't be right to use someone else's comb, so I tried something else instead. I concentrated my powers to try and make a comb. I didn't know if a comb qualified as a weapon, but apparently it did because I was able to make one. I was a little surprised, but it was still cool, so I ran my comb construct through my long black hair. Most of the time my hair looked dull, but this time when I was done, my hair was shining; something that I hadn't seen in a long time. The time I spent drying it had also left it really smooth, in contrast to how rough it usually felt. I really hoped that I could get all of this to work, to reconcile for my past of thievery, and become a Titan; because I really didn't want to go back to my old life.

On my way back to the couch in the ops room, I ran into Starfire in the hallway. She looked happy as she mentioned the fact that she was looking for me, and said that she had a surprise for me. She had her hand behind her back, and when she held it out, there was a round, yellow communication device with a big white T in the center.

"It is a Titan communicator. And it is yours!" She informed me.

She handed me the device and smiled even bigger when I took it. What was with this girl? During battle she seemed absolutely vicious, but here she was acting like a happy little schoolgirl or something. Which one was her actual disposition; the aggressive fighter, or this joyous bundle of sunshine? Right now I was focused more on the communicator she gave me.

"You're giving me a communicator? So, that overly serious, spiky-haired masked leader of yours actually trusts me now?" I asked, secretly hoping for her to say yes.

"Well, umm…. not exactly. That communicator is mine. Truthfully, Robin does not know that I am giving it to you." She answered. "I however, give you the acceptance."

Okay, honestly, the way this girl was talking was kinda weirding me out. But the fact that she went behind their glorious leader's back and gave me a communicator was enough for me to be impressed. I thanked her for giving me a chance.

"I welcome you, Scarlette! I have a good feeling that you and I are going to get along just fine!" She told me. "And with some time, I know that Robin will come to trust you as well."

"Uhh… like I care what ol' Spikey thinks!" I responded while blushing slightly.

I felt a little embarrassed at that point, but Starfire merely giggled. She told me this though: for me not to tell Robin that she gave me that communicator. She and I both knew that if Spikey saw me with her communicator that he'd just assume that I stole it. She was about to fly off, but I quickly stopped her. There was one last thing I wanted to ask her.

"So what's the deal with Spikey anyway? And you? Are you and him… you know…?" I asked her.

"Oh! No no no! Robin and I are just good friends." She answered. "Actually, he and I were together in the past, but certain… circumstances caused me to break up with him."

"Circumstances? Like what?" I inquired.

"Well… I will tell you more about it later, but for now I will simply say that there was another who needed me more than Robin ever did." She explained.

Turns out she was talking about that Link guy. He actually had major self-confidence issues, and Starfire was around to help him through it. I do admit, the guy did look cute, but there was just something about him that seemed… off. Spikey on the other hand was a serious pain in my rear end, but there was something about him that just… drew me.

"Why do you ask this? Do you have some kind of interest in Robin?" She asked me.

"WHAT?! No! Why would I ever be into that porcupine-headed traffic light!" I remarked exuberantly.

"Oh… well, ok. Because if you did have an interest in him, I just want you to know, I don't mind." She told me with a smile.

She then flew off somewhere else. I put my new communicator in my pocket and continued on my way to the couch. To be honest, I actually think that I was into him. Maybe it was in the way he fought me on that night that we first met, or maybe that clonk on my noggin that night made me see him like this. Even if I did like him though, there was no way I was gonna let him know that, not yet anyway. So for now, I'd just stick to calling him names and showing him up in battle. I didn't know if that'd get him to accept me, but one thing was for sure: it was gonna be a lot of fun!