Hello my lovelies! Sorry I haven't been too chatty the past few updates, I got a new job and its been kicking my ass. Oh well, the money is good lol. Anyyyywwaaayyyss, I'm really enjoying how this is kicking off! Ive been waiting for the chapter for a long, long time.
Two things to note: 1. Any and all OCs created during my stories are strictly imaginary and not based off anyone in real life unless I specifically say so. 2. sucks for not letting me use a different font for the Brain's speech.
That's all. Enjoy!
Lieutenant-Colonel Leon-Grégoire Dubois had always been military man. He had been born on a military base, raised on a military base, and would preferably die on a military base. At forty two years old, he had seen enough combat and negotiations to slowly work his way up to where he was now, and he was quite comfortable there. Commanding the forces that guarded the cryogenically frozen anarchist terrorist metahuman group called the Brotherhood of Evil was a glorified desk job, but it was an easy glorified desk job. He had more aches and pops in his body of the past couple of years than ever before, so this was borderline retirement for him. All he had to do was keep the guards rotated and make sure the bad guys stayed frozen. Easy, right?
That's what he thought this morning when he got up and inspected himself in the mirror. He had gained a few kilos in the past few months from sitting so much and the grey in his black hair probably wouldn't disappear under dye anymore. Still, he was determined to enjoy his job as much as he could, even if it did bore him to tears. He dressed and kissed his wife goodbye before getting into his car and driving to the secret entrance to the facility he oversaw.
The entrance itself was in a part of Paris where tourists weren't really invited. The locals tended to drive them away with suspicious looks and glares. Dubois didn't really blame them for this. Foreigners, generally, were unnecessarily nosy. That, and the subject of this particular military outpost was a black stain on Paris's rich history. The less people that knew about its location the better.
He drove down a street he had never memorized the name of, knowing his whole route by sight. It was safer this way, at least to him. He passed a pastry shop, a gas station, a bookstore, and a tailor as he made his way to a barely noticeable road tucked away between two large buildings. It was barely more than an alleyway, but it was big enough for his car and civilians were scarce this morning as usual. He pulled into it and drove to the far end to what appeared to be a blank wall and waited.
However, the secret elevator to the Brotherhoods hideout didn't open and admit his car, nor did a hidden light blink to indicate a malfunction.
Something was wrong.
He was out of his car in moments, shutting and locking it before he pulled his pistol from its holster under his arm. He eased his way over to a large dumpster. It slid easily to the side when he pushed and revealed an old door that was rarely used by his people. He opened it and entered into the secret part of the 'decrepit' building, taking a descending staircase downward into the basement that existed on no blueprints. Once there he took an immediate right into a room full of purportedly unsuspicious things and pushed aside a fake set of shelves to reveal the next set of stairs. He shut it behind him and traveled down into the facility.
It took him the better part of an hour to travel down to the level he needed to get to to see the garage area, mostly because he was being cautious. Every few minutes he stopped and listened and looked over the rail, but he never saw one single soldier of the five hundred stationed here this week. That was bad, because he should have seen the morning patrol by now.
Pistol at ready, he eased open the door that would lead to the garage. He was immediately assaulted by the scent of blood and his grip on the gun tightened. The hallway was lit and the plain stone walls were unblemished with the expected life force. He entered and quietly shut the door behind him before darting down the hallway, silent as a mouse. Once there he peeked around the corner and found two dead men on the floor. He cautiously approached them and saw that their guns were still bolstered and their was surprise on their cold, dead faces. Someone had shot them both in the head and left them there. Judging from the bodies, they had been laying there for some time, possibly overnight. The Lieutenant-Colonel knew nothing had happened when he left, so that means the intruder had come in during Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Hawks (of the American Army branch of NATO) overnight shift. Technically both men were supposed to be there at all times, but Dubois always went home every night since he lived here in Paris.
He was regretting it now that he traveled down more hallways. Every room he passed, the garage included, was full of bodies. Most were shot in the head but there were an increasing number of heart shots and even stab wounds. Walls were riddled with bullet holes and there was evidence that grenades had been used in a number of rooms. Bunks, infirmaries, the kitchen, the library, combat training rooms, and the hallways were full of bodies. Some of these men he had known for decades and some of them he had met only a few months prior when NATO designated this facility as a multinational base. He had met so many bright and young men and women, some with some amazing talents and great futures ahead of them in this facility while they researched the Brotherhoods secret technology.
And they were all dead, including Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Hawks.
By the time the Lieutenant-Colonel had reached the bottom floor of the facility, he was beyond any sort of emotion imaginable. The only thing he wanted to do was kill whoever did this, whoever was after the Brotherhood of Evil. He was going to kill them, plain and simple. What the military decided to do with him afterwards was of no consequence. He checked the clip of a rifle he had picked up from one of his fallen comrades before heading back to the stairs and descended.
He eased open the stairwell door once more. It was, in fact, the second to last door in the facility left to open. This small hallway led to a room that held a large nigh-indestructible door that went to the room where the Brotherhood of Evil was frozen.
His rifle at ready, the Lieutenant-Colonel quietly stalked down the hallway, stepping over the bodies of more of his men and women. These ones had gone down really fighting, judging from the copious amounts of bullet holes everywhere and casings on the ground.
He entered the room cautiously, noting that there had been a makeshift barricade set up to block the door. The heavy machine gun turrets in the back of the room were empty and the walls on either side of the doorway was shredded from their rounds, as was half the barricade. There were dozens of bodies in here, but it seemed that the ten foot tall door itself hadn't been breached. There was a torch and tank sitting next to it, a long burn mark arching down that side. Whoever had done this obviously hadn't know how badass this door was and had obviously failed miserably to open it. That meant they had left without their prize, which filled him with a smug satisfaction.
But that was because the only way to open it was a retinal scanner hidden in the wall.
Dubois looked about the room. He saw no one alive but himself. He checked any possible hiding place, not that there were any. The room had been deliberately kept barren other than the turrets. All there was were bodies, notably several piles scattered about. These men and women had died in groups.
He eased over to the door, still looking for any potential traps (he wouldn't put it past the attacker to leave him an unpleasant surprise). Finding nothing, he placed his free hand two feet from the side of the door hinge halfway up the door and pressed down on the wall for exactly five seconds before there was a soft beep. He pulled his hand back and watched the hidden panel slide to the side and reveal the retinal scanner. It was unperturbed.
Smiling smugly at the thought of his enemy's partial failure, Lieutenant-Colonel Leon-Grégoire Dubois decided to check to make sure the prisoners were undisturbed. He put his eye up to the scanner and waited for acknowledging beep before moving to the door.
"I was wondering how that opened." A voice behind him said.
The Lieutenant-Colonel whipped around and instantly brought his gun to bear, squeezing the trigger and unloading the entire clip upon his enemy. He hasn't been entirely surprised his foe was still there, but he was very intrigued on how the man had snuck up behind him.
He got his answer when he realized the man had been hiding in one of the piles of bodies.
He then realized that his bullets were ricocheting off the man's armour.
He cursed and threw the gun to the side, whipping out his pistol and emptying the clip into the singular keyhole in the strange black and orange mask the man was wearing. He knew he hit dead on the mark, but the bullets went ricocheting off the eyehole too, which meant he had some sort of specialized glass there. So he was completely bulletproof, huh? That meant he wasn't knife proof, body armour doesn't work that way. He threw his pistol to the side and charged the man after pulling out his knife.
The man merely sidestepped the attack and blew the Lieutenant's head off.
Deathstroke almost sighed to himself. Every single soldier stationed here had been so ridiculously predictable that he probably could have sent Ravager here in his stead and still achieved the same result. She wasn't nearly as skilled as he was, but she had more than enough talent to deal with these simpletons. Even the commander was a simpleton. He should have left the door locked and went for help. Deathstroke would have had to have waited for someone else to either open the door or present an opportunity to force one of them to open it for him.
But he didn't and now he was dead because of it.
Granted, the mercenary knew he could have come and gone hours ago. He didn't have to wait for this man, the other base commander's eye would have worked just as well. But leaving this commander alive was leaving a loose end and Deathstroke hated loose ends as much as he hated pineapple on pizza and blonde women.
He stepped over the corpses and made his way to the now opened door, pausing to inspect it. It was a damn fine door and he was half tempted to take it with him. The problem was that he had no means to transport it to the airport to his private jet.
The door already forgotten, he stepped into the dimly lit cryo stasis room. There were a series of machines, as well as several large tanks, encircling the frozen members of the Brotherhood of Evil.
While Deathstroke was utterly confident in his ability to defeat any and all of them at the same time, he was also slightly wary. Madam Rouge was one hell of an assassin from what be knew, General Immortus was a centuries old warlord, Mallah was one of the hyper-intelligent apes from Gorilla City, and Brain…well, nobody really knows Brain's story, which made the obvious psychotic organ even more dangerous in the long run.
He inspected the tubes in which the frozen criminals were contained, noting the high tech freezing unit at the top of each one. This technology was based off of the works of one Victor Frieze, which spoke volumes about governments willingness to buy technology from criminals when it suited them.
Seeing as he could find no off switch, he moved over to the largest of the computers and began typing away. It took him a bit to hack into it, but when he was done he had access to everything he wanted and then some. Most of it was useless and trivial, but he did find some interesting notes of their physiologies tucked away in there. He memorized that information before moving on to the defreezing function and tube release. He started the Brain's first, just to ensure negotiations went his way
The tube door popped open slightly as the defreezer started, allowing Deathstroke to open the door and hold his hand beneath the casing the Brain was housed in to catch it. It took some twenty minutes, but the shell finally dropped into his palm. He stood there and stared at it until there was finally a flashing light on the 'face' of the device.
"Hello Deathstroke." The automatized voice box of this scientific monstrosity said. "I must confess some confusion as to why you, of all people, have released me from my imprisonment."
" I need information and you needed freedom." The mercenary replied almost casually.
"It would be evident to even a casual observer that I cannot survive without my compatriots, meaning that I will be in your debt once you release them."
"Yes, you would be." Deathstroke said pointedly. "Remember that."
"I shall. Now, what information is it that I have that you do not?"
"I'm looking for a scientist named Samuel Register. He once did combat with the Doom Patrol and I know you have such a rich history with them."
The Brain was quiet for a moment, the little lights on his faceplate flashing as if designed to simulate the thought process
"I know the man you speak of, but I did not deal with the man directly, nor did I follow his whereabouts afterwards."
"Then who does know?"
"Madam Rouge was our liaison with the man. She should also know where he is being kept prisoner."
Had he not been wearing a mask, his risen eyebrow would have been evident to the Brain. "You know for a fact that he is alive?"
"Despite Mento's attitude, he does not condone killing."
Deathstroke said nothing as he walked back over to the computer and set the Brain down beside it as he prepped the other tubes for defreezing.
Some time later, Mallah stumbled out of his tube and began flailing about making an awful racket.
"Calm yourself, Mallah." The Brain said.
The great ape paused and turned his head as he pawed at his eyes. "Master? I hear you but cannot see you!"
"You have just spent some time frozen and your eyesight must readjust. It will recover with time."
Mallah grunted and plopped down on the floor in front of his tube. The next one out was General Immortus, who slowly edged his way out of his tube.
"General, welcome back to the land of the living." The Brain said.
The old man turned his sightless eyes towards the direction he heard his leader in. "We were all frozen, weren't we?"
"Indeed."
"We…lost?"
"Indeed."
The old man bowed his head. "I have shamed you, master."
"No. We knew it was a remote possibility that the Titans would rally and defeat us. That is why we secured the secret headquarters and used the one in Paris instead."
Immortus bowed his head and sat down on the floor. Moments later Rouge exited her tube, but with no flailing and clear eyes. Deathstroke wasn't surprised, shapeshifters usually had some sort of healing factor. The Brain did not seem surprised either.
"Rouge."
The shapeshifting woman snapped her head to her leader, clearly peeved. "Master, vhere are ve?"
"Still in your secret base in Paris, though it was requisitioned by NATO and turned into a military prison to keep you four under lock and key." Deathstroke said.
Rouge looked at him with a critical eye. "You are ze assassin known as Deathstroke. Vhy help us?"
"I want Register."
She raised an eyebrow. "Ze doctor? Vhy?"
"He has talents that I require."
"Take him to the good doctor, Rouge. We owe him our freedom and lives." The Brain said.
"Doctor Register is anything but good, master. He is half crazy and extremely dangerous to be around." Rouge shook her head. "And ze prison he is kept in is far more difficult to find than zis vone."
"Take him, Rouge. That is an order."
She sighed and turned to Deathstroke. "Very vell. I hope you like ze cold, because ve're going for a hike."
Three days.
Three whole aggravating days had passed since the last attack and attempted kidnapping of Emelia. The Tower had been tense most of the time, the looming threat of Slade's obsession with the children running more than a couple of tempers hot.
Starfire spent any free time she had on the target course, blasting the dummies to absolute smithereens as she imagined each one to be Slade. She had repeatedly almost lost her niece and bumgorf to their arch enemy and her warrior instincts were screaming at her to hunt him down and end him like the gutless ghabyiq he was.
Robin, on the other hand, had been scouring the city nonstop for signs of Slade and turning up absolutely nothing. The mysterious 'apprentice' hadn't been seen again, nor did any of the incarcerated villains know of Slade's whereabouts. All they knew was that he had offered a fat paycheck for whomever brought him the children. None of them seemed to know about an apprentice either, which made Robin wonder if there was a copycat running around. Not a good thing.
Beast Boy had also been doing quite a bit of tracking and also came up with nothing. He had been using a more direct and open method by using a piece of one of Slade's old masks to track his scent but had turned up literally nothing. This aggravated the changeling to no ends.
Raven was magically searching for the man in the city but also coming up empty handed. It was a frustrating point, but not one that was causing her copious amounts of stress. What was stressful was explaining to Garfield that situation in the park with Rose. Raven ended up settling with 'she's been sexually harassing me for fun', which wasn't far from the truth but not the whole thing either. Garfield seemed to buy it though. Her quiet moments with him and Emelia were the highlight of her day, though she didn't deign to repeat another morning wake up call. That was mostly because Emelia had been sleeping with her since Raven's room was magically warded. Raven was considering doing the whole tower with wards, but the sheer volume she would need to do was staggering. From Garfield and Raven's perspective, Emelia had already recovered from the incident, which was a relief. Whether or not it had any long term psychological effects, however, was unknown.
Kid Devil was perhaps the least stressed of all. He had no idea who this Slade person was, but he sounded like a really nasty villain, kind of like the father of his ex(?). The demonkin spent a lot of time patrolling to avoid the tension at the tower, but still gamed with Beast Boy and Robin when they were feeling up to it. The upside to this situation was that he had finally gotten ahold of his friend Zachary, though he was still in the process of convincing Zach that he was the real deal. He was beginning to think he'd have to travel to Low Angeles just to prove who he was.
On the morning of the fourth day after the attack, Robin called a meeting.
"Alright team, we're coming up with absolutely nothing regarding Slade. We have to face the facts: he isn't in Jump City." Robin said as he paced through the loving room. "I want to hear some suggestions as to how we can track him down better."
The Titans were quietly thoughtful before Raven spoke up.
"Why don't we expand the search?"
Robin paused. "You think he could be somewhere else and literally just using the lesser villains as patsies?"
"Would you put it past him?" Raven countered. "Remember, he was responsible for setting the Hive on us."
Robin nodded. "That's true. So, we get the other Titans to do some digging then."
"We might need to recruit some more dudes to help us." Beast Boy said. "Me and Rae know two in LA that would do nicely."
Kid Devil looked at him in surprise. "You know LA heroes?"
The changeling nodded. "Yeah, two newbies named Bunker and Skitter. They need some training but looked like they would do alright."
"Sounds good, Beast Boy." Robin said. "Take your T-ship pod and go recruit them and come back as quickly as possible. Give them a run down while you're at it."
"I got a better idea." Kid Devil interjected.
Robin looked at him. "You do? Lets hear it."
"I got a buddy named Zachary Zatara who's technically Titan material cause he can use magic, though he's kind of a selfish prick. I'm sure I can recruit him, cause he lives in LA too. And before you ask, I trust him with my life. So, I'll 'port me and BB down to LA and we'll get these guys set up and come back. A few hours tops."
The capes crusader nodded. "Alright, see if-"
"I'm sorry, but did you say Zachary Zatara?" Raven interrupted.
KD gave her a funny look. "Yeah, what of it?"
"Would he happen to be related to a Zatanna Zatara?" She asked, her face painted with annoyance. "The Justice Leaguer?"
"Yeah, they're cousins."
"Is he anything like her?"
"Uuuhhhhhh, noooooooooooo?" Eddie said uncertainly.
"You know Zatanna of the Justice League?" Robin asked, surprised.
Raven snorted. "Know her? She's the one who made my life miserable when I first came to Earth."
All the other Titans were looking at her in intense curiosity now, so she elaborated.
"Look, when I came to Earth, my goal was to find people who could train me to fight and help me defeat Trigon. I was here for only a couple of days when I heard about the Justice League, but couldn't figure out how to contact them. I would up flying to Gotham and waiting for Batman to find me just to talk to them." Raven paused for a moment and took a deep breath to try to settle some of her annoyance. "Batman took me up to the watchtower and Zatanna was there with the original members and some others. She knew what I was the moment I arrived and barely let me get my story out before she started going on and on about how dangerous I was, how I was an agent of Trigon sent to spy on the Justice League, stuff like that. She actually convinced them that helping me was just what Trigon wanted and got me kicked off the tower."
Silence reigned for a moment before Garfield cleared his throat.
"Well that's…" He trailed off. "Something else."
"Indeed." Starfire nodded. "I would like to have words with this Zatanna, ones she would not enjoy hearing."
"If it makes you feel any better, she hates me too because of my powers." Eddie offered. Raven simply shrugged.
"So what happened after that?" Robin asked, genuinely curious.
"Well…I was sent back to Gotham with Batman with strict orders to keep my head down and mouth shut or be incarcerated. I didn't know what to do or where to go at that point but…Batman gave me enough money to survive on for a while and told me to go to Jump City. He said there were teens like me there, that I could make friends and get stronger with them. I spent a week in Gotham in a hotel learning about this world and its people before I made my way here to Jump City."
"He freaking knew all this was going to happen." Garfield heard Robin mutter under his breath. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Well, if not for Zatanna, we all might not have met, right?" Garfield said as he grabbed Raven's hand and gave it a little squeeze. She mumbled her agreement.
"Right." Robin said before he readopted his leader tone. "Kid Devil, Beast Boy, swing down by the armoury for three communicators, then get down to LA and recruit Bunker, Skitter, and Zachary Zatara. I'll make some calls and get the others Titans to put their ears to the ground, maybe see if any of them have any friends to recruit."
Both boys nodded and got up. Raven did too, grabbing Garfield's arm and pulling him in for a hug.
"Be safe, Gar." She murmured in his ear.
He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a firm hug. "I will, Rae."
They kissed and pulled apart. Afterwards he and Kid Devil clasped arms and disappeared with a BAMF. Robin was already headed out the door at that point to make his calls.
"I shall do the calling of friend Cyborg and inform him of what is going on." Starfire said as she got up and floated out of the room.
This left Raven alone to think, watching as Emelia and Martin sat nearby and played with some toys they had. She had a lot on her mind right now. The Rose situation, the Terra situation, her growing relationship with Garfield, the Slade situation, and a few other things as well. She hated the fact that Emelia had to be cooped up in this tower. It was one thing for an introvert like Raven to do that, but Emelia was every bit an ambivert like her father. It wouldn't be good for her. What she needed was more exposure to people too, so that she wouldn't have the social issues like Raven did. She wished she could put Emelia in some sort of preschool, but it was just too dangerous to do that since she had a big target on her back.
Raven didn't really know what to say to Terra either. Stay away from Garfield, he's mine? No, she had already done that. Stay away from us? Nope, already did that too. Do you regret what you did? That was a silly question, Raven had felt her regret when she had betrayed Slade. Why did you do it?
…yeah, that was a good question.
With that (halfassedly) out of the way, that left one issue remaining that could be dealt with directly: Rose. Raven had an idea of what to do, but she needed to get the girl here for when the boys returned.
She hummed to herself as she pulled out Garfield's cellphone, which she had slipped from his belt pouch when they hugged. He would probably be mad about that, but she had a good reason (by her reasoning) to do so. She flipped it open and punched in his password (which she may or may not have recently peeked over his shoulder to see).
He actually had very little on the phone, mostly numbers and a few secret pictures of Raven, Emelia, and a couple of Rose. Those Raven deleted without any form of regret whatsoever. Afterwards she went through his numbers and dialed the white haired bitc-erm, girl's number.
"Heya Beast Boy, what's up?" Rose answered in a tone the empath found to be a little too friendly.
"This isn't Beast Boy." She replied with both annoyance and smugness.
"Oh, shit, heya Rae-Rae! What're you doing with BB's phone?"
"Calling you, obviously."
"Okay smartass, what do you want?"
"To invite you over to the tower for a while."
There was a pause. "You shitting me?"
"I don't even know what that means."
"Huh…well, sure! I just have to finish my jog and head home for a shower! BB gonna pick me up? My car won't be fixed for another…lets see…two days? Yeah, two."
"Garfield is busy, but I can teleport over and get you." Raven said, keeping in mind that the lines might be tapped.
"You know where I live?"
"No, but I assumed you'd tell me."
"Thousand Sunny Apartments, number 302."
"Alright."
"Alright, sweet, gimme forty five minutes to get home!"
"Alright. See you then." Raven said before hanging up the phone.
She couldn't keep the evil grin from her face. One way or another, she was going to get rid of the headache known as Rose Wilson.
Rose hung up the phone, positively beaming. "Well hot damn, looks like I'll be having fun tonight!"
There was a muffled moan and she pointed her silenced gun at the source and pulled the trigger. It went silent, but a slightly louder and longer muffled wail sounded from the other side of the room.
"Oh shut up, you stupid bimbo, you pricks had this coming when you wrecked my car." Rose sighed as she rolled her eyes and stepped over the corpse of Fang. Getting into this interrogation room in the meta-prison hadn't been that hard after she stole a uniform and bribed a guard. Getting all three of her targets in the same room at the same time had been trickier, but not impossible.
She made her way over to Kitten, who had her mouth gagged with one of Killer Moth's hands and was laying bound on the floor. Rose had made her watch as she blown out Fang's kneecaps and elbows, then cut her father into ten pieces while he remained bound in his own specialized restraints. There was blood everywhere and Rose was high as a kite on its scent. She ripped the hand from Kitten's mouth and shoved the gun barrel in there before the crying girl could scream.
"You should be happy for me, I might get laid tonight!" She said cheerfully.
Kitten only had time for a single huh before Rose pulled the trigger and blew her brains out the back of her skull. Humming happily to herself, the assassin retrieved her stolen guard helmet and gear and slipped it back on before slipping out of the room. The cameras had been on loop for the past hour while Rose was 'interrogating' the criminals, so no one was the wiser about what really happened in there. No one had seen her face either.
It would be hours before anyone found the bodies.
Meanwhile…
BAMF!
"Dude! That was freaky as hell!" Beast Boy said as he staggered away from Kid Devil in the convention center parking lot, who laughed.
"I know, right?!"
The changeling shook his head. "Alright, so, I know where I gotta go, how about you?"
The demonkin nodded. "Yep. I'll go talk to him now."
BAMF!
Beast Boy shook his head and transformed into an eagle. With a shrill cry he began to beat his wings and lifted off into the air. It would take him a good thirty minutes to find the park from before, but he was lucky enough to spot a police officer the moment he arrived. He got directions from the officer to the station, where he traveled to next. The police chief was more than happy to send word to Bunker to come to the station for a visitor.
Garfield sat in the station (with the cops looking at him oddly) for a good thirty minutes before Bunker arrived with a dark skinned girl in tow. She wasn't wearing a mask or anything, just regular street clothes. The Mexican hero appeared to be out of breath.
"Dios mío!" Bunker said as he gazed at Beast Boy. "You really came back!"
Garfield gave him a weak smile as he got up. "Yeah man. Sorry it wasn't sooner, things have been hectic back home."
Bunker nodded. "Not complaining, just happy to see you!"
Garfield nodded, then looked at the girl. "And you are…?"
"Skitter." She said.
He raised an eyebrow and looked her over. "Uhhh…"
"It's a transformation." Skitter said. "A little complicated."
"Right." Garfield nodded, making a note to have a talk with her at a later date. He pulled out two communicators from his belt and hand each hero one. "I'm Beast Boy of the Teen Titans and I officially recognize you as honorary members of the Titans."
Bunker looked like He was about to have a conniption fit while Skitter eyeballed the device.
"What's the difference between an actual member and an honorary one?" She asked.
"Honorary's aren't part of a team yet." Garfield answered. "But LA is big enough to warrant having a team, so I'll talk to Robin about getting you guys your own tower and forming a team."
"We're gonna get a tower?!" Bunker said breathlessly.
Garfield chuckled. "Yeah. There's supposedly another guy here in LA that's Titan material, so he'll probably be on your team too."
"Anyone we would know?" Skitter asked.
"Some magical named Zachary Zatara." Garfield shrugged.
"I told you his magic was real!" Bunker said to Skitter. She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, its real all right. Now, there's something I need to talk to you guys about in private." Garfield said as he motioned them to the chiefs office, who already agreed to let him borrow it.
Bunker followed eagerly. "What is it? A top secret mission?"
Garfield waited until they were in the room and closed the door before he pulled out his communicator and dialed Kid Devil's frequency. "Hey man, you find your buddy?"
"Yup! Let me see where you are…ha, I've been in there before, one sec!"
BAMF!
And so Kid Devil did arrive with a young man dressed in the stereotypical magicians uniform, though he was scowling.
"You know I hate when you do that Eddie." He huffed.
"Yep!"
"Welcome to the Titans." Garfield said as he noted the communicator in Zachary's hand. "We'll do proper introductions at a later date, we're kinda pressed for time."
The four new (counting Eddie) Titans nodded and listened as Garfield began explaining the whole situation with Slade and the children.
Meanwhile…
So this is the place? Kind of nice. Raven thought to herself as she arrived at Thousand Sunny Apartments. The buildings, lawn, and parking lots were all well taken care of and it was fairly quiet here too. It gave her the feeling of a nice neighborhood. She wondered if there were any children Emelia and Martin could play with as she made her way through the buildings until she found the one Rose lived in. She didn't feel like climbing the stairs, so she floated up to Rose's floor and looked for her door. When she found it she landed and knocked. Above head, the sky rumbled as while the clouds slowly darkened. There was a storm coming today, not that Raven was bothered by rain. Moments later Rose opened the door.
She was wearing nothing but a tank top and black lacey panties.
"Come on in!" She said. "I just got out of the shower."
Raven averted her eyes and nodded before following her 'friend' in. She did cast one curious glance at Rose's barely clothed bottom, wondering what kind of exercises she did to keep it looking so nice.
I lose a couple of pounds and my butt will look that good too! Brave huffed.
"Gimme just a minute to throw something on, okay?" Rose said as she walked through her living room, presumably towards her bedroom.
"Alright." Raven said as she looked around the room, mostly at the black and orange furniture.
Orange has got to be the ugliest color on furniture there is. Rude commented.
Rose came back out with a scowl on her face and went to a set of pantry doors next to the kitchen, which she opened to reveal a washer and dryer. She opened the dryer and took out a pair of skinny jeans and didn't hesitate to out them on.
Does my ass jiggle like that when I put pants on? Rude asked.
I hope so! Desire giggled. Garfield seems to like it!
"See something you like?"
Raven was jolted from her thoughts by Rose, who was swinging her bum back and forth at her while smiling mischievously.
"No, I was just wondering why you didn't have the decency to dress in your room." She lied.
Rose snorted. "One, it's my house, so I'll dress when I want when I want. Two, you have a butt that shows quiet a bit in that uniform, so you have no room to talk."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Semantics, plain and simple."
Rose shrugged and went back into her room. Raven settled in on the couch and waited there until she came back out some minutes later.
"Ready?" She asked. Rose nodded and patted a bag she was carrying.
"Yep! Got everything I need right here!" She said cheerfully. That raised warning bells in Raven's head.
"And that would be…" She asked slowly.
Rose smiled. "The fun stuff!"
Raven immediately shook her head. "That is not what you were called over for. Put it back."
"Awww, come on Rae-Rae!" Rose pouted. "I could teach you guys so much! I'll even show you how to deepth-"
"Don't."
"Okay, so what if we sixtyni-"
"Stop."
"How about ana-"
"Rose!" Raven gritted her teeth. "Enough!"
"Tell you what, I'll let you wear the harness!" Rose said sweetly, moving closer to Raven.
"If I have to tell you to quit one more time, I'm dropping you off in the middle of the ocean." Raven growled. "I have already been far more patient with you than I should have, considering what I told you the other day."
Surprisingly, Rose did stop and stare at her for a long moment.
"You two really aren't doing anything, are you?" She asked sincerely.
Raven shook her head. "No, we aren't. And for the life of me I can't figure out why you keep trying to meddle and keep harassing me!"
Rose shrugged once more. "I'm a nymphomaniac with no outlet. I'm not ashamed of who I am in that regard. I just…I dunno. Sex with you guys sounds like it would be a lot of fun and really satisfying. Haven't had anything like that in a long time, so…yeah. I'm gonna hit on you. Figured it'd be safer than hitting on Beast Boy and you finding out."
"Safer is a questionable line of thinking." Raven snapped. "I already told you no, several times."
"I know, I just keep hoping you'd change your mind." Rose said cheekily.
"Why don't you go get a boyfriend or a girlfriend?! Hell, go get both!" The empath almost yelled in frustration.
Rose didn't answer at first, but Raven felt sorrow run through the girl.
"I would get something steady if I could Raven. I'm just…not able to commit to something like that again." She said quietly.
Raven didn't have an answer to that, though she was grateful when Rose took the bag back to her room and came out empty handed a moment later. She picked up her purse from the counter.
"There. Happy?" Rose asked. "You officially killed my lady boner."
"Yes." Raven replied monotonously. "Let's go."
Inwardly though, she was all smiles.
Soon. She thought as they stepped through a portal. Soon you'll be out of my hair.
Some time later…
"-and over the past few days we've been scouring the city and ain't found squat." Garfield said as he finished his story. Bunker and Skitter looked at him in awe while Zachary stared at him in a mixture of disbelief and amusement.
"Dios mío…that's crazy senior Beast Boy." Bunker said as he shook his head.
"You're telling me." Zachary said.
"Yeah, so you guys need to look out for Slade, not just for us but for yourselves. He has zero issues on preying on people, we have three confirmed instances where he's done it. I'm not telling you to pick a fight with him, I'm just saying to look out for him. If you find him, call us immediately. We will drop everything and come to you." Garfield said with extra emphasis. "I really can't stress this enough guys."
"We understand." Skitter said. The others nodded.
"Alright then. When Cyborg gets back from helping the Dakota City team, we will send him down here to build you guys a base when he gets some free time." Garfield said. "Until then, stick together as much as possible, it's safer that way."
Zachary looked dubiously at the other two new recruits and opened his mouth to say something, but Kid Devil elbowed him in the side. Zach scowled at his friend but said nothing.
"Ready to go dude?" Garfield asked Eddie.
"Yeah man." Eddie said before glancing at Zach. "Don't forget, dude."
Zach waved him off. "Yeah yeah, I'll find bitch you called a girlfriend and point you in her direction."
Eddie rolled his eyes. "Dude, she's not a bitch."
"Right, and you're not red." Zach replied sarcastically.
Garfield ignored all this and pulled out his communicator and dialed Raven.
"Hey Rae." He said warmly when she answered.
"Hello Gar." She replied just as warmly. "Done already?"
He nodded. "Yeah, everyone got here pretty quick and I briefed them."
"Alright." Raven replied. "The common room floor is open. We've been waiting for you."
"We?" Garfield echoed.
"Is that Beast Boy?" He heard Rose, of all people, say. "Where's he been for the past couple of hours?"
"Out, being busy with superhero stuff. You wouldn't understand."
"What? Do I have stupid written on my forehead?"
A pause."You do now."
There was another pause, followed by some colorful not-cursing cursing. There was an evil grin on Raven's face as a black marker floated past her head.
"Uhhh…Rae? Why is she there?" Garfield asked confusedly.
"I invited her over for reasons that I'll tell you later." Raven replied as Rose walked behind her with a baby wipe, scrubbing her forehead. "She's been reMARKably well behaved for the most part."
"I heard that, jackass!"
Raven chuckled. What Garfield didn't know was that they had sat around watching a movie with Starfire, so there hadn't been much talking going on.
"Well alrighty then." He said uncertainly. "See you in a minute."
Raven nodded and closed communications. Garfield looked to Kid Devil. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be." He chuckled.
The changeling nodded and looked to the others. "We'll get back to you guys soon, promise."
Bunker and Skitter nodded and said goodbye while Zachary shrugged. Garfield grasped Eddie's arm again and BAMF! They were back at the tower.
Disoriented once more, Garfield turned to his friend. "Dude, that is crazy!"
"Believe me man, I know. It took me a long time to get used to it." KD chuckled. "First time I did it I threw up everywhere and couldn't-"
"Eddie?"
Kid Devil froze in place as his mind and heart skipped a beat. He knew that voice and whipped around searching for the source.
He found it all right.
"Rose?" He said breathlessly to the girl standing by the windows. It was indeed her and he instantly moved towards her. "Rose!"
She looked just as shocked as he was, but it was replaced by something he hadn't seen in a long time.
Rage.
"You motherfucker!" She snarled. "Where the Hell have you been?!"
