OK, so there is some interest in this story. I was worried no one would like it.
Read on …
-(-)-
Cyborg gently guided the T-Ship over the Tower's secondary landing bay. The Galileo's wreckage dangled underneath, hanging from several tethers and swayed from the residual thrust from the T-Ship's engines, which roared loudly under the strain of the load they were carrying.
Spock was standing next to the green boy and the girl who wore the blue cloak and hood. They called each other Raven and Beast Boy. Unfortunately, Spock's conversation with his mother had been cut short and he knew little to nothing about them.
He turned on his tricorder and began to scan the T-Ship.
"What are you doing?" Raven asked in her monotone.
"Interesting, hydrocarbon fueled combustion turbines. Not the most efficient form of propulsion … but adequate. They do emit excessive amounts of toxic pollutants." He replied as he turned some knobs on the tricorder.
Gar looked at Raven. "What did he say?"
"He said that the T-Ship is powered the jet engines that burn gasoline. And that they make smog."
Spock turned to to girl. "To be more precise, it is a kerosene derived fuel, whereas gasoline is a benzene derived fuel."
Beast Boy snickered. It was rare for his girlfriend to be wrong and even rarer for someone to correct her. Raven gently elbowed him and he stopped laughing. Spock made a mental note of their interaction. She turned her attention to the alien.
"I take that is a scanning device of some sort."
"That is correct. It is called a tricorder." Spock said as he shut it off. "Forgive me for asking, but your appearances are unusual for humans. Are you extraterrestrials?"
"Dude! I'm human! Sure I'm green and can turn into animals, but that doesn't make me an alien!"
"You turn in animals? Excuse Mr. Beast Boy, but you are already an animal, a mammal, it would appear."
Raven raised her hand and gestured at the Vulcan. "What Garfield means is that he's a changeling. He can morph into other animals using nothing more than his will power."
Spock arced one of his eyebrows in a skeptical manner.
"You think I can't? Just watch!"
Gar morphed into a gorilla. Spock was almost able to completely hide his surprise, but not quite. He turned his tricorder back on just before Gar resumed his human form.
"Fascinating, you were able to completely reconstruct yourself from the chromosomal level up, rebuilding your DNA and completely reconfiguring your body without perishing. Very impressive."
Looking very self satisfied, Gar turned to his sweetheart. "See Raven, he thinks I'm impressive."
"Statistically, someone had to." She deadpanned.
Spock interjected. "Actually, that assumption is also incorrect, because …."
She raised her hands, palms outward, and interrupted him. "It's a figure of speech, not a mathematical assertion."
Beast Boy was snickering again, earning a mild glare from the demoness.
Spock nodded. "Noted. Miss Raven, are you an alien?"
Spock saw her furrow her brow before answering. "I'm half human and half alien."
This got Spock's attention.
"Your alien half, does the species have a name?"
She paused before answering. "They're called Azarathians."
Gar said nothing, fully understanding Raven's white lie. Had she told Spock that she was half demon, he probably would have told her that there are no demons.
"I have never heard of Azarathians."
"Azarath is very far away." She fibbed a second time. Spock noticed both times that her pupils enlarged. This told him two things. Firstly, that she was at least partially human as she claimed, secondly that she lied both times. He made a mental note.
"Noted. Do you have any 'powers' besides healing?"
Beast Boy frantically waved his arms. "Does she have any other powers? Are you kidding me? Raven has all kinds of powers! She can levitate and fly! She can open portals! She makes bullet proof shields! And she can move things just by thinking, I mean really big things, like boulders and cars and stuff!"
Spock noticed a very subtle smile form briefly on her face. He had made a hobby of studying human faces to read the emotions they attempted to conceal. It came in handy on the Enterprise. He knew that the two teens shared a special bond and that she appreciated the green boys remarks. Emotions, such a human characteristic. He contemplated asking if they were lovers, but decided to postpone that question for later.
"Miss Raven, would you mind levitating?"
"You want to scan me with your tricorder while I levitate?"
"That is correct. May I?"
"OK, go ahead and knock yourself out."
Spock cocked his head. "Forgive me, but why would I want to do that?"
Raven face palmed. "Nevermind, it's just a colloquialism. It means go ahead, you have my permission."
Spock noticed a faintly smug look on her face as began to float in front of him, and his sensitive ears heard her whisper "scan this."
Spock began to scan her. Gar had conveniently forgotten to mention that Raven was also an empath. Until that point, she had detected no emotions at all from Spock. That is, until now. He was feeling flummoxed. His face didn't betray what he was feeling, but he seemed to be turning a lot of knobs on his little black box, which made faint high pitched sounds. She spread her arms as she continued to levitate in front of him.
"Is something wrong?" She asked in her classic deadpan.
"I am not sure, I am not getting any energy readings. I can't explain how it is possible for you to levitate."
"Are you sure your tricorethingy isn't broken?" Gar asked.
"Oh, it is functioning. I was able to read Miss Raven's vital signs. Also, it detected minute traces of your DNA in Miss Raven's reproductive system. I now find my myself in an uncomfortable situation."
Raven exploded. "I would certainly hope so! What Gar and I do together is none of your business. How dare you scan me that way."
Spock again cocked his head. "I was not referring to the fact that you engage in frequent coital relations with your lover. I do understand that this is quite common for humans and is considered normal human behavior."
Once again, Beast Boy looked completely lost. "What did he say?"
Raven frowned. "He said that he knows that we sleep together and says that it's no big deal. So … Mr. Spock, would you mind explaining what your 'uncomfortable situation' is?"
Spook looked completely unperturbed. "Based on the fact that I cannot detect any sort of energy field levitating you, I find myself facing the possibility, however illogical it is, that you are indeed using some sort of paranormal supernatural phenomenon to levitate yourself."
"Dude! In English!"
"I am speaking in English."
A big smile formed on Raven's face. "He's saying that I'm using magic to levitate."
"Duh! I already told him."
Spock turned off his tricorder. "Further investigation will be required before I can logically conclude that you are indeed using some sort of supernatural abilities."
Raven sighed as she floated back to the ground. "Whatever." She grumbled.
"Whatever what?" Spock replied, in mildly curious tone.
-(-)-
Meanwhile, in the landing bay.
Robin watched as Cyborg and Starfire lifted the Galileo with their hands and placed it on a large hydraulic lift.
"It ain't that heavy, I wonder what it's made of. Star, you ever see a ship like this one before?"
She was examining the starboard nacelle. "I have not. This nacelle, it contains a warp coil unlike any I have ever seen before. Its design is new to me."
"I hear you Star. This baby is advanced, way advanced. I think it could outrun any ship in the Tamaranian fleet. Is this really just a shuttle? If it is, I'd love to see one of their big ships. They probably kick butt."
Robin was watching from the side when something caught his eye. The sides of the shuttle were encrusted in dirt and dried mud. He walked to the side of the ship and with his gloved hand wiped some of it off, revealing the letter 'T', he rubbed some some more and found E's on either side if the T. He then ran to the wall, where a hose was coiled. He turned the water tap open and began to hose down the ship. After washing most of the dirt off he shouted out.
"Guys, you need to see this!"
Starfire and Cyborg were on the other side of the ship, and came around to Robin's side.
"Yo, Rob, this isn't a car wash. You might get water on the warp coils, and that could mess them up even more ..."
Robin pointed to the side of the shuttle. In clear Latin characters the following could be read:
NCC-1701/7
U.S.S. ENTERPRISE
Cyborg noticed some more writing, which was still partially covered. He wiped it away and saw the following:
Galileo
"Guys, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The boy wonder asked.
"This ship, it has the Earth markings. Galileo, Raven told me bout him. He was a medieval astronomer, correct?"
"Yeah, Star, you're right. Why would an alien ship be marked like this?" Cyborg asked.
"Because it isn't alien. This is an Earth ship." Robin remarked in surprised tone.
Cyborg gave Robin an incredulous look.
"Are you kidding me, man? No one has this kind of tech on Earth. Heck, no one had this kind of tech. Not the Tamaranians, not the Gordanians. Not even Val-Yor's ship was this advanced. This can't be from Earth."
"I think it is, Cy."
"Hey Gel Hair, are you not listening? No one on Earth has this kind of tech. No one. It's way too advanced."
"Maybe it is now." Robin answered in an eerie deadpan.
"Robin, are you saying that this ship has come from the future?"
Robin nodded. "We need to cover these markings with dirt. We don't want Spock, if that's even his name, to know that we know."
"I'm on it. Rob. I took some pictures before you cleaned. I'll make sure it looks exactly the same as before."
-(-)-
About an hour later
Raven was sitting on the couch, reading, or at least trying to read, while Gar was standing next to the giant windows in the common room, pointing out all the city's landmarks to Spock. The sliding doors opened and the sorceress looked up from her book. Robin was standing behind the open door and subtly gestured to Raven to approach. She put her book down and silently glided over to her leader. As she arrived he grabbed her wrist before she landed and gently led her, still floating down the hall.
"OK, Robin, what's going on?"
The boy wonder quickly filled her in with the new knowledge they had.
"Are you sure of this?"
"Why would an alien vessel have the words "Enterprise" and "Galileo" painted on its sides?"
She shrugged. "So you really think he's from the future?"
"I do."
"But you don't want to confront him about it?"
"Correct. He might have a good reason to not tell us. Or maybe he's a hostile. He isn't human, Raven. Doesn't it seem odd that a non human would arrive on an Earth ship from the future."
Raven tapped her chin as she pondered what she heard.
"Are we sure he's not human?" She asked.
"Star said he's an alien, a Vulcan to be precise. He didn't deny it. And he does have pointy ears."
"So does Gar. For all we know, that's what humans look like in the future."
"Warp didn't look like that." He quipped. "And we know that Spock has green, copper based blood.}
"Mmmm … good point. Those markings you describe, they sound military … USS Enterprise … that doesn't sound like a cruise ship. Maybe he's an alien that serves some Earth military organization in the future?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe he stole the Galileo."
She furrowed her brow. "I don't know what to think. He used his scanning device, he calls it a tricorder, to analyze our bodies and our powers."
"Your bodies? What did he do?"
She turned away from him. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Raven, it could be important." He gently pressed.
She heaved a frustrated sigh. "His tricorder is incredibly sensitive."
"How sensitive?"
She crossed her arms. "He was able to detect Gar's DNA."
"Uh, Cyborg can do that with his sensors.."
He saw her ball her fists. "While it was still inside me, in you know where. And before you ask, I wash it thoroughly after we … anyway, there could have only been traces amounts of Gar's … ugh, I hate talking about this, it's so private."
Robin's face fell. "He actually told you that he detected Beast Boys DNA inside your …" His voice trailed off, as he was unable to complete the sentence.
She shook her head in dismay and sighed. "Maybe he is an alien. In some ways he reminds me of Starfire, super smart yet utterly clueless about human boundaries … so, we're going to pretend we don't know until we learn more about him?"
"Yeah … and I have a special mission for you."
Her expression changed. "What do you want me to do?" She asked in a wary tone.
"I want you to enter his mind."
"Robin, doing that without being noticed is very difficult."
"I know you can do it."
"Easy for you to say. What about, Gar? Does he know?"
"Not yet. You can tell him later."
She sighed. "When do you want this done?"
"No rush, get a feel for Spock, do it when you feel the time is right."
"OK … so what do we do in the meantime?"
At that very moment Cyborg came out the elevator with a stack of pizza boxes. He nodded at the two of them. Robin nodded back. "She knows."
They followed Cyborg back into the common room.
-(-)-
"Dinner time!" Cyborg shouted as he entered the common room. Beast Boy was still pointing out the landmarks to their visitor, and Starfire had joined them. They turned and saw the pizza boxes. Spock had never seen pizza boxes before, and wondered what sort of food they contained.
"It's pizza night!" The changeling shouted as he ran to the dinner table, their alien guest momentarily forgotten. Starfire followed him, before turning around to face Spock.
"Friend, come join us in the partaking of the pizza!"
Robin and Raven entered the room after Cyborg.
"Mr. Spock, you can eat Earth food, right?"
Spock pulled down on his blue science officer tunic, a gesture that many centuries later a certain William ^T Riker would name "The Picard Maneuver".
"I can metabolize Earth food. However, I am a vegetarian."
Spock had read about pizza. It wasn't served on the Enterprise, as Dr. McCoy insisted that it was mostly empty calories and was not nutritious. It was one of the rare occasions when he agreed with the doctor. Spock had never tried it before. That there were no pizzerias on Vulcan, that went without saying.
"Seriously, man? A vegetarian? I guess you're I luck, I ordered two veggie specials today. So what would you like to drink?" Cyborg replied.
"We have the Coca Cola, the Pepsi, the Orange Fanta and the root beer." Star enumerated.
"I'll have water."
"Pizza with water? Cyborg grimaced. "We also have beer, if you don't like sodas."
"Water will be fine. Thank you."
Starfire and Beast Boy quickly set the table and every took their seats. Spock watched quietly as the teens voraciously tore into many pizzas. Beast Boy paused and served Spock two slices of the veggie special. The Vulcan took a small byte. The flavor was pleasant, except for the cheese, which made the dish too rich for his taste. He politely ate the food served.
"Do you like Tofu?" Beast Boy asked.
"You mean soybean curd? It is an acceptable form of nutrition."
Raven gave Spock an odd look. "From what you say I gather that Vulcans do not eat for pleasure."
"That is not entirely correct. Plomeek soup is a timeless favorite on Vulcan, for its subtle flavors. But on Vulcan nutrition is considered more important than flavor."
Starfire looked at Robin and mouthed the words 'they are the strange'.
Spock stopped eating and looked his grandsire.
"Mr. Robin, what is it that your group of friends do? Are you students at a university?"
"We're crime fighters." He replied between mouthfuls of pizza. Spock often found the eating habits of the humans on the Enterprise to be close to revolting. They ate fast, used their fingers and relished whatever they ate, regardless of its nutritional value. But these people, two of which who were allegedly his ancestors, were simply revolting. They smacked their lips, licked their fingers and even belched. Raven's manners were perhaps the best, but they still left much to be desired.
"You are police officers? You seem to be young for that role. My tricorder indicates that Miss Raven and Mr. Beast Boy ..."
"Dude, just call me Gar. Do you want another slice of pizza?"
"Thank you, Gar. I am satisfied. Anyway, as I was saying, my tricorder indicated that you are both 18 Earth years of age. Is that old enough to be police officers? Wouldn't some formalized training at an academy be required?"
"We aren't police, we're super heroes." Robin answered.
Spock arced an eyebrow. That was the same term his mother used.
"Forgive me, I am not familiar with that terminology."
"We all have super powers, well except for Robin. You've seen mine and Raven's." The changeling interjected. "Like Rob said, we aren't police. We catch supervillains."
Spock touched his fingertips, forming a tent with this fingers.
"And these 'supervillains', they also have super powers, correct?"
"Most of them do. Some, like Slade, don't. But he doesn't need them, he's really bad ass without any powers."
"Bad ass?"
Raven cleared her throat. "What Gar is trying to say is that Slade is a formidable foe, even though he has no super powers. He is an above average human specimen, very intelligent, a genius and is physically and athletically supergifted. His martial arts skills are second to none. Even though we have powers, he is able to hold his own against us."
"I see. So what is it that this Slade does that warrants your attention? Is he a thief?"
"His goal is world domination." Robin replied as he stood up and walked over to the mission console. He typed a few commands and the giant TV came to life, displaying Slade's image on video footage, showing him battling the Titans. Spock made mental notes on
"He does appear to be formidable."
The footage the showed the Titans battling a platoon of Slade Bots, which fired lasers at them.
"I presume those androids are of his design."
"Correct." Raven replied.
"They have weapons, deadly weapons. You do not."
"Dude, were heroes; we don't kill people."
As Spock continued to query the Titans on their battle strategies and tactics, Raven decided that that this might be a good time to poke around in the Vulcan's mind. She closed her eyes and reached out to Spock. Gar noticed what she was doing and peppered the Vulcan with all sorts of inane questions, which Spock calmly and politely answered, hoping to distract him.
The first thing that Raven encountered was a powerful mental barrier. She could have pushed her way in, but that would have been as subtle as one of Punk Rocket's performances. Instead she delicately probed until she found an opening, more like tiny crack, in Spock's mental shield. She mentally tip toed her way in …
Spock jerked and stood up. Raven immediately retreated back into her own body.
"Mr. Spock, is something wrong?" Robin asked.
The alien shook his head. "It is nothing. I thought I sensed a presence, but it's gone."
Raven sat, very poker faced. She didn't have much time to see anything. In fact, she only saw one thing before have to flee before being detected. It was a single word:
Grayson.
-(-)-
The sound of gears turning echoed inside the underground lair. It was dark, the only light came from a bank of flat panel displays, one of which showed the T-Ship, hovering over Titans Tower, lowering a strange payload. The image zoomed in and panned around. The image froze and stopped.
"Looks like you found an interesting new toy, Robin. And you didn't call to let me know or invite me to see it. It must be very special for you to be so rude to me."
Slade leaned back in his chair. Using a joystick and some nobs he zoomed the image to the top of the Tower, and saw that Raven and Beast were standing with a guest.
"An alien. And that must be your ship. A very interesting ship."
Slade tapped his fingers together.
"I think we need to meet, whoever you are. So you can tell me all about how your ship works."