Chapter 4: Freshman Seminar

Wow, two weeks training with my little brother and his team went fast. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the Titans and the new Titans North before I had to go off to college. But now I'm on the road to a new chapter in my life…the world of college, which means that for the time being, I have to hang up my costume and just be an average college freshman. It's a good thing that none of the bad guys knew me before I became a Titan; otherwise they would track me down here at college.

"Hi I'm Psy- I mean Sam," I say.

"Casi," says a girl about my height, 5' 7", with brown hair highlighted blonde down to her shoulders. She has a great smile, very friendly, but kinda nervous and shy at the same time.

"I'm Zach," says a boy about 5' 5" tall with red hair. He has a devil-may-care kind of smile that shows that he doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, but I can tell that behind this smile is someone who wants very much to have some good, close friends.

"And I'm Tedra," says another girl, pronouncing her name Tee-dra, not Ted-ra. She's about 5' 6" tall with short blonde hair down to the bottom of her face. She has a very warm smile that could make the sun come up. You can see in her eyes that she is a very loving person who is easy for anyone to get along with.

"So, I can already tell that College Math is gonna be boring," I say, trying to keep conversation going. "Do any of you guys have that class?"

"Nope," Zach says.

"Not me," Tedra also says.

"I do actually," says Casi. "And I agree…math bites." She makes a puking motion as we all laugh. "So, what's a fun fact about all of you? Like…what's something about you that you think is interesting?" She asks also trying to keep up conversation.

All of a sudden everyone gets quiet. We all look at each other in a wary sort of way. There's no way I'm gonna tell them that special thing about me, I think to myself. And from the looks of it…that's exactly what every one of them is thinking too…interesting. Now, I could read their minds and just find out for myself exactly what they're hiding, but, would I want them to do that to me if they were psychic? And I'm supposed to be a superhero, and I don't think reading people's minds to find out their secrets when they're not villains would be a good thing. So the silence continues as we all try to think of things we find interesting about ourselves that we are willing to share.

Fade into song

When there's trouble you know who to call

TEEN TITANS

From their tower they can see it all

TEEN TITANS

When there's evil on the attack

You can rest knowing they've got your back

'Cuz when the world needs heroes on patrol

TEEN TITANS...GO!

With they're super-powers they unite

TEEN TITANS

Never met a villain that they liked

TEEN TITANS

They got the bad guys on the run

They'll never stop 'til the job gets done

And when the world is losing all control

TEEN TITANS...GO!

1...2...3...4...GO TEEN TITANS!

Fade out of song

"Umm…," I start. "My eyes kinda change colors with my mood. Not drastic changes, but slight color change."

"Two of my teeth look like vampire teeth," Zach states. "Wanna see?" he asks as he proceeds to show us his canines which are in fact very pointy.

"Oh! I can burp my ABC's!" Casi says excitedly. "Wanna hear?"

"Let's not and say we did," Zach replies as we all laugh, including Casi.

"I've been to Vegas!" Tedra says enthusiastically. We all stare at her with a puzzled look because that wasn't exactly the answer we were looking for. "What? That's interesting!" We all laugh again.

I wonder why it took so long for them to answer, we all think to ourselves.

"Well, we haven't seen Psy in a while," Jinx says to Mammoth and Gizmo. "Wonder where he went."

"Who cares? That pit-sniffer probably got scared and ran off," Gizmo says.

"Yeah," Mammoth replies. "Besides, if it doesn't have to do with food I don't care."

"You two are pathetic! Psy is one of the most powerful psychics on the planet. We have to get rid of him, and what better time then when he's away from the rest of those Titans?" she says.

"She does have a point," Gizmo says to Mammoth.

"Fine, we'll track him down," Mammoth says in reply.

"I'll run a scan of any recent, strong, psychic energy signs," Jinx states.

"And I'll run a background check on who he was before he became Psy so that we can find him even if he isn't going by that name right now," Gizmo replies.

They both look at Mammoth as if silently asking what he's going to do to help out.

"Ummm," he says while scratching his head. "I'll pack or something."

Gizmo and Jinx look at each other and let out a disappointed and frustrated sigh.

A few hours later the three re-assemble in the meeting room to share what they've found.

"There are small psychic readings all over the country," Jinx starts. "But there are a few in, get this, North Dakota, with Psy's same energy signature."

"And I found out that Psy, or should I say, Sam, is an eighteen-year-old who was born in California, he has a mother, father, and younger brother that now live in South Dakota while Sam goes to college in North Dakota."

Once again Gizmo and Jinx look to Mammoth to see if he had done anything useful.

"Ummm," he starts again. "I finished all the left-overs in the fridge, packed the Hive Flyer, found satellite images of the college Sam's at, and set the Hive Flyer's coordinates to that college."

Jinx and Gizmo share astonished looks while they gape at Mammoth.

"Maybe you're not so useless after all," Jinx says proudly. "All right, let's move."

"Ugh…I hate math," I say to Casi. The two of us have agreed to do our best to help each other with our math homework. The only problem with this is neither of us is any good at math unless it's geometry.

"Tell me about it," Casi replies.

"I don't have to take math," Zach says with a laugh.

"Oh you're hilarious Chuckles," I say sarcastically. "Rub it in again and you won't be the one laughing." With this comment Casi and Tedra both laugh.

"Well Tedra and I just want you guys to hurry up so that we can all go do something," Zach replies.

"Well you know what?" I ask rhetorically. "I've had it up to here with math." I say while I put my hand to the level of my chin to show where 'up to here' is. "I'm gonna call it a night with math, and take this back to my room. You guys wait here, I'll be right back."

"Good idea," Casi comments as she slams her math book. "I'm sick of math for the night too; I'll be right back too."

As I head back to the dorm, I can't shake the feeling that I'm being followed. I spin around, but there is no one there, but when I turn back the way I was heading, I see three figures in front of me, hidden in the shadows. One of the shadows belongs to a small child, another to a girl, and the third to a huge guy.

"Oh, hello Psy," the girl says.

"How long did you think you could hide you snot-muncher?" the small child asks.

"Who are you!" I ask in alarm. The three forms move out of the shadows. "Jinx! Gizmo! Mammoth! What are you three doing here?"

"We're here for you," Jinx replies. "We wondered what happened to you, so we figured out who you are and thought we'd take you out while you were away from the Titans."

"Good luck with that," I retort as I pull out my communicator. "I still have my communicator, and guess what? The Titans are on speed dial."

But with one swift movement Jinx curses the communicator in my hand, and it shatters into a million pieces. My eyes fill with shock and I look at my attackers.

"And we came prepared for your special abilities," Jinx says. "Attack pattern…DELTA!"

In an instant the three attack, but I'm just as fast. In the blink of an eye my clothes become my uniform and I soar into the air. But they are prepared for that, and Jinx curses a tree branch behind me to fall on top of me. As I'm slammed to the ground Mammoth picks up the tree branch and smacks me across the lawn. Meanwhile Gizmo fires off multiple missiles. I look up and see the missiles about to impact and finish me off, but all of a sudden a black hole forms in front of me and swallows them up then disappears. Suddenly a small twister forms around the three Hive members and they spin around in the vortex while discs of pure light are hurled at them!

I spin around to see who my saviors are and they soon appear. Another black hole opens and a teenage boy with red hair and a long trench coat steps out. A blast of wind comes out of nowhere and a teenage girl with brown hair that has blonde highlights in a dress with many strips of cloth on it blowing in the breeze appears. And then a brilliant ray of light shines down on the grass and another girl floats down, she has short blonde hair and wears baggy silver pants and a silver vest over a long-sleeve yellow shirt.

"Zach, Tedra, Casi!" I ask in astonishment.

"Not now," Zach says. "We have business to finish," he says while pointing to the former Hive students.

"Right," I agree. "Let's do it!"

But as we get ready to stage another attack the three quickly get up and run off toward their ship.

"We would have won if we had known about your nose-picking friends!" Gizmo shouts.

"Good thing you have people watching your back," Jinx says. "Because this won't be the last you see of us."

The three of them jump into the Hive Flyer and soar off into the distance.

I turn to my three friends with an embarrassed smile on my face.

"Thanks for saving me," I say. "I thought I was a goner."

"No problem," Tedra replies. "What are friends for? Especially if those friends have super powers."

"Well I guess we know what took us all so long to answer when Casi asked us what was interesting about each of us," Zach says.

Casi laughs, "You should have seen the three of us in the lounge when we heard the explosions and saw the fight going on out here! I was like 'I need to take my books to my room!' and Tedra was like 'And I have to go to the bathroom!' and Zach was like 'And I just have to go!'

We all laugh for a while about that.

"So," I begin. "Do you guys have superhero names? And what exactly are your powers? By the way, I'm Psy, former Teen Titan and one of the most powerful psychics on the planet. And I'm trying to be modest when I say that." They laugh.

"I'm Eclipse," Zach replies. "And I have powers over dark energy and can create dark matter in any form. I can also create black holes."

"I'm Gale," Casi says. "I have power over the wind and air. I use them to fly, create cyclones and windstorms, and also to create blades of air."

"And I'm Solarflare," Tedra also says. "My powers are a lot like Eclipse's, only over light energy instead of dark energy. I use discs of light to attack though instead of black holes."

A few days later I meet up with the others like we planned. Only I'm bringing a surprise that I didn't mention when I told them to meet me in the lounge.

"So, what was so urgent Psy?" Gale asks.

"Well," I start. "I had a talk with Robin."

"Really? Robin! Like…the real Robin?" Eclipse asks in amazement.

"No, the bird robin," I reply sarcastically. "Of course the real Robin."

"What did you talk to him about?" Solarflare also asks.

"I talked to him about you three, and about giving you these," I state as I pull out three brand new communicators. "We both talked it over, and agreed that we want you three to join the Titans!"

"Us?" Eclipse says.

"Titans?" Solarflare shouts.

"Really?" Gale asks in shock.

"Yup, really," I say. "I'm just trying to figure out what to call ourselves. I mean the Titans North is my brother's team."

"We could split the Titans North into two sectors," Gale suggests.

"Yeah! Like Titans North Sector N could be us because we're in North Dakota," Solarflare says. "And the Titans North Sector S could be your brother's team because they're in South Dakota."

"That's a great idea," I say.

All of a sudden our communicators simultaneously go off.

"Trouble," Eclipse says.

"Who is it?" Solarflare asks.

"Doctor Light," I say.

"Who?" Gale asks.

"Some dude in his pajamas with a giant light bulb on the chest," I reply dryly.

"You're kidding right?" Solarflare inquires.

"I wish I was," I say as they stare at me in shock.

"Well he'll have a…dim…future when we get done with him," Eclipse says with a sad pun.

"How 'bout…no," I reply unenthusiastically. "You know, I have a feeling that you guys will be perfect at this superhero thing."

"Well let's take him down then," Gale exclaims.

"That's the spirit," I say. "Well, our adventures start here. Titans GO!"

As soon as I say this, our clothes transform into our uniforms and we run off towards downtown to take on Doctor Light.