The More Things Change….
Chap. 1
Family Ties
A story like this should start in a large T, in the bay of Jump City. But it's not going to. You see, things have changed in this little world. Twenty years have passed, and the characters we know have grown up. Some have moved on, some have left the game. But then again, this story isn't really about them. Yet whom can it be about then? With that little question of plot left in the air, let's begin the tale. We open in a house in the Jump City suburbs, in a bedroom decorated in gray wallpaper and covered with pictures of certain male movie stars and horror monsters. If you haven't guessed, this is the bedroom of a teenage girl, albeit a slightly odd and currently sleeping one. However, that condition is about to change…
Slowly, the small figure advanced on the bed. Dressed in shorts and a black shirt, he wore no shoes on his feet. He moved silently, with a skill and grace that seemed unnatural for any human to posses. Grinning, he inched his way closer and closer, until he finally came to the foot of the bed. Looking over it, he saw the being in the bed groan and twist in the covers. The figure took this as his time to strike and he did so with the greatest pleasure.
"Wake-up time Sis!" the young boy yelled gleefully, as he leapt onto the bed, scaring the hell out of his sister. The older girl in the bed let out a yelp of surprise, then her eyes narrowed as she saw what had scared her.
"Bart, do you have to do that every single day!" she snarled as she pushed him off the bed. However, Bart just kept smiling and said, "Well, if you didn't sleep through your alarm clock every day, I wouldn't have to, Kitty-Cath."
Still annoyed, the girl pushed the covers off and sat up in bed. "What did I ever do to deserve you for a little brother?" she asked. "Aw Katie, maybe I'm a reward for you." Bart suggested.
"You are way too much like Dad." Katie answered grimly. Bart just smiled even more at that. He loved being compared to his father, especially in the area of pranks. Their mother had said that their dad was a huge inventor of 'ridiculous pranks.' Bart intended to one-up his dad and it always seemed like he would do it one day. No one was really that surprised about it. Bart was most assuredly his father's child; at only eleven he was the spitting image of the man. His face was almost completely identical to his father's, except for the pointed chin and purple eyes from his mom. His hair, while green, was longer then his dad's and had a habit of falling into his eyes. Still, that hair color was the only odd factor about him. Otherwise Bart was completely normal, except in the eyes of his sister.
"You better hurry Katie. Mom and Dad made eggs for breakfast." Bart said.
"Both of them or just Dad?" Katie asked, fearing the kind of eggs that her father usually made.
"Don't worry, Mom made sure that he made both kinds."
"Great, then how about you get of here so I can get ready?" she asked, grabbing the boy's shirt collar and dragging him out the door before he had a chance to so for himself. Shutting it quickly, Katie sighed and walked over to her dresser to grab some clothes for the day. After settling on a black skirt and an old T-shirt, she turned her attention to the vanity mirror above the dresser.
As she looked herself over, Katie shook out her hair and using her comb, pulled it down the sides of her face as much as possible. As Bart was like their father, she was obviously her mother's daughter at thirteen. She had few traits from her father, save her green eyes, round face and her ears, which had caused her to grow her hair long. Those ears were pointed at the tips, causing her to look like an elf whenever she pulled her hair back. Katie had been teased about them for the first year of school, so she refused to get any kind of haircut that would keep her from covering them up. As her long purple hair fell into place, she finally decided that she looked acceptable, and grabbing a pair of sneakers, walked downstairs for breakfast.
"Sounds like she's up." Garfield said, as he picked up the sports section. "Good thing I made eggs then, or she never would've gotten up, even for school." Raven said from across the table.
At that, the being once called Beast Boy put down the paper and gave his wife a hard glare. "My tofu eggs are fine. She's eaten them before."
"Yeah, but haven't you noticed how she always has the same amount on her plate all the time?"
"…… Darn it."
Garfield turned back to the paper then, but took a look over it to see Raven's smile. It was perhaps the most important thing for him to see in the morning. Ever since the Titans and B.R.A.T.S had disbanded, that smile had been the strongest reminder of the old days. Even though Garfield was happy with the life he had now, he always had fond memories of the time that they had spent in the Tower. And since the Tower had been closed down years ago, Gar was now forced to use a holo-emitter to hide his skin, and they rarely got together with their old friends anymore, Garfield took whatever reminders he could get. True, sometimes Raven said that he was trying to live in the past, but he always said going from superhero to manager of S-Mart required that occasionally. Then again, being almost thirty-five and twenty years retired didn't help matters either.
Garfield forced those thoughts out of his head for the moment as his children came down the stairs. "Mom, Dad, I know I oversleep," Katie began as she came down, "But can't you get Bart to stop jumping on my bed every single day?"
At that, Raven turned to her son and said, "Didn't I tell you to wake your sister up gently?"
"But Mom, I can't get her up any other way. She can't hear me through her snores."
"I do not snore!" Katie snapped.
"You know, we wouldn't have this problem if you could just wake on time Katie." Garfield said, as he pulled out a chair for his daughter. Katie gave no answer, just sat down and began to eat her breakfast. Bart also sat, and quickly devoured his meal. Soon, the time came for the kids to head out to school. Slinging their backpacks over their shoulders, Katie and Bart kissed their parents good-bye and headed out the door.
As the children walked to school, they neglected to look up at the large oak tree that overshadowed their house. If they had, they would've seen something interesting. Nestled in the branches of the tree were two figures. They were dressed in identical, ragged clothes with long capes, boots, and gloves; the rest of the outfits covered the whole of their bodies. Strips of cloth and wide-brimmed hats also covered their faces. The only differences were that one was dressed in black and gray, the other in gold and yellow; it was also obvious that the golden one was a woman. Hidden by the branches, they watched the children walk off.
"Beautiful." The black-garbed one said, as he watched.
"I never thought I'd watch this." The golden one added. Turning to the black one, she asked, "Are you sure about it? We've got a lot to dump on them."
"We have no choice." He replied. "Raven and Beast Boy will never let them help on their own and neither will the others. I hate to do this too, but we need their help. Even if he succeeds, we need all of the Teen Titans again."
The gold one was silent a moment, then said, "This is a sad way for them to meet us." "I know." He answered. "But if we don't, they won't be around for us to meet at all."