PLEASE READ THIS NOTE BEFORE STARTING ON THE STORY: Barcode has been my most famous story on so far. Even though I vanished from the Internet because of grounding, people still remembered the story and came back to see it when I finally updated recently. To everyone from before who's patience has been worn thin, my apologies. To make up for it, I am submitting three parts all at once! To everyone who's new to this story, thank you for coming as well. Will the Titan has returned at last, and the story's not over yet! Uhm… I don't own Teen Titans, now on with the show!

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BARCODE

Chapter 9: Meeting

Raven was naked, wet, and furious. How dare he come in just like that! Didn't he have any manners at all! No, she reminded herself. He didn't know any better, and probably just figured out she would want a towel on his own. She heard Robin cry out in surprise as B-407 bowled him right over. This wasn't gonna be pretty. Raven peeked out from behind the shower curtain, and willed her cloak over to herself. Throwing it on and holding it closed, she emerged quickly to find Robin and Garfield wrestling furiously.

"How did you get here!" Robin demanded, in a desperate power struggle with the green teen.

"Raven!" he chirped, losing interest in Robin and looking over at her. Robin was bowled over by the sudden lack of resistance and fell forward. Garfield had simply let go in their wrestling, scampering over to the half-dressed girl. "The absolute idiot!" he pointed at Robin. Raven smiled on the inside, and Robin swore at him fluently.

Garfield, crouched at Raven's feet like a loyal dog, tilted his head and opened his mouth to try out one of the words Robin had just thrown at him. "No." Raven said quickly, kneeling and putting a hand over his mouth. She shook her head at him, "Don't use any of those words, okay?"

Garfield tilted his head, but then calmed down. "What the flipping floogie!" Cyborg cried, having arrived on the scene. He'd shouted the comical words since he had been trying to cut back on his own swearing. The scene he'd walked in on was so outrageous there were no other words to describe it.

Robin was poised for battle, glaring at the green boy they'd been chasing for so long. The green boy was settled at Raven's feet, grinning at the whole world. Raven was wet, and Cyborg saw her bare feet sticking out from under her cloak. (It didn't take long for him to put two and two together on that part…) "Cyborg, he's here! Help me restrain him!" Robin shouted.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Raven roared, cracking every light in the hallway. The lights still worked, but a few of them flickered now and then. Robin and Cyborg froze, eyebrows shooting upward. Raven turned to Garfield and pointed at him. "Stay." She said severely. His ears wilted at the tone of her voice and she vanished into the bathroom. The scene was frozen for almost a minute, until she returned. Her cloak was parted, revealing her normal leotard and shoes were back. "Okay… all three of you need a lesson in this." She said, pulling her hood up.

"Raven!" Robin shouted. "There's an enemy in our house! Don't you even–?" he was cut short when the entire hallway was enveloped in black. Cyborg looked around in alarm. Garfield clung to Raven's leg, shaking. She gave a quick gesture and everyone was teleported to the common room.

Cyborg was slammed into the sitting position on the couch. Robin landed with a grunt on the love seat. Garfield was upside down when he hit the recliner. Raven descended from the ceiling, looking very angry indeed. "One word out of any of you, and you'll be upside down hanging from the ceiling." She threatened all three of them, then made appropriate hand-gestures so that Garfield understood. Robin opened his mouth to speak, but she pointed at him, a blazing flame of purple on the tip of her finger. He shut his mouth, and Cyborg didn't look like he had any intention of speaking.

"You morons don't know the first thing about manners, obviously." said Raven acidly. "So I'm gonna teach you." She clasped her hands together, then pulled up a chalkboard and chalk from out of nowhere. (A/N: It's a show, go along with it) She turned, drawing on it. She made a little spiky-haired stick figure and labeled it 'Robin', then a thicker, balder one labeled 'Cyborg.' After that, she made another with messy hair and named it 'Garfield.'

"Gaaaarfield!" He rejoiced, recognizing his name in writing. Raven's eyes flashed white and he whimpered, sinking down into his chair again. Glaring at the rest of her class, she turned and made one more stick figure. This one had a long cape on, and a frowny face. She labeled it with an arrow as well, 'me.'

"I've lived here for what, two weeks? Three?" Raven turned and glared at all three of them, and they sank into their seats. "Already, I've had people invade my room, search through my things, and now a violation my bathroom privacy." Her hair was swirling, and she stopped for a moment to collect herself. "This will stop." She enveloped her hand in black magic, and touched the chalkboard. Right away, the little stick-figures jumped to life. They began wiggling across the board like a little cartoon. Garfield was mezmerized, a huge grin plastered on his face. The three stick figures of Robin, Cyborg and Garfield were on one side. The one that represented Raven went through a doorway on the other side that was also drawn of chalk. The door shut, and she was gone. "You will knock and wait for a response… BEFORE ENTERING!" She said, taking out a pointer. "Observe." She stepped aside, tapping the chalkboard with her pointer.

The stick figure of Robin went over and knocked on the door. A little bubble with a chibi-Raven face in it appeared next to the door. She frowned and shook her head, and the stick-Robin left looking sad. Stick-Cyborg went over and knocked as well, the bubble appeared again, and Raven's face was back. She shook her head no again, and the Cyborg stick figure went on his way. A little bar appeared next to the door. At the top of the bar was 'trust' and the bottom said 'mistrust.' The bar made a show of filling up just a little for each candidate.

"Now, this is what will happen if you do not knock." Raven said, tapping the chalkboard one more time. The messy-haired stick figure of Garfield pranced over to the door and pressed his ear to it. Then, without knocking, he entered. There was a short silence, and he was thrown back out. Stick-figure Raven emerged with a large, comical vein in her forehead. Clouds appeared, drawn in chalk as well, lightning going back and forth. The three male stick figures cowered, and the female raised her arms. Lightning was called from the sky, and all three of them were electrocuted. Little stick figure pieces rained everywhere. After a long silence, the eraser jumped up and erased everything. Raven stood in front of the chalkboard again, her arms folded. "Any questions?"

Robin was staring in disbelief, a little on the pale side.

Cyborg looked rather ill at the graphic display.

Garfield… was still grinning at the magic trick, and decided to clap.

Raven sighed, knowing she'd have to get her point across to Garfield sooner or later. "Robin, Cyborg…?" Raven asked. "Meet Garfield." She gestured. Cyborg and Robin peered over at him with great interest. Garfield was picking his nose with a great deal of interest at that point. Raven sighed, holding her forehead in embarrassment. She swatted his hand away from his nose like a parent would and he yelped, rubbing it tenderly. "He's not an enemy, like Robin's assumed. He's… a child."

"He looks like a teenager." Cyborg's robotic eye flashed a few times. "His readout says he's a little older than… a month?" he stared in disbelief.

"So this thing was what they were working on in that bio-chemical lab?" Robin wondered aloud, leaning forward to take a good look at him. Garfield stared back like it was a game, and Raven tousled his hair to keep him calm.

"It's a he, thank you." Raven didn't know why she was defending him. "He's mentally below a kindergartener, but he's not dangerous to us…"

"You mean not dangerous to you, girl." Cyborg said, thoughtfully. "He likes you, we know that much." Raven fought back a blush and glared him down. "Well… what should we do now that we have him? Jail doesn't seem like the right place…" he looked over at their leader.

"You're not sending him to jail for being born." Raven snapped. "He hasn't done anything wrong."

"Well…" Robin didn't seem sure. He'd been watching Garfield out of the corner of his eye during Raven's entire presentation and during the conversation they were having right then. It was true he seemed harmless, but… "He's a shape-shifter, though. He has animal instincts."

"Animal instincts and a human heart. He tried protect me from that tree monster, remember?" Raven said tersely, awed at how stubborn the boy wonder was.

"He did lead us to her when she was in the vine-ball…" Cyborg said thoughtfully. "Should we keep him here?"

"What!" Robin said, staring at his half-metal friend.

"I mean sure, he'll need some lessons on being human, but… he might shape up okay, y'never know!" Cyborg shrugged, clearly looking at Raven for support.

"I've taught him a few basic things, and wrestled him into those boxers." She pointed. Robin flushed, now knowing how his underpants had ended up on the green teen's hide. "He's got an incredible ability of vocabulary, though." Both boys drew a blank on that one, and she spoke again. "Whenever he hears someone say something, he incorporates it into his own vocabulary and uses it almost exactly right." She spread her hands almost diplomatically. "He's a learning machine for the time being. I think… I think he was built to learn at incredible speeds so he would be a better weapon. But… I'm afraid there might be a time-limit on that rate of learning."

There was a long silence, and Robin held his chin in his hand. Cyborg and Raven looked over at him, while Garfield was completely entranced with the ceiling at the moment. Finally Robin spoke, "Then we need to teach him right from wrong while he's still sponging up knowledge."

"Well all right!" Cyborg grinned, pumping a fist in the air. "Looks like we got a forth Titan, once he's trained up a little!" Raven and Robin looked at him as he approached Garfield. The green teen saw his reflection in Cyborg's metallic chest, and stared back in awe. "Whooo!" Cyborg suddenly backed away, holding his nose. "He needs a bath, first off."

"I've sworn off of that." Raven said quickly. "I've seen him naked more than I care to remember." She was slowly backing away towards the double doors of the common room. "Trust me, he looks more than a month old as far as functionality goes." She blushed, unable to believe she'd said that.

"Functionality!" Garfield squealed, bouncing on the recliner like a little boy. "Functionality!" Robin and Cyborg stared at him in shock.

"See what I mean? He does that at random, and learns the word's meaning within a few uses." Raven said, shaking her head.

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Who will give Garfield a proper bath? Where will he sleep? And what the heck does functionality mean! Find out next time on BARCODE! Keep reading, because there's more!