Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. See first chapter for full disclaimer.
I'm Sorry, Did You Need This Couch?
Sunlight poured through the windows, banishing me from sleep and forcing me upright. I yawned, stretching; breakfast sounded good. The thought died when I saw that I was surrounded by five teenaged humans. Three guys and two girls. Somewhat confused, but not yet openly hostile. I clamped down on my encroaching panic, stood up slowly, and said, "Hello, good morning to you," bowing to each one in turn. My training, which allowed me to stay in control, also gave my speech a near-obsequious tone. They looked as if they hadn't understood a single word I said. Great, they don't have their chips either. Don't they have other species here? And now for the fun part...
What I meant to say was, "Hello, good day to you." What came out was more like, "Haaroo, guud dhaay tuu yooo." I winced at the horrific pronunciation, realizing just because I had shown an aptitude in class didn't necessarily mean that I could speak the language. The group looked in mild contemplation, deciphering what I had said.
"And... Good day to you as well," replied the raven-haired youth in front of me. I felt a huge flood of relief that I had gotten the language correct. "What's your name?" he asked.
Rather than butcher my own name in neo-classical English, I asked, "Mhhay I haavve a piiice off puuhaayper?"
"'May I have a piece of paper'? That's your name?" asked the red-haired female.
"Actually Starfire, I think she's really asking for a piece of paper."
"Oh! Allow me to get one for you then, Miss." She flew off in search of one.
I blushed. I should be the one getting the piece of paper for her, not the other way around. Too weird.
"Here you go, ma'am," she said, setting it down in front of me. Did I say that I blushed before? A Silicon God using an honorific towards me REALLY unsettled me.
"Thhaanksss," I managed to mutter. Let's see, can I remember neo-classical English well enough to write fluently? I pulled out my pen and wrote down 'Can you read this?' in my best handwriting, then slid it towards him.
He took it.
"Yeah, we can," answered the green-skinned boy from over Raven-Hair's shoulder. I motioned for him to give it back.
'My name is Kaelia Sophera. I am an Alexander, Kaleofebrys class. My species is TSCR/UC,' I wrote.
The group paused. "Well, I'm Robin. Nice to meet you," said Raven-Hair.
"I'm Beastboy," said the green-skinned youth.
"Raven," droned the blue-cloaked girl.
"And I am Starfire," announced the red-head.
I bowed again. 'It's very nice to meet you all,' I scribbled. Even in writing, my training bleeds through.
"Right, is there anything I can do for you?" asked Robin.
'Do you have an electronics lab handy? If you do, I could rig up a translator and I wouldn't have to keep writing to communicate clearly.' I was singing silent praises of thanks to my N-E professor for riding me on my grades.
Robin paused, seeming to debate whether or not it seemed like a good idea. "...Yeah, we do. Cyborg, could you and Raven take her there?"
"Sure thing, Rob."
"Alright," said Raven. They walked around the couch and motioned for me to follow. Guides, or escorts? I heard the other three start talking as soon as they thought I was out of earshot.
"...Are you sure we can trust her? I know I don't need to remind you about what happened last time."
"I know that Logan. But we don't have much of a choice. Besides, Raven and Cyborg are more than a match for her." The conversation took on a darker tone, and we left the room. I looked at my two watchers a little more nervously. Our walk passed in relative silence, mostly because I couldn't speak the language very well. But from the looks on their faces as we continued down the hall suggested a telepathic link. So not comforted. My tail bushed out from light fear.
"Here we are," said Cyborg after a while, stopping in front of a large door. Pressing a panel, the door slid sideways and we entered.
It was like a techie geek's dream. Rows upon rows of components, and a twenty foot work table with every tool imaginable. I simply stopped in open admiration of the room.
"You know, I think I might like this girl," said Cyborg. Raven just fixed him with an icy glare and stalked off towards one end of the worktable.
I was too wrapped up in the beauty of the lab to notice the exchange; I simply wandered through the aisles of parts.
"What do you need?" asked Cy, snapping me out of my reverie.
"What?" I asked, turning around.
He looked confused.
My ears perked up as I realized that I had spoken in my native tongue. I bowed, apologizing. I started looking for the parts I needed. Let's see, a modified headset, a blank cpu, a mp3 player, and a little luck. The program for the cpu would have to be written first. Which would only take about eight hours... I found a blank piece of paper and wrote 'I'm gonna start coding the translation program. Where's the best computer to use?' I added, staring at the wall of terminals.
He took it, read, and said, "Third one on the left. It's the only one that has a programming port." BS. In a lab like his? He just wanted me to use the one he could trace the easiest. Well, it's not like I was going to do anything illegal, or contact their archnemesis. I put the chip in the port and sat down. It was going to be a long night...
Later
"Uggh," I moaned, slumping down in my chair. Eight hours of solid coding at maximum speed, while effective in reaching my goals, was also effective in inducing a stupor and knotting the muscles in my fingers. And I had only just finished the cpu. Attempting to put the cpu in the mp3 player and re-wiring/soldering/connecting everything while my furry fingers were so cramped I could barely flex them would yield catastrophic results. I hit 'save' on the application, and made sure I had a back-up copy of the program. The program began downloading into the processor, which would(hopefully)allow me to converse in their language.
Programming wasn't as hard as the tests for training made it. Granted, I had to write the grammatics and vocabulary for my entire language myself, but I was able to use an on-disk dictionary and grammatory for English. Newfound gratitude rose in my mind for my training instructors. Even though they were anal jerks.
"You okay?" asked Cyborg, seeing me slumping in my chair. I moved my tail to the side so he wouldn't step on it.
I nodded, then said that I had finished with programming the translator.
"Wow, already? Did you pull an all-nighter?"
I fished around for a slip of paper. 'Yeah. Eight straight hours of coding. Not my favorite way to spend a Saturday night.'
"Yeah. Did you do this from memory?" he asked, indicating the screen of raw code.
'Uh-huh. My language at least. I was able to cheat and use these online dictionaries and grammatories for the English,' I wrote, my fingers less cramped, but still stiff enough to poke holes in steel.
"Wow," the metal teen repeated. "Where did you learn how to code like this? And what language is it in? I can't even recognize it."
'Really? This is Basic. Standard language taught to all, Human and TS alike, at around the age of twelve.'
Cyborg stopped breathing when he read that. "This... is Basic?! No way! There's no way this could be Basic!"
'Why not?' I scribbled on a new sheet of paper as Cy had torn the previous one in his excitement.
"Because I think this is more complicated than my own system! And you're telling me this is what they teach twelve-year olds where you come from?!"
'...Yeah, it is,' I wrote, feeling irrationally like I had done something wrong.
He either read the look on my face, or more likely saw my drooping ears and calmed down. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell like that. It's just, I pride myself on knowing all there is to know about computers, and you show up with a program I've never seen that's way beyond mine and call it Basic. Then you tell me that every twelve-year old where you comes from knows this program off the back of their hand-, I mean paw, or-, what?" he trailed off, asking for clarification.
'Hands,' I wrote, smiling. 'What I'm writing with would be called hands.'
"Ahh. Thanks for the clarification." He looked at the code for a while. "What's left to do before you finish the translator? Robin and the others are starting to wonder."
I massaged my fingers before answering. 'I just need to modify this mp3 player a bit and tweak the headset.' The computer alerted me that it was done downloading the program.
"Looks like you'd better get started on the mp3 player," he said, heading towards the door of the lab. "Later Raven," said Cyborg as he walked out. She hadn't moved for the entire time I was in the lab. Which meant that I hadn't done anything she didn't disapprove of. But unless she was a master telepath she couldn't have seen the code or known what I was doing. That didn't mean I didn't discount the possibility. Just for fun, I concentrated, and thought, Can you hear me?
"Yeah. I heard you. I'd advise you not test me again." The ice in her voice was so cold it dropped my core temperature by ten degrees. Scary...
"I heard that too. And, just so we're clear, if you do anything to hurt my friends, I'll remove your heart through your eye socket." The tone in her threat implied no exaggeration, and just a bit of personal experience.
I gulped.
"That would be the correct response."
Turning, I started work on my translator to distract myself from the possibly murderous telepath watching me.
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Afterthoughts
Oooh, tension between Raven and Cyborg! Don't worry, I'm staying with BB/Rae, remember, this takes place after Terra's betrayal. (Fun Fact: The day she showed up was the anniversary of Terra's arrival. This is why she made it up four flights of stairs without running into anyone.) Raven's just annoyed because her distrust of Kaelia is almost tangible.
More terms to explain. Yay!
Neo-Classical English (N-E): The name for the dialect of English spoken at the time of the story.
How the wolves came to reach sentience: About ten million years ago, an ice age set in on Aldas.Thus megafauna came to be. The wolves that were present managed to adapt, but never really increased in size much. Therefore, they needed bigger packs to bring down prey. Much bigger packs. Because the heirarchy is so important in the pack, their brain size increased to allow for the ability. Like protohumans and brachiation, the bigger brains eventually led to sentience, which led to civilization, then to uplifting the other races, and finally the current culture seen today. (Please don't flame me for getting facts wrong or treating them like silly putty. I just wanted something that sounds somewhat plausible.)
The enytomlogy of Kaelia's name: The original Kaelia was the greatest warrior to have ever lived. She created her own school of martial arts, taught only to the most disciplined students. Unsurprisingly, this has given Kaelia our protagonist a bit of a complex. Giving your kid this name is kinda like naming a Japanese kid Musashi or a German kid Siegfried. Her last name refers to the family business, that is, "clothes washer."