I own nothing but the shirt on my back. And Ryan. And my pants.
Oh, and I just thought I'd get this out of the way: First, I don't have cable TV, so I'm only just now watching the beginning of the second season. I have no idea what's going on in season three, and I have generally no idea what went on in season two. Thus, Hero's Story is taking place somewhere in the middle of, or after season one (Assuming there is a substantial amount of time past between seasons one and two). Clear?
Second, I know absolutely nothing about the Teen Titans comics (or any comics, for that matter). The only reason I even knew Starfire had a brother was through online research. So I know nothing of the past of Starfire, Ryand'r, Tamaran, or anything even remotely related to that. Therefore, I'm just gonna wing it and see what happens. The story of Ryand'r belongs to Detective Comics. The story of Ryan Anders, however, is a different story altogether...
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Prelude to Insanity; Chapter 4: Fine, We'll Call It Billy
The Titans walked down the steps and into the living room. Raven, Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg sat on the couch. Beast Boy flopped down in a large chair, and Ryan sat in the one adjacent to him; the only two chairs left after Raven had finished with her rampage.
"Interesting décor..." Ryan commented. "Very, um, modern... But I suppose that's what happens when you leave interior design to five teenagers..."
"So," said Robin, ignoring the comment, "what brings you to Earth?"
"Brought, man, brought. And, well, many things... but hold up a sec," Ryan stopped him, "Before I end up telling you my entire life story, could you at least tell me your names?"
"We've been through this already," Robin answered. "I'm Robin, he's Cyborg, that's Beast-"
"Nonono, I'm talking about your actual names. You don't really walk around twenty –four hours a day in costume calling each other by your field names, do you?"
"Well, no, but I'd prefer it if we got a little more familiar with each other before we start giving out our secret identities," Robin replied.
"Hm, fair enough. Although I haven't really had a chance to meet Raven yet... I mean, besides the chair to the head..."
"I'm Raven, you're Ryan," Raven said in her usual monotone, "what more do you need to know?" Ryan gave her a look of minor annoyance. He was a fairly friendly and patient individual when it came to other people. In fact, he prided himself on his innate ability to get along with nearly anyone; but she was really starting to get on his nerves. Just what was her problem?
"Whatever."
"So, your story!" Starfire said with barely suppressed eagerness. "What have you done in these past nine years?"
"Heh, nine years. Has it really been nine years? It's strange, but it doesn't seem half that long. Time really seems to fly on this planet; it's a great place."
"Um, back to the question?" Beast Boy interrupted.
"Hm. Let's see... You'll have to forgive me; I'm not much of a storyteller... Okay, to start, I'll say that I'm nineteen, by your Earth years. In my native Tamaranian, my name would be Ryand'r. So when I came to Earth nine years ago, I first tried telling people I was Ryand'r. Of course, there aren't too many people in L.A. named Ryand'r and I sort of stuck out in a crowd, considering my unusual clothes and name, not to mention the fact that I couldn't speak any English whatsoever. Fortunately, I was noticed by someone who understood my predicament and offered me his help and friendship. He suggested that I change my name to fit in better on Earth. Thus, I became Ryan Anders, California native. Got the fake papers and everything," he said proudly, flipping open his wallet to reveal a California driver's license. Anyways, the man who suggested the name change was Seig Barthos, who taught me the err... finer points of English and remains one of my best friends even now. That was all in my first year here on Earth."
Then Robin asked the question that was on all the Titan's minds: "But why did you come here anyway? What made you leave Tamaran?"
"Good question. I suppose it was a variety of things, the first and foremost being that Tamaran completely sucked."
Everyone but Starfire looked shocked. She was suddenly fixedly engaged in looking at her nails.
"Well, it did," Ryan said matter-of-factually, "but especially for Komand'r."
"Ko-whohuh?" said a puzzled Beast Boy.
"You know her as my sister, Blackfire," commented Starfire.
"But wait, if you and Blackf- er... Komand'r are siblings of Starfire, then you were Tamaranian royalty. How could life there have possibly...um, sucked...?" wondered Raven.
"Ah, on to long story number two. Where to begin this one... ah, well, there is Tamaranian prophecy, supposedly "seen" by the bullshit liars of Tamaran. ...Also known as the Seer's Council of Tamaran, twelve geezers with about an IQ of about Anyway, the morons prophesized that a child born to the royal family, i.e. my mother and father, would in time be the savior of Tamaran. This was what they "saw", of course, because that was what my parents paid them to "see". The old fogies could hardly "see" their own hands in front of them. They only "saw" what my father and mother wanted them to "see". What they "saw" were in reality only little white lies made up to benefit the royals," he said in a mighty barrage of quotation gestures.
Starfire rolled her eyes, an uncommon action for the cheerful alien.
"You never quit with this story, do you? It was not your fault. None of it was. Yet you repeatedly blame yourself for crimes that you did not commit!"
"Maybe it wasn't my fault. Not directly anyway. But my parent's crimes are in turn my crimes."
"Really? The perhaps they are mine as well? What about Komand'r? Is this her fault as well?"
"Did I say that?"
"No..." Starfire looked at her feet.
Ryan stared fixedly at the ceiling.
Beast Boy broke the silence.
"Crimes? Dude, what are you talking about?"
Ryan sighed.
"The people of my planet believed every word of the prophecy as if it were proven fact. So when the story of the "savior" reached their ears, they went crazy trying to find gifts for their newly discovered messiah The poor pinched every penny to find a suitable gift, the middle class spent every bit of their hard-earned money, and the homeless tore the shirts from their backs! All to benefit a supposed 'savior' who was not yet even born."
Beast Boy was still completely confused.
"But how would that create a bad situation for you? You make it sound as if the whole planet was working to benefit you and your family."
"Yes, and that's exactly it. The whole planet did work to please my parents, while they did nothing. Everything was handed to them by those who were much more deserving, in the hopes that my parents would bear them a hero."
"I can see why you would feel guilt," Robin said meditatively, "but Starfire's right; none of that was your fault."
"How many children did your parents have?" Asked Raven.
"I was the first child born to them; Two years after that, Komand'r came along, followed by Koriand'r a year later. After that, the children just stopped."
"So there were three of you?"
"That's what I said."
"So which one of you guys was the savior?" asked Cyborg.
"Supposed savior." Ryan corrected him. "Well, ours is one of those unfortunate societies that favors its males above its females; and seeing as I was the only son as well as the firstborn, almost everyone assumed that I was the 'savior'. On top of that, from my birth I was clearly more powerful then the average Tamaranian. At five years old, I was beating on grown men. Everyone thought it was some sort of sign: 'The Savior!'"
"Hey," said Robin, "would you stop using that word? It makes the lawyers uncomfortable. We're riding the edge of copyright laws as it is."
-Freeze frame-(A large-chinned man with a blindingly white smile walks into the room.)
"Savior is the property of the author Legend maker and is in no way affiliated with our organization! .........Yet........."
(walks out)
Ryan stared at the door.
"Who the hell was that?"
Robin shrugged. "Official spokesman. We get 'em all the time."
-We now return to our regularly scheduled program.-
"...So, I was always showered with gifts. I was the most celebrated person on the entire planet; there wasn't a single person who didn't know my name. Baskets and boxes covered the palace grounds, all gifts from the commoners. Food, toys, clothes: 'for the savior'! People lined up to kiss my forehead: 'Blessings from the savior!' They never even entertained the possibility that either of my sisters could ever be the champion." Ryand'r shook his head solemnly. "And to think that I once reveled in it all... I was young and immature, too blinded by my own youthful ignorance to see the suffering I was causing. People who could hardly support themselves were giving over half what they earned to me, all because they truly believed what they were told: that I would save them one day. But as I became older, I become more aware, more mature. I began noticing things that I overlooked as a child. I began to see the suffering of the wretched. I saw the elderly and weak, barely able to stand with age and fatigue, crawling up the thousand steps to the Golden Palace to kneel at my parent's feet. I saw the poor giving up everything they had and more to benefit us in any small way they could. I saw small children, younger even than me, breaking their back in the factories and smith shops to craft unnecessary contrivances to make our lives easier. I saw it all, and contemplated in my head the cause of their suffering. And the more I thought about it, the clearer it became, and the clearer it became, the more miserable it made me. I had deduced that I was the cause of my people's suffering. But it would take one last revelation for me to make up my mind on the matter."
"Komand'r," Starfire said, her usual unguarded smile replaced by a much more solemn look.
"Yes, Komand'r," Ryan continued, "the only person in or family to which misfortune ever seemed to come. From the moment she was born things just didn't go her way. First, she was second born, next, she was a girl, and lastly, she couldn't fly. This last one was especially crushing for a Tamaranian; flight is a given in our society, the lowest of the low still had the power of flight, even from birth. But Komand'r... from the moment they knew, right after her birth, the doctors swore that she would never fly, that she was just too weak. In fact, my parents would have had her put down then and there, utilized some propaganda, and pretended that they had never had a second child; they were so disappointed with this flightless... thing before them. But I stepped in. I was only two years old at the time, but I managed to make it clear that I wanted her alive... Specifically by breaking both legs of the doctor attempting to administer the injection that would have killed her. Resentfully, my parents agreed to raise her, and she was never told about the... incident."
"Wait, hold on," Cyborg said, "when Star had that little go-around with Blackfire, they were fighting in midair. How did Blackfire fly?"
"Little go-around? What do you mean?" Ryan asked him, confused.
So the Titans told Ryan the story of Blackfire's coming to Earth, and the various events that stemmed from it, ending with her being carted off to a Centauri prison camp.
"WHAT?" He said incredulously, "She did that?! Oh, man..." He shook his head slowly. "Well, you know it's not really her fault. In fact, it's sort of mine..."
"Well that still doesn't excuse her actions," Robin said, being the law-upholding hero that he was.
"Maybe, maybe not, but still...Anyway, Komand'r learned flight through strict mental and physical discipline. You see, in the years that I spent on Tamaran, I trained Komand'r to the best of my abilities. Since I was the 'savior in training' I had learned martial arts, flight, and bolt technique from the best warriors my planet had to offer. At a young age, I was already beating most of them, but not without picking up on valuable lessons in training and technique, lessons that I endeavored to pass on to my sister...
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A burning sun glared down on the palace. Massive ornamental pillars and carvings were everywhere. Everything adorned in brilliant purples and golds, the colors of the Tamaranian royals. In the middle of the grand palace, a courtyard, an expanse of grass and stone tile. And standing in the very center was a very confused young girl. She was a tall child with long black hair. And orange skin.
"Ryand'r?"
As Komand'r of Tamaran, then five years old, walked slowly through the courtyard, Tamaranian leaders of ages past smiled down on her with faces of carved jade. She, however, felt like frowning. Her brother, it would seem, had stood her up. Let's use our handy Tamaranian to English translator to listen in...
"Ryand'r! Where are you? Is this a joke?"
A young man's voice drifted down from above.
"Far from it."
Blackfire looked up. A familiar-looking boy hovered above her, his arms crossed over his chest. He dropped out of the sky, his black hair fluttering on the breeze as he dived towards the ground. Ryand'r touched down, dropping into a crouch.
He looked like a completely different person, his black hair much shorter and, of course, not spiked. He had traded in his Tamaranian royal garments for a training outfit of black and silver, much like the one Blackfire was wearing. His stared his sister straight in the eyes.
"Ryand'r, what's going on? Why did you call me here?"
Ryand'r paid no attention to Komand'r's question, and instead gave her one of his own.
"They say that you will never be a warrior. Will you prove them wrong?"
"Wha- AAA!"
Blackfire shrieked in surprise as Ryan leapt at her with an outstretched fist. She dove to the side just in time to avoid the blow and fell to the ground as Ryan soared over her. He rolled of the tile and reversed into a crouch. Komand'r looked back at him. Brother and sister had a short staring match, and then...
"HIYAAA!!!"
Blackfire jumped to her feet and charged Ryan. Ryan smiled at his sister as she closed the gap between them. So they wouldn't train her, eh? He'd do it. And he'd do a damn good job of it, too...
-------------------------------------------
"As our training continued, I was surprised at her natural strength and agility, considering her sub par powers. A year later she was throwing bolts at a pace to rival mine, but she still couldn't fly. Finally, the year she turned eight years old, the year that I left Tamaran, I decided to try a little experiment. After our daily training concluded, we would often have a sparring match. To make things fair however, I never flew, seeing as she couldn't. And therein was the experiment. I had concluded that unless she really wanted it, she would never fly. So how to make her want it? Well, if there was one thing that she hated, it was losing. It runs in the family," he smirked at Starfire.
"Oh, don't we know it," said Raven dryly.
"That day, I held back a large amount in the match we had, to give her the impression that she was winning. As the battle seemed to be drawing to a close, I flew up into the sky just out of her starbolt range and started pelting her with my own bolts. Even though she was a fair warrior, she still lacked the strength to match my power and range. Of course, no one else could match me either. So anyways, she started to yell at me about not fighting fair, and that she won by default, and that I was being mean and she was going inside and so on; but I knew that she wasn't going to give up that easily. Or at least I hoped she wouldn't. And I was right, she started tossing starbolts at me, but they all missed, then she tears up a small tree and chucks that at me, it also misses; then she throws a raging fit and starts attacking the air and screaming at me about being mean and how I was just being chicken because I was losing, and before she know it, she's eye to eye with me. I don't even think she would've realized it if I hadn't told her. When I finally did tell her, she got so freaked that she started falling," Ryan laughed. "And I just let her fall, and she starts screaming and she sees the ground coming up, and before she knows it, she's flying again. Finally, it seems to hit her that she's actually flying. And she starts laughing and doing loops and rolls in midair, and she flew up and gave me this big hug and..." He sighed. It appeared he had zoned out completely. "That's the best feeling in the world, knowing you helped out someone you care about. That was the first time I ever felt like I was really making a difference. Like my life was actually worth something beyond bringing more wealth and fame to my family."
"Hey, man, don't get all mushy on us," Cyborg said, "what happened next?"
"And what about Star?" Commented Beast Boy. "You keep going on about Blackfire but you really haven't mentioned Starfire at all."
"That's because she didn't contribute to why I left," Ryan replied, "in fact, she was one of the few things that kept me on Tamaran as long as I was. It was her, and the fact that Komi needed me to watch her back. But after we completed her training, she didn't really need me anymore, so I started to concentrate more on Koriand'r. I know my story so far makes it sound like I preferred hanging with Blackfire, but to tell you the truth, I always liked Kory just a little more. Not to cut down Komand'r, but Kory was always just a bit more pleasant to be around. Of course, my being with Starfire more often didn't go over so well with her. She felt as though the one person who had ever paid any attention to her had abandoned her for her little sister; that might have contributed to her being a little resentful of Koriand'r later on. On top of that, Kory was starting to get a lot of attention as well. She was the baby of the family, and the most well-mannered and innocent out of all of us. Naturally, this got her a lot of attention from my parents, who were always either cooing over how cute Kory was or how strong I was becoming. They never really paid any attention to Blackfire at all; as far as they were concerned, she didn't exist. Koriand'r was also well liked by the common folk for being the only royal without a slight attitude problem. All in all, Komand'r was really getting the short end of the stick. And when I started to spend more time with Kory, well that might have got the ball rolling on her bitterness. Anyway, I left the planet that year that without telling anyone. I was angry with my parents for all the lies that they crafted for personal gain. I was angry with my people for being so foolish as to follow them. I was angry with myself for being the means of my parent's deception. They might have assumed I was dead, but there was one spacecraft missing from the palace hangar. No one on Tamaran's had word from me since."
"Wow."
"But how did you get to Earth?" Starfire asked him, "What have you been doing all these years? And where did you get that craft that is docked in our garage?"
"Yeah!" Cyborg chimed in, "That is some machine, man! A Supra twin turbo! Too many mods to count! ...Oh, uh, I popped the hood and took a look, hope you don't mind..."
"Nah, I don't mind at all. Okay... let's see... well, leaving Tamaran was really a bit of an impulse," Ryan laughed, "I think it was right after I got in a shouting match with my father. I'm a fairly logical person, but I am a bit hot-headed."
"Hm. You can relate to Robin on that point," said Raven.
"Heh, birds of a fea-," Ryan started. But Robin held up his hand to stop him.
"Don't. Really. I hate that line. Way, way overused."
"Whatever. So after I left, my first thought was the realization that I had no idea where I was going, I hadn't really completed pilot training, and I was about ten years old. My second thought was 'Who cares?' In fact, if I had known what I was doing, I probably never would've ended up here. You see, there's a reason your planet isn't really visited very frequently by... extraterrestrial beings. You see, this is the only planet in your system, and almost your entire galaxy, that is oxygenated and inhabited by any intelligent organisms whatsoever. Therefore, if there was to be a malfunction or miscoordination on an incoming craft, odds are that the passengers would end up stuck on Mars running out of air. Don't get me wrong though, Earth people, though some of them don't really seem to think it, are probably some of the most civilized people in the entire universe. I've seen some of your movies and literature; we aliens aren't half as peace-loving as you make us out to be. Out of everything I've seen, perhaps Independence Day was the most accurate. Those things looked just like Tricihns, those frigging midget a-holes. You ever try to shoot a Tricihn? Crap, it's tough, those..."
Everyone stared blankly at him.
"I'm off topic, aren't I?"
"Just a tad." Beast boy chimed sarcastically.
"Ehhehhehh... whoops. Well, uh, where was I? Oh yeah. Well anyway, here I was out in space with not a clue as to where I was going. Remember how I said before that I was a bit impulsive? Well, wherever I was going, I just wanted to get there; so I ended up trying to use the lightspeed flight system. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, lightspeed travel was one of the courses I had not completed in pilot training. Had I been a bit more learned or a bit less hot-headed, I might've known that lightspeed travel is only controllable if you actually know where you're going; and of course, I didn't."
"But what makes light speed any easier to control if you know where you're going?"
"Well," explained Starfire, who had completed her pilot training, "it is not truly the fact that you are aware of your destination, but the fact that you input the coordinates of the jump on your onboard computer."
"Which means...?" said an ever-slow Beast Boy.
"Ah, I think I figured it out," interrupted Cyborg, "lightspeed travel is impossible to control manually, it's just too fast; you can't perceive the path ahead of you and react accordingly in the time given, but if you input the coordinates of your destination into the navigating system, then your computer will do the steering for you."
"Precisely," said Ryan. "So, when I attempted the lightspeed jump, I had no coordinates in the autopilot. That resulted in my getting flung all over space with my head glued to the back of my seat and absolutely no way of steering. I'm just lucky I didn't run into an asteroid or something..."
"- Hold on... if you crashed into Earth at light speed, there'd be nothing left of you but dust! How did you survive it?" asked Robin.
Ryan sighed, "Did I ever say I crashed into the earth at light speed? No, after about five minutes of careening about space, my hot-headedness took over again. I decided to err... stop the lightspeed drive manually..."
"You blasted it, didn't you?" said Starfire and Raven simultaneously.
"Excellent guess ladies!" Ryan chirped, a giant grin plastered on his face, "You win a brand new washer and dryer set by Kenmore!!! But seriously, yeah, I did. I blew out the lightspeed drive with a starbolt. So now I was once again able to actually see where I was going. Unfortunately, however, the craft was still going too fast to be controlled, and Tamaranian spacecrafts have this remarkable lack of power steering... Luckily for me, a bluey-green orb was coming up in front of me. An inhabitable planet! Guess which one it was...
So there I was, flying through the atmosphere, slowly losing speed and regaining control. At about the time I broke the final cloud layer, I had achieved full control again. But I was also headed straight for the center of a city. I managed to right my craft and land on the roof of an apartment complex. Those apartments just happened to be owned by my good friend-to-be, Seig Barthos."
"Barthos, what an interesting name..." said Raven nonchalantly.
"Zeigk Bartoss?" said Beast Boy quizzically.
"Sieg Barthos." Ryan replied.
"Zeigk Bartoss."
"Right, Seig Barthos. Anyway, it was the middle of the night when I landed. Luckily, there was no one on the street to see me touch down, or the streets would be filled with news reporters and amateur filmmakers in minutes. Anyhoo, I just wandered around the place for a few minutes until Seig found me. After the traditional 'Who the hell are you?' we shook hands, and it triggered my language ability."
Robin nodded. "The same ability that allowed Starfire to understand English when she first met us."
"Tamaranians have the ability to gain a basic grasp of any language through physical contact," Starfire explained.
"Very basic," Ryan added.
"And you were ten Earth years old at the time?" Starfire asked.
"Right."
"How old was Seig?"
"Thirteen."
Robin was wholly surprised, "A bit young to be running your own apartment complex, don't you think?"
"Err, a bit of a complication there. See, his mother had died three years previously, and he was the only living relation. He'd lived there all his life, so he knew the place inside and out. He'd been running it smoothly for three years before I go there, and he's still running it."
"What about the father?" Raven asked, suddenly and inexplicably interested.
"What difference does it make? He's 22 now, perfectly capable of running his own apartment."
"Just curious."
"Well, he's never really told me much... He said his father died right after he was born, he probably knows little more than I do. His name was Adam, Adam Barthos. Blonde hair and blue eyes, just like Seig. According to his mother, he spent a lot of time out of the house, but she never told him what he did. Later, Seig managed to find out it was street racing. His father loved cars, and he owned a rather impressive one himself: an S15 Silvia. He died in a drag racing accident, and left his car to Sieg. At about nine, Seig developed a similar love for fast cars and the exhilaration of speed; he's the one who taught me how to drive, and helped me to build the speed machine sitting in your garage."
Cyborg couldn't resist a challenge.
"Oh, yeah? Maybe you'd like to check out my baby! I bet I could do donuts around you and your Supra!"
Ryan smirked confidently.
"Is that a challenge I hear?"
"Oh, you know it is!"
"Bring it on!"
Raven rolled her eyes. Males.
"Okay, everything's moving kinda fast for me here," said Beast Boy, "my brain hurts."
Ryan laughed. "Well, how 'bout I give you the abridged version?"
"Sounds good, I've just about reached my cranial capacity."
"M'kay... here goes. I lived on Tamaran, I was the supposed savior, my sisters were Starfire and Blackfire, I taught Blackfire to fly, I left Tamaran at age ten, got to Earth, met Seig, learned English, got my fake ID and car, and lived in LA for nine years until I arrived here today."
"And that's it?"
"Yup."
"Wow. You've just described your entire life in one run-on sentence." Raven drawled.
"Amazing isn't it?" Ryan replied.
"Not really."
"Sounds like you had a decent life in LA, though," Robin remarked, "What made you decide to come to Jump City?"
"Obviously," Starfire replied earnestly, "he came here to see me!"
Ryan scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Actually, I had no idea you were even on this planet..."
Starfire looked like a deflated balloon.
"Thennn... why are you here?" Asked Cyborg. "I don't want to put down our fair city, but there's really not too much here except banks and the people who rob them."
"Exactly," Ryan replied with a smile.
"Uh, I'm not sure I follow..." said Robin.
"Well, about six years ago, my good friend Mr. Barthos founded a group made up of himself, me, and another of our friends in the apartment building. Together, we were the Challengers, a small faction of people extraordinary in our various talents."
"So, you were kinda like us!" exclaimed Beast Boy.
"Err... not exactly. We are both groups of people capable of the extraordinary, but our ambitions and objectives couldn't be more different."
Robin was instantly on guard. Opposing objectives? Was Ryan a member of a group of criminals?
"You see," Ryan continued, "we, the Challengers, set out to be the best at everything we did, and challenged those who thought they were better. We embarked on journeys to confront anyone who presented a challenge worthy of us."
"So basically you run around picking fights for the hell of it," said Robin suspiciously.
"Stop it! You're making me sound like the bad guy!" Ryan laughed. "Although I must admit, that is the gist of it. But fighting is only one part of the program. We also excel in strategy, speed, agility, marksmanship, intelligence, debate, and pretty much anything that can get a person respect... but mainly it's fighting. Anyone who can truly test the limits of our abilities is a candidate for a battle with us. Your city has built up quite a reputation for dangerous metahuman villains; and Seig sent me here to pick a few fights and test the water for him. If Jump turns out to provide fair game, I'll call him and we decide what to do from there."
"Have you done many jobs like this one?" Robin grilled him, still suspicious of the alien's motives.
"Hm? Actually, no, this is my first one. I rarely travel you see, too much risk of exposure. All I've done are local jobs, and it took some convincing by Seig to get me out here. I'm almost never out of LA."
Starfire was confused. "Exposure?"
"Yeah, if the media got wind that there was an alien living in Los Angeles, there'd be a nationwide press storm. The government would be alerted. Shit, some big shot crackpot scientists would probably come out and want to 'examine' me. I'd probably end up in a tank of green liquid or on a operating table being dissected." He shuddered, "Nope, it's just better if I lay low and try to blend. All I want is a normal life. I hardly ever use my powers anymore; too, there's too much risk of getting spotted."
None of the Titans, even Starfire, had noticed it before, but Ryan talking about 'blending in' made them realized suddenly how well he did so. He was extremely fair-skinned for a Tamaranian: nowhere near Starfire's orange skin color. He quite obviously took more after Blackfire in the looks department, with his jet-black hair, lighter skin, and cunning eyes. Or not. The eyes, almost identical to Blackfire's, seemed to give off an aura: much closer to Starfire's warm gaze than Blackfire's piercing stare; but the glint of cunning and intelligence was still there. On top of his already semi-human appearance and Earth clothing, his skin had been considerably tanned during his stay on the planet, and he now, for all appearances, seemed completely human. To top it all off, the markings on his forehead, like those on Star and Blackfire, were gone entirely. Starfire was the first to notice. (Author's Note: I don't know whether those are markings or eyebrows. I probably never will. Let's just say they're marks.)
She gasped. "Brother! Your Goraan-el! They are gone!"
"Hm?" He looked at her quizzically for a moment until he remembered. "Oh! Right, those." He rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger, and the edge of a small red mark began to appear. "Covered 'em with makeup. When you're trying to blend in with crowd, red dots on your forehead are a bit of a giveaway."
Robin seemed to be drifting off slightly, "Hmm... yeah..." He suddenly looked straight up at Ryan, his calculating gaze sizing the alien up. "I'd like to run a few tests on you. For informational purposes."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on Bird Boy. This is exactly why I didn't want to come here. Tests. You Earth people just can't get enough of us off-worlders: you probably want to dissect me or something. All in the name of science, eh?"
"Hey, that's not what I meant," Robin shot back, "I want to test your combat ability; to see the extent of your powers," he explained, "I like to keep tabs on every combat-capable person coming through or staying in the city; hero, villain, or otherwise."
Ryan considered this for a moment.
"I suppose that is a wise thing to do... but no one ever sees this but you, correct?"
"Absolutely."
Ryan sighed reluctantly, "All right then. What do I do?"
Robin strode off towards the elevator doors. "Follow me."
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Whoo! That was a pain to type. OC's are harder than they look... even when they're not entirely yours... Anyhoo, sorry this took so long to get here. I actually kinda rushed it out, if you can believe that. But the updates will be faster now, as long as school doesn't get in the way...
