Adranaym
Strawberry Seraph
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom of Teen Titans. They belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 4 : Taking Out the Trash
Danny tapped his fingers impatiently, claws clacking over the metal of the arm of the chair as he looked out over the city.
He was currently in one of the higher rise skyscrapers and found that, while he supposed he should be flattered by the obviously rich meeting room that the secretary, who had indeed been that same one that had called him, had left him in. The room was large, with a decent sized board table and huge windows that took up an entire wall.
For some reason though, Danny found himself disgusted with the whole affair.
He had seen the lustful eyes of the secretary when he had said his name, practically oozing calculated desire, dollar signs appearing in her eyes. Obviously she had been told exactly who he was and why he was there.
The teen sighed, I miss Sam, she would have set that woman straight, he thought with remembered fondness then, …And Tucker would have hit on her like there was no tomorrow, horrifying her even more.
Danny closed his eyes chuckling to himself and leaned back in the leather backed chair, arms pillowed behind his head waiting.
--
Eventually, the teenager was disturbed by the quiet opening and closing of the boardroom door.
Danny cracked a blue eye open, and gave the man standing in the doorway with only the slightest hints of nervousness an evaluating stare.
He didn't say anything, merely stared steadily at him impassively, judging, as Mr. Jacobs started to sweat.
After a moment, Danny sat up and leaned forward, offering a hand to shake, "Hello Mr. Jacobs. It is good to meet you at last. I apologize for taking so long to get to you. I have been extremely busy taking care of the company business but wanted to meet you in person especially as I am going to be living in the area."
Their hands clasped in a firm handshake, "Indeed. I have wanted to meet Executive Master's successor for a while. It's nice to see that you seem to take your job seriously? And please feel free to call me by my name, sir. It's Matt."
--
Phantom touched down on the light post with a light tap, clad in his upgraded TechSuit that he had made from the "SladeBot".
He'd just watched the Titans take down another of their psychos and was surprised to find himself slightly envious.
They worked together like a well oiled machine, coordinating attacks, herding the criminal so that they could take him down. They shared a sense of camaraderie that almost reminded him of the way that he, Sam, and Tucker had been, but they were on a far more equal playing field, each with their own special abilities.
Phantom's intangible lips twisted into a bitter smile behind the implacable mask of his suit as he watched a special squad of armored to the teeth in white soldiers march the freshly caught baddie into custody. He had to admit, the Titans were good at what they did, even if some of them did came off as being rather… naïve.
The disillusioned former hero snorted in amusement as he watched Beast Boy start to do a victory dance.
Shaking his head, Phantom dropped from the streetlight to the asphalt below, turning away, for some reason, despite the bitter bite of jealousy, happy for them.
As he walked away, he didn't notice the sharp eyes of more than one Titan following his path until he was out of sight.
--
"Raven?" Robin asked, eyes pinned straight on the back of the lone SladeBot.
Her eyes glowed for a second as her eyelids fell to half mast, "It's too far away. We'd never catch it in time. Best we wait and see if whoever's controlling it is planning something."
"You think it's that hacker?"
"Perhaps."
Then the moment was shattered as Cyborg came over, "What were you guys looking at?"
"SladeBot," both Raven and Robin said in preoccupied voices, causing the half robot to do a double take and squint at his leader.
"Okay," he said, squinting suspiciously at the two of them, "Who are you and what have you done with Robin?"
The Bird Boy blinked at him stupidly, "Huh?"
"I think he's talking about the fact that every time you even see a hint of Slade or his minions you run off and do something irresponsible, obsessive, and idiotic," Raven smirked, voice a perfect deadpan.
"Oh," a hint of a blush rose in his cheeks.
"Ha!" Cyborg laughed uproariously, "You should see your face!"
He wasn't alone in his amusement either and Robin caught the hint of a smile on Raven's face, even though most of it was obscured by the shadows of her hood. He couldn't help it any more at the sight of the usually blank mask cracking a smile and promptly turned redder than a cherry at their right on evaluation of his reactions.
"Am I really so predictable?" Robin asked plaintively.
"Yes!" the rest of the Titans, minus Raven who wouldn't be caught dead doing so, chorused, the remaining members having been listening to most of the conversation. There was silence as they looked at each other before they broke out laughing.
Robin pouted. Almost. "Let's go guys," he sighed exasperated, making shooing motions with his hands, "I think you've had enough fun at my expense already."
Even as they left though, they kept their eyes peeled for any signs of Slade, or the stolen SladeBot. They did not want to take any chances with a guy like him even as they joked and laughed on the way back to their tower.
--
Back inside the tower, they relaxed slightly. As a group, they collapsed onto the couches in the living room.
"Ahhhhhhh…" Beast Boy sighed, falling onto the cushions, sans grace, making a loud but muffled thump.
"Another good day. Another criminal caught. And now it's time to relax," he made a mewling sound, "Cyyyyyy? Where's the remote?"
"I don't know Beast Boy. Where did you leave it last?"
"It's right here Beast Boy. Catch," Robin chucked it at the green changeling, hitting him square between the eyes as he picked his face up from where it had been squished against the cushions.
"Owwwww!" he complained, rubbing the spot, "What was that for Robin? …Meanie."
Robin ran a hand through his hair, obviously preoccupied thinking of something, "Sorry Beast Boy."
Suddenly, he sat up from his slouched position, "What do you guys think about that hacker we ran into the other night?"
And with that, the discussion predictably turned to more serious topics at Robin's interjection and the conversation turned into a rather heated debate.
--
Robin, as per usual, felt suspicious of the hacker and was worried that he was going to end up with another enemy on his hands that they didn't know a thing about other than the fact that he was a wiz at hacking and could take control of even the primary humanoid weapon of Slade.
Ever since Terra, he had been painfully aware that trust was something that could easily abused, but, at least this one didn't seem to be trying to gain their trust and gain access to the Titan's, and he was up front about illegalities that he committed.
--
Raven, much like Robin, was suspicious of the "hacker" if for a different reason. It had seemed almost as if there had been someone inside the machine, controlling it from within, rather than remotely. It was as if someone's life signs, strange as they might have been, had overlaid the robot in those moments.
And that made her wary. Because while he hadn't lied to them, she could sense that he had been dancing around the issue of how he had been able to hack the robot's controls.
--
Beastboy on the other hand, was ecstatic, not thinking of the possibilities of disaster like his two other teammates and only thinking of the coolness factor that the guy had. He could turn Slade's own creations against him!
He was already scheming what he would do if he could take control of all of Slade's robots.
--
Starfire was of much the same opinion as Beast Boy and wasn't shy in saying so either.
Seeing the good in everyone, she would have been glad to have worked with him. But he had run away. And that made Starfire sad. Was she a bad person?
--
Cyborg, was more objective than any of the others. He was reasonably worried that the hacker might very well be able to easily hack into his own systems if he could subvert the Sladebot's programming and he didn't like that one bit. At all. The benefits of having a guy like him on the team though would be great and they would be able to discover just about anything on any computer anywhere so long as it was networked and not on an isolated terminal.
He just hoped that the hacker was a good guy, in relative terms at least, even if he didn't exactly subscribe to all the laws.
--
StrawberrySeraph: Hello peeps! And thanks to all the cool people who reviewed!
I'm working on a pic of Danny's Phantom form at the moment actually though I'm having some technical difficulties there. Grrrrrrr.
Anyways,
sdphantom10 yes, there probably will be a TT/DP pairing in here, though, I'm one of those relationship, scaredy cats but I'm going to give it a try anyways. And I'm the same way.
crimsonshrouds- Vlad is actually rather important to the story even if he's not going to "pop up" for a while either being discussed other than vague references. I threw in a few hints here but I think that you might find them… misleading.