"You guys may want to dress down a bit before we go poking around the second hand shops," Xander suggested.
"What is wrong with the way we are attired?" Starfire asked curiously.
"We'd attract too much attention," Robin said with a frown. "We're not going to trust you with our civilian IDs."
"You don't need to use your civilian IDs, you just need to not look out of place browsing thrift shops," Xander pointed out.
"It's kinda hard for most of us to blend in," Beast Boy argued. "Not many green, orange, and gray people in the Bay, ya know?"
"Holograms or glamours," Xander suggested, "both of which you should be able to handle with little to no effort. I can build wrist watches that project holographic disguises on you easy. Not so hot with the mojo, but even there you have options."
"Really?" Cyborg asked, perking up. "I got a pair of holographic rings when I infiltrated Hive, but they burned out pretty quickly."
"Brother Blood runs Hive if I remember it right and he probably cursed the rings to burn out if you turned on him," Xander said. "Calling him a bit of a dick is understating things, but if you want something to replace them I can help you whip some up, that way you can repair or replace them when they get damaged."
"You are being suspiciously helpful," Robin said, searching Luthor's face for clues as to what his plan was.
"I'm trying to be less of a dick these days," Xander told him. "It's turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be, though it's making the Justice League even more paranoid which I am still enough of a dick to find amusing."
Beast Boy laughed. "You are certainly something."
Cyborg looked towards Raven who nodded that his emotions indicated that he was telling the truth. "Okay, let's go get our science on!"
Thirty minutes later...
"Hit it," Xander said as he leaned on the workbench in Cyborg's lab.
"But I thought one had to be careful with electronics," Starfire said, making a fist to punch the bulky steel gray watch on her left wrist.
"No!" Cyborg called out, stopping her from destroying it.
"It's an expression," Raven explained. "He means activate it, which in this case is simply pushing the little silver button on the side."
Xander was almost positive that the alien princess was messing with them, but if so she was a master at it, since even the team's empath couldn't tell.
Starfire tapped the side of the watch and her dark orange skin faded into a deep tan while her eyes changed from a solid glowing green to regular, if striking, bright green eyes. "How do I look?" she asked nervously.
"You look great!" Beast Boy exclaimed and gestured towards a mirror.
Stafire examined herself. "I look like a normal human... which I am not. I do not think I mind, but I would much rather look like myself."
"It's just for disguise purposes," Robin quickly assured her, "we'd much rather you look like yourself too."
Her smile lit up the room, causing Xander to check the light meter and find the average luminosity of the room actually did increase, so it was probably part of her power.
"Does it have to be so... bulky?" Raven asked with a frown.
"Yeah, Star's does," Cyborg replied. "It's reinforced so she doesn't have to worry about accidentally damaging it and it has a built in photon screening system so it won't interfere in her ability to absorb solar energy while it's active."
"It also tells time and can be used to track additional units so you'll be able to find each other if separated or you've switched disguises," Xander added.
"It has more settings?" she asked curiously.
"You can program in dozens of different disguises allowing you to blend in with any racial group," Cyborg explained. "Right now it's set for Irish, since it fits with the red hair and green eyes."
"Can it do costumes?" Beast Boy asked. "Being able to switch outfits would be great since I'm kinda limited in what I can wear because of the shifting unless I want to end up naked all the time."
"To a limited degree," Xander replied. "It's not going to change skin tight spandex into a ball gown, but you can make it look like jeans and a T-shirt without a problem."
"It's bluetooth enabled," Cyborg told Starfire. "You can connect to your cellphone and use it to put in additional disguises."
"Do you understand the technology?" Robin asked Cyborg, still on guard in case Luthor was pulling something.
"Yeah," Cyborg agreed cheerfully. "I can't believe I didn't come up with it myself, it's totally intuitive and Lex is a great teacher!"
"How long will it take you to make ones for the rest of the team?" Robin asked.
"Already done," Cyborg replied, passing out slender black watches to the other members of his team. "Mine and Star's were what took so long, the rest of yours we threw together from already available parts."
"Where's yours?" Beast Boy asked as he put his on.
"Internal module," Cyborg said, tapping his chest and causing his shiny metal additions to take on the appearance of normal human skin. "It'll still feel like metal if you touch me, but I can blend in with a crowd... as much as someone my size can anyway."
"Cool," Beast Boy said with a grin before hitting a button on his watch and changing back into the blonde haired blue eyed self he'd been born as. "Dude, I look normal!" he explained, dancing in place. "Even my teeth and ears look fine!"
"What's the battery life?" Robin asked, already thinking of how they could be used for stakeouts or tailing someone.
"Four hours in complete darkness, six to eight in normal indoor conditions, and no limit in full sunlight," Xander replied. "They also have a wireless charging system that just requires you to be within three feet of a power outlet with the dongle plugged in to charge."
"You can also plug the dongle into a fully charged cellphone to drain it for an additional two hours of charge," Cyborg added, joining Beast Boy in posing in front of the mirror.
"Can you turn off the trackers?" Robin asked.
"It defaults to on, but you can turn it off in the settings," Xander told him.
"Thanks, this is awesome," Beast Boy told Xander. "I could have a secret identity if I wanted one now."
"I'd feel better if it had a longer battery life, but this is pretty amazing," Robin admitted.
"I could make a battery that lasts a month on a single charge, but it would take a full day to recharge and requires a tenth of a gram of kryptonite in a wafer between matching gold shielding," Xander offered. He shrugged as the Titans turned to stare at him. "I did a lot of research on kryptonite while being a dick."
"I'm going to want that battery design," Cyborg said.
"Cyborg!" Beast Boy scolded him.
"What? Properly shielded and in such small amounts, Superman wouldn't even notice it," he defended himself.
"It's what I use for my cellphone," Xander offered, "and Superman hasn't complained or even noticed."
"That is useful," Robin said with a thoughtful frown.
"Just make sure not to skimp on the shielding," Xander lectured, "It is a radioactive element, though when properly shielded, bananas put off more radiation."
"Seriously?" Beast Boy asked.
Xander nodded. "Bananas are rich in Potassium-40 which is a natural isotope. Normal background radiation is a hundred times stronger."
"So they're safe?" Raven asked.
"Both the bananas and the batteries, though don't eat the batteries," Xander agreed. "I'll send you the battery design later. Everyone ready to hunt Mogwais?"
Beast Boy's stomach growled. "And pizza," he added. "It's about lunch time."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Xander was pretty sure they weren't going to find a Mogwai after a couple of hours searching through second hand stores and pawn shops, but he had found several devices that were either alien tech or possibly 60's era children's toys, half a dozen books that might be valuable magical primers or complete frauds, and a sweet electric guitar that he'd slung on his back as soon as he'd bought it.
The Titans had raised some eyebrows when he'd shifted into Xander Harris and replaced his expensive suit with worn Levi's and a leather jacket, but he'd brushed it off as just him trying to blend in, which the world famous Lex Luthor could hardly do.
Robin's phone rang and he stopped examining the tray of rings to answer it, "John here, what's up?" he asked.
Xander found it amusing how far Dick had gone to try and hide his identity, grabbing clothes to match Xander's and using a black wig which he removed after using the holographic disguise to try and make Xander believe he'd been wearing it the whole time and black wasn't his natural hair color.
"I know the place," Robin said, "be there in five, bye."
Xander examined a small battery powered amp and set it down when Robin approached him.
"Anne may have found something. Stay here," he ordered, "I'll be right back."
"How bout I meet you at the fountain?" Xander countered. "I wanna grab a coffee and see if I can still play guitar."
Robin considered that for a second then nodded. "I'll meet you there."
Xander took another look at the amp and decided to purchase it. "You got any batteries?" he asked as he headed for the counter, snagging a gray fedora on the way.
"That thing eats batteries like a dieter in a donut shop," the teen behind the counter warned him, "but yeah, we have D-cells."
"I'll take the amp, enough batteries to fill it, this fedora," Xander noticed a small bird cage behind the counter and grinned, "and that cage."
"Cool, let me grab the batteries and ring you up."
Ten minutes later...
"Well, I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind," Xander sang as his fingers danced across the strings of his electric guitar, a crowd gathered around an impressive amount of money thrown into his upturned hat.
He'd had to tune his vocal chords to match the actual singer and he was leaning on Lex's guitar skills more than his own, but he thought he was doing justice to the song which the crowd seemed to agree with.
The Titans had arrived halfway through Here Without You and once they'd gotten over the shock had seemed to enjoy his singing.
Xander wrapped up the song as the crowd applauded and a high pitched voice squeaked out, "Kryptonite!" from the covered cage sitting by his side.
As Xander picked up his hat and pocketed the money the crowd dispersed, sensing the concert was over, and the Titans quickly rushed over to him.
"Dude that rocked!" Beast Boy exclaimed.
"That was five flavors of awesome," Cyborg added.
"What's in the cage?!" Robin demanded.
"Something that won't react well to sunlight," Xander told him.
The Titans all turned to stare at the cage wide eyed as a high pitched voice muttered some of the words of the last song.
"You found one," Raven said in disbelief.
"We'll need to run some tests, it could just be a mutated monkey," Xander told her. "Well, probably more of an ape, no tail."
"One, how would we test that, throw water on him?" Beast Boy asked as they headed for a parking garage where they'd parked the T-car, "and B, where did you learn to play like that?!"
Xander grinned. "I was thinking more of using an eye dropper and a single drop of water to start and who didn't try and start a band in high school?" He desperately hoped no recordings of Lex's high school band Sex Luthor surfaced, he'd never live them down.
"He's got you there," Cyborg agreed. "I play a pretty mean set of drums myself."
"I can't believe you put out a hat to collect money, you are beyond rich," Raven pointed out as they got in the car, Stafire holding the cage while Xander put his new amp and guitar in his lap with Beast Boy holding his backpack.
"Exactly," Robin said with approval, "Lex Luthor wouldn't have done that, but he was pretending to be your average teen."
"Plus, I'm pretty sure I paid for my guitar and the batteries I bought for my amp with that little performance," Xander said with a smug grin.
"Do you write your own songs?" Raven asked.
"I steal them from alternate realities," Xander admitted. "Just because they weren't written here doesn't mean people shouldn't get to hear them."
"What? Seriously?" Beast Boy asked, looking through what Xander had bought at the second hand shops.
"Some realities have really good music," Xander said with a shrug.
"Couldn't you use that to cure cancer or something?" Cyborg asked as he pulled into traffic.
"Yes and no," Xander said. "It's the same reason Superman and Green Lantern don't hand out alien tech."
"It'd hamper humanity's development, possibly cripple us in the long run, and may have unforeseen consequences," Robin said. "I've talked to the old man about it."
"Yeah, same reason I don't release more than a fraction of the things I think up," Xander said, "it'd cause more problems than it would solve. Slow and steady is the way to go."
"This has been the weirdest day ever for us," Cyborg decided, "start off with a cult kidnapping a bunch of little kids, get in a fight with what we thought was Cthulhu, end up calling in Dr. Fate to lay a couple of honest to god mummies to rest, follow that up by hunting for Mogwai and then discover Lex Luthor pirates music from other universes, and now here we are discussing ethics with him."
"Dude!" Beast Boy said excitedly, pulling a ray gun out of Xander's backpack. "This looks like an authentic Dr. Atomic freeze ray!"
"I got it for a buck fifty," Xander said.
"They have freeze rays for that little?" Starfire asked.
"No, it's from a cartoon I watched while I was a kid," Beast Boy told her, "it's just a toy. Didn't know you were a fan."
"I'm not," Xander replied, "I thought it might be real."
The teens burst out laughing.
Xander rolled his eyes. "I picked up several things I couldn't figure out if they were alien tech or old futuristic toys without taking them apart just in case."
"That was probably a good idea," Robin said with an approving nod, "the last thing we need is for some kid to get their hands on a working laser pistol or something similar."
"So what are you going to do with it now that you know it's a toy?" Beast Boy asked, hoping to add it to his collection.
"Clean it up, open it up, and turn it into a working freeze ray," Xander said with a grin.
"You can-" Beast Boy asked before breaking off mid question, "of course you can, you're Lex Luthor."
"I believe the full name is Lex 'Flipping' Luthor when you say something like that," Xander joked.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"He what?" Superman asked, sure she'd misheard.
"Robin reported that Lex Luthor actually found a Mogwai or something similar matching the base description in a second hand store in Jump City," Batman replied.
After a few seconds of silence Batman added, "They're taking it to the tower to run some tests. It's entirely possible it is not nearly as dangerous as the movies made them out to be. Personally I always found its method of reproduction to be unbelievable considering the replication of mass involved."
Superman just stared at her friend.
"What?" he asked.
Typing By: Abyssal Angel
Beta by: Abyssal Angel and Mist of Shadows
TN: I'll be honest, the joke with the heroes treating Xander with extreme suspicion is getting kind of old. I'm kinda hoping at least one of them gets hit by a clue by four and realize it'd be far smarter to suss out Luthor's 'evil plans' by at least pretending to go along with it. Either he's being earnest, in which case going along with it reinforces the good behavior while suspicion could serve to eventually annoy him into lashing out. Or, he's being insincere, in which case their behavior makes him think they're not onto him while outright suspicion makes him more likely to be careful and less likely to slip up. Either way, it's better to treat him well than with suspicion. Or to put it another, less wordy way, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
AN: Robin is Batman's protege, good luck getting him to not be paranoid, not to mention none of the Titan's know 'Lex' in person, they only know him from what they have heard from other heroes. You'll notice Starfire is not treating him that way and both Beast Boy and Cyborg have started to relax around him.