A quick disclaimer that I forgot! Obviously I don't own Teen Titans… I don't understand why we need to even bother saying that?
D-403
The rest of the day past quickly for most. Nightwing spent the earlier part of the day issuing statements and press releases regarding their new position as well as having a quick conversation with someone from the Justice League, It turned out they had yet another surprise for the Titans that Nightwing was anxious to share his team. 'His team…' Nightwing was feeling quite uneasy after the earlier fiasco with Cyborg. If it truly was his team then why was it Beast Boy who diffused the situation and not him. He shrugged it off quickly however, he knew that his team would always follow him and in reality he was quite grateful to the changeling.
The rest of the team spent the day packing their stuff away into cardboard boxes that would be transported to their new tower in New York by a company sent by the league. It was taking Cyborg a while to disassemble his equipment ready for moving and it didn't take too long before he had filled all the boxes and crates that he had been given for the job, and he wasn't even half way done at that point. Eventually he was done with nothing but a portable recharge station to get him through the night left in his room.
Starfire was zipping around her room merrily humming a tune to herself as she piled all of her clothes into a suitcase that seemed to resemble some kind of alien creature with a handle. Soon enough though her room was bare with nothing but a spare set of clothes for the trip tomorrow, the team had decided to travel in 'normal' clothes tomorrow as they planned on making a comfortable first impression on their new city.
Raven had no use for the boxes and crates she was given and instead used her magic to move all of her belongings into a pocket dimension that she could open and close at will. It took her less than a minute to finish packing and all that was left was a pair of clothing and two books, one to read while she waited for her friends to finish packing and one to read on their journey tomorrow. She then left her now empty room to sit with Beast Boy, she sat on his lower bunk reading quietly while he packed.
Beast Boy knew that he was going to take a while to finish packing due to the state of his room. It was a hideous mess with piles of laundry, comic books, cd's & DVD's scattered amongst all over his floor. No matter how much he had grown up and seemingly matured over the past few years there were something's that were harder to change than others. He had however come to terms as to why he did what he did, instincts. Beast Boy tried to clean his room multiple times but then often tried avoiding his room when it was in those clean states because something in the back of his mind felt wrong. It wasn't till after watching a nature documentary on TV did he make a realisation. Big cats and several other animals will often leave their belongings strewn about all over the place as a way to mark their territories and to prove to others of the same species that they have the ability to gather or acquire necessities. His instincts were also the reason he had to sleep in a bunk bed, he needed to sleep elevated. It wasn't some sort of alpha male thing like he initially thought but rather that he felt he needed to be out of reach from other predators. Never-the-less his packing was coming along at a reasonable pace and Raven couldn't help but look up from her book several times to watch the almost performance like quality that his motions would portray. Using his exceptional hand-eye coordination and balance he was able to spring about his room almost effortlessly and by using his now quite well practiced tail as an almost 'third arm' he was very impressively multitasking, that didn't mean he wasn't dropping things left, right and centre but it was still impressive considering how clumsy he used to be. Perched on the railing of the top bunk was Garry, the grey and quite plump pigeon. Raven had already threatened Garry with exile to a far off dimension had he 'crapped' on her as Beast Boy had so eloquently translated for the now terrified little bird.
After much time, and even a quick make out session between the sorceress and the changeling, everyone was packed and ready to go. Everyone was once again sitting in the common room after Nightwing had requested a quick team meeting to relay the more good news he had received from the League. The feelings in the room were of excitement and a bit of sorrow. Excitement at the new venture standing before them and sorrow at the fact they would soon be leaving the first real home some of them had ever had and by the best any of them had ever had.
Nightwing stood before them as they sat on the crescent shaped couch in the now almost empty common room. He cleared his throat to gather attention. "Guys, I have some more good news." He declared proudly. Unfortunately it wasn't often that Nightwing got to be the bearer of good news so he relished the opportunity now. "The League have yet another gift for us. Training!"
The team sat motionless and kind of disappointed at the news. They trained every day without fail, why was this special?
"Yippee…" Raven deadpanned spinning her right hand a bit for emphasis.
Nightwing chuckled a bit. "No I mean some special training as in one-on-ones with members from the League."
Now the team was excited.
"You serious?" Cyborg yelled in a pitch that was quite embarrassing for a man his size… well honestly it was just plain embarrassing. Nightwing only nodded with a very smug smirk adorning his face.
"Do we know who with?" Asked Beast Boy barely able to contain his excitement.
"Yes I do, I will be with The Batman obviously." Stated Nightwing with a very proud stance. "Starfire will have two, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl." Starfire could not help but to squeal with excitement and float off the couch a bit as her joy rose to outlandish levels. "Cy you'll be with Red Tornado."
"Oh yer!" Cyborg bellowed loudly, pumping his fist into the air.
"Raven with Zatanna." Even Raven couldn't help but be intrigued, although she was sure she was a better sorceress than Zatanna she did recognise the fact that she used a different kind of magic to her own and looked forward to perhaps learning some more.
"And Beast Boy you will have The Martian Manhunter."
-silence-
"No way…" Beast Boy breathed almost silently gaining he questioning looks from his teammates.
"Err BB? You ok little buddy?" Cyborg asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Hell yer I'm OK!" Beast Boy stated loudly. "He's only like my idol! He was the one who made feel like being a green shape shifter didn't make me a freak! And he's also the like one of the only members of the League who doesn't openly hate the Doom Patrol!" Beast Boy was practically shouting at this point and was struggling to stay seated.
"Friend why does the League of Justice dislike the Patrol of Doom?" Starfire questioned innocently although it was a question they all wanted to know.
Beast Boy merely shrugged. But the rest of the team continued to look at him oddly. "What?"
It was then he realised they weren't looking at him but rather they were looking past him as if they had just noticed something quite bizarre and in fact they sort of had. They were looking at the oddly comfortable looking pigeon that was perched on the changelings slightly coiled tail that was raised to be just by his head.
"Beast Boy… You got something on your tail man…" Cyborg spoke in a very confused tone while slightly pointing at Beast Boys feathered friend.
"Oh where are my manners?" Beast Boy acted in a most dramatic fashion. Beast Boy then motioned to the pigeon. "Guys this is Garry."
The way he said it was as if it was a very normal thing, the rest of the team merely starred in wonder at this. Realistically Starfire had no reason to find this strange as her pet was a giant mutated moth larva… The rest of the team slowly turned their heads to Raven who seated beside him.
"Oh no." She stated dryly. "He is deadly serious."
"Garry's the dude who taught me to speak Pigeon." Beast Boy stated proudly.
"Can he understand us? And why is he in here?" Cyborg queried letting the more inquisitive side of his brain take over for a second.
"Firstly no he can't… that's why I had to learn Pigeon…" Beast Boy stated with mock agitation on his face and in his voice. "And secondly coz he's coming with us. He's a friend of mine and wanted to come so I said yes." Cyborg, Nightwing and Starfire were wielded out by this to say the least. Cyborg made a quick mental note to come up with a good Dr Doolittle joke to use one him.
"Riiiiight ok then… well taking us back to what we were talking about earlier and the Doom Patrol, they wanted me to pass on a message that they would be there to see us tomorrow morning but they didn't say why." Nightwing added without the look of confusion falling from his face.
"Really they're gonna be there?" Beast Boy asked excitedly before a realisation made his spirits drop a bit. "They're gonna be there with the League? As in the same building? As in the same room?" Nightwing just nodded. Beast Boy wasn't sure what to think but he was looking forward to seeing his adoptive parents. They hadn't seen him in person since his hibernation and was looking forward to showing off.
The Rest of the day past with not much excitement. Cyborg finished preparations to leave the tower as well as set it up for their replacements. The team had decided that Kid Flash would be leading the new Jump City branch of the Titans with Jinx, Gnaark, Kole and Jericho; With Wildebeest and Herald arriving in a few months to temporarily cover for Kid Flash and Jinx when they go on their honeymoon.
With everything settled and ready to go the team decided to have one final movie night in the tower. On the far left of the couch was Beast Boy and Raven snuggling up closely together under a blanket that Beast Boy had brought from his room for them when he went to grab the DVD. In the centre was Cyborg with a huge bowl of popcorn and on the far right was Nightwing and Starfire. The film was one of Beast Boy's favourites and something he had been wanted to get the rest of the team to watch for a long time. The film was 'Gladiator' with Russell Crowe. To say the team was enjoying it was an understatement, even Raven found herself glued to the screen taking everything in as she watched in fascination.
The film ended too soon for the awestruck audience, Beast Boy could only chuckle at their expressions.
"That was amazing…" Cyborg said breathlessly.
"Truly inspiring!" Starfire exclaimed, she had given up on cuddling with Nightwing halfway through the movie and was instead sitting on the edge of her seat watching the film. "Mr Maximus was a true inspiration, fighting through his hardships with ferocity and yet for love! He could have passed for a Tamaranean warrior!" Starfire giggled at her own statement.
"Gar that was a great movie." Raven said quietly as she looked up her emerald boyfriend. "Good choice."
"Thanks Rae." He replied smiling. "You can see why it's one of my favourites."
Shortly after Nightwing ushered his team off to bed as they would have to be up early to begin their journey to New York. Their new home.
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Within a small dark and damp pitiful little apartment on the edge of Jump City sat a lone figure on what was what used to be a couch… presumably. The apartment was in such a bad state that none of the furniture looked like what in one did. Hanging from the light fixtures were broken bulbs that had not been changed in what appeared to be decades, the only light source in the entire room was a small nearly broken TV in the corner that the figure was seated in front of listening to the evening news trying to get a glimpse of an old rival. The news reporter was focusing on the story of Titans departure using a very sentimental and heartfelt turn of phrase. The common notion running throughout all of Jump City was one of gratitude and appreciation towards the Titans. The look on the figures shadowed body was one of malice and contempt but a dark smirk grew on its androgynous face.
"Looks like I'm leaving Jump…" Sated the voice echoing throughout the dark dim apartment. "I hear New York is good this time of year."
I know, 'finally maybe we will get that action we were promised in the synopsis?'
Can you blame me for throwing in all the fluffy stuff though? I always have had a tendency to overdo the beginnings of stories as I do like to set things up as best as I can so thanks for sticking through if you have! I'm going to start trying to make my chapters longer and getting in some more scene changes within chapters but bear with me, I'm still trying to find my writing style.
Cheers guys!
D-403
