I'm thrilled with the response! I regret saying 'gimme ten reviews, or else!'...'cause I feel like such a jerk for saying it. -sigh- Hope you accept my apology, guys.

Disclaimer: -death glare-

Ermmmmm, yes.

Something was not right. To some, it looked fine. To anyone else, you'd see three friends driving into the heart of Hollywood, each looking excited or happy. But you see, that was the problem—they were all smiling.

Or at least they were, until two of them noticed something that did not belong. Headphones in place, the shortest member of their party was happily drumming his fingers against the car door as his head swayed rhythmically.

After about ten minutes, Vic tore the iPod from his friend's hands and threw it into the backseat, pulling over. "Okay, I can't take it anymore!"

"Can't take what?" The victim of iPod-thievery asked innocently.

"You…you're…smiling!" Vic stammered.

Gar frowned. "I'm not allowed to smile?"

Once again, Vic was at a loss for words, managing only, "…Well…"

"—You are," Kori cut in, "but we just wouldn't expect you to. We were under the impression that you hated this idea."

"I never said that."

Vic snorted. "You kinda made it clear when you stormed out of the restaurant, man."

"I did not storm!"

Vic opened his mouth to reply, but Kori beat him to it. "The point is that you're acting strange. How many hours of sleep did you get last night? I know you went to the pub—how many beers? Any sleeping pills, injections, drugs—"

"Kori! What is this, an interrogation? I'm clean as a whistle, I swear! I just…feel good this morning. Is that a crime?"

Kori folded her arms and slit her eyes at the blonde-haired man. "We'll see."

---

The three were as different as the way they entered the office-like building. One strode tall and independent, giving off a fierce glow that would make anyone tremble at her feet, another's neck twisted around so many times you'd think he'd suffer from whiplash, taking in every inch of the building like a child would in a toy store, where the last just nonchalantly followed, hands dug firmly in pockets, lazily listening to a song through his headphones.

The receptionist was filing her nails and popping her gum loudly. Her clothes were anything but what you'd expect on a receptionist; black Bermuda shorts that were ripped at the ends, a pink two-quarter length shirt, along with a pair of pink high tops to match the color of her dyed bubblegum-pink hair.

She looked up when she saw them and smiled. "You're Gar Logan's people?"

With a confirmation nod from Kori, the woman got up and pressed a button on the elevator. "I'm Jen," she introduced, "Rachel's assistant. You have any complaints, take them to me, got it?"

She narrowed her eyes at Gar. "You're the actor?"

"That's what it says on the job application," he replied. His head was turned to the side, eyes distantly staring into nothing. Upon entering the building, Gar had become quiet, as though being reminded of something.

"I see," she said. Her voice had lowered, now carrying a sort of icy tone.

The elevator could be heard as it reached the ground floor, giving a sound to signal it had arrived. "Ground rules," Jen said as soon as the doors closed, "Be considerate, don't talk out, listen to what everyone has to say—"

"And will I get a shiny gold star if I behave, teacher?" Gar sighed.

"—No headphones, no being a smartass, and well—no, you probably shouldn't talk at all."

"I'll try to remember that." He shifted his weight and leaned against the elevator wall, quietly pulling the headphones out of his ears.

Gar fell back within the group, lagging behind Vic by a good few yards. The smile had faded, just a solemn line for his lips and hazed over eyes. The room was somewhat executive like, just more casual. A round mahogany stood as the center piece, surrounded by half a dozen black chairs. Behind a few of the chairs was a white board, across it written 'Brainstorms'.

He gasped inwardly as he saw her, looking just as tired as the night before. She was dressed nicer, however, with a black blazer and slacks over a blue turtleneck. Her hair was neatly pulled behind her in a bun, and light lines of color were around her eyes. She gave what could be thought of as a smile, clearly something she wasn't familiar with, as they shuffled in.

Her eyes rested on Gar, who was desperately looking around the room—anywhere but at her.

"Vic?" She cocked her neck.

Vic, who had his back to her as he inspected the whiteboard, spun around, "Yeah?"

"…No, Vic."

"What about me?"

Rachel's brows furrowed. "Your name is Vic, too?"

Vic's eyes widened with momentary shock. "There's more than one?"

Her eyes resumed lock on Gar. Vic, noticing this, jerked his thumb back at the sheepish blond. "Gar?"

The pieces of the puzzle hadn't been put in place for Rachel just yet. "…Gar?"

Kori, already realizing what had happened, hissed, "Gar!"

There was a silence. All eyes rested on Gar, save for Jen. Her eyes darted around from person to person, finally breaking the still, "...Jen? Well, now that we are all acquainted—"

"Gar, as in Gar Logan? Gar Logan, the actor?"

He said nothing.

"Gar Logan, the asshole?"

"Just 'the actor' would've been fine, thanks."

"You told me your name was Vic!"

"You did what?" Vic interrupted. He sat back in a chair and shrugged. "Don't blame the guy."

Her eyes lost their anger, now looking betrayed. "Why wouldn't you tell me your name?"

Before he could reply, Jen spoke up, "I don't think it matters right now. Can we just get down to business?"

Rachel's face hardened as she coughed. "Right—well, we need to sort out a few things before we start. First things first, we need a host. He or she needs to be good looking, known around 'the scene', and smart enough to read a teleprompter."

Vic grinned, "How about Rich Grayson?"

All three female's eyebrows shot up. "You know Rich Grayson?" Jen stuttered.

Vic smiled at Gar. "Sure do. Me, Gar, an' him go way back."

"Is he even available? I thought he was still on tour."

"Well he landed in America a few days ago. He's just resting it up with his dad in Gotham, so to most, he's still technically away."

Jen raised an eyebrow at the flushing Kori. "What about you, Kori? Do you know him too?"

"W-we've met…once or twice," she mumbled, shooting an if-you-tell-I'll-kill-you glare at Gar and Vic.

Another uncomfortable silence draped over them like a curtain. Rachel coughed, bringing them back into reality. "Well…yes, he'd be perfect. Vic, could you call him and see if he'd be willing to do it?"

Vic chuckled, "He'd better. The man owes me favors."

She nodded. "Next is a crew. We'll need to hire a good camera man and lighting director, among other things."

"Got that covered, too," Vic said, pulling out a red and yellow business card from his wallet, "He's the guy who worked with Gar on his last movie. His attention span isn't much, so you'll need to keep him occupied, but he's good with a camera. As far as lighting—I don't know."

Jen tapped a pencil to her chin. "We can work that out, later."

"Right," Rachel said firmly, "next subject—" She looked towards Gar for a split second before directing her attention towards her papers, "—is the girls.

"We'll need a nationwide search to find the girls—we'll pick maybe two dozen and fly them here for the first 'elimination round'. You'll eliminate…around half of them, and then we'll move the show to another place."

"Another place?" Kori asked.

Rachel nodded. "Somewhere where it's fairly quiet, romantic, and provides good activities…We've got money, so that isn't an issue."

Gar looked up from the hands in his lap, "How about France?"

Everyone stared at him. He shrugged. "What? At this time of year, the snows good, you can rent a nice cozy chalet, and anyone who says France isn't romantic is clinically insane."

Nodding approvals were exchanged all around. "That's a…nice idea," Rachel observed. She sounded somewhat hostile, feigning surprise that he could come up with an idea such as that.

"Why the do you hate me so much?" He said through his teeth, keeping his gaze lowered.

"What was that?"

"I said, why the hell do you hate me!"

"I-I…" She faltered momentarily, "Because! You're an idiotic, ignorant, an imbecile, arrogant, you don't care about anyone but yourself—"

"Hey, whoa, whoa," Vic interrupted, putting a hand between the two glaring people, "I think there's a big misunderstanding here…"

"There's no misunderstanding," Rachel said calmly. She sighed and rubbed her temples, sinking back into her chair. "Can we just move on?"

"Fine," Gar growled.

Rachel blinked once towards the ground, then looked up, voice completely devoid of any emotion, "We'll start the search tomorrow. We'll give them a few weeks to get the tapes in, and then we'll close the contest. Understood?"

Gar didn't reply, just scoffed and looked out a window. As they exited down the hallway, there was a silence, awkward, and so thick you could slice through it. Vic cleared his throat. "Well that went…well. I say we celebrate? Who wants waffles?"

"Vic, it is already past the noon," Kori sighed.

Both boys stopped in their tracks, "What did you just say?"

Quickly turning her head away, her voice sharpened, "Nothing, nothing." She paused, "I say we go for Chinese."

"Fine by me," Vic agreed. When Gar didn't reply, Vic nudged him in the rib. "That okay with you, man?"

A hollow look in his eyes, Gar smiled broadly. "Dudes, you know I'm always up for Chinese."

---

From her newly acquired office, Rachel watched the three pile into a blue and white car. Finally growing bored with watching the empty parking space where the car had been, she turned to see Jen leaning against her desk, which was still being added to.

"He's cuter in person," Jen grinned.

"Not really," Rachel shook her head, sighing.

"Mm, you're right," her grin widened, "he's gorgeous."

Her dark-haired boss closed her eyes, shaking her head, "…Jen…"

"Right, right, cue the shutting up, I got it. But really, how do you intend to work with the guy? I mean you were at each other's throats."

Rachel said nothing. "Well—no need to try and comfort my growing fear that this will somehow blow up in our faces, we've checked with Houston and it's been confirmed that the meteor will hit and kill us all!"

Okay, so as you see, I'm introducing the titans kind of slowly. Most of the characters in this will be Titans or on the show, one way or another.

As for the character's OOC-ness, I'm getting to that. Well, Kori's OOC for a reason. The others--trying not to make them that way.

Okay, now I brainstrom for MDRAJ...

Oh, and um, review!