"Vacation time, here we come!" The young, light green, purple eyed girl cheered.
"Must you yell like that, Maria? Seriously, four out of five of us in this car have sensitive hearing, or have you forgotten?" Her twin brother growled as he turned away from his boisterous sister and directed his focus onto the video game he brought with him for the ride.
"Whatever Grumpy Cat, we all know that you're just as excited as I am." Maria pushed.
"Don't call me that! Mark growled.
"Maria, stop calling your brother names! Mark, don't growl at your sister!" Their mother scolded from the front seat. Both tweens turned away from each other, pouting and grumbling their respective protests.
"Oh come on Rae, they were just playing." Their father reasoned.
"Shut up and drive, Gar." Rae reproached.
"Woah, Raven! Language! There's a baby in car." Gar scolded back playfully, referring to the already asleep three-year-old riding in a car seat in between her two siblings.
Raven rolled her eyes and went back to her reading. The rest of the drive was uneventful. Maria would start to get antsy, bother her brother, then silenced by their mother, only for the cycle to continue itself a few minutes later. After about a two hour drive, the Logan family pulled up to a normal looking house, located in a normal looking neighborhood. The Logan's hopped out of the car, Maria making a dash for the front door with Mark following after her. Raven grabbed the little girl out of the car and carried her up to the door, Gar right at her side. Maria was already ringing the doorbell. She was bouncing up and down, excited to see the people inside. The door swung open to reveal an older couple, in their seventy's, smiling at the younger family outside their door.
"Grandma! Grandpa!" Maria cheered as she quickly embraced the two retired heroes.
"Maria! How wonderful it is to see you! Look how big you have gotten!" Rita exclaimed, returning the hug.
"Hi Grandma, Grandpa!" Mark waved, equally as excited, but better than his sister at containing it.
"Oh come on, Markie, you can do better than that! Come give your grandma a hug." Rita said, reaching out and pulling him into a hug. Mark stiffened at first, but after a moment he relaxed and returned the hug.
"Look at you two! Growing like weeds, I see! Please come in, all of you." Steve invited them in, stepping back to let the family through.
Steve and Rita lead the Logan's over to their living room, where the adults took their spots on the couch and the twins sitting on the carpeted floor. Within seconds of sitting down, the kids had the T.V. in front of them playing their favorite channel. Steve went to claim back his lounging chair, while Rita sat next to Raven, stealing the little girl from her mother's arms. Raven began to protest, but Rita quickly insisted it would be fine and that she wanted some time with her youngest grandchild.
"So Garfield," Steve began, "how are things going with the Titans?"
"Things are fine. All the teams are on schedule to graduate by the end of the year. The Titans will have a record number of member's soon." Garfield bragged, hopping the good news will please his adoptive father, but Steve simply nodded his head.
"Good. So when do you plan to make these two official?" Steve gestured to the twins on the floor. Maria had her full focus on the television, but Mark was able to over hear what his grandfather said. Curious, Mark gently nudged his sister, who in turn looked over to Mark, who tilted his head over to the two adult males. They both listened in on what the adults had to say.
"I don't know, Steve. I mean, they're only thirteen. We don't even except trainees until they're fourteen." Garfield explained.
"Yes, but won't they be fourteen by the end of the year? Around the same time you'll be looking for new recruits." Steve countered.
"Maybe so, but that still doesn't mean they're ready." Garfield reasoned.
"Well then let's see what they got! Come on kids, Grandpa's going to test you right now!" Steve stood up from his chair and started making his way to down the hall.
"Yay!" The twins cheered as they followed after their grandfather.
"Wait!" Garfield stopped them before they left the room. The kids looked over at their father with pleading eyes. Steve too poked his head around the wall as he was already partially down the hall. "I don't think that's such a good idea." Garfield stated.
"And why not?" Steve retorted, stepping out all the way so that he could be seen with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
"Well I just think that right now is not the time or the place for this." Garfield reasoned.
The two grown men stared each other down, neither wanted to breakdown. The tension in the room was so great that the toddler being cooed to on the other side of the room by her grandmother began to cry. The child's wales immediately caused the lights and electronics in the house to flicker faster and faster until finally all the bulbs in the house exploded, and a rain of glass fell on all of them. Luckily, Raven acted quickly and had all of them wrapped in a protective black bubble before the glass rained down. Once the incident was over, Raven put down the shield and reached over to take back her still whimpering daughter. She held the three-year-old as she stood up off the couch. She turned to send her signature death glare at both her husband and father-in-law.
"I'll go get the spares." Feeling uncomfortable under her glare, Garfield stood up and met his dad in the hallway.
"I'll help." Steve called after Garfield as the two of them made their way down the hall to the door that lead to the oversized, hidden basement. Raven then directed her glare at the two frighten twins.
"What did we do?" Maria questioned.
"Clean this mess up. Now." Raven said sternly as she walked out of the living room and into the kitchen, before either tween had a chance to protest. Rita followed after her.
"You don't think that might be a little harsh, dear?" Rita asked once they were alone in the kitchen.
"Well harsh does tend to run in the family." Raven retorted, as she bounced the little girl up and down, hopping to calm her down.
Rita scoffed. "Always such a pleasure to have the family visit." She mumbled as she walked out to help the other two children clean the now messed up living room. For some reason, it wasn't much of a vacation when you have to spend it with your retired superhero in-laws.