BEGINNING OF VOLUMNE 2
Mind and Body Chapter 15: The Superhero Business
It was a couple months after Raven and Beast Boy had arrived in Jump City, and their new life surprised them at every turn. The first time they'd rescued someone—a little boy who had been attacked by a German shepherd—it had seemed so ordinary they couldn't understand why Oracle was so happy.
Of course, at that point Oracle explained that she had been hoping they actually had the tendency to help someone and hadn't been able to make herself set something up. It was at that point Raven and Beast Boy actually joined.
For reading material, Oracle had ended up giving Raven the full compendium of SLEC rules rather than the pamphlet upon learning how large her vocabulary was. The many twists and turns added on made Raven want to scream, but she did notice a pattern. As long as you were saving lives, you were perfectly free to go about your own.
As Raven was studying the intricacies of their new situation, Beast Boy was having the time of his life. When he needed to be active he taunted Robin, helping them both keep in shape, and when he needed to lounge but still wanted to do something he would play video games with Cyborg. He quickly discovered that the small, slender fingers of a capuchin were perfect for the pastime, but most often he took the form of a chimp so as not to have an unfair advantage.
However, the video games were few and far between, thanks to something Cyborg was working on out in the bay. For some reason, he had taken up residence in the original holographic projector that Zedeth had stabbed into the little isle, saying he had a surprise that no one could see until it was complete.
Robin, naturally, mostly sequestered himself in the makeshift gym in order to bring himself up to the level of his new teammates. He still resented the fact that Beast Boy was going to be a full member, but after the first time BB trounced him, he could see why it might be useful. And besides, it was rather fun to chase the green menace.
Starfire was eagerly exploring the city. Now that her pursuers had been defeated, she had brightened up considerably and her energy was almost frightening. She zipped around from one end of the bay to the other, watching Cyborg in an attempt to figure out what he was doing, flying back to the big, old house to try convincing Raven, or Bumblebee, or Argent to come and do something with her.
Sometimes, when she became contemplative, she would try to decide which one of her new group of friends could understand her the most. None of the humans had ever looked at their own people from the outside before, and they certainly had never traveled between planets.
So she settled for the closest thing, the animal that had traveled between worlds of thought, and decided to talk to Beast Boy. She found him on the roof in the mid-day sun, curled up tightly at the moment, and hovered next to him. The view of the bay was pretty nice, with hardly a cloud in the sky and a light breeze coming in from the deep blue sea.
Beast Boy twitched an ear and looked at her. He stretched lengthily, curling his tongue and squeezing his eyes as the front paws slightly overshot the edge and stood up. "What is it?" he asked curiously.
"Talking is all it is." She said quietly.
"If it's gossip, you talk to the girls," he said, "if it's human culture, you talk to Robin or Oracle. If it's how to use something, it's Cyborg. Why would you want to talk to me?"
"Because you're the only being to have been a stranger to the lifestyle before."
Beast Boy quirked his head to the side, "Er, I'm not sure I follow."
She sighed, "I don't know how to get home. I can survive in space, but I don't have a good sense of direction, so I would be lost before a couple klicks passed."
"A couple whats?"
"Kli—oh, Kilomiles would be the word."
"Kilomiles…every thousand miles instead of every thousand meters? Sweet, I gotta use that sometime…Klicks. Anyway, that's terrible that you can't find your way home again. I never had a home until Raven came along, unless you include the Manhattan Zoo, so I really don't know what you're trying to say."
"Well," Starfire said, "I'm basically here to stay unless my Gnorfka manages to track me down, and I thought you'd be able to help me fit in until then. You know, since you managed to do it."
Beast Boy shook his head in amusement, "Fitting in, huh…fitting in is something no one can do. The best we manage is to find the people that are similarly out-cast and form our own group. We're all unique, Starfire, and not just because of our looks or our abilities."
He hopped from the ledge back onto the roof and trotted for the stairs, his fluffy tail waving jauntily and his hindquarters slightly rolling. He disappeared down the stairwell to leave Starfire with her thoughts.
His next visit was to the kitchen, where Raven was widening her culinary repertoire under Oracle's tutelage. "So," he said teasingly as he hopped up onto the counter besides the large bowl of batter, "have you stopped burning the water, yet?"
"I'll have you know," Raven said as she brushed her hair out of her face, "I'm at master-chef level with fried foods."
He grinned, "That's because all you do is make the oil insanely hot and throw the food in for 10 seconds before removing it." He sniffed at the large pot on the stove, tried to lick it before realizing it would burn his tongue, and turned away. His tail brushed against the spice rack and knocked off a bottle.
Quickly Raven extended a tendril of energy and caught it before the whole thing landed in the pot. "Really," she sighed, "can't you be a little more careful?"
Beast Boy flicked his tail at that, almost touching the onions.
"Oh no you don't!" Raven said as she snatched the onions away, "I'm gonna try to make a salad with that!"
Oracle twitched an eyebrow, "Wait," she said, "what did he knock over?"
"Huh?" Raven said before she turned to the bottle, "Uh…curry powder."
Oracle rolled towards the pot, where she looked contemplatively at the beef, peas and carrots floating in the water. She nodded to herself and said, "Go ahead and put the curry into the pot, and the onions too. I'll start some water for the rice."
"Huh?" Raven said again.
"Indian Curry," Oracle said with a smile, "It's an excellent, relatively simple dish that uses exactly what BB pointed out. We'll have it for dinner."
"Oh."
And that was the pattern, with BB's nose detecting which spices would work best, Raven picking up everything with telekinesis to watch three dishes at once, and Oracle standing by just in case something dangerous appeared.
The man was half in shadow, and his visible eye was blue. A mask covered the rest of his face, with the visible left half being bronze but rather abruptly changing into black half way. His mouth was left free, above a short, white beard. He had his left hand on his chin as an aged woman stood in front of his secret throne, explaining what her business supplied.
"So you're saying," he murmured with a slightly hoarse, deep baritone, "that you train the villains that are employed by evil organizations?" He took a glass of wine from the shadow behind him and sipped at it.
"That is correct, Slade," the nameless woman said, "H.I.V.E Academy, the Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination, is in the business of training elite evil-doers of the next generation to serve the masterminds already on the scene. I can vouch for the effectiveness of the program, and not because I designed it: our students have served such prominent figures as Lex Luthor and Ras al Ghul, and we have yet to receive any complaints."
"Your credentials are impressive, madam," Slade said smoothly, "But I have yet to see for myself whether or not they are forged."
"Then may I suggest you lease one of our top pairs?" she said with just as little expression, "it only requires a small fee, and you may put them to any tests you wish. If they prove satisfactory, then we can negotiate a full contract for the children, and if you feel they are not fit to carry through with your orders you will get a refund."
"An excellent proposition, my dear," Slade said equably after a sip of wine, "and yet you are strangely reluctant to show me any recordings."
"I have them with me," the lady said with a slight bow, "if you would but direct me to your display, I will demonstrate."
Slade ordered his shadow to guide the woman to his console. The disc immediately brought up a menu on the massive wall on the far side, and the lady selected a button that was titled "Hopefuls".
On one side, a boy with a full body suit was appearing out of nowhere carrying a black kid with a giant eye in the center of his forehead. This eye was sending energy blasts to every obstacle in the room on screen, alternately melting and freezing them. On the other side, a tiny little midget was controlling a massive, metallic spider that was wiping out everything that attacked his massive partner from behind. That partner was slamming his hands together in order to release an invisible wave of energy, which shorted out every machine it its' path.
"Hmm," Slade began, "I'm rather fond of—" suddenly, a series of pink sparks flew from the side door. A flash of light and the door had flown inside, narrowly missing the presenter.
Although they couldn't see anything much, Slade was fascinated by what he did see: a pair of giant, almond-shaped, pink eyes. "You were actually giving a presentation in this dump?" the young, female voice that came with the eyes said in amusement, "Why aren't you in the white house, entertaining your bald, young friend?"
"Who is this," Slade said quietly.
The woman groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, "A rogue agent. We tried to teach her, but while she absorbed the teachings well enough she—"
"I don't take orders," she snarled, "and you know it."
"She's too random," the woman completed severely, "her powers are great, but they are pure chaos."
The floating pupils rolled, "A little bad luck never hurt anyone…until I came along."
"Interesting," Slade said, narrowing his eyes, "tell me child, what would you say to working for me?"
"Didn't you just hear me?" the girl asked curiously, "I don't take orders."
"Oh, I don't know," was the reply, "not even for a chance to get rid of that new team that's formed in my new city? I had planned to see if my choice could take down that group…what did they call themselves…the Teen Titans."
The floating eyes widened, then almost closed in an upward curve, leaving a slit of pink still glowing as a huge white grin formed beneath them. "I think you just bought yourself a little bit of chaos magic. I've wanted to take 'em since I saw the recruitment process. Stupid things like morals kept getting involved."
Slade chuckled before saying, "then if you would go to the abandoned lot on 32nd street, tomorrow at midnight, you will find your teammates for this little test."
"You've got a deal," the floating face said, its' eyes instantly becoming deadly serious before vanishing.
Beast Boy sat on the table directly in front of Raven, staring proudly as the curry was brought out by Oracle's personal robot.
"Wow," Cyborg said as he sniffed the air, "did you make that, Raven?"
"Er," she said hesitantly, "Y-yes, why?"
"It smells great!"
Raven couldn't decide whether to smile or frown when Cyborg pounced on his plate as if he hadn't eaten in a week. She had both hoods down now, leaving her violet hair to frame her pale cheeks and now looked people directly in the eye with her own purple orbs when she talked. As Oracle had mentioned time and again, it made people want to obey her.
"It's certainly better than last time," Robin said, narrowly avoiding the swipe of Oracle's hand, "You've improved."
Raven nodded at him across the table before putting Beast Boy on the chair to her left. "You have your own plate, Beast Boy," she said as she spooned a good quantity of the curry over her rice and dug a spoon into it.
"I was sure you'd mention my role in making the curry though," Beast Boy said with a fake whine.
Raven just sighed and started eating. Really pouting now, Beast Boy changed into a chimp and began spooning curry into his mouth.
No one even glanced anymore: see the same thing 3 times a day 7 times a week for 2 months and you could even get used to sleeping inside a live volcano.
"So," Oracle said, "any interesting acts of heroism today?"
"Boring stuff, mostly," Robin said as Beast Boy tried to shout around his mouthful of food, "no major villains: just some robbed banks and a near-fatal car accident."
"I got the kid out of the way, didn't I?" Beast Boy said.
"Yeah, by turning into a tiger and carrying him by the scruff of his shirt. You probably gave him nightmares." Robin retorted.
"Actually," Cyborg said with a grin, "that kid's parents called about an hour ago telling us to thank 'whatever it was' for saving their kid. They say he's making absolutely sure to never ever get in that situation again."
"See?" Beast Boy said smugly, "I prevented future trouble by doing that."
Robin puffed out his cheeks slightly and looked away, sending Oracle and Cyborg into gales of laughter, and setting Raven chuckling.
Bumblebee, Argent and Hotspot had actually left 6 weeks before, saying that if they didn't go on adventures, life was boring. They had promised to keep in touch through the comm. links Oracle had provided, but they hadn't really used them yet.
"Where's Starfire?" Raven asked Oracle curiously. The two had struck up an odd friendship lately, with both of them fascinated by the other's extreme emotions or lack of emotions respectively.
Oracle looked at her with a wry smile. "She was bored in the house, so she went to look for Cael's new home."
Raven bit her lip. She hadn't even thought to look for their friend, and even though she knew part of it was confidence in his skill and the exploration of a new stage in her own life, she still felt slightly guilty that the bubbly one had thought to look for him first.
The rest of the meal was rather quiet, and when they had finished Raven levitated all of the dishes into the sink. Lifting off from her seat she said to the others, "I'm going to see Cael and Starfire—I'll be back."
"Wait!" Beast Boy said, and changed into an eagle before flapping up to her level, "I'm coming to!" Oracle smiled as the two of them glided out the door, Raven pulling up her hood before opening it.
"You really like them, don't you?" Robin said, a slight bit of irritation in his voice.
"Well yes," Oracle said lightly as Cyborg winced, "Beast Boy is funny and Raven is a lot like me."
"She doesn't seem like the jokester type…too serious. And I really don't get why those two ALWAYS have to be together," Robin commented.
Oracle smiled falsely and rolled her chair away from the table, "I think I'll go back into cyberspace for a while: call me if you need help."
She turned and wheeled her way through the back doorway. The heavy doors thudded closed behind her and Cyborg shook his head at Robin.
"What?" Robin asked in confusion, "what's wrong? Was it something I said?"
"Yes, it was," Cyborg said, "we're supposed to be a team and a family for them—not a gossip group."
"Oh, excuse me," Robin said sarcastically, "didn't know I'd have to watch my language."
"Not your language, Robin," Cyborg replied, "your attitude. That's what needs watching."
A vein throbbed in Robin's forehead as Cyborg stood up. "What is that supposed to mean?" He asked.
"Oracle told me that there's a lot of the Batman in you, since he was your mentor, and I can understand that it means acting relatively cold to retain your sanity," Cyborg said seriously, "but from what I see, you let your anger out too often and direct it against those who don't deserve it." And with that, he followed Oracle into the back room.
Robin stared angrily at his cup. Couldn't he voice his thoughts anymore? This was just too weird. He tossed the liquid down his throat set the cup down again. Sighing, he set his forehead into one of his hands and started thinking. So just what would they have been complaining about. The fact that Raven wasn't a joker? That didn't seem right…maybe when he had asked if Oracle liked those two…. He shook his head, unable or unwilling to see the truth, and stood to go to his personal gym.
Starfire was singing a Tamaranean ditty as she explored the streets of Jump City. The humans never noticed how their world was so pretty—it was truly a pity. She floated next to a park's pine trees, scanning the ground for an old man with red streaks in his hair.
The air was clear and cool, with the slight, constant breeze making it a little brisk. The trees were dark green and the grass was starting to fade to brown. A faint mist was playing across the buildings' corners.
A figure appeared behind Starfire, and she turned to look. It was Raven, gliding forward with Beast Boy at her side. She waved silently at her new friends and started to glide forward, into the alley. However, before she could go much further the crackle of a sudden flame stopped her.
Cael was hovering at the side of the building, approaching the three of them. "Yo!" he shouted, "About time you visited!"
Raven shook her head, "What's got you so goofy?"
"Well it was a lot easier to find a home than I expected—a job to maintain the rent even fell into my lap. A job in a school, if you can imagine that, as the chemistry teacher."
Raven smiled, "I can believe it," she said quietly, "but how about you take us to your new house? I'd like to see what you have."
"Me too," Beast Boy said, accompanied by Starfire's nod, "It'll be fun to see if you actually own anything now."
Cael rolled his eyes and grinned, "Follow me then: it's not far." He flew around the right side of the building, followed by his three young friends.
A/N: So the second volume starts of with a bit of foreshadowing. Unfortunately, don't expect the next chapter so soon, as I now have two stories to regularly upload. Oh, and please review to your heart's content! If you don't read Star Wars/Clone Wars fics, that's all right, but please check out The Tano Trials.
*Gnorfka: A Tamaranean father and/or guardian