Chapter 2 – The Meeting

"There will be prizes." The man boomed once again. "So get to know your competition, and then turn into your rooms you will be staying in for the evening. The games shall begin tomorrow evening, so get your rest." He was gone in a second.

Starfire backed away from all the new faces. Everyone seemed to be glaring at her. Suddenly she turned the other way and saw Terra. Starfire ran up to her filled with joy, hugging her tightly.

"Terra friend!" She said ecstatically as she squeezed her.

"Egh...Starfire...you're crushing me..." Terra said, breathless. Starfire let go, blushing. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Terra said, taking a deep breath. "Why are you asking me this? I am part of the Teen Titans, I've been living with you guys for a week."

"Yes." Starfire said, giggling. "We should get to know each other better. Perhaps we shall go to the mall?"

Raven approached the two with an expressionless look on her face.

"Shall we go meet our future friends?" Starfire suggested, clasping her hands together.

"Not friends, Starfire. Competition." Raven said shortly.

First they approached a girl with long black hair a few inches past her shoulders. She wore a high tech outfit that was black and white and had many stripes down the side. She looked Asian of some sort.

"Greetings!" Starfire said in a friendly voice as her friends approached the new girl. "I am Starfire from Tameran."

"Hi. I'm Chanel, from Hong Kong." The girl shook Starfire's hand.

"Hong...Kong? What is a Hong Kong?"

Raven cut it. "She's not...from around here."

"She wasn't born on earth." Terra added.

Chanel nodded, laughing a little. "Hong Kong is a city off the coast of China. China is a country on the other side of the world." She explained.

"I...see." Starfire said.

"I am Hong Kong's #1 heroine and crime fighter." Chanel continued. "I can take control of storms and winds. What can you do?" She asked.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." Raven replied.

"Hi." A girl with extremely long black hair to her waist stood in front of the three girls with her hand in the air. She smiled, and her eyes were a simple grey. A girl who looked rather shy peeped out from behind her. She had blonde hair down to her back like Terra's, but she had red tips at the end. She wore red tinted glasses (that were temporarily placed on the top of her head) and an all black outfit, with flames stitched on the shirt and skirt.

"I'm Element." The first girl said. She whirled her index finger in the air, and a drop of water appeared. "I can do any element I want." The water changed to a flame, and then a whirl of leaves, and finally a piece of rock. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Starfire stared. "Oooooooooh" She said, watching Element's powers shift on her finger.

"What's your name?" Terra asked the blonde haired girl.

"Firebird." She replied quietly.

"Fire...bird?" Starfire pronounced slowly. "What is Fire...bird?"

"I am..."

Starfire studied her face for a minute, and then declared her a friend. "It is wonderful to meet you, fire...bird!" She said loudly, waving her hand. Raven rolled her eyes as Chanel laughed to herself quietly.

Firebird laughed out loud, loosening up a little bit. "It is nice to meet you too. What's your name?"

"I am Starfire, from Tameran." Starfire answered.

"Tameran...?"

"Yes, the wonderful planet outside of earth. I – "

Firebird stopped. "Whoa whoa whoa...so you're an alien?"

Starfire nodded. "I prefer not to be called as what you humans say, 'aliens', though." She said quietly. Firebird just smiled. "Sorry bout that."

"It is alright."

Chanel smiled at all of them. "Well now that we've all gotten to know each other all fine and dandy like, I'm gonna go use the girl's room. Be right back!" She wandered off into the restroom.

Raven looked around and spotted two girls standing in the corner. One was in the dark, and one wore a cloak over her head so her face was not visible. She walked over to them.

"I'm Raven." Raven said, introducing herself. Something she didn't do too often.

"Raven, eh?" One of the girls answered. She had long black hair, but when she stepped out into the light it appeared a crimson red. Her voice was low and sticky, piecing together in thick globs. She spoke slowly and smoothly. "I'm Dracuna." When she stepped out she wore quite an interesting outfit. Bats decorated her clothes...err...maybe she was half bat, because she had bat ears and bat wings coming out of her. And they weren't the type you got at a costume store. She didn't look human. Dracuna seemed to know what Raven was thinking.

"I'm a Vransilvanian." She said, answering her thoughts.

"Vransilvanian?" Raven repeated, confused.

"Yes." Dracuna replied. "Where vampires and bats..." She started walking past Raven. Then she turned around for a minute. "Live in harmony. Nice place, actually." She said, her words sliding together. "Well, see you around. If you make it to the finals." She said, continuing to walk away.

Raven glanced back at her, and then noticed another girl in the dark, leaning against the wall, her whole body engulfed in a black cloak. She didn't look at Raven.

"I'm Raven." Raven said again, introducing her to the new girl.

"Umbra." The girl replied. Her words were short and coarse, and slightly raspy.

"Where are you from?" Raven asked, trying to make conversation.

The girl didn't answer for a minute. Only the sounds of others visiting could be heard in those moments. Raven raised one eyebrow. "Well?"

"I come from another realm." Umbra finally said.

"Azerath?" Raven continued, a little hopeful.

Umbra took off the hood attached to her cloak, revealing long black hair and pale face with amber eyes. "No." She finally said. She then walked past Raven in the direction Dracuna went without another word.

Raven rolled her eyes and went back to find Starfire. Starfire was standing alone in the middle of the room, looking for another person to talk to. "Oh Raven!" She cried as Raven approached her. "These friends we have met so far, aren't they wonderful?"

"Not all of them." Raven said shortly. "Raven?" Raven turned around to face a girl with an all black cat suit with silver flames gleaming on the bottom. Her hair swung down to her waist, but her eyes were covered with a mask. "Who are you?" Raven asked, testily. "I can't believe you don't remember me." The girl took off her mask and flipped her shiney hair. "It's me, Rayne." "SISTER OF ROBIN!" Starfire squealed with glee. "SISTER! IT IS SO WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" She ran over to Rayne to give her a gigantic hug. "Starfire, you're squishing me!" Rayne laughed. "I am sorry." Starfire said, blushing a little. "That's ok." "Tell me sister of Robin, how have you been?" "Great." Rayne replied. "I've just been getting to know Rich- I mean, Robin, better...we've been separated for so many years. He's changed a lot." She stopped. "And he's told me so many things about you..." She eyed Starfire a little, giggling. Starfire's eyes immediately lit up. "REALLY? Rayne, what has he told you?"

Raven turned away, obviously not included in the conversation. Another girl approached her. She looked half Asian and half European. "My name is Eskiko." The girl said. "It is nice to meet you." She said in a rather friendly voice.

"Raven." Raven replied.

"Oh yeah, Raven!" She said quietly. "The dark one in the Teen Titans, right?"

"You know the Teen Titans too?" Raven asked, a bit interested.

"Well DUH!" Eskiso said, surprised at her response. "Everyone knows the Teen Titans. "Especially my team, AOTW."

"Sorry, never heard of you guys before."

Eskiko just smiled another friendly smile. "Well, one day you will know."

"Hello!" A girl popped her head in through their conversation. She had hazel eyes and purple hair that reached her shoulders, maybe a little longer. "I'm Nova." She said, making a bright blue light burst out of her index finger. She grinned.

"Hey." Eskiko said. "I'm Eskiko."

"Eskiko, eh?" Nova said brightly. "Is that a Japanese name?"

Eskiko nodded. "Yeah. I'm half Japanese and half Romanian."

"Interesting." Another muffled voice was heard, and yet another person joined in on the conversation. She was quite tall and a helmet was covering her face so the girls didn't know what she looked like. She finally pulled off her helmet, revealing a pair of pretty blue eyes and shoulder length orange hair. "The name's Viewtiful Jo. But you can call me Jo." She said. "You?"

"Eskiko."

"Nova."

"Raven."

Jo shook each of their hands. "You guys look pretty young. How old are you?"

"Sixteen." They all replied at the same time.

"Not even adults yet, eh?" She smiled. "Well one day you'll get there."

"So tell me more, sister of Robin!" Starfire said, grabbing onto Rayne's arm. Rayne sighed. "I've told you like five stories now, Starfire. What more do you want?"

"More, more, MORE!" Starfire yelled with joy.

Chanel came over to them again. "I see you've met Starfire." She said to Rayne. "My name's Chanel."

"Rayne."

They shook hands.

"What wonderful friends we shall be!" Starfire said, jumping up. "All of us shall be!"

"Yeah..." Rayne said. She looked up at the trophy at the top of the stairs. "But I'm gonna get that trophy."

"Oh?" Chanel said, piping in. "I thought I was the one who was."

"We all have an equal chance of getting it." The smooth voice was heard again. Dracuna appeared out of the shadows. She looked at Rayne. "So don't get ahead of yourself."

Rayne just looked back at the trophy.

"A bunch of children." Dracuna said with a drone tone. "This shouldn't be too hard."

"Hey, I'm not a kid." Jo said, emerging with Eskiko, Nova, and Raven behind her. Firebird came out of the girls bathroom and joined in the conversation along with Element.

Dracuna turned her head over and looked at her for a second, then turned away.

Chanel yawned loudly. "I think I'd better get to bed, it's late."

"Yeah, no kidding." Terra said, appearing too. "Tomorrow's going to be a long day of training before the actually tournament."

Umbra was nowhere to be seen.

All of the girls nodded in agreement. "Well I guess we'd better get to our dorms." Raven stayed in her spot for a minute and looked around for Umbra, but she couldn't find her.

"Raven, are you coming?"

"Yeah." Raven said. With one last glance at the place, she turned away to join Starfire.