Chapter Seven

"Raven… Do you have a moment?" Nightwing asked. Raven nodded. She liked his new costume. It worked well for him. It was much darker and more subdued than his previous one, both in color and in tone. She understood why he would want a new identity. There was a point at which every sidekick needed to form their own heroic identity, and this was Robin's… Or Nightwing's time.

"Of course. Is my room better or yours?" She asked, actually smiling.

"M-m-mine, I guess." Nightwing said nervously, heading to his room with Raven close in tow. When they got into the room and closed the door, Nightwing spoke.

"Raven, I enjoyed our night together, but…"

"You don't want a relationship? I understand." Raven said, not able to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

She did understand. After he had someone as gorgeous as Starfire, how could she possibly compare? It was ridiculous to think that she ever could.

"What? No. That's not what I was going to say. I just… Am nervous… My relationship with Starfire fell apart. I haven't had the best luck with women in my life. Even back when I was working for Batman and I was dating Barbara Gordon, that fell apart as well.

"I don't want to hurt you." Nightwing muttered, seeming less confident than he normally did. Raven laughed, kissing Nightwing on the lips.

"Don't worry about that. We're in a mutual relationship. Whether it lasts a week or a year, it will be important in my life… And hopefully yours as well." Raven said. Nightwing nodded, kissing Raven. The two made their way over to the bed.

Nightwing smiled, kissing Raven's shoulder, feeling the heat rise off of her body as her arousal increased. Raven sighed contentedly, leaning into Nightwing's touch. It was amazing. She had never felt this incredible before in her life. Nighwing's hand ghosted over Raven's skin, causing her to shudder in ecstasy.

Suddenly, just as Nightwing was about to begin undoing her clothes, the alarm went off. Nightwing sighed, standing and putting his costume in order, hurrying out of Raven's room. Raven sighed, using her telekinesis to send pulses of power into herself, climaxing, but finding that it was oddly unsatisfying. There was something about having sex with Nightwing that was just so much better than masturbating. They both had the same result, but the journey there was completely different.

She was definitely going to be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. But she moved around slightly, and headed out to the common room, where she saw the computer screen. Red X was on the loose again. She scowled. This was going to be quite a fight. They weren't yet used to their new powers, and although she had some intuitive understanding of them, it wasn't yet complete enough that she could use them without worrying about hurting someone.

The team headed out, and arrived on the scene in record time, seeing Red X just hanging out around a damaged storefront. He was only fighting to defend himself against the police, and easily beating all of them. Robin ran over to him, tackling him. Red X easily threw him off, though. He put his hands up in surrender. He began speaking.

"Robin… Well… I like your new costume. I only did this to get your attention. I see you have new members… I'm better, though. Let me join you."

Nightwing was completely blindsided by this declaration. For a moment, he couldn't think of anything to say. Finally, he snarled.

"Never! You're a criminal! We can't trust you!"

"I'm a criminal? I've only ever committed petty crimes. Theft, breaking and entering. Not like Miss Markov… She was a terrorist working for Slade Wilson, and you took her back… What, did Beast Boy vouch for her? He is pretty hot for her, from what I understand. And what about the midget over there? He was an assassin before he worked for Batman… You've got major criminals working for you, and you won't accept me because I'm a petty thief?" Red X asked, laughing. Nightwing scowled.

"How do you know all this?" He asked. Red X laughed, taking off his mask and removing the head piece that covered his hair.

"Hello, Dick… We've only met briefly in person. I'm Jason Todd, Batman's second Robin, or I was. I was captured by the Joker and beaten to death.

"Ra's Al-Ghul felt so bad for hiring the Joker that he revived me in the Lazarus Pit. My personality was intensified a bit by that revival, and my memories were shattered… Temporarily, and I became a petty criminal. But I was taught better than that by Batman, and I'd like a chance to redeem myself, if you'd allow me?"

"Mm… And why should we trust you?" Nightwing asked, walking up to Jason and putting a hand on his forehead, delving into his memories. There were parts of his memories that were a little jumbled, probably because of the Lazarus Pit. But Nightwing could tell that Jason was sincere in his desire to change.

"Fine… We look forward to working with you."

"Thank you." Red X said, leaning in conspiratorially. "By the way, nice job, hooking Rachel. She's quite a catch. Oh, how did you know that I was trustworthy? You touched my forehead and suddenly, you completely changed your mind." Jason said. Nightwing nodded.

"I have new powers. Biological Manipulation. I'm keeping them a little bit low key, but I can read minds without much trouble. I didn't delve too deeply. I only read your intentions." Dick said. Jason nodded, and put his mask back on, following the Titans back to Titans Tower, where he sat down on the couch, putting his feet up.

"Feet off the table. We're not animals…" Raven said, scowling. Jason nodded, sitting up straight and removing his feet. He then looked at Dick.

"By the way, Dick, I was thinking I'll need a new costume. I can't be Red X. That was my villain identity. It was great because the costume was free, and especially because the suit was so damn high tech… Made by you, after all.

"But Red Hood… Most people don't remember the Red Hood anymore. I could take that mantle again." Jason said. "Do you have a sewing machine so that I can make it again? I'm afraid I lost it in the final confrontation with Batman."

"No need. You're what? 5'7"? I can make the suit for you. It will be better than any suit you've ever had before, and it will shrink or grow to fit you. Just tell me what it looks like." Dick said. Jason nodded, and took a piece of paper from the table, and took a pencil, and began drawing the suit with arrows to the different parts and what colors they would be.

When he was finished, he handed it to Dick, who nodded, and began forming the suit, finishing within an hour, and handing it to Jason, who admired the suit for a moment.

"It's great. But it's a little heavy. What's in this? Lead?"

"No. Hyper dense biomass. It's resistant to radiation, heat, almost any adverse elemental condition, including electricity, fire, and cold, and it enhances your physical abilities by a factor of about 10. I didn't put the same abilities into it as I have in mine. But you can make do for now. I'll enhance it further after a little while. I have to make absolutely sure we can trust you."

"You can enhance me further?"

"Yes. But I won't yet. I'm still considering what to do with the Titans East in terms of enhancing their powers. Some of them have powers that will be easy to enhance. But others aren't that straightforward. And besides, you were and, until you prove otherwise, are a criminal in the eyes of the Teen Titans."

"What? But I thought you said you read my mind? You saw that I had good intentions!"

"Yes. But Batman has said in the past that you have problems controlling your rage. Prove yourself beyond that, and I will consider trusting you. Got it?"

"Yes… I understand your lack of trust for me. Still, maybe someday you'll come around." Nightwing nodded, turning to the rest of the team.

"Okay… Now, our team has gotten pretty big. It's nearly doubled in size in just a few days. Now that we're so big, we could still act as a single team. But we could also split into two sub-teams, and I'll take suggestions as to who will be on each team.

"Terra and I wanna be on one team!" Beast Boy called out. Terra blushed slightly. She hadn't expected him to exclaim it so exuberantly.

"Okay. You and Terra can be on the same team as long as you can promise me that you won't get distracted, Beast Boy."
"What! Of course I won't get distracted!" He exclaimed, annoyed at Nightwing's statement.

"Good. Your team needs a leader as well."

"I'll be the leader…" Jason said. Dick shook his head.

"Not yet. I trust you, but we need someone more established to be the leader for now. Starfire. You have tactical skill. You were trained on Tameran, right?"

"Yes… The Tameranean Knights trained the entire royal family in combat." Starfire said.

"Good. You'll be the leader of your team. So, it will be you, Red Hood, Beast Boy and Terra on one team, and me, Raven, Cyborg, and Damian on the other team. Is everyone alright with that?" He asked, waiting for their responses. When everyone agreed that it was alright, Dick nodded.

"Good. Then we need to start training both together as an eight person team and separately in our four person teams. We good with that?" Nightwing asked.

"So, beautiful… Looks like we're gonna be on the same team. I'm not so used to following orders, but I think we can work something out, eh?" Red Hood asked. Starfire turned away from him, crossing her arms impatiently.

"Hmph! Nightwing may trust you… But I do not! You are still a criminal to me!"

"Well… I'll have to try to improve your opinion of me, then…" Jason said flirtatiously, winking at Starfire, who blushed deeply, and scowled even more deeply, turning away again, refusing to look at Jason. The newest Titan shrugged and went about his business, picking up the phone and dialing his favorite pizza place, getting everyone's preferences first, and nodding, calling up the pizza place.

"Hello? Jump Pizzeria. How may I help you?"

"Hey, I need two large pizzas with everything on it, including extra garlic and extra cheese, one large pizza with a quarter sausage and peppers, a quarter cheese and extra garlic, and one half plain cheese. Then one large pizza with a quarter sausage, pepperoni and garlic, a quarter extra cheese, sausage and pepperoni and one half extra cheese and extra garlic.

"Will there be anything else, sir?" The woman asked politely.

"Anything else guys?" He waited while they decided.

"Yeah, a 2 liter bottle of pepsi, a two liter bottle of sprite and a two liter bottle of Dr. Pepper. Yes. That's it. Thank you."

"Will you be picking it up or is it for delivery?"

"Delivery please. Yes, to Titan Tower… Thank you. Forty minutes? That's great." Jason said, hanging up.

"To new friends…" He said, taking out his wallet and pulling out the money he would owe the delivery boy. Nightwing went to stop him.

"No, the Titans have a fund for this kind of thing. We can all pay for it."

"Nah… I just made a lot of money on a job… I know what you're thinking… It wasn't a criminal job. I've been straight for a few months now, and I was doing some freelance computer work… Not hacking… But troubleshooting. My ability with computers allowed me to get a job for the government. I set up powerful firewalls and protections.

"Nobody but the best hacker could break through them. Batman probably could. But few others. I got paid 10,000,000 dollars for it, all through the computer of course. It's untraceable since the government doesn't want to admit that they worked with me. But I can transfer the money into the communal fund if you like."

"Nah… Cyborg makes plenty of money selling gadgets and gizmos that he creates. We may be superheroes, but that doesn't mean that we don't need money. We're partially sponsored by Jump City, but Cyborg has expanded his tech business of late." Nightwing said. Jason nodded.

"That's cool. I'll still pay for the pizza. No, really." Jason said. By the time they finished arguing about it, and agreed that they'd each pay half of it, and got the communal money out, the doorbell was ringing.

"Hey, Teen Titans? Great… Your total is 75.42…" The delivery girl said. Jason nodded, and got out a hundred dollar bill, handing it to the woman.

"Thanks, sweetie…" Jason said, winking at her. The woman blushed slightly, and went out to her car, driving off. Jason hurried up to the rec room and set the pizzas on the table.

Starfire immediately took a slice of hers, and ate it in three bites. The rest of the Titans took a little more time, enjoying the pizza so that by the time Starfire had finished an entire pizza, the rest of them were barely halfway through their second piece.

"Cheers!" Jason said. "To new friends…" He said, taking out the sodas and pouring cups for everyone.

"To the new friends!" Starfire said cheerfully.