Disclaimer: I wish I owned (screams of SOMEBODY call the police for the love of Pete! Argh, get it off me—) Teen Titans, but I don't. Heh. -

Disclaimer the SECOND (Why the hey do we need to do this?): I don't own the Doom Patrol either…'cause if I did, Robotman and Negative Man would have different names.

A/N: rhino-sized Author's Note at the bottom…heh.

Yes Sir!

"The Brain sent those patrollers to kill him," Mento addressed the Doom Patrol curtly from his chair in the Conference Room, the entire team assembled and present in their appropriate chairs. Now, six of the eight monitors were on, one depicting a sleeping Garfield Logan in the hospital wing, and another presenting a pair of miserable troopers in the dim, smelly prison holding. Both sat with one wrist magnetized to the wall and the other magnetized to each other, so they wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

"Did you find out why?" wondered Rita, resisting the urge to glance at the monitors every so often.

"The one with the busted helmet said the midget was spotted around the Brain's newest hidey-hole," Negative Man said, placid as ever.

"While Cliff and Larry dealt with him, I read the other's mind. And I found the location of the Brotherhood of Evil's new base." Mento stated, giving up on sitting down—as he had been fidgeting the slightest bit—and stood up, flipping a switch under the table which activated a sophisticated, translucent blue holographic screen, portraying a spinning globe of the earth.

As if on cue, Negative Man pulled a keyboard from a small, hard-to-spot compartment in his side of the table and quickly typed in a set of coordinates. As a result, the map started to blink bright white, and then zoomed in on a specified location and then cutting to a very clear image of what appeared to be a run down old skyscraper. Its windows were blackened and boarded up, and the concrete, slab-ish sides of the very square building were worn down by wind, rain, and cracked with age. Weeds had sprung up in the cracks in the concrete surrounding the old relic.

"This is where that talking trash can's hiding?" Robotman said in disbelief, squinting suspiciously at the hologram, leaning forward a bit in his chair as if he could get a better view of the pixels up close.

"Wake up, Cliff," Negative Man drawled, with the air of one stating the most obvious of things. Judging by his tone, he probably would have rolled his eyes—if they had been visible. "The Brain's probably got loads of holograms surrounding the place."

Elasti-Girl's calm brown eyes shifted over to her husband, Mento. His usually expressionless, campaigner expression had darkened into something bordering on frustration—a slight narrowness of his brilliantly blue eyes and a tightness around his mouth. She could understand how he felt—the Doom Patrol had nothing that could actually see through the Brain's holograms, and how could they fight what they couldn't see? How could they even plan of attacking if they knew nothing of what the structure really looked like? On top of that, there was still the whole matter of Garfield Logan.

Obviously noticing his leader's mood, Robotman threw a worried look at Elasti-Girl and then cleared his throat loudly before asking, "So, uh, Mento. Now that Elasti-Girl's here, aren't we gonna decide what to do with the kid?"

Mento's demeanor had slumped into one of disillusionment and frustration. Larry and Cliff probably didn't notice, but as the sole female, and Mento's wife, Rita could easily see this.

She knew him better than anyone. Most likely better than he knew himself.

Mento sighed heavily and then looked up, his face slackening from one of irritation to its regular businesslike mold.

"Did you find anything out from him?" he questioned her briskly, straightening in his seat.

Glad that the discussion turned, Rita nodded and then began. "He says his name's Garfield Logan…but aside from that, I don't have any formal information aside from the fact he's got hypothermia. We're lucky he's not in shock from all of that."

"Tough kid," grunted Robotman, folding his arms over his broad chest.

"Nevermind that Rita, but did it occur to you that he's not even a human being?" Negative Man asked, leaning back.

"Does that matter?" Rita said sharply, jerking her head in the direction of the bandage-wrapped superhero. "In case you haven't noticed Larry, you barely merit the term 'human being'." The words were harsher than she first intended them to be, and she was going to take it back, but decided against it, folding her arms over her chest, a small frown on her face.

"No need to get defensive," Negative Man said in response, holding up his hands. "What I mean is: did you know the kid has powers?"

"Powers?" The word burst stupidly from none other than Mento's lips, and a moment of awkward silence followed. "Why didn't you say anything before, Larry?"

"I didn't want to have to say it twice." Negative Man responded shamelessly. "Didn't you notice that big bite wound on your guy's arm? There isn't a chance in the world that Garfield or whatever managed to do that without them."

"Whaddya reckon he can do, then?" Robotman growled. Rita also wished that Larry would get to the point. He usually didn't talk much, but when he did, he had an annoying tendency to woffle about things. She was going to tell him so when Mento blinked, and then said confidence, "He's a shapeshifter."

"That might explain his strange appearance," Rita said, her eyes lighting up. "I wonder where he came from. But that doesn't matter now; he needs somewhere to stay…"

"What kind of crazy family these days would take in someone that looks like him?" Larry put in.

"If anything, he might end up in a circus or worse," Robotman muttered pensively, holding his wide chin in a massive mechanical hand.

Mento, who was staring at the monitors with eyes narrowed in thought, had nothing to distribute to the conversation.

Rita frowned in concentration. The thought of such a small child on his own hurt her sensitive heart, and there was no way that Gar would be by himself like this if his mother was even still alive…his parents were probably both deceased. Adoption into a normal family wouldn't be an option, and either way, the Brain would probably send more men to make an attempt on his life again, should he say anything about the base…and the notion of having to see that small green shape walk away…Her fist tightened in resolve.

If you need me…she had said. He needed her.

"Why don't we keep him?" she suggested, trying very hard not to let too much feeling leak into her voice. That would only make her position sound silly. A loud, drawn out hush screamed after her words, the gentle hum of the monitors making it worse.

Mento turned his head sharply at her. "What?" he asked, his voice bordering on disbelieving.

Robotman blinked dully before looking up, a slow, uncharacteristic grin on his blocky, rough features. "That's actually a pretty good idea. A kid with powers like that would be a real wild card, and the Brain wouldn't be prepared at all."

"Yes!" Elasti-Girl's voice took on an eager edge, triumph ringing faintly in its resonance. "Not only that, but you've seen how he can handle situations in high stress! He's only bedridden because of hypothermia."

"You know, I think you're overlooking the fact that animals can more than likely look through a hologram."

Negative Man's comment made every head jerk in his direction. Mento had an odd look on his face, as if he was trying to frown and smile at the same time, but after several seconds of quiet contemplation, he turned towards Elasti-Girl with a bland face again and said with a note of exasperation in his voice, "Rita, we don't have time for this. The Brain's planning something terrible, and we're sitting ducks at the moment. We need to devote our energy into finding a way to pin him down, not take on more responsibility by accepting a child into the Doom Patrol!"

Rita's heart plummeted, but she wasn't ready to give up yet. Not by a long shot. "Mento—"

"It's not that I don't care, it's because I care! By letting a child join us would only increase his mortality rate. He would be risking his life every day!"

"It's not like he wouldn't be risking it otherwise!" Rita's voice took on a desperate note. "Mento—Steve, you've got to realize. By making him go would only leave an opening for the Brain to go and kill him then, and without protection, he would last about as long as a leaf in a wildfire."

It was at about this time that Robotman and Negative Man started to back off. Robotman pointedly looked away, as if he was trying to distract himself from the voices that were steadily growing louder. Negative Man was staring at the monitors as if trying to seem useful.

And before Mento could open his mouth to reply, Rita rattled on. "Why not give him a chance to fight for what's good, and give him a chance at living past his ninth birthday! At least with us, he's have a chance. Steve, he's a shapeshifter, not dead weight. He was potential to become a hero as great as you. You—you and I have to take that chance." She locked defiant brown eyes with the intense blue ones of her husband. It was no secret that Rita was unable to have children after the chemical accident that had given her powers. And she always had a caring outlook. She needed to be there for someone that needed what only she could give.

More silence. Rita could hear her heart pounding in her ears. Time seemed to slow as she watched Steve's face with wide, almost pleading eyes. It seemed to take Steve an eternity and a day to finally rub his face with a gloved hand and a throaty sigh. And then…

"All right."

A/N: I know that Mento and Elasti-Girl were married in the comics, so I assumed the same thing for the show—even though the writers obviously didn't go there. ;;. 'Sides, it makes for interesting scenes.

I never expected to get a review from you, Lonegrey ( will be updating my WR fic soon, worry not). I swear, the first thing I did was laugh delightedly…Heh, I think I should have done some more description with the Doom Patrol characters…and don't look them up on Google for images, 'cause you'll get a ton of comics junk. You've never seen Teen Titans! I demand you watch it. Now. It is a great show. Over here, the DVD's are about thirteen bucks…you can get them at Suncoast. Thanks for the great review; your words never fail to put me into an excellent mood. Wow! I got lots of reviews! –squeal- You guys are good luck, my day proceeded to be very productive and nice—and as I had virtually no homework, I seized the chance to update for you. Yay! I'm really glad to hear from you again, TDG3RD. Your review put a big grin on my face, and I'm glad to see you like the story. And Golden Dove! You words made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You know, I was actually quite surprised that no one had beaten me to this topic…but anyway, thanks again, my readers. I hope you liked this chapter…I worked on some of it at school and got funny, incoherent garbage from my peers...

i.e. HURR, what r u riting? Whut da heck is the Doom Patrol? Hey, u ripped Elastigurl from the indreibles, OMG.

Heheh. I promise I won't gripe about morons like this one in my author's notes anymore. Anyway, 'till next update. Oh, and a tip for all you authors out there: Never EVER try to eat a rock-hard pear when writing. --;;